Sevenly features Mercy Ships! this week only!

Attention! An amazing website called Sevenly is featuring Mercy Ships this week! They are an online website that features an NGO every week by selling Tshirts and Sweaters featuring the NGOs  designs! The clothing is beautiful and the fabric is so soft! The Shirts are only for sale until the end of the week and then they are gone! So make your way to the website and purchase one today! For every item sold &7.00 is donated, and this week an anonymous donor is matching the donation amount! So really $14 will be given to Mercy Ships for each item! Plus you get a T-shirt out of the transaction! Check them out!

 http://www.sevenly.org/

Off to the Market!

 

The Local Market here in town is called the Naiger Market. After leaving the Ship you walk about 10 minutes away from the Port. When you enter the market you come across stalls filled with spices, light bulbs, slow cookers, fresh meat, and fabric. The people are friendly inviting you to come and find something you need, and if you ask for an item they do not sell they ensure that you will find it and take your hand and lead you through the market until you arrive at their cousin’s stall filled with the very item you have requested!

Five days after arriving here in Guinea I was eager to buy some fabric and have a skirt made. Bartering is never fun I find. The ladies start at 120 000 GF (that is about $17.00) for 2 meters of fabric. Lucky for us we were with a fellow volunteer who had purchased fabric the previous week. I looked to her and she told me not to pay any more then 30 000 GF($4.20). The lady and I went back and forth throwing prices out there. I disagreed on the price and went to walk away, she cut the fabric from the spool and insisted I pay her 60 000 GF I continued to refuse. As I walked away a fellow ran after us saying she would sell it to me for 30 000GF. It is so hard to figure out what the fair price is. On one hand I do not want to argue a dollar, it makes little difference to me and could be the difference of food for a day for her. However if we allow the locals to charge us grossly more than that in return is not good either. 

From the fabric stand we entered the Naiger Market and made our way down a narrow alley towards stairs that lead is to the tailor’s floor. The sewing machines are peddle powered of course and the surge of the needles made a constant humming sound. Little 10 feet by 7 feet stalls filled with 6+ people and machines lined either side of the top story. I made my way down the center aisle looking into each cubical looking until a booth of lively young ladies caught my attention. With my broken French we agreed on a pattern for the skirt. They took my measurements and I was to return in 2 days to pick up my custom made skirt.

 Upon returning to pick up my skirt, it was not even started! But here were there really are deadlines I was not too concerned. I returned the following day and picked up my beautiful skirt! The ladies did a great job and the trimming looks so lovely. Since then I have had another wrap skirt made and a purse. The wrap skirt turned out fabulously and several others here have requested the same skirt from our tailor. The purse however did not materialize into what I described. While pointing to a friend’s fabric skirt I requested a Zipper and the dimensions. What I received was an over sized fabric Envelope with a button made out of left over fabric! The bag is large enough to serve as a skirt or even a dress if need be.   

It is so much fun to bring fabric to the tailor and mimic out the details of your request. It is almost like a game of telephone! You do not know until you return what your item will turn out as! Here are two pictures, one of me and Crystal in our lovely skirts and another of our Cabin group shot all wearing our African Skirts! Some volunteers have had dresses, tops and pants made! Anything is possible; you just have to communicate them!

Baby Rescue Center and Driving through town!

Here on the ship there is a department called Mercy Ministries. They run weekly programs to a number of local NGOs to allow crew members to get into the city and work with locals in a variety of ways. Today I ventured out with a few of my friends to the Baby rescue center!

Last Saturday we were privileged to sleep in, since the Nurses onboard re having a Pot Lick Brunch! Crystal and I made banana cake muffins the night before. There were all sorts of goodies from custard scones, to fruit salad and pull apart bread! It was delicious! After Brunch we met in Mid Ships (an area in the middle of the ship were the Starbucks and Ship Shop are locate and a number of tables and chairs.) and headed into town to make the long drive out to the Baby Rescue Center. The drive takes 90 minuets due to the congestion here in the city. The streets seem to have limited rules, and the ones they have are strange. For example the person entering the round-a-bout has the right of way! So this obviously backs up the round-a-bouts! While we were in the Land Rover we were able to snap a few pictures of the scenery as we passed by! After driving down the main road, passing the Soccer playing Elephant, Giant Book and Coffee cup we made a turn to the left. The road from here becomes rutted and rocks the size of a basketball scatter the roadway. Upon arriving to the center we were greeted by two ruff looking dogs and babies! 

