Glands and nerve blocks

On Wednesday evenings there is usually a hospital inservice. I've been able to go to two of these, and I'm amazed at the expertise of the surgeons and others on this ship.  Dr Cheng is a head and neck surgeon from London that comes to the ship every year.  Operating on people suffering from enormous goiters and neck tumors, is unlike anything he sees in London.

This week I heard from our long term crew member, Dr Barki.  He's an anesthesiologist from the US and lives onboard with his wife and three children.

He spoke on nerve blocks.  Catchy title?  It was fascinating!  Using nerve blocks is relatively new on the ship.  He uses a portable ultrasound machine to locate the area for the anesthetic, and demonstrated it on himself!

The fascinating part were the patient stories.  Claudine had a large goiter, and he talked about the difficulty in getting an airway with such a large mass.  Here are pictures of Claudine before and after surgery:

Someone in the audience asked about the surgery on Kaltouni, a ten year old girl from rural Cameroon, who had an extremely large neck tumor.  This was the first time that the government actually sent a plane to bring this girl to the ship for surgery.  But when they got there, no one from her family would come with her.  These people had never seen a plane up close before!
She needed a caregiver to come with her, so a neighbor man came.  It was quite a sacrifice, because his family needed him to provide food.  When asked, he replied that this was Kaltouni's only chance.

But it's not only the skill of the operating team, it's God's grace as well.  When they brought Kaltouni here, they weren't sure they would even be able to operate.  If the tumor had invaded her brain, they couldn't operate.  When they did the scan, the tumor went right to the base of her brain.  Such miracles!

Debbie

Contrasts in Cameroon

We took a short trip into town on Saturday.  The ship provides a shuttle that goes to the local market, Marche des fleurs.  (Flower market)  There were six of us on the shuttle, and we were so fortunate to have someone from French speaking Switzerland to show the rest of us around.  There are many stalls selling African crafts.  I heard a lot of "Mercy Ships!  petit prix!"  (small price!) Our Swiss friend gave us a few tips, and introduced us his favorite vendor, a woman who lets you look around in relative calm.  One of our group was a woman from Germany who was leaving that night.  She had money that wasn't going to be changed back into euros.  I'm so thankful that our whole group stayed together.

The shuttle then goes to a very modern supermarket.  You would think you were in Wegmans!  There is also a very French bakery there.

More typically, the streets around us in Douala look like this:

The streets are really crazy.  There's lots of traffic, and lots of motorbikes.  We hear that it's illegal to have more than two people on a motorbike, but it's probably also illegal to ignore traffic lights!

But sometimes there is beauty in unexpected places.


Debbie

Brain drain

We haven't been on the ship since 2014, and it's very exciting to see some of the changes.  Mercy Ships has always provided quality surgical care for the poor, but there is now much more training to provide better surgical care for the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
A hospital ship has the advantage of having experts train local surgeons and staff in a good facility, and being able to keep them  where they are most needed.  There's no "brain drain." That is what happens when skilled health care professionals leave their home country.  The World Health Organization estimates that many leave for educational opportunities.

Ponseti course

Mercy Ships follows the model of Jesus.  So the  ship and training they provide demonstrate caring for the whole person, physical, emotional and spiritual.  Last night at our crew meeting, we saw a video of a recent graduation, African style.  Music, dancing and joy.  I love that we can be here, experiencing the joy that comes when God goes before us to serve others.  What blessings!

Debbie

Good job, good job!

Here are some reasons I love working in the galley. This is a picture, but you have to imagine it with lots of people, activity, music and singing.

The galley looks quiet.  It's not.








There are people preparing food, cooking, washing mounds of pans, utensils, serving pans and singing!  Sometimes with the music that is playing, sometimes not.  In the midst of all this activity, someone will raise their voice with that wonderful African accent.  Good job, good job!
Some of us will be cutting pineapple.  Really, the pineapples here are enormous.  Even the spikes on the outside look lethal.  How can anyone not be happy slicing one of these pineapples?  They are so sweet, and the juice runs right on the floor.
When we clean the floors at the end of the day, we throw buckets of soapy water and scrub with long handled brushes, and try to get the water brushed down the floor drains.  I was brushing water, and the water was coming back toward me.  Yes, we're on a ship!  We are tilted the other way today!
We have a few Brits working in the galley.  What's for tea?  Steak and mash?  Put the pans on the trolley to take down to the dining room on the lift!
Good job, good job!

Debbie

Arriving in Douala, Cameroon

Every county has its own system regarding how they receive travelers from outside nations.  When serving with Mercy Ships there are a number of multiple page documents which describe the protocols developed with the government.  We carry these documents with us and present them to the immigration and customs officials instead of obtaining a visa for the country.

In Cameroon we presented these documents along with a color copy of our passport, the passport itself, and were photographed and fingerprinted.  These were taken away from us as we went to retrieve our baggage.  Then we went to the police station and waited to get an official visa for Cameroon stamped into our passports which were returned to us.  We were told the process would take between 10 minutes and 2 hours.  We were in the 30-40 minute range.

About 15 minutes later, we were welcomed aboard the Africa Mercy.

This year our cabin in on deck seven and overlooks the river.  On a clear day we might be able to see Mount Cameroon, an impressive volcanic Mountain over 4000 meters high.

A crew member told me she saw Mt Cameroon last
November at the end of the rainy season.  But after the rain came the dust season from the Sahara desert.  Right now it's hard to believe there really is a mountain there, but some people have taken the three day hike to reach the top and returned to tell about it.

Mount Cameroon as see from my cabin.  Impressive!!!

Chuck

How did you get here?

When I worked in the lab on the ship, I loved hearing the stories of how people came to work on the ship.  I would ask people "How did you get here?," usually while drawing a unit of blood.  There's time for questions when you're laying there with a needle in your arm.  And conversation is a good distraction.  I thought I would really miss that opportunity to talk to people.
We've been here just a few days, and I have already had that conversation a number of times.  It's fascinating how each person has a different story, but how in some ways, the stories are all similar.  Every story seems to involve a prompting of some sort.

So many different stories, each as different as the person.

One young nurse told me how she couldn't sleep one night when she was 16, and how that was very unusual for her.  She turned on the TV and saw a show on hospital ships.  Mercy Ships was one of those mentioned.  She knew then that she had to become a nurse so she could work on this ship.

Another woman recently retired, and has had some wonderful times of traveling and experiencing new places, new cultures.  She felt convicted that she was being self indulgent, so she signed up to work here in Africa.

Another new friend is a cancer survivor.  So she decided to live her life instead of being afraid of it.  And that giving to people here was the perfect way of doing that.

After many years on a job that she loved, one nurse felt a dissatisfaction that was new to her. Nothing had really changed, but God was changing her.  Circumstances "just happened " to point her to working here on the ship, and she's amazed at the way God has opened the world to her in this place.

I am humbled by the way God works in us so individually.  And so blessed to be part of this community.

Lots of crew- lots of stories!

Debbie