Bleaching the wards

The field service is at days from it's end in Sierra Leone for the Africa Mercy. Our final patients have now left and are being seen by the Sierra Leonians that were trained for that purpose while onboard.

So what have we been spending our time doing? Why bleaching. Bleaching everything. Twice. The walls, the ceilings, the cupboards, everything in them, the beds, the mattresses, pillows, risers, toys, games, you name it. It's been bleached once, left to dry and bleached again. The smell of it is pretty pervasive at this point and I smell like a bleach bottle.

Once bleached down, everything that moves is getting strapped down for the sail... so it won't pitch and roll into someone or something. Huge amounts of work going on right now, and we're all pretty tired at the end of the day.

But of course we had have some fun with it all.

Waiting on her miracle

Not all the small ones who come to the Africa Mercy have time for their miracle to happen. I use miracle very freely in these terms because it is all of that. In West Africa without this ship there is zero chance of having tumors removed, legs straightened, etc. A benign facial tumor is a worse death sentence than a malignant one, as the malignant tumor will kill you rapidly, whereas a benign tumor will close off your windpipe slowly. Slowly asphixiating to death has got to be one of the worst ways to go, until you pass out from lack of oxygen. Quite a number of patients with large facial tumors are coming to mind, who otherwise would be "checking out". Their worried, anxious faces coming onboard, their sweet smiles and laughter postoperatively.

Sometimes however, the timing is not right. This is baby Fatmata Jalloh. Inappropriately named, there is not an extra ounce on this tiny treasure. She has a large cystic hygroma growing on the side of her neck.  A month or so ago her mother brought her to the ship having travelled all the way from Guinea, two countries over, with the hopes of having this alarming mass removed from her precious girl's neck.

However we learned from previous children that this is going to be a complicated recovery, and the quandry that comes to the ship at the end of every outreach commenced with Fatmata. What do you do with the patients who desperately need help, but the ship is not going to be here to undertake the necessary postoperative care? The ship is nearing the end of the Sierra Leonian outreach for 2011. And Fatmata's recovery is going to take months. In the western world it wouldn't be such a fix, of course, on several different counts. 1. Early detection would have significantly reduced risks. 2. Even postoperatively there is home health and physician followup, so whereas at home you'd send somebody home, here it's not a viable option as infection could easily set in in the squallor of the filthy cities.

God has his eye on this little one and will not forget her. And these are the moments that make me so happy that we serve an awesome God.  Did you know that the Africa Mercy is headed to Connakry, Guinea? heeheehe. I love it. The upcoming outreach is in Togo for the first half of the year, the second half is Guinea, where she is from. The ship is coming to her! Tiny Fatmata has her chance and it is going to work out so well for her, as her tiny can't even stand up on it's own yet. The hygroma has been so large it's affected her swallowing. The Africa Mercy dietician has placed her on a feeding program of swallowable, high calorie foods that she will actually eat. She is two years old and weighs as much as a 6 month old baby.

So God-willing, little Fatmata, who already has her appointment letter for the ship in Guinea will show up, fatter, and ready for the surgery that will save her life.

Water Wars

To say I've worked with the loveliest group of ladies in Africa is the understatement of the century. Tears, tons of laughter, hugs, good talks, cups of tea, back rubs, movie nights, frustrations, cross-cultural moments of angst and "huh!"... what's to say. Full and bounteous life has been ours while aboard. From arguments and disappointments to the wide range of experiences and patient stories, we've shared moments that could fill books.

So Merry Pineu and a band of other wicked gals got us all together on the dock, sat chairs in circles and we had a lovely moment of chatting, and then the water balloons started to fly. I believe the funniest comment I heard during the shrieking was "where is it coming from???!!!"

Evil. Just evil. Merry, Alyssa, Heather, Noel & Christina

Photos by Justin Grant - and maybe some waterballoon filling?

Sierra Leonian Signage

Here are a few odd or funny signs I've seen written on billboards, boats, canoes, trucks, mudguards, stores, etc. since arriving in Sierra Leone.

Bon Bons "filled with pleasure and emotions"

Slave of Allah (on a truck passing by)

Give Islam a Try (on another truck)

Retry Islam (the third truck. really....)

Sierra Leon-Iranian Consul (don't see that one at home...)

Female Condom - It is safe! It is nice!

