Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!



Hope you all had a good Christmas and enjoyed the festivities! I was working Christmas day but fortunately I was off then for a week. This meant I could go to my parents house to enjoy Christmas with my family. It has been a while since all my sisters and brother where together. The family is growing too, with a new nephew but also the rest of my nieces and nephews are getting bigger!






For New Years I was able to go to Oxford for a few days with one of my good friends, it was a good time of relaxing and chatting!

At this time of year I always reflect on the year that has just gone, and I can say that 2012 has been one of the best years yet. I have been so amazed and blessed through out the year, from working with wonderful patients and staff, to friendship and most of all how God has supplied all my needs and more!

Also at this time of year I look forward to the year ahead to see what I will be doing! As some of you know I am looking to see where God wants me, I know he has more for me and I think that is back in Africa. Looking to see if its back on the ship or something new. Therefore I am changing my blog's name to Ana's Adventure as you must probably have seen. I will be changing it later depending on what I do.

A verse that has spurred me on is in Isaiah 58:11

The Lord will guide you always;

he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land

and will strengthen your frame.

You will be like a well-watered garden,

like a spring whose waters never fail.

After an amazing year I can only wait and see where Jesus guides me!

Hoping you all have an amazing year too

Back on UK soil!

I have been back in the UK for over a month now, time has gone so quickly and I am sorry I have not written before. I did not know what to say as I was on a roller costar of emotions and it is only now that I feel I can share.

Thanks Deb for the photos!

I left the ship at the beginning of November, the last few weeks on the ship were some of the best times there. With the orthopaedic patients being so cute and lovable, to the day workers on the ward who work so hard and make working on the wards such a  pleasure, and oh their generosity. And then there is the nurses, all of us from different parts of the world but we all work together in unity and love.
Then there are the friends. Friends who are going to be your friends for life, as we grow together living on a ship and are there for each other through low and high times!

I was fortunate enough to have a weekend away before I left with some of my friends on the ship. The weekend was full of adventure from the taxi getting lost and then braking down, but then we had highs of watching the sunset while a thunderstorm rolled in behind us, and then swimming in the rain, oh and the taxi broke down in a village, where we befriended the locals especially the children!

So as I think about that weekend I feel so blessed to have so many special friends that I can share weekends like that.

I am grateful for my time on the Africa Mercy, I have learned and grown so much there that it is hard to put it in writing. Leaving the ship was very hard as I did not want to leave my friends and patients, but I knew I had to go home. After a night flight with little sleep I arrived in London to be met by my parents, it was a lovely. Then the weeks that followed are a bit of a blur, stayed with family, met with friends, trying to catch up with all their news. It was hard as I felt very numb and wanting to be back on the ship but also it was nice seeing familiar faces. My nieces and nephews kept me going, they are so cute and I have missed them!

As I write this I have been working for the last 2 weeks, moved into my house and settled to life in Swansea, but there is something in me that I know I am not going to settle here for good, as I know God has more plans for me. I am excited to see where he is going to lead me so I have decide to keep this blog going so watch this space.......

I am going to change my blog name as the year has been and a new phase is starting

 

Just want to say thank you to all my supporters  xxxx

What a wonderful God we serve

Well it's about time I wrote a blog, I have been putting it off for too long!
So much has happened that I think I will just write about what is happening right now.
I am working in B ward which some call the "boisterous" ward, why??? because it is full of children (20 patients) and then add their caregivers who stay with them, who sleep under the patients bed and then add little babies who are siblings and need to stay with their mothers who are still breastfeeding this all adds to over 40 people on the ward. But that is not all you have the day workers who are a great help on the ward, they translate but also help us move the patients, make the beds, help with the food, the list goes on.... So you have +40 (patients+caregivers) + day workers + nurses + doctors + physio = a wonderful at sometimes chaotic ward, but I love it!



Salone Kids!!!



B ward is hosting the orthopaedic patients at present, we have patients who where in Sierra Leone last year and came to have their pins removed, unfortunately some did not work out as good as was hoped so a further operation was needed, therefore a longer stay with us. Then we have patients who have club feet, bow legs and a few other problems with their legs, and we even had one patient which the doctors have never seen, her knees were knocking together making her feet spread out, eventually she would have had to walk on her knees, fortunately she had the operation and hopefully will be able to walk straight. This is only one of the stories that everyday make my work so good, the transformation they get is so great, and when they start walking (even with the cast on) everyone cheers!

