meet the neighbors

Today I'd like to introduce you to a few of our neighbors.....

 

If I think about it for a few minutes, I remember how odd it really is to live in an industrial shipyard. I mean, think of it from the perspective of the port workers- they spend their days doing port worker things...like driving fork lifts and big trucks and recieveing containers and shipments of things. And then one day they hear that a ship is coming and the government is letting them use a prime berth space for a whole 10 month period at no charge. And not only that, there are 400 men, women and children living on board and it's a hospital.

In West Africa, we are pretty well known. We've visited those countries repeatedly over the last 35 or so years, and so the white hospital ship is a welcome sight. But this is our first visit to central Africa, and people are still getting to know us. We are still earning trust and proving that we are really going to do what we promised. So we show up here, park a small village at the end of this shipyard, and then go back and forth with our land rovers all day long bringing patients on board. Anyway, I just think it's probably a bit weird for the people who work here- now when they come to work they might see our daily car full of a dozen blind people headed towards our ship. They have been very welcoming; the port has to work hard to host us, and we are thankful for their partnership.

 

 

The Africa Mercy is right where that blue dot is, the end of the peninsula shaped bit is the port, and we are on the inside part of the dock closer to the shoreline.

Port Autonome de Pointe Noire is where my floating home is parked here in Congo, and we have an ever-changing backyard. But, as it was in Guinea last year, some of the ships return frequently and there is an array of fishing boats and tug boats that live here permanently. And a few half sunken boats that live here very permanently. (Photo credit for this next photo goes to Josh) In this photo there are lots of fishing boats, they are docked right near our ship. When they come in with a catch it smells, umm...very fishy. Last year I had a favorite fishing boat in the Guinea port, it was really colorful and looked like a life-size version of a bathtub toy. I'll have to choose a new favorite for this year.

 

 

Borrowed this next photo from Emma- skip it if you are squeamish....but here's a reason for the fishy smell...

 

 

Deck 7 is one of my favorite places on the ship. The port side of the ship is not actually the side with the dock and the gangway. Starboard side is to the dock, and port side is towards the water. How's that for confusing.

This is deck 7 port side, looking towards the shoreline.

 

 

There's this handy website called marinetraffic.com where you can see live satellite information on ships coming and going around the world. I took some screen shots of our neighbors.

Here we are- (we are the blue dot with the black box around it)

 

 

Here's our nearest neighbor (for today anyway), Safmarine Sahara, docked directly behind us.

 

 

The blue ship on the left is here in port frequently, Niledutch Cheetah. The names are great. I told my cabinmates I was writing this post, and Amy mentioned that one of the ships that visited often in Guinea was the "Celine Dion".

 

 

 

And a couple more...

 

Here's the other side of deck 7, nearer the dock. There is a nice green floor mat for the kids to play on, and a net to keep balls from going overboard.

 

 

Looking down to the dock...Monday evenings are running club for the ship kids

 

 

Same view from deck 8- in this one you can see the gangway, the rehab tent and the fleet of land rovers.

 

 

Deck 8:

 

And the view of the sunset, from deck 8 you can see across the port out to the sea.

 

 

Plastics friends

Plastic surgeries are wrapping up- and next week B Ward completely changes and becomes the orthopaedic ward.

 

What a journey the last 7 weeks have been! I wish I could introduce you to each of the people who have captured my heart during their stay here. So many stories- some patients stay for weeks at a time. They come here for surgery, but also become our friends.

 

Like this girlie and her sweet momma:

And this spunky teenager....she's off the ship at the hope center now and doing very well.

These two are also at the hope center now...

And then there's this kiddo- oh my did he steal my heart...

After a bad case of childhood measles he became deaf, and the severity of the illness left him vulnerable to noma. The noma ate away at his nose, but we were able to provide a plastic surgery for him. He amazes me in the way he is able to communicate without words. Also he loves playing the game "memory" where you turn cards over and match the pictures. He beats me evey single time.

He lives with his grandparents, I met both of them during his stay on board. His grandfather speaks English and told me "I waited in line with my grandson on the selection day. We waited so long, and then finally we saw the doctor. We were sitting with three other people, and the doctor said yes to my grandson and one of the others. On the yellow card was the date we should come to the ship. Every morning after that my grandson would come to me and point to his nose and ask if it is time to go to the hospital."

The day finally came, and the surgery went great!

Here he is with the first step of his reconstruction, a scalp flap that goes from above his ear to his nose. Once blood flow is established at the nose, then the flap is replaced and the reconstruction can be completed:

After about 3 weeks, it was time for the second step of the operation. All the other patients were eager to see his new nose too. I stopped by the ward to see him, and there was a whole group of other patients and caregivers gathered around him while he was still sleeping off his meds, all marveling at his finished new nose. He's at the hope center now as well.

 

And here are these two brothers, the older brother stays as the caregiver. Both of them have been practicing their English while on the ward, and they are getting really good. One day I gave a lesson in the use of the stethoscope and they insisted on photos so they could remember their day being the "doctor". When I handed each of them an alcohol swab to clean the earpieces before putting them in, they both laughed at me and said something about "white people". I asked the translator what they were talking about and he smiled and said "oh, well we have a saying that goes 'white is white'. They are laughing because you are so worried about making things very clean." I laughed and explained that sure, maybe "white is white", but a "hospital is a hospital". Use the alcohol swab. :)

Here's little Aicha and her Papa who absolutely adores her. I remember doing her pre-op photos on screening day- her burn scars covered her tourso and contracted both her arms and her hip, keeping her from standing up all the way. She's come such a long way from the tiny frightened-of-all-nurses 4 year old she was a month ago. She's a special little girl.

I'm going to miss these people!

 

Starting next week: time to make some Ortho friends!

Kids like these we met on screening day will be coming back for their surgeries:

 

Meet Vernel

This cute kiddo was recently with us for cleft lip and palate surgery, and I wanted to share some photos of his time here-

Before:

 

 

And after!

 

Whenever I discharge one of our patients, I wonder what will happen when they go back home. I wish I could watch each one of them greet their family and friends, and see the reactions to their finished operation! Every once in awhile, a group heads off in a mercy ships land rover to do just that, and in Vernel's case the communications team followed him home to finish recording his story:

 

From the Mercy Ships Facebook Page:

Vernel returned home last week after having surgery to repair his cleft lip on the Africa Mercy. Upon seeing his nephew, Mestramaille picked up Vernel and danced around laughing with joy. “Oh Vernel, Vernel, you became handsome! It makes me happy, I did not think he could be like this. Yes, thanks Mercy Ships, thank you for your work.” Thanks to each and every one of YOU who supports Mercy Ships to make joyful homecomings like this possible.

Vernel and his uncle:

 

weekend iPhone-ography

The title says it all- this is a post entirely of wanna-be-artsy iPhone photos suzanne took over last weekend. But it was a good weekend. And the day at the beach ended just like it should- with a bonfire, and chasing crabs and kicking the sand to see the fluorescent seaweed/algae stuff glow.

Also I was accused of never posting photos of myself, so there are some of me in there also.

Thank you to Sarah for agreeing to be a hand model, and for having such a cool tattoo. :)

I think this may be the prettiest sunset since I came to Congo: