Nurses party

Well, my little friend had surgery yesterday. It seems like it went well. She's having some pain, but doing fine. The cool thing was that I popped by the ward where she was at a random time during the day, and it happened to be just before she was going for surgery, so I was able to pray with her. I think that was a God thing. What a brave little girl she is. She said she wasn't afraid, and seemed so peaceful. When she returned from surgery, her mom came and found me, saying that Annifer was asking for me. That was so special. I have really been blessed by this sweet little girl.
This evening we had a lovely ward nurses tea party. We had lots of yummy sweets, and even nanaimo bars, which I found out is a Canadian thing. I'm proud of that, because I love nanaimo bars! It was so fun to fellowship with my comrades outside of work and enjoy chocolate at the same time. At one point, I looked around at everyone, and realized I was in a little slice of heaven.

Annifer

Oh my goodness, I think I have met two of the cutest children in the world! Tuesday I took care of a lady who went for surgery. She had a little 4-month-old baby named Lauren that I had to take care of while she was gone. This little girl is ADORABLE! She didn’t cry once, and just stared up at me with chocolate brown eyes under frilly eyelashes and won my heart in a second. I got to be a real African lady when some women helped me tie the baby to my back with my lappa. It’s actually quite a comfortable and smart way of carrying children around that leaves your hands free! I just might do it someday when I have my own children, God willing!
Annifer is a very smart 6 year old girl, with the cutest laugh, and biggest smile! She has so much joy; it’s infectious! She really brightened my day! Tuesday we played a game of “Piggy in the Middle” with some patients, and she was giggling and chasing the ball the whole time! Yesterday we played hot potato with a balloon, and got to 50 without dropping it! She must be going to a really good school. She’s smart for a 6 year old even at home in Canada! She counted for me up to 100 and said her ABC’s. She read me a little book, and even spoke a little French to me! I am astounded by how bright she is! I have fallen in love with this little girl! I had so much fun with her I decided to stay after work and colour with her until dinner-time. It was a blast! We are officially friends. She asked me to be her friend yesterday, and I readily accepted! She’s having surgery today, and I sure hope it goes well.

Robertsport

What a weekend we had at Robertsport! It started out with a 3-hour taxi ride Saturday morning. The first half of the trip was on the best road I’ve been on in Liberia, so I thought it would be no problem. However, the second part was pretty bumpy. I had to put away my letter that I’d been working on or else it would have been quite illegible! ☺ We were entertained by the car door that came open every thirty seconds or so as the taxi jerked along at 30 km/hour.
When we finally got to the town on the seashore, our taxi driver didn’t know where to take us. Also, there was no cell phone reception for a while, so we were a bit lost. However, it seems the locals knew where we were headed and they pointed us in the right direction. Eight of us joined four others who had arrived the day before, to make a dozen: 7 girls, 5 boys. We slept in tents on stilts with mosquito nets, and electricity at night. We even had a fan! Thank God for the fan, with 7 girls sleeping in a stuffy tent! However, we were disturbed at 2 am by someone saying our fan was needed elsewhere, and depriving us of its comforting breeze! We would have resisted this theft a bit more had any of us been even slightly alert.
I spent as much time as possible of the next two days in the ocean. It was a true paradise! I would have never thought you’d find a place like that in Liberia! The beach was beautiful with lovely soft sand, crashing waves, crabs scurrying here and there, and “plenty-plenty” sunshine! The days were filled with body surfing, boogie boarding, swimming in clear water that felt like a bathtub, exploring rocks down the beach, walking down the beach, wading in the water, a bit of laying in the sun, and eating good food. I got out of the ocean when the sun went down, and we built a bonfire, sang worship songs and watched shooting stars. Sounds unreal? It felt that way too. It was quite wonderful! Our own private, barely developed, peaceful, natural, fabulous piece of God’s creation! A place like Robertsport in the western world would be overrun with expensive hotels and people everywhere.
Sunday I got to hang out with some of the local kids as they body surfed with me in the crashing waves. One guy had a makeshift boogie board – a piece of driftwood. It worked quite well! I just wouldn’t want the splinters you could get from it if the waves sent you tumbling!
Sunday ended with our taxis being over 2 hours late to take us home, reminding us we were on African time, but we had an impromptu worship service in our tent, which was refreshing. Katelyn and I took one final walk down the beach in the pouring rain, which meant I rode home in drenched clothing, but it was worth it! We didn’t get back to the ship until almost 9 pm, and hurriedly showered, ate dinner, threw on some laundry, and crashed! I slept like a rock after the sea, sand and sun for two days. I woke up to my alarm this morning, dragged from the deepest of deep sleeps, where I thought my dreams were reality, and wished I could keep on sleeping for another 8 hours!
This afternoon I led ward nurse devotions, and shared what God has been working on in me lately. Thinking about it made me realize how much God is really working in my life. He is so good. I’ll have to share more with you when I get home. I’ll leave you with a foretaste of some of the verses that have been precious to me in this time: Matthew 6:25-34; Mark 8:34-38; Psalm 63:1-5; and Isaiah 40: 29-31. Also, my favourite song is now “I Belong” by Kathryn Scott. It’s a good one! Enjoy!

