Tenerife... Last post :)

We have arrived... After ten days of sailing we finally saw some land again. The sail was definitely a special time. We encountered dolphins (they even jumped for us), a storm, whales and a randomly stranded bird. I was happy to see land again though. The ship is only so big, and there is not a lot of room to move around. When we arrived in Tenerife, everybody was as excited as children to be able to explore this new place. Tenerife is part of Spain, and a popular tourist location. The town atmosphere reminded me of Greece. The West Africans who are new crew on the ship were in for quite the culture shock. The shops, people and nature are very different from what they are used to. These last days in Tenerife really help to make it feel that my time on Mercy Ships is almost over. A lot of people are leaving this weekend, and when I leave on Monday the ship is sailing to the dry dock where it will stay for the next three weeks to do repairs and prepare for Guinea.
I have been very blessed with this opportunity to join Mercy Ships. I did not have a lot of expectations, did not do a lot of planning, but it has definitely been one of the best times of my life. I encourage everybody to do something like my trip! Thank you very much for reading my blog and for all your prayer and for all your encouragement and for all your support!

Tenerife!

Outing to Santa Cruz, Tenerife

Pirate dress up

My lovely friends...

Sailing!

Africa was a colorful arrayment. The ocean is different, only blue, but still I could stare at it for hours. Who knew that the color blue had so many different shades and tints!

We left Togo on June 15, 2012, around 10 o'clock in the morning. Preparations for the sail had occurred for weeks already. The whole hospital had been scrubbed, all the patients discharged, except two who needed to go to the local hospital for further care, all our cabins secured, for the ship rocks a lot during the sail, the land rovers put on the deck, and the tents removed from the dock. Finally the moore lines got losened and off we went. We had a pilot onboard to guide us out of the harbour. When we left the harbour we started feeling the rocking of the ship. It got worse as time went by. Everybody on the ship seems slightly tipsy, the way we are walking. They gave us seasick medicines, but they make you extremely sleepy. Either way everybody sleeps a lot during the sail, I don't know if it is because the sea rocks us so gently to sleep, or the sea air, or just because everybody has the chance to sleep lots. So far, only today the sun dared to come out. Today we were allowed out on the bow, which gives us a view from the front of the boat. Standing there, wind in your hair, sea water splashes in your face, sun light dancing on the waves is one of the most wonderful experiences ever. Occasionally you see a fly fish flying over the water, they are amazing little creatures! I really enjoy this part of my Mercy Ships experience. It gives time to reflex, relax and enjoy each other and nature because life on the ship has slowed down quite a bit. We hope to arrive in Teneriff on June 25, and than only five more days of Mercy Ships for me...

Bible Verses like the following make much more of an impression when you are out on the ocean!

Psalm 98: 6-8

⁶ With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King.

⁷ Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

⁸ Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together

Psalm 95: 4-6

⁴ In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.

⁵ The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.

⁶ O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker.

The landrover lifted unto the deck

The moore lines losened 

Kayla (my work buddy) and I...

The gang way also went flying...

Bye Bye Togo!

Smells, sights, sounds...

