Nursing Friends

Anne from Sweden, Roomie Julie from Minnesota, and Caroline from Canada doing a happy dance after eating some real food~ some much needed double chocolate brownies!! yum. Simple pleasures :)

Slimy Snails!

Mercy Ship's Community Development teams are teaching a group of local promising, but struggling woman the art of bee, snail, and rabbit keeping as a means to start a local buisness of their own. This is a project I'll be checking out in the next few weeks and am hoping to get involved in! Their HUGE!!! There are TONS of them!!!

Roomie

This is one of my fabulous roommates. I met her back in March at the Mercy Ships course I took and we both just happened to be put together as bunkmates here! As we both work as ward nurses and both have the same name we have already been given nicknames. She is Stephanie ObibenEE (word for black in Twee) and I am Stephanie ObrunE (word for white)! It works out quite nicely as the locals like to shout the obvious out to us anyways, ha. The wrap skirt I have on is one I had made from the the fabric I found at the local market- I should fit in now right ;)

GHANA GAMES tournament teammates

patients....patience

another week. time is playing tricks on me- i feel like i've been here a long time, yet the week went by in a flash. God is good. I came here to give, give, give... yet in just two short weeks the patients on the ward have given and taught ME SO MUCH. The picture I included this time, is the "after" picture of the woman in the last entry, that recieved surgery on a Mercy Ship. I've never met this woman, got her picture of the M.S. website, but it is a perfect pictation of the transformation that is taking place here, its amazing. This deformity is more common in this area of the world than anywhere else, and no one knows exactly why? Because of this deformity and many others we see on the ward, they are treated as total outcasts to their societies, not wanted by family, not given work to provide for themselves, as many think their deformities were caused by evil spirits. This culture is very much into Animism. Over the past two weeks that i've gotten to know the patients staying with us, they have completely melted my heart. I worked several night shifts this past week and looking over the ward in the middle of the night, it made me laugh- looks like a M.A.S.H combat zone with everyones bandaged head, arms, and legs! Unlike my job at Children's in Austin, the patients tend to have a longer hospital duration time, which i'm really enjoying as i can get to know them better. Went for a walk in the morning and ran into my blind pt (Janlop) i told you about last time. He saw me coming 20 ft away :) He was just coming back to say thanks!

Some of my favorites... Solomon~ who smiles even when he sleeps, Edward~ who wakes up every morning to meticulous check out his trach site and new nose, Agnes~ the 80 year old who randomly sits up and does a little jiggy when she's happy, and tries to drive a tricycle everytime we take her out on the deck for fresh air, Kate~ who gives me a BIG thumbs up EVERYTIME i look her way to see if she's doing okay, Bernice who insists on calling me her "motha" (mother):), and Samuel who could hardly talk or eat b/c of one of the largest facial tumors Dr Gary has seen in his 20 years here, who when he got his bandages off the other day, burst out with tons of questions for me and preachin' it! ha These people are incredible- with so little, they have the spirit of a giant. Many come timid from years of social isolation and leave a different person- singing and laughing, smiling. The humbleness and simpleness of these people hits me to the core everytime i look at them, everytime. I look forward to going to work at this place.

I think the biggest thing I'm learning here so far is what patience looks like. I look at the patience these people show day after day, contently sitting in their hospital beds waiting to heal, from huge wounds~ physically/emotionally/spiritually, and it makes me realize what an instant gratification person i can be in my own life. I want the world to work around MY timing! What i want, when i want it. These people put me to shame and i'm thankful for it. I can feel myself struggling inside with certain issues of patience in my life, but being here i know i am being forced to work on them and God is faithful to do his perfect will for my life. I just need to trust in God's timing, not mine. It took alot of passion to get here, I don't want it to become mediocre just because I'm here now.

