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SCREEN TEXT

DIALOGUE

MUSIC TRACK

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Black African Sky

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OPENING CREDITS:

Marie-Vérité Films presents

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OPENING CREDITS:

In association with: National Film & Video Foundation of South Africa

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OPENING CREDITS:

In association with: Gauteng Film Commission

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OPENING CREDITS:

A Ryley Grunenwald Film

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FILM TITLE:

The Dawn of a New Day

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TERTIUS:

From an early age in my life, I’ve always had this sense of a big ship. And I’m on this ship. I could never understand what that meant but it’s almost in a certain sense a vision that I’ve had, because I felt that link between me and a big white ship.

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TERTIUS:

Just the fine type of precision work really caught my attention...

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00:02:18

NAME SUPER:

Dr. Tertius Venter,

Plastic Surgeon

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TERTIUS:

...and the wide variety of what plastic surgeons do in reconstructive work. And I remember going home and said to my wife, “it’s like a glove just fitting me perfectly”. I just felt this is what I must do. This is what I was almost destined to do.

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00:02:56

Ntsebezo

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DESTINATION SUPER:

Djidja, Benin

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NAME SUPER:

Hyacinthe,

10 years old

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00:03:12

HYACINTHE:

They started beating me up. A boy called Sebastien asked the others to beat me harder so I hit him back.

Then they took my crutch and threw it aside. When I got my crutch back I hit him hard with it in the balls.

They swelled up.

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NAME SUPER:

Constant Kponhinto,

Social Worker

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HYACINTHE’S SOCIAL WORKER, CONSTANT:

Hyacinthe is a turbulent and restless boy. He reacts to a kick with a kick. He is smart. He was able to custom design his own crutch. Unfortunately he doesn’t apply that smartness to school so he deceives us.

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TEACHER:

N... N!!

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HYACINTHE:

I love playing ‘Adji’ and laughing at my friends’ jokes.

People sometimes say to my opponents, “Is that cripple outsmarting you?”

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00:04:38

African Masala 1

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DESTINATION SUPER:

Cotonou, Benin

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NAME SUPER:

Ambroise Azilenon,

Taxi Driver

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AMBROISE:

My name is Ambroise Azilenon and I was born in Cotonou. I’m 34, I have one wife and two children.

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NAME SUPER:

Rosette Azilenon,

Ambroise’s wife

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ROSETTE:

One night I asked him why he always enters the bedroom dressed. I nagged him until he showed me his arm. When I saw it I was disturbed. Our relationship was never the same.

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AMBROISE:

I cover my arm every day because of the shame. I keep to myself. I can’t even take off my shirt to cool off under a tree.

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AMBROISE:

When the tumour starts hurting me I can’t move or hold anything.

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DESTINATION SUPER:

Sèmè-Kraké, Beninese-Nigerian Border

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NAME SUPER:

Fadila,

11 years old

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FADILA:

I like going to school because I want to become someone important. I want to help others become successful. I prefer spending time with my parents. They really take good care of me. They give me money if I need it. Even when I have problems at school they are there for me.

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NAME SUPER:

Fati Ibrahim,

Fadila’s mother

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FADILA’S MOTHER:

When someone mocks Fadila’s nose and she wants to retaliate out of anger, I remind her that she is not responsible for her nose.

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NAME SUPER:

Josiah Sagbohan,

Fadila’s Headmaster

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FADILA’S HEADMASTER:

She often hides in the corner of the playground to eat lunch alone.

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FADILA:

When people make fun of me it really hurts. I hate them and I can’t stop thinking about the things they’ve said to me.

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Sonskyn Middagete

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DESTINATION SUPER:

Cape Town, South Africa

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NAME SUPER:

Trudi Venter

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TRUDI:

The first time I met him was when I was standing at the corner of a street and he came around on his bicycle, and I saw him and my heart just went ‘whoops!’.

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TERTIUS:

She’s a high-school love of mine. And we met when I was about 15 or 16 and she a year younger than me.

