The pediatrician at the field hospital (aka a porch turned into an inpatient clinic)where I worked in Haiti recently posted this video. The kid with the cast…you simply would not believe what he has been through. Here he is, jumping around as part of their “let’s trick kids into doing physical therapy” strategy. I can’t help but giggle when he does.
Post earthquake Haiti there was a lot of talk of Lespa fe viv [hope makes life] and lately I’ve been thinking about the concept of choosing hope. I don’t mean hope like wish or some wimpy thing in greeting cards. I mean hard-assed, real live, hard worked for hope. Watching completely traumatized kids be kids (if even for a moment) again, reminds me that wallowing in sadness/anger about the state of the world or even the state of our sometimes fractured community isn’t actually changing anything. I’m asking myself: if I thought of hope as a verb, what would that look like?