Construction Adventure

My friend, Jen, came to me one day and asked if I wanted a day of adventure and intrigue. I said "Sure!" Well, that lead to a day of construction work.

There's a Christian compound called ELWA (Enternal Love Winning Africa) that has a hospital, school and guesthouses that usually homes short-term missionaries. And Mercy Ships is helping to build another guesthouse. So, here is my construction experience in pictures...

The crew is made of local "day workers." They have been trained in building the last year Mercy Ships was here. They come to work every day and leave with their daily wage. If they don't work, they don't get paid. So when it started to rain in the morning it was looking like they were not going to work that day. Fortunately the rain stopped around lunch time and the whole day was not wasted. While it was raining, Jen and I found ourselves on the covered porch of a nearby house. We quickly introduced ourselves to the people living there and thanked them for the shelter from the rain.

The recipe for cement; a wheelbarrow of sand, a bag of cement, and water. Mix, apply to bricks and let bake in the African sun at 100 degrees until hard and dry.

This is me being a mason, building a brick wall. The workers didn't let us do this for very long, we were slowing them down. Don't let this picture fool you, no matter how good I look I'm sticking to being a nurse.

After a long, hard day of work the crew leaders wanted us to get the whole African experience and treated us to a traditional African meal of roasted fish and rice from a community bowl...interesting.



It had teeth!

Sad News

I want to thank you for praying for baby Greg. I had just told you his story not long ago and now I have to tell you that he passed away to be with Jesus last Wednesday. He ran into some breathing difficulty and didn't have any reserve left to fight through it. God's timing is always perfect and He had Greg's days recorded in advance. I want to now ask that you keep his mom, Miriam, in your prayers. She is a young girl who has seen both of her children die and is thinking that is because of the curse her father put on her. Please pray that the truth that she received here will take root and grow.
I'm reminded of the verse
Jesus replied, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." John 12:23,24
God can use Greg's illness and death to bring glory to Him and a whole village to the knowledge of His love and Salvation.

A day in the life...

It is never the same for a nurse from day to day. Especially on a hospital ship in West Africa.

On the Ward we rotate shifts, a week on days, evenings and nights. This week I happen to be on days, which is 7am til 2pm. Nice because I end at just the time when a nap is best;) Anyway...

I'll tell you a little about my day today.

We have 4 wards and I was in "A" ward where all the new admissions are. When a patient comes for surgery they need to come the night before. Actually they come around 4pm and that is when we have them take a shower to get nice and clean. Then we tell them about their surgery with the help of our lovely translators. They have dinner and then we start their IV. I always feel bad with this because they seem to really yell and holler when we do this. I've made it a practice to pray before I "juke" them and it seems to calm them a little. But I'm still glad to be on the non-pointy end of the needle. We put up a "NPO" sign (nothing by mouth) above their beds and they settle in for the night.

So, with all of that said I had 4 patients awaiting surgery this morning when I arrived to the ward (coffee in hand). We have been doing a lot of hernia repairs and goiter removals with a smattering of other general surgery stuff. A few of my patients had random tumors to be removed (when is a tumor not random?). So, with the NPO signs up there was no breakfast to be served nor meds to pass. Just a surgical check list (remove underwear, empty bladder, sign consent, etc) to do and waiting to get a call from the OR to tell us who they will start with. The doctors rounded early and came to my patient with a small tumor on his left cheek. They came to the conclusion that the risk of severing a nerve was greater then the benefit and therefore, both doctor and patient were in agreement not to do the surgery. I then retrieved some bread/butter and tea for breakfast (the standard breakfast), he called his daughter to come and pick him up and away he went. I'm always sorry when it doesn't work out. They get this far, hours before their scheduled surgery, so close to hope and free medical care, and then it just doesn't work out. Although he got an experience to tell his friends (that place were they speak strange english and have it so cold;) and a free dinner (the translators and housekeepers make abundant rice and soup/sauce stuff for every patient to get a heaping plateful at lunch and dinner).

