Goodbye!!

I got a phone call while I was packing this morning from the post-op clinic nurse Jane (from Ireland). Jane has me almost convinced that I should move to Ireland where they have "Career Breaks". You can apply for a leave of absence from your job to travel, do missions, etc. for 1-5 years. If they accept this, your job is held for you. If you run out of money you can go back and work a little, and then continue your leave. They also have really good tea in Ireland, so maybe I won't be coming home soon...

Anyways, she called to let me know that Borkai and his brother Ansu were there. It was so nice to see them on my last day here. Borkai seems much better than before, although he still seems to hide his bandaged hand.

Yesterday was my last shift on the ward. I did a 12 hour day shift. It went well with the exception of my five year old patient that came back from surgery screaming and flailing about. He had cataract surgery on his left eye and apparently he thought they took is eye out. He obviously couldn't see out of it because he had the typical eyepatch on. There was no consoling him or explaining to him the situation. By the grace of God, "Red" (Rebecca a charge nurse) walked in and took him into another room for me. She arrived back with him about half an hour later and he was sleeping. Thank you Red!

We have a baby named Greg on the ward that had a large neck tumor removed, and as a result of the tumor, he has problems with his trachea and is not doing well. The pediatric nurses here that take care of him are amazing, but we really need to pray for a miracle for this little boy. The other moms on the ward, along with the translators, and disciplers stood around his bed yesterday singing and praying for him. It was a humbling experience. These Liberian people sing and pray with so much passion. It is awesome to watch them praise God.

I am leaving tonight. Last night Jane asked me what I liked the most about being here--what I will miss the most. That is a difficult question as the whole experience was wonderful. I liked everything--working on the ward, meeting new people, making friends, walking every night on the dock, going to Missionaries of Charity, going to the beach, sitting around talking and laughing. Being here makes me want to continue to travel the world. I really feel a connection with the people I hang around with here and I wonder if it is because we are connected by our faith 1st and foremost. I think it is also because we know how to laugh often and have fun. It's so much better working in an environment where you don't have the pressures of everyday life interfering with your passion. I have learned to appreciate nursing a little bit more. It is more enjoyable when you are helping people who have such gratitude for what we do. I often feel that I am not doing much sometimes yet they seem to remember all of our names and thank us often.

I just want to thank everyone again for their support in getting me here. Also thank you to those who have been praying for me because I have not gotten sick at all. I have had an experience I will never forget and an experience that went way beyond my expectations. Thank you also for reading my blog and leaving me comments. I felt loved and thought of while I was here.

May God bless you all. Don't let fear stop you from doing anything. If you feel God calling you to do something, know that He will be there with you, and will equip you with the strength you need to get the job done.

Love,

Lynnel

Sorry no pictures

I tried to upload a few pictures but it is just not working tonight. It has been a good few days. Yesterday I worked 2-10pm. I basically started IV's on the new patients and then helped the other nurses do vital signs, etc. It was very busy on the wards because a lot of patients were coming back from surgery. We currently have 2 pretty sick kids on one of the units so please keep them in your prayers.

Today I went to Missionaries of Charity again. I really like it there. This time instead of meeting with the ladies, I went to the baby/toddler section. The kids were sooo darling. Some of them were so tiny and skinny, however. If I am understanding correctly, many of these kids are HIV positive. You wouldn't guess it by the smiles on their faces. We just played with them, or held them. We happened to still be there when they were served lunch. They put all the little baby's on a clean looking floor, take off there shirts leaving them with just their diapers on (I'm sure this saves on laundry) and give them the dishes of food. I was surprised at how much these tiny ones could eat! The one I fed ate a whole dish of rice covered with African food that looked really spicy.

There was a little boy about five years old that walked through the eating area. He was really skinny and tired looking and had some kind of purple ointment under his nose that I have seen used on patients here before. I had to stop myself from crying right there. There was something about the look on this little boys face that hit me hard. This poor little innocent boy has to deal with such an aweful illness. He walked through and when I turned around to look, I saw him just lay on his bed and curl up and close his eyes. The baby's seemed very happy for the most part--with the exception of a few that seemed sick. The little boy on the other hand, looked defeated. I feel so sad for him that he has to suffer like this. It's just wrong. I just pray God has mercy on him and gives him some happiness and joy in his life.

Sunday church

I went to a local church this morning. The pastor asked one of our crew members to speak--pretty much on the spot. I think she knew for about 15 minutes before that she was going to talk. She did brilliantly though. I was amazed. The pastor didn't even give a sermon afterwards. She talked about John 13 where Jesus washes the disciples feet. How Jesus was downhearted at this time because He knew of His upcoming death. But despite his feeling downhearted He still served. She said at times we feel downhearted and discouraged but God can still do His work through us and we should continue to serve Him in spite of how we feel sometimes, or in spite of what may be going on in our lives. She then shared how her son was a drug addict starting at an early age and lasting for about 10 years. She said she prayed that God take care of him every time he left the house because she never knew what he was up to. He had friends that died from their addictions. She said he was in and out of jail several times. She never gave up praying for him and trying to get him help. She brought him to church many times, but she said it took about a year for him to really turn around. So even after 10 years as a drug addict he is finally recovering and following God. She says he has a whole new personality that she didn't see in him before.

So I kind of babbled and maybe you had to be there, but I just thought it was amazing that Emily (she is one of the admissions nurses and is from Clearwater, FL) could come up with all that on the spot.

the weekend

It is a holiday weekend here so surgery was not scheduled for Friday or Monday so census is low on the ward. I actually got cancelled for 2 shifts. The first one was a nice suprise. Now I actually miss being on the ward so I wouldn't have minded working tomorrow. But that is ok, there are always other adventures to be had.

Today I went to Monrovia Central Prison. I went with a group that goes every Saturday. The prison holds over 800 people. There are only about 22 women and that is the section I visited. It is difficult to describe. The condition of the women's section was acceptable, I guess. They had several rooms with bunk beds. I hear however that in the men's section there is not enough room for them all to lay down at the same time so they have to sleep in shifts. The women were complaining they were hungry. We found out that the prison ran out of cornmeal so they were not serving breakfast for about a week. They are only eating one meal a day at about 4pm.

Several of these women seem to be completely innocent. One woman said she is there because her brother did something and since they couldn't find him they took her instead. The system seems corrupt. I think people wait excessive amounts of time for a trial. Mercy Ships works along side Prison Ministries or Prison Fellowship? I think it is. This organization is an advocate for some of the prisoners and fights for justice for them when they can.

I then went onto deck 8 and got some sun this afternoon. Tonight I went to the Jesus Film. I think this was lead by a local Liberian pastor. We went to an open area outside a church and set up a white screen and showed the movie outside. A lot of people showed up. The movie was based on the gospel of Luke. I thought it might be difficult for the Liberians to follow but somehow I think they followed it better than me. They would clap and cheer when Jesus performed miracles.

I got a new bunkmate last night. She is a recently retired Army nurse from Alaska. Her and her husband traveled Europe for the past 6 weeks, then he went home and she came here to work as an OR nurse for at least 8 weeks. We also got a new roommate 2 weeks ago. Andrea from Holland who is working as the admissions nurse. Another roommate left Friday, and one is leaving Monday, so it's like musical beds around here. Speaking of beds I think I'm going to go jump in mine. I'm tired. Goodnight all.

It's Thursday night

I worked Mon, Tues, Wed night shift from 7pm-7am. They were good shifts. Things have been really good here and I am not happy about leaving here next Friday. I am trying not think about it. You can't stop time. I'm sure there is a reason why I am just here for the 2 months, but it just doesn't seem nearly enough time. There are so many things I want to learn about the other things going on with the ship such as well digging projects, agriculture, outpatient clinic, dental, opthamology, etc. Oh well, I'm not going to dwell on it. I am just going to enjoy the next week.

There are many amazing surgeries that are being done here and it is awesome to see the smiles of all the people we help. However, this week, I also saw a lot of sadness. We seem to get a lot of patients with old eye injuries that come in and have surgery on their eye, and sometimes have to have it removed. We had an 18 year old girl who had to have part of her left leg amputated. We have had to turn people away that show up at the gate for random things that we can do surgery on, but the surgery schedule is completely full and we can't help everyone. Mercy Ships refers these people to local hospitals, but you don't always know if they will actually get the help they need.

