Ray

Let me tell you about Ray. Ray is the opposite of a dead baby…he is vibrant, active, chubby and always hungry. He is the happy healthy infant that mothers dream about…but he’s an orphan.

His mother was from a neighboring village and came to deliver at the hospital. She didn’t have any relatives accompany her to come to visit her, which the staff knew was a bad sign…it meant she had no support. She also gave a different history of where she was from every time the hospital staff asked. They were happy when she was discharged in 24 hours and left with the baby….

Happy until they a day later someone showed up with Ray at the hospital. They said he was left at their doorstep, and they could not care for him…so they dropped him off at the Kintampo Municipal Hospital. He was called “abandoned baby” until my fellow scholar and I named him after her father – Ray.

The nurses were joking around that he was a blessed baby because we were going to take him to America with us. I wish we could. He would have such a different life if he could come on the plane with us when we return in May. But instead, he will go to a local orphanage where he will be raised with other African children. He will not remember the Americans that cared for him at birth and he will always wonder why his name is Ray. I hope the story of his name follows him throughout his life…because I don’t think Ray’s story is sad…

…he is one of the lucky ones to have his health and be given a chance at life.