A Brief Overview

        Here is a bit of an update on some of the statistics for this field service so far. Thanks to so many different volunteers a lot of different kinds of surgery can be accomplished. Here is a list of some of the surgeries that have been and will be done while Mercy Ships is in the Congo:

• Maxillofacial surgeries – cleft lip and palate, large facial tumors, and facial deformities
• Plastic surgeries – skin grafting, burn scar contracture releases
• General surgeries – hernia, large benign skin tumors, goiter removals
• Orthopaedic surgeries – correction for club feet, bowed legs, knocked knees, and other deformities
• Eye surgeries – primarily cataracts
• Obstetric fistula surgeries – repair of VVF, RVF, and UVF

        The beginning of this week saw the first of the VVF (brief explanation here) patients being brought on board for this outreach, with surgeries beginning on Tuesday. As I mentioned before these are some of my favourite patients. Unfortunately there were only a small number of ladies who made their way to the ship on Monday. Due to poor road conditions between Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire the means of getting to the ship are fairly limited. And if you will notice on the map, Pointe-Noire is almost as far down south in the country as you can get and is quite a distance from the northern part of Congo. The government kindly agreed to fly patients from Brazzaville for free. There was supposed to be a flight with some of these patients arriving on Monday but for some reason or another it has yet to arrive. Please keep these ladies in your prayers as well as praying that more VVF ladies who could benefit from the surgery might be able to find their way to the ship. In fact prayer for all of our patients and volunteers would be much appreciated.
       

http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/congo-administrative-map.htm 

Winter Olympics, Africa Mercy Style

     Living on the Africa Mercy, as I've said before, is a very unique experience. A mix of nations and backgrounds all represented on a ship registered in Malta working for the same purpose off the coast of Africa. And all that has come together to make this, in my opinion, the most interesting place to watch the Olympics. Getting to watch one of the most international sporting events surrounded by (at the moment) thirty-three other nations has made this past week of watching the Olympics a memorable one. You are cheering for you country along with a handful of other while there are multiple others urging on their fellow countrymen.

     When I realized that I would be in Africa during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics I became a little disappointed that
I probably wouldn't be able to watch them. Last winter Olympics was the first time I really became interested in watching and was looking forward to this years. But much to my delight a satellite station has been tuned to a South African (a country who I don't believe has any participants in this Olympics but hey why not have an entire channel devoted to it anyways? And also this makes for highly entertaining commentary along with all of the sports) broadcast of the Olympics. Sure there are times when it is a bit laggy (which is very annoying whilst trying to watch a hockey game) or just doesn't work at all but we are in Congo after all so to see coverage of it at all is great.  

     An entire section of midships has been dedicated to those of us who enjoy cheering on our own, or other's, countries. A number of flags have been brought over from the International Lounge to make it a bit more festive, a schedule has been posted for the whole Olympics with something on at every hour, and a medal count leader board is hanging on the wall. All in all I think this is a fantastic and exciting place to watch the Olympics and I'm going to continue cheering on Canada (with my Olympic Canada gear and my flag) from my ship home in Africa.

Alberta!

     And speaking of my country we had a fantastic get together last Monday for all the Canadians on board, just because. There happen to be thirty-six of us from various places across Canada and we all enjoyed some Timmy's coffee, homemade donughts, Quebec sugar pie and 100% Canadian maple syrup. Afterwards a number of us went down to watch some Olympic coverage only to get there in time to see Canada take the gold and silver in men's moguls. Good timing and a great evening. Since I've been confined to the ship most of this week and weekend due to having the pager I haven't been able to get out much so the Olympics occupied a large part of my week. Hope you are all enjoying the Olympics wherever you happen to be!

Posing as beavers

Facebook Famous

Well as I'm sure most people know it was Facebook's 10th birthday just this past week. And to mark the occasion Facebook made a couple videos about some of the the things it has been able to do in the past ten years. One of these videos featured Mercy Ships and how people have been able to connect with and help via Facebook. Here's a link to the video: http://www.facebookstories.com/stories/53770/anchored.

And here is a link (www.sevenly.org/MercyShips1) to Sevenly's website. Every purchase over the next 3 days will give $7 to Mercy Ships.

Back to Ship Life

As many of you well know I enjoyed my experience so much when I was in Guinea that I signed up to return almost immediately upon arriving back home. Well, almost eleven long months have passed since then and here I am, back on the ship.

Bridge full of locks put there by couples. Kinda adorable.

On my way here I had a lovely long stopover in Paris (not by my choosing but it worked out great!) so I decided I couldn't sit in the airport for 14 hours while one of the most famous and loved cities in the world was just outside. My brief little solo adventure was amazing. May I just say that Paris is definitely a beautiful, old city. I could have spent a lot more time then I already did wandering through the streets.

View of the city from the Eiffel Tower.

                  

Statues everywhere.(Notre Dame in background) 

Any way, back to Africa. After almost a week on board it feels like I never left. Sure there are some changes, furniture switched around, new people to meet, oh and a new city to explore, but on the whole it feels very similar. I'm excited to discover all the little differences, make some new and strengthen existing friendships, and get to know the new patients.     