Last night at about 4:30 in the morning, one of the patients came to talk to me. He is French speaking so I had a hard time understanding his English. I will tell you what I got out of what he was saying to me. He must have heard me say I was leaving next week. He said "Don't forget about God when you go home". He said that now I am surrounded in a house of God, in a place that is surrounded by his presence. I believe he was referring to the environment on the ship. He said that when I go home and go back to a job that pays me, don't forget about what you saw here. Don't forget about Jesus, because he is coming again soon.

I am getting so much more out of this trip than I am giving. Doesn't that always seem to be the case with short term mission trips?

ELWA Beach

Sunday night was Tammy's last night in Liberia and on her "list of things to do" was to stay the night off the ship. She invited me, Jodi, and Amelia to stay at a guest house at ELWA Beach. Amelia (from Germany) is experienced with staying off the ship. She is very adventureous and it was great getting to know her as I had not officially met her before.

It was an adventure in itself trying to catch a cab to get there. But that is a story for another time. We had the house to ourselves which was nice, but also just a little scary. There was a group of 8 people from Colorado staying in a guest house just down the road. These houses are usually rented out by missionary groups. We sat around and talked, played some cards, then went to bed.

We got up by 6 I think it was, and went out to the beach to catch the sunrise. Realizing we weren't going to see it over the water being on the west coast we collectively decided to go back to bed. We got up by 8:30 and enjoyed the fresh breakfast rolls and tea and coffee provided. We then had a quick swim in the ocean even though it was raining, and then headed back to the ship.
It was an absolutely beautiful morning despite the rain. It was quiet, peaceful, and serene by the beach. I didn't realize how busy and chaotic it can be at times living on the ship.

Bong Mines

Yesterday (Saturday) was definitely one of my best days here in Liberia. I went to the Bong Mines. It is an iron ore mining place in Bong Town. It was pretty much ruined by the war, but they are working on getting it running again. The highlight was the trip to and from. We loaded 3 Mercy Ships Land Rovers onto flat bed rail cars on the train. Then those who wanted to, piled onto the top of the Land Rovers for the two hour trip. It was sooo cool!! I sat up there thinking just how wonderful it was to do something like this. I have a feeling it is not legal in most places because although it felt safe, we live in a sue happy society in the states and I'm sure there are potential dangers. The scenery was beautiful countryside, with lush forest, and all different kinds of trees. We passed small villages with hut type houses.

The vehicles were driven off the train and then we drove to a lake for lunch. We then got a tour of the Bong Mines, and the Bong Mine Hospital. On the ride back I sat back on one of the hoods to the vehicles with Ashley and Sarah. (Our Land Rover was the closest to the engine and we didn't want to sit back on top again because the smog from the coal can be a little overwhelming.) It was great even on the hood of the car because we could talk better, and Ashley shared her Pringles with us-- mmmm.

We then went to Bamboo Bar for dinner in honor of Ashley leaving Monday (she will be missed). There was live music which consisted of familiar songs from the states but regae style. We actually got up and danced a bit.

This morning I went to a baptist church in the town of Cheesemanburg. It was about a 45 minute drive from the ship. I have noticed that the further you go from the ship, the prettier it gets.

comfort zone

I have been getting pretty comfortable with the orthopaedic patients I have been taking care of on ward A. However, on Wednesday I was thrown kind of a curve ball. I was placed on a different ward, and given patients with mostly maxilla/facial surgeries. One of my patients had a tracheostomy tube in. I was a nervous wreck when I got the assignment as I have not taken care of a new tracheostomy tube since nursing school over 10 years ago. A big thanks to Elaine and Jodi who both helped "re-teach" me trach care. Believe it or not, once I started cleaning the inner trach cannula, I actually started remembering what I learned in school all those years ago.

I am very thankful that I was given that assignment and pulled out of my comfort zone. God really provided support for me and gave me an opportunity to see new and different things. I just need to learn to skip the freaking out/nervous stage, and trust that if that is the assignment I am given God will provide the help. (Of course one needs to be reasonable. If I really didn't think I could handle it I could have switched assignments.)

Update

Just wanted to update you on Borkai, the 14 year old who had to have 2 of his fingers amputated. Friday night he asked me to read from the bible for him. I asked him and his brother what they wanted me to read and his brother picked Psalm 31. I began reading and they both busted out laughing. I said "What is so funny?" They said "You speak New York". Apparently to them that is what my accent sounds like. Verse 11 hit me because it says, "Because of all my enemies, I am the utter contempt of my neighbors; I am a dread to my friends- those who see me on the street flee from me." It reminded me of how he was feeling those first hours after surgery--that he wouldn't have any friends anymore. I often thought verses like that didn't apply to today, but I guess they do. There was comfort in verses 7-9. " 7 I will be glad and rejoice in your love, for you saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul. 8 You have not handed me over to the enemy but have set my feet in a spacious place. 9 Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief."

He had been denying any pain the last few nights I took care of him. He just said "I feel bad" (about his circumstances). From what I saw, he was doing sooo much better however. I know it will take a long time for him to adjust, but to see him smiling and joking the night before going home was definitely a comfort to me. Thanks to all of you who prayed for him. Continue to pray for me as I work on the ward. Thanks!

Quiet nights

Thursday I went back to the God's Children's home construction project. Things are coming along. My job for the day was removing nails from the framing that was being taken down from one of the houses.

Thursday night began my block of night shifts--two 10 hour shifts, then two 12 hour shifts for Sat. and Sun. It is really not as bad as it sounds as there is much more down time than at home. Ashley brought her laptop so we watched movies from 3am-5am. Thursday we watched another movie on Liberia and Friday we watched Jurassic Park which believe it or not I have never seen! We kept the sound down very low and put the captions on so that we could hear the patients and pause the movie if they needed anything.

At 5:45am a nurse down the hall had an emergency with one of the patients. He had had an extensive mouth surgery due to Ludwig's Angina and was having trouble breathing. She called 911. The receptionist made a large overhead page for the emergency response team to come to the ward. The response was amazing!! Several doctors, nurses, and anesthesiologists responded immediately. I was shocked at how fast these people had gotten out of bed and came to the ward. The patient ended up going to the OR and having a tracheostomy tube put in and he is currently doing ok. When I went up for breakfast, Dr. Gary Parker had written a note on the board by the gangway with a brief explanation of the emergency and thanked everyone for their prayers. (This is because everyone on board hears the overhead emergency.) When I went for breakfast I heard at least 3 people say that they started praying when they heard the announcement. That is so awesome. To have a ship full of people praying for you in an emergency.

Missionary of Charity

Wednesday morning I went to the Missionary of Charity Sisters of Mother Theresa Home of Peace and Joy. If I understand correctly it is a care facility for adults and children with terminal illnessess. Most are infected with HIV/AIDS. Some have other issues. Many go there to die. There is a section for men, a section for women, and a section for children. I went to the section with the women.

The morning started off in song. Someone brought a drum and one of the woman played it while another of the Liberian woman led the whole room in singing. These women that looked tired when we arrived lit up when they sang. It was an amazing beautiful sound to hear the room explode with African worship music. These woman can sing!! With the joy that was on there faces you would never guess they had HIV or AIDS. One of the woman then prayed. She thanked God that she woke up from her bed this morning and that God counted her from among the living today. Can you image saying that prayer? I have heard the Liberian Disciplers on the ward say similar prayers with the patients. They'll often say, "many did not even wake up from their beds this morning, many can not walk, you need to thank God you woke up this morning". It is so true, that we never know when God is going to choose to take us, but I think in Liberia they have suffered so much with the war, poverty, hunger, diseases that they are more aware that they are fortunate to be alive.

Melissa, one of our nurses shared a bible lesson with the ladies. It was a continuation on a lesson they had started the week before on fruits of the spirit. Galatians 5:22-23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control..."

She made the lesson simple by talking about the steps it takes to grow good fruit. You need soil, a seed, water, sunlight, and pruning sheers.

John 15 reads "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."

Now, I have heard this verse many times. But the way Melissa spoke on it I had a new understanding. What things in our lives are holding us back from bearing good fruit? We should consider cutting them out of our lives. It made me think about how busy my life is at home. Are there things that are holding me back from moving forward-- producing good fruit? I think many of us clutter our lives with things that are not important to the big picture. I look at so many of the people that work on Mercy Ships and am in complete awe of how God is working through them because they are open to His calling. God is working through them, because they have willingly opened themselves to be used by Him. And it doesn't happen overnight. We will never be perfect on this earth, but allowing ourselves to be pruned--even though it hurts sometimes will help make us grow.

