Tying Up Loose Ends

The hospital is closed, the ship getting ready to leave Togo, & we have a list of things to do before we leave:

First: Day Worker Thank You

Our awesome dayworkers

The OR team

We held a special celebration in honor of all of our dayworkers (the local people who translated, cleaned, cooked, did maintenance work & taught us about the Togolese culture).  In the OR, PACU & sterilizing, we had 7 wonderful translators, Marie, Thomas, George, John, Gratias, Mark & Holali.  Over the months they provided a bridge between us & our patients, stepping in to hold a hand or explain a procedure.  Not only did they help us in the OR, but they invited us to their homes, helped us navigate the markets & the streets of Lomé.  Our day workers became more than just colleagues, they became friends.

Second: Find local music cds

With Gratias & her family

Ginger at the music store

Heading back to the ship

Jen on a "zimmyjohn"

On the wards, we learned some fun local worship songs.  We loved dancing to them & we wanted to find those songs so we could always remember Togo.  We asked on of our dayworkers, Gratias, if she’d help us.  She agreed & sent her brother to come pick us up.  Now, the main form of transportation in Togo is by motorcycle & motorcycle taxis called “zimmyjohns”.  Her brother helped us acquire a couple “zimmyjohns” & away we went!  He took us to a small music store that was more of a shack.  We spent a lot of the afternoon trying to remember all the songs we loved so much, & drew a small crowd as we sang or hummed what we could remember.  Most of the songs were either in Ewe or French & we didn’t know the names of the songs, or even the words for that matter. I’m pretty sure they thought we were crazy “Yovos” (Ewe for white person).  Once we found the songs we were looking for, we walked to Gratias’ house to meet her mother & family before we said our goodbyes & took “zimmyjohns” back to the ship.

Third: Look for contraband



Checking a ceiling access

In one of the crawl spaces

Checking one of the lifeboats

With the hospital closed, the nurses are reallocated to different departments to help fill the gaps as people leave.  I have been reassigned to security, meaning that I help keep the ship safe while in port & watch for pirates while at sea.  Part of the job required us to search the entire ship for things that don’t belong & stowaways.  We divided up into teams & divided up the ship to begin our search.  We had to look everywhere- behind walls, in the ceiling, we crawled into small spaces & up ladders, we even checked the lifeboats & the ship’s funnel.  It took the whole day & we learned there was more to the ship than just what we saw everyday! 

 

Finally: Relax

Out to eat with friends

Togo offers a lot of fun things to do & wide selection of restaurants.  We spent our last day in Togo relaxing poolside at the Seamen’s Mission- a Christian restaurant/hotel established to cater to the ships in the port by providing clean & affordable services to the men on the ships.  It’s within walking distance of the port & they even offer a free shuttle service to & from your ship in the evenings.  Behind the Seamen’s is the German Restaurant that serves very yummy food.  Eating good food & relaxing by the pool was a great way to spend our last day.

Tomorrow we leave Togo; it’s a 10 day sail to Tenerife in the Grand Canaries.  I guess it’s time to start a new adventure.

Blessings