I started off giving assists. Most of the people were amputees, others were severely disfigured, many had open wounds that were still bleeding. They had huge wins from the assists, and they were so vocally appreciative that we often drew crowds of 10-15 people. Every person asked me to come back tomorrow to teach them and give them more assists. I literally sprinted from one assist to another. Family members patiently waited and then grabbed me the moment I finished an assist and took me to their loved one. One family of nine wouldn't let me leave until I had given all of them an assist.
I spent half the day directly helping the doctors. I washed patients and fed those who could not feed themselves. I massaged atrophied muscles and even got people to sing to lift their spirits and make them feel better. One about 90-year-old woman who had just had her leg amputated and was severely out of it all of a sudden started tapping my leg and even sang along a bit.
Everyone I met today was so eager to help and be helped. It was inspiring to work beside such dedicated doctors and nurses. Yes, the day was full of "impossibles" that had to be solved, but I didn't face anything that could not be overcome.
And last, an experience I will never forget. In one of the tents was a patient we call "Miracle Man." This man absolutely should not still be alive - his body was full of maggots, limbs had been amputated, and he was so emaciated that he looked like a skeleton. Reporters and doctors were pointing and discussing him all day, but I noticed that no one was actually helping him.
Stephanie (another Volunteer Minister) and I found some baby food, water, and syringes to feed him with. We cradled, fed him, sang to him, and gave him assists. Although he could barely speak, his gratitude was palpable.
A couple of hours later I went back to him and found no one had tended to him since I left. I got right back to feeding him, singing to him and giving him assists. After a few minutes, this "ghost" snapped out of the faraway daze he was in and was completely "there." He told me that he wanted to live! He mumbled something in Creole that I didn't understand, but the amputee in the next bed told me he was saying that I was his sister. At first I thought that he was confusing me with his sister, but the neighbor continued to translate: the man I had cared for was telling me that he has absolutely no one in the world, and now I am his sister, I am his angel, and now he wants to live! He cried when I left. (I did not want to leave, but there is a curfew here and it is enforced.) He promised me that he would live so that I could come back tomorrow!!!!
Nicole
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