Silly Human Tricks

The team's medical focus is directly linked to the central purpose of proclaiming Christ and making our Burkina Faso partners look good.

But also on our list of purposes has to be the spreading of joy. Dorothy and Rebecca make more smiles in the first hour than can be imagined.

Lee and I do our best when we can. Hardly an hour goes by that Lee isn’t discussing football (that's soccer to some of us) while promoting his favorite team. All of Africa - at least those who have met Lee- knows it is Manchester United.


He will quickly coin a nickname for anyone and uses it until they smile. He can also flick bottle caps to the kids, quickly drawing a crowd. If called on, he is very talented at walking on his hands. But this trip I found out I can juggle better.

Emily says that every time she saw Lee today, he had a new ornament of some kind. He grabs stickers when Rebecca hands them out and sticks them on his shirt; he gets his face painted along with the kids and wears his proudly all day; he stocks up his wrist with stretchy bracelets and gives them away one by one to whomever catches his eye as needing one.

I even began pulling off the white stickers left on the page after we used all the adhesive medicine labels and stuck one on everyone. But Lee is a force, pouring his boundless energy into everyone around him.

The Silly Human Tricks are a big part of lightening the mood and spreading joy to those around us.