I met Ishmael through some friends of ours here in Jinja. Cody and Drew called shortly after lunch one day and asked if I would look at a little boy's foot from the village. They brought Ishmael over to our house for me to look at his injury. When he arrived I found a happy, sweet, smiling little boy with a gruesome injury to his foot. 
We have been here for almost 10 months and I am still amazed and the toughness and resolve of the people here, especially the children. Ishmael showed no pain as I cleaned the wound to his foot and heel. The wound covered half the side of his foot and heel, it looked like someone had taken a knife and cut half of his heel away. His whole foot was terribly swollen from the injury. From what we could understand he was in some sort of accident involving a bicycle.
We have been here for almost 10 months and I am still amazed and the toughness and resolve of the people here, especially the children. Ishmael showed no pain as I cleaned the wound to his foot and heel. The wound covered half the side of his foot and heel, it looked like someone had taken a knife and cut half of his heel away. His whole foot was terribly swollen from the injury. From what we could understand he was in some sort of accident involving a bicycle.
Cody and Drew found Ishmael in the village by chance one day. They had gone to the village to play futbol with some of the kids and they found Ishmael crawling in the dirt. His foot was so badly injured that he could not walk so he was crawling around like a baby. Once we got him cleaned up and started on some antibiotics to fight off the infection he set off back to the village.
On Saturday we went out to the village to check on his progress and to change the dressings. As always when we arrived in the village the children greeted us with huge smiles as they ran up to the van. Pierce went with me this time. He had gotten himself dressed and had Auntie Apio put on his sandals and met me at the door saying "Daddy I go with you." How was a going to refuse him after that? We found Ishmael after a short walk into the village. He was hopping around on his good foot with a huge smile on his face. Some of the ladies brought out a grass mat and put in the shade for us to work on his foot. His injury still looked gruesome, but at least this time is was clean and the swelling had gone down. We were able to put on more antibiotic ointment and change his dressings. We are planning on going back on Monday to check on his progress. Before we left we got to meet his mother, she greeted us in the traditional way in the village by kneeling down on both knees and shaking our hand. She was so very grateful for the help and kept saying "thank you, thank you" over and over again. I was able to share with them that while I have bandages and some medicine, that God is the ultimate Healer and that it is through Him they will truly be "healed."
While I was treating Ishmael's injury, Pierce was playing with some of the kids in the village. I turned around and found him with a goat saying "Daddy I walking goat." Pierce seems to be a hit whenever we go into the village. They love the little blond haired, blued eyed Mzungu.
- Pierce catching a ride out of the village
I know for that every Ishmael we treat there are 10 more in the village that we never find that need help. Hopefully we can make a difference one life at a time.
I have included a link for some of the more graphic images for those who are interested in seeing the extent the injury.
Jason Segner- My list of human heroes is a short list....but you and your beautiful wife are at the top of that list. YOU ARE SO AWESOME!!! Thanks for sharing this story!
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