Last Day in Macha

So today was my last day. It was very hard to say goodbye to all the moms and children. I told them all yesterday that I was leaving. And the flood of questions came: When was I coming back? What was I doing back in the US? How old was I? Would I give them my shoes? They all told me that they would miss me and wanted me to stay. I’ve been teaching one of my favorite children, Joseph, some English words. He knew bye-bye and hello. But yesterday he learned Meghan and would say bye-bye Meghan. He is the one I would adopt and bring home. He rarely has a family member at his bedside and he does not have a mother. I have many videos of him playing. So today I bought boxes of cookies to the wards for all the children and moms. And I bought apples and oranges for the moms of the malnourished children. It was so wonderful . The head nurse of the entire hospital came to give me a letter of thanks and told me it was better than Christmas for most of the kids. I spent a lot of time with some of my favorite children, playing. As much of a difficult time I have had and as much as hate some of the situations I was put in, I loved my time here…because of the families. I love the children and could spend hours on the ward. I plan on returning to Africa during my residency likely in 2 years. Its very unlikely I would ever return to Macha, but I could come back to Zambia for sure!