A Relaxing Run...NOT!

#1- I actually left the Baby House at a decent hour last night.  We do have a few kids who are sick...but nothing like the last few weeks!  Praise Jesus for His healing and for happy playful babies again!


So, I got home and even had a discussion about how it felt like it was really late because I had gotten home so much earlier than the last few weeks.  Anyway, Rebecca (another nurse and one of my roommates) and I decided to go running.  There was a bit of thunder we could hear in the distance and after we actually got motivated, let our food settle, and were dressed and ready to go it had started to drizzle.  We laughed and decided we'd still give it a shot.  Well as we got down to the field the heavens broke open and it started POURING!  The lightning was getting closer, the thunder getting louder, but we started running anyway.  I made it 5 laps and saw another person walking toward me with Rebecca.  I realized it was Maria (a young lady who works in our reception office).  She lives back behind the center and does come running sometimes...so I thought oh awesome...she's here to go running with us.  As I got closer I realized she looked quite frazzled and upset about something.  When I got to her she started telling me about a sick woman (the aunt of a girl who lives on the center) who had come by Maria's house on her way up to the main road.  They had sent Maria ahead to try and find help while two other women helped this woman continue her walk through the community.  So we walked toward the gate...soaking wet...but ready to help in any way we could.  I told Maria we couldn't leave the center to go find this woman but when she arrived we would see what we could do.
Turns out she was already right outside the gate.  Our guards let her in so we could figure out what was going on and see what we could do.  After getting the whole story we decide it was best for her to go to the hospital.  She already had a file open at a certain hospital so it was agreed (while the thunder is booming and the lightning striking all around us) that we would do our best to get her there as quickly as possible.  So I start the frantic calling of drivers to see who could bring her into the city.  Driver #1 had just left to bring some other young ladies home who finished worship practice and couldn't make it home in the storm on their own.  Driver #2 was unreachable because our cellphone service went down...not unusual in a simple rain storm not to mention the major thunderstorm we had last night.  During all of this the power is going on and off, the thunder continues to boom, and this woman is now laying on a bench right inside our gate in extreme pain.  Finally, I decide I'll just go get the keys to our only automatic car (I seriously need to learn how to drive a manual...it's getting ridiculous) and take her in myself.  There is discussions at this point of who will hold the on call phone I'm in charge of (because I really shouldn't be leaving the base since I'm on call for everyone here)...Rebecca will take that.  Then we discuss that I shouldn't really be going out on my own in this storm without anyone to return with me.  That is solved when Maria agrees to go with me...she speaks quite a bit of English, knows the roads well, and we already know each other quite well.
So at this point I leave Rebecca with the ladies at the gate...make a run for it through the rain...after taking Rebecca's keys to open our house...grab my purse...and head to the clinic to get the car keys.  In the mean time I call our interim directors really quickly to make sure they know where I'm going and why.  Now that it is around 9:00pm I thought they should probably know what was going on and who I'll be with.  I answer all their questions and then make a run for it for the clinic...again through the POURING down rain.
In the clinic one of our Mozambican nurses is working on call...so I have to explain everything to her.  She just stands there in shock that I'm going to drive this woman in this storm.  I tell her when we get back I'll bring the keys back because they will need them early in the morning to bring kids to their medical consults.  She says ok and once again I take off running through the rain.  At this point I am SOAKED...and it doesn't hit me at this moment but later on I realize...why didn't I at least grab a capalana (the fabric they use for almost everything from carrying their babies around to a skirt)...instead I'm wearing leggings and a t-shirt that are now wet to the point of being able to ring them out.  I would NEVER wear leggings except when running here...and this hits me about 30 minutes later when I'm sitting in the car outside the hospital.
Anyway, in all this time of me running around through the rain, calling everyone under the sun, collecting the car keys, maneuvering the car out of its blocked in position, dealing with the fogged up windshield, and finally getting back up the gate...Rebecca is experiencing the craziness of Moz down at the gate.  The sick woman is laying on the bench, thunder is booming all around, lightning appears to be striking in every direction, and this woman is bleeding...and they are using a plate to catch rain water to wash her blood off the side walk.  It is in situations like this that I wonder how anyone survives here...a stark reality.

Well, finally I arrive at the gate and collect all my passengers.  Somewhere these women have found a big piece of plastic to lay over the seat to keep the car clean...ingenious!  Maria jumps in the passenger's seat and we are finally off.  At one point we encounter a large truck that is blocking the entire road...but make it past.  Then when we have made it to the city and are trying to turn into the hospital there are two COWS in the road.  That is right...COWS!  And one poor guy that is trying to herd them out of the oncoming traffic.  Even Maria was laughing at this point!
Next we get to the hospital...all the ladies (Maria and the 2 others who have come to "help" the sick one) jump out of the car to try and figure out what we need to do.  At this point I am left in the car and it hits me...I have on LEGGINGS...seriously?!
***Side note...here in Moz I don't let my knees show needless to say wear skin tight leggings with a t-shirt around.  And the clothes (leggings and a t-shirt) I do have on are still SOAKED so they are plastered to my body...completely inappropriate...hence me refusing to leave the car.***
Which was all fine and dandy until about 10 minutes later when I find myself in the car alone waiting for Maria to come back out so we can head back.  I thought...ok...I'll give her 20 minutes and then I'll try and call her phone.  About 15 minutes into the wait I realize her phone is sitting on the dash...I said a little prayer that I wouldn't be sitting there all night and that I wouldn't have to go into the hospital in my leggings.  And...Maria came out within the next few minutes, reported that this woman had been admitted and would be spending the night, and we were on our merry way.  The rain had stopped and we made it back to the center in record time.  I did have to drive back behind the center into the community (on dirt roads) to drop Maria off.  All was fine on the way in...then Maria assured me I could take another road (think sandy path) back out to the main road where our center is because of the rain storm it would be just fine.  Well, I did make it...but I wouldn't say it was just fine.  The tires were spinning, the sand pulling me every directions except straight...but Maria was right...I made it!
So I pull into the center, thank the guards profusely for all their help, and put the car back where it belongs.  It is at this point that I realize I never gave Rebecca her keys back...SERIOUSLY!?  I've been gone about 2 hours and she has been locked out of our house in this storm.  Sad.  So I quickly return the keys to the clinic and get back to our house.  I walk in to find Clara, our other roommate, home but no Rebecca.  2 seconds later she walks through the door to my..."Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry, I had no idea I had taken your keys!"  She had spent the time with some other missionaries because I had so nicely locked her out of our house...oops!


So why have I shared this long, crazy story with you?  Because this is Mozambique...this is my life.  Planning to go for a relaxing run and 20 minutes later finding yourself driving a sick woman to the hospital because it is the middle of a thunderstorm and no public transportation is running and no cellphone service is working.  Some days I wonder why I am seldom surprised by much anymore, but I firmly believe it's because I have grown accustom to the sheer unpredictable nature of this place.