I found this really cool chair at the Goodwill for $4.49 last time I was home. It folds up so it fits in a suit case and is covered in cherry red Vinyl.
Chairs are expensive in the DR, about $20 for the ugliest of plastic chairs, so I almost started to panic (I was so excited) when I realized that I could drag this one back with me for under $5.
I brought it home and cleaned it up with my Mom, and stuffed it in my suitcase. I felt very pleased.
I’ve been using this chair for the past couple of months as an “office” chair. By that I mean I sit in it all day while I try to sort out our 30 Ladies, their projects, and how to sell them. It has been a VERY different period of time for me. For the last few years I’ve been in the Village everyday, tromping around, working with people, and getting covered in dust, paint, and baby pee. But now I kind of feel like typical office worker with the added ambience of mosquitos and the sounds of cockfights right outside my window.
The few times I’ve been in the village I can’t help but notice Alfonse. He’s the older gentlemen we’ve hired as our night watchman. Actually he is almost completely blind, and what we are really doing is houseing and feeding an older gentleman we happen to LOVE! He has a friend come stay with him at night and we pay him too. Not much, but something.
One day I was feeling bad about Alfonse and how long he has to sit all day (he can’t walk very well) in a plastic chair. It occured to me that maybe he could use my beloved red vinyl chair. This thought distirbed me because I like my chair. I don’t really want to part with it. So I settled instead, on getting Alfonse some cushions for his chair.
Okay let me be honest here, I am not really enjoying writing this story. It shows just how aweful I am, but I have to share with you the witness of Alfonse and what he is like so I will try to be honest.
What I really settled on was giving Alfonse a couple of brightly colored cushions I had bought a few months ago but wasn’t really using. Not exactly an extravagent gift.
Alfonse was very grateful for his gift, which kind of embarressed me. Nothing like have someone shower you with gratitude for something that really didn’t cost you anything. But that didn’t embarress me half as much as the what happened a couple of days later.
I was visiting my friend Chichi who lives a few blocks over. Chichi is Pastor Johnny’s Daughter and before she got married she lived in the Village. She would go over and visit Alfonse and wash his clothes from time to time and Alfonse was always very grateful. Chichi isn’t exactly poor by Haitian standards. She and her Hubby both have Jobs, some furniture and plenty of food. She would, from time to time, have enough money to buy herself the occasional treat.
While we were talking I couldn’t help but notice my cushions sitting on the floor of her living room.
“Where did you get these?” I asked, a little suspicious. She said that Alfosnse had given them to her as a gift!
Alfonse got something nice for himself and the first thing he does is give it away. Not because the person he was giving it too needed it, but because he is kind and loving.
I’m not going to expand on all of this. I just want to share it because it gave me reason to pause.