The center is run by a lovely missionary named Colette. She is from Canada, and is supported by her home church and sponsors. The center is set up to take in abandoned babies from newborn to 2 years of age. The youngest one is 1 month old. There is a 1 month old up to 18 month old at the center currently. There was a little one named Steve, he was around 8 months old. He was a very unsettled baby. After eating some pourage he was a bit happier, but would quickly start crying once again. Another boy who attached himself to me was Bryan. He was a little cute boy, about 14 months old. He had a twin brother. Both of them are suppose to be adopted however the legal side of things has delayed their departures. Bryan was very affectionate and whenever I tried to sit down to play with a toy with him he wanted to just crawl back onto my lap! It melts your heart. There was a little one there, he was around 18 months, he had cerebral polsiey. A child with developmental disabilities are not valued here, and are often set off to the side. But with attention, and physiotherapy this little boys muscles have improved vastly recently. Our time playing with the kids and helping with the 12 feeds went by quickly. Before we knew it we were back in the land rover heading back to the ship! 

The Taxi driver showing us the damage

Traffic continued to be heavy as we made our way back to the port. Right as we were at the People Palace (It so happens that tonight there is a big concert and the streets were lined with people and cars parked on the highway!) our Land Rover got in a little fender bender. Our front right hand side gently hit a taxis rear left tail light. Oops! Driving is crazy over here! It looks like fun actually! Im surprised that more accedints don’t happen, well I guess we were rear-ended two days ago too. (the traffic is so jam packed that when something does happen, we are moving so slowly that the damage is minimum). Upon hitting the Taxi we called back to Reception on our radio and got direction to have the man come to the

Our limited French Skills Came in Handy after the fender bender

Port on Monday or Tuesday for our Transportation Crew to assess the damage and handle the situation. Well, try to tell this to a man who speaks limited French from us two girls (Nadine and Myself) who also speak limited French! After getting his contact information, and attempting to give him our Mercy Ship number and instructing him to come on Monday or Tuesday, he was unsettled and not allowing us to leave. I asked a group of men walking by in they spoke English. To our surprised a gentleman who lives in Toronto who is here in Conakry visiting relatives was in that group and was able to help us. He was from the Fula tribe as well so he was able to have better communication with the Taxi driver. After calling the owner of the car and reassuring him we would see the

Stopped on the side of the highway talking to the 

 

Taxi Driver (i'm in Pink)

repairs of the car threw later in the week, and Nadine writing a “guarantee” on a piece of paper, the Taxi driver followed us to the port to see where he should come on Monday. After the hour delay we arrived to plates of dinner that had been set aside for us. I hope that’s the only car accident that I need to translate for while here in Conakry! I do plan on returning to the Baby rescue center in the weeks to come!

VVF Recovery Continues!

 

 





After the Dress Ceremony Leaving the ship with Steph



 It has been hard to find the words to put together a blog. The past three weeks here on the ship has been amazing and overwhelming at the same time. Every time I go to write I am overwhelmed with where to start. But hey I’m here for four months so I’ll just start with a few stories and eventually you may gain a better feel for what life is like here on The African Mercy!

Working on Ward B with the VVF ladies is lovely, but emotionally    draining. The first week I found myself leaving work next to tears. During the evening shift I would have 5 patients assigned to work with. The nursing care is not complex at this time but when a lady realizes that she is still “wet” (leaking urine) that’s when my heart brakes for them. I had a patient who had a poor understanding of the expected outcome of her surgery. Explaining the anatomy and about urethralplasty is not helpful since these ladies are not educated. They are unable to read or write and most have never even held a pen in their lives. Their faces are scared with tribal markings and their acceptance by society hinges on whether they are “wet” (urine leaking through the fistula) or “dry” (healed). Some of the ladies fistulas were so severe that they no longer had a urethra to patch up. In some cases the doctors are able to create a new urethra (out of tissue, however it does not have a sphincter therefore the ladies will be dry while being still, but will leak while they are active. They no longer have a fistula and risk of infections and other problems, but in their minds they are still “wet”). When your patient Is breaking down crying, its not the best time to grab a translator and talk with the patient, all you can do is be with them. I wish I could say some words of comfort and explain that even though they are still a little wet, their health will be better in the long run. All you can do is say a silent prayer and dry their tears. On my stretch of evening shifts it seemed like all the ladies who I was assigned to were struggling with being wet, and having complications. It was discouraging and I left work drained. This past week however has been a 180 degree change! After 14-21 days a few of the ladies have had their catheters removed, and have remained dry!

