Key Stories

There are keys for everything. And I mean everything. In the office there’s a big cupboard FULL of keys. There are keys to every house and every office and all the sheds and the tractor and the carpentry shop and the Bloc and even the bathrooms. Sometimes having so many keys gets very confusing.

So one day in all my comings and goings I lose my key for the house. Thankfully Lauren has another, so we’re not locked out. Still, I need to find the key. No idea where I left it. Been all over the place…ALL over the place. And then I stop at Olga’s house for the fifth time that day, and what do you know? JDD who’s talking with the guard just reaches down and picks up my keys out of the grass. Wow. Thankfully somebody has better eyes than me.

***

We're having a party at the mission, and someone gets a call saying the power's out at the hospital, and Molimo needs to start the generator. But where are the keys? That's right - Caleb has them, and he's with us partying at the mission. Brief distressing moment ensues. Then, oh! he actually he doesn't have them. They're in that special box somewhere at the hospital. But where is the box again? So Molimo finds the box, but it turns out Caleb has the key to get to the fuel for the generator, but not the one needed to start the tractor, so that’s good. And he thinks the gas will last until he goes back. So the hospital has power again. Phew.

***

I need to get into Melanie's office again to work on payroll. But Eamon has the keys. And where is Eamon? He went to the market. With the keys. So I am told. But then someone else says, 'no he left them with Caleb,' in case someone needed to get into Admin. Hallelujah. Disaster averted. So I'm off to find Caleb. And he's all the way over at Casablanca. But when I get there, he's actually not. So I go back to Admin and he's in Dr. Harvey's office. But Caleb gave the key back to Eamon before he left. So I'm back to square one. But then I see Eamon coming back from the market. Hallelujah again. I can get to work.

***

One dark night someone steals the keys to the Samoutous’ house, the truck and Casablanca, as well as a phone – all in one go. I am sitting in the living room, oblivious to what happened out on the dark street, ready for bed, with kids falling asleep on the floor waiting for mom to come back, when I hear a knock. Before I even reach the door, it’s open and Sarah, Dr. Harvey and Noah are all in the kitchen. Within what seems like seconds Dr. Harvey has changed the lock, replaced my key with a new one and is moving on to Casablanca to do the same there. I hardly know what’s going on before it’s over, and I am left in a cloud of dust and amazement at the suddenness and speed of the operation. That is the fastest lock change I have ever seen!

 ***

I leave the Samoutous' House with key in bag, or maybe in hand. Perhaps this is why I lost it again in the first place. Will I ever stop losing keys? And Lauren left her key in Admin, at least that's what she thinks, but it's after hours and Clotilde has gone home, and she's the one who would know. So we're locked out of the house and it's dark and it's late. And we're searching for the key. So I retrace my steps twice, flashlight in hand, and look everywhere I can think of. And after an hour I’m starting to get really desperate, and then I find them on the ground back at the Blue House. Relief would be an understatement. Praise the Lord!

And I’m just naming a few incidents. I could go on, you know. But anyway, the keys are useful, but they’re also inconvenient. We lose them. We find them. Sometimes they’re in the key cabinet and sometimes they’re on a desk, and sometimes they’re in house doors or car doors or key rings or lost in the grass. They go the wrong places with the right people, or the right places with the wrong people.. Are you confused yet? We certainly are.