And all of Your children will stretch out their hands/ And pick up the crippled man

It occured to me that if you are just reading my blog, it would not give a good picture of what is going on during the outreach. I mean, we all know that the ship is a hospital ship providing free surgeries for the forgotten poor, but what does that look like?

Here are some statistics from the 2009 Benin outreach:

Reconstructive and Plastic Surgery:

Reconstrictive and plastic 996
Cleft lip & Cleft Palate 185
General Operations 1,161
Local Surgeons trained 2

Ophthalmic Surgery:

Cataract removal 3,521 (Sometimes as many as 40 a day!)
Pterygia removal 448
Strabismus repairs and enucleations 122
Local surgeons trained 5

Field Eye Clinic:

Eye Evaluations & Treatments 33,851
Distribution of Sunglasses 7,083
Distribution of Readers 5,689
Training Community Eye Field Workers 18

VVF Repair:

VVF Repairs 154
Surgeons trained 4

Orthopaedic Surgery:

Orthopaedic Surgery 231

Dental Clinic:

Dental patients 10,175
Dental hygiene patients 794
Oral health education 13,174
Train teachers in oral health 25
Train Beninese as dental assistants 2

Palliative & Outpatient Care:

Home Care 28
Support Burkitt’s lymphoma patients 6
Train Family in wound care 19

Locals were also trained in Agriculture development, mental health care, and administration, among other things.

I could list more. The crew of the Africa Mercy was busy over the 10 months they were in Benin! The statistics are from: http://navigator.mercyships.org/download/attachments/23331521/Benin+2009+Field+Service+Thank+You+Presentation+10Dec09uk.pdf?version=1

Hopefully you can access that. It is a wonderful slide show that they played for the dayworkers on their last day. It has pictures and a little more information about things.


"As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?'
'Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.' "

John 9:1-3

I look to the sea, reflections in the waves spark my memory

We have been sailing for roughly five days now, and I'm learning an interesting fact: sailing, while occasionally punctuated with sea life and interesting weather phenomena, is rather boring. We have turned more northerly, and we are somewhere in the vicinity of Guinea. For some reason probably having to do with currents and trade winds, the sea is much more choppy. It's kind of fun.


Yesterday I went out to the bow intending to listen to my ipod and relax. Some of my roommates were there, so I went to talk to them. As we talked, we noticed a distinct change in the water in front of us. We were headed into rain. This was good news! We quickly threw our stuff inside and watched it approach. We were soon soaked from head to toe! It was exhilarating! My clothes are still not dry.


Last night I spent the night up on Deck 8, which is the top deck of the ship and is out in the open. I, along with my some of my 4416 friends (Kendall, Chelsea, Bonny Jean, and Emma), dragged my room's sleeping bag up and set it somewhere relatively out of traffic. It made for a surreal night.


When we first went to bed, it was cloudy, and I was fully expecting to get rained on. The wind started to pick up so I got into my bag. The wind eventually got so strong that I was pretending I was on Everest. By some miracle, I fell asleep.


Around 1:30 in the morning, Kendall and Chelsea woke me up. The clouds had cleared from above us. There is a meteor shower going on right now, so we lied there, watching for meteors. We saw a few, including one rather creepy one that stayed a while and was really bright. We noticed flashing, and Chelsea went to look and reported lightning. I got up to see. All around and behind us there were storms. It was incredible. Then Chelsea noticed something. We watched a white shape come up, seemingly out of the water, and fly in an erratic pattern. It appeared to be approaching us. As we stared, we saw strange, flapping movements on the side of the shape. It was a bird! We had no idea what it was doing so far from shore. After being awake for a while, we headed back to bed. It was a moment of overwhelming sensory stimulation: lightning flickering and reflecting off the bulkheads, wind blowing and whistling over my sleeping bag, the hard, cold metal ground underneath me. Wow!


To alleviate the boredom, there are activities, mostly Christmas centered, that are taking place. The second night we were sailing, they had storytelling. There were six or so stations around the ship, and we went in groups to those stations. Crew members had prepared stories and skits, which they performed for us. It was nice. Last night was Winter Wonderland. People set up booths and sold everything from baked goods to popcorn to homemade jewelery and crafts. The talent on this ship is rather impressive, as everything sold was of high quality. One of the photographers on the ship had a photo booth, so we got a picture of our cabin:



The women of cabin 4418 from left to right: Esther, me, Annie, Lindsay, Rachel, Bethany, and Priska



And because I mentioned them, so now you can have a visual, here are the 4416 girls:


Top row: Bonny Jean, Emma, and Chelsea
Bottom row: Kendall, Michelle, and Amie

'Cause I've got to be free

Hello from the sea somewhere just south and probably west of Ghana. So far I'm not seasick at all, although the constant (and sometimes severe) rocking makes my head feel a little weird. The ship was originally a ferry so it has a flat bottom. That makes it rather unstable.

