First of all, I would like to apologize to the author of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" for grossly misusing what is arguably the most famous line in the poem: "Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink." It is a line I have abused before, and probably will again, but never in print. Sorry!!
We have been getting to know each other over the past month, so I feel my comfort level rising regarding the things that happen "behind closed doors" here. Sorry to spoil the fun, but this not a tantalizing tale, if fact it's quite gross. See where friendship gets you??
Last night, around midnight, I got the stomach flu... at least I am hoping that is all it is. No fever, so you Ebola worriers can just relax. Although, as a side note, this morning, outside my bedroom, the children were making rhymes about Ebola!! Something I have never heard here... kinda strange that they would pick today to become interested in world news and affairs!! I was up all night and had to wake Mary Clare very late to take Mary into her room. I was vomiting and had a runny stomach, as they call it here... my grandfather quite seriously calls it the "back door trots!!" :o
Anyways, around 8am, I ran out of water to flush the toilet. (we have toilets in our bathrooms where you pour water from a large plastic container into the tank of the toilet and flush it.) I had only been flushing it every other time or so, but I ran out. When Mary Clare came to check on me, which she did all day long, the sweetheart, I told her. So, around 10 am, I had gone a few more times, and a few more by 2pm. I was very unfavorably being reminded of the little league port-a-potties that we had to use at my brothers' base ball games. The smell in my room was pungent, to say the least, and it just all felt so filthy.
I started thinking about the numerous times I had the flu in my life. On one occasion, my parents took us, I think we were 6 children at the time, 2 more came later, to a chicken restaurant, the Chicken Bucket or something like that, and we all ended up with food poisoning and were all sick during the night. Can you imagine, just imagine, that happening here, at the Nazareth Home for God's Children, where we can spend at least part of the day with no water? It is not something I want to spend any more time thinking about!! Well, finally around 5pm, I got some water, and just behind the girls carrying water, came Mary Clare to clean my bathroom... just about the most amazing and selfless act of mercy I have ever heard of in my entire life. And just like that, the smell was gone and the cleansing, freshness of water made everything bearable somehow.
I also began thinking of water in terms of my faith. That Jesus, and in His place, the priest, uses water and wine in the consecration, which becomes the Blood of Christ, how so many of the miracles and teachings of Jesus in the Bible happened in and around water, how holy water is an essential part of our sacramental life, beginning with baptism and ending with anointing of the sick, and how blood and water flowed from the wounds of our Lord on the cross. Water is an essential part of life, in general and in the Church, and it seems its relevance and importance is only thought of when it is difficult to find. That is here!!
The human body can live without food for several days, maybe even a week, but not without water. We ourselves are made up of mostly water, as is our planet. But here in the dry lands of Ghana, water is a every day worry. In a place where belief in God and in His saving grace is our lifeline, we pray daily for water and the freshness and cleanliness and life it brings.
Now, Rita, one of the staff here, just brought me some spicy fishy soup. I explained to her about stomach linings and it being tender for a few days, but she stayed in my room like a prison warden making sure I ate it. She just got called out of my room... do you think it would be so bad if I flushed that down the toilet?? Would it conflict so terribly with my musings above?
;) xo