So I challenge you---what in your life needs pruning, and what branches need to be cut away? For me, the junk in my bedroom needs to go--all the clutter! Also, the thought process that I am not good enough, or qualified enough for certain things. If God wants to use me, He will equipe me with the skills and the courage to get the job done. That is true with all of us. I think the fruit of the spirit I will work on this week is self control. Let's see if I can control myself from eating so much junk food this week.

Ok, I hope that made some kind of sense. I just worked my 10hour overnight shift and probably should not be writing on no sleep but oh well...Have a good day!

Difficult shift

Tuesday evening shift turned out to be difficult-- at least emotionally. I mentioned Borkai in the last entry. He is the 14year old with cancer on the left forearm. Yesterday morning, I happened to eat breakfast with Dr. Greene's wife. Dr. Greene is the orthopaedic surgeon handling the case. His wife told me that he contacted their son in the states who is also an orthopaedic surgeon who did a hand fellowship. He also consulted an oncologist. She says her husband has about 5 doctor friends at home he can consult for advise. I thought this was awesome, because I really wondered how these doctors knew how to treat such a variety of surgeries here.

It was decided that 2 of Borkai's fingers and a small part of his hand needed to be removed. He was having a really hard time with this. He was crying before surgery and didn't want to go. He finally followed his nurse Keri(from Ohio) to the surgery area.

Hours later he came back from surgery crying almost hysterically. I guess this started in recovery when he woke up and saw the dressing on his hand. We could not calm him down and his blood pressure and heart rate were high. Keri sat with him and took care of things while I paged the doctors for orders. We ended up giving him Valium which did not seem to help the crying, but his blood pressure and heart rate improved some.

Over and over again he kept saying things like, "Why did they do this to me...,I am a cripple,...I will never be able to do anything,...I will never have a girlfriend,...I will never hold a baby,...Nobody will be my friend,...I came to Mercy Ships for better healing than this,...why did they do this!!!...". This was all being said through hysterical crying and this went on for over an hour.

There seemed to be no talking him out of this. His 18 year old sister was there, and other family and he wasn't listening to anyone. I do have to say Keri--his nurse--kept calm and did a great job through all of this.

You want to tell him that life will be fine, that he will be accepted, that he has his right whole hand and can do anything, etc., etc. The truth is it might not be ok. I am not fully educated on Liberian culture, but what I do know, is that deformities are often not accepted. Kids often don't go to school with any kind of deformity because they get made fun of. I have even heard that sometimes these people won't even go to church because of criticism. People are afraid because they think things like these are curses and they will catch them too. Plus the fact that he is a 14 year old young man doesn't make it any easier to deal with such a serious thing.

I had a talk with his 18 year old sister Finas. I told her it may be months if not longer before he will begin to accept it. I am hoping once it heals, he will realize he will be capable of almost anything. The family seemed fully aware that this was a life saving measure. Finas told me that he had had surgery to remove this tumor at JFK hospital in Liberia at least twice before and it kept growing back. Although I am pretty sure it wasn't diagnosed as cancer then, JFK told them he should have his forearm and hand amputated and the family said no. I was relieved to hear this because although the family consented to the surgery, I thought maybe they would experience anger or blame toward Mercy Ships. This doesn't seem to be the case though. Anyways, more happened, but I don't feel quit comfortable sharing it all at this time. I heard he had a rough morning, but I also hear that he is doing better this afternoon.

On a lighter note, Rita is doing awesome. She has learned to use a wheelchair and she is very good at turning it. Katy took her outside again and read with her, so things are good.

Palliative care

Yesterday morning I went out with June from the Palliative care team. Basically, the palliative care team is similar to home health care/ home hospice care. June's background is a unit seceratary in a hospital in the Boston area. The nurse for the team had to go home, and since there is a shortage of nurses here now, they are not going to fill the position. She often takes a nurse with her, and she seems to have things covered--she knows what to do. She also has an assistant who is a Liberian man, who is helpful because he knows how to find places, and he acts as a translator when needed. The patients are refered to her from the ship. These are patients that are probably going to die soon from their illness, or they are patients that we don't treat on the ship.

Our first stop was at a man's house who has a tumor behind his eye. He was going to travel back to the bush country and she was dropping off pain medication that he could take with him. She asked me to assess him because he was having pain on the upper jaw area and she didn't know if it was from the tumor or something else. I think it could be from the tumor, however when I looked in his mouth he had a tooth with an exposed root. We refered him to the Mercy Ships dental clinic so that he could get that pulled before leaving in case that was the root of his pain. The son was familiar with the clinic because he said his father had two other teeth pulled there last year.

Next we went to St. Joseph's Catholic Hospital to visit two kids with Burkitt's. I am not familiar with it, but it is a type of cancer--a lymphoma that is very fast growing, but treatable with chemotherapy. There is not one oncologist in the whole country. Can you imagine that!! Apparantely there is an oncologist that is going to come for three months to Liberia so maybe he will assess the situation here and see there is a need. Anyways, these two children had come to the ship for help, but since the ship is primarily for surgical patients, they have a deal with this catholic hospital to treat these kids. Mercy ships ordered the chemotherapy drugs needed, and they bring the chemo, and supplies to the hospital. Mercy Ships pays for half the care, and I am unclear who pays the other half (either the government or the hospital). At any rate, the treatment is free for the patient. June even left money for one of the mothers so she could get food for herself while she stayed with her child. So the hospital gives the chemo.

I then worked my evening shift. Rita, the 9 year old girl with the casts is doing so much better. I didn't have her as a patient but I was on the same ward. One of the nurses who was off of work took her outside for a while and read to her and I think it did wonders for her. One of the other patients, a 14 year old boy (Borkai) that I had taken care of last week, found out that the tumor on his left arm that they removed was cancerous. They now have to remove part of his hand and two of his fingers. He has the greatest smile, and I felt sooo bad for him when he found out because his uncle and mother were trying to comfort him and he just looked off in the other direction. His adopt a patient crew member came later and spent some quality time with him, and he also played cards with some other boys on the ward, so hopefully his mind wasn't on it all the time. Pray for him as he will probably have the surgery soon.

Firestone

Today I went with eight other people to the Firestone plantation. It was very interesting. I did not know rubber came from trees. If I understand correctly, the Firestone plantation is a compound of sorts. The people that work there, live there, and their children go to school in the community. They also have their own hospital. When we first got there, we took a tour of the hospital. It was very basic. Not much equipement, medications, etc. However, to the others who have seen other Liberian hospitals, they thought this one was pretty nice.

We went to lunch at the Firestone Staff Club. It was a country club and we sat outside overlooking the golf course. I had a ham and cheese sandwich. It had some kind of cucumber sauce on it. Not something I would normally go for but it was sooo good.

We then tried to get a tour and were unsuccessful. We went for a drive down a side road and stopped to take pictures. (I will try to include some later). One of the workers came over to us and taught us all about the process of collecting rubber from the trees. Unfortunately, I couldn't catch all he was saying because he wasn't that close to me and the English is a little different. The rubber actually drips tike sap into little buckets that hang on the tree. (I'm not going to go into great detail). It is white when it comes off the tree. They then put a reddish die into it that is unique to Firestone so that if it gets stolen they know it belongs to them. We saw a big truck come and pick up the days worth of it. I asked if the man thought Firestone was a good company to work for and he seemed to indicate it is not. I think they work really hard there. One man has to collect from 800 trees a day is what I understood him to say. There has been controversy over the work conditions at this plantation.

They do get retirement pay, and healthcare, but they have to save for a house for retirement because they then have to move off the plantation. The man said that they don't actually make the tires here though. Their were many tires around in the playgrounds and along the road. At any rate, it was a fun learning experience.

It's been awhile..

I feel like I have missed out on a lot of things to share because I don't keep up with this everyday. Yesterday in the ward, WMBI broadcasting was doing a story. They are on the ship for a week I guess. For those of you who don't know, WMBI is Moody Radio 93.1 in Chicago. They are doing several stories I think. They interviewed our charge nurse with a patient named Rita. Rita is 9 years old. One of the young OR nurses was on a day trip to the Bong Mines with a group of people and saw this little girl from the vehicle and took pictures of her. Her legs where so bowed that it almost looks like you could put a big round exercise ball between her legs. The nurse showed the pictures to some of the doctors and they said they could help. She then went back to the village and asked random people if anyone knew this little girl. They ran into a woman who knew Rita's grandmother. So long story short she had her surgery and now her legs are straight. It is definitely a life changing experience for this little girl. So they took video of her coloring etc. and told the story. It is amazing that God worked in such a way that they found this little girl. One of the admissions nurse was telling me that when they were out near a market her and several other women saw a women who had bad burns on her face, and they felted compelled to pray for her, and a few days later she showed up to the ship--she had already had an appointment card.

