Start of an amazing adventure

It has been nearly two years since I started this crazy traveling life I call my own. On June 6, 2011 I left my home in Georgia and began my journey with Mercy Ships in Sierra Leone. It is amazing how time flies, after returning home and spending a little over a year there, I returned. Today, after a five month commitment, I am preparing to leave Guinea. I have mentioned before that there is certainly something in the water here, that makes us all fall in love with this work and never want to leave. On that note, I am here to say that this is not end, but the start of an amazing adventure.

From the beginning of returning to the ship I had said multiple, multiple times that this would be the last time I volunteer. I had spent almost two years traveling not only to Africa but also all over the state of Georgia as a travel nurse. I was ready for a "grown up" life ... a house, a husband, a white picket fence, children and a dog. 

The reoccurring thought kept creeping into my mind though, "What if I came back? It could be fun." Then I heard a sermon that used this verse from scripture ... 

"if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast." - Psalm 139:9-10

It suddenly hit me, I had been planning out my life and not leaving any room for God to work. He is the God of the universe, He can plan my life and fulfill my hopes and dreams even if I am on the other side of the sea! (This is very exciting) After a few days of pondering this thought and just plain out just worrying my stomach sick, I made a decision. I would come back, I mean why not! I am not the wealthiest person and not everyone will agree with my decision, but God has given me an amazing gift in my skills as a nurse and a loving heart. How can I keep that all to myself? Ultimately this is not about what is best for me but what I can do to help others. God has never let me down before and has always provided. Why would He not this time? 

So that is my big news. At the end of July I will be rejoining the ship in the Canary Islands and sailing to Congo where we will provide free healthcare and surgeries for the next 10 months. I don't have a lot of the details as of yet, such as cost, but I will keep you all updated. For now I simply ask for prayer support as I prepare for the amazing adventure God has planned for me.

One more quote that has really inspired me...

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bow lines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. 

-Mark Twain

There's something in the water.

Recently one of my friends made a statement that is so very true about life aboard the Africa Mercy. She said "What is it about this place that makes us want to pay to work here and stay forever?" So as I have pondered this thought I came up with a few ideas or things that might have a little to do with it.

Rain! People of ages young and old are standing in the rain, splashing in puddles and watching awestruck at the amazing show of lightening God has on display. In a matter of minutes you are soaked, but you don't care. How often do you get to see a raging thunderstorm in Africa in the dry season!?

Work! You walk around the ward greeting your patients with "Bonjour, Ceva?" Which means "Good morning, how are you?" This elicits an immediate smile (in 90% of cases in at least the parent) and a handshake. Throughout your day you watch a Pixar film, play jenga, have a dance party or simply snuggle with a patient. Really getting quality time to spend with patients and learning who they are.

Community! Here I sit in the cafe area, surrounded by people that I live, work and hang out with every day. There is rarely a time where you don't have someone to talk to when you are having rough day or hang out with you when you are bored.

Cuddles! Going to see an old patient and she runs towards you giggling and jumps into your arms. Immediately she cuddles into your neck and you feel totally content in the moment. You never want it to end. 

So there's something in the water. After the first sip you're hooked. But it is indeed very sweet!

I can't believe I did that!

This past weekend I went on an absolutely breathtaking adventure. I think the easiest way to convey it would be straight from my journal entry Sunday.

I just arrived back to the ship from Kindia. Definitely was the most amazing adventure ever!! 

We left Friday after our day shifts (total of 18 of us). The first objective was to catch the public bus to Medina, a nearby area of Conakry. After a short ride with at least fifty other people we arrived. Immediately you are surrounded by people calling out "Kindia, Kindia". It is up to you to find the best deal, because everything is negotiable. It took at least an hour of arguing with a guy before we were off on our adventure.

Along the way we came upon a girl, probably about eight years old holding a dead animal. Honestly I have no idea what it was. It looked like a beaver with a rat like tail. Anyway she saw us looking at her so she walked up to the car's window. When she got right in front of me she swung it at me and then ran away giggling. As you can imagine this elicited a small gasp from me haha. The end result was blood splattered on my window and a crazy African story for me! After four hours of police checkpoints and dodging humongous potholes we arrived at our hotel. Hot showers, clean sheets, full size beds ... Oh it was glorious! 

