Lasting Impact in Cameroon

On our return home from Cameroon, we spent three days in Belgium.  It was a great way to re-enter the western world.  Even after five months, it does take some adjustment to return and process all that we've experienced.  We stayed in the beautiful city of Brussels, and also took side trips to Antwerp and Ghent.

One of the highlights was visiting Saint Bavo's Cathedral and seeing the restored alter piece created in the 15th century by Flemish artists Jan and Hubert van Eyck.  The center of the piece is call the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb.  It is taken from a scene from the Biblical book of Revelation where Christ is represented as the Lamb that was slain.  This lamb is standing because Christ is risen.  His life giving blood is pouring out into a chalice.  Surrounding the Lamb are worshipers from throughout the world.

The group at the bottom left represents people from all over the world.  Today it would look a lot more diverse that the 15th century European perspective of people groups, but would certainly include people from Cameroon.  Thousands of Cameroonians were impacted by Mercy Ships during the time time we were in the country. Many not only found tangible hope and healing, but also came to understand that life really does get better and that life in relationship with Jesus really makes a difference.

During the time in Cameroon, Mercy ships provided 30,286 surgical screenings.
10,780 patients received dental care and dental health training.
There were 2,746 surgeries performed on the ship.  They were in the following areas:
General surgery:  237
Women's health (obstetric fistula, etc)  278
Orthopedics 82
Plastics (primarily burn victims)  165
Ophthalmic  1542 (primarily cataract surgery)
Maxillofacial  442 (primarily tumor removal, cleft lip/pallet)


In addition 1,475 local health care providers (doctors, surgeons, nurses) received some type of medical training so that the ongoing health care can continue in the country.
There were 89 different medical capacity partners.

There were about 270 day crew, local Cameroonians who worked on the ship.  They received practical work experience and were helped to create resumes for future work.  Many received certificates for specific qualifications making them more employable in the future.  And of course there were many impacted by the mercy ministries to hospitals, schools, orphanages and churches which were all strengthened and helped along the way.

We went to Cameroon simply to serve and be a part of this work.  We left truly blessed by our time there.  To those who have read this blog, and taken an interest in the work of Mercy Ships, thank you.

Chuck

Wrapping it up

Yes, change is in the air.  Tomorrow is the last day of surgery.  I wanted to show you pictures of baby Paul, who is probably the patient who has been here the longest.  He was too small for his cleft lip and palate surgeries.  As you can see from the before and after pictures, he is now all smiles!

Nurses are cleaning the hospital wards, getting ready for the ship to sail.  The pack up team is here,  seven people from Holland, England, and the US, who come every year to help at the end of the field service.  They have been washing the admission and outpatient tents on the dock, and are taking  the tents down today.  That's hot work!

We're saying goodbye to lots of friends.  It's a Mercy Ship tradition to go down to the dock to say goodbye, then everyone waves as the van leaves for the airport.

Mercy ministries is also wrapping up.  This is a picture of my last visit to the  Hope Center.  Maurice always leads the "cadeau" song, which is French for gift.  One cadeau this week was Mama Debbie.  I like being a gift!

Debbie

Celebration of Sight

Cataract surgery is over for this field service in Cameroon.  Cataracts are very thick in Africa, because of the bright sun and because they just keep getting bigger with little available surgery to cure them.  Dr Glenn trains local surgeons,as well as surgeons who can come to the ship.

Every Friday, patients come back for post surgical follow up.  After the check ups, they hold a Celebration of Sight.

There is music, dancing (of course) and patient testimonies. I love hearing the patient's stories, of lives changed and hope restored.

There is Bible teaching, with an emphasis on thankfulness.  It's not thankfulness to the surgeons, nurses, or to Mercy Ships, but thankfulness to God, who made it all possible.

Debbie

African Fabric

Yes, I love fabric.  I love to see the different patterns and the bold bright colors of Africa.

