Re: Hello From Adjohoun

Dear Friends and Family,

 

  My time in Benin is going by too quickly!—I only have about two and a half weeks left before I move on to the next stage of my trip.  Paris!  I'll be back in Virginia around mid-July.  I was going to write an email about what I've been doing since I last wrote, but instead ended up writing about a little family I met when I first came to Adjohoun:  

 

   When I first came to Benin there was a mom living at the clinic with her three children, Isaiah, Veronica and Joseph.  Veronica had swallowed a significant quantity of lye (I think it's lye, my translation of this word has never satisfied me…) and wasn't able to keep any food down.  Isaiah is the oldest of the family, I'd say about 8 and Joseph is a baby, just learning to walk.  Veronica is maybe 4.  The family spent several weeks at the clinic and I completely fell in love with Isaiah.  He has a smile that goes on for days, a really infectious laugh and every single time he saw me, he waved.  We saw each other about 20 times a day, since we both lived in the compound.  That's a lot of waving.  And he was always smiling.

   Veronica never smiled… not once.  I have pictures of the kids, but she's always looking at the camera with a severely disapproving expression.  After a few weeks she seemed to have stabilized a bit, so the mom took the kids home.  Another couple weeks went by and I didn't see the family, so I assumed everything was going well.  But then one day Veronica showed up with her mom and dad in her best outfit.  When people go to the doctor here they put on their best clothes.  She still wasn't holding down food and she was losing a lot of weight.  The clinic director admitted her overnight and tried to do what he could for her.  Ultimately, he referred her to the regional hospital and told me that there was no hope for her; that her stomach was too far gone and she'd die soon.   Isaiah had lost his smile and my heart was breaking for this little family.

   It's been about a month since we heard anything from this family, and each time I asked the Center Director if he'd heard any news, he'd tell me she was probably already dead, but that no, he hadn't heard anything.  

   This past week a familiar-looking man showed up with his twin infants and spent a long time talking to the Center Director.  They spoke in Fon, so I had no idea what was going on.  The man left and the Center Director turned to me and said "Little Veronica is doing better.  She's holding down gruel and a few other things.  They managed to repair her stomach."  The familiar-looking man was Veronica's paternal uncle.

   Needless to say, I'm thrilled by this news.  The Center Director and I are going to visit the family before I leave and take a picture of the kids.  Hopefully this time, Veronica will be smiling. 

 

    Much love to you all, and thanks again to all of you who have written and kept me in the loop—I really appreciate it J

 

   Lauren