Last week I flew the Drs from CURE Int. around western Kenya while they did intial and follow up clinics for children. They work with crippled children, providing orthopedic surgeries and therapy. Some of the cases were pretty horrific.... children badly burned with the scars having contracted and crippled their hands or feet, children with spina bifida or cerebral palsy, or badly broken bones or clubfoot or... you get the idea. Seeing the initial cases was depressing. Seeing the follow ups, after they'd had surgery and - or physical therapy, that was amazing.
One boy, about 14 years old, really stuck in mind. He'd been born with no hands and no legs below the knee. But, his handwriting is better than mine (he has pads where his hands should be and holds the pen in both "hands.") And he plays soccer! Apparently rather well, too. He has shoes made from leather sewn around plastic tubs that fit over the stumps of his knees. The Drs are working on fitting him with prosthetic legs, but the thing that made this guy so amazing was his attitude. He walked in, smiling, glad to be there. He wasn't letting his disabilities stop him, or even slow him down much. Just amazing.
The medical team was ecstatic over being able to fly. The way these clinics ran in the past, they would drive to Kisumu from Kijabe (about 8 hours), do a clinic the next day, drive 6 hours to Kitale after the day's clinic, do a clinic the next day, drive 2 hours to Eldoret, another clinic the next day, then drive 6 hours back to Kijabe, getting in around midnight. The flight to Kisumu was just over an hour, to Kitale about 25 minutes, to Eldoret about 15 minutes, and back to Nairobi about an hour. They've already booked flights for the next two clinics.
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