When we were in Guinea, most women wore traditional African dress.  The fabric is beautiful, with intricate patterns.  Women buy fabrics at the market, which are sold in 5-6 yard pieces.  That's about the amount needed for a dress, including a headscarf.  They take it to a tailor, who sews a custom made dress.

In Congo, in was similar in that women wore the traditional dress, but the fabric was different.  The prints were larger, and featured modern prints, like electric fans, high heel shoes, or even computer sticks as part of the fabric's pattern.

Here, in Cameroon, I was surprised to see little in the way of traditional dresses.  Most of the women wear very modern dresses, which are made with African style prints and fabrics.

Here on the ship, we had an African fashion show where the crew got to show off their African fabrics and styles.

And a blog about African fabric would not be complete without a picture of Crazy Scrubs Friday on the ship!

Debbie

On Deck 7

Every day, at 2:30, the patients come outside for some fresh air on deck 7.  The hospital is on deck 2.   Imagine, especially if you are from a rural village, what it would be like to be in a hospital ward on a ship.  With no windows!

They stay on deck 7 for about an hour, playing games and just hanging out.

This is right outside our cabin.  In fact, those are probably our windows in this picture.  If I have the day off, I sometimes go out and watch the beanbag toss.  Lately, I've been playing Uno with some of the patients. It's a good game to play when you don't understand each other's language!

Debbie

Ponseti Celebration

We were able to attend a celebration recognizing the Mercy ship program that treats children with club feet. The "Ponseti" method is the gold standard for treating club feet.  It consist of very minor surgery under local anaesthetic in which the Achilles tendon if cut so the foot can be positioned at a right angle to the leg. It is held in place by plaster casting while the tendon reattached itself. Later the child wears shoes connected with a brace.  The whole treatment takes years, so it is crucial that local doctors can continue this treatment after the ship leaves the country.
This is a great example of the medical capacity building that takes place when the Mercy ship comes to a country.

We learned about the treatment and heard testimonies from parents about their children. As always there was lots of music and dancing.

 Nick Veltjens trains local practitioners in club foot treatment.

Our friend Kalinda was demonstrating treatment techniques.  Treatment can take up to six years using braces.

In most of Cameroon, people don't know that club foot can be treated and children can grow up to live normal lives.  Now more children have real hope for the future.

Chuck

Blind school

The blind school and the deaf school are private schools in Douala that each have a special class.  In this school, it's a small class for blind students.  Lere and his team do a wonderful job with these kids.  Lere asks for volunteers to lead a song.  They come up one at a time, and Lere accompanies them on his guitar.  Notice in the picture that there is a child looking in the classroom from outside.  Sometimes there is a crowd outside the window!

The story was about God leading the Israelites with the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire.  These kids are good listeners.  Lere introduces us with our name and the country we are from.  And the kids will remember and be able to tell him our country when we come back.  We don't make a craft, but give them one already made to help them remember and tell the story.  We help them feel the craft.  I wish my French was better, but they seemed to understand.

Lere, Maurice and Thomas come every week to this class and bring volunteers from the ship with them.  They  know this small class very well!

Debbie

Routine, but not normal

We've been here for over three months now, and we have our routines.  For me, I usually go to the Hope Center once week to visit recovering patients.  On the way there in the van we are usually very chatty.  It's always a great group of people, and there are always new people to meet.

On the way back to the ship, it's quiet in the van.  We're all rather subdued.  For me, it's just a bit overwhelming.  We've just seen the patients, and we're all just looking out the windows at the streets of Douala.  We see cattle grazing out of dumpsters, crazy traffic, poverty.

I was also at a dress ceremony this week for the women who have had surgery for childbirth injuries. They receive a  beautiful new dress to represent a new start in a healed life.  I heard testimonies from women praising God for their healing.  These women have suffered, some  for eight, ten or fifteen years.  They have suffered from a condition that is non existent in our country, because everyone in our country has access to safe surgery.
It's not fair or just, is it?

