A few snapshots

     I have wanted to post some pictures to this blog, but it has proved difficult. The wireless signal is at times very slow. Here are several that I have taken. The first is of the rear of our ship in port at Lome. The second is of a Togalese woman after the church service had completed, standing outside by the street. I snapped that picture out of the car window. The women here have beautiful dresses made out of bright colors, especially on Sundays for church.

     The next picture below is to give you some idea of how crowded the streets are, and how dangerous it is to drive here. A motorcyclist ran into one of the mercy ships vehicles the other day. No one was injured thankfully. The most common form of transportation here is by motor bike. Entire families ride on one motor bike together without helmets. Most of my pictures are taken through the car window because its not safe to expose your camera, phone, or anything of value on the street. Thievery is a huge problem here. 

     Below is a picture of Summer and I. She is one of the nurses I met in Washington D.C. when we were stranded waiting for our airplane to be fixed. We are standing on the dock in front of the ship. The last picture is again to show that motor bikes are the main mode of transportation in Lome.



Screening day

     Wow, words cannot begin to describe the day we had today! Today was screening day (screening day is when all prospective patients come to be screened to see if they are eligible for the surgeries that the Afica Mercy provides). All of the ship crew, nurses, doctors, pharmacists, xray techs, and anyone else I forgot to mention were divided up into teams with different tasks for the day. I began my day at 3:20 am. We all had a quick breakfast. I packed my backpack the night before with suncreen, bugspray, antibacterial soap, beef jerkey, gatorade, water... all the essentials for a 12 hour day in hot West Africa. We all piled into a long line of landrovers at 4:20 am and caravaned to a sports stadium 30 minutes away in Lome. After our caravan got slightly lost on the way, we arrived safely, only a few minutes late. As we pulled up to the stadium in the pitch black of night, we saw a line of West Africans already standing in line to be seen. Later on I heard that people had begun lining up the day before at 5 pm in the evening. We entered the stadium and there were Mercy Ships staff with head lamps on because of how dark it was. We quickly finished setting up our stations. Patients began to arrive at 5:30 am. I was assigned to the health history team. Each nurse had an interpreter, which was invaluable. Over the course of the day, we saw 1,660 patients with a multitude of surgical needs. This means each of us saw approximately 90 patients throughout the day! Many of the patients required simple surgeries such as hernia repairs. Due to insufficient dietary intake, many of the patients had extremely large goiters. These and the hernia patients were categorized under general surgery. We also had patients come in with a variety of different facial tumors; they were categorized under Maxillofacial surgeries. We had some patients come in with old burns that had caused contractures or facial scarring. Those patients will be plastic surgery patients. 

     There were many sad situations today. I guess I still need to process a lot of what I saw. On the way home, I began thinking about all that I saw and I felt overwhelmed by it. I met a 67 year old man today, while retrieving his health history and pre-physical. He was accompanied by his son because he's in a wheelchair and cannot walk. Immediately when he came, I saw that on the right side of his face he had a massive facial tumor that had encroached upon his eye, forcing it closed. The tumor had impeded his nostrils so that he had to breathe through his mouth. It was grossly disfiguring. Beyond this, he smelled of feces and urine; there were flies buzzing and landing on him. (As a side note, last night before bed, I prayed that Jesus would give me compassion and help me to see these people through His eyes. I have been struggling with having a bad attitude this past week here, feeling homesick and really being quite self-centered.) When I met this man, my stomach immediately turned. The odors were intense. I knew he could see me, and I didn't want him to know I was disgusted. I hope he didn't know. It was then that the Holy Spirit brought to my mind how Jesus would touch the lepers without any regard for himself. Oh how I wish my initial reaction was more like Jesus' was. There were many times during the 15-20 minutes that I spent with him where I was able to touch him. At one point, his son and I took off his shoes and helped him to the scale to be weighed. When I put his shoes back on this feet after wards, I remembered that Jesus was willing to wash his disciples' dirty, dusty feet. I am thankful tonight as I reflect, for Christ's example because it was what got me through today. On the way home, several other nurses and I were discussing how helpless we felt today. For the 1,660 we saw, only 700-900 people will get their surgeries. That is not including all of the people we had to turn away today because we had reached our cap of people we could screen. There was a line that stretched around the gates of the stadium. When the announcement was made that we couldn't see any more patients, one man (who needed a hernia repair) bolted through the gate trying to run up to the stadium to be seen. He was not violent, but he was desperate to receive the surgery. I found out that it is only $600.00 to receive a hernia repair surgery at a local West African hospital, but these people are so poor that they cannot afford that.

