Warm Autumn Day & Red Dirt Roads

So while it is Autumn back home in Georgia, it is still hot weather here. So what should you do if you have a day off of work? Go to the beach of course! That's exactly what I did yesterday. Three friends and myself left the comfort of the ship and took the two hour journey to River Number 2. Okay, let me start from the beginning. After we walked down the gangway, which is always a feat (I really don't want to fall down the stairs). We walked through the gate that separates the shipyard from Freetown. The moment you step through this gate you are automatically on guard, you have to jump out of the way of zooming okadas (motorbikes) and make sure that you are not hit by a poda poda (taxi). Lucky for us there was a group of men outside the gate that was more than happy to help us to the beach. We jumped in the small SUV and off we went. Leaving Freetown is not easy task, there is so much traffic of not only cars, but also poda podas, okadas, wheelbarrows and not to mention the thousands of people on the street. After about an hour we made it out of the city and were on our way! We traveled down a very, very long red dirt road. The main income in this particular area is granite. After the granite is mined from the side of the mountains, it is manually hammered into smaller pieces. So all along the way I saw huge piles of granite with men, women and even children sitting atop them hammering away at their designated pieces. Every now and then we would drive past a child who just couldn't help it and would have to jump up to smile and wave. Even though it was a long journey, I absolutely loved it. Windows down, long stretches of dirt road, listening to whatever random rap or R&B the driver had. It was absolutely beautiful. Eventually we finally arrived at the beach. Rows of colorful fabric bags, dresses and wooden crafts welcomed us as we pulled in. Apparently this is one of the best places to buy souvenirs. It was an absolutely marvelous day, whether I lounged on a sandbar in the warm murky waters of the Atlantic Ocean or waded through the cool crystal clear waters of River Number 2.  After a short little Sierra Leone rainy season shower, we were off on another adventure back to the ship. What a wonderful day!

Hmm ... whatever shall I do??

So I've pondered (more like stressed)  about what my future holds. Should I go back to Georgia and work in a similar capacity, at the Medical Center on a medical ward or shall I start some new grand adventure? The answer is still unclear to me, which as you can imagine is quite frustrating. I absolutely love Mercy Ships and the community that has been created here, not only with the other crew but also with the patients. But I also feel the draw to return back to Georgia and begin a new adventure there. Hmmmm ... whatever shall I do? Thank you for your continued prayers as I seek guidance and possibly prepare to find a job and a brand new place to live!

Beauty restored

Remember my post titled "Bravery"? Meet him! He just had his second surgery and now has a nose for the first time in years. Both his scalp and tongue flaps have been released and now it is time to heal. This picture taken by one of the hospital photographers captures him seeing his new face for the first time. He looks so amazing. Not only are we bringing hope and healing back to these patients but we are restoring the beauty that was robbed from them. I have to say that this man is absolutely beautiful inside and out!




Prayer Request

I have a special prayer request, but it isn't for me. Bangura came in for a partial thyroidectomy, the complications began there. You see her thyroid (gland in the front of your neck) was so enlarged that it nearly touched her spine and pushed her carotid artery way out of place. So it was dangerous from the start. Surgery went well and she was on her way to recovery. Then she developed an abscess (pocket of infection) in her neck, this was drained and was once again on her way to recovery. A few days later she spiked a really high temperature, complete with shivering and sweats. She was positive for malaria (which is pretty common here in West Africa), no big deal we will treat her and she will be okay. Her temperature continues to rise and fall. The wound culture from her neck returns, it is positive for salmonella. This was crazy in my opinion, how do you get salmonella (commonly caused by raw chicken or eggs) in your blood? The answer is Typhoid Fever, which is caused by the salmonella bacteria. So as you can imagine Bangura is very sick. She is in good spirits, but extremely tired and just overall not feeling well at all. Please pray for her complete healing. Thanks :) Oh and by the way ... I had my typhoid vaccine!

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!