Hope and Healing

Below is a story about one of the patients that was helped on the ship during my time here in Guinea. 

Rather than joyous celebration, the reaction to Yaya’s birth was broken family ties. Yaya’s mother, Salematou, and his father, Abdulaye, were not married when their son was born. The tradition that Salematou’s father lived by did not make room for a child born out of wedlock. Despite Salematou’s pleading with her father to allow her to keep her child, his decision was final. As soon as Yaya could leave his mother’s breast, he was sent to live with Kadiatou, his grandmother on his father’s side.
Living with his grandmother turned out to be a wonderful blessing for Yaya. Kadiatou personifies the bottomless heart and limitless space that African grandmothers offer their children and their children’s children. She assumes whatever responsibility comes her way, no matter the burden. Kadiatou explains, “There are many mouths that I feed in my family. In addition to Yaya, five of my children and their nine children need my support too. Everyone shares in the work of the household, but earning income in Conakry is very difficult. My husband now, Mamadouba, is very old. He gives what money he can, but he has family to support too.”
Yaya stole his grandmother’s heart from day one. His ready smile and eagerness to be close to her formed a thick bond. When tragedy struck Yaya, Kadiatou was distraught. “Yaya started walking when he was one year old, but after taking a few steps he would fall. We tried many traditional medicines, but his condition grew worse. At eighteen months, his legs started to twist and curl up. They failed him entirely.”
Yaya’s uncle, also named Yaya, remembers this as a time of many trials for his mother.  “Kadiatou was so afraid for Yaya. He often had a high fever, and his legs would cramp up terribly. He would cry for hours from the pain. Kadiatou tried everything to soothe him. She held him for hours. Then my father and sister died very close together. My mother’s heart was broken into so many pieces.”
Kadiatou, who had taken in her daughter’s five children, decided that moving the family to Conakry, the capital of Guinea, was best for Yaya. “I hoped that the medical care Yaya needed was in a big city. As well, I knew that Conakry had schools for handicapped children that Yaya could attend.” Another important reason for the move was that Kadiatou was protecting Yaya from the villagers who thought that children with disabilities were cursed. She would not stand for her grandson being tormented, ridiculed, or forced into hiding.
When Yaya reached five years of age, he started attending the school for handicapped children. “I was so happy for Yaya. He started to learn his letters and bring home things he made,” Kadiatou says. Although there were no school fees and transportation was provided, Kadiatou still had expenses to cover, like school supplies. She made ends meet by going to the Grand Mosque daily and helping with cleaning and cooking. After a full year of being a volunteer, she was finally included in the group that received a weekly stipend, plus donations of money and food from appreciative people attending the Mosque.
Yaya often joined Kadiatou at the Mosque after school, and he soon became a favorite with everyone. In the Muslim faith, people are eager to help the needy as a way of observing sadaqah, the duty to overcome miserliness. Many Muslims wanted Yaya to join the group of handicapped people who begged, so that people could give to him. Kadiatou was against Yaya’s doing this, regardless of the enormous struggle she had to support the family. “I faced so much pressure to allow Yaya, in such obvious need, to help people fulfill their duty to sadaqah. I finally relented,” she explains.
Kadiatou continued to be distressed with Yaya’s participating in sadaqah. She prayed that Yaya would get his education and find an occupation where he could use his sharp mind and very able hands. Kadiatou had many doubts about her prayer being answered, but she remained faithful, clutching that thin bit of hope to her heart.
Yaya himself dared not hope. But then an incredible set of circumstances unfolded around him. Nick Veltjens, who worked with orthopedic patients, saw Yaya at the patient screening location the day before consultations began. “I waited all screening day for Yaya to come because I thought we could help him. We didn’t see him that day, so I sent an email around asking if anyone knew where he was.”
According to Yaya, “I did go to the screening with my friend, but I lost my courage.” Yaya left without being examined.
The next day, Dan Bergman, a long-term hospital volunteer, came to Nick with a video of a possible orthopedic patient that he had just seen outside the Mercy Ships Dental Clinic. According to Nick, “What a coincidence that Dan found the same little guy that I was looking for!”
For Dan, this series of events said loud and clear that, “God wanted Yaya to find Mercy Ships. He kept putting him in front of us!” Dan tracked Yaya down at the Mosque and delivered the news that he had an appointment at the hospital ship.
But Yaya missed his appointment. As he says, “I did not believe I could be healed, and so I did not want to tell my grandmother to bring me. She would be too disappointed.” But another divine coincidence occurred that finally put Yaya and Mercy Ships together. A government official, Cellou, who had befriended Yaya at the Mosque, was at the Mercy Ships Dental Clinic that same week. He casually asked what a young boy with deformed legs needed to do to get an appointment. It was quickly realized that the boy in question was Yaya and that he just needed someone to bring him to his appointment.
Cellou immediately went to Yaya’s grandmother with the news about Yaya’s appointment. They agreed that Cellou would go to the hospital ship with the boy. When Kadiatou received the telephone call from Cellou telling her that Yaya was accepted for surgery, she experienced a mixture of emotions. “I was so grateful that Yaya could be helped. It was all that I had prayed for. But I was also very uncertain and afraid. I wondered how it would be possible to fix Yaya’s legs and what he would go through.”
Dr. Frank Haydon, volunteer orthopedic surgeon, was able to fix Yaya’s legs. According to Dr. Frank, “The condition that Yaya was born with caused his bones to be very brittle. As he started to walk, the pressure on the bones caused multiple fractures. The surgery he had aligned his leg bones properly, and the two rods I installed will give his legs the needed strength and structure so he can walk.”
Each day Yaya does grow stronger. He is starting to take his own steps with the help of a walker, and he has progressed to simple below-the-knee leg casts. But at the same time, each day wears on Kadiatou. She shows the strain of being away from family and being indebted to more and more neighbors. She has borrowed money from them for food and malaria medication. However, regardless of the hardship, Kadiatou’s commitment to see Yaya through his healing journey is unwavering. “I would endure anything so Yaya can do what he longs to do more than anything else – play football. By suffering for Yaya and my family now, I know that there will be great happiness in the future,” she says.

