male surgical unit

Kaleigh and I ventured to the hospital today. We thought it was time that we started to hand out more blankets and backpack kits. 

There is a saying that goes a long the lines of... "Do what you know first."

Or however it goes. 

Our first stop at the hospital was the pediatrics. We basically lived there for a few weeks when one of our boys was sick. We walked around and found baby after baby and no kids. 

Kaleigh spotted a boy in cube 3 all by himself. There were a bunch of doctors gathered around the entrance of his door. 

I asked them, "Could we go visit that boy in there?"

"Daniel?"

"Uhhh... yeah. Him."

In Kaleigh and I went. They always look so confused at first when we walk in and then we whip out the blankets and backpacks and it becomes instant excitement. 

He was so precious. He was so grateful and said "astane" a million times.

(it means thank you in Swahili)

We ventured on and this lady came up to us. She was at the hospital when Micheal was there. This means she has been living at that hospital for other a month. I cannot even fathom that. 

Her child is just a baby. We gave her a blanket. 

In the same room as our friend who had been at the hospital way too long was another little girl. She was so cute. We gave her a blanket and a backpack with all the goods. She got super excited when we presented her with the crayons. We can all guess what she will be doing the next few days. 

After the crayon lover we were fresh out of non-baby children in the pediatrics and had to venture out. In the hallway we came across a slew of doctors. We asked them if they knew of any patients that were about 5-18 ish. One of the lady doctors said she had a girl patient about 15 years old. After that she lead the way to our next new friend in the gynecologist. 

No worries. We thought it would be awkward walking in there too but we didn't see anything.

This girl was all around shocked that we were there to see her. I don't think she has ever talked to a white person before and she was a little too caught up on that. I know that she was grateful because her eyes totally lit up as we presented her with a backpack and the contents inside. 

She was the only one that was remotely young in the gynecologist unit. We had to venture out again. This time we walked around and walked around. We walked into many units and there were no kids. We had only boy things left. We found the male surgical unit and wanted to go in but there was no one to ask. After a minute or two of waiting a man came out. We asked him if there were any kids in there and he said yes. Then we asked him if we could go in. He said yes again. 

We went in. 

This place was instantly magical. 

We got lead to one boy who was SO cute. He was seriously so adorable. The poor child had a broken arm and leg. They had his body all rigged up to the ceiling with ropes and all sorts of crazy stuff. This is not western medicine. 

We would pull out the items from the bag one by one and tell him what they were. He got more and more excited with each item. The blanket was also a sealed the deal. He was SO happy. 

As we pulled out each item I would say what it was.

"Ruler."

Then the teenagers who were also admitted in the same room as him would repeat me.

"Ruler."

"Sharpener."

Sharpener."

It was seriously so great. 

At this point Kaleigh and I had ran out of things to give because we only brought 4 bags and 4 blankets. There were plethora more boys in the male surgical unit that are more than deserving. We told these boys that we would come back tomorrow. We are going to bring the teenagers cards to play games with each other and the younger ones backpacks and blankets.

The male surgical unit maybe the most bloody and gory part of the hospital we have been but it was also our favorite. The people there are so wonderful.