Africa almost won...

Today was a bit of an odd day. Started out with Vicky telling us that she needed to go back to the dental clinic to get her tooth pulled out. The day before yesterday, she showed us a cavity in her tooth. It looked pretty bad, so we told her to go get it fixed. So off she toddled to the clinic yesterday. They told her to go back this morning to get it pulled. But she certainly didn't want to get her tooth pulled... in fact, she didn't want to go back there at all. In the meantime, though, she's in terrible pain because her tooth is rotting away in her mouth. Of course, with the lack of even basic medical care here, there's no way there is anyone who can drill and fill a tooth. So the usual thing is just to pull it.

Anyways, the clinic is a pretty grim place, and I don't blame her for not wanting to go. But that tooth will just get worse! It was actually pretty funny to see her trying to put off going to the clinic this morning - she was almost eager to get the sweeping done. Then she asked Grace if she could go out to the work site with her, then she decided she had to get the laundry on the line... finally, Jackie and I just told her we would drive her. So we made her go change her clothes, piled her into the truck, gave her some money, and off we went to the clinic.

It would have been interesting to stay, but I don't think having a white girl along in the hospital there would have helped matters much. Sometimes I just attact more of a crowd than it's worth! So we told her to call when she was finished. We actually waited at the gate in the truck to make sure she went inside to get it done - it's a bit like mothering a rebellious teen-ager sometimes with Vicky!

Anyways, just before lunch she came back home, minus one back tooth. I don't think she was too happy with us for telling her to go, because it hurts to get a tooth pulled... but in the long run, I have a feeling she'll thank us for it. Um, at least, I HOPE she'll thank us for it.

On the way home from the clinic, Jackie and I were musing about the different attitudes towards employment around here. When you employ someone to work in your house, like we employ Vicky and Sunday, you don't just employ them like we would employ a maid at home. Here, when you have someone working with you in the house like this, they become part of your family. And there are certain expectations for taking care of things like school fees and medical bills. Some people might feel that that's a bit much in terms of expectations and that an employee is just that... an employee. If they had to pay school fees or medical bills, they shoudl pay it out of their salary. If they had to go to the dentist, they'd go after work or on a Saturday morning and get there themselves.

But I actually sort of like the way things work here. It's all much more relational - you don't just work for someone. But you have a real relationship with them. Vicky and Sunday eat lunch with us and sit and chat with us and help us with so much more than just washing the dishes and doing the laundry. So in a way, they really have become part of our family here. And family takes care of family. And it's a privilege for us to be able to help them do things that they might not otherwise be able to afford, or even think about doing. Isn't that what part of what God calls us to do, too? I mean, sure, I'm here to do "bilingual education" and "literacy", but God also calls us to live in community, to love each other, to take care of each other. And that's all part of it, too.

Just for a photo, here's a photo of me and Vicky that we took yesterday.