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