Speaking of timing issues... Africa Mercy is scheduled to be finished and meet us in Tema, Ghana this Feburary...but there is a chance that for any number of reasons i'm sure, it might not be (it has a long history of being delayed). They are extremely hopeful this time, but if it is not, the ship I'm on now, The Anastasis is not able to sail or have passengers after mid Feburary under the law (too old!) People joke around here the ship wouldn't sink from the bottom, but from the TOP....and its true. The other night we were all sitting in the dining hall eating dinner and part of the ceiling started caving in from someone taking a shower above, and just last night i found a leak in our ceiling about 1 foot away from my bed! and when I told my roommate about it today she said.."oh just put a diaper over that spot, thats what we usually do, not worth fixing b/c we are moving soon!" yikes! haha The point is. I would really love to continue with Mercy Ships in Liberia in Feburary, so please be praying for the completion of the ship or we will all be sent home!

As for what i did with myself for the rest of the week, lets see...tried to go to a supermarket Monday but it was closed for Ramadan. The trip wasn't a lost cause though b/c it was an incredible sight to see hundreds of African Muslims flooding out of the local mosque all in their finest white linens. After that I spent the afternoon off the ship helping put together housing units for rabbits and snails that local woman will be taught how to start a business with. Tuesday learned how to play Cricket and almost got my head chopped off by the ball!!! Wednesday got to go to Sister of Charity Orphanage- one that was started by Mother Teresa. The nuns really do wear those blue and white sarai's wrapped around their little bodies!!! 2 rooms held 50 children under the age of two!!!! Only 6 nuns to run it- pretty well run for that i must say. I was exhausted from playing with em' after 3 hrs, i don't know how they do it. no idea. A little 2 year old kid with two different size legs just wanted me to tickle him...for hours! ha. he had an amazing grin :) They are beautiful children. We were not allowed to take pictures, which is probably for the best, but one mental picture will never leave me from that day- six tiny girls in dresses sitting on a little bench in a row, with the nun kneeling down, lining up the six bowls and six spoons by each one, taking her hand to feed them a spoonful of cereal one by one down the row, and then starting at the beginning again til it was all gone. All shared one cup filled with water. Snacks are bits of bread they are expected to learn early how to hold and eat themselves.
Today, finally got my body back on schedule after a few night shifts, went to church and a local wedding, and later we had "Ghana Games" and a Barbeque on the Aft deck. My team is in the picture above. I didn't look at our score, i'm pretty sure it wasn't worth looking at. ha! But it sure was fun!

As for this week, not much planned. Will go observe the mobile dental and eye clinics off ship, as well as the maternity ward they are building on Wednesday. With the arrival of a new surgeon we will be starting a bunch of thyroidectomy's (Goiter pt's) this week! Gotta go study up on that!
Miss you guys :)

My First Week!

Its hard to know where to begin... I think I've spent the majority of this week in some state of shock! The dynamics of this ship are incredibly interesting. There is over 300 staff, that include 35 different nationalities. I'm not even sure how many floors there are on this ship as it is a giant maze with lots of dead ends and secret stairways. I'm constantly turning around! I live in cabin 7C (near bottom, front of ship) with 5 other girls; 2 from the U.S., 1 canadian, 1 New Zelander, and 1 from Switzerland that is leaving this Sunday. Most are ward or OR nurses, and one a dental equipment sterilizer.

On work days, my day starts around 0630 with breakfast and off to work by 0700. The nurses give report to the oncoming shift and we pray for the upcoming day and patients together. The day shift works 7am-2pm, evening shift 2pm-9pm and night shift 9pm-7am. We work 5 shifts one week and 6 the next, getting every other weekend off. The ward is on level B, as well as the lab, X-ray, CT, 2 OR rooms, engine room, bank, post office etc... Because we don't have any place to store blood, the lab has a list of ship mates with their blood type on the wall and if a pt in the OR should need some, a matching ship mate is paged overhead to the OR room to give blood! Its a walking blood bank :)

Eye/Cataract patients are quick, easy surgeries and go home the same day. Yesterday I got to take care of a sweet 60 year old man that was blind in both eyes. Because there are so many here in Ghana with cataracts, in order to help more, the surgeons fix only 1 eye so there is time to cover more patients. I got up early this morning to take him down to the mobile eye clinic were they removed his eye patch. He sat there for a few seconds and then we said...Can you see!? and he got a huge smile on his face and said yes! He started shaking all of our hands and laughing. We then took him to the chart and as where before he could only see the very top letter E....he could now read all the way to the 2nd to last row! It was amazing to see. He left to walk home on his own!! The ship's name is Anastasis which means "Resurrection" in Greek, where the ship was built. It really carries out its meaning, huh!

