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.

VVF Land

VVF, what does it stand for? Vesicovaginal fistula

Wikipedia explain it as this "VVF is an abnormal fistulous tract extending between the bladder and the vagina that allows the continuous involuntary discharge of urine into the vaginal vault"

The ladies waiting to be seen on screening day!

In normal terms it means that there is a hole between the bladder and the vagina, this means urine leaks through the vagina, therefore the ladies have no control of their urine.

How does this occur? Mainly it occurs when a woman is in labour for a few days, the baby gets stuck in the birth canal, the baby's skull puts pressure on the pubic bone, the surrounding tissue dies due to the pressure which then leaves a hole. The fistulas can also occur in other areas such as the rectum, uterus, urethra and ureters. This problem mainly occurs in under developed countries where obstectric care is minimal. For a lot of the ladies they have to walk for days to reach the hospital and then they are faced with huge bills.

Dress ceremony

They come to the ship to have surgery so the hole can be closed so then they can pass urine normally, instead of leaking all the time. The ladies come having had a difficult life, most of them would have had to grieve for the baby that died, but the main problem is that the families and communities they lived in before the problem started have rejected them. The community sees this as a curse so they do not want the woman to be there. They struggle to live as they cannot get a job, who is going to employ someone who constantly is peeing and therefore smells all the time of urine???.

Most of the husbands leave them as well, there is no one there to love them and care for them, while they themselves are thinking why me?
The first few days on the ship they are quiet and withdrawn, but as time passes there is a change in them, they start smiling and singing along to the worship. They start chatting to the other ladies who are in the same situation as them. Us nurses and crew members who come and visit them show them the love they have not experienced for a long time or maybe never, they start hugging you and kissing you and saying thanks! I have come to love these ladies so much, they may have had a physical and emotional change but I have also learnt so much from them; there is always hope!
Unfortunately not all have had a successful surgery and it is very hard to see them discharge knowing that they are going back to the same place they came, but hopefully they will know that there are people who love them unconditionally and more importantly that God loves them for who they are.

After they have had their surgery and are doing well they are ready for discharge. We have a dress ceremony for them, this symbolises the new them.. They receive a new dress, a bible, soap, mirror and lotion. At this time they can give a testimony, there is usually a tear shed as they tell what they have gone through. It makes you think how lucky we are in "the west". These ladies have had it rough but they still thank God.

One of the ladies who is dry and is celebrating in the dress ceremony!

I have had shifts where I was so busy and things kept going wrong, and at one stage I really did not want to carry on nursing the VVF ladies, but I carried on and I am so pleased I did. I really want to say thank you to the people who help me through this difficult time. The pleasure I have now of knowing these ladies is great, they give you a big smile when you walk in to the ward and hug and kiss you, and I am so blessed to have been a part of their lives!

The last 4 ladies on the ward

Mark 5:25-34

a friend who will not be forgotten

A patient who I had the pleasure to look after and take care of her wounds went to be with the Lord yesterday. Many times I have questioned "why God?", but as our ward superviser said to us it is in God's hands, he has a plan, it may not be our plan, but he has the plan. That is what keeps me going, knowing that she gave her life to Jesus while she was here and now she is with Him, makes me realise how God is in Control of everything!
I will remember her with a smile on her face, singing along to the worship and actually dancing in her wheelchair! We will miss her but knowing that I will see her again brings a smile to face!xxx





Psalm 10:17LORD, you know the hopes of the helpless. Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them.

Washing Hair!

I had been doing dressing changes to my patient for the last 4 weeks. Because of where she had the surgery she had a bandage on her head, this meant she could not wash her hair as it was alsways covered by the bandage and also we did not want to get the surgery site wet.



 I had tried to wash her hair before as if I did it I could be careful with her wound and be able to rebandage her after. Through one of the interpreters we realise she would not let me wash her hair as culturaly this was not acceptable. I had a lot to learn about cultures! Only her or her husband could do it. So we compromised and I put a wet cloth on her hair to get rid of some of the dried blood which had been there since the surgery.

