I don't want to forget

If there were more than 24 hours in the day, I could probably spend five hours every night writing about the days events. But there are only 24 hours in the day. Too bad.

A few moments I want to remember...

Benjamin walked in the room with his head drooped and his shoulders shyly leaning on his uncle's arm. He was seven and had a cleft lip.

I sat on his bed and introduced myself. I asked him if he knew what his name meant. It means
"Son of my right hand". I know that because my brother's name is Benjamin.

I really miss my brothers. They make me laugh, they listen to music with me, we write silly songs together and just generally always have a good time. If I don't have to get up for work the next morning I can always count on Ben to stay up until the early morning and solve the worlds problems with me. And make fun of oursleves for not dating anyone.

I told little Benjamin that my brother shared his name and decided that he would have to be my Liberian brother. This made him smile. He was too precious.

Later I talked to Benjamin and his uncle, who was taking care of hm. I asked Benjamin if it was scary to come to the ship. He's only seven and hospitals can be very scary places.

Benjamin wasn't scared. He was excited. The children he knew were mean to him. They teased him and called him names. He didn't want to be made fun of anymore.

His uncle told me Benjamin was upset after the first few hours ward. He didn't understand why everyone else was fixed and his lip was still opened. He wanted his surgery at that moment.

Calmly, his uncle explained to Benjamin that he just needed to be patient. He would be fixed in the morning.

The next morning Benjamin received his surgery and joined the ranks of "fixed" patients.
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Rosalind's right arm if held in a 90 degree angle by a stiff splint. The entire right side of her body is burned and she has undergone and extensive contracture release.

She is a teenage girl who was very quiet and shy when she first arrived.

Apparently Rosalind likes to dance. I had been singing a song and she started moving her free left arm and shaking her upper body to my song. When my voice was hoarse and my hands tired of clapping she still wanted to dance.

I love dance parties. My friends and I can throw a pretty intense dance theme party. Look at my zombie pictures on flickr if you don't believe me :).

A peace ward dance party seemed like a pretty good idea so I went to my room and grabbed my laptop and ipod. We cornered off a section of the ward and danced. The other patients laughed and told us "I enjoy you".

Rosalind found me while I was walking through the hallway and with a wide inquisitive smile told my she wanted to dance and asked when I was going to bring the music again.