Hate to see you go, love to watch you leave.

My card game is slowing dwindling. First player to leave was Tobias, the 4 year old with TB/Aids. His mother defaulted on his Aids treatment, that partnered with TB requires a 2 month stay at the hospital. But he's served his time, and home he goes. Next was Wayne. Wayne is the 13 year old boy, in for TB/Aids, very similar story to Tobias, defaulted on Aids medication and then developed TB, he was at Chidamoyo since before I got here, and finally went home last week!! Wayne was my greatest competitor, as I think he had the best understanding of the UNO. Next patient to be discharged was Zephania. He is 2 yrs old. In for an infected/decaying arm. His parents religion/cult does not believe in medical treatment, so instead of treating the initial, and extremely minor infection, he was taken to a witch doctor, or nganga as they're known here. The nganga treated Zephania's infected arm by putting motor oil on it and covering it in a plastic bag- essentially cooking the infection. A Chidamoyo nurse spotted Z on a bus, and forced his mother to bring him to our hospital. Z's arm was amputated, and he had to undergo several followup surgeries to clean out the infection, but thanks to the nurse that brought him in, our doctor, Kathy and the rest of the staff at Chidamoyo, Zephania is alive! And believe it or not, he left a happy, cheerful, and very social toddler. I am going to miss watching him making his daily rounds to visit the other patients. He usually strolls topless, pants falling off, revealing his plumbers crack! Another one of Chidamoyo's recent discharges- Tapiwa. Not sure of his exact age, probably 7 or 8. He was being treated for a broken leg, result of an ox cart accident (most of the locals main mode of transport is ox cart). He didn't make it into the card game, but he did make a solid attempt to complete a puzzle with me last week. I showed him the picture, laid out the pieces, demonstrated the idea of finding pieces that fit together. After much reassurance that he understood, I went on to start the border, leaving Tapiwa on his own. When I checked back in, he had constructed a pretty large portion of the puzzle- impressive. When I looked closer I noticed that none of his pieces actually fit together. Tapiwa had figured out how to force/bend/tear/weld/will the puzzle pieces into submission..... maybe I should have explained better. But he was satisfied with his work, so who am I to judge.
Patient discharges are filled with mixed emotions- praises because they are healed, and able to return home to their families and their lives. Sadness (in the most selfish of ways) because I don't get to hang out with them anymore. And because it means that my card game now consists of just me and Mercy. Mercy is the older 20 something yr old man that used to muscle the smaller kids out of the game. Plus, he cheats. All I have to say is two can play at that game. Mercy is going down today.