"Live Simply...

...that others might simply live." I don't remember where I read that, but I've adopted it as my motto. Meet Ahmed, a man in his mid 40's with a wife and five kids. Ahmed has an extra-cranial tumor that's been growing on the back of his head for over ten years; it's a little larger than a grapefruit. Because of the positioning of the tumor, sores have started started to develop, they break open and scab as the tumor continues to grow in size. Can you even imagine what his life might be like? Ashamed, embarrassed, depressed...He always wears an over sized hat to cover it up, keep people from staring. The surgery to remove this tumor is $50,000 Naira, that's about $400. He's only managed to save 3,000. He has five kids to put through school after all. Up till now I've been living on a very generous $100 a month, more than enough to make my life comfortable in the land of little. When I saw him that Friday afternoon, something in my soul broke. He looked like he had given up. it was written all over his face. Knowing he needed the surgery, yet no hope in sight. Yemi (a medical student from Mayo Med School) and I decided we would pool our money together and pay for all the expenses of the surgery. He came to the clinic faithfully everyday to have the wounds dressed and lab work drawn. Each time I saw him he would say, "God bless you, thank you." Then exactly one week later I was standing over him in the OR, watching as the doctors removed the tumor that had plagued him for so long. When I went to visit him post surgery, it was like meeting a totally different person. Not so much because of his now absent mass, but because of his spirit. Something in him was now alive where it wasn't before. He was grinning from ear to ear. And it wasn't until that moment that I realized I had never once seen him smile.