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TRUDI:

And in actual fact, when he asked me out the first time I ran home to go ask my mom permission, we came from a rugby match, and I shouted to my mom, as she was on her way to work, I said, “Mom! Mom! I’m going out with a guy tonight that I’m going to marry one day.” So somehow I knew. What struck me about Tertius when I met him the first time and getting to know him better was his quiet strength. He’s always been more quiet and serious and just doing his own thing.

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HYACINTHE’S MOTHER:

We burn vegetation in order to have land to farm. So his father burned the land. And later that day it rained and we didn’t think that the ashes would still be burning.

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NAME SUPER:

Félicienne Glékpodji,

Hyacinthe’s mother

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HYACINTHE’S MOTHER:

It was the devil’s wish. We went to the farmland the next day and all the children were playing there. While we were checking that the fire had died, Hyacinthe fell into the ash. By the time his brother had pulled him out he had burned.

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HYACINTHE’S MOTHER:

The last time I visited Hyacinthe here at his uncle’s was three years ago...I live far from here and because Hyacinthe can’t help me with the farm work I sent him to live with his uncle where he is able to go to school.

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Maria

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FADILA:

The first time I saw the ship it was like a house and I got scared thinking if it were to capsize I’d fall into the water.

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TERTIUS:

I was just drawn to the ship. And I went down to the port and saw the people and spoke to them and three months later I was serving on the ship, just for a very short visit, my first visit was just ten days.

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TERTIUS:

All right, so we’ll do the operation tomorrow morning.

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00:10:33

TERTIUS:

Mercy Ships is serving the poor all over the world with a hospital ship that provides free surgeries to the poorest of the poor.

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DESTINATION SUPER:

Cotonou, Benin

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00:11:03

INTERTITLE:

Screening Day

Cotonou, Benin

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00:11:07

NAME SUPER:

Dr. Gary Parker

Chief Medical Officer,

Africa Mercy

Mercy Ships

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(Subtitles shifted after name super)

00:11:37

DR. PARKER:

The standard of healthcare in Benin, as compared to a nation like Liberia where you’ve had 15 years of civil war, is considerably better. Their infrastructure is in tact, they have quite a number of highly trained doctors and nurses. The challenge here, as it is with the poorest nations on earth, is that for 30-50% of the population – healthcare is not available because either it’s physically not there or because it’s financially unavailable. That’s a major issue when you have a nation of eight and a half million people.

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00:12:04

AMBROISE:

One day I was dropping off a client at the Trade Union Centre. When I saw the long queue I thought it was the government handing out money before the elections. I asked people what was going on and someone told me that foreigners were treating the sick and I said, “Really?”

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TERTIUS:

We’ve got to make the decisions and prioritize the patients and think about function – who are the ones that we can really make a big difference in their lives and who’s really handicapped by their condition that we can really help them. It’s still hard to tell people, “Sorry, we can’t help you,” especially if it’s something that we can do something about but it’s simply that there’s not enough time and not enough resources to do it.

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00:13:20

Wright and Wrong

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TERTIUS:

Unfortunately, the scars on the face, there’s not much we can do for that….Ok...Straighten it. We can release that, make it straight for him...It’s one of those diseases that often runs in families and we cannot control it.

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HYACINTHE:

When we got there someone called out loudly, ‘Hyacinthe Adankpehounde’.

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TERTIUS:

Hyacinthe sustained severe burn injury of his leg and th only way that the body can heal that is by pulling it up, in other words contracturing the wound to get all the skin closed up by the body’s own forces of healing.

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TERTIUS:

So what we will do: we will release this, we will put some skin inside here, we will also release that one. We should get the leg straight and the foot in a nice position so that he can walk.

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00:14:13

TERTIUS:

It’s a hemangioma. So it’s basically just blood vessels that’s dilated. He’s born like that. It gets bigger and bigger with time. We will make a long cut from here right down the arm. And maybe also at the back. But he will have a long cut across here. There’s a risk of bleeding but it’s usually venous bleeding so just a bit of pressure usually stops the bleeding.

