a lady & her chicken

The other day we headed out to a certain village to collect some bamboo from a distant relative's place. As we were driving there I remembered an old man that we had brought home from a burial a couple of months ago, who pleaded with us to come visit him and his wife at home in the near future as some people were trying to grab his land and he wanted us to see where he stayed. He was the cousin to Ruudy's grandfather.  So we decided on our way back home to pass by. When we arrived we parked at the neighbor's house and then walked over to their place. The neighbors had two big "modern" houses, and then a couple of huts. Then when we reached the grandparents house they had one hut that they sleep in, cook in, store food in, and some animals also sleep with them. There was also a half built small two room house on their compound. They said that their roof was leaking, it may cost only something like $20 to repair. They said that the neighbors, who are somehow related, said they would build them a place, and take care of them in their old age. But it appears that it's just a ploy to grab their land.

Ruudy & I with the grandparent, their hut is behind us

The house they are building, looks like it's been trying to be built for a long time, and they haven't even provided a bed for them, and yet these guys are now left with only a small piece of land. It broke my heart to see the way these guys are living. Especially when I saw where they were sleeping and then the half built house that laid their vacant, only used to bathe in.

The couple's bed

The kitchen, which is in the same hut as the bed

the clothes and food storage

  But one thing that blessed my heart is the old lady. I had gone to pick my camera from the car so I could take a photo for them, and when I came back I saw there was a chicken sitting on her lap. Now if you're familiar at all with chickens, they generally are afraid of people and run away the second they sense anything moving near by them. But this chicken was just resting on her lap. I smiled and she told me the story, through Ruudy. The chicken's mother had died when it was just born, and so she began feeding it and communicating with it. Now the chicken has become her friend. She can call it and it comes, they can go to the garden to dig together, it sleeps right next to her bed at night. And I'm thinking in my mind, if only she had someone caring for her the way she cares for this bird. She never had any children, so there's no children to care for her, but it hasn't stopped her from caring for the ones God puts in front of her.

Tata with her orphaned chicken

It was a beautiful lesson of love. No matter how loved we feel as human beings, we have that love of God that is pure and real in our hearts and can manifest itself through us, even when we don't feel like it. His love overcomes. EVERYTHING. Period.