I love how excited you get when you figure something out.
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Max and his family recently moved, and all of them liked their new house. They liked their old one plenty, too. Both houses have nearby parks, a nice school within walking distance, and friends to play with. What made this house better from his point of view was they were so close to where mom worked. She could get home quickly after her long days at the hospital, and if she got called in for a meeting on her day off, it didn’t take as long for her to get back home. This was especially important during the pandemic. There was certainly no shortage of sick kids, that was for sure. The sick kids mom treated at the children’s hospital seemed to be especially hurt by the evil virus, and sometimes that made mom, a hard-working nurse, feel a little down. So, the whole family was made a little happier when mom came home from work all cheerful one night. Max asked her why she was so happy.
“We brought in a specialist from Africa to help. He is just what we need in these times. His specialty is epidemiology– he is an epidemiologist! That means he is specially trained to help treat widespread disease outbreaks – epidemic is the fancy word for those. And he has been in Africa fighting epidemics for some time. He seems to be making progress. In fact, he thinks he might be on to something.” Max could hear the excitement in his mom’s voice. She became a nurse because she loved helping people, and he could see that through all the illness, she still saw a good chance to be helpful was at hand. Max could see how disappointed she was dealing with sick children. He asked if the new doctor would be done soon. Mom’s face fell a little bit as she answered. “It’s not quite that simple, Maxton.” Maxton was his full name,
and Max was a shortened form, or nickname. His mom loved the name Maxton and often used it, but most everyone else used his nickname. “The doctor has a hard time communicating with us.” she continued, “ because he speaks only Swahili, and there are not many Swahili speakers here in Colorado.
On top of that, he is old and very weakened, and we hope he can finish his work before he has to go back home to Nigeria. The good news is that he likes Colorado and is learning some English, but he misses his grandkids and the family members he had to leave back home. He is starting to pick up some English and everyone gets along with him. We are all hoping for the best. His name is Doctor Nnanji and you can see he is in it for the right reasons. He lights up like a lantern when he sees sick kids get better. I hope he sees more of that soon, for sure.”
With the pandemic holding control over everything, Max’s life settled into a routine. Most mornings, Max went off to school, for whatever school there was. With the pandemic and all that goes along with it – masks, limited contact, lots of sick students and teachers - going on, much of the learning was modified to be conducted on-line. The normal day was mornings in the classroom, then afternoons spent online doing lessons. Max was a good one for always trying to find the positive, and he liked some of this, like the extra time he got to spend with his brother Liam and the extra time he could spend on some subjects because he could get on the internet from his computer while he was doing his lessons. For the most part though, he missed meeting his new classmates and
playing with them during recess and after school. It was not the same trying to get to know a whole new group of friends when he only saw them on Zoom meetings. Max was hoping the pandemic would be over soon, but until then he promised to make the best of it, so no one ever heard Max complain.
Time went on and the routine went on as well. If anything, it got a little tougher to endure. In school class time was eliminated and all learning converted to online. Max enjoyed his classmates but would not see much of them for some time. In the meantime, the hospital was getting nervous about doctor Nnanji spending so much time there, so they asked hospital staff to let him work from their homes and only come in occasionally. As fortune would have it, Dr. Nnaji was assigned to work from Max’s house just as Max and his brother were sent to full time school from home. The doctor worked mostly at night, and while he kept his distance, he enjoyed watching Max and Liam play during the day. Once while Max played at stacking together construction blocks, the doc could no longer contain himself. “What these be?” He asked? Max explained they were Lego blocks. Legos are a hard-plastic toy building material. With them you can build many things, as he showed him cars, buildings, ships, planes, butterflies, and people he had stuck together from Legos. “I borrow some?” asked the
doctor, and Max assured him that was fine. He in turn showed Max his workspace, including a little bowl and a tiny hammer. He told Max they were his mortar and pestle, and said “I use, make medicine.” After that, no one saw the doctor for a while as he spent all his time in the office and at the hospital. Then one day, right before he was supposed to move out to stay with another family, he asked if he could go out to get some fresh air. Max’s mom asked the doctor if he would like to mask up and go to the park with Max. To Max’s surprise the doctor smiled broadly and said, “I like that” and followed Max to the park just a block from Max’s house. The doctor sat on a bench while Max sampled all the equipment at the playground. Max looked over from time to time, but all he saw was the doctor engaged in a cell phone call, yelling, and waving his arms and speaking in a language that Max could not understand a word of. Max got back to playing on the jungle gym and monkey bars, and lost all track of time until a teenager came over and said, “Hey kid are you with that old guy?” Max nodded and the teen replied, “Come quick!” Max ran over as the doctor was being loaded in an ambulance. He was still awake, and he signaled for Max to over. He looked Max right in the eye and said “Lagos, lagos, nickname.” Then his eyes snapped shut.
