Charlotte Falls in the rainy season!

Wet, wet, wet! And what beauty!

Chimpanzees waterfalls and 50 Cent

   Thirteen of us piled into a poda-poda yesterday to go exploring .. headed off to the Tacaguma Chimpanzee Reserve in Sierra Leone. The poda-poda (such a fun word to say) is the local taxi, like a minivan, or one of the taxis in South Africa. Lots of fun because it's definitely a bumpy ride, no shock absorbers remaining after being on Freetown roads for way too long, and then our driver was obviously a 50 Cent fan, 'cause it was the only music that would kick in from time to time when the short in the speakers would spark in :-) Loudly. And the four 50 Cent pictures on the dashboard.  So we were all bouncing along merrily to the beat of the music, making me feel like I was back in St. Elmo, where the neighbors are always so happy to share the base-line of their music :-)

  Oh, and Granny, 50 Cent is a rap artist :-) Let's see if i can get this to load, it was way fun....

  The chimp reserve was really lovely, you had to watch yourself around the enclosures because apparently the bored monkeys love hurling rocks at the strangers who come to gawp at them... and apparently have a mean arm and great shot! So cute to watch them interact and bounce all over. 

Then we took a lovely hike to Charlotte Falls - a massive cascade in full splendour due to it being the rainy season... so we were all merrily drenched by the time we walked up there and back... happy to have exercise, for sure! We had to pay the tour guide (some dude who had parked himself there to walk us up the 500m trail) 5000 leones, which equivalates to about a $1.50, or I would have probably been ticked and told him quite properly that i am able to find it just fine by myself, thank you very much. Ah well, no point in getting your panties in a wad around here when they're gonna sheist you out of money. That, and it's probably the only money he's gonna make.

Our poda-poda drove in circles in Freetown trying to get back to the docks, finally wedging himself halfway up a one-way street, with oncoming trucks and half of Freetown deciding he'd done a smart thing bringing up a strong rear. Whereupon three of us piled out, elbowed our way through the crowds and beating the poda-poda riders back by about an hour! My poor roommate dragged herself into our cabin after I'd showered and was enjoying a nice cup of tea.

It was such fun!!!
 

Joyful kid's wards

     So I got to work on a different ward this week, and what's to say. I stepped in and promptly got knocked back by the sheer volume. Ha! There was a full-blown balloon volleyball game was going on, with much egging on and encouragment from the adults in their beds. All the balloons stickered and drawn on, blowing up with huge pops from time to time to give you a heart attack. So i'm already giggling, and notice the little boy (6 years old) in the corner is singing "Waka Waka Africa" - can't get away from Shakira even in Sierra Leone!
  The translators were hollering at the Ketchi (sp?) v. Chelsea game, and of course Chelsea won 4-0, so no worries, the best man won. One kid was hollering through a physical therapy session (burn contractures), and then another nurse steps onto the ward with his ipod connected to a speaker - Madagascar's "I like to move it move it" booming, all games cease, and a general boogey session ensues, with the littlest 5 year old girl breakin' it down like i've never seen :-) What fun. Quite secondary to all that was the meds, dressings, vital signs and the rest of it... ah. "All the kids are singing and dancing to "I like to movie, movie!" I'm afraid I did crack up with one older fella (way into 70s) was mouthing along "Movie movie.... movie movie....movie movie!"
  That settled down into a friendly card game later on (3 patients and two caregivers on one twin bed), while two more kids raced with their little cars that I tied strings to so they could drag them behind them.
  Then 3 of the tiniest ones and I went goose-stepping up and down the hallways - now, I was trying to get some of their energy out, but it backfired - sheesh, I don't know how those soldier dudes do it!  Course, we were kind of half dancing half high stepping up and down. Hmm. Fun day on the ward.

