All I want for Easter is my three front teeth and the truth
We had a stressful day yesterday, and we are still trying to figure out how to mend the seams. Yesterday, we had a visitor who parked her motorcycle near our house. After she had been here a little while, we got a call from a neighbor of ours from the Netherlands. He explained the our Indonesian neighbor went all the way to his house to tell him that Amber's (our visiting friend) motorcycle fell on her kid. Why our neighbor didn't come tell us, I don't know.
Anyway we went outside and all the mother's in the community were there, probably about 10 ladies. They all had the same story. The kid walked past the motorcycle, and it just fell on him, toward the kickstand. It knocked out three of his bottom teeth. They said the kickstand wasn't any good, and there was a strong wind that knocked it over. Well, the motorcycle had damage on the opposite side of the bike from the kickstand. So we knew they were lying about the direction that it fell. We also know that if a motorcycle falls on you, you will probably have more injuries somewhere else on your body. He only had three teeth knocked out. No other cuts or bruises. Not even a cut lip. Then you have the fact that Amber's motorcycle has never just fallen over before. Laura directly said, 'Oh, he was playing on it,' but they all agreed he wasn't. The mother even said that she wouldn't have called on us if it had been her kid's fault. They wanted Amber to pay for the Dr./ Dentist bill because it was her bike's fault. We felt taken advantage of and that they only see money when they see us.
The first thing we did was called an Indonesian friend of ours. This is the same couple that found our house for us before we were even in Indonesia. While we were discussing things with her and trying to figure out what had happened, a lady inside a house started shouting at us. She was using a tribal language that we don't know, but I could tell it wasn't nice. Yeni, our Indonesian friend started shouting back that she shouldn't say such things. 'If she has a problem come out and talk to me. These people are new here and are just here to help. We don't want problems, we are just trying to figure it out. ' The lady didn't say anything else. Yeni went to the hospital with Amber and the family of the kid. Yeni grilled the mother while they were at the hospital and the truth came out. The kid was playing on top of the bike, leaned too far one way, it fell over, and he fell off to the side. She said her husband made her tell a lie. (sounds similiar to Adam & Eve.)
It's not that we didn't want to help with the Dr. bill. It was only $7. We would have done that even if they would have told the truth. The fact that all of our neighbors lied to us flat out when the truth was obvious, just felt like they ganged up on us to take advantage of us. We thought we had a good relationship with some of them. It's hard to tell when you can't really talk. Sometimes Indonesians tell a lie when even if it's easier and more beneficial to tell the truth.
At 10 last night, as I was coming home from a friend's house, I had another neighbor tell me that he saw the whole thing. The kid was playing on the bike. It made me feel a little better that at least one relationship we have built with our neighbors was strong enough to get the truth. Especially, when he was going against the flow of all the women around.
The kid is doing fine. He lost three baby teeth, and didn't need stitches (as his mother said he did.) One of the teeth that fell out was already loose because another one was coming in behind it.
So pray for us, that we would know how to continue to show Christ's love, even though now when we see those ladies all we can think about was how they ganged up on us and lied to us. Pray that we can forgive and show them love.
Anyway we went outside and all the mother's in the community were there, probably about 10 ladies. They all had the same story. The kid walked past the motorcycle, and it just fell on him, toward the kickstand. It knocked out three of his bottom teeth. They said the kickstand wasn't any good, and there was a strong wind that knocked it over. Well, the motorcycle had damage on the opposite side of the bike from the kickstand. So we knew they were lying about the direction that it fell. We also know that if a motorcycle falls on you, you will probably have more injuries somewhere else on your body. He only had three teeth knocked out. No other cuts or bruises. Not even a cut lip. Then you have the fact that Amber's motorcycle has never just fallen over before. Laura directly said, 'Oh, he was playing on it,' but they all agreed he wasn't. The mother even said that she wouldn't have called on us if it had been her kid's fault. They wanted Amber to pay for the Dr./ Dentist bill because it was her bike's fault. We felt taken advantage of and that they only see money when they see us.
The first thing we did was called an Indonesian friend of ours. This is the same couple that found our house for us before we were even in Indonesia. While we were discussing things with her and trying to figure out what had happened, a lady inside a house started shouting at us. She was using a tribal language that we don't know, but I could tell it wasn't nice. Yeni, our Indonesian friend started shouting back that she shouldn't say such things. 'If she has a problem come out and talk to me. These people are new here and are just here to help. We don't want problems, we are just trying to figure it out. ' The lady didn't say anything else. Yeni went to the hospital with Amber and the family of the kid. Yeni grilled the mother while they were at the hospital and the truth came out. The kid was playing on top of the bike, leaned too far one way, it fell over, and he fell off to the side. She said her husband made her tell a lie. (sounds similiar to Adam & Eve.)
It's not that we didn't want to help with the Dr. bill. It was only $7. We would have done that even if they would have told the truth. The fact that all of our neighbors lied to us flat out when the truth was obvious, just felt like they ganged up on us to take advantage of us. We thought we had a good relationship with some of them. It's hard to tell when you can't really talk. Sometimes Indonesians tell a lie when even if it's easier and more beneficial to tell the truth.
At 10 last night, as I was coming home from a friend's house, I had another neighbor tell me that he saw the whole thing. The kid was playing on the bike. It made me feel a little better that at least one relationship we have built with our neighbors was strong enough to get the truth. Especially, when he was going against the flow of all the women around.
The kid is doing fine. He lost three baby teeth, and didn't need stitches (as his mother said he did.) One of the teeth that fell out was already loose because another one was coming in behind it.
So pray for us, that we would know how to continue to show Christ's love, even though now when we see those ladies all we can think about was how they ganged up on us and lied to us. Pray that we can forgive and show them love.
posted by Steve and Laura at
8:50 PM
2 Comments
