An Easter to Remember

This Easter was probably the most unique the Elliott’s have ever experienced.  Let me just tell the story, and perhaps you will understand why I say this.  Aaron woke at 6:00 AM  with Sitota.  No idea why he was up so early, but we quietly got dressed and headed to the church for morning service, which we were told was starting at 6:00.  We got there by 6:10 and there were about 10 people there.  Well, clearly no service yet, so back to get some breakfast and wait.  I wanted to let Shelli sleep a little and needed to keep an eye on Sitota, so back to the house we went.  By the time everyone got up, found their Easter baskets that the Easter bunny left (BIG THANKS to Aunt Jen), got dressed, ate some breakfast, and headed over to church…service was half over.  I learned later that the music started at 6:30 and the service started closer to 7:00.  

The kids looked so cute this morning:

The cute kids with their Easter baskets.  How ornery is Sitota?

Shortly after lunch, the generator on campus died.  After many starts and stops, it was discovered that some dirty fuel had clogged the fuel filter.  After it was removed, cleaned, and put back on, everything seems to be running well again.  That took the better part of the day however, and our 2:00 Turkey feast was pushed back to closer to 6:00.  In the meantime, two exciting things happened.  We had an Easter egg hunt with the Shultz kids…in and around the men’s bathhouse.  Apparently that was the best, most available place to hide 41 eggs.  I never did understand why, but I just went with it.  It was a blast to watch the kids discover the eggs.  Sydney ate two of the hardboiled eggs after we found them. 

I had to beg Isabel to slow down for a picture.  She is hunting eggs, I promise.  

Sitota sharing one of his many finds.  

Sydney is pumped, and also getting hungry!

The other thing that happened...Aaron got a phone call from Pastor Pierre.  Pastor left campus in search of a filter for the generator and apparently received a phone call from a local chief of police.  The request was for one of our nurses to come and “set a man’s foot” that was in an accident before they transport him to the hospital.  I grabbed Aubree and Clerice, some supplies, and off we raced.  Little did I know what “set a guy’s foot” meant. 

When I pulled up the scene, I could see a dump truck off in the brush a hundred yards away, with a downed powerline pole in it’s wake.  Apparently this guy was standing on the side OR was sitting on top of the dump truck when the accident occurred.  I never could get the story straight.  As I brought our white pick-up to a stop, I could see the guys left foot pointing the wrong direction.  Like what Sitota can do to one of the grirl’s Barbie dolls...this did not look good. 

Aubree was amazing.  She quickly triaged, found a belt off one of the Haitians standing there, put on the tourniquet, placed him in the back of the truck, and off we raced to the hospital.  This guy had already lost quite a bit of blood, was not quite with it (he tried to push Aubree out of the back of the truck at one point), and in need of a hospital FAST.  It turns out the police officer I was supposed to follow didn’t know how to drive the truck (and didn’t have a license I later learned), and no one else at the station was allowed to leave the jurisdiction.  There was a cultural thing happening I still don’t fully understand, was extremely frustrating, and for another blog post.  But I quickly made the decision to leave to police behind and race ahead to Miami-Dade on our own. 

We got there quickly.  Thankfully.  A few near misses of our own, an angry tap-tap driver calling me a dog when I quickly exited the wrong way of a round-a-bout in front of him, jumping the curb...and we were pulling into the hospital.  After handing them off to the capable staff there, borrowing some scrubs from Miami Dade so Aubree could take a quick shower and change out of her blood soaked clothes, we were headed back home.  Good news…we probably saved the guys life.  Bad news…He lost a lot of blood, and the orthopedic doctor at the hospital who was headed to surgery didn’t think he was going to be able to save the guys leg.  For Clerice, Aubree and I…we stopped and bought Coke and Tampico on for the drive home.  After that kind of Easter experience, I thought the least I could do was spring for drinks to say thanks for an otherwise thankless job well done. 

Aubree in "new" scrubs, cleaning out the back of our truck.  Clerice sprayed it down, bleached it...good as new.  

Thankfully, the rest of the evening was without incident.  We had an amazing Turkey dinner, complete with sweet potatoes, scalloped potatoes, corn, and fresh rolls.  The kids all got hot showers and stories before bed, and Shelli and I passed the rest of the evening reading on the couch. 

You know, I actually thought of Jesus quite a bit today.  At one point when I was standing at Miami-Dade, my frantic driving behind me, I thought of the story of the good Samaritan who found the man that was in trouble and cared for him.  Jesus taught us that story.  And the reason I remember what Jesus taught us is because he rose from the dead.  There are plenty of great teachers, but I only know one who conquered death.  Jesus offers all of us new life beyond the grave, and maybe in a weird way, we offered one guy that today.  I didn’t even catch his name. 

Happy Easter all.  It certainly is one we will not forget.