Bobby and Jefferson, revisited

Flew back up to Zwedru yesterday, thanks to the kind folks at the UN, to see Bobby and Jefferson, my two pals with the nasty burns. I sat with them and hung out for an hour before we were ready to begin cleaning their burns, and immediately I saw their greatest need wasn't TLC in an accent they could hardly understand, but entertainment. They're 8 and 12, and they are bored out of their minds lying on the ground keeping the flies off themselves. I had my iTunes shuffle with me, which I hadn't used in ages anyway (who knows what era of music is being mixed inside...), and MAN did their eyes light up when they heard it! It was too cute for words, really--especially when they began singing along with the Marley tunes...

So the situation is both better and worse than we first thought. Both their wounds were covered in a mysterious powder, some "country medicine" that was drying out the tissue instead of protecting and moisturizing it. Once we started cleaning Bobby up, two things became immediately clear: first, the 3rd degree areas didn't really cross his joints, which is a very good thing; second, there's a lot more 3rd degree burn than we'd thought, and there was a 1/4-inch layer of infection over most of it. He was an incredible trooper through it all but, after about an hour of ever-so-gently clearing the infection away and time running out on our flight home, Mariel made the call to take him to the hospital for admittance. Even if it's not a great hospital, it's better than a dirt floor and a slew of old household remedies.

It was only when we arrived at the hospital that I remembered how old Bobby really is. At the sight of the needle holding his pain medicine, he squirmed and wailed and wouldn't have any of it. (I tried reasoning with him, but I would've been even worse at his age...) So he and Jefferson were both admitted so that the doctors could properly sedate and care for them, and they're still there now. We couldn't stick around to be there when they woke up, which is hard, but hopefully the battery on the Shuffle will last them a few days, and next time I'll take them a radio.

Please continue to pray for both of these little guys. As long as they keep on fighting the infection and do their movement exercises, we're confident at this point that they'll be good candidates for plastic surgery as soon as they heal. In the pictures below, you can see Bobby and Jefferson exactly as we found them, in good spirits but deteriorating; Mariel cleaning Bobby's burn (as he sings Marley's "Redemption Song", believe it or not!); Bobby getting his first look at himself in a digital camera--notice how well his hand has healed already!