Mischievous Girls

September 28

After having a vespers this evening with the other Americans, I headed to my hut, hoping the gate to the courtyard was open. As I approached, I realized there was no reason to worry, as it sounded like my family was having a party. The huge crowd of people, however, was standing around my hut. I slowly walked closer and noticed a girl stuck trying to crawl out of my window. Everybody was yelling and it just got worse as I arrived. I got the picture of what was happening as Anatorle told me to go inseide and check all of my things. My bags were in a mess, but I wasn't too concerned because I knew what the kids had been looking for. When I first arrived I gave a piece of candy to the kids in my family as a gift. I've been saving the rest for kids at the hospital as we give shots and such, but Kristel, Anatole's oldest daughter constantly asks me for more even though I tell her I have no more. Tonight, Kristel and 2 of her friends tried to crawl in and find some candy while I was gone, after her parents went to bed.

Poor Anatole was scandalized by what his daughter had done even though I tried to tell him it wasn't that important. The perpetrators were just three 10-yr.-old girls and as I looked at the 3 of them kneeling on the ground, tears streaming down their faces and a crowd of adults surrounding them, it immediately made me think of me and my 2 friends in academy, Lisa and Steph. These girls had to have been pretty daring to try and get into the "white girl's" hut, through the window bars about 8 in. wide and a foot tall, standing on each others shoulders. It gave me flashbacks of trying to sneak out of the dorm at night with Steph & Lisa. Getting stuck in a window sounds just like something that would have happened to us.

We got off a little easier on the punishment, though. These poor girls got quite the thrashing in front of everyone and Kristel is still being lectured by Anatole almost an hour later. The whole neighborhood is still in an uproar, and by morning, I wouldn't be surprised if the whold village knew.

I've finished cleaning up the mess and I think I'll just stay up now until I need to go to the hospital to help give meds at midnight. In just a day, the hospital is overflowing and we've started putting 2 kids to a bed for more room and patients in with the TB isolation patients. I'm so happy it's Sabbath, though, even if it's not always much of a rest. Maybe we'll ride the horses to the river tomorrow...