Coming into this experience, I knew there was something I'd struggle with enormously. I was talking with Nicole earlier (not only taller than me, she is also a wicked ultimate player ... I sense a bond here) and she phrased it so perfectly. "We don't live in Africa. We live beside it." My brother wrote me an e-mail recently where he wondered what he was doing with his "ipods and fancy car" when there are people living in poverty. I'm wondering the same thing about myself. Here I am, living in complete luxury (because you can't convince me otherwise when I can take a hot shower, check my e-mail and then wander down to the Town Square and buy an authentic Starbucks chai tea latte for 75 cents), when just outside the gate there are kids dying from hunger. How can I come to terms with that?
Maybe it makes more sense when I think about the hospital here. We have electricity 24 hours a day. We have IV pumps and oxygen and a ventilator. We have supplies. We have staff. We're not going to see babies die because there was no fuel for the generator that day. We're not going to watch women suffer in pain because there aren't sufficient resources to manage it. So maybe it's okay that we have so much. I don't know. I'm still working through this one, and I'm not sure when I'll have it all sorted out.
At any rate, screening is in two days. We are waiting eagerly for the wards to be full (except for Megan, who I'm pretty sure is deliberately picking her nose in this photo). We had a briefing yesterday where we got to meet the teams we'll be working with on Monday. I was part of the "handing out water/children's ministry" team. Somehow my enthusiasm for small humans must have been evident, (perhaps my mention of finger puppets and an over-abundance of sharpies?) because I'm now one of the leaders of said children's team. Which means that I'll leave the ship at six in the morning on Monday and spend the entire day colouring, playing, painting faces and putting stickers all over Liberian kids. I don't think anyone could have dreamed up a better job for me.I was talking with yet another new friend last night (one of those talks where you end up just blown away by how faithful God is) and we were wondering together about screening. I've honestly not given it a huge amount of thought because I'm afraid I won't get into my Land Rover on Monday morning if I do. We don't know how many people are going to show up. What we do know is that the Samuel K Doe Stadium is going to be filled to overflowing with that strange mix of hope and despair. Some will be scheduled for surgery and will get with that little card the chance to reclaim a place in society that may have been lost to them since birth. So many more will be turned away empty-hearted.
Pray for us that we will be able to see them all through God's own eyes. Loved and lovely, precious beyond belief.
