 |
| Steven Mom Pepper Susan |
Dear Friends,
I am now back in Urbana
Illinois for the whole of this past year and have settled in well. I work as a Maryknoll lay missioner doing medical
consultancy, advocacy with the Maryknoll Office of Global Concerns and mission
education and fundraising in the mid-west.
I’ve travelled to Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Chicago and it
has been fun to learn more about my own country after being away for so many ears.
 |
| May 2000 |
I received a great gift about a month
ago. In May 2000, I was working as a
family physician in a remote village in Sudan.
A very sick little boy, Adimo, was brought to our clinic by his mother. She had taken him to traditional healers but
he kept getting thinner and thinner. The last town they visited was being
bombed by the Antonov plane which was sent by the government to terrorize people. They were afraid and had heard that there was
a clinic deep inside their home area. In
desperation, they walked 120 miles to Nanyangacor where he met the first white woman
he’d ever seen…me! They didn’t know his
age. He looked about nine years old but
he only weighed 20 pounds, the weight of a one-year old child! Kala azar was killing him. The little shepherds would sit in the shade
of ant hills while tending the livestock.
Sand flies would come out of the ant hill and bite the children and pass
on a little worm that would cause them to waste away until they died if they
didn’t get treatment. I was sure he
would die but I was wrong. We began to treat
him with a painful daily injection in his tiny little muscles. Over the next month he improved and lived. Last month he found my email address and wrote
to me. He now weighs 140 pounds and wanted
to say thank you. He gave me permission to share his story with you.
Before I left East Africa, I went back to
Adimo’s home area to say goodbye. I
failed to find him until now. I am thrilled
to hear that he is still alive and struggling to improve himself and his
country. He taught me never to give up
on a sick patient and he continues to remind me how blessed and fortunate I am
here in the USA.
In
some ways, life is so much easier here.
The electricity and water work. Drivers
usually follow the rules of the road and it is a pleasure to get in the car and
not be stopped by the police over and over again for no good reason. It is wonderful to be with my family and
enjoy meals together, a walk in the park, the changing seasons and reconnecting
with friends in my parish and community who share this journey of life with
me. Unfortunately, we have a lot of consumerism
and violence in our society too. I feel
like I need this time of Advent more than ever to focus my attention on love
and the coming of Christ once again into my life. I am very grateful for you and will pray for
you during this season. May it bring you
joy, peace and love.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment