Healing, Dancing and Hope

Late one evening in June, three-year old Sironka was sleeping peacefully in his bed while his mother, Esiankiki, was outside milking the cows. As is common in most Maasai houses, there is a small communal fire in the center of the home for cooking and warmth. As Sironka turned over in his sleep, he rolled off the bed and fell into the fire.

Esiankiki, alerted to his screams, ran inside to see what had happened.  Sironka was badly burned and needed urgent medical attention. His father knew other Maasai from the village who had been treated at FAME, and decided that was where Sironka needed to go. The four hour journey from their village of Endulen to FAME was made by Sironka and Esiankiki on a Dala Dala, the local form of public transportation.

Upon reaching FAME, Esiankiki, who speaks KiMaasai, had difficulty communicating with the doctors and nurses who were speaking Kiswahili. Fortunately, the next morning Esiankiki was greeted by Kitashu, a FAME social worker fluent in KiMaasai, or KiMaa, and Kitashu became the translator between the little boy’s mother and the medical staff.

In the weeks following, Kitashu checked on Sironka frequently to monitor his recovery and was pleased to see that he was healing well and becoming more energetic. Appreciating the difficulty for this little patient and his mother being surrounded by foreign-sounding people in an unfamiliar environment, and wanting them to feel more comfortable, Kitashu started playing Maasai gospel music for Sironka and his mother on his phone. And little Sironka, absolutely delighted, began to dance!

After that first dance, Kitashu returned every day to hold little dancing sessions with Sironka and his mother out on FAME’s central lawn. He created a playlist of Maasai songs, and the one being played when this photo was taken is called Osim Lai by a Maasai artist called Tychius, and translates to “you are my hope.” All three looked forward to their daily entertainment.

Soon, Sironka will be able to return home, fully recovered. While this has been a very difficult journey for him and was a particularly heart-wrenching case for everyone involved in his care, we at FAME share tremendous pride in having managed his recovery with the assistance of many teams, including the creativity of Kitashu who worked to help Sironka and his mother adapt to FAME’s unfamiliar environment. We’re hoping to see Sironka again, under different circumstances, and look forward to more of his dance moves!

*Names have been changed to protect the privacy of the patients