After several months of recovery, our orthopedic patients are returning home. Part of my role, as a photographer in Sierra Leone, is to photograph the transformational stories of our patients. Most of the time, I photograph the patient through their entire hospitalization on the Africa Mercy & their recovery time at the nearby HOPE Centre. Occasionally, for the major transformation stories, there are wonderful opportunities to actually visit patients in their homes and communities. If you recall, last year while in Togo, we followed Abel (orthopedic patient) home. This month, our team went out on a similar expedition. We went to visit two patients in the far away region of Kabala, Sierra Leone.
The seven hour journey was an experience in itself. We drove through torrential downpours before sunny skies returned. We cruised over smooth roadways and bounced over dirt tracks spotted with pot holes too. On our first day, I spent a part of the morning visiting Binta. She is a young, junior high aged girl that has an illuminating brilliance about her. I met her at the beginning of the field service; actually it was on the night she was admitted into the ward, when I took medical photographs of her bent legs. Binta had returned home some time ago therefore she had time to re-acclimatize back into the community. Now, I found myself walking through her hometown, Kabala, holding her hand as she skipped excitedly by my side, with her legs straightened and her soul strengthened. She guided me from her grandmother's home where she lives, towards the town market, through a small stream, to then briefly rest on her auntie's front porch.
Later that morning, we were instantaneously greeted with warm affections by Fanie, and his grandmother. Fanie, age twelve, had been born severely crippled. After major surgeries and physiotherapy treatment, he was able to walk for the first time. He had just returned home, about two weeks, prior to our visit, and was still adjusting to balancing in his new corrective shoes, and walking on his healing legs. While looking around his pleasant neighborhood, I can't help but wonder what quality of life a physically challenged boy, would have had without surgery. Fanie's legs will hopefully become perfectly straight and the same length once he is fully grown. Until that time, he will still have some challenges ahead of him. However, the work the medical team have completed so far, to restore his legs to walk, will bring incredible relief to him and his family. He will now be able to walk to school without his grandmother carrying him on her back, which had become a hard struggle for her. Interestingly, after visiting him, and witnessing, his courageous lion heart that catapults him into taking those challenging leaps over uneven paths and roadways, I think he will be just fine. I witnessed every meticulous stride he made. He is a walking miracle. He is a brave soul with a gentle spirited will. Both of these children have displayed incredible amounts of brevity. They have travelled so far. Kabala is a long distance from the coast, where the hospital is docked. They have had their legs operated on, and have gone through intensive physical therapy treatments. The orthopedic team is one of the most energetic and encouraging teams on the ship. Never-the-less, the bends and stretches these children have been asked to do can be excruciatingly painful. And their healing doesn't end when they are discharged from the hospital and are waving good-bye from the dockside. The healing continues. They are given a list of exercises that they will have to indefinitely have to do to continue; in order to keep their legs strong. As they grow, their legs may start to defer back to the former shape, but these exercises will enable them to combat those tendencies. Still, the healing will continue. While they stayed with us and we cared for them, they naturally were able to begin shedding the stigmas they had carried for so long. We have made room in their soul to permit their God-intended nature to shine. The cried through, laughed through, tenaciously stayed stubborn through, danced through, and prayed through, their healing. So much so, that they became an encouraging aid to their newly admitted peers too. And the healing will continue. The West African village has a strong tendency to support one another. If you ask the experts why, they will give you a myriad of reasons. Even on our journey back from Kabala, we hypothesized why the people in Kabala are so close to each other. It's a strange phenomenon to Western nations. For most Americans, it's often our personal goal to remain completely private, but it's quite the opposite in Kabala. I don't know what life was like for Binta & Fanie before I met them. After visiting their village, I could only imagine the incredible challenges they faced. Their community hadn't really known them, for no fault of their own. They simply couldn't get out much. Their little legs wouldn't work well enough to travel around Kabala. They had to rely on mothers, grandmothers & aunties to take care of them. Thank God for the grannies & aunties. Noticeably, upon Binta & Fanie's return home, the community is healing. They have two more residents that will go to school and will hopefully become effective members of their community. They are still growing and need the care of their family members but not quite to the same degree as they previously were. There family members can now concentrate on, perhaps, some of the other neglected members, and perhaps, even return to their vocations to earn more money for their family. Then, the family unit may become less depended on their neighbors and can contribute to the overall health of Kabala. When the community says, 'we can't' or 'we can never,' Binta and Fanie can stand up and say 'we can' and, 'we did', and be a new voice with a new song for Kabala. Keep the questions coming. The correspondence I received from my last newsletter was tremendously exciting. I love the dialogue we've begun about the tangible differences we are making together for the people of Sierra Leone. |
Thank you so much friends. Remember AS I GO, YOU GO WITH ME. Sincerely, Liz Cantu Mercy Ships |
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