Unity Welding Shop :-)

The truth will set you free! (front of another truck)

Hard Time/No Friends (on mudguards on a truck)

Nor pis ya!! Fine 50,000 SLL (translation, don't pee here!! Seen on a wall)

Looking Good is Beautiful Salon

Haj Account (local bank will set up a savings account exclusively to get you to Mecca)

Ingenering Sohp (yup, spelled just like that)

Baptist Dread Locks!!!!! (I wonder what makes them Baptist?!)

No Money, No Friend (on a boat)

God is good all the time (Front of another truck)

a photo of me and the Princess!

So a photo has emerged of myself and Princess Anne from her visit to the Africa Mercy! Go figure!

Ha! I'm one of the little ant-sized people hanging over the balcony on the far, faaaar top left :-)  

Here she is visiting with the patients, in this case with Fatmata and the adorable baby Ali, everybody's favorite "Snuffleupagus" as we've nicknamed him. Nurse Frances shown with her, Mary from Patient Life in purple, and a Day Volunteer as translator.

I had a shocking moment of realization today when I looked at the calendar and realized that there are a mere 16 whole days before leaving the Africa Mercy. I'm not the only one for sure, the Sierra Leonian visit of the Africa Mercy drawing to a conclusion. My fellow nurses are starting to leave one by one and the days are filling up with sad goodbyes. Those lucky enough to remain are also sad and get a bit of a pass 'cause they get to keep a few friends around, but still.

On the bright side, I get to take my bunkmate with me to South Africa! Rachel is coming with me for a good adventure further south before she comes back to the Africa Mercy for it's field assignment in Togo. Lucky girl!

But January 7th I'll be headed home :-)

Goat sacrifices and toddler group hugs

Nursing Report you won't give at home:

Report to the next charge nurse, Danielle, this afternoon went something like this, "and Ibrahim has permission to go off the ship to go kill a goat." Now, I didn't know if it was a particular goat that had offended him or what precisely was going on. Come to find out from Danielle who had made it to church this morning that the streets of Freetown are very busy, the mosques are packed and there are hundreds of goats lining the streets awaiting a sure demise. Hmm. And here i'm sitting on Deck 9 next to the pool and far away from the ever-infallible :-) Wikipedia to find out what holiday it is. It reminds me of New Year's eve in the south of Chile where hundreds of little white lambs were attached to fence posts kicking up an absolute ruckus on the 31st of December, followed by an eerie silence on the 1st. Then the most tantalizing smoke would fill the air as roasting lamb filled the town. Yummmo! I remember Auntie Nisey coming to visit us in Chile appalled by the whole little lamb thing, and she spent an entire afternoon crying next to one little white fluffy thing, stroking it's ears. Don't think the goats are gonna have the same reception though. Or maybe they do get eaten, I don't know!
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Another interesting favorite from reading another patient's History and Physical, under Social History, "4 wives, 16 children." 
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We've also admitted 6 adorable two to four year olds to have their growth plates removed. They've invented a new game and taken to collectively mass-hugging anybody who walks through the door. You step into A ward and 6 tiny four year olds come yelling and plaster themselves in a group hug around your legs.

These little ones came to the ship for orthopedic surgery at the beginning of the outreach. They're called the 8 plate children, because their legs looked like parentheses - or that you could place an 8 in. plate between their knees. Growth plates were inserted to straighten their legs as they grew. However, there is more motivation to pray as some of them aren't straight yet and the ship is getting ready to depart. Decisions need to be made as to whether to remove the plates now, and still leave them better than they were before, or leave the plates in and somehow arrange for these children to make the journey to Guinea, one country over, in a few months once their legs are straighter. Travel is very difficult in West Africa and there is the risk that the journey can't be made, for any of a dozen reasons. The risk is that then their legs will keep on growing inwards until the parentheses are formed in the opposite direction. Quandry! Please pray for wisdom and traveling mercies for these children and their parents.

They are so beautiful though. Melt your heart.

Babies in knitted caps and booties

A tiny sleeping beauty needs a kiss!

I got her, I got her!

Some kind ladies knitted booties and caps for the babies on the Africa Mercy.

"Dis bed no gud!"

How do you explain to a patient that the reason why his bed is bucking is the ship's fault, not his bed?

