Jan 13, 2010  •  In Personal

Putting Things in Perspective

I must really live in a bubble, because I only just found out about the Haiti earthquake.

More than 100,000 died in yesterday’s 7.0 quake 10 miles from the capital of Port-au-Prince. The powerful earthquake flattened the president’s palace and the main prison, the cathedral, hospitals, schools and thousands of homes. Thousands are still trapped.

And here I am, boo-hooing about my fertility problems.

Let’s all keep Haiti in our prayers.

# # #

Last week, a regular customer at my mother’s store came in after a 2-week vacation.

Upon learning that she had been to Nigeria to visit relatives, I asked if the country is still a dangerous place to visit.

“Oooohh yes. In fact, we narrowly escaped an attack one night!”

“That’s horrible! What happened?”

“We were to go visit my aunt’s house one night for her birthday. But due to a horrible storm, we were not able to make it. The next day we found out that my aunt’s house was raided by armed gunmen that night…they knew Americans would be visiting and had targeted the house hoping to get our money.”

O_O (that’s me gaping with my eyes wide open)

“The scary thing is, it had to be an insider job, because not too many people knew we were coming. These gunmen would’ve shot us dead. They would have killed us after taking our money, or they would have killed us because we didn’t have enough money. God sure was looking down on us that night.”

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6 Responses to “Putting Things in Perspective”

  1. Ali says:

    Holy WOW! O-O is what I looked like reading that!
    God surely was looking down on them!

  2. Yes, we are very blessed to be living in this country. I know some people from Haiti and they have not heard any information about their loved ones. My heart is very heavy. We need to keep them in our prayers and offer any financial help and blood donations we can provide. When tragedies like this happen, you feel guilty about worrying about smaller things in comparison. Fertility issues are very stressful, but still important even when the world is experiencing challenging times. There’s nothing trivial about the desire to have a baby.

  3. a Nigerian here! being reading this blog for a while now but this is my first comment ^^. Nigeria is indeed dangerous due to the kidnapping of almost anybody but then again it totally depends on where exactly in Nigeria you are. did the customer tell you where exactly she travelled to? the kidnapping threat is not present throughout Nigeria and really as things go, Nigeria is not a dangerous country. regarding theft, it is almost always an inside job.

  4. *i meant Nigeria is not really a dangerous country but can be viewed as dangerous…if that makes sense anyway it totally depends. i always feel things can be worse.

  5. Geek in Heels says:

    @eccentricyoruba — thanks for your comment! I’m not sure which area of Nigeria this customer visited, but I’ll be sure to ask her next time I see her.

  6. rickw says:

    All

    I would like to put the topic back to Haiti and say that the initial post had major point.
    It totally puts your life in perspective. There is a world of difference between hating your job or
    some other aspect of your life, and fighting to survive.

    I saw a lady who was trapped after more hours than any of us can possibly imagine, her arm pinned
    down by a beam. The LA search and rescue team got her out and she was singing and praying and I just
    thought what amazing hardships people are capable of enduring. It reminds me that I can be part of something
    great or something terrible and the choice is mine to make.

    Do not misread my intent I can understand how the topic could drift to other foreign places. I just think it’s important to focus on this one right now. I would also personally like to add that anyone who has a derogatory point to score or yet another political point to make off Haiti (i.e Rush Limbaugh or Pat Robertson ) kindly crazy glue your lips together for the duration of eternity.

    Anyway my prayers and donations are pointed at Haiti and I encourage anyone who considers themselves
    members of the human race, to do likewise.

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