The Little Things

In their own way, each section of the clinic was busy. Check-in was chaotic but well organized, despite the never-ending line that always seemed to go on for miles. The nurses station where everyone went for height, weight, and temperature measurements could perhaps be better called the zoo. However, I'd be hard pressed to recall a time when I looked over that Pete and Hattie didn't have huge smiles on their faces as they worked steadily to get everyone through. The doctors and nurses saw a constant stream of patients with a variety of illnesses; they never seemed to take a break, greeting the next patient with a smile as big as the last. To me, it was the pharmacy however, that always seemed the busiest. No matter what time of day it was or how fast the prescriptions were filled, the lines seemed to grow exponentially with each passing second.




Interacting with the kids that came through the clinic was key to both their happiness and ours. Hundreds of moments from our trip pop into my mind almost immediately when I think of our interactions with the communities in which we worked, however I will keep my list to just a few:

Katherine, with a giant grin on her face and her stethoscope in a toddler's ears, facing a little boy whose facial expression was one of excitement and absolute wonder as he listened to her steady heartbeat.

Julia, cradling a feverish baby in her arms to give her medicine that would hopefully bring her temperature back down. The little girl lying their calmly took the medicine like a champ, despite its atrocious taste.

Will, surrounded by a mob of children as he patiently took their pictures and between shots turning the camera around for them to inspect his work. Their smiles as they saw their images captured on that screen were accompanied by infectious bursts of laughter.

In the pharmacy however, our interactions were limited due to the workbench that separated us from the patients and the massive line that never seemed to end. In addition, the necessity of a translator left us searching for other ways to find meaning in our short time with the kids. The tentative smiles that we were often greeted with in the first few seconds soon turned into full blown grins that lacked the initial timidity and caution as they watched us work and enjoyed their almost finished dum-dums. While the grins and expressive eyes would make my heart soar as I fell more and more in love with this place and these people, my favorite part was undoubtedly reading the cards. More specifically, the names the cards held.

It was like a treasure hunt - you never knew what the next card would hold or the surprise you would find when reaching out to a new kid. Names were special for the four of us in the pharmacy. They were something to smile about individually as we churned out bags of medicines; they were something to lightly elbow your neighbor and share; and they were something that could bring our carefully organized operation to a halt in mere seconds as Kim would sigh, smile, and then exclaim, "it's an Owen!!" These names were not like ones we see here in the States - we were in the presence of many Blessings, Innocences, and even a few Mapanzis (or Trouble, as my interpreter would later tell me). The names made us laugh; they made us smile; they made us miss home; and most of all, they made us grow closer to every person that we saw.

With the most boxes to unpack at the beginning of each day, and again the most stuff to put away at the end after the last patient had made it through our station, the pharmacy group had limited time to simply play with the kids and just enjoy being with them. We all caught on rather quickly to this fact and realized that this would become the norm for the extent of our work. We soon learned to cherish the little moments throughout the day. Yes, the big, exciting things - getting to see zebras and elephants and giraffes on the safari, crossing into Zimbabwe to visit Victoria Falls, watching the bore hole dedications give whole communities fresh, clean water to drink - were both amazing and essential to the African experience, but it was the little things - the kids smiles, the stories shared by community members and our hosts, Grimace on the bumpy dirt road to Mapanza, the nightly Scrabble games - that absolutely made the trip for me.

Cheryl Boone