Packing Up Is Hard to Do

The last few weeks of a field service is a change of activity and intensity.  The Hope Center, Dental and Eye Clinics have to be closed down and packed into containers. The Hospital and all supporting operation have to be made ready to sail.
In the supply department, every shelf had to be packed tight to prevent movement while on the sail.  Every shelf was bolted in place.  Others were taken apart and stored in the hold containers.
Each of these containers had to be packed to prevent movement of materials during the sail.
We used a lot of straps, plastic fencing and wire ties to secure everything.

In Central supply, all the movable shelving were bolted in place.  Each shelf  was secured.  Once we completed this task, no more supplies could be taken.
All computers and equipment were taken down, boxed and stored in a secure place.

Two of the normal storage containers had to be emptied and contents stored in other containers so that the equipment from the eye clinic and the dental clinic could be packed up.




The entire hold area  was cleared out and secured prior to the sail.

All the equipment and facilities on the dock have to be packed up.  This includes the admission, outpatient, and physio therapy tents as well as fork trucks and  Land Rovers.  In preparation for all this work, teams of volunteers from all over the world come up just to help with the packup.  It's an amazing act of selfless service.  Imagine traveling to Africa, for the purpose of packing boxes,  cleaning and taking down tents, moving a lot of heavy equipment around.  Well, these volunteers do it with lots of energy and enthusiasm.

In the last week, there are patients who are not quite ready to go home.  They have to be transferred to a local hospital in the care of doctors who have worked alongside Mercy Ship doctors.  Mercy Ships provides things like food, dressings, irrigation fluids.  One patient needed to stay on a liquid diet for six weeks, so we provided cases of Ensure for this patient.  In Africa, hospitals do not provide meals for their patients.  That is the job of families.  Some of our patients come from Brazzaville or up country and do not have any family in Pointe Noire, so Mercy ships provides for these needs.

The docks look very different when the tents are down.  It's not just tents, it's electrical systems, air conditioners, flooring (from pallets and treated lumber).  Everything has to be organizes so that it ca be set up again in the next country.
The next country was going to be a return to Guinea, however there has been an outbreak of Ebola in that country.  Mercy Ships determined the risk was too high to go into Guinea and will now be going to Benin in August.

Sometimes not everything goes according to plan.  This container was being moved by Port Authority when the dock sunk under the front wheel of the T-Rex lift.  No one was injured and the Port Operations brought in a crane to upright the equipment and then repaired the dock.








One of the hard parts of the packup is saying goodbye to so many friends.  We have learned that a good send off is healthy and we wave to people as they leave for the airport.

Eventually the sun set on our time in Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo.  We're thankful the experiences, the friendships, and opportunity to serve in a wonderful community who brings hope and healing to the world's forgotten poor.

Chuck and Debbie

The numbers

The Africa Mercy has been in the port of Pointe Noire, Congo since August.  As this field service starts to wind down, I thought it would be interesting to see some of the numbers.

These statistics are the number of procedures done from August 2013-April 2014

 Maxillofacial : 823

Reconstructive plastic surgery:  524

Orthopedic surgery:  373

General surgery:  495

Total  surgical procedures:  4,902

:
Dental:  18,123 procedures

Ophthalmology procedures:  1,931, including 907 cataract surgeries.

The more extensive surgeries have ended.  The ship will be leaving Congo soon, so the surgeries are for patients that will need little follow-up care.  So they've been doing general surgeries like cleft palate and hernia surgery.  I talked to one surgeon who had just finished her first day operating on the ship.  She told me that she had never seen a large hernia.  Small problems become big problems when access to health care is so difficult.

Debbie

Health training in Congo

Do you believe that basic medical care is a human right?  Wouldn't it be wonderful if everyone had access to health care?  Wouldn't it be a blessing if the Africa Mercy wasn't needed?  That is why Mercy Ships provides a lot of education. I want to tell you some of what I've learned about the training here in Congo.

Keith Thomson came from the UK with ten anesthesiologists.  This is significant.  That's more anesthesiologists than are in the country of Congo.

