A Calf Named Brian Higgins: an Adventure in Rural Kenya by Kristen Ball

Author:Kristen Ball [Ball, Kristen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781947159044
Publisher: Red Chair Press
Published: 2018-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

24

Two Showers and Extra Medicine

Uncharacteristically quiet during the ride home, Hannah could not believe the clinic was already out of medicine. She and her mom had brought almost an entire duffel bag less than two weeks earlier. And she knew if she got really sick, they would leave. They would be leaving in just over a week anyway, but they could get an earlier flight. In Sauri, people waited in line at a clinic where they were out of medicine. It’s so unfair. She hoped Dr. Omundo would be able to locate the medicine and get it back to Sauri the next day.

“Why you are quiet, Hannah?” Jones asked her.

“No reason,” she answered.

“Really is no reason?”

“I was just wishing there was enough medicine for everyone,” she said. “And eyeglasses for people who can’t see.” She nudged her mom who was resting. “Kiano couldn’t see anything on those boxes!”

“Oh, is good wish,” Jones said. “Is my wish, too.” Hannah looked up at him and smiled. “My another wish to see my family is true.”

“What?” Hannah perked up.

Meredith sat up and leaned over to listen. “You’re going to see Rebecca and Anthony?”

“Yes,” he said with his typical huge smile. “But no worry, Patrick drive you to Sauri while I be gone to Kitui.”

Hannah and her mom both insisted they were not at all concerned about that. They wanted to hear more about his trip. “When’s the last time you saw Rebecca and Anthony?” Hannah asked.

“Is six weeks before I went home,” he answered. “Long time with not my family. And next I come back to my family here, is you!”

They pulled into the Classic and Hannah leaned over and hugged him. “I’ll miss you, Jones,” she said.

“I do not leave until a few days,” he said and parked the truck. “And I come back in some days soon.”

Grace was inside preparing kale and potatoes for dinner. She heard Hannah and her mom walk in and looked directly at Hannah with a twinkle in her eye. “Water?” Hannah asked.

“Yes, is water today!” she answered.

“Asante sana!” Hannah cheered and ran upstairs.

At dinner, Hannah could not stop thinking about Wilkister. “Are you sure Wilkister’s grandmother took enough medicine?”

“She took enough to get her better, yes,” her mom answered.

“But, I mean, shouldn’t she take enough so she has it for the next time Wilkister gets sick?”

“Well, no, because there would have been even less there for the others who needed it today, Hannah.”

“Oh,” Hannah looked down.

Grace chimed in and said, “Is only what you need you take.”

Hannah remembered tipping at the Mon Ami Club and the community food program and how it had been a year since anyone in Sauri had died of hunger. And at the clinic, they were to take only what medicine they needed and there was still not enough. Leave what you can. Take only what you need. Hannah sighed. Never having thought of herself as a selfish person, she questioned whether she could follow this rule for everything.

As they got ready for bed, Hannah said to her mom, “I should have waited to take a shower.

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