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

Why Cameroon?

The Africa Mercy has been in the port of Douala, Cameroon since August, and is well underway doing mission by providing free surgeries, training, and many other ways of blessing the people of Cameroon.

But why Cameroon?  Cameroon is a country of over 275 ethnic groups and languages.  It has many climate zones and great biodiversity.  There are rainforests, savannas, active volcanoes, and many reserves to protect animals. Cameroon has one of the best economies in that part of Africa, with oil a primary export.

But Cameroon is also rated 153/188 on the UN Human Development Index.  For every 100,000 people in Cameroon, there is 1.15 surgical specialists.  Do you need a C-section?  Or hernia surgery? How about orthopedic care?  Care for burn victims?  In our world of 7.6 billion, over 5 billion lack access to timely, safe and affordable surgical care.

That's a lot of suffering, and the statistics seem overwhelming.  What I love is Mercy Ships response to global surgical need.  This quote is from Ann Voskamp.

"For such a time as now, we eradicate divisions and incarnate passion.
For such a time as now, we show up even when it seems small because this is how we love large.
For such a time as now, we love just one, like we'd absolutely love to love everyone.  Like we would love to be loved.
For such a time as now, we live shaped like a cross, reaching right out, because this is how He begins to shape the world."

Wow.

God willing, we join the ship on January 7.


Debbie

Get ready for Cameroon

We've been accepted by Mercy Ships to serve in Cameroon!   We are looking forwarded to returning to the Africa Mercy community in January 2018.
Here is some information we received about this years field service.

The Africa Mercy has arrived in Cameroon
The world’s largest civilian hospital ship, the Africa Mercy, operated by Mercy Ships, has docked in the port city of Douala, Cameroon, to begin a season of service to this Central African nation. Over the next ten months, Mercy Ships will provide free specialized surgeries and healthcare services to the people of Cameroon.

During our stay in the port of Douala, Mercy Ships plans to provide more than 3,000 life-changing surgeries for adult and child patients onboard, to treat over 8,000 at a land-based dental clinic, and provide holistic healthcare training to Cameroonian healthcare professionals.

Mercy Ships Medical Capacity Building Programs foster transformational development within the healthcare structure of our host nation. After collaborating with our hosts, these projects were specifically developed to impart knowledge and skills, while modeling and encouraging compassion and a professional work ethic. We incorporate one-on-one mentoring opportunities and a large number of local doctors, nurses and other medical staff so that, together, we will be able to impact and bolster the Cameroonian healthcare system long after the ship has departed.

Warrie Blackburn, Managing Director of the Africa Mercy said “With the ship’s arrival in Douala, we celebrate the commencement of a field service that has been years in the making. This historic event has been made possible through a unique partnership between Mercy Ships and the government of Cameroon, supported by the commitment and dedication of the Mercy Ships family and partners in Cameroon. It is a great honor to be here, to love and to serve the people of Cameroon in the model of Jesus. We look forward with great anticipation to all that will take place here in the next 10 months.”

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