Elijah's Adventure

On Wednesday she slipped her little hand into mine and my heart warmed. Valesca and she sister, Katarine, always seemed to be dancing as they skipped around school, their eyes dancing too. The mother in me longed to wash their dirty little ankles and brush their unkempt hair. But I am not their mother, just their teacher and friend.

On Thursday I got the news that Valesca and another little girl were hit by a car as they crossed the street after school. Impossible to imagine…that someone could not see them on the road…or that no one was not holding their hands as they crossed, taking extra precaution to wait until the hum of oncoming cars was long past.

Thankfully, Valesca’s only repercussions from this tragic event were a hairline fracture in her vertebrae, sentencing her to a month of bed rest, and the experience of blatant disregard from the hospital staff because she was one of “the dirty ones, from the dump.”

This afternoon Colleen, Rey, and Elijah and I piled into our car to visit her with coloring books, a stuffed bear, and a priceless candy ring-pop. The rain fell softly as we turned onto the dirt road to see Fausto and Katarine running to greet us. The jumped in to lead us to their home, too confident in our SUV’s ability to wade through mud a foot deep and climb hills at a 20% grade. Soon it became apparent that if we were to continue, it must be on foot. I slipped Elijah’s rain jacket over his head—"Boo!"-- and then handed him to Rey to travail the sticky, slippery path before us.

Climbing the steep embankment would have been difficult on its own; it was the kind that required strong grips on grass, sure footing, and had to be done on all fours. Add a foot deep of mud, and the disability of carrying a toddler, and I don’t know how we did it. I do know, however, that my fashion boots were perfectly suited to the task since they were modeled after riding boots. I think I was the only one who did not lose a shoe in the climb!

As we climbed, Elijah smiled back at me over his dad’s shoulder. He looked so cute in his hooded rain jacket. When I fell too far behind he cried out for me, already watching out for me although he was the one that needed watching out for!

Finally we arrived at the two small wooden shacks mounted precariously on a precipice. Chicks clucked at our feet as Valesca’s aunt greeted us suspiciously, but bade us enter. It took a moment for our eyes to adjust to the room without light, without electricity. The remnants of late-afternoon sun filtered through the boards making up the walls, leaving enough space for large bugs to enter, I imagined. But there lay Valesca in her bed, as still as I’d ever seen her. She seemed in good spirits, smiled at Elijah, and was delighted by her gifts. While we chatted Elijah made friends with another baby his age, trapped in the arms of an aunt or cousin.

Soon it was time to leave. I kissed Valesca on the forehead and we began to climb and descend the sticky slope once again. Rey fell down in the mud a couple of times, but kept Elijah safe (perhaps imagining him as a football?) and Colleen leapt up the trail like a billy goat.
When we returned home in the evening I washed the rain off Elijah with a warm bath, then tucked him into bed in a room that was twice the size of Valesca’s house. Elijah fared well with his first ministry adventure, but I couldn’t help but wonder who tucked Valesca in at night and whether the cold would seep through the boards of her house.