As the women heal in the recovery room, I start to see more and more smiles – elation even – and the energy swirls up like a sweet summer ocean wave and starts to take over the room. The recovery rooms are overflowing, and we have to move patients into the auditorium. Here, the women chatter happily and start to move around as their bodies heal.
I think back on the Fistula Hospital in Barhirdar, and wish that Gimbie had the same program where women who were recovering received books and other education. But nothing really matters more on this day other than watching the transformation of spirit.
As I make my way downstairs, I see Jisse, the Oregon doctors’ first patient, as she is walking toward the front door. Her son is there to help her during her long walk home. Both of them can hardly contain their joy, and she throws her hands into the air, yelling words that do not need to be translated: she is very much thankful for her improved condition!
Janice, one of the coordinators of our team, is there to hand out dresses that she collected before she left the US. The women are ecstatic when they see that they each will get a new dress to take home with them.
I think about how little it takes to make someone happy here in Ethiopia. A pencil. The sharing of a bit of food. A wave of a hand. A used t-shirt. Clean water.
And health.
