The Dream Team and Sai Wata Rana

This is a picture of the Operating Room staff whom Ben worked with all month. These guys don't speak English and Ben certainly doesn't speak Hausa, but they worked extremely well together. The men could anticipate what Ben needed even before he asked for it. And, when Ben was almost finished with the surgery,the men would tell him to go to the next surgery and they would "close" (sew up the incisision) in order to get Ben to the next surgery as quickly as possible. These guys don't even have high school educations but they have learned well through "on the job training."

On our day of departure, just as Ben and I were walking to the airstrip, we came out of our house to find these seven men waiting to say goodbye. Ben and I were overwhelmed with emotion to think that these men thought enough of Ben to walk down from the hospital just to say goodbye. And they all stood waving, along with all the missionaries, the tailor, and many local women and children, as our little single-engine plane flew into the sky taking us back to America. Sai wata rana Galmi. (Goodbye Galmi).