Congo has operating rooms with equipment, unlike most of West Africa.

This is a great way that Mercy Ships partners with the area hospitals. They sponsor training for nurses who work in operating rooms in the local hospitals. They work with small groups to give hands-on training.  They use training dummies to show how to use tubes for airways.  They show techniques for spinal blocks.  They talk about hard cases, and discuss how to lessen blood loss.

some on-board training

Other health related training takes place in the admission tent on the dock.  The day crew that the ship hires has 4 days of classes each week to learn about  patient care, disease treatment and prevention.  Two nurses teach and give tests in English.  My friend Chris says they are excited to learn, and ask lots of questions.

There are classes in the wards on the ship.  Twelve nurses from Congo have completed training.  Hannah, one of the nurses involved in this training, tells how the women here are so eager to learn.  Some of them who live in Point Noire take a two-hour taxi ride to get here in the morning. They go to class and learn on the ward before going home to their families, and then off to work a night shift at the local hospital.  They are excited to put in practice some of the techniques they have learned from the nurses on board.

local nurses training in the hospital

They learn that good nutrition makes a huge difference in healing.  Mercy Ships also runs the Food for Life program in Dolsie, which is about a 4 hour drive from the ship.

Food for life class

Twenty-five students have recently graduated and have gone back to their villages to train others.

It's a very comprehensive program.  They learn everything from planting, mulching and composting to how to market and sell what they've produced.

I was impressed to learn that they make soy milk, yogurt, and mango preserves.  The trainers from the food for life program now go to the villages to help the graduates pass on what they have learned.  The center in Dolsie will continue to be used for training after the ship leaves Congo.

The tall guy in the back graduated from Cornell

It really is amazing how much education there has been in this field service.  The hospital closes soon, and this week they are finishing a course in trauma care.  Even after the ship leaves, they will sponsor a course for biomedical engineering training.

Debbie

On The Dock

I've recently been considering how we've adjusted to life here.  Things we thought were unusual when we came last year are, well, normal.
Last week's Thursday night community meeting was a dock party. That's when we have a picnic dinner on the dock, followed by music and speakers.  So we enjoyed our hot dogs while talking to a newly arrived dentist from Switzerland.  The African band started playing and people are up and dancing!  Kids join in the conga line and some of the nurses bring patients down the gangway from the hospital ward.  There are women in hospital gowns dancing- and yes- I saw one women dancing while holding her catheter bag.  We then listened to two speakers- one from New Zealand and the other from Holland.  They both had French translators for the African day crew.  It was a great evening.

dock party

On Friday night we had fun at a barn dance.  No barn- just the dock, and led by an Australian nurse with music from a CD.  Actually, in Australia it's sometimes called a bush dance.  We had line dances and circle dances with adult crew, teens and kids.  We danced in the hot evening air- yes, it's hot here even when the sun goes down.  We were so sweaty that our hands stuck together when we clapped.  We took a break from the dancing to go up the gangway, check in with the Gurkha guards, and grab something to drink from the dining hall.  Then we were all back out on the dock for some more dancing.  

Debbie

Celebrating Easter on the Africa Mercy

The preparation for Easter is done so well on the Africa Mercy, that some people even plan their times of service with Mercy Ships so that they can participate in the Easter season.  We missed Easter last year in Guinea, and looked forward to this experience in the Congo.

On the Africa Mercy, preparations started back on Ash Wednesday which included an Ash Wednesday service before work.  Each week we were reminded to make this season of Lent a meaningful time in preparation for Easter.

Beginning with Palm Sunday, there were daily events to help the crew prepare for Easter.  The Sunday Community meeting and worship service included some excellent teaching about Palm Sunday with a study of the Gospel texts about Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The International lounge was filled with palms which were collected from local palm trees.  The entire room smelled of palms.

Monday and Tuesday nights showed the movie The Greatest Story Ever Told. This 1960 era movie never really caught on, and there are much better movies produced since then.

