Over these 11 months, I am going to meet several people all with different stories. I’ll maybe get to talk with them everyday all month or maybe for just an hour, however every single one of these people will forever change me. They will always have a special place in my heart. Throughout the other months and the rest of my life I will never forget their precious faces or stories. Sometimes they will never get to share them with others, so this is for them. These are their stories, not mine.
Across the way from the hospital is the most ideal living situation on the Race, hot showers, actual toilets, and Internet access, pretty much everything a World Racer could want. Just across they way isn’t the same story. Before heading over there, I had a pretty good idea of what I’d expect, or so I thought. I knew going and seeing sick patients would be upsetting, even in the U.S. it makes me sad to see babies sick and hurting, I just hate it so much, but seeing what I saw completely broke my heart to the point of me bawling.
There, in the first room we walked into, laid a little girl named Maria. She is probably around 14 months old, however I'm not sure because I always got a different answer from her family members. That happened a lot at the hospital, the families never really knew how old the child was, just an estimate, which is completely crazy to me. Maria was such a beautiful little girl. She had the biggest brown eyes with the longest eyelashes I have ever seen. Her grandmother was with her. She told us that both of Maria’s parents have passed away so she was the one taking care of her. Maria was so malnourished that she couldn’t even make a sound. She just sat laid there and looked at me with her big brown eyes. She was lying there playing with a surringe that she was fed milk with. She laid there so helpless She raised her tiny arms up for me to pick her up and I was done for. I held her for a while and I completely fell in love! We got to pray over her and her grandmother, which was so awesome.
The rest of the day we went to other rooms and visited other patients. One of the rooms was filled with newborn babies and their mothers. We were told that the new mothers don’t even name their babies until they are around 10 days old because a majority of the time the babies don’t make it and the mothers don’t want to get attached to them.
One of the most memorable moments for me at the hospital was when a lady came out of a room where the door was shut. I was standing outside of the door waiting to enter the next room. She came out frantically and very upset. She started speaking to me in Spanish and I have no idea what she was saying. All I knew is that her baby was in the room and she was upset and crying about it. I asked her if I could pray for her. That was the first time EVER that I got to hold somebody’s hand and pray for them in English while they prayed in Spanish. It was such a powerful moment. It was if we were praying the same prayer in two different languages. So amazing! God is so good.
We kept moving on to the last room on our little tour. You really get what you pray for. I praid for God to break my heart for what breaks his, and he sure did. Rosanna ( I think that was her name), a four year old little girl, laid in a hospital bed. She was smaller than my 2 year old niece. She was on the verge of dying because she was so malnourished. This was the most heartbreaking thing i have ever seen. This child is dying because she simply did not have enough food to eat. I could not wrap my brain around this.
I walked back over the our house and sobbed. It is so hard for me t know that while I am living my comfortable life, there are people, kids, who won't even make it through the night. I started asking God many questions. Why do you let stuff like this happen? Why are people suffering? I dont understand why things like this have to happen. God simply told me " you're not supposed to understand everything. All you need to do is find the good in every single situation which is so so so hard sometimes. I'll never know why those little girls i met have to suffer so much while i am so comfortable, but the good i did find was at least there was a hospital that they did get medical attention at. They are so lucky for that since a lot of people don't even have that. This hospital is not like one in America. It is very out of date, there are no machinces or anything like that. What this hospital does have are people who want to help. God thank you for providing this hospital and staff for the people here. Thank you so much for even though i see difficult things daily, that I can find the good and have some peace in that. Thank you for forever changing my heart.
"When you go through the sea, I am with you. When you go through rivers, they will not sweep you away." Isaiah 2