Anyway, back to Rita. The story is remarkeable but it isn't so cut and dry and wonderful as it will seem in print, or on radio. Today she started screaming and crying and was almost inconsolable. It was horrible. She was having muscle spasms. She was already on Morphine. While her nurse went to get a small dose of Valium that was ordered for the spasms, I went and stood by her bed with the mother. She kept screaming and crying--mom, mom, mom, and pulling at her mom, and at one point she grabbed my hand and put it on her chest as if she wanted me to feel her heart. She was just wailing, and laying her head on my arm and I felt so helpless. It took me everything to not cry while I watched this little girl with her now straight legs stuck in full length casts. She was in sooo much pain. Can you imagine having completely bent legs for about 9 years of your life and then having them surgically straighted.

Fortunately, in the last two days she has appeared comfortable. This was only the 3rd time she had an episode like this and thankfully it subsided and she was fine after about 20 minutes. So those of you who listen to WMBI remember you got the real story here first. More to come....

It's been awhile..

Adventures in takeout

I had a very interesting Monday night. I was invited out to dinner with Ashley, Grace, and Jodi. We called Alfred the cab driver who is very well known to the ship as being very reliable which he is. Apparently he had been sick all day with some stomach thing, but he didn't want to let us down so he came anyways. We drove through traffic to get to a restaurant that was closed. Apparently it is not open everyday which is a shame because it looked nice and had a view of the water. Alfred tried another place but it wasn't serving food it was just a pub. We then went back to the ship deciding that it was not worth going all the way in the other direction through traffic to find another restaurant.

When we arrived back at the ship, a guard at the gate area called us over. It was already dark and he had a mom and her three kids waiting to get on the Mercy Ship. They had an appointment for March 23 for a cast change and did not show up then. I learned earlier in the day that this is a common occurrence that people end up coming days later and Mercy Ships can usually fit them in. A lot of these people travel far to get here and transportation is not the best. She had left home in the morning and the cab broke down so it was an all day ordeal.

One of her sons was about 6 or 7, and then she had twins who where almost 1years old I think--Prince and Princess. Prince had surgery to correct his clubbed feet so he was coming back to get his 2 casts changed. Ashley called the charge nurse who said it was fine to bring them on board.

I leaned over to pick up her large bag filled with random things. The guard said to me "no, you take baby, she carry bag". So I got to carry Prince while the mom put the large bag on top of her head and carried it to the ship. The Liberian women carry everything on there heads. Anything from little bags, to large buckets, to refrigerators--I kid you not we saw a 13 year old girl with a small refrigerator/freezer on her head. The doors were off of it and it was about half the size of the ones at home, but still, we were shocked, I mean..it was a refrigerator!

As I walked toward the ship with this little boy in my arms, I looked out toward the dark ocean and felt overwhelmingly happy. Happy because I am so privileged to be able to be here. To experience moments like this. Things don't always go smooth, but Mercy Ships seems to go with the flow and do the best that they can and are very understanding of the struggle it takes for people to get here. We ran into a lady earlier in the day who couldn't get here on her appointment date either and they let her on board.

Any child under 15 can have one caregiver stay with them. Sometimes, we get a mom who is a patient that brings her baby along so that she can breastfeed and the healthy baby stays with us as well. In tonight's case, we were letting the mom be here with her twins and her other little boy.

We decided to order takeout from one of the menus on the ship. It was an ordeal. Ashley had a hard time getting the order placed on the phone. Although a lot of people speak English, it is not the same as our English. We got the order placed and 20minutes later walked to the gate to wait for the driver. He called the cell phone to say he arrived but we couldn't find him. Ashley would get a word or two in and the driver would hang up. One of the Mercy Ships vehicles pulled up and the driver, Emmanuel, (a Mercy Ships crew person who happens to be from Africa) called for us and re-explained where we were located. Emmanuel said he would drive up to the ship and drop off his passengers and come back for us, because at this point, although we were near the military guards, it wasn't feeling exactly safe. While he was gone, the driver finally arrived with our food and another Mercy Ships vehicle arrived and picked us up. As we drove back to the ship we see Emmanuel, and although we honked and waved he didn't see us in the vehicle and he kept going.

I ended up asking a crew member who was jogging to let him know we were back safe because by this time we didn't feel like walking half a mile to get him.

I must say, the food was really good. We then followed up dinner with ice cream sundays. The ship shop sold ice cream today --this is a rarity apparently. We had ice cream with m&m's, oreo cookies, and hershey syrup. Life is good.

Oh, and to update, Janet, the 7year old from the orphanage will be having surgery on the ship today to repair her broken arm. Thank you Lord for that answer to prayer.

Please continue to pray for me. I am feeling at ease and and happy here but I know that is because I am covered in prayer and I do not take that for granted.

Unfortunately, I forgot about the 7:45am crew meeting this morning and missed it. I was told that Glenn Murray spoke about priorities in life. We are often taught to put God first, then family, then work, etc. He said although he tried this, it never worked for him. He says putting Jesus in the center and everything else around works better for him. Life can be busy with raising kids, etc. and it doesn't make sense to Glenn to do it the way we are often taught. For instance, now I will have my quite time to read the bible, and now I will spend time with my family, and now I will work. Having Jesus in the center and not separating him as top of the list but incorporating Him into everything makes a lot more sense. I heard this all second hand, but it sounded good so I wanted to share.

Have a good day all of you at home! Hi Angelica--you happen to be on my mind today so I thought I would just say hello.

Finally Pictures!

Lynnel was having trouble posting pics, so I took the one's she posted on facebook and copied them into her blog for her

-Stephanie : )

Pictures

I have spent the last hour and a half trying to get pictures uploaded onto my blog and I was not successful as you can see. I have worked up an appetite in the process. It is Monday morning and they are serving crepes in the cafe. For all of you who were concerned that I wasn't going to get my chocolate/junk food fix--no worries. I will sit and enjoy my crepe and think of all of you.

the weekend

It's been difficult to get the time to blog--or the privacy. This is my weekend to work, and it has been great! Yesterday I went for lunch out on the dock and sat in the sun with my feet up. In the afternoon we took most of the patients up to the 7th deck where they can sit outside. It was a beautiful sunny, breezy day. Lately it has been cloudy and muggy so this was a blessing. The patients seem to really love it up there because there is such a good view. I took some pictures and I am going to try to post them. I feel like I finally connected with some of the patients yesterday. They asked if we got paid good, and I explained to them that we volunteer and actually pay to be here. I explained to them that it is definitely worth the time and money and we are blessed hugely with this experience. We all agreed that money doesn't buy everything, and that life experiences are so much more important than making money etc. They have such great testimonies and stories these patients. One of the men has been out of work for 2 years due to his leg injury. He had surgery at JFK Hospital twice and it still wasn't fixed. I pray this time it heals so he can go back to work. He is a harvester and he has two kids that he showed me pictures of. I also took care of 2 three year old girls in casts. I am not used to taking care of kids and calculating their medication dosages. Actually, it was not too difficult because it was just Tylenol and iron and the typical stuff mom's give at home.

One of the patients asked me if it is harder here or at home. That is a difficult question to answer because it's just so different. We see things here that we would never see at home. But I would say that the stress level is cut in half. We actually have time to talk with the patients because the paperwork is manageable. At home, I don't actually take breaks where I leave the floor. I was thinking yesterday how awesome it was to eat lunch outside and then spend about 45 minutes with the patients outside on the 7th deck. I have to get back to working so I will try to add more later.

It's an overcast Friday

It feels like it's been a while since I've written. I worked evenings on Monday, Tues, Wed. Tuesday I had just a few patients that were on an isolation ward. One of them is 17 and has MRSA. I don't think MRSA is as common here as in the states. My two patients seemed very bored, so we tried to teach the lady to crochet (which is hard when I really don't know how to crochet myself) and I made a friendship bracelet (like the kind we used to make in 6th grade) with the boy. This was probably not the best choice of crafts for a 17 year old boy but he knew how to do it and I was at a loss for what else to do. I feel like I am not very good with communicating with the patients sometimes . I don't know if it is a language or cultural barrier or what. Other people are good at it though, so maybe it will just take time. Crew members can "adopt a patient". Basically, a crew member will pick a patient and come spend time with them and talk to them etc. Later that night, the crew member that "adopted" him (a 20 something Scottish boy) came and put an isolation gown and gloves on, and went into his room and chatted with him for quit a while. He then went and got his bible and came back and chatted with him some more. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall and see how it's done. I don't know where I would begin with talking about the bible with someone. What passage would I go to etc.



