Bo, part 2

It was that first afternoon in Bo that was my favorite, despite the fun and adventure of the village trip the next day.  This was my unexpected blessing, the icing on the cake.
Do you remember my lapful of children from C ward, the wait-listed patients who got surprise-vaulted to the start of surgery?  The line of solemn faces and twisted legs lined up outside the ship on their arrival?
I would love to introduce you to just a few who are home now, who Anna and I had the huge blessing of being able to visit at their homes in Bo (names changed for privacy).  They are fondly known as "8-plate kids;" each now has a piece of metal fixed to their bone to help it grow back straight over the next few months.

Marima is three, a sweet little love bug with bowed legs.  With every opened door she was there to greet you, demanding hugs and cuddles, always ready to dance and sing or "help" with assessments or paperwork.  She's back in a hut with her grandma now, already walking barefoot, with just a few steristrips  and a bit of knee swelling to show that she was ever gone at all.  She was excited to cuddle as soon as we arrived, but needed a little encouragement to "show you teef fo a snap (Smile for a photo)."  She just kept hugging and hugging both of us, and Grandma looked on and smiled and smiled, clapping her hands as she exclaimed "Tel God tenki (Thank God)."

Fodai  A little mini bald man, he spent his first few days on the ward with intermittent high fevers from malaria.  I picked him up off the cool floor and held him, waiting for the tylenol to kick in, as he moaned over and over in Mende, "I just want to sleep, sleep."  He's now walking again as well, a tentative little duck waddle of a walk, surrounded by siblings and cousins and neighbors and a proud mama cheering him on.






Kadija saw us and burst into tears, remembering only her blood draws and IVs and her outraged accusations directed at all nurses in general..."Yu chuk me! (You stuck me with a needle)."  She'll forgive us eventually.  Her young mother was enthusiastic to pull forward another village child with badly bowed legs, asking if just maybe we could fix this one too.





Finda is smart and sweet, a hard worker who pushes herself to her limits.  Already she is running, and her father promises a reunion as soon as we can make it back to Bo again.

It is so rewarding to send patients walking back into their lives, a steri-strip-whiskered child strapped "po-po" on a mama's back as she walks off into the afternoon sun, enthusiastic hugs with a woman dressed in her very best to show off a new face to her village, the click of crutch tips down the gangway.  To have a glimpse into their futures, a surgery successful not just now but with lasting impact, body and soul full of life...this is why I am here.