Alejandro

Alejandro is an 83-y/o amputee that we have been helping for several years.  We bring him food weekly and dump the buckets that he collects his waste into.  He lives in a cinderblock room about 10 x 20 feet with no running water, but a cookstove and one light bulb hanging from a cord in the middle of the room.  Yesterday I picked him up (literally.  I had to pick him up to carry him to the car since he only has one leg) and brought him home.  We put a plastic chair in the shower and he had his first shower in over a year (since Thanksgiving 2014)!  He loved it and said that his skin didn't itch so much.  I then gave him a 'hair hack'.  I wouldn't feel right calling it a 'haircut' since it looked like I cut it with a machete by the time I was finished, but since he wears a hat all the time and doesn't go out, I didn't think he'd mind.   We gave him some clean clothes from our giveaway bag (and didn't tell him that his jeans were some that Mia had outgrown (remember, he doesn't get out much)) while I threw his old ones in the washer.  I'm not sure I've seen browner water in a washing machine.  Since we live in a warm desert, his clothes were dry after only 30 minutes on the clothes line.  Paul accompanied us when we took Alejandro back to his room to help me shake out his mattress and get him settled back in.  I've mentioned before that our kids (and I suspect most missionary kids) don't whine much.  It's pretty easy to be thankful when you see how so many others struggle through life.