My latest favorite author, N T Wright says, " Christians are called to leave behind, in the tomb of Jesus Christ, all that belongs to the brokenness and incompleness of the present world... That, quite simply, is what it means to be Christian: to follow Jesus Christ into the new world, God's new world, which he has thrown open to us."
We are called to bring God's kingdom to this world.
And that brings joy.

Debbie

A Day in Hospital Supply

One day I started a conversation with one of the Mercy Ships photographers as I was making some deliveries to the various hospital wards.  He started taking my picture as I went about my routine.  Apparently one turned out that he was willing to post and here it is. I was caught in the act of working.

All of the crew are volunteers and work full time. My hours are 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM with an hour lunch and rotating call for evenings and weekends.  Not a bad schedule.

We start each day with a group meeting so we are all caught up on the issues and priorities of the day, we divide up responsibilities and then pray before we start our work.
The priorities are the operating rooms and the wards.  We have some computerized storage cabinets but many are manual storage cabinets and shelves which we visually check each work day and restock as needed. This is usually finished in the mornings.  After that we handle other orders and other special requests.

One of the big challenges this year is implementing a new inventory software system.  There are always start up issues whenever an organization changes to a new system, and we have done a lot of problem solving and adjustments in the couple months I have been here. We are getting better at how to use this system more efficiently.

In addition to the Wards we get special orders from several other medical departments.  We also have to move and rotate supplies, restock our central area, and do cycle counts.  Because we get our supplies shipped from the USA or from The Netherlands, we never know when the next one will arrive.  We can be pretty sure they will be late.  It's never easy to get a container into an African port and get through customs.  When there are shortages we also get resupplied by people traveling to the ship as they bring an extra duffle bag packed full of medical supplies.

We recently finished our eye surgery. We were proud to say that we never had to cancel one surgery due to a supply shortage. As a result over 1500 Cameroonians who were blind can now see. 

Chuck

Small miracles

I was at the pool this afternoon, talking with two nurses and a pharmacist about two of our smallest patients.  One was a five year old with pneumonia, and the other was a baby with RSV.  Both of these children ended up on the ship at exactly the right time.

The oxygen and supplies showed up on the ship two days before anyone knew that they would be needed.  Because of the lack of medical care in their communities, neither child would have survived. Both are now doing well!   The baby with RSV will go home for a month to get stronger before she is admitted for her surgery.

We don't always understand God's miracles.There is a baby at the Hope Center who will not have surgery for her large facial tumor, because she would not survive the surgery.  They are treating her by trying to cut off the blood supply to the tumor.  The young mom is reassured that she is a good mother, doing all she can for her child.

Debbie

Limbe part 2

After our tour of the wildlife sanctuary we were eager to get out of the heat and spend the day at the beach.  This is one of the most beautiful beaches with very dark sand due to volcanic activity.  Mount Cameroon is near this region.  We saw a lot of hills around the area, but the clouds prevented a good clear of Mt Cameroon.

We arrived at a private beach visited by a lot of Mercy Ship crew.  The beach is owned by a hotel and restaurant.  While we awaited our lunch orders, we enjoyed some wonderfully refreshing water with good waves at low tide.  This was one of the cleanest beaches I have ever seen.  From the water we had beautiful views of mountains.

 We claimed a nice covered area with tables for lunch.  It was build over the waters and provided a good breeze and good view.



We had some well prepared barracuda along with fresh vegetables, potatoes and rice.

Everyone travels with lots of water,
 but a cold coke was really refreshing.

After lunch the tide came in and we were over the water.

After a little too much sun and a good burn that lasted most of the week, we returned home and made it in time for dinner.

The trip took us past a lot of banana plantations and other interesting sights.  During one traffic jam we did a lot of people watching and enjoyed such unique sites such as a motorcycle with a large (dead) pig strapped on the back.   Most of the motorcycles have at least 3 passengers.  They constantly weave in an out of traffic and get through the traffic jams better than any other vehicle.  We heard there is a helmet law, but I haven't seen anyone with a helmet.  The motorcycles are not licensed or registered, so we see them everywhere.


