An African Christmas

Santa Lucia

Merry Christmas!  Another year is almost over & I have no idea where the time has gone!  Last year at this time we were between outreaches, just finished in Sierra Leone & were recovering in Ghana before moving on to Togo.  This year though we are in the middle of a field service here in Guinea.  A slightly different feel to the Christmas holiday this year with the hospital still open & patients still on board, we aren’t doing any surgeries over the two week holiday break. 

The OR door

The Christmas elves snuck on board again this year & the ship took on a very festive look around the first of December.  We celebrated a lot of different Christmas traditions from all over the world.  First there was Sintaklaus- a Dutch holiday celebrating St. Nicholas; then Santa Lucia- a Scandinavian holiday celebrating St. Lucia.  We had Christmas markets & cooking baking & gingerbread house contests.  The annual door decorating contest is always a big favorite.  The OR has the reputation of having some amazing door designs- we didn’t disappoint!  We took first place in the traditional office door category!

Merry Christmas from the OR!

Christmas Scrub Day



Advent wreath

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BBQ on the dock

As Christmas approached, we had a BBQ on the dock, followed by Carrols by Candlelight- a very Australian tradition, complete with The African Wiggles showing up with Santa Claus!  A fun evening of friendship & fellowship.

Light a candle

African Wiggles!

Silent Night! Holy Night!

Christmas Day arrived with the hallway outside our cabin doors piled with presents & a lovely Christmas brunch waiting for us in the dining room.  The food was amazing- ham, mashed potatoes, omelets, hashbrowns, greenbean casseroles. 



Oh the weather outside is frightful!

Come buy from me- I'll give you good price!

Here on the ship we celebrate Boxing Day… a continuation of the Christmas holiday.  This year I took advantage of being in a very warm climate & took the boat over to Rooma Island, just off the coast.  A fun, relaxing day in the sun enjoying the ocean, listening to a local band play & just having a day off.  So nice!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas time.  Joyeux Noel!

 

Blessings

Waterfalls

Guinea is beautiful.  The landscape is so green & lush, the flowers are vibrant & the bold colors are overwhelming.  It’s been called the Switzerland of Africa.  The farther inland you go, the more mountainous it becomes.


The road gets a little bumpy

Thank God for Landrovers!

We might be off the beaten path...

Sheep!

A group of us took an adventure about an hour inland to a place called Dubreka.  Our map was a little sketchy- having been drawn by another Mercy Shipper using directions like if you’ve past the small plane you have gone to far or turn right at the tree in the middle of the road, or keep the mountain that looks like a ship on your left.  But it was an adventure & we were keen to go see where we’d end up.

Dubreka Falls

We did see the plane & we did have to turn around & retrace our steps & yes we didn’t turn right at the tree in the middle of the road & ended up driving on a foot path through a tiny village, but we did finally make it to our destination- Dubreka Waterfalls.

Enjoying the water

The water was amazing, cool & refreshing, very clean.  The rainy season was just over & the falls were running full.  We explored & played & just enjoyed ourselves.  The locals watched us from above & liked to show off by jumping from the top of the falls into the pool below.

Our group

We sat on the rocks & let the water wash over us.  Some of us braved the rushing water to sit behind the falls.  The rest of us had floating races down below.

Lunch

After we got our fill of swimming, we headed back to the hotel where we had parked our landrovers.  Before we had gone to the waterfall, we had ordered lunch, knowing that it would probably be an hour or two before it would be ready.  We had asked what was for lunch & they had told us chicken with french fries.  We ordered 7 plates for our group of 15, thinking that they’d cut the chicken we saw just plucked in the kitchen into enough pieces for us.  But when we returned, they had 7 WHOLE chickens waiting for us, all freshly killed, plucked & cooked!  I’ve never had a whole chicken like this before (no where near the same as a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store- this one still had its neck & legs attached!)  Not what we were expecting, but good all the same.  Oh the joys of living in Africa!

A WHOLE chicken!

Blessings!

Give Thanks

Its difficult to believe that it’s the end of November when the weather is a cool 85 degrees with high humidity & thunderstorms almost every night.  If it wasn’t for calendars & facebook reminding me what time of year it is, I might have missed Thanksgiving!

The US Ambassador's house

Super excited about dinner

I got the opportunity to accept an invitation to have a potluck Thanksgiving dinner at the US Ambassador’s house, only 15 Americans from the ship were invited & I was one of the lucky few!  The food was amazing, everything you could imagine- turkey, gravy, 3 different types of stuffing, green bean casserole, mac & cheese, potatoes, cranberry sauce.  I felt like I was home.  We ate outside under a covered patio, the cool tropical breeze made it very enjoyable. 

We ate & ate until we all felt overly stuffed, then we went back for dessert!  It was nice to just sit & talk to other Americans (from the ship, or from the embassy or just living in the country).  We didn’t have to explain what Thanksgiving was, why we eat the foods we eat or try to convince people to try things like pumpkin pie. 