I send another patient to the OR to get his hernia repaired. And go to lunch. Oh, by the way, we had amazing cinnamon rolls at breakfast this morning. What a treat!

I get back from lunch and send another patient off. The doctors were deciding on what to do with one patient. He had his lower jaw worked on last month and a metal plate inserted to secure the bone as it healed. Well, he came back to the ship with pain and an infection so he needs to go back to OR to get that plate removed. The doctor who usually does those is not currently here and there's a possiblity of not having the surgery done today. So, after a little while with our current doctors in discussion (our surgical coordinator is amazing by the way) he does get to have surgery today after all.

This brings us to the end of my shift. All my patients are either in surgery or recovery. I may have to pop down later to visit and see how they are doing.

This shift was a little slow going and quiet but not for my coworkers in the next ward... they had a crazy busy day with crying babies and discharges and a lot of IV medications to give. I'm glad for them that we have gone back to the 8 hour shifts.

I managed to get back to my cabin to have a nap;) Now it's off to dinner and probably a nice walk on the dock if it's not raining.

Baby Greg

About a month ago a small baby came to us to have a tumor on his neck removed. This tumor was growing and slowly closing off his airway. You could hear how this tumor was affecting him by the gasping breaths he took. Because Mercy Ships specializes in tumor removal, he was taken to surgery to have this removed. He survived surgery but he is not doing well. In hindsight that tumor was probably supporting his trachea in a way. His trachea is not as strong as it should be and he needs medical intervention to keep it open. Currently he is on a special breathing mask (Cpap) that forces air into his lungs and keeps the airway open. He needs years of medical treatment and with Mercy Ships leaving in December you can imagine how this presents a problem. I don’t think the hospitals here can take over his care in the current state that he is in (he also has a feeding tube inserted in his stomach to give him the nutrients to help with healing). His mother has been staying here with him. Before this she had been living with her boyfriend after her father had kicked her out. When her father kicked her out he also declared a curse on her that her children would die and she would be barren. Her first daughter has since died and now her son (Greg) is in critical condition. That is a little picture of the spiritual warfare that goes on here. A main religion involves sacrifices and witchcraft.
Right now we have a 24 hour prayer schedule for the crew on board and I would also like to ask you to keep him in your prayers. God can heal this little one and through that can bring a whole family and village to the knowledge of His power and authority and come to worship of Him.

Preparation

I had a little chuckle the other day at work. The wards were not full with patients so the extra nurses (me included) had the privilege of stripping and waxing the floors in the OR. Back home when I helped my friend Amber with stripping and waxing her kitchen floor she told me that God was preparing me. Never thought it was preparation for a hospital ship in West Africa!

4th of July on the end of a dock

Celebrating Independence Day seems more exciting when you're in a different country. The Americans gathered during dinner to show our patriotism and share in some wonderful baked goods. Although it wasn't your typical cook-out with hot dogs and hamburgers, pasta salad, chips, potato salad... oh, I'm getting hungry... It was great non-the-less. We will have to wait, though, until July 26 to enjoy some fireworks. That will be Liberia's Independence Day and I hear they have a great show.

The Orphanage

This is the orphanage that I've gone to a few times to visit with the kids. It's rather small but nice; with a couple of dorm rooms, a common room... that houses 30 kids. Some are orphans who's parents have died and some are refuges from the war who do not know where or if their parents are still alive. This place is run by the local pastor and has two house moms working here...



This is the front porch that was just built with the help of Mercy Ships. Now the children have a dry place to do school work and play. Just in time for the rainy season to start.
When we come to visit we gather the kids in this place (they're so well behaved that this happens without request)....

Then we have worship. They lead the singing and play the drum and sasa that we bring. They also love to dance! It seems rhythm is part of their DNA;)
We then have a short bible lesson and a craft to follow. We are teaching on the fruit of the Spirit and the tree that is planted by the streams of living water.

I love spending time here!