Yesterday, Thursday, I went to Victorious Refugee Camp and Battery Factory. It is an orphanage with 30 children ages 1-17. A 7 year old girl fell backwards and hurt her arm. A few of us nurses brought her back to the house and I was asking her to stand and flex both arms so we could see if it looked broken or dislocated. While we were doing this I had to stop one of the house moms because she had both hands on the child's arm and she looked like she was trying to put it back into place. I guess you do this in Liberia where healthcare is not the best. Mercy Ships has rules about not just taking people from the community on the ship to help them because it would end up happening all the time. The way Mercy Ships works, is they do screenings and then they schedule surgeries. Ines (a German woman from the ship who goes to this orphanage twice a week) called Island Pediatric Hospital which is free to see if they had any orthopaedic doctor there and they don't. She then called the Mercy Ship crew doctor for advice. We ended up taking her to the ship to xray the arm, and indeed it was broken. Now they are trying to decide whether to try to squeeze her into the surgical schedule here next week when the new ortho docs arrive or take her to JFK Hospital where there is one orthopaedic surgeon for the whole country. Apparently at JFK they are somewhat crooked and would charge too much money if they see white people with the patient. It really made me feel fortunate that I live in a country that will take care of a broken arm even if you don't have insurance, etc. A lot of what we see on the ship that is orthopaedic are broken bones from years ago that were never fixed and now they are here so we can fix them. We where thinking, wouldn't it be nice to actually fix this girls arm properly now, so she doesn't end up like a lot of these other people. I am just praying they can do the surgery here.

New Zealand

I have met 2 woman on separate occasions that are from New Zealand. As most of you know I really really really want to go there some day. Right before I decided on this trip to the Mercy Ship, I was looking into a month long habitat for humanity trip there. But it was really expensive and didn't leave much time to travel. Some years ago I applied for a travel nurse position there but found out it was a minimum requirement of a year and at the time I felt that was too long. Now I'm realizing it was probably the right amount of time. One of the nurses went there on vacation for 6 weeks and stayed for 4 years! Anyways, the two Kiwi's I met said you need a minimum of 6 weeks to visit there if you want to see everything. I was always told in the US that 2 weeks would be good--a week for each island. I think americans look at vacation in terms of a week or two and the rest of the world think nothing of taking month long "holidays". I'm beginning to realize life is really short. There is so much I want to do. I will make it to New Zealand some day--I feel almost called to go there, not necessarily for mission type work, but to enjoy it's beauty and recreation.



Tuesday mornings at 7:45 are the mandatory crew meetings where they update everyone on happenings on the ship, safety issues, and announce arrivals and departures of crew. We had a speaker today. It was Glenn Murray. I think I mentioned him before. He travels around the world sharing his faith. He is not a pastor but he has met with monks and Buddhist priests, etc. He goes to Korea at least twice a year, etc, etc. Anyway, he talked about how Christians tend to think people are either nonbelievers or believers. I am going to paraphrase him so I'm not sure if I will get his concept quite right. He says for some people believing in Jesus takes a lot of time. When Peter was out on the water in his fishing boat, he came in near to the shore to hear this Jesus speak, and heal people. He didn't come thinking here is the Christ the one who God sent to die on the cross for my sins so that I could have eternal life in heaven. He came thinking, let me check this Jesus guy out and see what He is up to. (Now I don't know if we should be speaking for Peter and what he was thinking but you get the point). It was an interesting concept. We need to be open about our faith and be available for God to use us, but we need to let the Holy Spirit do His job in the persons heart we are trying to reach.

Back to work

I am back to work after a long weekend off. I am on the 2-10pm shift. I am on C ward by myself-- me and only 3 patients. The charge nurse comes in and checks on me from time to time. The other wards seem busy. My ward is quite. We are watching a DVD on Genesis.

Yesterday, Sunday, I went to church in the morning with 4 other girls. In the afternoon I went to a King and Queen event at a christian school. One of the orphans from God's Children's Home was nominated for King. He didn't end up winning but the event was well worth skipping the beach for. I have never seen anything like it. There were 3 little girls, and 2 little boys who were nominated. They announced their names one by one, and they strutted themselves up to the front, catwalk style. It was hilarious. They then sat in front of the stifling hot auditorium. There were cardboard boxes in front of each child. The DJ started playing dance music and the crowd went up and put money in the boxes. This went on for 15 minutes. They then tallied up each childs winnings. The children then came back to their spot in front, dressed in something else for round two. Same thing went on for another 15 minutes. The children came out a third time totally decked out in nice clothes. This round was 20 minutes. Children and adults alike went dancing up to the front and dropped money into the cardboard boxes. Carl and Inese (they are the one's working on building the new orphanage) were their along with me, Tammy, and Becky. Carl kept giving the children from the orphanage money to bring up to the front so they were racing back and forth to get money from him. With all the time in between counting money etc, and the event starting late, we were there for 4 hours! Things run on African time around here. This event was a fund raiser for the school. They ended up raising 31,000+ Liberian dollars which I was told is around 500 US dollars. The boy from the orphanage didn't win king but he got a semester free tuition. The winners got a year free tuition. The poor king and queen looked so tired by the end of this. They just stood their on these chairs looking bewildered while the adults but their crowns on.

Later last night, karoeke was going on in the lecture room. It was so much fun to watch. I did not sing because singing is not one of my God given talents. Katy from the UK was up their singing "wait a minute Mr. Postman" in an american accent, and all of a sudden she belts out "I'm american!" It was hilarious because she did such a good job of imitating one.

Well that's all for now because it is visiting hours and I am going to visit with my one patient who doesn't have any visitors.

This is the life!!!

Yesterday, I went to God's Children's Home Construction project. It is the construction project that is affiliated with the orphanage I mentioned from one of my first days here. A couple that met on the Mercy Ship some years ago are heading the project. Carl is from Holland and his wife Inese is from South Africa (she speaks some dutch because in South Africa they speak alt dutch, plus his English is really good). There are 5 two bedroom houses being built that will make up the orphanage. Carl and his wife live in one of the houses that is almost finished. They have been living their for 3 months. They plan to live their until the project is finished. Carl built a well himself so they have running water. They also have a generator so they use electricity on occasion.



Some Liberian women that Inese had been mentoring gave her two pigs as a gift. So we were working on the foundation for the pig pen. I started out digging trenches but I had a hard time with that. We soon moved on to the concrete making process. This was great. I felt somewhat useful. I shoveled rocks into buckets, and got water from the well. They had a small cement mixer that ran by generator. We took a coffee/juice break and a lunch break. We stopped at 1pm for the day. I LOVED this kind of work.



Carl says he loves living outside in the country type area. They have a few gardens. They are growing some onions and sweet peppers, and even some pumpkins. I think my brother John and Dorothy would love it there. It reminded me of them for some reason. You can even go to the beach after a hard days work. I don't think it is very safe however. They have had multiple problems with theft. One time about $900 dollars worth of steal wire got stolen during the night. Another time, while it was raining at night, and Carl couldn't hear anything over the rain on the tin roof, a generator was stolen. He said they were able to retrieve it because the wheel barrel left tracks in the mud, so they followed the tracks the next day and got the generator back. The boys got out of jail in the end because they had an uncle who was an official of sorts. Another time, he said he heard the thieves and ran out after them and chased them away. I think it would be very hard to live under these conditions. I think I would have a tendency to feel like, I don't have to be here, I am helping you people and this is how I get treated! But that is the absolute wrong attitude. They feel that God has called them here and they feel that they will be protected as well, I suppose. Carl was telling us that they got their puppy as a gift. Someone suggested they name him security, which they did. That way if thieves come they can yell "security".

I then came back and went to the beach. Traffic was so bad because of a market we passed that we only stayed an hour--there was no sun anyways. Back at the ship, I watched another documentary on Liberia. It was sad. This country has around an 85% unemployment rate (when the documentary was made a few years ago), which explains why there are sooo many people all over the streets in the middle of the day.