On Wednesday night, we watched a DVD showing of J.S.Bach's St Matthew's Passion.  This beautiful work was performed in Holland, and is sung in German.  Fortunately, we had English sub titles.  Our German speakers on board even appreciated the English subtitles.  The performance was wonderful. The emotion and musical arrangements were beautifully performed and it provided the audience with three hours of time to reflect on Matthew's text.  Apparently, this is a tradition in some parts of Europe.  One of our crew mates from Holland said he grew up listening to this.  It was a subject of conversation for much of the week.  It was certainly a highlight for me.

Thursday was Maundy Thursday.  There were three main activities.  The first was a foot washing taking place on one of the upper decks.  This was followed by a time in the upper room.  This was the Queen's lounge set up with the stations of the cross.  It provided an atmosphere to reflect and pray.  It culminated with the Lord's supper.
The third area was the Garden of Gethsemane.  The international lounge was transformed into a garden setting where we were encourage to pray and reflect.  This area was open for this purpose all night long until Good Friday.

Good Friday was a ship holiday, so we had a morning service in the Garden of Gethsemane.
In the Evening, the movie  The Passion of the Christ was shown. (This was the Mel Gibson movie from 10 years ago.)  It was a sober reflection on the depth of Christ's suffering.

Saturday had some events for children including Easter Egg coloring and an animated movie.

With all this preparation, we could not wait for Easter.
At 5:45AM we gathered on the top deck for a Sunrise service.  It was cool and windy on deck 8 which was very pleasant.  Later at 8:30 we celebrate in the International lounge (no longer a Garden) for a worship service including a bell choir from the school academy, children's choir, and interpretive dance as well as joyful singing and a message.  During communion, I joined  with six other men in a small ensemble to sing three wonderful songs we had been practicing.

At 10:30 a spectacular brunch was offered.  This was a choice of either breakfast or dinner  (or both for some) with a lot of homemade breads and deserts.  We chose breakfast omelets and enjoyed the dinner leftovers in the evening.  

In the afternoon, there was an Easter Story for children with Resurrection eggs and an egg hunt.
Debbie reported back that the children were told how many eggs they could collect for themselves and then they had to help others find their quota.  They had a great time helping each other find those chocolate eggs!

Easter Monday was a ship holiday, and while there were some hospital functions requiring attention, the day was mostly a holiday.  In the evening several crew families opened their cabins for open houses  (or as one crew member called it a cabin crawl).

Certainly, this type of extensive Easter celebration is unique.  For me it was the most time I've ever spent in reflection and preparation for Easter and one I feel privileged to have experienced.

We hope that wherever you are in the world, you had time to reflect and enjoy the celebration of Christ's Resurrection.

Chuck

This was the entrance to the Upper Room.
The picture on the right was taken the following afternoon, so there is a lot of light coming through the windows.  The evening was much darker with only candle light (although we used electric candles on the ship)  We would move from one station to the next at an individual pace and at the end take communion.

This is the garden as it was modified for Good Friday.

A Weight Off His Shoulders

Jean Bosco is a farmer. Just north of Congo’s capital city of Brazzaville, fields bear the mark of his honest labor – hectares of cassava, gardens of blooming eggplant and tomato, and lime and mango trees providing welcoming shade from the African sun.

Jean and his wife, Carine, worked hard to enjoy life with their six children. They enjoyed simple prosperity and stability . . . until a mysterious growth appeared on Jean’s back in 2003. What Jean calls his maladie was, in fact, a lipoma – a benign, soft-tissue tumor composed of body fat. Left untreated, a lipoma can reach giant proportions.

Jean explains:  “When my malady started, it was barely noticeable. But after three years, it began to rise from my shoulders. I became afraid; if I were to die, my family would suffer greatly,” Jean said.

Driven by concern for the well-being of his wife and children, Jean saved enough money for a hospital visit in 2009. But the appointments, bloodwork, and medicine quickly emptied his pockets, and he had to return home without surgery.

Nevertheless, Jean refused to give up. Day after day, he worked to save more money, desperately hoping for healing. Exhausted by the shifting, heavy growth, his work suffered and his fields’ productivity decreased. His family now found itself in dire straits. “At that time,” Jean says, “I abandoned myself to prayer that God would help me.”

