Dr. Shao

No, this is not a post about one of the doctors at the nearby hospital.

This is a post about my friend, Motsamai...

...or Dr. Shao as he will one day be called.

No, he hasn't told me he wants to be a doctor in the maybe sixteen words of Sesotho that he knows.

But watch him watch any doctor and you'll know where I'm coming from.

If there's a doctor in the room, his little boy...the crazy, giggling, wild one, who normally can't hold still...becomes a model of attention.

Curiosity pours from him.

The few months I have spent with him in the safe-home have taught me a great deal about this little man.

He will overcome Lesotho's staggering illiteracy rate.

He will be one of the just ten students to graduate from the local high school...out of the 100 who begin each year.

He will leave Lesotho, for a time, to attend medical school as there are no medical schools in this small nation.

He will become a doctor.

And one day, as he performs his doctorly duties, he will evoke the same curiosity in a little child and inspire them to become a doctor.

Most Sesotho names have a meaning...something significant that loving parents wish to bestow on their child.

Not just some vague meaning like most English names...Sesotho names have a direct translation.

Motsamai means "the one who travels far."

In his short eighteen months, this little boy has already traveled so far.

From his remote village to the safe-home.

From a desperate state of malnutrition to health.

I have a sneaking suspicion he's also been to India...you should see the way he sits when he's playing on the floor...the soles of his little feet touching, knees pointing outward...like a true yogi master.

And in the future, I predict he will travel even greater distances.

*I apologize that some of the pictures are fuzzy, but they made me laugh too much not to include.