A game of pairs

We try and do interactive games, particularly with the kids. They love it One of the favourites is the game 'pairs', where we have lots of picture cards turned upside down and the aim is to find by turning over 2 at a time, the matching card. Unfamiliar pictures of purple monkeys, dinosaurs, birthday cake, rag dolls and such keep the kids particularly interested.
Last night I had a few games with two of my patients. One little girl speaks only French (and those who know me know how much French I remember...), the other little boy speaks Liberian English (which to be fair can be as undecipherable as French to me sometimes!). Konhu has a large mass on her neck and has been waiting over a week now for our CT scanner to be fixed so she can be scanned before they go ahead with her operation. Fixing tings here can be painfully slow but with her home being 3 days travel away, the little girl and her Mama have decided to sit it out on the ship. Kossi had bilateral osteotomys on his legs, which before surgery were so bent he was virtually sitting in the floor. He is now wheelchair bound until his casts are removed after 3 months and he begins physio to get him walking again.
Both children are quite shy, but they love pairs. With games like that, language is no barrier, and we settled down to several rounds with plenty of laughing and giggling as the 2 tried to cheat sneaking a look at cards before they turned them over. I am sad t say, I am particularly horrendous at the game, and I lost every time!
It is such a nice thing to have time to invest just being with my patients. They all love just spending time with us. I can't quite imagine how I will adapt to such a different way of working at home, generally with so little time just to sit and 'be' with the patients. It's sometimes means as much to the people here as the surgery itself. I think everyone should get a taste of this...