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00:14:33

FADILA:

I felt that because I was waiting for so long in the sun at the screening, God would help me get an appointment card for the surgery and then my friends wouldn’t laugh at me anymore.

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00:14:43

TERTIUS:

-It’s amniotic band release of the right lower leg.

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NURSE:

Ah, right lower leg.

00:14:45

00:14:48

TERTIUS:

I’ll have to concentrate when I’m writing!

00:14:48

00:15:18

TERTIUS:

When I came to the ship there were a few impressions that really lasted in my mind. The one was the poverty that I saw. It was unbelievable. I come from South Africa, which is partly first world partly third world, and we do have a lot of poverty, but I’d never seen the poverty that I saw in West Africa. And that really gripped my heart. But I had that big feeling that there’s something bigger that we are born for.

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00:15:33

TRUDI:

It made me quite excited that he enjoyed it and I thought that it was a very good thing that he did. But I was not prepared for what was going to happen afterwards, most definitely not. So it came as a very big shock.

00:15:33:

00:16:10

TERTIUS:

I was a different person when I got home. She almost didn’t know who this person was that came back. If your husband has got a good job, you’ve got a fantastic home and all the things that give you stability in life – and suddenly your husband comes back and says, “our house is not important to me anymore. And even my job, my practice is not so important to me anymore”. The motor car that I had, my boat, my four-wheel drive vehicle – everything just lost its meaning. And I could see the question marks on her face thinking, “what is going on here? What has happened here?”.

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00:16:20

TRUDI:

Our relationship definitely changed. So I started thinking I’d done something wrong or “why did things change?”, because he just became more and more quiet.

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00:17:17

Zulu

00:16:29

00:16:34

INTERTITLE:

Fadila’s admission day

Africa Mercy, Benin

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00:16:58

TERTIUS:

Okay, does she have any questions?

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00:17:27

TERTIUS:

Fadila’s abnormality is so obvious that everybody looking at her will immediately see the defect and will react. We often find that these patients will not look you in the eye. They will actually look away when you talk to them because they don’t want to see your reaction, which they get so used to, and every time it keeps hurting them.

00:17:30

00:17:46

FADILA:

I prayed to God and thanked him but I also prayed that those people who are laughing at me will all have children that are born with the same problem as me.

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00:18:13

Cow Spirit (less percussion)

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00:17:58

TITLE:

Hyacinthe’s admission day

Africa Mercy, Benin

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00:18:24

HYACINTHE’S MOTHER (OFFSCREEN):

Don’t look….It won’t hurt!

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00:18:40

NURSE:

We’ve got, we’ve got it, tell him we’ve got it.

00:18:59

00:19:13

TERTIUS:

Bonjour. Good evening. Ok, um, Hello…. Ok, all right, we’ll see you tomorrow morning.

00:19:13

00:20:11

Bagcine

00:19:13

00:19:20

INTETITLE:

Hyacinthe,

Day of surgery

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00:21:23

TERTIUS:

On the ship that I visited just for ten days I was sitting one night on the deck just overlooking the sea. And it really felt like God was sitting next to me on a chair. I also experienced a sense of love, of deep, deep, lover for God that I’ve never experienced in my life. And that moment really changed my life forever.

00:21:39

00:21:45

TERTIUS:

I’ll just check that the bleeding is Okay and as I stretch it I want to keep checking that it is Okay.

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00:22:25

7.4

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00:22:18

INTERTITLE:

Ambroise’s admission day

Africa Mercy, Benin

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00:22:34

ADMISSION NURSE:

If he understands that there’re risks involved in any surgery and he still wants to go ahead with it, if he can sign the consent for surgery.

00:22:38

00:22:45

AMBROISE:

My parents always wanted me to have surgery but my late father was afraid that something would go wrong.