My living arrangements are quiet different. Which at first I wasn't to pleased about but have come around and decided they are actually pretty fantastic. I was put in a ten berth cabin this time round which was a bit of a change from my six berth of last time. But there is a great group of girls in that cabin and there is actually a lot of living space (and two bathrooms... still only have the two minute shower though!). And really how blessed am I to be able to volunteer in Africa and have a very safe and relatively luxurious place to live. So with that thought I have cut whatever complaining that I had been doing short and decided to be thankful instead.

My own little piece of home.

I managed to get off the ship a couple of times this week. One big difference from Guinea is the long walk through the port where the taxis aren't allowed to take us. Made my way over to the beach twice, both times in the evening. And one trip even included a bonfire! Bonfires on the beach (which I think is one of the greatest things ever!)! 

Life in the lab is pretty same old, same old. Thankfully I have been able to remember almost everything and have gotten right back into the swing of things. Collected my first bit of blood in over 10 months too, which went very smoothly (which I'm sure the person was very thankful for, though I thought it best not to tell them I hadn't done it in a while...). 

Anywho, that's a brief glimpse into what's going on here this first week as I resettle in. I'll go into more details about everything as they happen in posts to come!   

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. 

A Little Love Goes a Long Way

Some of my favourite patients down on the wards are the VVF (vesicovaginal fistula) ladies. They have been through so much pain and suffering, losing a child in a horribly painful and long childbirth that has caused them to leak urine and most of them to become outcasts for years. Yet they always offer a ca va? (how you doin?) with a big grin when walking down the hospital hall, a handshake and cheek kisses, hugs, dancing etc. I was walking very quickly down the hall one day and one of the ladies started copying me and walking fast with her arms pumping all the while grinning mischievously at me. I couldn't help but laugh. Next time she saw me she did the same thing again.  Another time I was sitting on the ward for a Sunday ward service beside one of the ladies lying in bed. She held out her hand right beside me as though begging me to take it. When I grabbed her hand and squeezed it she smiled at me and held on tightly for the remainder of the service. Such a simple act but it meant a lot to both of us. 
As I said many of them are outcasts. Even most of there husbands abandon them. There is so much inner emotional stuff to deal with as well as physical stuff. So when they come here and everyone gives them so much love they just are so loving back. When I went to a dress ceremony (the woman who are dry due to successful surgery get new dresses to symbolize becoming a new person and being able to re-enter society) for the first time hearing their stories through the translators really touched me and there was not a dry eye in the room by the time they were finished. Here is a story written by one of the Africa Mercy writers about one of the ladies journeys:

What could possibly compel a poor woman in West Africa to travel over 1000 kilometers – a journey that would take six months and exhaust all of her resources and ingenuity – to get to a hospital ship? The answer is stark in its simplicity – the journey was born out of a desperate, fragile hope that she could find healing and restoration.

Binta lives in southeast Guinea. Six months ago, a man in her village told her about news he had heard on the radio – a hospital ship was coming to the nation’s capital, Conakry. “The ship has doctors that can help you,” the man said.

Binta is in her late thirties and has suffered from vesicovaginal fistula (VVF), a devastating childbirth injury, since she was a teenager. During several days of prolonged, obstructed labor, Binta’s baby was stillborn during a traumatizing delivery. The injury to her birth canal made Binta incontinent; she has been continuously leaking urine for years. Her condition made her an outcast within her own remote village. But now there was news that she could be “fixed” . . . and she dared to hope.

With the little money she had, Binta set out on her journey – a trip that was filled with new experiences.

She traveled from her village in the dense rainforest region to the city of Senko. Once there, she used what little money she had to pay for transportation to the next city – Beyla. It was her first time to ever ride in a car.

From Beyla to Nzerekore to Macenta to Gueckedou to Kissidougou to Conakry – a blur of new sights and sounds. She stopped when she had to, staying in one city for up to two months where she worked doing laundry to save enough money for the next leg of her journey. She paid people with cars or motorbikes to give her a lift. Binta traveled more than 661 miles (1063 km) in 6 months to seek help from Mercy Ships.

Finally, she arrived on the dock – with no money and only the clothes on her back. “It was something inside of me that told me, ‘Do it!’” Binta said. The Africa Mercy is the first ship she has ever seen.

Last week, Mercy Ships volunteer surgeon Dr. Steve Arrowsmith repaired Binta’s fistula. Today she is dry. She no longer leaks urine; she no longer smells. And now, Binta longs to return home to her sister’s children, triplets, whom she has cared for since her sister passed away in 2011. Because there are no phones there, Binta hasn’t spoken with her family since she left. Fortunately, she will get home to them soon – a much simpler journey this time, with assistance from Mercy Ships.

And Binta will leave Mercy Ships with a dry skirt, a full heart and a new life. Her courage has been rewarded, her hope has been reborn, and her life has been restored!

Written by Catherine Clarke Murphy
Edited by Nancy Predaina
Photographs by Deb Bell and Michelle Murrey