Home safely in the USA

Thanks for all the prayers and support that kept me in the Congo for the last 8 weeks. I arrived home safely on Monday night and am enjoying seeing my family. With my daughter's help in the next few days, I will attempt to add photos and notes to most of the previous posts. I can now download pictures, the internet isn't intermittent, and cyberspace doesn't takes all my work and effort before you see anything. :-) Thanks for being patient with me and praying me through my weeks in the Congo. It was an amazing experience and a gift from God. More later.....

Teamates, Translators, and Day workers

 The ship was an amazing place as on an average week there were 35 countries represented.

These were the nurses I worked with from around the world. We rotated all three shifts. We got to know one another as we worked together and cared for our patients on the maxillofacial ward.

This is a dear friend and coworker, Susanne, from Germany (on the left) and our team leader Rachel from England.

   
I had dear friends from Germany, Denmark, Great Britain Holland, Australia, New Zealand, and of course Canadians and Americans. English was the language of the ship but as you can imagine it was spoken with many different accents. Since Congo was a Belgian Colony, French was the language of the country alongside native tongues. Many of the nurses could speak their native language and also English and French. Oh that I had such gifts!

Many patients could be heard speaking French. I tried to brush up on my French with little success, but a neat thing was that everyone on board could access Rosetta Stone in French and I made it to level 3!


Our translators worked 12 hour shifts but often had to get up at 3:30 or 4 in the morning because it was a 2 hour commute for many. They took as many as three buses for some of them to arrive. If it had rained they needed to leave an hour earlier because of the pot holes in the road.

This was my farewell night. Everyone stands outside the ship to wave goodbye as we leave in the landrovers to the airport. Here I am standing with my translators from my max/fax unit.

 This was me thinking of taking a little girl home with me, but I decided I should leave her with her mother who was a patient on the unit....probably a smart choice ;-) Isn't she so cute?!

Marketplace

I have the weekend off so went downtown shopping. We usually walk most places or catch a land rover from the ship if one happens to be going the right way. We can also grab a taxi sometimes but the taxi isn't allowed in port so we have to walk at least a mile to get one.  I get my exercise but the food on ship makes life even out so am sure haven't lost a pound. Shopping was quite an experience as we went to the "Grande Marche" about 5 miles away which is this huge, third world market that covers at least a 3 square block area with wooden tables set up side by side by side about the size of a card table that go on for miles, parallel tables in rows for miles and all covered by a huge tin  roof  with little walk ways into the area about every  block or so.  Each person has one of those little tables and sells things like tomatoes, avocados, carrots, cabbage, pineapple, bananas,   mangos, bowls of flour, cormeal, rice, spices,  bread, fish (raw, dried, fried, breaded), lobster, crab, shrimp, crocodile, chickens (alive, cooked, ,fried, baked!) material, jewelry, shoes, clothes, and more! It is almost overwhelming to see and even more to smell! :-) Add thousands of people wandering everywhere and you got it!!! I got a great tan and was plenty hot with temps in the mid 90's and little shade. I know that sounds great to you when you are freezing but it isn't fun to cook either!

 
 
 

Life on the wards--"before and after"

Life on the wards. Greetings family and friends and prayer warriors! I am going to attempt to let you see into my world on the wards with a few pictures of hopefully "before and after" of the beautiful people God has brought as patients to Mercy Ships. I know all of you who are reading this blog aren't medical but please look past the deformities and surgical needs to the patient and the care and love that God has given as they were able to come for help surgically as well as spiritually. God has brought amazing surgeons, anesthesiologists, operating room nurses, recovery room nurses, ward nurses, translators, physical therapists, cleaning staff, cooks, etc. etc. to help each patient find their way physically and spiritually to a "new creation". A blessing to be a part of that includes YOU! Thanks so much for your prayers and words of encouragement as we travel this road together.

 

This is Grace who some of you might have "met" on the 60 minute CBS special that aired in the USA. The picture above is her upon arrival and the picture to the right is Grace today. She had just been readmitted the day I left for her final plastic reconstruction. It is an amazing miracle of missionary surgeons and the hand of God.

