"If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a room with mosquito."
- African Proverb
During my recent 7 weeks in our compound in South Sudan I had the pleasure of shadowing our young nurse, Samuel Koma Levi, in his duties in our clinic. I did my best to keep up and do what I could to assist. Samuel is a dedicated young man who makes himself available to address the staggering health care needs of the surrounding population on a 24/7 basis. He lives a few yards from the clinic in a thatched mud hut with his young wife and infant child. I was struck that I have seen such a schedule stress out a "first world" health care worker, including myself, in no time at all. I mentioned this as I was helping him hang an IV bottle on a light fixture for a 4 year old with typhoid (he had no more IV poles), and he simply stated that the work was his greatest joy. On a typical day we found ourselves dealing with multiple cases of malaria, typhoid, trauma, Buruli ulcers, breast cancer, River Blindness, Hepatitis B and a young boy who had suffered trauma with significant tissue loss. An virulent intestinal virus swept through the surrounding villages for about a week, followed by an outbreak of conjunctivis. Samuel's response was simple gratitude "for the medicine that had arrived before the sickness visited". Samuel is visited a few times a week by a young medical resident, Irra Celestino, who works in another clinic miles away. They sit together, pouring over medical texts, and consulting on particularly difficult cases. During my last night in Borongole, I noticed a light in the clinic at about 3am. I entered to find Samuel sitting with a 3 year old girl and her distraught father. She had malaria and typhoid. He had just started an IV and was holding her hand "to help the medicine work, because medicine works best when one is relaxed". I am humbled and grateful to know and work with such young men. Most are young because the war has wiped out so many who are older. Of course, I come home with a note from Samuel, listing the things he needs to keep the work going. (Near the top of the list are more IV poles!) It is my delight and responsibility to obtain what I can to help him before I return in a few months. I also need to attend an intensive tropical medicine course before I go. To that end, I am appealing to my friends and colleagues to participate with a donation - either by clicking on the donation button on the right side of the blog, or by sending a check to "Nehemiah Medical Missions", 57 McKinley Terrace, Pittsfield, MA 01201.
Thanks,
Rob Kirkman
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