Ripe Mango Chronicles

This morning an older women with the saddest eyes came to greet me. I know her well, she greets me every Sunday, but her eyes don't normally hold so much pain. I smiled at the baby in her arms and began the usual exchange of greetings. A smile. A kiss on the cheek. How are you? How is your family? This morning the answers were not what I expected. Her eyes welled up as she shared that her grandson passed away this week. A young boy I have met on numerous occasions. I was shocked as he has always looked so healthy. She doesn't have much, but I know she loves her grandchildren dearly and takes care of them as best she can. "What happened?" I asked. With her head lowered and eyes down she whispered, "He had a fever, and then he died. I tried to help him, we tried to take him to a hospital, but he died." I cannot begin to even imagine what life is like for this dear woman. Her husband shines shoes for a living, while she cares for a number of grandchildren

This has been a truly awful week. Nothing, I repeat, NOTHING went the way I had hoped. People were fired, tutors didn't show up, kids failed assignments, vehicle requests went missing and our bulk purchasing trip was cancelled, twice...It was a very stressful and frustrating week to say the least. There was one thing that made it even worse, the fact that Kenol also had an awful week. Quite possibly worse than mine. While Kenol was in a meeting this evening a friend messaged me asking if I knew if he was still prepared to share at our home church on Sunday night. I knew there was no way I would be able to do it after the week I had so I responded and said, "It's been such an hard week I doubt he will be up to it." Kenol got home an hour or so later. I shared with him that I had told Katie he wouldn't be up to sharing on Sunday night. He looked at me with surprise and said, "Why did you say that?" To which I responded, "because you have had such an