Tonight we went to eat at the Jiuza restaurant. The dinner
was good and we had a nice time. Afterward, the girls went shopping and we went
to the bank and then to find corn chips at one of the import markets here in
Clifford. As we were walking out of the shopping area to go back to the bus we
could hear a commotion. I heard the loud, high voices of two women. They
sounded distressed, but not understanding Chinese, I could not tell what was
happening. When we neared the parking lot we could see them and one held a
baby, about 3 years old. The lights from the stores were not bright enough to
illuminate the parking area very well. It looked as though the baby must have
been hit by a car in the parking lot. The mother held her limp, silent child,
and ran back and forth frantically yelling and crying, wondering what to do.
Security guards swarmed the area, but they seemed impotent for rendering aid. Someone,
one of the guards maybe, called the police and a moment later, an officer
showed up on his motorcycle with the red light flashing. Very soon, we saw the
mother, sitting on the back of the officer’s motorcycle, with the baby cradled
in her arms, as the traffic police halted all the cars they sped toward
the hospital, about five minutes away. I can’t erase from my mind the image of
the baby’s striped pants and pink jacket flapping as the father and grandmother
chased along behind the motorcycle. From the time of the accident, to the time
which they would arrive at the hospital was probably about ten minutes. Ten
minutes with no first aid except the prayers of a few Americans and a mother’s
frantic love. I hope it was enough. I hope the doctors at the hospital can help
the baby and that the little family recovers. I keep praying for that.

To be in a country where the best way to get an unresponsive
child, who’s been hit by a car, to the hospital is on the back of a police
motorcycle is an eerie and bizarre thought that I can barely get my mind
around. Is there a word to describe the mixed feelings of dismay for the family,
being appalled at knowing an ambulance would take many, many precious minutes
to arrive on the scene and not necessarily give good treatment en route to the hospital,
and deep gratitude for a police officer who would go beyond his duties and have
the ability to think clearly enough to see that the fastest and best way to get
this child help was to act without hesitation and take the distraught mother
and child on the back of his motorcycle? I don’t know the word, but God does, and I know he hears my prayers. May He bless the officer for his good service,
and bless that little child and her family to have the strength to overcome and
heal from this ordeal, and bless the doctors to know what is best to do, and
may he bless the driver of the car that hit the child.