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I love how excited you get when you figure something out.

Max and his family recently moved, and all of them liked their new house. They liked their old one plenty, too. Both houses have nearby parks, a nice school within walking distance, and friends to play with. What made this house better from his point of view was they were so close to where mom worked. She could get home quickly after her long days at the hospital, and if she got called in for a meeting on her day off, it didn’t take as long for her to get back home. This was especially important during the pandemic. There was certainly no shortage of sick kids, that was for sure. The sick kids mom treated at the children’s hospital seemed to be especially hurt by the evil virus, and sometimes that made mom, a hard-working nurse, feel a little down. So, the whole family was made a little happier when mom came home from work all cheerful one night. Max asked her why she was so happy.
“We brought in a specialist from Africa to help. He is just what we need in these times. His specialty is epidemiology– he is an epidemiologist! That means he is specially trained to help treat widespread disease outbreaks – epidemic is the fancy word for those. And he has been in Africa fighting epidemics for some time. He seems to be making progress. In fact, he thinks he might be on to something.” Max could hear the excitement in his mom’s voice. She became a nurse because she loved helping people, and he could see that through all the illness, she still saw a good chance to be helpful was at hand. Max could see how disappointed she was dealing with sick children. He asked if the new doctor would be done soon. Mom’s face fell a little bit as she answered. “It’s not quite that simple, Maxton.” Maxton was his full name,
and Max was a shortened form, or nickname. His mom loved the name Maxton and often used it, but most everyone else used his nickname. “The doctor has a hard time communicating with us.” she continued, “ because he speaks only Swahili, and there are not many Swahili speakers here in Colorado.
On top of that, he is old and very weakened, and we hope he can finish his work before he has to go back home to Nigeria. The good news is that he likes Colorado and is learning some English, but he misses his grandkids and the family members he had to leave back home. He is starting to pick up some English and everyone gets along with him. We are all hoping for the best. His name is Doctor Nnanji and you can see he is in it for the right reasons. He lights up like a lantern when he sees sick kids get better. I hope he sees more of that soon, for sure.”
With the pandemic holding control over everything, Max’s life settled into a routine. Most mornings, Max went off to school, for whatever school there was. With the pandemic and all that goes along with it – masks, limited contact, lots of sick students and teachers - going on, much of the learning was modified to be conducted on-line. The normal day was mornings in the classroom, then afternoons spent online doing lessons. Max was a good one for always trying to find the positive, and he liked some of this, like the extra time he got to spend with his brother Liam and the extra time he could spend on some subjects because he could get on the internet from his computer while he was doing his lessons. For the most part though, he missed meeting his new classmates and
playing with them during recess and after school. It was not the same trying to get to know a whole new group of friends when he only saw them on Zoom meetings. Max was hoping the pandemic would be over soon, but until then he promised to make the best of it, so no one ever heard Max complain.
Time went on and the routine went on as well. If anything, it got a little tougher to endure. In school class time was eliminated and all learning converted to online. Max enjoyed his classmates but would not see much of them for some time. In the meantime, the hospital was getting nervous about doctor Nnanji spending so much time there, so they asked hospital staff to let him work from their homes and only come in occasionally. As fortune would have it, Dr. Nnaji was assigned to work from Max’s house just as Max and his brother were sent to full time school from home. The doctor worked mostly at night, and while he kept his distance, he enjoyed watching Max and Liam play during the day. Once while Max played at stacking together construction blocks, the doc could no longer contain himself. “What these be?” He asked? Max explained they were Lego blocks. Legos are a hard-plastic toy building material. With them you can build many things, as he showed him cars, buildings, ships, planes, butterflies, and people he had stuck together from Legos. “I borrow some?” asked the
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