let it live
“Ummera, ummera-sha” is a Rwandan saying that loosely translated means ‘Courage, courage, my friend - find your courage and let it live.’ It was said to me by a patient at our hospital in Kigali. She was slightly older than middle aged and had been attacked with machetes, her entire body rationally and systematically mutilated. Her face had been so carefully disfigured that a pattern was obvious in the slashes. I could do little more for her at that moment than stop the bleeding with a few sutures. We were completely overwhelmed. She knew and I knew that there were so many others. She said to me in the clearest voice I have ever heard, “Allez, allez. Ummera, ummera-sha” - ‘Go, go. Courage, courage, my friend - find your courage and let it live.’
---dr. james orbinski ; past international president of médecins sans frontières