Dronning Ingrid

  Behold the Dronning Ingrid, Danish ferry before being purchased and outfitted as the world's largest non-governmental hospital ship, now the Africa Mercy.

a psalm for Sierra Leone

You Will Shine

a psalm for Sierra Leone

by Paula Kirby

I choose to sing your song O Lord

for if I don't, I shall surely cry, and perhaps, never ever stop.

I'll cry for the evil of powerful men

who dig for diamonds in a soil not their own

and ravage the soul of a people.

I'll cry for a land shell-shocked and tattered

sitting glazed-eyed and squalid, ankle-deep in mud.

I'll cry for the horror of crazed, bedeviled minds

who weld fire into the chests of screaming children.

I'll wail fo rthe girls slapped, tied and tortured

forced to become women before their time

for their bellies stretched and hard some nine months later

and for thier screams, yet again, and again, in the night.

I'll cry for the still-born babies

       for the splintered families

              for forgiveness that cuts deeper than knives

for the severed limbs

       and the ripped flesh

              and the hearts torn and pummeled beyond hope.

I'll cry for you Sierra Leone -

and God in His mercy will turn my tears to prayer -

prayer for your beautiful land, for your lush and rolling hillsk for your people of promise

I will pray that you will rise,

       that the promise of God will prevail

              that love, in the end, will not fail.

I pray that your blood-washed land will be rained upon and showered with His Grace

       that you will know His kindness

              that you will see His scarred face.

For in His eyes all pain dissolves. In His heart all bitterness dies.

For like you, He too, was blood-soaked. Like you, He too, was bound and scarred,

yet sweeping away shame, He overcame and says, YOU TOO, SHALL RISE.

So I'll sing my song for you Sierra Leone. And I'll shout it louder than in truth

God will wipe away every tear. And before the power of His Love no fear can stand.

       Like your beaches, unsullied you will be.

              Like your hills, you will laugh and dance.

And like the diamonds in your soil, once again, bejewelled land, YOU WILL SHINE!

B Ward staff

This is the B Ward staff of the Africa Mercy - this week! Lots of people leaving and coming all the time, but a lovely group of people.

photo by Deb. Louden

Desmond "far far away"

  I've just gotten back to the ship after visiting the Cheshire Home children's school and orphanage. There weren't too many children there today, just a few who attend the local school, but of course they're just adorable, wanting to help and getting in the way of the swinging mallets at inauspicious moments. Some of the children had been taken on holiday, how nice.

  A team of 11 of us went to lay down a pathway from the school's existing sidewalk to the tiny soccer field, so that the school's handicapped children can make it down. This entailed digging ditches down the path, breaking huge rocks with mallets down into softball-sized rock and spreading it out. We'll go back in a few week's time and lay the concrete down.

  I wimped out before the end, several week's of no exercise rearing its ugly head and quite frankly never sat pickin' rock before. I sat in the shade talking to some of the girls there. One girl kept asking for us to take her little boy "far far away". A sweet little thing named Desmond, apparently named after a famous Nigerian actor. One of the girls on the team said that this is a fairly common occurrance actually, to be asked to take children away from here. Breaks your heart. Shame, such a tiny little thing. Darn immigration :-) Ruins all the fun :-)

Did I just see Ron Wealsey on the storage shed?

Oh the incongruety! Now, I know the rest of the world is saturated by Harry Potter at present, but we are most definitely not, and this was a bit of a surprise.

I'm going to see if this even loads at all:

This one's for you, Jennifer Greer!

Sarahs

Sooooo, apparently "Sarah" is a fairly common name for men in Sierra Leone. I've now cared for three "Sarah's" who are men. I suppose anything goes..... I remember being distinctly impressed at how "Morgan" is a girl's name in the US and now that's not weird at all. Hmm. Still... Sarah...

We got to visit the Bridge!

Very smart people don't let me steer the ship. 

Captain's Seat! Melissa Huestis (my roomie from ozzieland) and Juanita Riehl, from North Carolina. Lovely girls!

Cool, huh! No, that's not North Korea.

Radar! Basically, don't hit the yellow :-)

Pics of the bridge on the Africa Mercy!

