Our thanks to Surgicorps Zambia 2013 Team Members Janice Anderson and Matt O’Connor for collaborating and sharing the stories of Nunsa and Eliza.
NUNSA’S STORY
NUNSA SAMPUO (SURGICORPS #212) is small for seven-years-old. She comes from the rural Zambian village of Sesheke. Sesheke is about a day’s travel from the Beit Cure hospital in Lusaka by public transportation, a trip which Nunsa took with her father, Sampuo Muzungu. We interviewed her on June 20th in the Children’s Ward. It is the beginning of the Zambian winter. Nunsa is wrapped up in blankets, asleep in her bed, and Sampuo sits in a chair beside her. A jacket and a wool hat protect him from the cool breeze in the open air ward. It’s early, and while many patients are still asleep, the ward has a sense of bustle. Some children are playing near Nunsa’s bed, knocking toys and carts against the floor or our chairs. Sampuo is one of the few fathers in the ward; his wife is pregnant and so stayed home.