After the Last Tear: Rising from the Ashes of a Broken Marriage By Cassila K

Chapter 33

The first time I met Joseph was in a camp in Goma.

At that time, the situation in eastern Congo (DRC) was chaotic.

Militants, driven by the scramble for mineral resources and ethnic conflicts, frequently attacked villages. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes, seeking refuge in larger cities.

When I arrived at the refugee camp, a few doctors were treating a little girl.

She had been injured in an explosion, with a small pebble embedded in her ear. She cried in pain and struggled violently, making the doctors hesitant to proceed.

Someone called out, "Joseph!"

A tall man responded and stepped forward.

He examined the situation and surprisingly pulled out a few playing cards from his white coat, performing a magic trick on the spot.

The little girl was quickly captivated and stopped struggling, giving the doctors an opportunity to act.

When the pebble finally fell into the tray with a "clang," the cards in Joseph's hand had disappeared, replaced by an African violet.

The little girl stared wide-eyed in amazement and tugged on his sleeve, trying to find the vanished cards, but to no avail.

She clapped her hands in delight, pulling at her parents' clothes as she squealed

with joy.

Joseph handed the flower to the girl and escorted her grateful parents out of the medical tent.

unique that I couldn't resist taking a

his attention. He turned around, slightly surprised, and asked in French, "New faces are rare here. Where are

"Country A," I replied.

he switched to Chinese, introducing himself: "I'm Joseph, currently

I asked, "Where did you get

a rarity

smiled proudly. "I grew it! Want to

discovered a small garden he had

garden was home to the African violet,

these?"

table, he answered confidently,

I was puzzled.

think food, clean water, and medicine are more important to them, and flowers

I nodded.

he said, "Here, everything pushes people to forget beauty, but flowers help them remember they're alive, that there's still something

there's

face,

optimism and passion were like a beam of light, striking a

me.

look away from his

Joseph and I were from Country A, so we naturally became

Joseph was incredibly

on casualties and patient treatments and even assisted me in completing my first-ever surgery-successfully delivering a baby for a woman in

noticed an unusually high mortality rate

distributed antiretroviral drugs, but they're still dying in droves..." "That doesn't make sense unless they're

volunteered, "Let