Of Things Missing, Fleas and Dying Engines

It only takes 30 minutes for disaster, or something close to it, to occur.  We needed to deliver empty crates to the boys' dorm leaders because some of the boys had no place to put clothes, we needed to deliver new mattresses we will use for visitors to the girls' compound (all the girls were there taking karate lessons from the Pepperdine University visitors), and we had other things we needed to take to the Learning Center.  The Team was there doing Team-building exercises with the Pepperdine University group.  So we decided to drive it all down.

We rounded the corner at the Learning Center to drive to the shops for the crates, and the ground we usually drove over was all plowed.  And Darlene said, "where's our container?"  I looked and couldn't believe it -- someone has stolen our container!!! -- John Wambu and I own a piece of land near the Learning Center and I have a container parked on it.  But it was gone, and the fence was gone, and it was all plowed.  Now there has been a dispute over this piece of land because a neighbor behind it wants highway frontage property, and we are there on the very valuable piece of land.  When we drove through the Learning Center property to get to the shops, we found the container.  It had been moved down by the Learning Center on the frontage road, and there were the fence posts.  That's the first step.

We went on to the shops and went in the auto mechanics area to get the crates.  We noticed that our dog Beauty was missing also.  Then as I went back to get the flashlight -- did I mention the electricity was out? -- Darlene noticed something stinging on her legs.  When I went into the container there, she ran back out to the light to find little black seeds all over her legs.  When they didn't brush off, she then concluded they were fleas.  By the time I put some things in the container and got the crates out, I could feel stuff crawling around on me too.  When I got outside, I found little black fleas all over my shirt, and pants, and shoes.  So...we delivered the crates to the team and said, "Did no one see the container moving around?"  Of course they did, and you can read about it in the MITS blog at  www.madeinthestreets.blogspot.com  

We got back in the car and drove home, with Darlene opening the gate and motioning me to go on and get my fleas taken care of.  When I turned the corner to head for the house, the car died.  And it wouldn't go any further.  Maybe it didn't like us getting fleas in the car, maybe it's tired, maybe the fuel pump went out -- I don't know yet.  

We ran in the garage and got our clothes off and got the bug spray and whammied the fleas and picked all of them off ourselves.  We wanted to take a shower, but did I mention that the electricity was off.  Did I mention that we didn't have water in the afternoon either because someone digging at the boys' place had busted a water main from our well and so they had to turn the water off?  A little later the electricity came back, and we had water, and we got the shower and felt much much better.  We feel really grateful to be here facing the little struggles of life while we work on the really great things of life with street kids. 

The evening ended really wonderful, even though the day is filled with plenty of trouble of its own.  Go to that MITS blog and read about it.  I feel pretty sure that we will all feel better tomorrow morning too.