Last night I stared at the stars for a couple of hours. I can't remember the last time I've seen so many. It was nice to discover that there are the same constellations here as there are at home. I am planning to sleep on Deck 8, outside, at least once on the voyage.

This evening during dinner, our Polish Chief Officer announced a "water tube from the sky" off the port bow. I knew instantly what he was talking about, and I ran to the window to witness my first water spout! I ran out to the bow with the intent of taking pictures, but unfortunately, as I've discovered many times here in Africa, my freezing cold room makes for a cold camera, which makes for foggy lenses for about 5 minutes or so. Also, my camera battery died at this point, so I just watched the waterspout. It was so close and absolutely amazing! We could see the water being stirred up and the funnel rotating. It amazed me because we weren't even in a storm! It was overcast but it wasn't raining at the time!

All pictures in my blog today were taken by Daniel Um.

The water being stirred up.

As it dissipated, it got ropey.





About an hour later, we got told that a pod of dolphins were nearby!


Less than five minutes later, we were told that there were whales! We didn't really see those very well, but there were many spouts from the whales as they came up for air.


Being in the waters off Ghana, I realize that all these exciting happenings in less than an hour and a half is evidence for Ghana indeed being the promised land, as they claim.

To sum it all up, sailing is awesome, and God's creation is incredible!

I'm sailing away! Set an open course for the virgin sea.

On December 8, 2009, the Africa Mercy set sail from Cotonou, Benin.




The gangway being loaded. We are officially all on board.




We got to leave work to watch us set out. From the left: Kendall, Chelsea, and me.

One of our tug boats. This one was on the bow.

The other tug boat.

That massive space between boats there was our berth.

This is the pilot boat. It pulls up along a special hatch where the pilots that steer the ship out of the harbor can get out.

Sailing into the sunset. They opened the bow for us to sit on.




Me, staring off into the evening.

Ch-ch-ch-ch changes! (Turn and face the strain)

We will soon be leaving Benin. As I talked about in my last post, so many wonderful people have gone home. My room has only one person in it who was here when I arrived. The living room part of it has even been reorganized:

Before . . . and

After! Better use of space? Only time will tell.

Another thing is that we are packing up all the stuff we had out on the dock:

There used to be fences lining the whole side of the ship, as well as a security building. Now it looks so empty!

Speaking of empty, this area used to be lined with cars. Like so:

And where are those cars now? Well, some of them have been driven to Togo, and the rest are on Deck 8, of course!

I have mixed feelings about leaving Benin. It's has areas of beauty:

On the way to Bab's Dock

And places that make me sick.

Trash in the water of the harbor

It is filled with wonderful people:

Kid from the beach at Grand Popo

And I have made wonderful friends here:

I know that though I look forward to the adventures of the sail, Tenerife, and Togo, I will always have a special place in my heart for Benin: a country that though small, sees itself as larger than life:

Another one bites the dust!

A mass exodus of the Africa Mercy has marked the end of the outreach in Benin. This has included many of my friends and roommates. This tribute blog will be a little longer than usual.

Lisa

Second weekend in Benin, at the Stilt Village.

You were my very first Mercy Ships friend! I already miss your humor and wit and honesty. I really always got a kick out of it. I envy your sense of adventure and courage to explore Africa. You definitely helped me to be more brave, and I hope that I can continue to do so. Thanks also for inspiring me to apply for grad school again! Good luck in medical school! You'll be a great doctor!

Megan

By the Starbucks Cafe.

I really think you are amazing. You are so much fun, so funny, and just all around cool. Although I didn't get to shadow you much, my times getting to do so are some of my favorite memories. You have a way with people, and especially children, that makes therapy with you fun, rather than painful. Thanks for your support with my grad school application, and thanks for being my friend!

Dinante

Pre-foot incident at Possotome.

We had some wonderful talks, you and I. I remember so many times of sitting back in the living room and talking about Dutch food and what we would do with our lives and our days and everything. And you are so much fun! I loved spending time with you during our weekends in Possotome and Gran Popo. I am so excited for how your life is changing, so you had better keep me updated!

Kelsey

The best night of sleep of our lives, at Grand Popo.

Oh man! You are so fun and funny as heck! I have all these memories of Africa that will have your voice narrating them! Our night watch time was awesome. I truly enjoyed talking to you and hearing your heart about life and nursing. I also felt inspired by your willingness to jump into the adventures of Africa as they came up. Thanks for everything!

