For most of us, it would be hard to pick a single defining moment in our life.
For John Megoliki, though, that's easy.
One moment profoundly altered his life, first nearly ending it, then adding layers upon layers of change to it.
At age 6, a crocodile bit off his right arm.
It was an event that didn't just forever affect him in the obvious physical ways. It changed him spiritually and professionally. It led him to forsake an ordained-at-birth job - witch doctor for the village - and give up all that came with it.
First, though, it led him to North Florida. At age 9, he underwent extensive surgery and treatment here, got a prosthetic arm, then returned home to Tanzania. At the time, the people who got to know him in Jacksonville - doctors and nurses, church members, families who opened their home to him - thought it might be the last time they saw him.
But he has come back twice, first in 2000 for a prosthesis replacement and again this month for a new, adult-sized prosthetic arm. He no longer is the little boy who only spoke Swahili. He now is 6-foot-5 and speaks fluent English, albeit often softly and sometimes reluctantly.
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