"Do you have a gift for me?"

      This is a question we get asked over and over and over again. It can vary slightly- do you have a little gift for me? Do you have a toy for me? Do you have something for me? Do you have something for me in your bag? Will you give me a dollar? Can I have a little gift of money? What do you have in your bag? It does not matter what age you are, grown people ask as much as the children. I guess there is no harm in asking... the white person only has two choices- give a little gift or say no. It gets old saying no time after time but if I give a little something today, tomorrow the same person will ask again and they will probably have a friend with them who wants a little something too. The other day Amberly and I had taken a walk up past the Digicel tower to the edge of the pine forest. Along that road it seems we gets asked for a gift even more than other places. We were on the way back home and were talking about how many times we are asked for something. I decided that the next person who asked us for a gift- I would turn the question back around and ask them if they had a gift for me. It wasn't long and we passed by a roadside stand. The grown woman there asked if I had a gift for her... so here goes. I asked her if she had a gift for me. no, she said she didn't but she was grinning so I told her everyone asks for a gift so I decided I was going to start asking too. She thought it was tremendously funny that a white person had asked her for a gift and was still laughing heartily when we walked on. So, I didn't get a gift but I bet I made that ladies day and Amberly really enjoyed observing the woman's reaction. 

     The man who needed stitches around his eye has come back once and is due to come back again tomorrow. I was very pleased with how his eye looked. I did take out two stitches because they seemed to be pulling a little bit too tightly. I will try to get another picture to post when he comes to the clinic again.

     Yesterday there was a funeral here. The man was from here in Oriani but he has been down in the hospital for a while. He had a lot of money and several businesses. The funeral was 3 1/2 hours long and involved much weeping and wailing. Even before the service had started they had to carry someone out- she had lost her shoes somewhere along the way so was carried out fish net stocking feet first. There were several hundred people in the church- all of the benches and chairs were filled and then there were people standing along both walls and down the middle isle. There are two steps all the way across the front of the church- there were 28 people sitting on those two long steps alone. Then there were a lot of people outside the church also. It was an entertaining service. The preacher had been talking for a while but was not finished with his sermon when the people decided it had been long enough - and decided to agree with and complete the sermon with an "Amen". That in itself is not unusual here. If you agree with what has been spoken you say "Amen" but the crowd would not be quiet so after several minutes the preacher just finished his thought and sat down. He told someone later that he wasn't finished with everything he wanted to say though. There was no church in the evening- the morning service had been long enough.

More later...