Last night was really great. The ship had a Ceilidh dance on the dock. Ceilidh is Scottish dancing. It is similar to square dancing, or folk dancing. Two of the Scottish crew members led everyone, and taught us how to do the dances. It was so much fun. One of the guys played a few songs on his bagpipes.

Lazy days off...

Yesterday, Friday, I went into town with Tammy from Canada and her supervisor from Arizona. We went to Brussels Airlines office to get Tammy's stay here extended so she could stay another month. Her supervisor has been here awhile. She informed us that the Nepal security men that guard the gangway (the way on and off the ship) know Kung-Fu. It is comforting to know that they aren't just little Nepalese men, they have skills!

I then went to the beach with 2 girls from the states, and 1 girl from Canada. We made a wrong turn near the beach and went down a road where there was new houses being put up. These were very nice, big cement block houses. They were similar to the new construction I have seen in the Florida Keys. Monrovia puzzles me. So much of the area I have seen is, well, "trashtastic" to use my sisters terminology. Other areas look like they are going to be beautiful. I would love to see what this place looks like in 10 years. From the little I have seen, this country has potential to be beautiful. It has palm trees, beautiful waterways, beaches, and lush green areas. However, there are so many poor people, poor healthcare, and destruction as a result of about 14 years of war.

Last night, I went with 4 others to a Lebanese restuarant called the Beirut restuarant. My bunkmate, Jenny from Sweden is leaving Sunday so it was a goodbye dinner for her. I am very sad that she will be leaving. Afterwards Jenny, Tammy, and I went for a walk on the ships dock. It had just rained and there was lighting far off in the sky. We couldn't stop laughing because whisps of our hair was standing straight up from the electricity, I quess.

the blind receive sight, and the lame walk

Every other week the ship has a firedrill. Everyone on the ship has to go out on the dock and be accounted for. If you are a night shift worker you get a sign for your door excusing you from having to go out because it is smack in the middle of the day when you are sleeping. This was a very good drill. I now know that if there is a real fire on the ship the alarms and announcements will definitely wake me up in the middle of my sleep. Actually, I didn't mind being woken up because I just finished by 3rd night shift. I was working for six days in a row, and now I am off for 4 days!!

I really liked working the night shift. It was much less busy. When I came on shift last night, all the patients were watching a soccer game between Manchester and Chelsea England. A few crew members had come to watch with the patients as well. Everyone was riled up.

I was reminded last night of the verse in Matthew 11:5 "the blind receive sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them." Last night I had three patients, ages 8, 11, and 12 who are here for cataract surgery. The 11year old girl could only really see colors and had to be led around by her mother. I am so excited for her that she can have this surgery to restore her vision. It saddens me, however, because I am sure there are many more children in Liberia with this problem that aren't getting help. Many patients have leg wounds from old gunshot wounds or poor healing ulcers. Others have had broken bones that healed incorrectly. Through surgery and physical therapy they are being helped to walk again. "...the poor have the gospel preached to them."--Dennis (one of our translators) was telling the patients the gospel last night before bed, and he was singing with them, and praying with them. I am seeing wholistic care at this hospital. We use modern technology (not quit as modern as at home) and medicine to treat these patients, but we also pray for these patients to heal. One of the patients was praying the other night that God work through the medicine to help him heal.

On another note, my thoughts about Europeans was somewhat incorrect. They are not all tall and skinny just because of good genetics, good eating habits, and smoking lots of cigarettes. They actually work out really hard!!! I went to an aerobics class on Monday led by the crew Doctors wife. They are from Germany (Wolfgang and Andrea). Andrea is the nicest woman, but does she mean business! I have not sweated that much in a long time. Then Wednesday I went to aerobics again and this time it was a British video. My calfs were so sore from Mondays workout that I had a hard time keeping up with the "star jumps" (jumping jacks in american English). I laughed a few times at the British humor in the video, but I think the humor was actually corny, because the brits in the room weren't laughing with me. I think it was the accent and facial expressions that made it funny to me. I probably won't be able to make it to an aerobics class for another week or two which is ok because I need some recovery time.

I have been here for 2 weeks now. Things are good. I am learning so much and am thankful for this experience.

Night shift

This is my first overnight shift here. Angelica and Luz, my favorite Friday night nurses back home would be very proud of me because it is almost 2am and I am almost done with my charting. I have 9 patients, but it is manageable because the paperwork is not extreme.

The patient that usually prays for everyone before going to bed was discharged home yesterday. I overheard the patients discussing that someone should take over the praying for him. A 35year old lady started singing a song, then she prayed for the ward, the nurses, etc. It was really nice.

Unfortunately, the patient bathrooms here have a large step up to get into them. I have a 65year old woman who had her femur (the thigh bone) fixed. She had been walking on it for 12 years with it broken. It is not easy to get her up into the bathroom, but she does it! She walks pretty fast with her walker (they call walkers "frames" here). I am amazed at how these patients get around with their crutches. They are very strong people!

I was told it is perfectly acceptable to raid the kitchen during the night for cereal, etc. So I took my turn up to deck 5 to the cafeteria and grabbed some frosted flakes and more coffee. Night shift is from 9:30 to 7:00am. I think I am going to like this shift. Bye for now...

Top Gun...continued...

Yes you guessed it, Top Gun was playing on the big screen here last night. It was almost 11 o'clock when I realized however so I watched just two minutes of the last fight scene... "Talk to me Goose"..."Maverick's re-engaging sir"...and then went to bed.

Very cloudy Sunday

Hi everyone! I just read all of your comments and they were funny, inspiring, encouraging, etc. Thanks for thinking of me! It has been a busy few days. I think I am going to really like working here once I get the hang of it. Work on Friday PM went very well as they gave me all adults. Things at this hospital are interesting. At home it is very common for the orthopaedic doctors to order xrays after surgery to make sure things are aligned. To do them can be a challenge here. Most of the patients can get up on crutches but 2 couldn't. The cart doesn't fit through the door of the xray room so we had to but these people on a stretcher type thing and carry them in. (We found men to carry them back to bed because we decided it wasn't worth hurting our backs). Saturday I did a 12hr shift. Everyday at about 2:30 we get all the patients that are allowed out of bed and bring them up to the 7th deck of the ship so that they can be outside looking at the water. A lady who had surgery on her left arm was very afraid up there. She made me move her chair away from the balcony rail and sit with her and hold her hand. I don't think she had ever been that high before. One of the nurses was explaining to me that a lot of things here are foreign to these people. In the patient bathrooms they actually have pictures of how to use the toilets because in some areas I think they are used to using squatty potties.

There are 4 wards and an ICU on the ship. There are about 20 beds on each ward, split by a wall with 10 beds on each side. We only have about 2 and a half wards open at the moment. We mix all the men, women, and children together. Today I had a bunch of 19-30year olds all on crutches. It was funny to watch them carry their toothbrushes in their mouths and hobble on over to the bathroom to get washed up. Their is a boy about 13 years old who is the comic relief on the ward. He is trying to learn Dutch from all the Dutch nurses. He wants me to take him to Chicago in my suitcase. I told him since he is only 36kg that yes I can pack him.

We took most of the patients into B ward this morning and they had a church service. It was AMAZING! They sang, and then 3 of the patients gave their stories. It was so good to hear their side of the experience on Mercy Ships. They are so thankful to God and they give Him the glory for being able to come here and get help. One of the men that shared his story was my patient the night before. Every night before bed, and every morning when he wakes up, he reads a passage from his bible loud enough for the rest of the ward to hear. Then he prays for those going to surgery and those that came back from surgery. He prays for the patients, the nurses, wisdom for the doctors, families at home, and continued healing for all the wounds. It is really touching because he prayed for the 3 nurses by name. They all make it a point to learn our names.

I was feeling like I had a pretty good day until it was time to hand off to the next shift, and then I felt like I didn't have things together. I left feeling pretty bad. Difficult to explain, but I need to not be so hard on myself. So after a handful of chocolate and a quick walk outside, everything was fine again. I should take the patient's advice "Don't let the devil put negative thoughts in your head!" During the sermon this morning the pastor (who is from some island off the coast of Denmark) talked about how following God can be a sacrifice--leaving home, family, etc. But all we have to do is be willing. He said often we feel that we don't have the capabilities to do certain jobs or tasks in life, but all God wants is a willing heart. If we are willing to do or go where God wants, He will equipe us to do the job He wants us to do to further his kingdom. I am so fortunate to be able to hear all of these great sermons, but my issue is I have to learn to believe that God means these things for me as much as He does for others. I tend to forget to lean on Him when times get stressful. Instead I freak out a little (inside of course as we all know I am good at internalizing things). This is something I am going to try to work on while I am here. I am not superwoman and I need to accept and ask for help when needed.

