a trip to the hospital

Nope, not for any of us. One of my shule students fell in a big hole while helping her mom dig for clams at the beach 2 days ago. Her head was split open and bleeding pretty bad. The day it happened she missed shule and the other kids told me what had happened complete with tales of how much blood there was. I went over to ask her mother how she was and pray for her after we finished. Today we drove them to the hospital to get the stitches out and to clean the wound. I know why adults here are so hard core: because they learn to ‘suck everything up’ from a young age. This little girl is 7 and they did not give her any numbing meds for stitching her up or for removing the stitches. Yikes! I am a wuss and I like drugs! just saying…..

We waited for them in the waiting area and after about a half an hour they were done. The little girl came out and her mom helped her put back on her head covering before we headed home. I told her I thought she did a good job and that she was very brave and tears welled in her eyes. Annikah hugged her, grabbed her hand, and then said in perfect Kiswahili “lakini, umependeza sana” (but you look beautiful) and then added “na mimi pia” (and me too 🙂 The other people waiting in the hospital laughed and said what a fabulous little girl Anni is 🙂 and in my heart I had to agree. Anni then reached in her pocket and offered the little girl some of her prized lip gloss she got in a package from a dear friend in Chicago. After Anni helped her to adequately apply shiny blueberry gloss we headed out and on the car ride home the kids taught each other the Kiswahili or English words for everything they could see. No tears, just giggles from the back seat. I get to see Annikah’s heart grow and I love the view from here.

*In the interest of full disclosure*
Just to put everything in perspective after being home for 10 minutes Anni promptly walloped her sister on the head in swift retribution for touching her play phone 🙂