I think everybody should experience Africa once, because it is impossible to really convey what it is like in words or pictures. But I realize that not everybody will get a chance to, so I will try to describe what it is like just coming back from one of the pools here.
I'm standing outside the pool, the sun shinging brightly, but since it is the rainy season the heat is endurable. Trucks line the road, waiting to enter the port. The port is the main economy booster of Togo, so a lot of activity happens around it. I'm waiting for the shuttle of Mercyships to take me back to the ship. The librarian of the ship is also waiting for the shuttle so we chat for awhile. My mind is already thinking about writing this blog, so I look around at all the bizar sights. I mention to the librarian how many interesting sights there are to see, after which he thanks me for pointing it out, because after being here for awhile the African experience has become so common to him. Behind us, some cars are parked in the shade, with an African sleeping on top of one. You can spot them taking naps in the weirdest places. But the positive thing about sleeping outside in Africa is that they won't get cold. Taxis, in diverse shapes and sizes and colors, with varying number of people drive by. Women, wearing colorful African dresses, or jeans, walk past carrying strange concortions on their heads. I have seen several ladies on the market carrying a plate with eggs on their head. My balancing skills are severly poor compared to that. Motorbikes, called zimmy johns here, zigzag in between the cars. Occasionally a car or motorbike honks at us, wondering if we need a ride, but we wave them away. Honking is serious business here in Africa, everybody does it all the time, creating a concert. Finally we see the Mercyships landrover coming towards us. In we get, and off we go. The most creative trafic rules situations I have noticed are a traffic light before the round-a-bout and having to yield to traffic coming into the round-a-bout. Comic situations are when you stop in front of the traffic lights, so the only way you know if it is green is when the person behind you starts honking. Or, when you are not in a hurry, and it is busy on the road, you drive over the walkway because all other possible ways seem absolutely stuck, till you encounter a car coming from the other way also over the walkway, which results in utmost stuckness. Trying to get anywhere on time is not entirely a possibility here, because you would suffer from some major stress symptoms. Anyway, I kind of went off track. We had just gotten into the car, and drove to one other shuttle station, after which we headed back to the port. On the round-a-bout, a policemen is busy whistling to direct traffic, hopelessly. In the port itself, there are the usual amount of people standing around, talking, minding everybodies business, napping, trying to look important, or actually working. The ship comes in view, and once again, we made it safely back "home" :)

Ps. Apparently, the traffic here is childs play compared to the traffic in Sierra Leone.

Kpalime Trip

So this weekend was a little bit different than the other ones. From Friday to Saturday I stayed overnight in a city more north. It was an awesome experience. To much happened during the entire trip to tell everything about it, but I will try to pick out some of the most interesting adventures.
We left the ship early Friday morning. A day worker who used to live in Kpalime came along for the trip, so we had our own tourguide. First business to complete was find a taxi. There were 6 of us, and legally a taxi with 5 seats is allowed to take 5 passengers along, but we were with 6. No problem with the driver, till we got pulled over. Yelling match with cop ensued because the cop asked for $4 bribe so no trouble would be made, but the driver did not feel inclined to give $4. In the end the driver ended up paying and we continued on driving. The taxi did not get us all the way to Kpalime, we had to go on another taxi. There was fierce competition over who got to drive us, and we finally settled on one taxi. We had all climbed in, ready to go, but somebody was blocking our way because he did not agree with which taxi we had picked. Driver went out to argue. While the driver was talking, another guy slyly slid into the driver's seat and asked us innocently, Kpalime? When the owner of the car returned he was quite surprised to see someone else sitting in his seat ready to take off with his car. After another yelling match the intruder exited the car and we were finally on our way. But we definitely did not go straight there. The guys who were offended that we had not picked their taxi to chauffeur us around had called to Kpalime that the taxi-numberboard had more than the legal amount of people and was coming that way. So we switched over to another taxi, and that taxi stuck around for the rest of the day, touring us everywhere.
Kpalime is in a more mountainous area. It is absolutely beautiful out there, with all the green tropical forests. We hiked to two different waterfalls, hidden between a huge variety of trees and plants and insects.
Another experience which I really enjoyed during the trip was our visit to the dayworkers mother's village. We were invited to a fou-fou party. Fou-fou is made of cassada, tasted and looked similar to mashed potatoes, and accompanied by fish. We drove to the village on the back of a motorbike, three on each motorbike. As we entered the village the children crowded around us already, all wanting to hold our hands and touch and talk to us. They are so incredibly cute, I want to take some of them home! They do have bigger bellies, and the nurses were saying it is probably worms or malnourishment. We were led to an open space underneath some trees, and there we were served with our meal. It was a good meal, although my tastebuds probably don't appreciate it as much as the Africans do. After our meal we got a tour of the village. The village really reminded me of how some museums look back home. Everybody was the dayworkers family, he mysteriously had many brothers, although when I asked him before he only had one sibling. Chickens scurried around, some old people were sitting in their huts, two boys were making palm oil, an old man was weaving a mat. It is so hard to relay the experience, it didn't even feel real to me.
We had many more adventures, but it is too much to write about.

Tropical rainforest!

The hidden waterfall...

Candy time!! :)

Marie and David. Marie was our cook

Fou-Fou, our lunch

The local village

Our mode of transportation

Aren't they adorable??!!

