What I see...

What do you think when you walk down the street at home?  Do you notice what is around you?  Do you watch where you are walking or do you walk and keep focused on the task at hand?

This is what i see...

Here, you must keep your eyes on every step you take, watch for coming traffic, keep an eye on everyone walking with you, avoid bumping into people AND think about where you are heading.  If you take your eyes off the road for one minute you are likely to fall into the gapping drains and gutters on the side of the road.  They are most often full of sewage, garbage, you name it, it’s in there.  It sits in the gutter, a green, stagnant, bubbling pond.  And if you don’t watch your step, you may just fall in, like my friend I was walking with just last week.  She was watching the street and as a car drove straight towards me, she grabbed my arm to pull me out of the way and woops, off goes her balance and down went her leg, into the green sludgy pit.  GROSS!  Super funny though!

 

So yes, watch out for coming cars.  The streets are so crowded that the cars drive no matter how many people are blocking their way and the people move.  The people set up their stalls so close to the edge of the road that they often have to move them aside for an oncoming truck to past through.

The people are also often carrying large loads on their heads.  So you must look out.

Not only are you watching for all these things but the things you are seeing sold on the streets are catching your eyes.  Colourful fabric or clothes from all over the world are sold, mostly second-hand and displayed on racks on the walls.  Almost anything you can imagine is sold at the street stalls, including big wall clocks with pictures of Jesus on them, power-point adapters, bright torches, piles and piles of shoes, stacks of products for personal hygiene and packaged food.   There are popcorn machines where you can buy sweet or salty popcorn for 500Le each (only about 12c).  There are some soft serve ice-cream machines- often so soft the ice-cream is dripping out!  I also love to buy the peanuts on the street, carried on a platter on top of a lady’s head.  The different scoop sizes cost different amounts.  You can buy the African version of peanut brittle or sesame seed snaps, even something close to a doughnut.

There are a few supermarkets in Freetown that stock mostly British goods.  During one visit, much to my delight, I found Bundaberg ginger beer!

My feet turn African when I walk the streets.  I love to see the colours, the noise, the people hustling around me, the odd things they sell in their stalls, the children playing, the babies being carried on their mama’s backs, the warmth of the air, the interesting buildings and houses people live in.  It is a whole different world from the one I grew up in and I love it!

Cushions make me happy

It has been a while since I last blogged.  Since then, I have worked, worked and worked some more.  Then I caught one of the many bugs being passed around the ship and spent my two days off recovering from a vomiting bug.  Then back to work again and 52 work hours and 5 days later I’m now on a day off!  At home, maybe I would have been complaining about the amount of work hours.  Here, things are different.  I do feel like I haven’t seen some people all week and on the ship, that is definitely a long time!  Each day on the ship, for me, feels like a week of life at home.

The ward is definitely busier than this now!

As for work, I think I mentioned previously that I have a new role since my last stay on the ship.  This year I have been asked to work as a charge nurse.  This means that I am charge over the ward I am assigned for that shift.  I help the nurses working by answering their questions, liaising with Drs and the specialty team leader, delegating tasks and overseeing the translators in the ward, updating the patient census with specific care for each patient and allocating nurses their patients for the oncoming shifts.  It has been a big shift in job roles for me, not really doing hands on care for the patients anymore.  I do miss it, but I grab a cuddle here and there from the kids walking around the ward.

I still find special moments each day that warm my soul.  At the moment we have two caregiver’s children, both about 2 years old, walking around the ward amusing themselves while their sisters heal from their surgeries.  One of them in particular is just so gorgeous I had to make friends with her!  She took a few days to warm to me and still she was cautious.  But finally I told her through a translator I wanted to be her friend and with some encouragement from her mama she walked over to the bed and grabbed a piece of cloth.  As she walked to me holding it, the translator explained to me that this gorgeous little girl was tired and wanted me, her new friend, to carry her on my back while she rested.  I was overjoyed!  And of course carried her around for as long as I could manage!  From then on, she has been my little friend, often bringing me the blocks she is playing with to my desk, one by one.  She even gave me a bunch of fake flowers!  They are proudly sitting in the pencil pot on the desk next to my computer.

I have been so blessed this year to live in a four berth cabin.  I live with 3 other amazing women and am excited about the time we will get to spend together over this year.  The other amazing things about our cabin are that we have a window (YAY!!!! ) and a lovely big room in the back, with a big pile of cushions!  It’s a great place to hang out in the evenings with friends.  I also love to sit there with a cup of tea in the morning, eat breakfast and read my bible.  We even have a working fridge now!  I am so blessed!

