Death

-
I saw a baby goat lying dead today on the back path to the hospital. It was awful. It just lied there with flies on it while its mom was tied up near by. With the other baby near by alive and well. Then earlier while I was hanging out playing checkers in the peds ward with the 10 and 12 year old boys, a tiny baby was struggling to breath. I couldn’t help but keep looking over at the family bathing him in water to cool his temp down. Then some nurses came to give him a shot it looked like and then they all got up and carried the baby out of the room, he looked like he was still alive but I wasn’t certain. It was hard to focus on my game of checkers. Eventually they all came back in although the baby didn’t look any better. Who knows if the baby’s okay. People die all the time in hospitals. Why should this one be any different? I just don’t want to become desensitized to it. I don’t want to accept it as a norm and stop looking at each person as someone with a family and friends, someone who is loved and cared for whether old or young. I don’t know how hospital workers do it. Maybe my social work teachers were right all those semesters ago—I do get to involved in clients lives. It’s just my nature. God, show me the balance. Take their pain, take my fears.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Revisiting secret places in the heart.

-
Image
Emily is in Tchad and she finally posted something . I'll be honest when I was reading it my heart started racing and I was instantly transported there. I know what it's like to return to a place like that. Six months after I left the Hogar de Ninos in Honduras I found myself on a plane going back to visit for three weeks. There really is nothing better than going 'home' to a place you had thought you would never see again. I remember the feelings of wanting to jump off of the plane and run through the airport to find my friends. Then once I was on the REACH bus headed to el Hogar, I remember talking the WHOLE 2 hours with one of the girls from the home, the excitement was oozing out of me, and once the bus pulled into the gate of the hogar I ran out and up the hill into the arms of all the beautiful children. The feeling was amazing. Something akin to what I think heaven will be like. It was magnificent to touch and talk to all the kids again, to see their faces, when ...
Read more

Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away. . .

-
When I got to the hospital for worship at 7am, little Ramadan, one of my little TB guys sat with me for worship, and he and I had a lot of fun I received the full amount of personal contact for the day. We looked at our hands, veins in our hands and tried not to giggle to loudly when we tickled each other. In the afternoon I didn’t worry about working on our math skills like I normally do. Normally I sit with my peds boys and we go over math stuff. We play a round of Uno and then work on numbers. With Climont, I work on going over basic numbers and recognizing them and then with Kumabus, I help him with multiplying and simple addition, which he is good at. With Ramada I go over addition. But yesterday I gave it all a break and we colored pictures. We just sat there and I sang and let them color whatever they wanted to. There was a nice breeze and a bag fluttered over to me so I took it and made it into a kite. I just sat there with the kids and tried to fly my kite. Soon it was time fo...
Read more

Shabbat Shalom

-
Image
On Friday night last I went to the local Jewish community center (yes there is one here in Phnom Penh) and celebrated the opening of the Sabbath. I have a few things in common with the Jewish faith, as a Christian I also believe that Saturday is day that God set aside for worship. It's the day that we spend with God and family as a reminder that He is God and to slow down and be present. It starts Friday night at sundown and goes until sundown on Saturday. With the big difference in our beliefs being Jesus. Even with that difference I appreciated the connection that I was able to make with the way that Jesus brought in His Sabbath all those years ago. I went with Louise, the newest RAW Edu staff member and Olivia, the volunteer here for two weeks with an Eng literacy training team and who is actually Jewish. She was the main motivation for going, I wanted to help her find a bit of home in Phnom Penh. We arrived a bit late due to confusion of where it was. The room had a small d...
Read more