You know how after a time life just becomes normal and
routine, no matter the place you live?
Well that’s how life has become for me here on the ship. It is normal for me to take my breakfast,
lunch and dinner from a dining room self serve line and eat in a room with up
to 300 other people. It is normal for me
to eat African food every Tuesday night.
It is normal for me to walk about 50 steps to get from my bed to my ward
in the hospital. It is normal for me to
share my personal space with someone I hardly know. It is normal to walk through the hallways of
this ship greeting each person and stopping several times to chat on my way to
the laundry. It is normal to stay up
late each night socializing as people around here never seem to go to
sleep. It is normal to do aerobics DVDs
twice a week with lovely friends in a small family cabin living room. It is normal for my showers to be only two
minutes long. It is normal for me to
wear the same cupboard full of clothes day in and day out. It is normal to walk down the gangway and
into the port, full of trucks carrying containers. It is normal to be called out to by the men
on the street. It is normal for the kids
on the street to point and call Yo-vo (white man). It is normal to get on a motorbike taxi and
make my way into town. It is normal to
barter for a price for anything sold on the street or transport costs. It is normal to read the restaurant menu in
French. It is normal to speak to my
patients through a translator. It is
normal for my patient’s caregivers to sleep under their bed. It is normal for me to just pick up babies in
the ward and carry them around on my back while I work. It is normal for me to be surrounded by
people from different countries all over the world. It is normal to walk down the corridor and
hear two people speaking to each other in a non-English language. It is normal to sit on deck 7 or 8 and look
out over the ocean or at the beach and admire the beautiful view. It somehow became normal that I live on a
ship in West Africa. But even though it’s
normal to me, sometimes I look around and marvel at where I am, and what I’m
doing. And it’s NOT because I’m talented
or special. In fact just today I was
thinking how unqualified I feel sometimes at the job I have recently
undertaken. But I am here and I’m
serving and being blessed more abundantly than I could ever give out. And I love it.
It's good to know your normal and feeling okay about your role on board Africa Mercy:) Here in Canberra the weather will be dropping down to -3deg C during the coming week. I would imagine there is a temp/climate difference to where you are.
ReplyDeleteI think your doing a great job as nurse for your age so don't be to hard on yourself. Life is a learning curve as I just sat two 3 hour exams this last week and felt like doing a runner lol but didn't.
All the best,
Peter.