I had no big plans for the afternoon and was stopping in town to pick up a few things to take to my kids at Purpose Driven when I ran into some of the older street boys in town. They told me that their friend Sammy had been in the hospital for a week. I couldn’t catch the whole conversation, but they told me he cut his arms. This didn’t surprise me one bit. I love Sammy. He is always sweet to me and doesn’t beg or ask for things when he clearly needs a lot of help. He always has a smile on his face and is happy just to be able to say hi when i come to town. But he enjoys alcohol a little too much and has a quick temper with other people around town. I wasn’t planning on making the trip to the district hospital today, but I found out some people that are staying at the house with me were going so I decided to stop by. 

Sammy still smiling

First I found Sammy. He was still smiling, but clearly in a lot of pain. He had been drinking in Kipsongo where he stays and had gotten into an argument with a woman, who was more than likely drunk as well. At some point that women went into her house and grabbed a panga (a machete-like tool) and started attacking him with it. He used his arm's to cover his face, so his arm is now a swollen mess of stitches. He was supposed to go home a couple of days ago, but couldn’t afford to pay the money he needed in order to be discharged. For a week’s hospital stay which includes: food, treatment and medicine it was a little over $50. So I got him out and sent him home with some medicine and clean bandages. 

In the midst of trying to get Sammy discharged a woman comes up and says hello to me. I knew I recognized her from somewhere, then I quickly realized it was Dani’s mother, Evelyn, who I met when we were doing a clinic in Bosnia. She said that her boy was in the children’s ward so I went to see him. When I first met Dani, he was sleeping so I didn’t really get to meet him but his mom told me that he needed help. Today when I met Dani I could see that he has some characteristics of Autism. He is very much in his own world, only responds to his name when he feels like it, does many repetitive hand movements and doesn’t talk or engage with people. Evelyn took him to the hospital to get answers about why her son behaves like this and they told her that he has malaria and needs a multivitamin. This poor mother just wants some sort of answer or way to help her child and there aren’t even the resources here to even attempt to find an appropriate diagnoses. 

Dani

Then I went to see John. John is a fourteen year old street boy who was in the movie Glue Boys. He was badly beaten in town and the police thought that he was dead because he was in such bad shape. On top of being attacked, he had also been sick with meningitis for weeks but had not been treated. At the district hospital if they know you can’t pay, they don’t really treat. They basically give you a bed and wait for you to die. John was unresponsive when we first showed up. We got him discharged and took him over to Sister Freda’s hospital so that he can get the proper care he needs. He was instantly placed in a bed and given an IV to get him hydrated again. He ate some rice and by the time we left he was talking and even making jokes. God’s healing power never ceases to leave me standing in awe of his power.