Sometimes it's the little things

Submitted by Michaela Sholes

Some things don’t happen as we planned…in fact, most things don’t. No matter how well you plan, there’s always the possibility of some unforeseen event. Sometimes, these events are small, like the way you didn’t anticipate having to sit in traffic an extra hour or so and have consequences like being late to work (which, I suppose depending on your boss and how late you work might change the definition of “small event”). Other things, can be life-changing…many of us have had at least one of those moments where you just have to sit down for a minute and attempt to absorb what has just happened.

A young lady here in Kpong had an experience like that last week. For her privacy’s sake, I’ll not say too much about the details, but suffice it to say, it’s been an emotional time for her, her family, and us as we know her quite well. In the face of her news, the MoM team and her family were pleased to discover that, although you can’t plan completely for the future, sometimes we are more prepared than we thought at first.

Let me explain…MoM has been working on building our mini-clinic in the anticipation that somewhere in the future, we will have a need for its existence in the event that we are in the communities and find individuals who have had an injury or illness that requires a clean, properly sterilized environment in which to ensure healing. With all the developments going on around the airfield and the challenges of funding, we have often been asked “why are you putting your money where it *might* be needed when there are other things you could put it towards now?” Valid question… we have that answer now. She’s why. And others like her.

We had to do some shuffling around this last week as we have been caring for her this past week (and will continue to do so gladly) and thankfully we were fortunate to have already had space available for her. Just think of how much more we will be able to do when we have the mini-clinic available too? A sanitary area for people to be able to heal after their various traumas…a place removed from their environment so that they do not have outside influence (whether that be natural germs from their community or a well-meaning cow dung-carrying relative) to affect their care.

Sometimes it is tempting to allow yourself to get overwhelmed by all the work there is to be done. But what I cling to, and what I believe MoM stands for, is that the small things we do end up becoming part of the big things we do. Sure, it’s great if we can be a part of ridding Ghana of Schisto (big goal), but what about the individual people we impact along the way (small? goal). To quote Barbara Kingsolver, “The daily work that goes on…it adds up. Good things don’t get lost.”

By the way, she is getting stronger every day and we’re thrilled to see her smile more!