It's only Tuesday and I have so many things I want to talk about! But I'll try to condense...my roommate, Jo, went home to Wales on Monday. I will really miss her:( Here she is at her going away party (in the middle, Hannah - L, Prisca - R).Monday started off badly (starting with Jo leaving) but ended on a happy note. Monday morning, we went to see our patient Yatta who has cervical cancer. She was in some serious pain and generally not doing well. Her family was taking her to her home village later that afternoon so her sister could start caring for her. Unfortunately, she will be leaving her 7 children behind in Monrovia. Four of her sons and one of her daughters were there and you can tell they really love their mom. So it was sad to see that she was going to leave them. However, she was going to her home village where her father lives. Her father disowned her when she became a Christian so we're praying for reconciliation between them. So this was the last time we would see Yatta.
After saying good-bye to Yatta, we went to visit our next patient Rose. When we got to her sister's house, everyone was looking really sad. Then they told us Rose had died last Thursday. It took us by surprise and it was a really sad situation.
She left behind four children under the age of 7 - one is a baby. Here is a picture of Rose and her children. I am posting the photo so you can see that the people dying in Africa are real - not just statistics we read about in the newspapers in the U.S. about X number of people dying in Africa. Every person has a story and a family they are leaving behind. If Rose had been born in the U.S., she would not have died from this disease.
One of the gifts Jean gives to families is that she always tries to take family photos and then gives them multiple laminated copies so that the family has a remembrance. People here don't have cameras or photos - so in Rose's case, without a photo, her small children would never remember what she looks like. I think it is a precious gift.
After that sad visit, we picked up Candy and Kaka who I've already written about. Candy was actually smiling and laughing when we picked her up and she was smiling and laughing when we dropped her off. That was a good ending to the day - just seeing her laugh like a regular little girl was good for our hearts.
One of the fun parts of the job is interacting with all the children we come across. They are everywhere and I get to hand out a lot of suckers! The funny part is that many of them have never seen white people before and they are usually either curious or scared. Today, we were walking to a house and I saw this little boy about 3 years old walking down the street, happy and smiling. He then turned and saw us and he literally turned around and ran screaming down the street with both of his hands in the air. It was just hysterical! I think that's going to be one of the best memories of this whole experience.
Earlier, we were making a visit and we were sitting on the front porch with the family and all these kids would stick their heads around the corner or up over the porch to look at us. But if I went over to talk to them they would run. The woman we were visiting said they had never seen white people before. They were laughing but shy. The kids always warm up to you once you pull out your camera - they love to see themselves i
n the small camera window. Here are two sisters who were very fascinated by us. And next is a group picture of some of the neighborhood kids plus Jerry, our translator. He likes to be in the photos as much as the kids. 
She left behind four children under the age of 7 - one is a baby. Here is a picture of Rose and her children. I am posting the photo so you can see that the people dying in Africa are real - not just statistics we read about in the newspapers in the U.S. about X number of people dying in Africa. Every person has a story and a family they are leaving behind. If Rose had been born in the U.S., she would not have died from this disease.One of the gifts Jean gives to families is that she always tries to take family photos and then gives them multiple laminated copies so that the family has a remembrance. People here don't have cameras or photos - so in Rose's case, without a photo, her small children would never remember what she looks like. I think it is a precious gift.
After that sad visit, we picked up Candy and Kaka who I've already written about. Candy was actually smiling and laughing when we picked her up and she was smiling and laughing when we dropped her off. That was a good ending to the day - just seeing her laugh like a regular little girl was good for our hearts.
One of the fun parts of the job is interacting with all the children we come across. They are everywhere and I get to hand out a lot of suckers! The funny part is that many of them have never seen white people before and they are usually either curious or scared. Today, we were walking to a house and I saw this little boy about 3 years old walking down the street, happy and smiling. He then turned and saw us and he literally turned around and ran screaming down the street with both of his hands in the air. It was just hysterical! I think that's going to be one of the best memories of this whole experience.
Earlier, we were making a visit and we were sitting on the front porch with the family and all these kids would stick their heads around the corner or up over the porch to look at us. But if I went over to talk to them they would run. The woman we were visiting said they had never seen white people before. They were laughing but shy. The kids always warm up to you once you pull out your camera - they love to see themselves i
n the small camera window. Here are two sisters who were very fascinated by us. And next is a group picture of some of the neighborhood kids plus Jerry, our translator. He likes to be in the photos as much as the kids. 
More kids - this is Lucky Girl on the left (yes, that's really her name) and Jessica on the right. Lucky Girl just laughed and laughed when she saw herself on the little camera screen.
Speaking of Lucky Girl's name, another funny name we ran across is Chinese Girl (the daughter of one of our patients). It feels really strange to call a little kid 'Chinese Girl.'
That's all for now. I hope the photos are giving you a feel for Liberia and the work God is doing here.
Peace,
Michele
1 comment:
I love reading your blog. It really puts into perspective how lucky everyone is in the US. We worry about trivial things like making payments on our home, car, cable TV, ect. The people you are helping and writing about would love to have to only worry about the "problems" we might think we have!
Hopefully your presence and others like you will help spur the ideas and development that will someday let the people have the same worries we have. I pray for the day when people worldwide do not have to worry about being able to have the barest of necessities, rather worry about making the payment on their new car.
Keep up the GREAT work Michele and God bless!
Jamie
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