Rabid Dogs and Late Apologies

Second story of the random, yet oddly familiar life in Haiti:

A few weeks ago, another patient limped inside the gate with a dirty shirt wrapped around his leg and blood dripping down from the brim of it. I still didn't speak a great deal of Kreyol at the time, so I was still very ignorant of the reason for his wound.

The guy was maybe 50 years old and quite the trooper, I realized, when I took off the shirt and saw the reason he'd walked so far to get some help. He came in with a stick as his crutch and talking as if he'd just read an interesting story in the newspaper- nothing to freak out about was his motto, I guess.

He told a story I didn't "really" hear until after he'd left, but it went like this...

A rabid dog had been infected and gone about the village biting both children and adults, clearly putting everyone in danger of rabies and all the complications it comes with in a place like this. In the early morning of the day he'd come, the man was on his way to work in a field with his machete (the standard tool for any Haitian project) when the dog had wandered his direction. It lunged at a child within the man's reach and, being the hero that he knew he always was, ripped the dog by he neck from its grip and began a nasty battle.

He told us that he swung and missed several times until finally he hit the dog in the right spot to still him and finish him off. Only afterward did the guy realize that the side of his left leg had been chopped in the process.

So there was a 3-inch wound and a visible bone in front of Monique and me, waiting to be stitched up and good as new. Pretty soon it was just so.

We haven't had such a hero in our midst since then. I have to say, he's probably one of the coolest guys I know now- being the type to fight a rabid dog on a little girl's behalf and go about his normal day after a round of stitches.

And now, I must apologize for the way I've neglected my blog readers...or more like checkers (with nothing new to read). I apologize for not providing you with more entertaining stories or at least a little info.

Thank you for not giving up on me. Much love.