My American family

Yes- I ate everything on my plate

Wishbone!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner, we sat in the ambassador’s living room just talking, too full to move.  The power went out at one point, but we didn’t care, just a reminder that we were still in Africa.  The house staff brought out candles & we were all amazed because we haven’t seen lit candles in a long time (open flames are not allowed on the ship, so no candles).  Even when the lights came back on a half hour later, we couldn’t blow out the candles quite yet, though when we did, we fought over who would blow them out!  I hope we didn’t make the ambassador think we were crazy or something!

Sunset from the Ambassador's house

What a fun, memorable night!  I wasn’t with my family, but I was with my American family, for which I am thankful for.

Blessings

Open Doors

What happens behind the doors of the OR is often a mystery for most of the crew onboard.  True, for the older crew, we allow people to sign up to observe surgery for a half of day, but for our younger crew, that just isn’t possible.  What does happen behind that big sliding door? 

Dr Diane gives some suturing pointers

Once an outreach, we open that big sliding door & allow kids of all ages come & explore the OR & the rest of the hospital.  Usually, this happens before the ORs are sterile & there are no patients in the hospital.  This time, though, we had our hospital open house after the field service had started.  Since we couldn’t let the crew come into the ORs, we brought the ORs to them!

"Learn to Pass Gas Like a Professional"

Intubation is a team effort

A "helping hand" holding the airway

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They make it look so easy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



The kids perform "surgery"

Doctor, I think she needs that!

Our recovery room took on a carnival-like feel, with an “Intubation Station: learn to pass gas like a professional”, a “Keep Them in Stitches: learn to suture” station & a crowd pleaser “Paging Dr____! You’re needed in the OR” station.- where the kids become real "surgeons" & had to remove a tumor using REAL OR instruments.  Down the hall, the wards had an IV station- where they practiced their IV skills, a relay race & the every popular- Be-a-Nurse-For-a-Day (learning the joys & struggles of taking care of some very unruly patients).  Even the actual patients had fun, watching some of the antics of the crew.

We are in our 6^th week of surgeries.  We are having some major equipment issues that we need a lot of prayer & technical help with.  Please pray for our equipment & those taking care of our equipment.  

Blessings

The Screening of the 5,000

The line of people & traffic
outside the screening gates

As I’m trying to figure out how to start this blog about screening day, I’m looking at the numbers that represent the people we saw today.  The number that stands out the most to me is 4,300- the number people who made it into the screening area.  I am reminded of another large group that Jesus saw & took care of- the feeding of 5,000.  He took five loaves of bread & two fish & was able to see to everyone’s needs.  Our screening day saw 700 less then Jesus did when His miracle occurred.  I’ve never really been able to picture what 5,000 people would look like until I looked out my window at the screening & saw the people stretch out in orderly lines.  The amount is still staggering, but I am able to understand what truly a miracle Jesus did.

Lines

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to help everyone that came through our gates.  Out of the 4,300 people only 3454 were actual potential patients (the rest were caregivers) & 1379 people made it all the way through to get the coveted yellow cards that says to come to the ship for either follow up or surgery.  The other 2,075 people were sent away either because they had a non-surgical condition or it wasn’t something we could do on the ship.   

More lines

Patients waited to be registered

The patients were lined up outside our screening area the day before, spending the night in the lines.  At 0630, the gates opened & the people were quickly assessed to determine if it was something we could do or not.  Those that passed were sent to registration & then to history & physical for evaluation.  They were then sent to the appropriate surgical specialty according to their problems (general, maxfax, ortho, plastics, VVF)  If the doctor in that area agreed it was something we could do, the patient would be scheduled for surgery or if the doctor wanted further testing we would arrange for the patient to come to the ship another day.  The patients would then get their yellow card which would become their pass to go to the ship on their appointed day.

Waiting for their physicals

My role this time was scheduling general surgical patients for surgery- a far different job than I had as a Pre-Screener in Togo.  I still had to say no to some people but more likely I was able to give them a date to come back to the ship, either for surgery or to be seen by another surgeon.  The general station was on the top floor of a three story building, it was a long corridor that we set up exam rooms on one end & filled the entire area with chairs.  We saw patients with hernias, goiters, lumps & bumps & other things that didn’t fit into the other surgical specialties.  Our first patient arrived in our area around 0800 & by noon, we were crowded.  By 1900, when the sun went down & we couldn’t see another without flashlights, the last patient was seen & scheduled.

One of the patients scheduled for surgery

A long day, a successful day.  We still have a lot of space left for potential patients.  We are planning some up country screenings to make sure we reach as many people as we can.  Guinea is a very large country & it being rainy season right now, travel is very hard.  We want to help the people of Guinea, not just the people of Conakry.  Please pray for our patients, our surgeons, our nurses & everyone involved with making what we do possible.  



We said yes to this one!