I know that right now I am exactly where God wants me to be and I feel so content.  I don’t think there could be a better place to be :)

2nd Screening Day set

The new screening day is tomorrow.  As you can imagine the ship is busy with people organising all that we will do and need.  Security at the new venue has already begun with shifts beginning this afternoon, changing at midnight and then at 0600hrs.  There will be pre-pre-screeners in the crowd asking people why they have come and telling them to stay a little longer to see a pre-screener or to go home now before the sun comes up because we cannot help them.  People will have already arrived at the venue, a day before it begins.  The desperation is still as big as ever.  We cannot walk down the street into Freetown without having someone stop us and ask if they can see a Dr on the ship, or if they can bring their sick child to us.  Each time we suggest they go to the Dental clinic or Eye clinic on any Monday all year and they should be seen, or to come to screening day if we think it is appropriate.  Until the last few days though even we did not know when screening day would be, but we would suggest they listen to the radio for further instructions.  Now the day is finally here.

Please be praying for us, that God will bring the people he wants to heal and that those we cannot help will stay home.  Pray for safety for the Mercy Ships team and for the people of Sierra Leone, that the crowd will behave and not push their boundaries.  Pray that God’s presence will be at the new venue, keeping the people calm and bringing peace to their desperate souls.

As for me, tomorrow I am charge nurse over one of the orthopaedic wards.  I will not get to be a part of screening day as I was last time.  I am sad that I won’t be there, but I know someone needs to look after the patients that we do have.  And the ones we have are gorgeous!

The children that stole my heart

Take a sneak-peak into my world.

I'm so excited to finally be able to show you photos of these beautiful children that take up my days, evenings and nights.  Except for the bowed legs, they are just like any others kids in the world.  They love balloons, colouring, cars, games and best of all, cuddles!  Lots and lots of them!!!  My love tank is always full from the loving I get from these kids!

How could you not fall in love with them!?!

White sandy beaches

 

One of the exciting things about being in Africa is the adventures that you just find yourself on, whether you’re trying to have one or not.

 

Today we decided we’d spent the day at River 2, a beach south of Freetown.  Driving by Landrover or Poda-poda (the local transport- a van which seats 18 people) would take between 1 ½ hrs and 3hrs depending on traffic and the time of day.  Today we decided to take a new approach.  My friend Jeff is amazing at negotiating and loves an adventure.  He had talked with a man from Lakka beach with a boat (similar to the one pictured- except with an outboard motor) and had organised with him to take a group of us on his boat to River 2 leaving at 9am from berth one at the deep water quay.   So at about 9am the group of eight of us left the ship, walking down to berth one on the dock and waited for the water taxi to arrive.  About an hour later, Jeff called this man asking where he was.  “I’m coming, I’m coming!  I’ll be 10mins.”  Another 30mins later, we were wondering if he was actually coming at all.  We waited and waited some more and after another couple of phone calls and another 30mins, he arrived.

Finally we were on our way, motoring through the ocean with views of Freetown speeding past us.  After an hour on the water we had to stop at a local fishing village from more fuel and for a new plug for the engine.  While we were waiting there in the boat, African kids and people from the village watching us, a lady came towards the boat.  She waded waist high into the water carrying an albino baby.  Just before she got to me, my friend Christoph said to me, “Don’t take the baby.”  As she waded in the sea, right next to me, she lifted up the baby for me to take.  I didn’t know what she wanted me to do.  Was she actually giving me this child?  I sat there with my hands in my lap even though I wanted to stretch them out and take that baby.  I said, “I’m sorry I can’t take your baby.  She is beautiful though.  She is beautiful.”  And at that the mama turned back to the shore and made her way back.  I’m not sure what the Sierra Leoneons think of the Albino people here, but I truly hope that that young mama didn’t truly want to give her white baby to me because I was white also.

We arrived at River 2 beach after cruising the ocean for 2 hours.  We could see beautiful white sand, clean, blue water, palm trees lining the ocean front and mountains in the background.  The sun shone happily and after they anchored the boat, we all exited somewhat wet after a wave crashed over us, but excitedly.  There was already a large group of Mercy shippers on the beach who had come by Landrover or poda-poda.  I caught up with a few of my fellow gatewayers and we walked along the beautiful sandy shore.  Unlike other beaches I’d been to in Sierra Leone and Africa, this one was so clean and the sand so white!  We walked for at least 2km to the end of the stretch and then back again.  The beach also had quite good waves that, much to my delight, we were able to body surf!  I did have a few moments of missing my beaches from home and those that would have been swimming with me if I had been there.

We left River 2 late in the afternoon, cruising back to the ship the sun was setting behind us, the water blue and silky.  We passed a fishing boat, waving to the men working hard for their families, noticing the birds diving over the ocean close behind them trying to get their supper.  I love so many things about this country.  I think today was perhaps one of my favourite so far!