P.S. I must pay special recognition to Mr. Wayne Thomsen for his debut to the computer world. I was very impressed he used a computer for the 1st time to leave me a comment on my blog. Congratulations to you sir. (Don't quit your day job, you tile much better than you type).

P.P.S. One of the orthopaedic doctors that was here for the past two weeks has spinal stenosis like my dad. He said when he goes home one of his partners is going to do surgery on him. But he flew all the way here from the states to do surgery on these people. So Dad you should come out here because you would love walking the dock and exploring the ship and hanging with the Dutch folk. There are many Dutch on here and they almost allowed me into their click because apparently I look like I come from Holland. One of my Dutch roommates and another nurse said a few people were wondering if maybe I was Dutch or had parents from Holland. There is something in my face they say.

Top Gun

Unfortunately I am one of those people who has good intentions to read my bible, but don't read it nearly as frequently as I should. Since I had the day off though, I went out on the dock to read from the bible book "My Time With God" that Amy gave me. A Norwegian nurse named Esther came and sat next to me and after chatting a bit, she said "ok no more talking I need to do my quite time"(for those of you who don't know a lot of Christians refer to quite time as time they spend with God, reading the bible praying etc.) So after about 20mins, she invited me on a walk to a store with her and another Norwegian girl named Christine. Turns out Christine's parents were missionaries and she lived in Madagascar for about 7years growing up. Esther is here for I think 5 months maybe? But she also was in Thailand after the tsunami for 2 months with YWAM and was in Ecuador for 2 months while she was in nursing school. I am amazed when I meet people and hear what they've done.



Thursday nights are the group service (like a church service) in the international lounge. We had an amazing speaker from England named Phil. He spoke on how many say salvation is free for everyone, but being a follower of Jesus can be a big sacrifice. He talked about how people in history have had to watch their families suffer and die because they were unwilling to deny Christ. He talked about when he and his wife first came on Mercy Ships he felt like it was a big sacrifice, but for him, it really isn't. We have beds, air conditioning, and frapaccinos. He went on to say how it was difficult for Jesus as well. Jesus, who paid the ultimate sacrifice--who died on the cross for our sins so that we could have eternal life with God. The pastor spoke on Matthew 26:39 "...Jesus fell to the ground and prayed,"My Father, if it is possible, do not give me this cup of suffering. But do what you want, not what I want." WOULD YOU BELIEVE THAT THAT WAS THE EXACT PASSAGE I READ ON THE DOCK THAT DAY!! Me who neglects to read my bible like I should happens upon the exact passage. But that is God for me. I have never been one of those persons who "hears God speak" or anything, but He tends to give me those little signs like here I am, I see you, I care about you, etc. It is amazing how God cares about each and every individual in ways that are personal to us. I am in aww.

Now if you are not familiar with Top Gun--my favorite movie as a teenager--this might be lost on you. Thursday evening after dinner was volleyball. I was up near the net, and someone turned on some music during our last game, and it was "Danger Zone"(highway to the danger zone) by Kenny Logins, which is a Top Gun anthem of sorts. And although it is not the song that plays during the volleyball game in the movie, it still cracked me up because there I am playing volleyball in a reddish type dirt that looked like sand, on a UN military base next to the ship, with the sun setting in the backround. The only thing missing was the topless navy guys.

One week down and I have learned so much already and I have barely started working. I am working PM shift today and 12 hour days over the weekend, so keep me in your prayers. Hope all is well at home. I think about all of you often! Love you!

It's raining today

I was supposed to work this morning, but got cancelled which is a good thing, because I had a hard time sleeping. I got up for breakfast, then took a nap. Last night they had aerobics for 45 minutes in the international lounge. It was Billy Blanks Tae Boe on the big screen! It was very very difficult. I think I worked off the nestle crunch bar I ate that day. Not much going on today, but I just remembered some things to share from the other days...

On Saturday night they showed a film on the war in Liberia. Boy was I ignorant. I really knew nothing about the war at all or that it was very recent. I believe it was going on until 2003. It is still not stable here they say. But it is much better. There are UN vehicles everywhere. I have not talked with liberians on a person level as of yet because I haven't worked much, but I hear that they do share there stories of how the war has affected their lives.

On Tuesday I had a 4 year old boy that I was sending to surgery for a lesion on his eyelid. His left eyelid was almost shut, and the underlying tissue was all red and terrible looking. The doctors made their rounds in the morning and I was supposed to send him off, and then they cancelled the surgery because they wanted to clear up infection first. As soon as the doctors walked away, the mom started crying and the little boy just lay there with this sad look on his face watching her. She was devasted because she thought she was coming here to fix her son's eye, and now we were sending her home. I almost cried too because I felt sooo bad for her. I have a four year old nephew, and I can't imagine seeing him in that condition. We have translators and disciplers from liberia on the ward at all times, and one of the disciplers started encouraging her and quoting scripture and telling her that this is just the beginning and God has a plan and he will take care of them, etc. I was blown away at how God just spoke through this discipler. I had to send the little boy home on eye ointment and oral antibiotics and that was a challenge. The pharmacy had coated tablets that were kind of hard to crush, or liquid. The liquid had to be refridgerated and be refilled in 10 days. The little boy lived far and they only had access to a small cooler type thing so it was not practicle to trust it would stay refridgerated or that the mom could make it back in 10 days. We had to go the route of tablets, so I taught the mom how to peel off the coating and break it up.(the pharmacist assured me that is was ok to break up this antibiotic.) It is the little things you have to think about. I would not have thought about them not having a refridgerator. He is scheduled to come back for follow up at the end of June.

God is good, even in the little things

Thank you for the comments, I just read them and they were encouraging and funny. To answer jin sheen's question, I have not been taking pictures because they don't allow them in the ward, and they didn't allow them at the orphanage. Unfortunately the battery died on the camera I borrowed from my sister. The converter they sell here has a border on it that doesn't allow me to plug in the square box plug that the camera came with. I went to the IT department and they showed me how to plug it into the computer to charge (I think you all know I don't know what I am doing with computers and cameras etc). Anyway, the camera won't charge using the computer. There was a girl that goes to Wheaton college in Illinois sitting near me so I asked her if she knew anything about it, and she said she had a canon as well and she has to plug hers in, it doesn't work using the computer either. So just when I thought I was out of luck, a man behind us said he has a canon and went and got his charger so I could charge the battery. So thank you God for coming through on the little things. I will tell you however, I don't know how often I will find someone who will help me recharge so pictures may not be pleantiful. Plus I don't know how to get them onto the computer anyway.

To answer Matt's question there are probably just as many guys as girls but most of the nurses and people I have met are girls. I did stop at the security office for something today and met the head of security whose name was Lars.

Last night Tammy who works in housekeeping invited me with her and 4 others to go for ice cream. We went in a Mercy Ships vehicle to an Italian restuarant called Monaliza (yes it was spelled with a z). We had really good gelato and some pizza that tasted typical american. They insisted on paying for us even though it was one of the girls birthday. The four people we were with were from Ghana, and one of the guys was telling us that when he first got here his roomate who was white invited him out to dinner. He said when the check came, he noticed multiple people paying and he didn't unsterstand why. Then he realized that they were waiting for him to pay so he finally put his money in. He said he was angry and thought, that is the last time I go out to eat with these white people. See, in the Ghana culture whoever invites you out to eat pays. Now that he knows in a lot of other cultures this isn't the case, he can laugh it off. It's funny though, in the states when pay our own way we call it going dutch. In Sweden they call it going German.

To answer Heidi G.'s question, the food is ok. Some is really good, like the lamb, and hummus. The rice etc. I might get sick of soon. I will never go hungry however because they always have bread and NUTELLA!!! I think everyone knows what nutella is, but in case you don't, it is a chocolate hazelnut spread that is popular in Europe.

I also just found out I don't have to work tomorrow. They canceled me because we were overstaffed for the day. It's funny, I have only worked one shift alone so far. I was scheduled for 7 in a row though, so now it will only be six. So thats fine, I will just go with the flow.

Tonight I have a meeting about tropical diseases. That may be interesting. Thanks again for all the support and for praying for me. Sorry these are so long, I think I get carried away a little. I hope it's not boring.

still adjusting...