We transferred some patients from D ward to B ward, as D was ready for some deep cleaning, and the patients were happily lodged in their newly assigned beds. Or so I thought. I came across one seriously disgruntled customer... we were getting dark looks and impatient sighs, snapping lips. Though a translator I asked what is the problem. "This bed no gud. I want my other bed back. It moves too much. It make me 'ed de turn!"

Try as I may to explain that it is very windy outside and the choppy seas are making everybody's bed move, no luck. He wanted back to D ward. "Dis bed no good!" as he waves his arms back and forth, mimicking the movement of his new crib.  And this is a 46 year old patient too!

I'm afraid he wasn't satisfied at all, and we couldn't convince him that everybody's beds were bucking too :-)

the Dawn of a New Day

Yesterday evening the crew of the Africa Mercy had the pleasure of a screening of the film "Dawn of a New Day". This documentary was filmed onboard in Benin in 2009, and in Cape Town, South Africa, following the steps of Dr. Tertius Venter. I'm going to get ahold of it and we'll have a movie night when we get home! Popcorn! Yeah! It shows the ship and patient's stories beautifully set to haunting music, and I can't wait to show it all to you. It was lovely to be able to see patient's stories from the beginning of their journeys at home to the ship and their joyous reunions with their families afterwards.

I'm attaching the link to the site:
http://www.journeyman.tv/62177/documentaries/the-dawn-of-a-new-day.html

a ward funny

Translator, "What state are you from?"
Me, "Tennessee"
Translator, "Oh, I only know New York, California, Texas and Mexico!"

Pics of that sunset

Photos courtesy of Joshua Young. Check out his blog at http://www.jky2003.blogspot.com/

Starry skies and flourescent plankton

This past weekend the Lord treated a very lucky group of us to the starriest of skies and a magnificent display of what He can do.

A group of us headed off to Bureh Beach for a weekend of camping and having fun for a friend's birthday. Bureh Beach of course lived up to it's reputation with clear beaches, swaying palm trees, good food, friends playing volleyball, crystal clear waves, dark jungle-covered mountains behind us and billowy white clouds. There is a small island across from the beach over that you can swim to if you've packed your sense of adventure with you. It's about a 15 minute swim and if you take it slowly and don't try to show off your strong swimming technique you can make it just fine, not even being tired once you get there! We walked around the tiny island jumping on the rocks around and eating this fruit that yes, it was brave to pick up and eat, but tasted like passion fruit and nobody bent over double afterwards. Or got any cases of what the Sierra Leonians call the fast-fast, which involves motion out the derriere at the aforementioned speed.

The beach boys, locals who pretty much take care of what you need food and drink-wise, cooked up some delicious smoked fish, couscous, tomato and onion sauce and crab. And a huge bonfire.

We were treated to a magnificent sunset, with a few of us lodged on a large rock overlooking the orange splendour as it set behind that tiny island, the rock warm from the sun and curved so it contours perfectly to your back.

But once the sun set, the true display began. The moon was a mere sliver so the stars came out in force, the full Milky Way on display. The only break in the stars came from the outline of the black palm trees. Looking down from the stars, a magnificent lightning storm broke over the horizon and continued for awhile, nice and far away so all we saw was the crashing light, and below us, the ocean lit with flourescent plankton.

A friend and I were walking in the dark on the beach when we noticed that the sand was sparkling. Running back to tell the rest of the crowd, most everyone headed off into the water once we realized that the plankton sparkles with motion. So general waterfights, twirling in the water, and back into the ocean we all go; it looked like a scene from the movie Avatar, where what you touch glows. Even the waves sparkled when they crashed. Those who opened their eyes underwater tell of a lit up land that you couldn't even see from standing in the water.

So it was starry skies above, lightning on the horizon, and sparkling waters beneath us. A true display of God's creativity. I giggled at all of us because we were really remarking that God loves us so much to put on such a show for us; we were with a group of Peace Corp people on vacation and they must have thought us nuts - maybe it entered into their consciousness that yes, "the heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands." Ps. 19:1. It was impossible to ignore the unexpected beauty of the night and not give notice to Him who put it there.

One of my ship friends has a tiny tatoo of a star on her foot, and when I asked her about it she told me that to her, stars are just the most effusive display of love from God for us. He didn't have to put them there at all, He just did, and we get to enjoy it. Like every good thing that comes down from the Father of Lights.

James 1:17 "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."