So, I started this blog on Wednesday and now it is Saturday. This week was so busy but very productive. I am posting Josh’s (one of our Spiritual Directors here at CURE Niger) post about the camp. Here it is, if you are interested http://joshjulieblog.wordpress.com/2011/12/10/surgical-camp As usual, it has so much in it that I wanted to say but tons more. When I finally made it to the hospital on Wednesday, I had been chomping at the bit! Drew had a nasty flu that started on Sunday and he was out of it for a few days. So, on Wednesday, I was seeing some kids that had arrived a whole week earlier. The children were in different stages of healing and some had not even had their surgeries yet. Leron had told me that the team was hoping to be able to perform more surgeries than they had originally planned. 8 surgeries a day for a solid week…..8x5=40 surgeries. In the end, they treated 39 people. I say “people” because not all were children!!! The Hospital was absolutely full to the brim. People traveled in from all over. The furthest was from Zinder, a 13 hour trip!! I’d say we had between 70-80 people. The ward was full, the hostel was full we even turned the Spiritual Center into a dorm. Oh what a great sight it was.
We are so thankful for those who volunteer their time and resources to make these surgical camps (as well as other more ongoing services, thinking of my friend Anita who helps with PT every week) possible. We were delighted to have people here in Niger volunteer as well! My friend Joy, put 2 days in nursing patients in the ward! VOLUNTEERS ARE WONDERFUL!!! The US Embassy brought 4 different groups to play with the children. The support was very appreciated! Dr.Clawson’s team was comprised of 2 surgeons, 2 anesthesiologists and 3 nurses. Dr. Clawson has traveled to other hospitals as well as other CURE hospitals. He has done almost 2600 surgeries through his foundation. If you are interested in Dr. Clawson’s work so to http://www.jpclawsonmedicalmissionsfoundation.org/index.html.
I enjoyed doing various things with the kids. They were happy to “do" anything. So, I colored, blew bubbles, played soccer, hit the volley ball and listened to Veggie Tales. My favorite thing though was playing “Duck Duck Goose”. In the pictures you will see a very beautiful teenaged girl. She had traveled in to help her family and she made “duck Duck Goose” possible. You see, most of our patients spoke Hausa. She spoke French and Hausa and probably other languages. Her name was Miriam and she had such a wonderful gentle helpful way about her. We would explain in French what we wanted to do and she would gather the children and tell them what to do in Hausa. It worked like a charm and they caught on fast. I think their favorite people to pick were Josh, Julie and I just to see us get up and run. We did not use words though. Each person just waited to be tapped on the head. A few of the more rambunctious boys took the game to a whole other level when they chased each other out of the area what we were playing in…there are always a few in every crowd. I just loved sitting there and watching the sheer joy and expectation on their faces when they were awaiting to see who would be picked or once they had been picked and excitedly jumped to their feet to be the runner. One little girl, Aisha, just cheered and clapped and cheered and clapped. Pure joy! Simply WONDERFUL!
Enjoy the pictures, some are not great due to the light, but were worth posting because they made me happy just viewing them!
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