2 siblings with cleft lip/palate repairs. We call them affectionately our "little kitty cats" as they are super adorable to start with and then we add the little steri-strips following surgery that look like kitty whiskers and sometime a little "button" on nose for cleft lip palate repair as well. We could all be found carrying these little ones before surgery as they are bored in the wards on a ship to after surgery when they need love and affection and pain control while again "living on a totally unknown and unfamiliar" hospital ship.

 

  What an amazing transformation from when she first came to clinic (photo below) with severe contractures of the mouth and arm. Her Smile  alone says what a difference this has made in her life.

Often burn patients come with severe burn contractures needing surgical release and painful physical therapy. The majority of the children/patients we saw on the ship had survived falling into open cooking fire pits. Even the fact that they survived was a miracle but without medical care they often face severe and limiting contractures. A favorite pastime of the children was playing with bubbles to get their minds off the pain.

 

 

This mama only had her son here but kept taking care of many other children. The child pictured is not her own but quickly adopted her and abandoned her father after surgery when all she wanted was a mama. (her dads not in the picture even!) The gentleman also became an adopted grandfather for most of the children. The translator in the background was a sweet young bride of 6 months who was attempting to improve her English in order to get a better job when Mercy Ship sails in June to the Canary Islands. With a letter of recommendation from the ship prayerfully she will receive a better job in the Congo after serving faithfully with us for ten months.

This is my dear friend Annemarie from the Netherlands. Nadine was one of my favorite patients because of her smile, her love for Jesus and her quiet acceptance of whatever her dressing change entailed for the day. I wish I had a final picture of her because she arrived missing half of her nose but through several surgeries and reconstruction you really can't see anything wrong .She is a beautiful woman inside and out.

The love of church groups and women who quilt blankets and make teddy bears brightens the children's wards for the patients, the staff, and the visitors.  Patients could often be found playing memory or connect four, playing with bubbles, blowing up balloons and using them to play catch or kickball. Stickers were placed on dressings or parts of the body as decoration. And of course, spontaneous singing could always break out.

Dolosie

Today we took a train -an all day adventure- to the other city 3 hours away (German lady, Dutch gal and I).  We left at 6 am and road the train for 5 hours. It went even slower than train in China but beautiful to see the countryside from air conditioned train car (only cost $20). We road through plains, mountains and jungle! No real animals here but countryside is beautiful. (They don't have cattle or horses or even dogs or cats here. They had an outbreak of rabies so dogs on street killed and no one seems to have pets). it's strange because every African country that I have been to treasures their cattle and has wild animals too. I have seen a few goats and a couple of chickens. Oh well.

They do have huge trees and have a forestry industry as well as off shore oil so not a poor country supposedly at least for wealthy few. We came home in a  taxi after walking around the town of Dolosie and going to the agriculture sight that mercy Ships has in that town. It took four hours to drive home and another 20 dollars. We had some great fellowship and got to see a bit of the world outside the ship. (Wait until you see my market pictures and the meat?? rodents of some kind from forest and maybe monkey meat and always fish. ??? Even I didn't stay around to look closely!

  

Itailian aircraft carrier

We went to see the Italian aircraft carrier last night that sits across from us in harbor.
It is pretty impressive with its 6 planes and 3 helicopters on deck. The navy guys were very nice with answering all our questions and letting us take photos. Quite impressive to look out our deck at it.

The Lord is Present

Hi all! I haven't really shared about how spiritually things are going on ship but please be assured The Lord is ever present in what we do. We always start our shift with prayer with the nurses going off, the nurses coming on, the translators, and often a few patients join us as well. When the surgical team comes to get the patient, again there is a time of prayer with the patient. Because we are in an animistic culture where spirits are often seen as doing harm, patients welcome our prayers on their behalf. Each day, the worship team of a chaplain and local believers enter the wards, share with patients, listen to their needs, lead a lively time of worship and praise with singing and dancing and often drums. (Now that would be interesting in the NICU back home!) There is a big "ward service" on Sunday which is held in an area close to the wards and every patient that can get out of bed comes (not forced to attend but the vast majority want to!) We as nurses get to share His love throughout the day with a smile, a touch, a hug, playing a game, just sitting with those who may not be feeling well, coloring (adults love to get a coloring book and colors...never had anything like it growing up and it is quite a therapedic pass time!) I have already mentioned the outreaches to orphanages and clinics/screenings, and Friday night I get to  go to a showing of the Jesus film in a little fishing village. God is at work. :-).  