00:22:52

00:22:57

INTERTITLE:

Fadila

Day of surgery

00:22:58

00:23:08

FADILA:

When it was time for the surgery I felt safe because I wasn’t alone. My mother was there taking care of me.

00:23:21

00:23:33

FADILA’S MOTHER:

At first I was scared and anxious when they took Fadila but later I confided everything to God.

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00:24:44

Zulu

00:24:22

00:24:28

TERTIUS:

Pull it a little bit that way….that’s Okay, that’s good.

00:24:44

00:25:02

TERTIUS:

We thought we might have needed either a flap from her cheek or from the forehead to close the defect but as we progressed with the operation I realized that it’s almost like a cleft lip. All the tissue was actually there, we just had to rearrange back into its normal position.

00:25:19

00:25:29

RECOVERY NURSE:

Diana, her name is Fadila. Please tell her to relax and not to breathe through her nose, but breathe through her mouth.

00:25:58

00:26:13

FADILA’S MOTHER:

As soon as I got into the recovery room I called Fadila’s name and she responded. She started asking where we were and then I knew that she was all right.

00:26:20

00:26:34

HYACINTHE’S MOTHER:

I’m going to leave! I will go home. You say, ‘hmmm’. What does that mean?...Come closer! What are you doing?

00:26:34

00:26:39

HYACINTHE (OFFSCREEN):

- The pillow is sliding…

HYACINTHE’S MOTHER:

- But you can still put your head here.

00:26:53

00:27:11

TERTIUS:

His surgery went very well. I sort of expected not to get the limb completely straight particularly the knee, but it came out straight and we could also get the ankle in a good position.

Immediately after the surgery I could see that he was going through a difficult time.

00:27:13

00:27:46

HYACINTHE’S NURSE:

I can very clearly remember when I first met Hyacinthe. He was often in his bed, curled up…he would have the sheets pulled over his head, he wouldn’t make eye contact with anyone, he wouldn’t answer back if you tried to speak him or ask him a question. Nobody could get through to him, really, he translators, the nursing staff. It was a couple of days late when I met his mom and they didn’t seem to have much of a bond.

00:27:56

00:33:09

Black African Sky

00:28:04

00:28:11

INTERTITLE:

Ambroise

Day of surgery

00:29:23

00:29:31

TERTIUS:

She often said that I was more interested in what God was saying to me and spending more time with God than with her.

00:29:37

00:29:51

TRUDI:

I was just thinking that I’m being excluded. And that I’m not part of this and that I’m not important in this. That I don’t belong. So my feelings of rejection were very intense, not being able to understand.

00:30:04

00:30:09

NURSE (OFFSCREEN):

• Because of the blood loss are we still going to do his back?

TERTIUS (OFFSCREEN):

• We’ll see.

00:30:14

00:30:24

TERTIUS:

The difficulty of following God in this is that God has been very clear from the start that he wants me to do it on my own without my family.

00:30:27

00:30:37

TRUDI:

What is this all about? What’s in it for me? Why am I here? We’re married, God put us together and now he’s calling him away?

00:30:58

00:31:01

TERTIUS:

-How much blood did he lose?

NURSE

- Over three pints.

00:31:04

00:31:25

TERTIUS:

Actually I feel like I can relieve the difficulties of my wife being alone and not seeing my family. I’ve got the key in my hand. I can just turn around and go back to them….But then if I do that I’ve got to turn my back on God and I will lose the reason for my existence.

00:31:40

00:31:51

TRUDI:

When I actually realized, “but this is going nowhere, I am definitely not part of the going away bit of his calling”, then my whole world tumbled.

00:31:55

00:31:59

OVERHEAD ANNOUNCEMENT (OFFSCREEN):

Jamie Ray, go to the laboratory immediately.

00:32:07

00:32:30

TRUDI:

I sort of started hating the ship and blaming the ship for taking my husband away. As the ship came around the harbour wall I could hurl a bomb at her and just think, “if you were not there all of this would not have happened”. And Tertius was standing on the side where we were waiting for the ship to come in and he was just so emotional and I couldn’t understand it at all.

