Saturday at Villa 13 = 2 friends, 4 ERs, & 13 stitches

Happy Columbus Day! Currently this is my favorite holiday because the Embassy is closed for the day and I get a much needed rest day. That means only 4 days of preschool this week! One last craft to brainstorm for. So I was hoping that today would be a nice day of relaxing, studying, doing college applications, and just enjoying the quietness of being home alone. Guess not. I woke up to Stargate Atlantis being played in the next room. Seriously, if he’s going to play it, why not watch it downstairs where I’ll never know? Wait, I forgot he prefers the flatscreen TV and surround sound that came with the house. But yes, Ethan is home with me today. He had a rather traumatic and dramatic day yesterday and today he gets to skip school and nurse his big fat lip.

Yesterday my friend and I were just waking up and refusing to move from my bed when we heard this bloodcurdling scream. Julie immediately wanted to know “who’s dying?” Ethan had a friend over and I tried to ignore the wails, not sure if it was because someone was injured, or if it was just another battle cry. Soon I heard Emily pounding on Ethan’s door and screaming at him to open it. Then she ran and found mom, who soon came in to thrust rags into my hand and said “Molly, go scrub up all the blood on Ethan’s carpet, Julie, run get me lots of ice! Now!”

Turns out the boys had been sword fighting (with the wooden swords that had been nailed to the wall. Maybe they were there for a reason?) They got into the heat of the battle and Aaron accidentally smacked Ethan right above his lip. He started wailing, and Aaron tried to tend to him when Emily started pounding on the door. For some reason the boys had locked it and it took Aaron a while to figure out how to unlock the door. Emily tended to Ethan whose wound looked so nasty. It was deep, disgusting and still bleeding. Julie and I scrubbed the blood off his carpet which somehow managed to spread all over the room. Ethan walked in and saw us scrubbing one corner and freaked out because he was injured on the opposite side of the room and wanted to know how on earth the blood got there and was Aaron okay? Julie found Aaron and patted him down. He was fine, just still in shock. Mom was soon on the phone with Tricare and dad with someone else trying to figure out what to do and where to send him. Once we managed to get Ethan downstairs to the computer he was distracted for a while, but when mom tried to clean it with Betadine he flipped out.

After lots of phone calls mom and dad ran out the door with Ethan to the hospital and left all of us in a dazed state. Julie kept saying “this never happens in my house! We never have this much drama!” Aaron agreed, the extent of injuries in his house were “bruises and asthma attacks.” Emily and I simply said it meant that those two were now part of the family, one for accidentally sending him to the ER, the other for helping to scrub his blood off the floor.

While Aaron settled down to a movie we started studying for the ACT and waited for news of Ethan. They were gone for a long time, and had some crazy stories to share. The first hospital they went to ended up not having a surgeon on call since it was Saturday, so they were sent across the street. Mom and Ethan used the bathroom before seeing anyone, but mom was so shocked by their lack of hygiene that she refused to let Ethan be admitted there. After more phone calls they finally took him to another hospital. This one was slightly better, and he was admitted quickly. The surgeon cleaned around the edge of the wound and then gave him a shot to numb the wound prior to the stitches. Mom questioned him about not cleaning the inside of the wound and apparently he was shocked that she, a woman, would dare to question him. Though he was irritated by her and told her to “let me down my job,” mom finally convinced him to clean it since she was a nurse. Overall mom was not very impressed with his job, but paid the 15KD and brought Ethan home. He had 4 stitches, and a fat lip.

Dad deemed him well enough to go to Oliver practice, so drove Ethan off to school shortly after they arrived home. Towards the end of practice Ethan was jostled a bit too much in a scene and his wound started to bleed again. When he came home it was still bleeding and just didn’t look quite right. Throughout the evening mom took photos, made lots of phone calls and eventually ended up taking him back to a different hospital. They spent over an hour trying to find the place and were eventually directed by the plastic surgeon himself. The surgeon said that if they had left the previous stitches in, Ethan would have healed with a dip in his face. The man took out the old stitches, repaired the muscle, did a much better job of stitching up the wound and Ethan arrived home late and exhausted. Dad texted his friend, Aaron’s father, about the rest of their hospital experience and the fact that this time they paid 300KD. Aaron’s dad replied, “Should we send Aaron over to do dishes for a couple years?”

Well so much for a quiet Saturday; but 4 ERs and 13 stitches later Ethan is finally repaired and on the mend.

Volunteering at the Hospital

Today Mom and I signed up to volunteer at the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital with a group of people from the Embassy. The public hospital appeared to be very old and it was rather drab. There were some stickers to brighten up the children’s areas, but the Mickey and Minnie were ancient, definitely not the newer version that I grew up with. Our group definitely stood out from everyone else just by us being Westerners, but our bright blue Embassy bags definitely didn’t help us to blend in. I don’t recall seeing anyone in scrubs; the staff was wearing jeans and nice blouses underneath their lab coats with head coverings.

We were greeted by the Director of the hospital who welcomed us into his office. He was so appreciative that we would take the time to come and visit. It was obvious that he cared for every aspect of his hospital and was touched that we would visit his Children’s Ward. The director painted a very detailed and sad image of some of the children that were staying at the hospital. He explained that Kuwait does not have any child protection laws like in the states, and so child abuse is a big problem. Currently there are 3 children under the age of one who are living in the children’s ward. There is no Foster care, and he is currently fighting a legal battle for the poor little ones. He told the story of a one year old whose father refused to take his wife to the hospital to give birth to her second child because he was afraid of being caught by the police for some past crime. So he abandoned the family and let the mother give birth at home alone. Both she and the newborn died and the police found the little girl a couple days later and took her to the hospital where she’s stayed since. The other children were found in the car park of a grocery store. This just broke my heart and I longed to be able to go cuddle these poor children and do exactly what the director desired to do if there weren’t too many legal problems; take them home and love on them.

We were finally taken upstairs to the Social Worker’s office that had a small play room attached. It is only open in the mornings till 12 because there is not enough staff. There weren’t many toys in the playroom, and a volunteer mentioned she had seen boxes of new ones in another room. Apparently they don’t like to bring out the new toys because they worry that they will become used and broken. Isn’t that the point of toys? To be enjoyed?

The initial point of us going was to read to the children, but I became a bit skeptical when I saw the ages and realized very few children spoke any English at all. Everyone was still appreciative that we had come though. Some of the volunteers from the Embassy looked out of their comfort zone when they realized they couldn’t just sit down and read the stories to the children. So mom and I crawled on the floor with the children looking like maniacs but getting lots of giggles from the children while other volunteers watched. The kids were very sweet and interactive. I managed to sing some songs with a couple children who knew the tunes to Itsy Bitsy Spider and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. When I saw a copy of Angelina Ballerina in a bag I found a little girl who spoke some English and simplified the story for her. I think she managed to understand the gist of it, but enjoyed the attention for sure.

One mother whose girls had only been brought to the hospital for a blood test saw us, and brought her 2 daughters in. One was maybe 9 and the other 11 or so. The mother had them come sit down with me as I simplified the Velveteen Rabbit, and she translated parts of it to her girls. They were very polite and thanked me for the story once I was done.
The nurses brought in the little orphans, and all the volunteers took turns cuddling the sweet angels. The one year old appeared to be a staff favorite. She was a little princess in an adorable outfit. The gorgeous little girl should not be there though. I just pray that laws will form to protect such sweet innocent children.

It didn’t seem like we stayed very long, but before I knew it we were leaving and going back to work. I believe groups will be returning every Saturday, and if it is better organized next time then I will definitely return.