 



Look how huge the bed is, complete with an African princess net ;)



We awakened the next morning and planned our adventure over the breakfast of bread and tea. We decided we wanted to find the "banana village". Legend has it that Kindia is known for it's bananas and there is a certain village only accessible by foot that has great bananas. (Sidenote: Hiking is not a pastime here, crazy white people) We went out and bought some bread and laughing cow cheese for lunch sandwiches. We really had our hearts set on some avocados, but none to be found. After a short taxi ride we arrived at the base of the mountains.



The hike begins



As we were walking toward the mountain a guy approached us and asked if we wanted to go to the village. We said yes but we will find it. We knew he would want boku money. He pretty much laughed in our faces. White man find the village by himself, haha! With a "Merci boku" we set off walking but he stayed with us all along the way. We eventually arrived at a plateau between two mountains. It was a beautiful view of the town of Kindia.

View from the plateau

We had been told the the banana village was just a walk down the other side. Nope, we followed our new African friend as he continued up the mountain. Honestly I thought one of two things was going to happen, either my legs or lungs would stop working. Luckily my hiking buddies were gracious enough to allow many breaks.

 

The best break was had on a rock percariously perched on the side of the mountain.

After about a three hour total hike we came upon some children sitting beneath a tree. They offered us some fruit. I still have no idea what it was. It had a hard outer shell and fleshy moist seeds beneath that you just stick in your mouth and suck on. It was actually pretty tasty.

 

Mystery fruit

 A short distance on we found the banana village. It does exist! We walked into the village to a cheer of "Fotay, Fotay" (white man) from all the children. Our African guide led us to one of the little huts that we soon found out was his house. A few moments later we are introduced to his family.



Legit African huts



His mother goes back inside and comes out with an arm full of avocados as a gift! We decided to share our feast with our new friends.

Yum

It was one of those moments you just want to remember forever. There I was sitting in a remote village, eating with an African family while children play football down the hill. Priceless! It was one of those moments that I felt overwhelmingly blessed that God allowed me to come to Africa. After a small football game and a dance party we were off again.

Football game. Prithvi didn't stand a chance against them!



African dancing lesson from our tiny teachers



We walked a small distance and found them .... The bananas! No lie, best bananas of my life. I'm ruined, I've had fruit straight from the source. Kroger or Publix will never suffice!

This is my bunkmate Trudi. The best banana of your life causes uncontainable happiness!

 By now it was late afternoon, time to go home. We said our goodbyes and literally walked down the side of the mountain! Oh what an amazing blessed life I live! I can't believe I did that!

Plastics ... eek!

Plastics! Oh how that scares me. Taking scarred skin and rearranging and/or replacing it with new skin. Just the thought of it and the extensive dressings makes me a little nervous. Luckily this outreach we have a team of amazing nurses that have volunteered to do all the plastic dressings. Whew!

Danielle, June, Amy and Karin ... our amazing dressing team!

Ok, so yeah that was a little vague. Let me tell you a little about plastics. The majority of our plastic patients are having contracture releases secondary to burns. A contracture is when the normally stretchy (elastic) tissues are replaced by nonstretchy (inelastic) fiber-like tissue. This makes it hard to stretch the area and prevents normal movement.They acquire contractures after they are burned and the wound is not properly care for.  The body is an amazing healer, but when you place two fresh wounds up against each other. Say for example your chin and your neck/upper chest. The two will stick together making one scab. Eventually your chin will be attached to your neck. I know this sounds like an extreme case. But this is exactly what happened to Tia (name changed). When she was just a few days old, there was an accident. A oil lamp was accidentally knocked over, splashing hot oil all over her lower face, chest and one of her hands. This would have been a big emergency back in the states, we would have immediately sent her to a specialized burn unit. But there are no specialized places here. She was lucky to even been taken to a hospital. Age is kind of questionable here, I'd say she is late twenites/early thirties (at the most). She has lived with her chin attached to her neck/upper chest all of her life.
Then she came to Mercy Ships. I remember the first day she came on the ward. When you see it for the first time, there is a little shock factor. I mean I see things you would never, ever see in the Western world. But then you look into their eyes and you see the suffering and sadness. No matter what society has said about them all of their life, you have to love them. Tia had her surgery a couple of weeks ago and in the past week I have seen her bloom. Her mouth is closed for the first time in decades, the immediate transformation is amazing. She has photos of her family that she loves to show off and her face lights up everytime. The other day I was walking down the hall and I found her and two of the other female patients dancing in the stairwell. And she laughed and laughed when I caught them. So what do I do? Of course I join, I'm not going to miss a dance party!
Tia is continuing to heal. She has had some issues with infection. So please pray for her continued healing both physically and emotionally.


