If I had a doctor- Maria Zabaleta 2ºAR

If I had a doctor…

If I had a doctor I would have a family. My name is Syma and I am 14 years old. I live in Gambia, in a small town call Britang. I don’t have a family, I don’t have an education. I have nothing in my life. My father, my mother and my three sisters died in 2010 due to illnesses that in other countries are preventable. My father died the 4^th of March in 2010 because he had bronchitis and we couldn´t takes him to the hospital. It is 40km to the north. My mother and my 2 sisters died the same time on the 15^th of July due to diarrhea. Finally, my youngest sister died with 2 months of age the 30^th of September. On the 16^th of April of 2012 an ONG came to my village to take care of us for a few months. They gave us many things; they built a school, a small hospital… One month later I had all the illnesses in the world: malaria, bronchitis, diarrhea… so I went to the hospital and they told me that in my village they did not have the necessary medicines to cure me, so I had to go to the city. On September 3^rd I went to the city. They examined me and 2 hours after they gave me the news that I had only 2 months to live.

If I had a doctor, I wouldn’t die, but this is my destiny, the best is that I am going to gather my family. I am writing this story because I know that the entire world is going to read it and to show them that this is not the perfect life but it is my life and I have to enjoy it the most. Maybe you have more things than underdeveloped countries, but we know much more how to take advantage of the things around us. If you have any disease you go to the hospital in any moment. If you are thirsty, you drink a glass of water in a minute, but in my country we do not have those types of privileges. We have to walk 50 kilometers to find water from a well, we do not go to school;for you we are nothing, but for us we are the world. Maybe you think that our life is disgusting but it is not; at leastwe have the opportunities to live in this great and beautiful world, and this is the only thing that is important.