Unfortunetly her husband had been involved in an accident when traveling form the ship to their home to see their daughter. This meant he could not come and be with her.

She was desperate to go home and see her family but her wound was not healing as fast as we had hoped so she had to stay on the ship until it was all healed.

A few weeks went by and we decided to ask her again about the hairwashing, this time we went through our patient life workers, they are the one that come and do worship time and prayer time on the wards, they come and speak to the patients and encourage them. Through them she agreed to let me wash her hair!

I got everything ready for her, got the bowls, towels, shampoo and conditioner, one the patient life crew let me borrow some of her cream to put on my patients hair post hair washing. I brought her into the room and realised she had nothing with her to brush her hair, so I quickly went upto the ship shop (good thing it was open!) and got some combs!

We were ready, she laid down and I started to wash her hair, after weeks of not washing it and after the suregery and all the dressing changes the hair was pretty dirty but by the time I had finished it was clean and smelt lovely. She was very relaxed and closed her eyes a few times enjoying it!



One of the many dressing changes!

 At the end the she thank me in English!!!! This lady had not spoken any english or french before coming to the ship. She somehow managed to say 'Thank you very much'. I nearly cried with happiness. This lady had hardly said anything to me in the weeks I had changed her dressing and would not hug only shake your hand. That day was different she gave me a hug and said Thank you, wow. I felt very priviliged to be able to do her hair and see her smile.

Dressings!

I think it is about time that I told you all what I am actually doing on the ship now that the hospital has been up and running for 7 weeks. I am working in B ward which is where the plastic surgery patients are. At the start of the hospital being open I was a ward nurse, looking after the patients pre and post-operatively. It was a great time to get to know the patients, learn new skills and new ways of doing things. Working with different nurses from around the world makes for interesting times, discussing how we do things at home and what they call it, I didn't realise how many ways you can call Paracetamol!

The good thing about working on the ward is that we start the day with prayer, the handover time were the nurses from the shift before and the nurses taking over have a chance to share information and then give the shift over to God. This is so different from back home, but it makes for a good start to the shift! Then I do all my checks of the patients and the paperwork, during the shift Patient life come in and start a worship time right in the middle of the ward. The patients all start singing and praising God, I love this time of day. Then the rest of the shift continues on until the next handover!





One of my little patients, playing on deck 7!



       After 3 weeks of being on the ward my role changed from a ward nurse to a dressings nurse, for those who do not understand what this means, it does not mean dressing someone! It means I  change bandages and look after the surgery sites/wounds post operatively. I really enjoy this work and having experience from work at home it has really helped. Things are different but it is a rewarding job most of the time. As you see the patients wounds healing and being able to discharge them from the ward, but in some cases they are slow to heal as they get an infection or their bodies have not got enough nutrients to heal their wounds. I am so happy that I can make a difference in someones life even if it is a small part, and as some dressings take over an hour to do you get to know the patient very well, in that time you try and talk to them, through a translator (as my french is not good enough), some have had a hard life but hopefully having this surgery will change this. They are so thankful at the end of the dressing change, even after I have hurt them (as unfortunately it does hurt sometimes to change their dressings).



A patient who has just had a dressing change!



I work with a great team, in the dressing area we have Physician Assistant from the USA (who changes the dressings with me) she is a great encouragement and and so helpful. Then we have the physiotherapist from South Africa, she makes the day so much fun. We have also an OT (occupational therapist) from Australia, who makes all the splints for the patients who need them! We have such an international team doing the dressings, and this is not including the nurses who come with their patient from the ward!



Well that is a small overview of what I am doing on the ship! But this is going to change as the Plastic Surgeon unfortunately has left, so as the patients heal and leave the ward there will be less dressings to do. I will be moving back to the ward to start the next surgery which will be VVF, I will explain this in a later blog!