Annemarie

Annemarie helping me to laugh the pain off after my foot got crushed in Possotome.

My very first bunkmate! I already miss your laughter and joy! Also, your AMAZING humming ability! Thank you for teaching me Dutch and not laughing too much at my lack of ability. I am very happy that you get to see your niece and your family and your wonderful friends! Thanks also for the weekly quotes! I'm really excited to read them!

I miss all you women so much! Thanks for making the first part of my time here wonderful! God bless all of you!

I'm just a cheeseburger in paradise

This last weekend there was a "blackout." It was a day where the power was shut off so that maintenance could be done on electrical systems before the sail. We were all encouraged to get off the ship as toilets would not be flushing and the air conditioner would not be working. Thus, my roommates Dinante, Priska, Kelsey, and I decided to go to Grand Popo, which is a beach town a couple hours' drive from Cotonou.




Waiting at the big market. Kelsey, Dinante, and me

We went to the big market in order to catch a cab. The method to doing this is simple: some guy is very helpful and takes you where you need to go and flags down a cab, and then he gets a little tip from the drivers. Also, the cab is not yours specifically, as they will pick up and drop off people along the way. The poor three girls were crammed into the back seat. I was in the middle seat with two African men. It was a long drive. When we got there, they brought us to some random hotel instead of the one we requested. Then they tried to charge us more money to take us to the one we had requested and shown them a map to get to, but we refused. Unfortunately, when we got to the hotel, we found out that it no longer existed. We were tired of dealing with our driver and his friend so we told them to leave and started trekking down the street to find somewhere else to stay.




Dinante and Kelsey walking and walking.

On the way, we hear the high pitched sound of a cell phone playing "Jingle Bells." We followed that sound into a little restaurant/ bar and all got Coca Colas. The cell phone belonged to a patron, and the bar itself was playing honky tonk country music. It was weird to hear both songs in the middle of western Africa, but it was so great.




Inside Kelsey and my room.

After our refreshing beverage, we continued down the street and found acceptable accommodations at a place called Dune Pilage. It was a restaurant that also had bungalows for roughly $6 per person per night. It also had some of the prettiest beaches we had ever seen. After changing, we all went to the beach, laid out, and played in the water. We got thirsty so we went back and ordered juice. It took over an hour as the guy had to go to the market to buy mangoes and bananas in order to blend them and make us fresh, warm, delicious juice. The warm we could maybe have done without, but it was like drinking a mango in a cup, so that was nice.




Kelsey and Dinante chasing children.



Beautiful!

After the juice, the other girls went to nap on the beach, but I went and napped in our bungalow because I burn to a crisp when I just think about the sun. They returned eventually, we all got clean, and then ate some of the best pizza I've had so far in Africa at the restaurant of our hotel.

The plan for the evening was to go to the hotel Awale Pilage to a huge beach party we kept seeing signs for. We set out and soon discovered that hailing a zimmy is much harder in a small town. We walked for a long time until we found several zimmy drivers just hanging out. We got a couple and made it to the hotel.

It turns out that the party was for a Grand Prix race that began in Brussels a month ago and ended in Grand Popo this weekend. There were many Europeans there, so it was nice to sort of fit in. There were African dancers, and I can do a pretty decent African dance, so my lovely roommates encouraged me to join. I said no, until one of the dancers pulled me out, fortunately during the one kind of dance I can remotely do. I think the little dancer lady was impressed, but I'm not sure, as she and I don't share a common language.






Dancing!

We didn't stay for too long, as we were all tired out. It was much quicker to catch a ride on the way back. Kelsey and I shared a room, and we discovered to our chagrin that the fan in our room didn't work. It was maybe the worst night of sleep I'd ever had. Kelsey got bit by a lot of bugs at some point, and her legs were itching so bad. It was hot. We could hear everything outside. I did actually sleep for a while, but none of us were well rested.

We ate bread and drank really nasty coffee at our hotel and then headed out. We did not have a plan on how to get home, but the hotel guy sent us to the place to catch taxis. It was roughly the same process here, except it felt more like hitchhiking this time around. Finally a girl stopped to pick us up. She had a really nice car, air conditioning, ABBA playing, and she did not charge us for the ride. This is significant because that NEVER happens in Africa. Everyone wants to be compensated for what they do. EVERYONE. This girl was even a little offended that we offered to pay her when she dropped us off. It was the most comfortable ride we'd had in Africa, and it was free! Talk about a blessing!

This whole weekend was a wonderful time with incredible women!





Me, Kelsey, Dinante, and Priska