According to his uncle, Yaya’s journey to hope and healing is summed up in a few words: “Yaya is so loved by everyone on Mercy Ships.” And, still, even with so many kind hearts embracing Yaya, there is one who continues to occupy the most special place in his heart. As clear as a bell, Yaya declares, “I love my Grandmother so much! She has done everything for me.”

Written by Joanne Thibault
Edited by Nancy Predaina
Photos by Debra Bell and Michelle Murrey

A chance to enjoy Creation.

Having some time off from work over Christmas allowed me to be able to see a little bit more of the country then just Conakry. Being able to sleep in relative silence (no humming engines and A/C) with just the sounds of creation playing outside the window was a huge blessing and very rejuvenating. Along with some friends I was able to go inland to where the mountains begin just outside of a little village called Coyah. We stayed at a place called Milly Mamadou, run by a Dutch NGO. 

Our accommodations. We stayed in the two rooms in the hut to the right.

So many gorgeous butterflies everywhere.

The river right behind our huts was also the local laundromat and bathtub.

Hiking through the African jungle! Not as scary as it sounds.

Our guides took us to a dried up waterfall as an added bonus to our hike.

Enjoying our first day of the New Year by the river.

A couple of us were also able to go to one of the islands (Kassa) off the coast for an overnight stay. We had the most amazing view of the ocean from the window of our huts situated right on the beach front.

The gorgeous view.

We stayed in the green hut to the left.

Our seating for the evening.

Amazing sunset to accompany our dinner.

A chance for some quiet contemplation.

On the way to one of the villages.

My lovely ladies.

I can only thank God for giving me such a blessed holiday from the work I have been doing here. It strengthened me, allowed me to focus myself and prepared me to begin work again this past week. And a busy week it was down in the hospital, getting back into the swing of things with some complicated surgeries. Please continue to pray for the work of all those on the ship and the lives of the patients. 

Mercy Ministries

When Mercy Ships arrives at each new port they get in contact with various organizations to visit. Orphanages, hospitals, prisons and other places that could use visitors. Also in each country they set up the Hope Center. Here in Guinea it is set up at one of the local hospitals. It is where we send patients before surgeries who need to gain the strength necessary to undergo surgery, or where we send some patients after surgery to recover. The Mercy Ministries are a blessing both to us being able to visit and to those being visited.





 The first Mercy Ministry site that I visited was Lazare's Orphanage. I mentioned this visit in a previous post. The children rushed to you as soon as you walked through the doors, arms outstretched to be picked up, held and loved. There is just something about their wide grins and big brown eyes that steals a piece of your heart. And though we couldn't use words to understand each other smiles, funny faces and sound effects work just as well.
I also mentioned in a previous post about going to the pediatric wing of the Ingace Dean hospital to deliver Christmas presents to the children and their families. Now when I say hospital the image that pops into your head is probably far from the reality of the hospitals here. Three metal beds with thin mattresses to a hot dirty room where patients and their families are expected to bring their own bedding, food, water, medicine and anything else they may need. Yet they still greeted us with smiles. And again there were some more baby cuddles from those well enough to be out of bed.
To get to most of the Mercy Ministries you need to sign up and go at certain appointed times. The Hope Center however you can go pretty much any time and unlike the other sites take as many pictures as you want, with the consent of the patients. One of the little boys there is a budding photographer and likes to wander around taking pictures. So I have a lot of pictures from the Hope Center, a fair number of which are of people's torsos and feet.

 The picture on the left is of a boy whose legs where very crooked when they found him on the street. They have since been straightened, are still in casts and he is learning how to walk. He became a bit of a ward favourite, always riding around on his tricycle smiling and chatting with everyone.
The boy on the right is my little photographer.

 

Some of the girls attempting to braid my hair.

 While I mostly hung out and played with the kids and held the little babies, the adults enjoy having us there and asked me to take a couple of pictures with them. It's touching to see just how much they appreciate us being here. I was having a hard time with being in the lab and not really seeing any of the patients. I felt a little bit disconnected from the work being done on the ship. But being able to see them and hang out with them was really quite special.





Another Mercy Ministry site that I have visited (or attempted to visit) was the baby rescue center. A local woman has rented a house and takes in orphaned children who need somewhere to live. When we went to deliver Christmas presents we found the house empty. The children had gone to lunch with the president's wife, a good reason I suppose to not see us. We decided instead to bless some of the locals with some extra presents we had with us in the car. Toys, toiletries and bread were handed out to children and their parents who crowded around us.

A proud papa holding his little twins.

I got to hold one of the little twins. His name was Bienvenue (which means welcome in French).

   I leave you with yet another glorious sunset. Its so clouded over because of the sands of the Sahara desert blowing through. This is called Harmattan and occurs between the end of November and the middle of March (conveniently this also happens to be the exact time I'm here). It makes for some cloudy days.