Little lives, big impact

It is the people I meet and get to know who have the most impact on me in the Solomon's.

Margaret

Yesterday I said goodbye to a young girl I had met at the hospital school only a few weeks ago. Margaret is about 10 years old, (although she looks much younger) and has been at the hospital for over 18 months. From what I understand, she broke her leg and needed it operated on. Because her family comes from a remote village on the island of Malata, they all travelled to the hospital for her operation. They stayed for quite a while, waiting for her leg to heal, but a visiting surgeon from Australia discovered that the first operation had not been done properly. So Margaret had another operation to fix her broken leg. Eighteen months in a hospital seems like an awfully long time, but it gave Margaret the chance to attend school for the first time. She is a bright child, with a beautiful smile, but I'm sad to say she will not be going to school when she gets home. The walk to school is too long for her.

So I went into the hospital yesterday with my camera and took some photos of Margaret with her teachers. Then Geoff and I found a place to get the photos developed and we went straight back and gave them to Margaret. She was very pleased to have some pictures to help her remember her teachers. I wished I could do so much more for her than just a few photos - I wanted to send her home with books and learning materials, but resources are so scare, it simply wasn't possible.

Ivan

Ivan lives next door to the SWIM base. He has albinism (his skin has no pigmentation), and he suffers terribly from sunburn. Geoff says whenever teams from Australia leave to go back home, they always give their left over suncream to Ivan. He has been given hats and sunglasses, but he doesn't wear them very often. No one else does, and I guess he doesn't want to be any more different than he already is.

Ivan is clinically blind, (although you would never know it when you see him running around with the other boys playing soccer), and the local school has simply refused to let him go there. So Ivan has never been to school yet. Machi is trying to work something out for Ivan at another school.

Lucy

Lucy is Ivan's sister. I have been treating her eyes for conjunctivitis, and have grown very fond of her. She is so sweet. Each week I give her a book to take home and read, then she brings it back (on base fellowship night) and we swap it for another one. I wish I had hundreds of books to give out to everyone!