Saturday into Sunday

Night shift again... All are sleeping, no snoring tonight though :)

I spent the evening playing with the sweetest boy.  Emmanuel, five years old and with the most beautiful eyes and eyelashes... his sweet little looks would make any heart melt, but add to it his "trick" he learned today, the art of winking, and I think he could get just about anyone to give him anything... at least me.  :)  So we colored, traced each others hands, and practiced counting to twenty... he rode my back and played coy till he tired himself out enough to sleep.  He had surgery two days ago, Dr. Gary Parker, the surgeon that operates on most of our patients in this ward, removed a tumor from his left neck and a skin tag from his hand. 

I have been assigned to work on the Maxillofacial ward, the surgeries we are able to provide range from partial and total cleft lips and palates, neck/facial tumors and keloids, mandible work and so on.  Where the third world and the western world may meet is in the value we place on looks and especially on what someones face looks like.  Just as people who "look funny" in our culture as ostracized in one way or another, the same is true here, but the ostracization may feel more severe in a culture that is so community and family based.  Often those with facial deformities are not accepted in the community at all, are outcasts in a society without social services or rescue missions or welfare.  And a wide range of beliefs are attached to the cause of these abnormalities; some religious views believing there are demons in a person, others view the abnormality as a punishment.  So the surgery that we offer is life changing in an amazing way, espeically for many of these children whose life course and path is potentially significantly altered.

I thought I would also mention to you the language here.  Sierra Leone is an English speaking country, but there are also many dialects.  Most commonly spoken is Krio, which is sort of a pigeon English.  It is spoken more than written as illiteracy is very high and it's actually very fun.  For example, the most common greeting is spoken "Howdibodie?", which is basically "How's your body?" smushed into one word... And one would respond "Bodie fine" if you're feeling well.  Krio has been around so long that the pigeon English orginated from old proper spoken British English so some of the sayings are pretty funny... I'm trying to think of examples... "motoka" is "motorcar"... I will have to get back to you with other good examples as none come to mind right now.  In the hospital we have "day volunteers"... local people are hired, given a decent wage, and work on the ship throughout it's ten month stay.  Many of them help with cleaning, cooking, laundry, and many are interpreters.  It's fun to get to know them, I learn a lot from them.  There are other dialects as well, Mende, Themne, Limba, and French, but Krio most common and most people understand a bit of English.

I'm off to try to keep myself awake... Goodnight.