Mud and Inept thievery

  How to even begin describing Friday morning's adventure. Amanda and I, one of my roommates, took to the street of Freetown to get to the Craft Market and Crown Bakery. 
  Exciting the dockyard and all semblance of normalcy, we hit the cacophony of sound, bustling, shoving and yelling people, the most amazing dirt, mud, garbage and sewage flowing sluggishly in deep ditches on both sides of the street.  Sliding around in your muddy flip flops, my primary goal was to not slide right into these ditches. Secondary to that, by far, was our destination. There was no keeping the mud off of you though. The flip flops ensured that it's all well flicked over you. My clothing deserved biohazard bags at the end of that walk. :-)
  Battling this sea of humanity took some guts and a bit of a sense of humor. If we paused, the people instantly crowded around to see what's up, offer their opinions on a piece of fabric you might be looking at, or bustle you over. The little ones yell "hello madam!" and walk holding your hand a little ways. (One little fellow had 6 fingers, we found out that way....2 pinkies!)
 One chap tried to pickpocket Amanda's bag twice until she finally yelled him off and he disappeared into the crowd. Not too swift these pick-pocketers. He did it right in front of me! Another man decided to merrily stalk us through the town, speeding up when we did, slowing when we did, and when we slipped into a shop to lose him, he doubled back and reentered the same shop! At which point Amanda turned and confronted him with a very polite but firm "Hello. Hello? You go away now. Stop following us and go away."  Mercifully he did. Ridiculous really, just what was he waiting for heavens only knows. Makes me glad the ship is protected by a very nice guard of muscular Nepalese gurkas! (Who volunteered to go with us next time :-)

one Giant leap off the sane train

"Tell Him tenke, tell Him
Tell Papa God tenke"   -  Krio praise song

   My desire before leaving to come to the Africa Mercy and now on board is to see Jesus. It sounds absolutely crazy and that I've taken a step off the sane train, but I don't want to miss out on seeing him in the people here, in the stories of their lives. And just this Monday morning He's shown himself to me again and again, and it's not even 9 am yet. 
   He was in our praise this morning in the weekly communications forum. He was present in the large amount of people there - all here because he was brought us here, individually. That's nuts! I mean, there are over 400 people on board, from 40 different nations this week! He was there in the faces of friends and the well wishes for a good day all around. He was there in the love shown by Anna, one of my roommates, who spread aloe-vera on my sunburned back (souvenir from the beach trip to River #2 on Saturday).
  Even my devotions after pondering all that, is about seeing Him today. From Sarah Young's book Jesus Calling, "I am nearer than you think, richly present in all your moments." "Ask me to open your eyes, so that you can find me everywhere. The more aware you are of my presence, the safer you feel. This is not some sort of escape from reality; it is tuning in to ultimate reality. I am far more real than the world you can see, hear and touch."  - from the devotion for July 18th.
  And He is everywhere on the Africa Mercy. Way more of an adventure to step off the 'sane train' onto this bobbing ship. He'd just better hold my hand.

Duct-taped volleyball

I took care of a lady yesterday who is 70 years old, who for the past ten years has had a massive (2.4 kg) lipoma attached to her left arm tricept. Imagine taking a volleyball, duct taping it to your left arm (make it secure now, it's got to last 10 years!) and hauling that around. An hour later, she came back from the Recovery Room, lipoma-free and smiling. Imagine the freedom!

Praise, Eggs and Good Veins

So another midday thing they do on the wards here is praise and worship time. Yup, halfway through the morning around 10ish. And today, I got quite thrown when I (thanks,  New City Fellowship) knew the words to one of the songs. They completely busted out in "Wamilele Wamilele mungu"..... and the rest of the song that I can't type the lyrics for to save my life, but got me double takes from the praise team 'cause I sang right along :-) Who knew! 

