Eryn's Little Friend

Eryn and her friends.

Great picture right?  That’s a picture of my friend Eryn surrounded by some of her neighbors.  She another PCV who lives in Macomia, a site about 4 hours north-east of Montepuez by chapa (mini-bus).  These boys love her.  Like LOVE her.  She taught them how to play baseball, she gives them cake, she paid for one of them to go to school this year, and among many other things, she showers them with old Bill’s and Saber’s t-shirts (she’s from Buffalo, if you couldn’t have guessed).  But there’s one boy who in particular, a 13-year old by the name of Sadique (he’s the kid in the picture that’s holding the glass jar) with whom she shares a special connection.  Eryn saved his life.

Two years ago, Sadique was playing with some fiends by a river when a crocodile jumped out of the water and bit his leg.  Although he had managed to escape the crocodile, he was left with a gapping, festering wound on his leg that went all the way to the bone.  When Eryn arrived in Macomia in December of 2012, Sadique’s leg was ripe with gangrene.  As Eryn began to settle and integrate into her new home, she got to know her neighbors.  And it didn’t take long for her to find out about the dying twelve-year-old who lived next door.

As Eryn built a relationship with the boy and his family, she quickly gained enough trust that the family permitted her to take him to the local hospital.  The boy had been a patient there already, but with the system being what it is here, they couldn’t do much for him.  My guess, is that after the accident they probably gave him five days’ worth of Paracetemol and told him to go home and rest.  But Eryn didn’t accept that.  She returned to the Hospital time and time again to make sure this boy could see a doctor.  Finally, after a handful of consultations, the doctors in Macomia suggested that Sadique get x-rays in Pemba, the closest city that has some-what contemporary medical equipment. A small victory.

So Eryn took him to Pemba and got him his X-rays; mind you, she paid for the entire journey because his family couldn’t afford it.  The doctor’s in Pemba had good and bad news.  Sadique would live, but he had a severe bone infection and the chances of him keeping his leg were slim to nil.  They’d have to operate.  So they gave Sadique some anti-biotics, cleaned his wound, and showed Eryn how to care for it.  Then they sent them home with the first of more follow-up appointments.

Eryn continued to play doctor, arriving at Sadique’s house, undressing his wound, cleaning it, and then redressing it as instructed by the doctor’s in Pemba as well as some advice from the home front.  The antibiotics helped a bit, but she could tell it wasn’t enough. So she kept applying pressure on the doctors and soon enough, Eryn had their attention.  So, she took Sadique back to Pemba for surgery, both under the assumption that he’d be coming back with one less leg.

But that didn’t happen.  And thanks to Eryn’s humongous heart and meticulous caretaking, Sadique was able to keep his leg. Rather than cut the whole thing off, the doctor’s extracted the infected part of his bone and were able to stop the infection from spreading further.  Best part is that after the surgery was done, the doctor’s took the bone they extracted, put it in a jar, and gave it to Eryn to keep.

Today, Sadique is the smiling 13-year-old pictured below. He’s living life, running around, and fazer’ing barulho just like his other friends; only there’s a slight difference.  Not only does the kid have a great story to tell, but he’s got an awesome scar and a bone in the jar to prove it.

Sadique with his Jar

That's exactly what you think it is.