Rock of Gold

Sunday morning as I was getting ready to help bathe the babies, Oralia came to me and said that there was a man at the door to see Norman and me. I was a little surprised and clarified, "Me?" She said yeah that he had asked to talk to the North Americans because he had a rock of gold to sell us and that we knew he was coming. I smiled and chuckled (when I really wanted to crack up laughing) and said no, we didn't know anything about this. I told her I thought he probably knew there were North Americans living here and thought he could sell us something. She agreed. I then asked her what we should do, should we talk to him? She thought that would be best because he wouldn't take no for an answer from her and we both felt it was better to have a man talk to him.

So I went over and got Norman who was baking cinnamon rolls for the kids for breakfast and told him there was a man at the door wanting to sell us a rock of gold. He said, oh, really, did you see it? I explained that no he didn't have it with him. Norman said he wanted to see it. I begged him not to ask to see it, I could picture all these people coming everyday to try to sell us something. He agreed. :) So we headed back to the other side and Sebastian went with Norman to the door and I casually slipped into the babies room on the way by, being the supportive wife that I am. :} Norman listened to the man's story, understood very little of it, and then said no thank you, he didn't need a rock of gold and the man left.

Later at breakfast we heard the whole story he gave Oralia. He had lit candles and prayed to his god and then found this rock. He said it was a rock of blessing to whoever had it. He held up his hands to demonstrate that the size of it was about the size of a cantaloupe. When Oralia asked what color it was, he said he didn't know. When Oralia asked him if he had it with him, he said no because the people would kill him in the street for it if he walked around with it. Our initial reaction was how ridiculous and we did have a good laugh about it with the national staff at breakfast. But at seeing that they didn't see it quite as funny as we did, I saw the sadness in it. This man was sincere and I don't really think he was crazy. He was just doing what he knew to do and truly felt he had an answer from his god. It is a reminder of how empty and desparate their lives are and how much they need the one true living God. The one who made the beautiful sunset and gold!