Hope

Hope - the feeling that what is wanted can happen and that events will turn out for the best. The Hope Center is ... a place of refuge for those far, far away from home that are either preparing or recovering from their operations. Today I had the chance to visit the Hope Center. It is located just down the road from the Freetown Dock. It was a lot of fun and great to see some of the patients that have been discharged.

Aminata on my left is one of my past patients and
the little boy in my lap is having a
cleft lip repair later this week.

This is one of my adorable past patients.
He had a cleft lip repair and he looks absolutely amazing!

My room-mate Fran.

What has Kari been up to??

This week has been my first real week of work per say. I worked five evenings out of seven days, it can be quite tiring. What does the day of a Africa Mercy nurse working in ward D look like? If you are working evening shift it looks something like this ... wake up at around 10 am, eat whatever random meal they are serving for lunch (it usually consists of a variety of past dinners), hang out with friends or surf the internet til 2 and then off to work, once you arrive at work you pray with the other nurses and then get report on your patients for the day, while the patients are taken up stairs to the upper deck for some fresh air, you look through their charts and find out what your evening will entail, upon their arrival back your evening begins, there are tube feedings to give, medications to give and incisions to clean. If you have any down time there are always children to entertain. Even though it can be quite busy sometimes, overall it is quite enjoyable getting to know the patients. It is all tiring though, so I was very excited to go on an adventure on Saturday! Up at 7 am to go explore the wet rainy jungle that is Salone (short for Sierra Leone :D). After meeting up with some friends we hiked to two dams near Charlotte Falls. It was very beautiful, then we said goodbye to the friends staying overnight and were on our way home to a relaxing night on the ship!

Off through the jungle we go.

The first dam

The second dam.

Chillaxin in the back of the land rover on the way home.

Back to the madness of Freetown!

Bravery

Okay, so this may be a little too much for some but this is a story that I want to share. Imagine this ... you have lived for many years with a horrible disfigurement caused by an infection that takes most people's lives. Instead of a nose and normal mouth this infection has left you with a gaping hole in your face. You come to the the Africa Mercy screening day and are chosen to have an operation with the amazing Dr. Parker. The operation day comes and everything goes as planned, but when you awaken you realize just how drastic and "inventive" this operation was. The doctor has taken a flap of your scalp and twisted it around to form you the beginnings of a nose and your tongue is now sutured to the roof of your mouth where there once was a hole. In the next three weeks this will be how you live, receiving your feeding through a tube that travels from your nose to your stomach. After these three weeks you will have the next stage of your operation. Okay, okay I know it is very graphic, but I was touched so much by this patient. He isn't even my assigned patient, but I just think he is so brave. To have gone through so much over not only the past days, but the past years and he is still hanging in there. I feel so blessed to be even a small part of his transformation ... I can't wait to see what the future holds for him!

Night shift

Where to start? I've been busy, busy, busy. I have worked three night shifts this week and was supposed to work at this very moment but somehow I got the night off! Even though it has been an adjustment, night shift has gone very well. It was a transition considering the past four years when I worked night shift it was a twelve hour shift that began at 7 pm. Night shift here, on the ship, start at 9 pm. I have time to hang out and stuff before going to work! Even though my initial training was in D ward (maxilo-facial surgery), I worked in both A & B wards the past nights. A ward is the plastics patients so they are post-op from tumor removals and contracture (when the skin is really tight after a burn) releases. B ward isn't as fun ... alot of men with hernias! But hey, they all need help feeling better. I was amazed that the children in A ward remembered my name after meeting last week during play time. The moment I walked in the door, it was "Kari, Kari!". They are alot of fun, some of them have been there for months secondary to reoccuring infections. I am truly blessed to have the chance to play and talk with them every shift. I also met one of the surgeons last night, his name is Dr. Blair. He is so nice and even invited us to come into the OR sometime to watch an operation.
In other news apparently a southern accent is very similar to British or even Australian accents (according to the African workers here). It was very hard to convince them that I am American, I still don't know if they believe me! Up to this point I thought that my accent was fading but apparently it still is very strong to non-Americans! So ya'll have an awesome day in beautiful Georgia and talk to you real soon! :)

Sugarloaf Mountain

After a week of orientation and working on the ward I decided to branch out and explore a little. A few friends and I signed up to go see a waterfall on Sugarloaf Mountain. Little did I know that it would be one hardcore hike and a very rainy day! All in all it was absolutley gorgeous and only came out with a few scratches. Now I can say that I have hiked in Africa!

We ate lunch in the middle of the river.

Welcome to D Ward!

I've started working in D ward, I have the blue scrubs and all. D ward is primarily Maxilo-Facial and Pediatric, but they do have overflow of any and all of the other surgeries. Today and yesterday were my two orientaion shifts. I will be on my own tomorrow! Definitely alot quicker than my last job where you had months of orienting. So far the shifts have gone well and I am adjusting. On Monday the primary Maxilo-Facial surgeon, Dr. Gary Parker, returns. Therefore I should be alot busier next week with all kinds of new surgeries that I have never come in contact with. I know my fellow nurses will help me though. The whole atmosphere is alot more laid back than at home. No trying to document everything single thing you do for fear of lawsuits. The patients are very kind and gracious. I had the chance to play a very intense game of Jenga today with one young patient. I have to say that he is the champion ... I think he won 4 out of 5 times! All is well otherwise, making some new friends and hanging out with the old ones. Thank you for your continued prayers as I continue to transition in the ward in the coming weeks.