Everyone we meet up with here in Sierra Leone has worms. Some not as bad, some terribly. I am so thankful that we have been able to treat as many as we have. I brought in 600 worm pills this time (purchased @ $3 a pill - thanks to your donations). However, that is such a tiny tiny amount compared to the giant need for more. What we have doesn't even begin to make a dent in the cases of worms we've found here!
Yesterday, in our horrors of horrors, a young mother brought her baby to be prayed for at church. Immediately you could see it was severely malnourished. I mean SEVERELY! It was so thin and face caved in, worse than any of the starving Bangladesh poster children we've seen! The mother said the baby nurses very frequently and she'd been feeding it cornmeal in addition. The mother looked healthy. Then we were told the child was 18 months old! It looked to be about 7-9 pounds in weight and maybe 22 inches long! Emily and I were trying to figure out why it was so malnourished, when the mama told us about the baby's stomach and how it has lumps that move. Then, we lifted up its shirt... Jesus Christ have mercy...what we saw... I will never forget. The child has a tape worm, it has invaded its whole intestine system. You could see this giant worm moving around in her belly. The child is getting no nourishment from the mama that nurses this child constantly, only to feed the worm. The child's condition is such that it would not survive surgery. The worm medication we have is not enough to conquer this and the child's weakened state will not survive the effects of the medication. Even if the worm dies, this baby has no strength to pass it, it is bigger than she is. She will die...and soon. Nothing we can do... nothing available. Pray for this child, her short life, her family, her mother trying so hard to feed her baby. One the driving concepts of Nazareth House is the unstoppable Crucifixion that continues. As with John and Mary, the only thing we can do is stay at the foot of the Cross and bear witness to the ongoing sufferings. Some things in this world are not fixable, some things in this world are lost. And those unfixable things and those things that are so lost will be fixed and found in heaven.
Today Emily and I have had to walk away, broken hearted, saying "I'm sorry, there is nothing we can do, we haven't anything available to help you and there is no where here you can go to get help"
