Over the past two days, I’ve had the amazing opportunity, to go down and visit the wards of our hospital. We have 4 wards, and right now are using 3. We have a program on the ship, called Be-Friend-A-Patient. You can sign up and you get assigned a patient, whom you can visit down in the hospital or outside on deck 7!
This time when I signed up, a got a 13 year old girl, named Aisha. She has surgery about 2 weeks ago, for clubbed feet! She is beautiful, and has a precious smile. My first visit to the wards was last night, and I got to meet her! She is in a bed near the wall, and has both her mother and baby brother with her. I held him, while talking to her. I told her I would be back tonight with a coloring book. Her baby brother kept trying to take my glasses, but he did not succeed, he only left many little finger prints on them.
Tonight after a long work day, Amy and I headed on down to B ward. We arrived to see Aisha and her brother! We gave her the coloring book and crayons, and off she went. I also walked around the ward seeing all the other patients. There was one boy, who loved saying my last name, over and over again. We walked around, hand in hand for a while, and then I met another little charmer, named Abu. He was a patient back in Sierra Leone, in 2011, and is now back for another surgery. He is a heart stealer, when I was getting ready to go back to my patient, I kissed his hand, and he grabbed my hand and did the same thing! Heart stolen yet again. When I went back to Aisha’s bed, the other little boy, came over and climbed into my arms, and pretty much fell asleep. So a few minutes later, I walked him back to his bed, and off to sleep he went. I also saw another little boy, who just had surgery yesterday on his legs, when I went over, I could see just how much pain he was in, he was lying there crying, and tears were just flowing nonstop, broke my heart, I almost just started crying. This is one of those hard moments; we are here helping, but in our helping them, comes a lot of pain.
When I was sitting near Aisha’s bed, she said something to one of the translators. He then told me what she said, “you promised yesterday, that you would come back, and you did. Thank you and God bless you”. That was probably the nicest thing I have ever heard. I did something so little, and it made her day. To think that a simple act like that, makes someone so happy. We really do take our happiness for granted, if you really take the time to just smile at someone, they can have a whole better day, and all it took you was not even 2 seconds. The kids are precious on these wards, and have already taught me so many amazing lessons. It’s okay to be white, its okay to laugh and be crazy. But most of all, all they want, is Love. They won’t ask, but once they get it, that gorgeous smile appears, and is stuck on their face. Seeing that baby boy wave goodnight is what I wish I could see every night. That Smile. Those chubby cheeks. The love spread in his eyes. His joy. His Peace. He’s happy. That’s all that matters.
As my time is starting to draw to a close, here on the Africa Mercy, it really is going to be hard to leave those kids. I’m going to miss visiting the wards so much! But Africa now and forevermore has a very special place in my heart, and I will be back soon!
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