Monday, 15 March 2010

Bonjour!
 
Hope you had a great weekend.  Ours was rather relaxing if you consider helping friends move as "relaxing".  Payton and Gracey helped us on Friday.  The twins on Saturday.  Good times.
 
Today the official high (as measured in the shade on our front porch) was 109.8 degrees.  That's the hottest so far this year.  At that temperature the sand is too hot to stand on without shoes and the air, even when there's a breeze, feels hot.
 
Janice went to see a friend today.  One she's not seen in several months.  When she arrived she noticed this woman's little boy (not more than 1 year old) looked like he was dying.  When Janice said, "He's gonna die", the woman responded, "Yes, I know".  Turns out that he's not eaten much of anything for at least a month and has generally been in failing health.
 
So, Janice said, "Let's go.  I'll take you to the hospital." To which the woman says something like, "No, sit and have some tea."  There were other women there who were laughing.  Janice heard one of them say something to the effect that "Hey, she just got here and now she's saying 'Let's go'!"
 
After a few minutes Janice finally persuaded the woman to go with her.  They spent the next several hours at the hospital during which time the doctors told the woman that the little fella was really quite sick and that he needed to stay the night AND that she needed to stay with him too.  She responded by saying, "No, I've got to get home to make food and care for my other kids."  It took Janice and the doctor several minutes to convince her that she had to stay and that the life of her little boy was more important than dinner.
 
The general lack of respect for life, the view that life is cheap here is so appalling.  This woman, who's a Muslim, basically had the attitude of, "It's Allah's will.  If he dies, he dies."  So sad.  Their religion offers no hope, no comfort.  There's really nothing personal about their god and that's a shame.  They are in many ways so close and yet so far from the Truth.
 
Here's wishing you all a great week!!!
 
sf

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