Help arrived in God’s creative, unusual way. In 2013, Jean’s lipoma ruptured and began to bleed. He had no choice but to seek emergency medical care in Brazzaville. He found himself once again on the doorstep of surgery but without the means to pay for it. While in the city, he learned of a hospital ship docked in the Congo. “Go to Mercy Ships,” a friend told him. “The surgeons will help you for free.” Jean was amazed, and he wasted no time in traveling to the coastal city of Pointe Noire.

By the time Jean boarded the Africa Mercy, the watermelon-shaped lipoma protruding from his back weighed 20 pounds! Even in extreme cases, a lipoma usually reaches only 8 to 11 pounds. Under the expert hands of South African volunteer Dr. Tertius Venter, the massive lipoma was removed in a two-hour surgery.

A few days later, resting comfortably on his back in his hospital bed, Jean grinned and said, “My doctor thinks I’m a machine! I am too happy to feel pain. It has been ten years since I could rest on my back.”

Jean is overjoyed with the gift of health he has received from Mercy Ships. “What could I give Mercy Ships in return?” he asks. “What am I to say to God for what He has done for me? This ship goes beyond. This ship is in God’s truth. All I can give is ‘thank you.’”

Now, Jean Bosco – a farmer, a father, and a husband – can return to his family . . . without his terrible burden. His easy smile lights up as he envisions his homecoming. “Imagine your favorite fútbol team has just won the World Cup,” he says, “…that is exactly how my family is celebrating as we speak. There is a very perfect joy that is waiting for me and mine when I get home.”

Jean’s smile and easygoing nature reflect a satisfaction with his life’s work and his faith. Now, with the free gift of surgery, he will be better able to care for his farm and his family.

The day of Jean’s surgery has arrived. “Since 2003, while I had this tumor, I could not lie down or sleep on my back, ever.” He is eager for that to change.

The watermelon-shaped lipoma growing from Jean’s back weighed an amazing 20 pounds! The majority of extreme lipoma cases typically reach 8 to 11 pounds.

“Because it was so big, it always bothered me. I could not work hard, as it would exhaust me too quickly. I have always been good at keeping the welfare of my family in equilibrium, but my malady made our lives very difficult,” Jean says.

Jean’s surgery and healing has been miraculously swift, and  Jean is eager to get home: “My family is so excited to see me now […]. There is a very perfect joy that is waiting for me and mine at home,” Jean says in an interview on his last day in the hospital.

Would you look at those shoulder blades! Jean descends the gangway of the Africa Mercy with a grateful and triumphant spirit. “When I look at Mercy Ships, I feel the presence of God,” Jean says. “Those who can support Mercy Ships do not have to hesitate. This place is so wonderful, so in truth. Thank you, Mercy Ships.”

Clem, the Communications Team Translator, spends some time with Jean before he leaves. The two Congolese formed a great friendship while Jean was onboard the Africa Mercy.

“When I arrived in Pointe Noire a few weeks ago, I crossed paths with a policeman on the street. He took one look at my back and asked me where I was headed. I told him, ’to the Mercy Ships.’ He smiled and told me, ‘You are in good hands there, my friend.’”  Today, as a healed Jean leaves the hospital, it is plain to see that the policeman was right. 

Written by Grace Antonini

Edited by Nancy Predaina

Photos by Ruben Plomp and Michelle Murrey

Lots of babies

It seems like everywhere I go, I see babies.

Babies strapped to the backs of nurses, African style.

Babies in the patient wards.

                                                            Little babies in really big beds.

Babies in the orphanage

                                                       

The nurses are calling this pic "baby shower."

In my spare time, I've been knitting and praying for the precious babies that are coming into our lives. Grandbabies are coming!  Maybe that's why I see babies everywhere.

Debbie

God in prison

Have you ever heard people say "Everything happens for a reason?"

