Today was my last full day here at Tenwek, and I was
determined to meet the little boy from Sunday.
On my way into work this morning, I walked with a physician who is
visiting here at Tenwek in the pediatric department. I
asked her about visiting hours, and she said I could come at almost
anytime. About 11 this morning, I had a
break in what I as working on, so I decided to go back to my apartment and get
the things I had brought for a child here.
I went down to the pediatric ward and told one of the nurses why I was
there. She asked me if I wanted to see a
specific child. I said I didn’t know the
name of the child, but that I had seen him walking around the hospital with a
crutch. She knew exactly who I was
talking about. I waited outside the big
room where all the kids had their beds, and a couple minutes later, she came
out with the boy. He had the same
clothes on that I had seen him in for the last two weeks. He came and sat down next to me and we shook
hands and smiled at each other. The nurse
said he didn’t know any English. She
translated a couple of things for me and explained to him that I had brought
some things to him. I opened up the
coloring book and took out a couple of crayons.
I don’t think he had ever seen either of them before. I took one of the crayons and colored a
little bit of the picture so he would get the idea. He took the crayon and intently colored the
picture for the next 15 – 20 minutes.
Every so often he would look up at me with a big smile on his face. They
also had one of his friends come out who was in a wheelchair. His friend was a Masai and was there with his
dad. They also did not speak English. I gave the bubbles to this boy, and he blew a
bunch of bubbles all over the hallway.
We kind of stopped traffic in the hallway for a little while, with
people stopping to watch. After about 20
minutes, the little boy was done coloring the picture, and he was going to
start on another picture, however I needed to get back to the IT room. I think he thought I was going to take the
book away. I took the book and put it in
his hand and put the crayons back in the box and put them in his hand and gave
him some bubbles as well. He looked up
at me and smiled and gave me a high five.
Unfortunately, I did not get his name, and I didn’t think I should take
a picture since his friend was a Masai and he may also be one as well. Masai do not want their pictures taken. It is easy to tell the adults are Masai as
they have stretched out holes in their ears and they are often wearing
red. The little boy could use
prayer. I learned that he has been here
for 3 months now, and his family has abandoned him. I think the hospital is trying to find his mother. I am wondering if the fact that he is alone with
nowhere to go, is the reason he is still here.
He does walk with a crutch, so he is not in perfect health, but it seems
like if he had the same condition in the US, he would be at home.
I went to a missionary’s home for lunch today. We had tacos, rhubarb pie, and ice
cream. It was probably one of the best
meals I have had here. It was very
tasty. The ice cream here in Kenya is
different from the US. It almost has the
consistency of cool whip. Tonight we had
a special dinner with a good number of short term missionaries. One of the hospital administrators was there
with a presentation to tell us about the future of Tenwek. They have plans to continue growing this
hospital.
I finished up some work with the IT department today. Hopefully, they are better off from before I
came. Every morning we have devotions
with the accounting office which is next door to the IT room. The IT guys and some of the accounting staff
thanked me for coming. I gave the IT
guys some notes that I wrote up with instructions on how to do active
directory. I also met with the medical
superintendent and the IT team regarding the Linux pc’s, and it was determined that
they will move to Windows pc’s. I also
gave them some notes with best practices and a plan for what needs to be done
in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment