For months I have been saying the same date over and over ... November 21st. Well the day finally came to say goodbye to the patients and family of friends that have surrounded me for the last four months. The time had arrived so I walked down the gangway to the huge crowd of well wishers that were seeing myself and thirteen other crew members off. It was a sad day indeed ... there were a lot of tears. After two long days of traveling I have made it home and I am settling back into American life. I look forward to seeing all my friends and family in the coming days. I just wanted to thank everyone who helped me go on this amazing adventure!

Tell Papa God Tenki

I tell Papa God tenki for these beautiful smiling faces ....

Sia is doing wonderful. She decided she wanted to "popo" a baby too, so she chose her teddy bear.

Aminata is cute as always and all smiles and laughter. Fran is too as you can see!

(L-R) Melissa holding Pinky Power (yes her real name, she's a super hero on the side), Kari holding Kadiatu and Jess holding Sia.

Popoing Sia's little sister Koomba, as you can see no smiles from her but I am smiling! She is usually running around non-stop jumping on people, but this day her mom had to step off the ward so she was sad.

This may be one of my favorite pictures ... ever! These two little girls have been through so much medically and both of them are all smiles and joy. Pinky & Sia are best friends because their beds are next to each other.

I will trust my unknown future to a known God ...

It has officially hit me ... I'm leaving in a week. I feel like my heart is being torn out! I don't want to leave the amazing friends and patients I have come in contact with. I think what finally struck a chord is that my bunk-mate is leaving today. (Since she officially reads my blog now so ... I love you Sarah!) I have never felt this passionate and in love with a job before. I have been amazingly blessed to be a part of this amazing experience! I feel the Lord leading me back to Georgia (for a time at least) but I have no idea what my future holds. One of my amazing friends back home shared a quote with me that I have been holding onto ... I will trust my unknown future to a known God, a God who loves me more than I can imagine and has only good planned for me. No matter what my future holds it will be amazing and beautiful. Thank you Lord for allowing me to have this absolutely breath-taking experience. I cannot wait for the next God-filled adventure!

This is Africa

 My Sunday:
0615 ~ Wake up!
0700 ~ Meet Daniel (local that works on the ship) on gangway along with 9 other girls.
0800 ~ Ride the Ferry to Lungi (just across the waterway from ship)
1000 ~ Church Starts (very charismatic Pentecostal church ... there may have been some casting out of demons in the back of the church)
1310 ~ Church Ends
1315 ~ Climb into Dodge Durango with 10 other girls and a driver (four girls to each row and Fran and I shared the front seat ... btw neither Fran nor I are petite little girls)
1330 ~ Arrive for lunch (the senior pastor's wife surprised us with a home-cooked African meal, it was delicious; fried chicken, cous cous and fried plantains)
1415 ~ Miss Ferry (apparently Daniel thought the ferry left at 1400, as he put it we "slightly missed the ferry")
1430 ~ Find water taxi (ok this needs explanation, this is not a taxi by American means, it is basically a "john boat" with a motor on the back)
1500 ~ Carried to taxi by big African man (haha ... yes that is right, they scoop you up like a baby and carry you to the boat)
1510 ~ Off we go (we are zooming across the waves of the ocean, they hand you an orange life vest which you can choose to wear or sit on ... your choice. The small girl sitting beside me is holding onto my skirt for dear life and crying)
1535 ~ Arrive back into Freetown (we had to climb out of the boat and onto stairs right beside the water, Daniel asked if I was okay, my friend sitting beside him said "She's not a little girl!" This is true I do love adventure)
1545 ~ Find a moto-taxi to take us back to wonderful Bad Boy Lane (where the ship yard is)
1555 ~ Arrive home safe and sound and recount crazy stories of the day
Overall throughout the day all I could think to say is .... this is Africa!

Bubbles & Crayola Crayons

What are you supposed to do when a child of only eight comes to you with cancer? This is the question I had to to answer today. I had the pleasure of being Sia's nurse today. Sia is eight years old and has Burkitt's Lymphoma, an agressive form of cancer that invades the face or jaw with grotesque tumors. Little Sia has been with us for about a week and when she arrived she had a very large tumor that was bulging from her left eye socket. We started a dose of chemotherapy soon after her arrival and now the tumor is small, small! Which is very exciting. For the past week Sia hasn't been feeling very well. Oh course I don't blame her, who wants to be on chemo? Today as she was sitting on her bed looking around I realized that she needed to do fun kid activities, she had to be bored out of her mind. So I searched the whole "fun cart" and found some glitter glue, construction paper and coloring pages. She would tell me where to put the glue and then she would decorate the paper will little bits of the colorful construction paper. About an hour later there magically appeared a pack of crayons on her bed. I don't know who gave them to her but tenki boku! Then we broke out the bubbles ... all in all we had lots of fun and it was so good to see her smiling and laughing again!
Please keep little Sia in your prayers, you see the ship is leaving very, very soon. Yes the chemo will knock this tumor down to size, but without further treatment and management in the future it is very likely it will come back, fast and ugly. Tomorrow she goes to surgery to have the left eye and remainder of the tumor removed.

November already?

So I'm sitting here looking through my old blog posts and I suddenly realize it's November .... November, like 5 months from when I left Georgia! It's like I skipped a whole season in Georgia. I left in the Spring and will return in the Fall. Crazy! Anyway, in less than three weeks I will be boarding a plane and flying back to Georgia. Though I am excited to see friends and family, I am sad to leave my family of friends here. How am I ever going to sleep without Sarah in the bunk above me reading with her toothbrush flashlight? Or how will I work without Jess by my side?  No one will understand the humane way to kill a gummy bear! So many wonderful memories have been formed here, but I have also learned that God has been preparing me for a wonderful new adventure. I'm not sure what or where it is yet, but it will be amazing. Because that is what a life sold out for God is ... an amazing adventure. Never a dull moment!