Another ship (yup, in the Policies and Procedures) procedure; nurse walks her pre-operative patient to the O.R. waiting room (or, "theater" as my English friends here call it) where the pre-op checklist is reviewed with the next nurse, and then all heads are bowed and we pray for the surgery, for the patient, and for the "Papa God" to lead the surgeon's hands. Can't help it, I cry every time. I then bring my patient's shoes back to the ward, and place them under the bed until the patient's return. Reminded me again of the promise in Acts 4:12, and we claim it for all these patients. "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven, given to men by which we must be saved."  It is lovely to watch - a lot of the patients are very confused, don't know what we are doing, have never been in air conditioning before, aren't used to showers (and they've just been scrubbed down bigtime), definitely not used to 3 square meals a day. (Most of them try to hoard their eggs in the morning to take them home to their families later - we find lots of week-old eggs in their bags at discharge.) But they do know what it is to pray, and lift their hands to God before the surgery knowing he will walk through the doors with them. This they do know, and the bewildered looks cease.

And on my front, my personal bewilderment is abating, thank the Lord. I'm finding my way around the ship a little better now, I met a newer nurse than myself, and drew labs today! If you're wondering why that's a big deal, i'm no longer the newbie, and thanks to the IV and lab teams at Memorial, I hadn't stuck a vein in 7 years! Thank goodness this chap had nice, ropey veins. Whew!

John Obey Beach

I feature! Four new friends and I took a beach trip (another adventure for another day), and after a whole lot of hoopla made it to a stunning beach. Gorgeous water, beach & eco-lodge. It's rainy season so the trip didn't last long before an absolute black deluge, and upload of photos is extremely slow here. Also, I have dirt in my lense, yes, I realize, and can't figure out how to undo my camera to get it out. Forgive the black spots. Oh, and the uber cool mud hut is a eco-lodge. Actual safe housing. If Sierra Leonians were set up in these, it would be steps in the right direction!

Cobra in the Pot

OK. So, not even sure how to write this one. Two of our littlest patients have stories so mind-blowing, i'm not even sure where to start. Both here for plastic surgery, one of them after a burn contracted an arm into an unusable position, the other is facial.

First little girl came to us after her father threw a cobra in a boiling pot. Cobra was apparently alive, hit the boiling water, jumped out and bit her. Now, I actually don't know who to feel sorry for the most - the little girl (well, of course it's the girl) or the cobra who got thrown into the pot! I must say, if I came across a cobra, and had a handy boiling pot, that's probably exactly where it would end up.

Second little one was at home, and his aunt came to borrow money from the mom. Mom didn't have the money, so aunt threw the boy into the fire. Mom plucked out the child, dad killed the aunt in a rage. Dad now in jail and mom and boy are onboard. Oh Lord, have mercy. Please pray for the Lord to pour his redeeming mercies on this family.

Proof I actually am here.

Ok, proof I'm here and not making it all up :-) Here are some views of Freetown from the deck of the Africa Mercy. The docks are surrounded by slums, and they rise up onto the mountainsides. Pretty amazing. The map on the wall shows the route that the ship used to take back in it's days when it was a Danish Royal ferry. Cool huh!

Unknowns

I love you all for posting comments, it makes it well worth the effort of writing... just a random request, if your ID is "unknown", could you put your comment then your name? I.e... "bla bla bla" - love, whomever. Some sweet people have told me they just love me, but I don't know who you are and can't respond!   Thanks all, you're the best and I love the "electronic love" coming from home. Sounds like a bad 80's song. Hmmm.

Roaring mountains

Cool tidbit #1 - Did you know that Sierra Leone is so named because of the most magnificent thunderstorms that crash up against the mountains all around us - and the ensuing sound is that of roaring lions.

Cool tidbit @2 - the onboard blood bank is the crew! Register your blood type with the lab upon arriving, and when your type comes up required, you get a note posted on your door that your presence is required in the lab :-)

Smiling Faces

I just re-read the top sentence of my last post and it made me smile as I remembered another detail about leaving home. The love and hugs and smiles and family and friends who all poured their love and support was just the most heart-warming thing.... but pretty up there on the hilarious side was Mom, Dad, Brendon and Kristi each deciding to spontaneously burst out into boogey as I crossed through security at the airport, waving madly and each picking a funky dance. Ya'll family are nuts and I claim you all!

