Page 20 of Risk It All
I follow Madeleine into the hospital. She's clearly been here before as she knows exactly where to go.
“Madeleine!” An older gentleman with large white caterpillar eyebrows and matching moustache calls to her.
“Dr. Knowles.” She accepts his embrace.
“I couldn't believe it when Henri said you'd be back so soon. You missed me, eh?” He smiles and there’s something nice about his ability to joke in a place surrounded by poverty and sorrow. It makes me think he has hope at changing the plight of the less fortunate here.
“I brought someone.” Madeleine gestures to me. “This is Max Delecoeur.”
“How are you, Max?” Dr. Knowles gives me a firm handshake. His accent is American and I wonder how he's ended up in the middle of nowhere Nigeria, especially since he looks old enough to be retired on a boat in Florida Keys instead of working in a third-world hospital.
“Hot and tired.”
Dr. Knowles laughs. “You'll be worse than that before your trip is over. Not quite the place for a relaxing getaway.”
“Max is active in children's charities. He wants to see your work,” Madeleine says.
“Wonderful, wonderful. I was just getting ready to visit the children's ward. But perhaps you'd like to see your room and freshen up first?”
“I'd like that,” Madeleine says.
“Neka, can you please take them back to the volunteers' room?” Dr. Knowles asks a nearby nurse. He turns back to Madeleine and me. “I need to check on another patient first and then I'll pick you up in ten minutes to give you the tour.”
“Perfect,” Madeleine says.
Madeleine and I follow the nurse down a long hallway and into a large room with several empty cots.
“Looks like we get the room to ourselves,” Madeleine says.
I notice that too. There's nothing to indicate anyone else is using the room.
“Much violence has kept volunteers away,” Neka explains. “There is bathroom there.” She points to a closed door.
“Thank you, Neka.”
Neka nods and leaves me and Madeleine alone. I walk over to the dusty window. I think of Dorothy Gale when she tells Toto, “We aren't in Kansas anymore.” I don't say it out loud though, knowing it would sound flippant.
I had a challenging childhood, but I know that my struggles were nowhere near as difficult as what I'm witnessing in Nigeria. I suspect that by the time I head home, I will have seen much worse.
Once we're refreshed, Dr. Knowles arrives to give us a tour. I roll my shoulders and prepare myself mentally as I follow Dr. Knowles and Madeleine up the hall to the children's ward. I imagine what I'll encounter will be more heartbreaking than what I've come across so far.
We stop outside a set of closed double doors. “We see children with a variety of ailments, but I'm told you're most interested in the children who are here because of mining.”
“That's what brought me here, but I'm interested in children's issues in general, as well.” I support many children's hospitals and charities in the United States. I've toured them all. But I know that what I'm about so see will be so far removed from the hospitals I've visited before.
“Our children have many of the same conditions as children in America. Broken limbs, cancer, but they have some not so common as well, like malaria or some diseases that we hardly think about in America anymore, like measles or malnutrition. Even something as seemingly benign as diarrhea can be fatal to children here,” Dr. Knowles explains.
“Is that from living conditions or a lack of adequate health care?” I ask.
“Both. We provide what we can here, but this is a small, rural hospital.”
“What about the mining? What are the health issues related to that?” I ask. I’ve read out bit, but I want to hear the reality of it from a doctor who is living it.
“That can vary. The dangers include silicosis, a lung issue from breathing the dust. In gold mining we see lead poisoning, but that's more common in the north of Nigeria. If the children go into the tunnels there are other toxic gasses. Then there are the physical dangers from falling rocks or tumbling into a shaft, working in the heat.” Dr. Knowles puts his hand on the doors but doesn’t push them open yet. “The frustrating part is that when we get them healthy enough to leave, they're often sent back to the mines.”
I shake my head at the idea that child labor still exists in the modern world. But I understand enough about third-world economies to know that many families need children to work to survive. Many migrant families in California have their children working the fields for the same reason.
“Most of the children here don't know English, even though it's the official language in Nigeria. So, unless you know tribal languages in the area, you won't be able to talk with them. Except for Chisara. She's a special child, is she not, Madeleine?”
