All Good Things Must Come to an End

Four months has already managed to pass me by. Which means I will be headed home in the next couple of days. There are so many emotions running through my head that I'm not entirely sure how to process. So many amazing things have happened, so many amazing people that I've met. And that makes it really hard to say goodbye. But at the same time I'm very much looking forward to seeing my family and friends again.

Five in the back, two in the front plus the driver!

And so to conclude, here is a list of some of the random, crazy, wonderful things that I have been able to experience/observe that haven't yet made it to my blog:
- Taking a taxi. Now in most places, this is no big deal. But here its always an adventure to find a taxi who a) speaks English or understands small small French mixed mostly with hand signals b) won't give you excessive fote (white person) prices and c) has any idea where you are trying to go. Fitting large groups of people in the taxi though (or entire furniture sets, or a couple mattresses)... no problem!

13th place!

Making fufu.

- One of the couples on board put a lot of time and effort into organizing an amazing race for us around Conakry. Some of the activities included finding people to pay us to shine their shoes, catching chickens, making fufu, playing soccer against some local kids, and my personal favourite, paddling a boat out to a point and back again (we may have been known as the team that sunk the boat and had to swim all the way back through some terribly dirty water. All manner of garbage is dumped in the ocean, including hospital waste. Yeah, its as pleasant as it sounds).


- I love the ocean, so to be living on it has been wonderful!






- I got to ring in the New Year in a most unusual way. While in Coyah we watched an African dance troupe during the last minutes of 2012 and the beginning minutes of 2013 and of course I got dragged up on stage. And what else was there to do but join in the dancing.

- Besides car taxis a lot of people get around using moto-taxis. And like the taxis they enjoy piling things on those as well (multiple children, boxes, chicken, multiple loaves of bread). While we were in Kindia there was an opportunity for us to have a go at riding on the back of one. My first time on a motorbike and let me tell you it is all kinds of awesome. (Please don't freak out too much Mom. It was safe. Promise.)

Showing off some moves for the Canadian Barn Dance.

- Our Scottish friends on board put together a lovely evening of Scottish dancing called a ceilidh. Think square dancing mixed with Pride and Prejudice style dancing. Such a good time! On top of that there have been dance lessons some Friday evenings and dinner at The Garden always includes some dancing to live African music.  

Dressed in our finest, standing in line for mocktails.

 - The annual Africa Mercy International Film Festival is probably one of the most looked forward to events on the ship. It gives everyone a chance to dust off their fancy clothes and get all dressed up. Groups made 5 minute films and entered them into the contest to be judged. It was a very entertaining evening.

Picture by Bethany Salmonson

- Being in Africa one has to try some African food. Fufu, a pounded up yam mixture popular in Togo, was one such food that I tried. A family that had moved to Guinea from Togo hosted a couple of people from the ship at their house to enjoy some fufu, rice, sauce and meat. Traditionally fufu is eaten with your fingers.

Fufu!

What an amazing trip. I know its time for me to go home but I will be back on this ship again. So until then, farewell Africa!

A Walking Blood Bank

       Many of the surgeries performed on board can cause some blood loss and therefore blood transfusions are necessary, as is normal in all hospitals. What is not normal however is the means of obtaining blood for transfusions. In most hospitals there would be a large supply of banked blood coming from numerous donors around the city, with pretesting and typing done long before getting to the hospital. Here we rely on crew members to sign up to donate their blood (and so we so lovingly call them our walking blood bank). As a lab tech on board I do the pre-screening blood collection and testing, posting of notes on peoples doors requesting them to come in and give, collection of units, testing of units and finally delivery of the unit to the operating room.
        It is very encouraging to see crew members willing to give not only their time and money to be here, but also the blood flowing through their veins. Without it the surgeons would not be able to do a number of the life-saving surgeries. Sometimes, if the patient is a B type, finding blood can be difficult as Africans have a higher percentage of type B blood compared to any where else in the world. During my time here we had a specific need for this type in one of the big cases and ended up having to overhead page people to come and be tested. There was a line-up outside our door for an hour of people who before had maybe been a little hesitant to donate (that needle is not small!) now wanting to know their blood type to see if they could help.

Bringing my blood to the OR.

       As many of you know I am also not a fan of needles and have never donated blood before. After trying to recruit all my friends to donate I realized that I should probably donate as well. So in January I filled out my form and had my pre-testing done. After poking countless other crew members I ended up on the other side of the needle today to give my blood. It really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. And about 10 minutes after donating I brought my own blood to the OR to be given to a patient in surgery. Yet another interesting experience unique to Mercy Ships.