Wednesday, July 6

Last night I was given the choice to go with the men back to Arundis, or stay with the women and go to the hospital today. This was a tough choice because I wanted to go back to Arundis and see the children because I hadn't gotten to the day before, but I would have nothing to do at Tresford and Fabiola's until about 1:30 or 2pm. However, if I stayed with the women and did hospital visits, I wouldn't get to see any of the kids or Pearl again. As I lay in bed this morning, trying to decide what to do, I struggled because I had pros and cons for both options. I finally decided to stay with the women because I was still feeling weak and tired, and I was running late because the men were leaving at 8am and the women weren't leaving until 10am. However, at about 9:45am, I was laying in bed when Carol came into my room and said "Rachel, I need you. We have a special visitor." I was very curious and got up, even though I still wasn't feeling 100%. When I walked toward the door, Carol told me that she has met this woman on the beach and that she was deaf, so she brought her home because she knew I knew some sign language. How crazy is that?! Carol called it a "divine appointment." Anyways, I signed with the woman, asking her name and her baby's name, if she was a Christian, and what her story was. While we both signed, I know American Sign Language and her sign language was different - maybe Afrikaans sign language? We signed for a bit while mom made her a big bag of food and Carol praised God for this opportunity. The woman's name is Melania, and she was trying to get money to travel to see her parents. We gave her a little money, but not a lot. It was hard though because when we went to ride with Joyce and Fabiola to downtown Swakop to shop; Joyce mentioned how the woman's story was likely not true. I wanted so badly to believe Melania in that she was just trying to get to where her parents are.  Any who, after we finished with Melania, we went to downtown Swakop to shop. We started at the wood carver's market and just walked around town, going in and out of shops that looked interesting. I was feeling a lot better today, but I was still very tired so I often had to sit down and rest for a few minutes. While in Swakopmund, we had lunch at The Village Cafe. It was delicious! Sandi, mom, Carol, and Julie all got baked potatoes covered in cream sauce with chicken, mushrooms, and cheese. Mystomach couldn't quite handle that, so I got toast and scrambled eggs, which were very good. After having lunch at the cafe, we wandered around for a bit more. We were supposed to catch a taxi and be back at the Finnish House at 2:30 for hospital visits. But while we were shooing, we saw Fabiola's truck, so we waited by it so we wouldn't have to pay for a taxi (not that they're expensive - about $1 US dollar from where we were to where we were staying). But when Fabiola, Joyce, and Lynda returned (they were shopping for Fabiola’s new fridge, some dishes, etc) they said they still had a lot to do so they said maybe we will do the hospital ministry later, maybe not. As bad as we felt, we were relieved to have more shopping time and more down time, since we hadn't had hardly any. For dinner we had delicious pizza - finally! But I overate a bit and then despite the fact that I was feeling better during the day, I felt bad again the next day.