He told me I need to go find a little 7 year old boy in Rehanliyah (A Southern town in Turkey) who lost his leg in a bombing. The boy asked this man if he could please come to America so he could get his leg back. I will be looking for this kid and I have a message for him from the man: He is working on your visa.
The boy was playing with his friends in Aleppo when bombs started dropping. He ran for shelter and grabbed his friends. Then he remembered his mom was still in the house.. He left the bomb shelter and raced back home, just in time for a bomb to take his leg off. I'm sure every mom dreams of a son who would take care of them when they are older, but not a 7 year old boy who returns to come find his mother.
I asked the Medicine man why he keeps going back. He said that when he saw Syrian Refugees making stitching supplies out of plastic bags and sewing up kids faces without anesthetics, it broke his heart. He pays out of pocket to go and do this. He hits up the local doctors for supplies.. He is currently, as we speak doing just that to set me up with some medicine.
I have much to do in Turkey.. There will be time for many things, helping, seeing things, learning new things, and exploring not just physical structures but emotional ones as well.
I just packed my backpack. Its pretty impressive. Its one backpack. I made little origami earring kits to take to the kids. I don't know what to expect, and I'm trying not to expect anything so that every single thing that happens is pure in it's existence to my eyes rather than seeing things the way I want to see them.
Okay, more trip planning to do. But had to write that.