“Mama?!”

”Mamé?”

”Mama?”

”Mamé?”

Giggles.

As everyone settles down for the night, I hear the sweetest game of Marco Polo from my patient, Mamé, and her mom across the ward. Mamé is one of our precious two year olds. She came to our unit very shy and afraid. Due to an amniotic band surgery on her foot, she has not been allowed to walk since surgery. However, that doesn’t seem to bother her because she never wants to be far from her Mama.

At first Mamé’s reservations didn’t seem out of the ordinary, most of our two year olds start scared. Hospitals and needles and strange beds are upsetting to any little one. On top of that, I think most of them have never seen a white person before. Our words sound strange and even our body language is different… But Mamé was especially quiet and fearful. We all noticed and wondered why.

But we move forward with the hustle of the days. Sadly, Mamé came down with malaria a few days after surgery. After that her surgical site became infected. Poor Mamé was feeling very unwell for a couple of weeks. We were all so concerned about getting her physically healthy, I forgot my concerns about how withdrawn she was.

But as she regained her physical health, she remained anxious and reserved when so many of our other toddlers were happy to play and begging to be held.

One day she was assigned as my patient for the shift. As her nurse, I wanted so badly to be a friend. I smiled and made silly faces and tried peek-a-boo for hours on end. However, coming near still brought on frowns and maybe even tears. I was feeling pretty discouraged as my shift came to an end. Until finally… she smiled at me!

My heart soared!

But as I got ready to leave that day, I heard the missing piece of Mamé’s story. When Mamé was born with her constricted leg and swollen foot, the village deemed her cursed. They encouraged her mother to get rid of Mamé. Thank God,  Mamé’s mother refused. She kept Mamé and stayed hidden away to be safe indoors for the last two years.

That’s why Mamé is so shy. That’s why she is so uncomfortable around people. In Mamé’s world, the only person that wants her… the only person that is safe… is her mother.

But over the last couple of weeks, I could see Mamé’s world expanding. She’s starting to believe that she is beautiful and loved. Her smiles come easier and laughter outweighs crying. When I came to work yesterday, I was sort of disappointed to see Mamé was moved to the ward next door. (It’s really a good thing. It means she’s healthier and closer to leaving the hospital.) But would our little friendship continue without proximity?

Later in my shift, Mama came in to visit us carrying Mamé. At the time, we were sharing Instagram puppy face filters with the other kids making faces and laughing. Surprisingly, Mamé joined right in and reached out to hold my hand with the phone in front of her to keep the silly faces coming. On her own she moved closer and closer to me. When we finished with the phone, she and I played together just like I get to with all the other kids.

With only 3 weeks to go, I’m becoming more and more aware that I’m going to have to leave. Oh, how I will miss these littles! I know that they will probably not remember very much of this… of me. But my prayer is that they will always remember Love. I pray this time could help ground them in their intrinsic worth and beauty. I pray they will know that God loves them deeply and He wishes for us to share that love.

Thank you for your prayers.

*While sharing our patients’ stories are encouraged, names of patients in my blogs are altered to maintain privacy