Surgeon Santa on Mercy Ships

There is no shortage of traditions and celebrations on Mercy Ships.  Christmas is celebrated in a lot of different ways among this international community.  Since there are a lot of people from Holland, December 5 was the celebration of the coming of Sinterklaas.  There seemed to be a lot of shoes outside the cabin doors containing a raw carrot for the horses.  I don't know where they got the carrots, but I asked the head chef since we had cooked carrots with our dinner.  He only could conclude that the Dutch have taken over the ship!

There is an annual contest where individuals and work groups can decorate their doors.  The supply team, which has no artistic talent, but access to lots of medical supplies, created Surgeon Santa (Gift Specialist) to decorate our door.

Since this Santa is a surgeon, he had to give up the red suit for a yellow visitors gown.  The hat was constructed from a red bio-hazard bag, the hand from nitrile gloves.  My contribution was the beard, made from cloth tape and cotton balls, and the trim on the hat.
Since the original creation, some improvements in the design have been necessary.  The latex glove for the face looses air quickly, so now Santa has a blue nitrile face instead of a white latex one.  Also, the thumb became a nose to better hold up the reading glasses.  I also had to engineer a better way to support the head, so he isn't looking down.  Well, the judging is not until December 22, so I'm sure that we'll have some improvements before then.  Since the original design, Santa has had a rough time.  Santa has gotten tired, lost his face, glasses and most of the beard.  His hands have even shrunk.  So I expect a major overhall on December 21.

Here's sneak preview of the lab's door.  They actually have an artistic person working there, so it's not a fair comparison, but it does welcome potential blood donors and other clients.

These are certainly happy little drops of blood mixing with snowflakes.  You just want to give a pint after seeing this!

One of the things that's great about being in Guinea at Christmas, is the absence of the commercialism and materialism that is associated with Christmas in the West.  It's great to be away from that this year.






Chuck