I was fortunate enough to look after a post op patient this week, I was not looking forward to care for her as the day before the doctors had told the patient and the mother that they will not be doing the surgery as it had too many risks. After a lengthy discussion they gave the choice to the family, through interpreters and hospital chaplaincy the patient and the mother decided to go for the surgery even though the was a very high risk she would loose the lower leg. This problem in our countries would not be that bad as prosthetics are so widely available, but here there are not and are expensive and this family would find it hard to get one if the operation did not go as well. But they went for the surgery. I to be truthful I thought they should not go for it, I was thinking do they know all the details, are they really sure? I was very doubtful. So when I was allocated her for my shift, I thought oh no I am not the right nurse to look after her. I am glad to say that so far she has done very well, she is still in the crucial time that it could change, but my attitude has changed. I was negative but now I am so positive and this is all due to God, he has worked a miracle on her and in me. My prayer is that she will make a full recovery and be able to walk straighter and be able to join in with her friends and family.

Proverbs 3:5  "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding"

There is so much I could go on forever, my heart is full with stories of where Jesus has done a miracle through the doctors and the nurses working in the hospital. I am so thankful to be part of this amazing team and this in someways is going to be the hardest thing for me when I leave, in only 2 weeks I am heading home, it's going to be hard but I know that God is with me and he has more plans for me (Jeremiah 29:11) and that is what will keep me going and hopefully will give me peace as I leave this wonderful and great work.

 





                                                                  

Our little patient with traction!

 

Enjoying time with the patients!



Enjoying time at the Hope Centre, the patients go here after surgery as they live too far away to come back for outpatients appointments

 

Our Ortho Dr with one of our patients

 



I love this boy, his cheeky face says it all



Beautiful patients from Salone

Screening day tomorrow!

The big screening day is tomorrow!!!! It takes place in Conakry in the People's Palace.

This is when thousands of people come to be seen, they wait to hours just for the chance to be seen by a surgeon, for some this is the last chance they have to be healed! They don't have the money they need to have the operation in the local hospital, or the local hospital may no have the specialised surgeon they need.
They are seen by our surgeons and then if we are able to do the surgery they are given an appointment to come to the ship to have their life changing surgery!
Screening day is a great day, to be able to give people hope they had thought they would never had, to see their smiles as they walk away with an appointment card. But it is not all great as there will be people we cannot help, please pray for them, that they may know peace.

There has been a lot of work gone into the screening day, but still pray that everything will go smoothly and that the right people we can help will come.

This is the outside area of the People's Palace, where thousands of people will wait for hours to be seen!

Conakry, Guinea West Africa

For the next 10 months the Africa Mercy will be docked in Conakry, Guinea. I thought for you who don't know much about Guinea (or maybe you don't even know where it is) about writing a bit about the country I will be working in.

Guinea is in West Africa, surrounded by Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote D'Ivoire in the south, Mali to the east and Senegal and Guinea-Bissau to the north. Guinea is sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from it's neighbour Guinea-Bissau. It has a population of about 10,057,975. Conakry being the capital of Guinea, it is the largest city and the economic centre.

Guinea's 10 million people are divided into 24 ethnic groups. The largest and most prominent are the Fula with 40%, Mandingo 30% and Susu 20 %. It is mostly  a Muslim country with 85% of the population, then 10 % is made up of Christian which are mostly Roman Catholic. The remainder follow traditional animist religions.
French is the main language spoken in Guinea, but there are more than 24 indigenous languages spoken also.

Guinea has abundant natural resources including 25% or more of the world's known bauxite reserves. Guinea also has diamonds, gold, and other metals. But Guinea still is burden with poverty with just under half of the population remains living below the poverty line.


This is only a brief overview of the country in which Mercy Ships is going to be working in.
As we get ready to dock tomorrow in Conakry it would be great if you could pray that our time there will be a blessing to the people of Guinea, that they will get to know of Jesus love for them through us. Please pray for  the health of the crew, as we are coming into the wet/rainy season.
And as we get ready for the big screening day that the right people will come to it that we can help with surgeries, and that it will run smoothly.

Sailing.......

Yet again we are sailing, we left Tenerife where we have been for 2 months a few days ago and we are on our way to Guinea, where our next field service is for the next 10 months.
I know it has been a while since I last wrote on here, I really don't know were the time goes! The ship was in the Canary Islands because of work needed doing on  the ship, for 2 weeks of that it was in dry dock. Fortunately for me I was home in the UK for those 2 weeks, as the ship had no air con, and apparently it got very hot in the cabins!!!

Yes, I was in the UK for 2 weeks, I was very busy going from one city to the next visiting family and friends. It was a great time catching up with them all but I was sorry I could not meet up with everyone. The time there was also a good time to share my time so far with Mercy Ships, I was able to speak at my church and my parents church, I was encouraged by people's response in both churches. It was sad to leave the UK especially as I would have liked more time with my family, but I was needed back on the ship.