Another lovely ship tradition on my first day at work. A local church's praise team and church "family life" team come and do worship, just sing a few songs, on the ward in the middle of the day. The work doesn't stop, as I scrubbed one young chap's arm down with chlorhexidrine to get it amputated (car crash back in February - no medical attention since then left it gangrenous). They knew where he was headed, stopped and prayed for him. All heads bowed, and singing "Jesus he didn't forget me yet." This means him too. And me. I really struggled to not cry. He hans't forgotten me yet.

The Hope Center

Robbie, in response to the "so how does that work?" question; you get all wet, switch off the water, scrub, switch on the water, rinse. No rinse, lather, repeat.... :-)

Had a great off-board adventure today. Off the docks and down the street from the Africa Mercy is the Hope Center, where patients who are from far away stay until their follow up appointments. From tiny babies to old men. Mats on the floors, lots of netting to keep the mozzies at bay (everybody here routinely has malaria, who knew.) I was rather terrified of going off the ship so I got it out of the way when my roommate invited me to go with her after supper.

You get there, and hoardes of tiny little children suddenly appear and you become their personal playground and monkey bars. Teeny little ones with the most original cast creations.... one particularly ingeneous physical therapist has been creating casts out of discarded car tires - and strapping them to feet, legs, etc. So half a Michelin tire climbs up your back, all of them covered in the stickers that an English girl brought with her. They just giggle putting the stickers on themselves, then all over me, then back onto each other. One little boy James pulls off my ID tag, which has a picture of the ship on the back, points and says, "Mercy Ship! Up! Up!" To which my roommate knew immediately and explained how they take the patients after their surgeries to the 7th deck where they can play and get some fresh air. This little one had obviously found the toys on the 7th deck. Lovely!! My cup runneth over after playing with them for a few hours.

First day on the ward tomorrow! It's more being afraid of the unknown that has me quivering at this point, but ready to attack it. God has been so good. I will write more of the stories I see and hear about. One lady literally had me sobbing into my cereal this morning describing the removal of bandages off 2 year old's eyes after cataract surgery and her shrieks of joy at suddenly being able to see.

I'm all aboard!

I'm here! After quite the trip around the world (Chicago, Belgium, Gambia and Sierra Leone) i'm all here. In one piece, and with my luggage intact. Thank goodness! I met 2 team members in Belgium already and then had the confidence that I wasn't going to be left behind after clearing immigration. The smiling faces of a local pastor, Pastor Mark and his wife Bridget, were the most beautiful thing I had seen since leaving home, so comforting to see them waving that "Mercy Ships" sign. They dropped us off at the ferry, and after a minor collision with an oncoming ferry (to the general mirth and lots of roaring from the local crowd) made our way across a large river to the government docks where the Africa Mercy is docked. It was dark by the time we made it to the ship, but it was brightly lit and could be seen from across the harbour, so it was a welcome sight.
  I got to meet my lovely cabin mates, 5 girls, 2 from australia and 3 from the US, (4 are nurses and 1 teacher.) Everybody has been very welcoming, but to say the least, there is some culture shock going on! Lots of Creole being spoken and being lost on this big ship! Port is to my left, and is not the side of the ship where the port is located, which is off to my right! Aft! Fore! This is where we muster in cast of an emergency and these ship blasts mean this and that! Everything from mustering to "get off the ship now!"
  But I've found where the coffee lives in the morning, and how to make the shower work (2 minutes each, please), so i consider the essentials learned.  Please pray for mercies as I get oriented to the unit on Thursday and Friday. (Also very different from home! 20 beds per ward; Men, women and children all together - apparently they get all depressed if they get separated :-)


Love you all, wish you were all here with me!