00:32:31

00:32:36

LABORATORY DOCTOR:

How many units do you need immediately? Do we need to do it right now?

00:32:46

00:32:55

TERTIUS:

When I’m in West Africa I just know in heart this is where I need to be and I’m busy doing what I was born for.

00:33:11

00:33:46

Something in the air

00:33:24

00:33:27

WARD NURSE:

So he’s due on Sunday. Yeah, he’s due on the 19^th.

00:33:19

00:33:34

TERTIUS:

He’s day three, ja, he’s getting up on crutches today.

00:33:31

00:33:52

HYACINTHE:

It was quite difficult for me to walk when they gave me the crutches. It felt as if my leg was falling off.

00:33:56

00:34:22

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST:

Tell him he can squeeze the crutches against his side too ‘cause right now he’s putting a lot of weight through his wrists…..he’s good, hey, with the crutches. He’s one of the best natural crutch walkers I’ve ever seen.

00:34:22

00:35:06

HYACINTHE’S NURSE:

Hyacinthe and his mom are a much closer now. For example, the other day when Hyacinthe was crying over dome of the exercises his mom actually came over and cuddled him which she would not have done before. They laugh a lot together….I see them often in the bed just talking to each other. She strokes his head sometimes when he’s going off to sleep. Yeah, none of that happened in the beginning. His mom slept under the bed, Hyacinthe was on top and there was really no communication between them. Now that’s completely changed. Some nights I’ve found both his mom and Hyacinthe sleeping together under the bed.

00:35:12

00:35:49

TERTIUS:

Any operation that we do, scars take quite a long time to mature fully and to give the final appearance. It can take 18 months to 2 years….It’s very common for patients to expect their final results very soon after surgery even when the first bandages come off. But obviously there will be swelling, and there will be a lot of sutures that will be visible. I think in Fadila’s case she was a little bit shocked when she saw it but we know that things are going to get much better and much better as time progresses.

00:35:54

00:35:58

DESTINATION SUPER:

Dublin, Ireland

00:36:05

00:36:16

TERTIUS:

The work that I do with Mercy Ships in West Africa, this is all voluntary work, and this is all funded by the work that I do in Dublin as this is the only time that I actually earn money.

00:36:16

00:36:20

DESTINATION SUPER:

Consulting Rooms

00:36:20

00:36:25

TERTIUS:

So the main thing that is worrying you is the prominence, this part of your nose, that’s the main thing.

00:36:30

00:36:45

TERTIUS:

In a certain sense it’s also difficult never to be in one place for more than 2 or 3 weeks at a time. Leaving my wife at home, travelling for 9 months of the year and only seeing my family for about 3 months of the year.

00:36:47

00:37:05

TRUDI:

Other people saw that things were different, that he was away from home a lot, and they couldn’t understand it either. So the advice that I was getting all said, “But leave him! Just don’t go through with this whole thing. It’s ridiculous. He’s not hearing God’s voice. It can’t be that God is doing that in anybody’s life”.

00:37:05

00:37:28

TERTIUS:

It was certainly for a large portion of the church very difficult and for some totally unacceptable that I could ever think that God would do a thing like that – to call me out of my family to go and serve Him and leave them behind. And I can just say that I don’t understand it either but I know that’s what God want me to do.

00:37:29

00:37:43

TRUDI:

But I think the hurt was deep. I think he was really hurt by people’s mistrust of him as a person and his integrity. Because I loved him when they criticized him it also really hurt.

00:37:43

00:38:01

TERTIUS:

It is a continuous struggle everyday, to miss Trudi and not to be with her and to see her heartache and her struggles being alone. And from time to time I really wish things could be different.

00:38:07

00:38:30

TERTIUS:

Good morning, how are you? Ok, I just want to look at it.

Some of those blood vessels were almost as thick as my thumb so they tend to lose blood very rapidly.