Do you know the Bible story about  Zacchaeus?  I learned the song when I was little- how Jesus looked up and saw him in a tree?  Jesus was actively looking for Zacchaeus.  He knew his need, and it was no mistake that Jesus found him in that tree.  His life was changed by his encounter with Jesus.

I believe that God is actively involved in our circumstances. He uses people and circumstances to bring us to Him.

This is a story that comes from Ray.  Ray is the electrician on the ship, and on Saturday mornings, he takes people with him to visit people in the local prison.

Serenety is a Chinese woman who works retail in the ship shop.  We have more than 30 nationalities on the ship, but we rarely have crew from China.  She speaks Mandarin.

No pictures from prison!
This is Serenety at the deaf school

Serenety went with Ray's group to the prison, where she met a man from China.  He speaks no French, but he does speak Mandarin.  Can you imagine what it would be like for a Chinese man in prison in Congo?

Serenety went back with Ray's group, and gave this man a  Chinese Bible. She eventually contacted his family in China. Friends of Serenety helped her explain God's forgiveness. This man met Jesus, and his life is changed.  

God uses ordinary people to do some pretty amazing things, doesn't he?

Debbie

Working on Deck 3

It's just really different working here.
We're in Africa, but we're not really in Africa.

A funny looking hospital

The hospital wards are in the next hall- across from the lab and supply. So it sounds a lot different.
We hear the praise band going from ward to ward with African drums, guitars and singing.

the praise band in a patient ward

When Chuck brings supplies to the ward, there are people everywhere. There are patients in beds that line the walls, doctors checking and making their rounds, nurses and caregivers treating the patients and therapists working with patients in the halls and stairwells.
Chuck has found that people have trouble saying his name. It kind of sounds like "Chulck." They ask, "like Chuck Norris?"  Ohh....Chuck Norris!  They understand that!

morning rounds in the ward

 Chuck had a patient in the general surgery ward challenge him to a game of connect four.  They are serious about their games.

Connect four, anyone?

There is a lot of music.  Not like the lab at home, where we had the radio playing.  Besides the praise band, there are always people singing in the halls.There are African day workers singing as they mop the floors. Chuck has followed the VVF ladies (the women with childbirth injuries) as they walk down the hall singing. They have beautiful voices.

dancing, always dancing

Sometimes we hear crying children.  The lab is next to the x-ray department, and we can hear some of their unhappy customers.

The African day workers bring specimens to the lab from the admission tent on the dock.  One gives us our daily French lesson.  (I'll never be able to speak French)

Inside the admission tent 

People are constantly touring the hospital halls.  Some are official tours to people from all over to see  how this unique hospital ship works.  There are always new nurses and new crew learning their jobs.  They need to know where to bring us specimens, how to sign up to give blood and when to call us when the lab is closed.  Can you imagine working somewhere where the staff is constantly changing?

Mercy Ships advertises this as " the hardest job you'll ever love."

Debbie

Cerative physical therapy

We have a great team of physical therapists on board.  They do incredible work.

Earlier in the field service (before we got here) they worked with the orthopedic patients. Lots of bones need surgery and subsequent therapy.

The therapists do a lot of their work in a tent on the dock outside of the ship.  You can see the sides of the tent in the  pictures.  Patients who have surgery return as outpatients for therapy for a long period of time.

Right now the therapists are working a lot with the patients who have had plastic surgery.  Many have had severe burns or other injuries that the plastic surgeons work to repair.  Those patients are in the hospital for a long time as they heal and regain movement.  We often see the therapists working with those patients in the halls or the stairwells.

I think it's quite a testimony that the littlest of the patients greet the physical therapists with joy.  Don't forget that therapy is quite painful!  They seem to know that they are being helped.

The therapists have to be pretty creative.  In addition to instructing patients in different languages, they also do all their own casting.  (I understand they don't do that at home.)  One therapist even made a temporary prosthetic leg.

We have a bit of creativity happening in our cabin.  Chuck  has a shoulder problem and brought his pulley and bands for the exercises given him by his physical therapist at home.  I think he has the best equipped closet on the ship!  So twice a day he does his own PT. (pain and torture)

Gym in a closet

 Debbie