Miss Water

It took us several weeks before we learned our way around Montego Bay. We live up on one of the mountain ridges that overlooks the port and the long road that leads up to our house is called Fairfield Rd. When we first arrived we made many trips to town and we began to notice the same people walking up and down Fairfield Rd. And, we would comment on the man who wore the loin cloth made out of a plastic grocery bag, or the man who wore two different shoes, or the man whose dreadlocks had so grown together that they resembled a solid thick curtain around his head. Another person we noticed was a lady. She has very little hair, she is usually barefooted, sometimes only wears a long t-shirt and always walks with her head down at a very fast pace .

One day we were driving and Nathan was in the back seat playing his Nintendo. Todd and I were making our usual comments about the people we saw and we noticed the same lady with very little hair. When I realized that she was a regular, I said, "We need to give her a name." We drove on and in a minute from the back seat I heard, "Water." I asked Nathan if he wanted a drink of water and he said, "No, we can name her Miss Water." So, let me introduce you to Miss Water...

I don't know how or where he came up with that name. You know sometimes it's best not to ask questions. In the above picture Miss Water has on shoes and a dress under her normal t-shirt attire. I have tried to get more pictures of her but it's really hard to do because I don't want to offend her in anyway.

One morning, I was taking Nathan to school and we were listening to Hot Chocolate from the Polar Express soundtrack. As we drove along we passed Miss Water on the side of the road. She was picking up a styrofoam container and looking to see if there was anything in it. Nathan, whose world revolves around how many Pokemon he can find, began to engage in what I considered a deep conversation. It went something like this:

"Mom, where does Miss Water live?", he asked.

Hot! Hot! Hey, we got it.

"I don't know, Baby.", I answered.

Hot! Hot! Say, we got it.

"Does she have a job?"

Hot Chocolate!

"Probably not."

Here we've only got one rule.

"Well, how does she live?"

Never ever let it cool.

"She probably survives on what she can find. Like that styrofoam container she was looking in may have a few bites of food in it that she eats."

Keep it cooking in the pot.

"Well, it's probably raw." (Let me explain that "raw" is one of the few baby words Nathan still uses. When he should use "rotten" he uses "raw." Let me also tell you about the first time he used the term. He was still using sippy cups and he use to leave them around the house with milk in them. One day he came across one that had been sitting a couple of days and he reared it back and took a nice long sip and after swollowing, thank God and not spewing, he said, "Oooh, Mama that mulk's raw!")

You've Got.

"I'm sure most of the food she finds and eats is rotten."

Hot Choc-o-lat!

"She doesn't look very happy."

(Finally Tom Hanks stopped singing.)

"She's probably not very happy because she leads a rough life having to walk to town and scrounge for every morsel of food and clothing she can find. Would you be happy if you had to live like she does?"

"No, ma'am."

"I wish there was a way we could help her."

"Me too." He quickly added, "Maybe we could pray for her this morning when we pray for me to have a good day at school."

Needless to say, we prayed for Miss Water that morning and asked God to provide her with all she would need for the day and that His hand of protection be placed upon her. We are thinking of creative, tangible ways to help her, too. The other morning as we were stuck in traffic she made eye contact with me for the first time and even gave me a quick nod when I smiled at her. Maybe that was the first step.