And forward, and backwards. Pull it this way… All right, that’s good. Ok, so you’ll be going home tomorrow.

00:38:37

00:38:42

OTHER PATIENTS

- Give us some more!

00:38:42

00:38:53

AMBROISE:

• That’s enough. But that was just my opening act. You’ll have to buy a ticket to see the rest.

OTHER PATIENTS:

- Come on, give us some more!

00:38:53

00:38:55

AMBROISE:

- Goodbye!

00:39:04

00:39:07

AMBROISE’S SISTER:

Our brother is back!

00:39:17

00:39:41

AMBROISE:

Don’t even ask about how they took care of me. They treated me as if I were the only one on the ship….I received 8 units of blood. All of mine are finished. Now that I’m back I can’t just eat any food. Because the ship’s blood is flowing through my veins you need to feed me well.

00:39:44

00:39:52

AMBROISE’S SISTER (SINGING):

Oh, my honey, why did you leave me alone?

AMBROISE (SINGING):

I’m back, I’m back!

AMBROISE’S SISTER (SINGING):

I missed you, I missed you.

00:39:54

00:39:57

DESTINATION SUPER:

Cape Town, South Africa

00:39:59

00:40:25

TRUDI:

Whenever we would socialise outside my circle of friends it would always be, “Oh, this is Trudi Venter, Tertius’ wife”. And if you’re not your husband’s wife you are your children’s mother. So it was a time to rely on God and not rely on Tertius for who I am. So Tertius couldn’t determine my identity anymore.

00:40:27

00:40:47

Ntsebezo

00:40:43

00:40:50

HYACINTHE:

The best part about playing cards is beating my friends.

00:40:51

00:41:04

HYACINTHE’S NURSE:

He’s a leader now on the ward, he grabs the games, he gets other kids together, he teaches them how to play…he hates to lose and he’s devised about 50 different ways to cheat.

00:41:10

00:41:23

TERTIUS:

Sometime because the leg has not been used for almost 9 years of his life the muscles tend to shorten over time, so do the blood vessels and the nerves. He might need a built up shoe.

00:41:22

00:41:47

African Masala 1

00:41:44

00:42:02

AMBROISE:

Before the surgery I sometime felt intense pain. But now my arm doesn’t hurt me anymore. I can now do things that I couldn’t do before. I have the strength to do anything.

00:42:03

00:42:08

ROSETTE, AMBROISE’S WIFE:

He walks around bare-chested now. And that makes me very happy.

00:42:08

00:42:18

AMBROISE:

The blood they gave me is the greatest thing. Just knowing what the people on the ship did for me makes me happy. It proved how much they love the Beninese, how much they love us.

00:42:18

00:42:45

Bagcine

00:42:06

00:42:53

HYACINTHE’S MOTHER:

I will stay here until Hyacinthe’s wound has healed. Then I will have to leave him.

00:42:55

00:43:03

CONSTANT, HYACINTHE’S SOCIAL WORKER:

We can’t force Hyacinthe’s mother to leave her other children to be with him. She promised me she’ll visit from time to time.

00:43:09

00:43:18

HYACINTHE:

After spending time with my mom it really hurt me when it was time for her to leave.

00:43:23

00:44:54

Uhadi Showers

00:43:53

00:44:02

TRUDI:

It’s very hard to explain to people why I’m going to places always on my own. And then I sort if have to say to them, “but I do have a husband, he’s just not here now”.

00:44:05

00:44:29

TERTIUS:

At this stage it’s hard for us to be separated 9 months of the year. We speak on the telephone each day at least 10 or 20 minutes, wherever I am in the world I phone her, I email, we send text messages at least once a day of not 2 or 3 times a day. So we keep in contact all the time. And we just miss each other terribly.

00:44:32

00:44:45

TRUDI:

How and where I’m going to fit into the future I don’t know. So, yes, this separation might be temporary, or it might not be. It’s Okay if it continues.

