Polio

Today Mary and all of the kids, including Wallace, were supposed to come by.  However, Mary called me this morning to tell me that she would have to come much later in the day because she needed to go a nearby island for the day.

The reason for the trip was that Mary's cousin died last week and the family needed to clean out the house, both inside and out, and then replace all of the stones with new ones.  They went to this other island to get the stones.  When she stopped by this evening, she looked exhausted. 

The cousin was 20 years old and died of polio.  Because of my extensive travels to developing countries in the past, I was very aware that although polio has been pretty much eradicated in the developed world, it still exists elsewhere.  I find it shocking that with such a strong relationship to the US, even one case of polio exists in the Marshall Islands.  I did some research and learned that since the global effort to eradicate polio began in 1988, the number of annual diagnosed cases has been reduced by 99%.  There are only about 1,000 diagnosed cases worldwide, mostly in certain parts of Africa and Asia (including the Marshall Islands).  Apparently one of those rare cases is Mary's cousin.  It's sad because it is completely preventable. 

On a happier note, when Mary came by this evening, she brought Tyna and Monica.  Monica is still quite shy with me, but Tyna always gives me a big smile.  Tonight, I got better than that.  As soon as she saw me, she ran up to me and gave me a big hug!  

Every day my bond to this family is growing stronger.  We will come back to the Marshall Islands in a few years.  In the meantime I hope we can continue to build our relationship from a distance.  At at minimum it is of great importance that Zach know his family here.  But these are my friends and I want to stay in touch for my own self now too.  It is going to be really hard to leave when the time comes.