     On the way home, I was trying to make sense of everything. Two things that God really impressed on me: 1) God created those people, including the man with the facial tumor in His image. These people are equally precious in His sight. Just because they smell, are disfigured, are poverty stricken, does not make them less in God's site. He knows the number of hairs on their heads. If He cares for the sparrows, how much more does He care for them. He loves them more than I ever could. 2) God is a Sovereign God, nothing is outside of His grasp. He will have justice in the end over a fallen world.

     Well that is all I have right now. I am still very overwhelmed by today. What I said in the beginning is so true, words cannot express what we saw today.

About one week into things

     Its Sunday night. It was a nice weekend starting with Friday when a group of us went to the market. I bartered with several local Togalese shop keepers and had a lot of fun doing so. They laughed as I tried to get them to cut their prices down to a quarter of their original prices. I was able to get them down quite a bit. When I got back to the ship, a more seasoned crew member told me that I had gotten some good deals. I felt better then! Friday night, a large group of us went out to dinner to a German restaurant of all things. Here I was in West Africa, eating at a German restaurant with British, Dutch, German, Scottish, Canadian, and other American nurses. It was funny. They served us cocina shells baked like clams before dinner. I made myself try at least three of them. It was a fun time to get to know some of the nurses. Being with so many people from other countries makes me realize even more that I need to be bilingual. All of the international nurses are at least bilingual, some know multiple languages. Its only the American nurses and some of the Canadians that only know English :(

     Saturday we had bought tickets to swim at a local resort, but it rained and was cloudy so we didnt get to do as much as planned. Fortunately Sunday, someone had a free ticket to the resort so I went again and it was hot and sunny! I had some amazing smoothies by the pool and yummy food. There is a large Lebanese population in Lome and there are quite a few French ex pats. It was funny being at the pool because all of the sudden there were so many Caucasians around. This morning I attended a local church service in Lome. The worship was awesome. People were dancing in the aisles. There were two choirs that sang back and forth to one another. It was so much fun. The sermon however was hard to get through because it was completely in French. I zoned out. Well that's all for now. I need to get up for a 6:15 am workout... i'll let you know if I really do...

Beginnings

     Getting to Togo was trying to say the least. If I would have known that it would take 40 hours to actually get to Togo, I might have chickened out. Our troubles began in D.C. where United airlines had us board not one but two airplanes with mechanical problems. Due to the many delays there, we (there were 5 other mercy ships nurses that I met up with in the airport) missed our connection to Togo in Brussels. We hung out in the Brussels airport trying to find all of our bags, which we eventually did! I promptly found a Starbucks, knowing it would be the last real Starbucks I would see until I came home. Four- five hours later we departed for Ethiopia, but to our surprise, we stopped in Milan, Italy first. From Milan, we eventually left for Ethiopia. It was a very long, crowded, hot, and uncomfortable flight! I sat next to a Chinese man who was slightly grumpy at first, but he turned out to be very nice. He spoke great English and we had a lot to talk about with my past experience in China. I always meet the coolest people traveling! By the time we got to Ethiopia, we were battered and weary. Knowing we still had another 3 hour layover and 6 hour flight was discouraging. I got my first taste of Africa in this Ethiopian airport when they announced over head that it was time to board the plane. At that moment, hundreds of Africans swarmed to the front; there really was no line. It was a mass of people! The girls I was with and myself decided to remain seated for awhile because we were not going to get anywhere anytime soon. Eventually, after many mishaps, we did arrive in Lome, Togo, our destination! What a relief! It was slightly unsettling that the airport customs personnel made copies of our passports before letting us enter the country. Oh well, God has protected us so far, I guess He will continue to work out those small details. He was very good to us on this journey! The Mercy Ships sent a driver to pick us up in one of their land rovers. The Port of Togo where the ship is parked is only 10 minutes from the airport. As soon as we set foot on the ship, we were warmly welcomed! They had lunch waiting for us and took our bags to our rooms. We were able to shower which was amazing! They have air conditioning and hot water on the ship. Its very nice.

     I've been on the ship now for 2 1/2 days. Its been largely orientation to the ship, hospital, and general rules. The cafeteria food on the ship is actually very good. There is a coffee shop that makes Starbucks brand coffee. That was a huge relief to me...I can't beak the habit now ;) Including myself there are five girls in our room. We were supposed to have a total of six, but there did not end up being a sixth person. The room is one long hallway with three rooms divided by curtains to the left with two bunks in each berth. My bunk mate is from Toronto, Canada. One of the other girls is from Orange County, CA. We have another roommate from Holland. One of the cool things about the ship is that there are people from all over. There are nurses from New Zealand, Wales, Scotland, Canada, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, all over the United States, and other places as well. I have met crew members from South Africa, West African Countries, and other places. Its a very international environment!