00:45:22

00:45:44

FADILA’S MOTHER:

Fadila used to come home crying because people insulted her. But now that’s changed because she feels there is nothing wrong with her.

00:45:46

00:46:13

FADILA:

Now my classmates treat me differently. They always want me to be with them. When they buy food and invite me to join them I don’t because they’d never invited me before. To the people who used to insult me before, I tell them that I’m normal now and they can insult themselves.

00:46:11

00:47:55

Sonskyn Middagete

00:46:22

00:46:29

DESTINATION SUPER:

Cape Town, South Africa

00:46:33

00:46:57

TRUDI:

I miss the emotional contact even though we speak on the phone every single day and there’s always email available, it’s not the same. There’s a wonderful Afrikaans word which is ‘koestering’. I miss that. I miss that protection, just being there, just sitting next to each other talking or just walking holding hands, just being together. I miss that a lot.

00:47:00

00:47:27

TERTIUS:

I think the number one joy is flying back home to Cape Town to see my family, I try to get home about once a month….I just think over the last year or so I’ve realized how my love for my wife has changed. I think I love her more than ever before but in a completely different way than before.

00:47:27

00:47:37

TRUDI:

What I love most about him is that I can trust him. That I know whatever happens he will be there for me.

00:47:38

00:47:51

TERTIUS:

I really think if I think back to what attracted me to my wife at school already was our friendship. And I think that the main thing that has sustained our marriage through all the years is our friendship. I’ve always seen her as my best friend.

00:47:57

00:48:11

TERTIUS:

As far as retirement s concerned that is not on my agenda. I don’t think about that. It’s not something that I plan for. I plan to do this as long as I can. And just carry on until I drop.

00:48:17

00:48:27

Bagcine

00:48:28

00:48:37

HYACINTHE:

When I went back to school the boy I fought with smiled at me. But I’m not talking to him.

00:48:40

00:48:45

HYACINTHE:

It’s not like before. Now I can walk without crutches.

00:48:57

00:49:03

HYACINTHE:

Yesterday afternoon after having a bath I saw my mom arriving. I was so happy.

00:49:04

00:49:15

HYACINTHE’S MOTHER:

I’ve kept the truth secret when Hyacinthe asked me. But now I’ve decided to tell my son the truth. His father died four years ago and God has been helping me until now.

00:49:15

00:49:25

CONSTANT, HYACINTHE’S SOCIAL WORKER:

Finding out that Hyacinthe’s father died so long ago was a shock for both of us.

00:49:31

00:49:47

HYACINTHE’S MOTHER:

When his father died my brother-in-law was the only person able to support him. When I have to leave him and go back to my village I’ll need to be strong.

00:49:52

00:49:55

NAME SUPER:

Emmanuel Zinvoido,

Hyacinthe’s uncle

00:49:56

00:50:24

HYACINTHE’S UNCLE:

It’s now easier for him to do whatever I ask him to do for me. Hyacinthe can now wash my clothes, and can even fetch my bicycle. There are not many of us. We were also young when our father passed away. I don’t have children but what belonged to my brother belongs to me. So Hyacinthe is like a son to me. Now that his leg is straight, he will be able to take care of me when he grows up.

00:50:27

00:51:02

HYACINTHE’S MOTHER:

I don’t want to promise a precise date that I will come back. Because no one knows tomorrow so I don’t want to be a liar. Our prayers have been answered. His life has been changed. I can’t forget him.

00:51:03

00:52:10

Bagcine

00:51:16

00:51:27

CLOSING INTERTITLES ON BLACK:

Dr. Tertius Venter serves Mercy Ships several times a year.

Since the year 2000 he has completed over 1045 surgeries onboard.

00:51:27

00:51:32

CLOSING

INTERTITLES ON BLACK:

In 2009 the Africa Mercy as a whole completed 6818 free specialised surgeries in Benin.

00:51:34

00:52:10

CLOSING CREDITS ON BLACK

(REFER TO CREDIT DOCUMENT)