Rich Africans ;)

"Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor."

This is the theme I want to describe in this post. I encounter the truth of this statement everywhere here in Africa. Yesterday I followed a nurse for the afternoon. She works on the max facts ward, (I don't think that is how you spell it :)) it is the ward where the patients who have tumors removed stay. One special girl, Esther, has come all the way from Nigeria to have a tumor on her face removed. Because she knew English, I could communicate with her without a translator. In the afternoon, the nurses take all the patients who are able to make the trip up the stairs outside to enjoy some fresh air. Esther loved going outside. After we came back down in the ward I read a couple of books to her. All throughout the afternoon, Esther radiated joy at being loved in simple ways. Esther is content. Esther is rich.

This morning I went to the Special Needs School again. 40 children in one small, warm classroom, but are they ever happy. They jump and dance and hug and smile. Two cookies = made a day. These children are so rich.

I am learning a lot here! :D

The special needs school

Patient life

Below I copied a story about one of the patients. I think some of you might be interested in the hospital side of the ship, which I often do not get involved in although I would love to. I did sign up to observe a surgery, and I am going to attend the dental team for a day as well. Last week there was another VVF celebration. I felt very privileged to be able to experience the joy that these ladies radiated, some of whom have been finally healed after 20 years of sickness, abonden, rejection and hurt.

Darius 
Onboard the Africa Mercy, a nine-year-old boy named Darius sat curled up on his mother’s lap. With his head bent over, he hid his face from view. The dark sunglasses and the large bandages over his eyes hid a boy who was trying to cope with the circumstances life gave him.
Just five months ago, Darius’ had been a normal boy who could run around playing with his friends. Then one day, he came home from school feeling sick. And, before anyone understood what was happening, he was fighting for his life.
Darius had chickenpox, and his aunt decided to buy him some antibiotic to help him get better. Unfortunately, he had an adverse reaction to the antibiotic. This reaction is known as Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS) – a life-threatening skin condition in which cell death causes the epidermis to detach from the dermis. It also affects the mucous membranes of the body.
Darius’s reaction was severe, and it did not take long before he became extremely weak. His mother, Josephine, took him to many doctors, but none of them understood what was happening to the boy because SJS is a rare syndrome.
As Darius’s condition worsened, layers of skin died and fell off from his lips, inner eyelids, and other parts of his body. When he started to vomit blood and mucous, Josephine decided she needed to go to a large hospital – anything to help her son get better. They traveled all the way to a hospital in the capital of Benin, where they waited in the ER for someone to help them.
“I looked down at my son. Flies were living in his wounds. He was covered with blood and dead tissue. Even the flies saw him as good as dead. I wondered how anyone so small could survive so much,” Josephine says as she fights back tears. Darius was brought to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Slowly, he started to regain strength but remained in the ICU for a while.
Darius’s eyes were swollen shut, so he could not see. One day, as he lay in bed in the ICU, he heard a fuse spark. Even though he could not see, Darius could smell the smoke as the fire started to build around his bed. He began yelling for help, but the nurses had been called somewhere else and did not hear him. Finally, Josephine heard his cries and ran in to see the place engulfed with flames. She picked Darius up and ran to safety. Luckily, the boy received no injuries from the fire, and he was moved to the pediatric ward of the hospital, where Josephine could stay with him at all times. He spent a month in the pediatric ward before being released from the hospital.
The inner lining of his eyelids had fallen away, and as the raw edges of the eyelids started to heal, the upper and lower eyelids fused together. No longer able to open his eyes, Darius was blind to the world around him.
When Josephine heard about Mercy Ships, she brought Darius to one of the eye screenings. The Mercy Ships Eye Team quickly sent him to the ship to be screened for surgery. The young boy needed many surgeries to restore his vision. But, slowly, he started to show signs of progress – not only in his vision but also in his spirit. Josephine explains, “His problem is being fixed, he is receiving all this surgery and care, we are receiving food, and all of our needs are being taken care of. The nurses are so kind to us, and it is such a blessing after all of our struggles.”
During the first couple of weeks in the hospital, Darius kept to himself, keeping his head down. The traumas of the past several months weighed heavily on him. Slowly, the crew onboard the Africa Mercy started to coax him out of hiding. His spirit started to lift as he saw how people cared for him and protected him from harm.
The transformation was remarkable. Darius could be found playing the piano – with the largest grin on his face. He loved doing exercises and stretches.
A grateful Josephine has a special message for the donors who have helped pay for Darius’s care: “You are taking from your own salaries for us! May the Lord bless your hands and your salary, and may you have good health and a long life. You have truly blessed us!”
Darius’ transformation is complete as he sits in the ward and lifts his head high, singing a song he adapted to honor Mercy Ships:
“They will go to the ends of the earth,
Mercy Ships, Mercy Ships.
They will never perish,
Mercy Ships Mercy Ships.”

