Street Justice

   Today, I met Ben who leads the support group for people who are HIV positive. We did a hospital visit and it was incredibly different from the American hospitals that I have complained so much about in the past. Each room had six beds, some of the beds had two patients in them and there were also patients laying on sheets on the floor. The room was full of patients with conditions that range from HIV to TB. It was interesting to see a doctor put on gloves with out ever washing his hands... only to open one patients mouth then move directly onto giving another patient a shot with out even changing gloves. The care at the hospital is mostly given by family members and meals are not provided by the hospital either. We came during lunch time for visiting hour and were able to give out some bread, muffins, soap, water, juice and toilet paper to those with out family to care for them. We also prayed with a couple of the children one was a very skinny boy who was being transferred to another hospital for heart surgery and the other was a little girl who has fluid in her brain. The little girl is being discharged because the doctors did not think surgery would be beneficial.
   Obviously, the experience that I had at the hospital was shocking and deeply saddened me but, the real shock occurred as we pulled out of the hospital. A man was caught stealing a bike by a group of men who proceeded to tie his hands behind his back. It was a brutal scene that then unraveled as they hit and whipped him. Molly wanted to intervene but was warned that it would be far to dangerous. I was then informed about the situation we had just witnessed.... it's referred as "street justice" and it often ends in stoning or burning the thief to death. It is sometimes stopped by a good Samaritan or a police officer but, often will not end till the thief is killed. I know he is a thief yet, I couldn't help myself from praying for his life.
"It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people"- Neil Gaiman (Good Omens)