Goat sacrifices and toddler group hugs

Nursing Report you won't give at home:

Report to the next charge nurse, Danielle, this afternoon went something like this, "and Ibrahim has permission to go off the ship to go kill a goat." Now, I didn't know if it was a particular goat that had offended him or what precisely was going on. Come to find out from Danielle who had made it to church this morning that the streets of Freetown are very busy, the mosques are packed and there are hundreds of goats lining the streets awaiting a sure demise. Hmm. And here i'm sitting on Deck 9 next to the pool and far away from the ever-infallible :-) Wikipedia to find out what holiday it is. It reminds me of New Year's eve in the south of Chile where hundreds of little white lambs were attached to fence posts kicking up an absolute ruckus on the 31st of December, followed by an eerie silence on the 1st. Then the most tantalizing smoke would fill the air as roasting lamb filled the town. Yummmo! I remember Auntie Nisey coming to visit us in Chile appalled by the whole little lamb thing, and she spent an entire afternoon crying next to one little white fluffy thing, stroking it's ears. Don't think the goats are gonna have the same reception though. Or maybe they do get eaten, I don't know!
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Another interesting favorite from reading another patient's History and Physical, under Social History, "4 wives, 16 children." 
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We've also admitted 6 adorable two to four year olds to have their growth plates removed. They've invented a new game and taken to collectively mass-hugging anybody who walks through the door. You step into A ward and 6 tiny four year olds come yelling and plaster themselves in a group hug around your legs.

These little ones came to the ship for orthopedic surgery at the beginning of the outreach. They're called the 8 plate children, because their legs looked like parentheses - or that you could place an 8 in. plate between their knees. Growth plates were inserted to straighten their legs as they grew. However, there is more motivation to pray as some of them aren't straight yet and the ship is getting ready to depart. Decisions need to be made as to whether to remove the plates now, and still leave them better than they were before, or leave the plates in and somehow arrange for these children to make the journey to Guinea, one country over, in a few months once their legs are straighter. Travel is very difficult in West Africa and there is the risk that the journey can't be made, for any of a dozen reasons. The risk is that then their legs will keep on growing inwards until the parentheses are formed in the opposite direction. Quandry! Please pray for wisdom and traveling mercies for these children and their parents.

They are so beautiful though. Melt your heart.