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Darius – six months before he became sick.

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Darius, after being released from the hospital – finally, almost healed from the Stevens-Johnson Syndrome.

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Darius often hides on his bed, and the light bothers his eyes. The scarring all over his skin is from the Stevens-Johnson Syndrome.

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Darius sits on his bed, not wanting to venture far out of his comfort zone.

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Darius takes comfort from nurse Nick while enjoying the fresh air on Deck 7.

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Every day, Darius goes out onto Deck 7 for some fresh air. The light hurts his eyes, but he loves the fresh air

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Darius tries to hide. Not being able to see in such a new environment is difficult for him.

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The crew managed to get Darius to come out of his shell and lifted his spirits.

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One of Darius’ favorite activities is stretching. He can be seen stretching up high – with a large smile on his face.

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Darius also became good friends with photographer JJ Tiziou.

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JJ takes Darius up to play the crew piano. Darius has a strong love for music.

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Darius leaves the ship. Even though the sun is bright for his eyes, he finds freedom in being able to walk out of the hospital.

Impressions of first two weeks

Wow, two weeks are past already! On the one hand it feels like I have just arrived, and on the other hand it feels like I have been here forever.
One of the first thoughts that pop into my mind as I think about these two past weeks are how blessed I am to experience the Mercy Ships. As I talk to different people here, I figure out that there are many different ways in which people came to Mercy ships. For me it just kind of happened. It wasn't like I put a lot of thought into it, or hoped and expected very much. Other people have been planning and praying and thinking about their trip for two years. We all stay different lenghts too. Some people stay two months, some people stay two years. There is one family on board who has stayed here for twenty five years already! We are all different ages and at different stages in life. Children, just out of highschool, college students, just out of college, couples, parents, those whose children are grown up already. We all come from different parts of the world. Texans get poked fun of a lot, but there are quite a few of them on board. Canadians and Dutch people are also very well represented. I discovered the other night another nurse who had also lived in Chilliwack for a year. Another guy close to my age is planning on going to Trinity Western in Langley in the fall. One of the great things on board is discovering how small this world is.
My impressions of Africa itself are many, but hard to describe. Often at home you think of Africa as people dying of hunger, confirmed by horror pictures. That is not the Africa that I encountered. When I went to the market, which is a great but overwhelming experience, I discovered that also in Africa there is a distinction between homeless people and the rest. And it seems like there are less of them here in Lome than there are in Vancouver. The warmth of the African people is another aspect which I love about Africa. They accept you and offer you their friendship without worrying about who you are. They show their love without restraints. Another aspect that struck me was that the African people themselves can't tell where somebody else comes from. I am friends with one of the African ladies who lives on board, but she is originally from Liberia. So she does not know the French or the Awi language. But when we went to the market, or to a hospital on land, many people assumed she could translate for me, but she was just as language crippled as I am.
There are many more experiences which totally amazed me, but they are too many to all write about in one blog. Often when I finish writing an email to one friend, I find myself writing an email with totally different information to another friend, because there is so much to tell. I will keep trying to keep you all updated! I would love to show pictures of my market adventure, but I am too scared that my camera will get stolen. And pictures of cool experiences like visiting the University Hospital or the Special Needs School are not allowed :( Thank you so much for reading my blog, and for all the prayers!

My work uniform!

The pool I fell in love with, it is at the fanciest hotel in town, four dollars for a ticket

The US Navy ship that was docked behind us for a couple of days