One of the patients we've been following during our video shoot here in Liberia went home today. Her name is Mariama. She's 50 years old, and for the past 20 years she's lived with an orange-sized tumor protruding from her mouth. People in her village thought she was cursed. Nobody wanted to touch her, talk to her, or have anything to do with her. With the help of two American missionaries she made the three day journey to the hospital ship from her home in Guinea. Everything she encountered along the way was new to her. When she arrived at the port I could see the fear and hesitation in her eyes. She had never seen so much water or a ship. And when she came onboard she discovered stairs for the first time. Those totally freaked her out. It took a couple hours and a lot of convincing for her to muster up the courage to make it down the two flights of stairs to the ward. I imagine the whole experience for her would be like if aliens brought me onboard their spaceship, and no matter how many times they told me everything would be okay, I'd still have a hard time believing it. After a couple days on the ward Mariama began to trust us and believe that we really did care about her and want to help her. On Friday she had her surgery. As her face was healing her personality was emerging. Here's a woman who loves to smile and laugh and dance and shake the hands of everybody that she sees. Quite different from the shamed and fearful woman we met last week. It was an amazing transformation to witness. She's got a beautiful face now. But that's not all. I'd say she's a whole new person.
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