Chuck

Limbe

Life on the Africa Mercy is not all work.  We can go off ship and explore during our time off.  We took a trip with 12 other crew mates to Limbe.  Limbe is a town about 70 Km from here which takes about 2 hours travel time.
Our first stop was to visit a wildlife sanctuary.  Our tour guide Francis was very informative about the animal life in Cameroon.  The wildlife sanctuary is a place of rescue.  They attempt to return these animals to the natural habit when possible.

Notice the English signs.  This section of Cameroon is in the Anglophone region where English is primary, then French.

We learned a lot about gorillas.  These social creatures cannot survive alone.  Some will never be able to be released.  One of the gorillas had four wives!  Another could only have one wife because he was the most aggressive one there.  His wife was feisty enough to keep him in line.

Because the electric fence was not working properly the animals were not allowed out of their caged areas.  We didn't really mind as we were close enough to see them.

The chimpanzee is considered the smartest of the primates.  I suppose this is why NASA used them at the start of the space program.  At the wildlife centre, the chimps all learn to press a button on the water fountain when they need a drink.

This is Francis, explaining about the gorillas.


Chuck

The Eyes Have it

We went to the inservice this week given by Dr Joe, a pediatric opthalmologist from AZ.  A lot of life changing procedures happen when Mercy Ships arrives in a country, but screening for eye care can have immediate results.  Just think of the difference it makes to be able to see clearly!

Eye screening can be a very simple thing to do, and often a pair of glasses can change everything.  The ship also provides cataract surgery, with dramatic results.

One thing that really stood out to me from Dr Joe's talk was this: Life in Cameroon is hard.  When you look at the demographics, there aren't many old people in Cameroon.  To be able to picture it, imagine a class of 20 elementary students. Every year, there will be 5 less students.  Wow.  Screening, helping eye problems, and training local professionals to do the same can make a huge difference in the quality of life here.

Debbie

It's not French???

It was a wild time at the Hope Center this morning.  We had a lot of people. We even ran out of coloring pages from the story.  Lere had us all up and dancing.

 The song that we always sing, and that I can't understand, is in Zulu.  No wonder I can't understand the words.  I thought it was in French.  I don't know if that makes me feel better or not.

 I met a German couple that had lived in Rochester with their family for two years when he worked for Kodak.  Their son is working on the ship, and they are here visiting him. Here he is dancing in his borrowed dining room pants.  He had been wearing long shorts, but not long enough to cover his knees.  So Moira found him some uniform pants.  They were a little on the large size!

Chuck got to meet them at lunch so we compared Kodak/Rochester history.  When they were in Rochester with their four children, they worshiped at Browncroft.

Debbie

Deaf school

I was able to visit the deaf school with the Mercy ministries team.  The team visits once a week and does the program of a Bible story, a craft, games and dancing.  Yes, dancing with deaf children.  In Africa, everyone dances!

The kids are very physical.  As soon as we arrive, we have at least three kids hanging on each of us.  And they don't hesitate to push each other out of the way to get close to us.

They like to check our name badges and finger spell our names.
There were at least 60-70 kids in this class.  Once the program started, it was surprisingly orderly.  They paid attention, and could answer questions about the story.  And they loved the craft.

My friend Bill, from the UK, has a good connection with these kids, and loves to visit on Friday afternoons.  Bill works in the  galley with me.  We don't often work together because he works in a different area of the galley.  Because of our work schedule, he visits every other week.

Debbie

Going the extra mile

This is our friend Osman, from Sierra Leone.  He is part of the engineering crew, but we first met him when he fixed our shower drain.  Our shower was backing up, and in our small bathroom, that means that the bathroom was flooded.  Plumbing on the ship is complicated.  Some of the drains work with the vacuum system, and others work as a part of a network of drains.  I was picturing never being able to use our shower again, but Osman didn't give up.  He fixed it!  And see that smile?  He always looks like that!

 .

This is what Osman and others from the crew do on the weekend.  They  buy supplies in town and build wheelchairs for patients, usually children.  I just had to get a picture.  So many blessings!

Debbie