Hands
Hands In this culture, shaking hands is a key interaction between people. I was even accused of yelling at one of the other missionaries because I did not shake his hand. I didn’t actually yell at him, I just didn’t shake his hand and apparently that can be seen as yelling? So I shake hands, a lot of hands - hands swarming with innumerable parasites, viruses and bacteria. If I think too much about it I shiver, but I think in Jesus’ life He shook hands all the time, or whatever the equivalent of shaking hands was in that culture. Some hands I must shake quickly. I was in the salle de accouchement for another lady, à placental abruption, when the maternity nurse called my attention to her. “Les pieds sont dans la vagin.” I turned my attention to her and confirmed that indeed, there were baby feet in her vagina. She had borne 5 children before this and her labor had progressed so rapidly that she had just arrived to the maternity ward moments before me. So I rapidly shook h