Beauty



This little one needs to gain some more weight
before he can have surgery

Adorable

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are in desperate need for nurses- ward nurses, pediatric nurses, OR nurses.  We are having to limit how many surgeries we can do because we don’t have enough nurses to take care of them.  Please pray that God will provide nurses. 

 Blessings

A New Country

Two months & one day from when we left Lomé, Togo, we were setting sail again for West Africa.  This time a little farther north than we’ve been in a while, to Conakry, Guinea.  Guinea has about 10,057,975 people in about 94.981 square miles (roughly the size of Oregon).  Starting just south of Guinea-Bissau, it stretches around Sierra Leone, Liberia & shares a border with the Ivory Coast.  Like most African countries, Guinea is divided up into different tribal areas- 24 tribes in Guinea, with Soussou being the most prominent in the area around Conakry.  The country is about 85% Muslim & only 10% Christian.  


The military band plays during our arrival

This is about $100 US- think I'll need a bigger wallet!

Our tiny dock space

Guinea gained its independence from France in 1958, but a series of one-party dictatorships drove Guinea to become one of the world’s poorest countries.  The currency is the Guinea Franc, but 10,000gnf equals about $1.40.  One of the ways we look at the health of a country is by looking at maternal mortality rate (which is 680 out of 100,000), & the under 5 year old mortality (which is 146 out of 1,000).  Accessibility to healthcare is very difficult in most areas, especially during the rainy season which stretches from May to October, washing out roads & making this unpassable.



Unpacking the OR

Since we’ve arrived, we’ve been pretty occupied in setting up the hospital for the start of the surgical field service.  Our dock space is very smaller then what we are used to, (because we have an agreement with the ports that we don’t pay for dock space, the ports lose money with us being here & are often reluctant to give us a lot of space) we’ve had to adjust the way we normally set up our dock space.  The OR has been in different variations of disarray over the past week, its hard to believe, at some points, that everything will go back to where it used to be, but slowly, it is looking more & more like an OR.  I'll be happy when its complete & ready to use!

Prayer requests:

1)     The people of Guinea

2)     The people on the ship, that we may meet the needs of the people

3)     The cholera epidemic- cholera is very much a threat here, it started in February & has sickened lots of people (so far no one on the ship) & even killed a fair many. 

4)     Screening day is approaching- we need all the prayers we can get for this

5)     Living in a Muslim country is a little nerve wrecking; please pray for peace & guidance.  We are not here to convert, but to show Jesus’ love through our actions.

 

On a personal note, please pray for my family on the loss of my dad’s brother, Ted.  He is at peace now & in a new body made perfect by God.  I’m sorry I won’t be there to celebrate his life with my family, but I’ll be there in spirit.

 

 

Blessings

State-Side

We made it safely to Santa Cruz de Tenerife, part of a group of islands that belong to Spain.  While the ship is in Tenerife, there’s not much for an OR nurse to do.  Instead of wandering around & probably getting into trouble J  I decided it would be nice to go home for a bit.  I was lucky enough to get the whole month of July off & took the opportunity to catch up with life back home. 

I was able to spend the 4^th with my family in Independence, seeing relatives I hadn’t seen in years.  We grilled out, had corn on the cob & even McElroys’ potato salad!  Indee’s parade was in the morning & fireworks were in the park by the river.  

My family at the 4th of July parade

Dad & Uncle Bob canoeing the might Wapsi

Dad rented us canoes to take down the Wapsi, a fun trip even if there wasn’t a lot of water.  We spent a great afternoon on the 4th just floating down the river, getting out to cool off when we needed to & seeing a lot of wildlife (vultures, a bald eagle & some deer)  I got to say though, Iowa is a lot hotter than Africa!   

I spent a lot of time just relaxing & watching the birds at the bird feeders in my parents’ backyard.  Hung out with friends & watched TV- though it was strange, I haven’t seen a commercial in over 10 months.  I took our dog for walks & Dad & I explored one of our favorite places, Backbone State Park.  I even went to this place called a "mall" its kind of like a market, but there's no bartering & didn't smell like rotten fish & fruit- what an experience in itself!  I even got used to being able to drive places again, where & whenever I want!

The family models their new African aprons

After a couple lazy days at my parents’ house, Mom & I drove to Colorado for a week to see family & friends.  I realized how homesick I was for Colorado when the mountains finally came into view & I drove on familiar streets.  I had to keep telling myself that I didn’t have a home there at the moment.  I packed in as much summer-in-Colorado-fun in one week as I could.  I went to a Rockies game (we lost L), spent time at the barn with my favorite 2 & 4-legged animals, went for a hike in the mountains & had dinner with some amazing friends.

Eri & I at the Rockies game

Horsing around at the barn with Steely

We hike up Devil's Head

My time home wasn’t overly exciting or thrilling, but I didn’t need that.  I needed peace & quiet, long-long hot showers, home cooked meals, the opportunity to recharge & gear up for the next stage of this trip.  All too soon, it was time for me to fly back the ship.  I am ready.