This is your life

We went out for one last dinner tonight at our favourite Lebanese restaurant. Ali is working nights so I stopped by the ward when I got home, before heading to my room to say hello and bring her some Chicken Bread to help her survive her twelve-hour shift. Darling Boy, Prince, and Angela charged at me and, amongst perpectual hugs and kisses, used me as a human jungle gym. Greg’s Grandmother looked up from her loving gaze into her grandson’s eyes to give me a whole-hearted welcoming hello.

I went over to greet my new favourite set of twins, Hope and Joy, and they were immediately plopped into my arms by mama. Nurses, who have over the past five months become my family, came over to hear my stories of my last Liberian night out and we passed the babies around the group, gawking, tickling, and soaking up every single baby belly laugh. Hope started crying because he was hungry. Without a word, mama handed me a bottle, expecting me to feed him his bedtime snack.

Ali told the children in exceptionally fluent Liberian English that it was getting close to bedtime and they need to start being quiet. Bendu (a twenty-something year old burn patient who has become a mainstay in the ward) offered affirmation of the importance of a strict bedtime. Another nurse who was off-duty as well stopped by to check on everyone and say goodnight. I kissed and hugged my beloved B-ward children goodnight, bid my dear colleges a lovely nightshift, and walked the few short steps back to my cabin.

It is partly inevitable. We eat, sleep, work, breath, and play with the same small group of people in a very small space. It’s partly Africa. We have learned to take on each other’s needs, hurts, and joys as our own based on the example so strongly set in the African culture. And it is partly God. We have learned to appreciate eachother for who we are. To value the qualities and uniqueness that we each posses. To view eachother not in light of or despite our merits, but to simply love based on the fact that as humans we have an inherent desire to love and be loved.

So for the time being, this is what my life has become. A wonderfully intertwined world of community, codependence, and love. A family of used-to-be-strangers from all over the world brought together by this wonderful inexplicable thing and learning to love and need one another. An absolute blessing.

In less than 48 hours, I will get on a plane and leave behind my unique little world that I have come to love and depend upon. But, I will forever treasure these faces. These moments. This life.