Tia continuously has a bulky neck dressing (I have no idea what it looks like beneath). Whenever it comes off it will be like a wonderful suprise ... Surprise a neck! Tia is here with one of our great dayworkers, a fellow charge nurse Bethany and some really adorable little boys :)



Snuggled close to my heart

I went to visit Kadi on Easter Sunday and she is doing quite well. I was sitting at the foot of her bed and after being held down by her nurse to clean her mouth she slowly inched her way to the end of the bed. Slowly she looked at me and held out her hands. I picked her up and placed her on my lap. She immediately snuggled her head against my chest and closed her eyes. I wish I could express the emotion I felt at that moment. I almost cried! Then her papa said "Oh Ali." Another nurse's name, he can call me whatever name he wants. As long as I get my Kadi snuggles haha! Though she has a long road before her, Kadi is doing well.



Kadi & her Papa



Prayers for Kadi

I've been waiting and hoping for almost three months and it has finally happened ... one of my little Salone (short for Sierra Leone) babies has come back! As I was working a night shift last night I just happened to look at the OR schedule for the next day. I saw a familar name, Kadi and I immediately thought of a little girl that I had in Salone. Most of the time when I see a familar name it ends up not being the child and Kadi is a pretty common name here. But I jumped up that very minute and walked down the hall to see if it was her. To my excitement it is! She has gotten so big! Let me give you a little backstory. Sorry, I got ahead of myself in all the excitement!
Kadi was a victim to a horrific infection called a noma, it literally "melts" the face away. When she came to us in Salone she was five years old and had been missing her nose for quite some time. Her father accompanied her to the ship. Dr. Gary performed an operation that closed the hole in her face that once was her nose. She was quite an active child, always jabbering away in a language that none of the nurses or translators knew. Her hair was a crazy mess of braids (obviously papa wasn't a hair stylist haha), but that's what all the aunties on the ward are for. She quickly had a new hairdo and became one of our favorite patients.
Today Kadi went in for surgery to take a flap of skin from her scalp to make her a new nose. This is a long and difficult process. I'm told that her operation took longer than expected. She will have this flap of skin (that is still attached to her scalp, I know sounds complicated!) for the next couple of weeks and then a portion of the flap will make her a new nose and the rest of the flap will be placed back on her head. If you are medical or brave enough to want to see illustrations click here. This is a very long process and there is a risk for infection and that the flap will not survive. Please be praying for Kadi! I will keep you updated and hopefully I can get some new photos soon!

Kadi (pre hair-do) and I in Sierra Leone



Kadi (with nice braids in my arms) and all the sweet Salone girls!



Africa Mercy Problems

I don't believe I have ever told you about some of the very unique things we deal with being a floating hospital ship. I have just had a couple "this doesn't happen at home moments" lately. Some of it is nursing related others, just about life.

Ensure, you know that delicious nutritional supplement given to the elderly. Here we use Ensure on all of our adult tube feelings. What do you do when you run out of those little cans of Ensure? Make your own of course. You just need a liter of whole milk, peanut butter, fiber powder, multivitamin and sugar! Throw it in a blender and tada your very own nutritional supplement! What do you do when you run out of smooth peanut butter? In a blonde moment (or maybe a moment of old age) I tried crunchy, it was a horrible disaster. I just marched up the stairs to the galley and borrowed a strainer. Use the crunchy peanut butter and then strain out the "crunch"!

IV poles? What a luxury! No, no we just use magnet hooks and put them on our metal ceiling. Actually I much prefer this to the heavy cumbersome IV poles of home.
Our caregivers (parent, older sibling, aunt, grandmother) sleeps on a mattress beneath the patient's bed. I've been here quite a while and I just recently realized that parents at home would have a heart attack if ever told them to sleep on the floor!

We are a living Petri dish. If one of us is sick, all of us are. We don't only work together but we socialize and sleep in the same rooms together. I now know how hard it is to be a nurse (charge nurse at that) and have absolutely no voice. That was definitely interesting! Please pray for our healing and protection for the patients. Pretty much every nurse on my ward has a head cold and we don't want to pass it on to the patients. I guess that is what we get for cuddling with cute snotty nose babies!

This is an absolutely amazing experience that I will always remember. In no other hospital ever do you work, live and really get to know the doctors, nurses, and all other staff you work with. I love it!