   Our verses for our ward for the week: I Thessalonians 5:12-18.   "Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in The Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the dishearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and everyone else.      Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."   Serving with you all! Thanks so much for your prayers!


 

Baby Creche

Here we are at the baby creche that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. (I am barely on the photo on right hand side! :-). I went 2 weeks in a row even though it nearly broke my heart. We bring these sponge put together blocks so we have a place to sit with the babies/toddlers and some ABC blocks and a few other toys each time we come. Sometimes there are a few older children of the workers as you see in the top corner. The cribs have sheets on them and about 10cribs are packed into a room about the size of a large bathroom in the States. (We move them to edge to make place  in the center. They wear cloth diapers that we must change usually the moment we get there as they are saturated with urine. Sometimes when one picks one up they are soaked completely through and the smell of urine and feces can be overpowering but one learns to look past that to their beautiful eyes and wounded hearts. I have tried not to judge. If I had to wash all diaers by hand in a bucket and hang to dry on shrubs or part of a clothes line, would I change them more frequently? (Hopefully, yes! but it is hard to not lose hope in this place.) Below is a friend trying to "hold" 3 little ones as is often the case when we are there. The little one on her tummy on the floor is one of the most malnourished ones with spindly arms and legs and hollow eyes. She is difficult to comfort at times and will throw herself out of your arms to be put on the floor where she "moans" or quietly cries. She has brought tears to my eyes and prayers from my soul more than once.

 Notice the sweet little girl in her "pillowcase dress" that ladies around Parkview make time and again! As you can see, there are many variations and now many are just pieces of material with ties at top, along the same line as all the pillowcase dresses that are everywhere here...the hospital wards, the orphanages, on the streets.

 This is the little guy that we can actually get to smile and laugh. A real cutie!

 Special to see two little ones side by side...the one on right is more malnourished, hollow sad eyes, big tummy, less trusting. May God bring them to Him and use us to give joy and hope to each of them.

Eye Clinic

Here we are at the eye clinic screenings. As you can see, people come and wait for us to arrive with the first patients actually having seats! The gentleman in yellow vest is the retired police officer from Minnesota who does a lot of the driving and manages crowd control. He is quite the driver in this crazy traffic and easily holds his own against massive trucks! I tell you, you don't want to get in his way! :-) He also does a great job of crowd control and is here telling the crowd, through the interpreter, what the day will go like. It actually works! (contrary to my experience in Lebanon, these folks stay in nice rows.)

 This is the national trained eye specialist who checks through people in the line and points them to different areas ie possible surgery section for cataracts, tumors, etc. ; possible need for glasses will be referred to local Drs., or to receive teaching and educational materials about wearing hats, sunglasses, eating right foods, etc. to take care of your eyes. Overall, it is a well run clinic that meets 2x/week in the villages as we screen for people who need surgery on board ship.

 This is me standing in yellow vest with the group getting "educational materials". I was impressed that everyone who came that day got through this group and all were pretty attentive. It was hot in the sun and I got a good tan but was glad to help out as the translator, wearing blue and standing, did an amazing job and did it with great joy and enthusiasm inspite of saying it again and again to about 20 groups at least that day! We saw about 350 people with 35 getting "tickets" to come to ship for possible treatment. ie surgery

 I love this picture because it shows the variety of hair styles. :-) The lady with head dress has matching dress which is traditional and beautiful, the gal with white shirt and black type shirt is a school girl in uniform and has pretty braided hair, the gal to her left is in Western dress and her hair more Western as well. Beautiful weaving of life and culture and traditional ways of people here in Congo. No one "usual" dress or style!