Last month, I started volunteering at the local hospital
every Friday morning. I go to the Pediatric Ward at 8am, just after everyone
bathes. I usually bring some kind of craft (crayons, beads, etc) to get the
morning started. I spend the morning playing with the kids (nothing more,
nothing less) and it makes their week. A
lot of the kids aren’t there from one week to the next because they are discharged
but some are in on a long term basis, depending on their illness.
One of my favorite baby boys is about two years old. He has
the fattest cheeks I have ever seen and loves to pick things up only to throw
them on the ground. He was abandoned on the side of the road and brought to the
hospital. He needs more love than anyone
I’ve ever met and cries every time he is put down (but you can’t really blame
him). On my second visit, he decided I
was his mom and kept trying to go for my non-existent breast milk. He would call after me, “Ma! Ma!” even after
the other kids and I explained his mom wasn’t around. If I could take one baby
home with me, he’d win hands down.
Another one of my favorites is a young boy who has spinal TB
that has left him temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. Even through months in the hospital, he is
one of the happiest kids I know. As soon
as I walk through the doors, he is calling me over, insisting I get him into a
wheelchair. The first time I brought him outside, he flung himself onto the
ropes of the play set and pulled himself up to the top. I was terrified he
would fall but he was fearless.
A lot of times the pediatric ward can be gloomy: sad
stories, sad conditions, sick kids; but, as I’ve gotten to know a couple of
patients, what’s really amazing is their resilience.
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