For major surgeries, the patient comes to admissions the night before to be oriented and sleep over until they go to the OR in the morning. There is alot to be covered during orientation for these patients as many have never seen a hospital, toilets, a ship, or white people before!! There are usually always two surgeons on board. They group patient's surgery's based on what the visiting surgeon can preform. For the next few weeks, we are doing mostly Maxillary-Facial surgeries... this includes removal of HUGE benign tumors, burn scars, cleft lip/palate patients. Although wound care, treatments, medications are mostly the same, the diagnosis are extremely different! For many of these facial tumors to be fixed, they have to take out a part of their infected maxillary bones (jaw), and replace it with a bone graft from the iliac crest (hip bone) or rib, and then take skin graft from the thighs!! ouch!!! If these tumors are left untreated, many would suffocate to death as it cuts of their airways or are not able to eat.

These patients are TROOPERS, even with huge dressings, extensive wound care, nasogastric tubes, and catheters, many are fine the 2nd day post-op with tylenol or motrin!! In the states... I gaurantee we would be dishing out loads of morphine and codiene!!! For the ones that don't speak English (about 1/4) we have translators at the bedside to help out. The two other main languages they speak are Ga and Twee. In the afternoon we are given time to take our patients out on the Aft deck to play and get some fresh air. I can't really say that this port is very senic... the port side consists of huge barge machinery and big, metal containers for exporting... i think its mainly rice and cement. I have been told if you look over the railing at night on the ocean side, you can see local naked Ghanians swimming in the water with rice bags they have stolen from the shipyard, ha!!! There are hundreds of fish that hover by the ship at night! I am told that near Christmas we will move onto more plastic surgery, cleft lip, cleft palate and VVF (Vesico-Vaginal Fistula) patients.

I am feeling rather comfortable on the unit, it feels good to know all my preparation was not in vain! Working with nurses from Sweden, England, Australia, Canada, Germany, etc. i'm sure will keep things interesting.. as everyone has a their cultural preferred way to preform tasks, even outfits... they still wear pleated dresses and skirt uniforms in many European countries!!! And because all medical supplies we use on the ship are donated and sometimes ancient...we are constantly having to figure out how that particular piece of equipment from that specific country works! crazy.

Today I went into town for the first time as well. Walked about 30 minutes to the marketplace. It is a FEAST for the eyes, nose, stomach! Smoked fish heads staring at you, woman frying plantains, pig noses, cow back skin, mashing tomatoes, carrying platters of fruit with huge knives on their heads!!!!!!!!! Oh and they have a stand where they sell snails in their shells bigger than my hand. They lady had to constantly pick them off the ground and put them back onto the table :) Many of the stands consist of walls of beautiful, bright and intricate patterned fabric. I found some nice blue fabric and hired a local woman to make me a wrap skirt. On the way home, I had some fresh pineapple and a coconut, water & pulp... delicious! cost 75 cents :) even better. I will try to capture some of this stuff on my camera in the future... they want you to build a relationship with them first. Also, not able to take pictures on the nursing ward, only when we take them to the upper deck, There are a few patients I already want you to meet. I'll try to get them on here next time :)

My big Friday night plans consist of the nursing girls going into town to the gas station (local hangout and night club) to have a pizza party. I'm told this will be interesting! I have no doubts, ha! This coming Wednesday I go to the Sister's of Charity HIV baby orphange to just "play". I'm having a blast :) I downloaded some photos on the link to the left to give you a tour of the ship. I had a ton more but haven't figured out how to get past the max megabit limit per month yet.. i'm working on it

Love
steph