Last weekend my roommate Amy and I worked 4 ten hour night shifts. We each had 10 patients, I enjoyed getting to know more of the ladies and seeing them continue to heal. The night shifts were so lovely. Amy was great company and a great hunter of Cockroaches! I went to sleep in the morning with nightmares of cockroaches! Waking up throughout the day thinking I was being covered in bugs! Yuck :P  By the time the 4^th night came I was in a great routine. Checking 10 charts and tipping catheter bags was enough to keep us moderately busy. We visited the other nurses who were working on A and D ward throughout the night too!   

On Tuesday a group of the ladies had their Dress Ceremonies. They were celebrated and given beautiful dresses in preparation for their return to their villages! One of the ladies has been here on the ship for 3 months, she has had 3 surgeries with Mercy Ships and 2 prior to the ships arrival in local hospitals. As each surgery failed the chances of a successful surgery decreases by 10% each time. Before her last and final surgery she was talking to our team leader Steph, and said that if the surgery worked then Steph would accompany her to the village, but if it failed again, then she would just have to go home with Steph to America! Well I’m happy to say that Steph got to go on a lovely ride to this Ladies Village this past week.  Her last and final surgery by the grace of God it was a success!
                                      

Yesterday we said goodbye to a few more ladies and have 15 remaining on the unit. Half of them still have their catheters while the other half are recovering still. We so greatly enjoy playing games with them and learning new songs and games in Fulua, and Susu. We get daily lessons in greetings and names of body parts! I don’t know when ill ever need to know what “finger nail” is in Malingo, but hey I do!
I hope that everyone back home has had a great start of February as we are already halfway through. Happy Valentines day! Here on the ship one of my roommates made us all cards, and gave out candies, another left us chocolate bars and another decorated the wall with a heart garland! Our Nurse Team leader left personalized notes for all the nurses working on Ward B. It was so lovely.

Below are Pictures that I took while working on a night shift! Read the descriptions! For those of you who are nurse, what do you think!? Its fun to open the cupboard and not know what the bottle for lactulose will look like today! The mind set of DO NOT WASTE is in the front of everyone’s minds! I hope you enjoy the pictures of the Unit where i work!

IV bags are hung via magnet hooks from the ceiling!

Our nursing Station View 1

Pick a drug!



Our sink! and yes we re-use med cups after washing them!



Patient education posters in the bathroom!





The nursing station!



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is an empty unit. 10 beds... not a lot of space! My unit has 20 Beds.

Tall, Grande or Venti!

I work in Starbucks now! Well kind of. Here on the ship there is a Starbucks (the first in West Africa) I believe Starbucks donates the supplies and we have the espresso machine/steamer and blenders! On my night shifts last weekend a fellow crew member opened up Starbucks two out o the four nights we were working. It felt like such a blessing to have a change to grab a frosty frappuccino at midnight! The costs of the beverages are 50 cents to a $1. So feeding a coffee addiction here on board is not a problem! 

The Starbucks is run by volunteers in the evenings and at midnight. Anyone on board can ask for an orientation from the Sales team (they run the Starbucks during the Day and the Ship Shop). After our night shift Crystal and I (Crystal is my roommate, well actually my Bunk mate) arranged our orientation. It was lots of fun practicing and learning on the drinks! Then this Past Friday we opened the café for the first time! Using the Steamer machine was a little scary but all of the drinks we made worked out perfectly! The cash register was the hardest thing to figure out! 

We hope to open the Starbucks a couple times for the night staff! I am not too sure I’m ready to volunteer for the evening rush! Maybe in a month or so! So yes, as one is Volunteering on Mercy Ships, on our off days and down time we do find other things to volunteer for! I’m not too sure if Starbucks would take me on in Canada, but hey at least I now know the difference between a Cappuccino and a Latte!

Our fellow Cabin Roommate Thelma, 

Happy with her Latte!

The Ships Starbucks!