I met a nurse from England that jokingly said, oh I always wanted to go to Chicago and to see if I could run into George Clooney. I was very confused by this as I didn't get the connection of George Clooney to Chicago. She quickly filled me in that it had to do with the TV show ER. Which explains why the other day when I told somebody I was from the Chicago area, they said oh Cook County? I had to clarify that yes I live in Cook County, but I am not a nurse at the very famous Cook County Hospital.

Yesterday was my 1st day off of orientation, and it was pretty hard for me. It was busy, but even others said it was busy, so I am hopefull that it doesn't get much busier than that. It is the unfamiliarity of taking care of pediatric patients, combined with extensive dressing changes on wounds. I am learning some interesting new things. One of the patients has staph growing in her wound so she is on antibiotics, but we are also changing her dressings and soaking her wounds with 1/3 vinegar and 2/3rds saline for 10minutes because vinegar helps kill staph. I've never done that before. The other day, when changing a little girls dressing, the nurse spread honey over the open areas. Bacteria like to eat honey, so by putting honey on the wound, the bacteria will come to the surface. How cool is that! After work I walked out on the dock for 10 minutes to cool off (in the extreme heat and humidity) and decided I need to quit freaking out, calm down and accept help when it is offered to me. One of the nurses at lunch told me she just does the best she can. Pray for me that I do the best I can, and that I don't make mistakes that can harm anyone. Well, I gotta go check on my laundry, I will add more later today...

Monday night orientation...

Every Monday night is general ship orientation and safety meetings. There are always more and more people coming on board each week as well as people leaving. As I am typing this the Hollanders are speaking dutch to my right, and there is German being spoken behind me. Sunday I went to a church with a group of us from the ship. We were invited by one of the Liberian workers on the ship. They sat us in the 1st two rows. I was front and center, just even with the large picture of Jesus with his arms spread wide, with the caption "Come unto me". The message was about the Holy Spirit (it was pentecost holiday weekend here). It was good to see that message and think about the verse "Come unto me, all you that are weak and heavy laden..." Not that I am weak and heavy laden, but if I become so, I know who to call upon. This church was very lively with dancing and clapping hands. Something I have seen before, but am uncomfortable with. I figured being front and center I could either dance with them and look stupid, or not dance and look stupid. I chose to dance a little, and I think that was the right decision because I blended in. Not that anyone would have noticed anyways, they were busy worshipping God. It was kind of liberating I must admit, with the drum beat the way it was. They offered us drinks afterwards. It was a non-alcohol malt made by Guiness!! It tasted...well...not so good. But it was worth a taste.

We then went to the beach. There were a lot of other people from the ship there. It felt great, the water was really warm, and I wore plenty of sunblock.

Last night I watched the last half of Die Hard. I had actually never saw any of the Die Hard movies, so it was kind a fun. They showed it on a really big wall in a room just outside my cabin. It was a lot of fun. Let me clarify however, it was not shown by Mercy Ships, it was shown by some crew.

I really do appreciate what Mercy Ships stands for, they are a really unique organization. Today I had my second day of orientation on the day shift. It was a busy day. We had 3 major dressing changes on wounds. One of these was so interesting, but it would take a page to explain so I will skip it. I actually drew blood on a patient today for typhoid, and it came back postive. Thank you Lord for immunizations (I was immunized for that). It is a fairly busy ward, but I think things will be good, because everyone is helpful. Tomorrow is my 1st shift by myself so pray for me! Thank you.

I'm going to say bye for now, because I was just invited to play cards with Jenny from Sweden, Jodi from Michigan, and Tammy from Canada.

It will take time to adjust

Last evening was my 1st shift on the ward for orientation. I was sooo scared that I sat in the common area on the ship, looking out the window, contemplating what I was doing here. What if it wasn't God calling me here, and I just came because I wanted to. I felt very unsettled. Then I reallized I was just freaking out and not having faith. God helps me through work at
home, why would it be any different here. He wants his people here well taken care of, so why wouldn't He help me? I went down on the ward, and the 1st person I saw walking down the hallway, was a boy about 14 years old. He had the biggest smile on his face despite the large bandage rapped around his head and his swollen right eye lid and puffy right side of his face. Apparently he had a facial tumor or disfigurement that was now fixed. He was walking around, mirror in hand, checking himself out from time to time, and just smiling! He was filled with so much joy that I thanked God right there for allowing me to be a part of something that can bring this much joy to another human being. I have such respect for the doctors and nurses that work here and do such great things for these people.

Ashley from Canada oriented me. We got report from Laura from the UK and Wilma from Holland. Our patients consisted of 4 children under the age of 2 with either cleft palate, or cleft lip repairs, a 34 year old with surgery on her neck, and a 50 year old man who had a large bony mass removed from his chin area. I fed him 3 times through his NG tube with ensure that was over a year expired. They take what they can get I guess when it comes to supplies. I recognize most of the medications, but we have to be careful because some of them are in other languages. They use a lot of Tylenol here which is labled Paracetamol.

All of the moms stay with the babies, which is good because they feed and change them, which is helpful. This was my 1st time taking care of babies and it was a bit scary. Ashley said sometimes she feels like all she does is make babies cry. We are either taking their vital signs, or shoving medicine in their mouths, and they look at us like GET AWAY you mean ladies!

Today I went to an orphanage. I think it was called God's Children's Home. It was in walking distance. Our leader was a girl from South Africa. She had a lesson planned for the kids which taught about different countries and there cultures and how we are all different, but all the same inside. We sang with the kids, had a lesson, then went out and played with them. I twirled the jump rope almost the whole time (I will admit I did jump a little as well). The girl from South Africa and her husband are working on a project to build a village type setting orphanage where there will be different huts to separate the orphans in groups of about 10 with separate "parents", so it will be more like a family situation.

On the walk home I walked with Becky a nurse from Boston in her 40's, and a German nurse. Becky said "wow that was hard for me". In my head, I was thinking yah it was, I am sooo hot that I'm dripping sweat, I feel filthy, and I am thirsty and can't decide whether or not to drink out of my water bottle that several of the kids were playing with like a toy... Then Becky starts talking about wether or not they get enough to eat, and I felt very shameful. Here I am, concerned with my own comforts and her heart goes straight to the kids. I think God has a lot to teach me while I am here. It is a little wierd to be able to go back to an airconditioned boat after being in the poor/hot area. I think it is what keeps people adding months or years to there time here. There is definetely a comfort and security on the boat. Although, Jenny my bunk mate noticied a very small leak in our ceiling this morning...(no worries she notified someone). Hope all is well with everyone back home.

Please continue to pray for me! It means the world to me that people are praying for me for things I wouldn't even think of. I think about you all as well and am praying for you. (I actually have a little extra time for contemplation than I do at home). Bye for now.

I'm here!

Well, I have finally arrived. I'm having a little trouble typing this because although it is a Dell keyboard, it is European I believe, because I keep hitting the wrong key for shift, return, etc. Plus the computer is slow and I had a hard time getting on to the internet so I may not blog all the time. We shall see.

When I arrived last night, they fed the four of us that arrived together, took our picture for our name tag, and showed us to our rooms. I am sharing a room with 5 other girls. There are 3 bunk beds and I get one of the top ones. Yeah for me!! I'm getting the dormlife I never had since I commuted to college. I have only met two of my roommates so far. After I unpacked (I definetaly think I brought too much), Jenny, an OR nurse from Sweden came in and invited me for tea. She looks just like my aunt Bonnie. We chatted for a short time. She is here for 3 weeks to work with the ortho team. Went to bed by 10pm. It was an interesting morning. we have 3 separate curtains that cover the sections in our room to let the others know you are sleeping. The girls were so quiet and effeciant when they were leaving the room. For me, last night, just taking a shower was an ordeal because I kept forgetting to bring things into the bathroom. I need to get organized and get a routine down.

At 10am I met with the ward supervisor for a brief orientation of the ward. I am definetaly nervous to say the least about working here. Pray for me that I learn quickly and that it is not as hard as it looks. All the paperwork etc. is different so it will just take getting used to.

I have at least 2 meetings tonight to attend, one of which will be a ship tour. I feel like I am wandering aimlessly because I don't know what to do till my 6pm meeting. A nightshift worker is sleeping in the room so I don't want to go back to get my paperwork because my loud unorganized self would probably wake her up. I will get a system down soon. Tomorrow I have orientation on the PM shift.

Well bye for now. Hope all is well at home.