During the Christmas time when the hospital was closed I was housekeeping, well guess what I was doing this time the hospital was closed, yes again I was housekeeping during the 2 months in Tenerife. Yet again I was confronted with why am I doing this??? I was meant to be on a ward doing my job as a nurse, instead I am cleaning toilets and mopping floors! And again I was reminded that I was not doing this for Mercy Ships but for Jesus, this is what He had for me to do, I needed to relearn to be humble and serve others.
The good thing about the ship being in Tenerife and what I really enjoyed was my evenings and weekends where I could enjoy talking, eating and shopping in Spanish! I had forgotten a lot of my Spanish but after being there for 2 months I think must of it has come back! It was great to eat traditional food, which I had missed so much. The good news is that I was able to go to the supermarket before we left to buy some food for the next few weeks!

This was my first time in Tenerife and it was good to explore it with some of my fellow mercy shippers! We even got to go to the water park, which was amazing!!!!! For you all who don't know Tenerife is a tourist place, so there was plenty of things to do!
So as we left Tenerife is was tinged with sadness to leave a great place but also there was excitement to going to a new place, to start working in the hospital and serving the people of Guinea!

End of Togo Field Service

As the end of our Togo Field Service has come and we are sailing towards the Canary Islands as I write this, I thought it would be a great time to reflect on the last 6 months in Togo. How it has impacted my life in such a way that I will  never forget it!I also thought it would be good to show some of my favourite pictures (I may repeat some from previous blogs).

Wow, where do I start?? January...... it seems like such a long time ago but then sometimes it feels like we just arrived in Togo! When we first got here I was apprehensive thinking how am I going to cope with the job and how am I going to be able to relate to my patients. I was soooo nervous, even though I had done a few weeks of nursing in Sierra Leone I was still nervous. I should have not have worried!! It was such a blessing working with such an amazing team of nurses, but not only that, the translators on the ward were sooo great! They made taking care of the patients so much easier. But lets go back to the big screening day! What a day! An eye opener for sure, the people waiting for hours and hours just to be seen; the last hope for them. Having had their problem such as tumours, cleft lips, VVF's, contractures and hernia's for years, this was their last chance of gaining back their lives!

It was such an amazing sight, and feeling that maybe we could help, but also there was the thinking we cannot help all these people! There is so much need and we were only there for 5 months. After that big day we started surgeries and rebuilding the patients lives.

I started on the ward for a week or two and then I moved to the job I love - dressing changes! Plastic patients need their bandages changed often, the days were long and some times hard but it was a good opportunity to get to know the patients and rejoice with them when the wounds are healed and they are able to use their arm or leg for the first time in years!!!

I had a great team working with me in dressing changes!! Fran the Physio from South Africa (who always made you laugh and gave the best hugs ever!) and then Rachel a physicians assistant, she was such a great encourager and adviser!

Then the plastic surgeon had to leave so I went back to the wards. This time I was looking after the VVF ladies. Where exactly do I start with this chapter of my life, as I am writing this my eyes start to blur as a tear comes down my cheek. I learned so much from these ladies. Those first weeks were some of my hardest in my nursing career. I am a paediatric nurse (children's) I don't look after adults! Then I am not use to this type of surgeries and the care they needed. It was a big learning curve and at times I wanted to give up, but thanks to wonderful people supporting me I was able to carry on and I am so thankful for that as I got to love the ladies and enjoy looking after them. They have also taught me to have hope even when everything seems to be going wrong. God can make things possible when things seem impossible. My faith has been renewed from being rock bottom thinking 'what am I doing here' to knowing why God brought me here.

I love how Africans don't smile very much when they have their photos taken!

Fortunately we had time to have fun with the ladies and many a shift we would have a game going. I will always remember their smiles and their laughs, its especially warming that they came to the ship all sad no hope and feeling unloved by the people who should be loving them and that we have been able to show them love and given them hope.

As the wards started to close and the final surgeries were performed it was a good time to realise how much has happened in the last few months and how God has been among us through everything, of course I am also taken back to the time when we lost one of our patients, but I am thankful that she was able to come to know Jesus as her Saviour!





Here are some pictures of the patients and ward translators on deck 7 and on the ward!!!

Deck 7 time!

Enjoying time with our ward translators, who did an amazing job!

Even though I was working on the ward and many days I would stay on the ship, I was able to get to know Togo and Benin, I had a great time visiting places and getting to grips with new foods and cultures! Travelling became interesting getting squashed in a taxi became the norm, instead of 5 people in a car there could be from 7 to 9 people.

Togo

I will miss Togo for it is a beautiful country from the golden beaches that look spectacular to the mountains.  It was a great opportunity to be able to visit Benin a few times as it was also beautiful and the people were very welcoming.

Benin

Next time hopefully I will blog from Tenerife where the ship is having some work done to it. We will be there for 2 months in that time I will be going home for 2 weeks to meet up with friends and family.