Come Walk with Me

“Teacher! Teacher!” The little girl who lived in the plot behind my house had come to the barbed wire fence separating our yards. She usually came at lunch time or after school and called for me to come out of my house to join her for our informal daily English lesson. This was Monday and I had not seen her all weekend. “Yes, Muthombi. How are you?” “I am fine. How are you? Are you fine, teacher?” “Yes I am fine. How was your weekend?” “My weekend was…” “Oh! My goodness Muthombi! What happened to your eye?”I was shocked to see that her little right eye lid was very swollen. The eye itself was red and oozing some whitish material. “A bad fly made my eye sick. My mom says that it will die...” “Oh! No! There must be something that can be done!” “We have no money for the doctor… but don’t worry, I have the other one.” My mind started racing for any alternative. If this little girl had been in the states there would have been a quick solution, I thought, even if it meant waiting in line at the county clinic for hours. I had no money either. “Lord what can I do? If only there was some way to get medicine. Wait a minute! I brought a whole array of medications with me when I came 3 years ago. Maybe there is something in that medicine kit that would be useful. I think that there was a little bottle of some kind of eye drops. Where were they now?” “Muthombi, I want you to do something.” “Yes teacher?” “Please go ask your mother if I can give you medicine for your eye.” “Yes Teacher!” She ran off in a flash. I also ran into the house and frantically riffled through the trunk that had stayed untouched under the bed for so long. Finally in a cool dark corner was the tiny bottle of antibiotic eye drops, which I had hoped would still be there. It was sealed and looked new and the fluid was crystal clear. We met back at the fence. I opened the bottle and carefully dropped what looked like ordinary water into the sick eye. “The bottle says that we have to put drops in your eye three times each day. Can you come back after school today and in the morning before you go to school?” “Yes. I can come back. I will ask my mother.” By the next evening her eye was less red and I was very relieved. On the third day, there was no more oozing and the redness was almost completely gone. “This really looks like the medicine is working.” “Thank you teacher now my eye won’t die. Thank you for the magic water.” “It’s not magic water. It is medicine, Muthombi. Tell your mom to do the same thing for four more days.” “Thank you for the medicine.” She ran back home holding the bottle of eye drops above her head like a torch. “Thank you, Lord! Such an amazing thing with some old forgotten eye drops. I don’t know anything about medicine. I have got to go to medical school. Just imagine what I can do if I actually know something.” “Just imagine.”