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.