God's Childrens Home Part 2

I went for the second time to visit some teenaged girls at God's Children's Home yesterday. It was really quite a wonderful time. There were a lot of challenges we had to overcome before we could get there yesterday because it was raining, the roads were bad, one of Andrea's children was sick so we had to take them with us, we got stuck in a traffic jam on a bridge, and everything seemed to be a hassle. However, it was really a wonderful time with the girls. We baked shortbread with them. It's really neat how they make an oven. I should have taken a picture, but they put the food in a metal box over a fire, and cover it with a metal sheet, on which they build another fire. So, there is a fire underneath, and a fire on top. I couldn't believe how well it turned out! Honestly, it was such good shortbread! It was fun to learn how they bake here and just hang out with the girls.
We played a fun little guessing game and just had some fellowship time, and then my roommate Esther lead us in a Bible study. It was really good. She talked about how Jesus is "the way, the truth, and the life", and how we can choose His way or our own way. She compared it to baking: you can eat the ingredients all separately (yuck - raw eggs, flour, sugar), or mix them together and follow the recipe and make something wonderful! It was such a good, simple, true lesson. Afterwards we prayed with the girls and it was so good to hear their honest, heartfelt prayers. They so obviously depend on God for everything in life. I am always learning fresh new things from these people!
The girls platted (braided) my hair for a while after everything was done. It's amazing how fast they are at it, and how creative their hairstyles are! The girls are so beautiful! I just can't get over it. I really wish I had longer to be here with them, and more of an opportunity to get to know them. I'm going to try to go back as much as possible in this next month.
I can't believe I have only one month before I return home! It's actually shocking how fast time has flown!

Mercy Ships 30th Anniversary

On Saturday we had a day of celebration. It was the 30th Anniversary of Mercy Ships. I was working a day shift, but a lot of the crew made teams to play in fun events to celebrate the occasion. The team that I would have been a part of, had I not been working, won! Sweet!
We took the patients out on deck 7 for a couple hours to watch the events. It was a really nice time with them, because the patients were quite stable, and we were able to just have fun with them, without worrying about the medical side of things all the time. We played pin the tail on the donkey, which was new for pretty much all of them. They seemed to really enjoy it.
In the evening there was a presentation about the history of Mercy Ships and the various ships they have had. It was really amazing to think about all of the surgeries that have been done over the years, and all of the lives that have been changed because of this ministry! I feel so privileged to be able to be a part!
These last few days I’ve been working nights, and they’ve been fairly quiet. Tonight was so quiet that I was able to call Alma’s to say hi to the Priscilla Circle ladies! It was such a treat to hear their voices!
We have a lot of pediatric patients in the next few weeks, so it’s a bit out of my league, and we could use prayer for that because most of us are not pediatric nurses!
We’re doing a lot of facial surgeries, eye surgeries and some abdominal surgeries these days. Most of the plastics patients are gone, except for those with infection. Slowly they are getting better and are able to go home. One lady has been with us for 2 months and has not seen 4 of her children in all that time! She’s really anxious to get home! Sometimes it’s a bit sad to see them go because they become pretty special to you!

Spoons and farewell to Kelly!

I said a sad farewell to one of my close friends here on the Africa Mercy on Sunday. Kelly is an ICU nurse from the States. We ended up hanging out quite a lot, so I’m really missing her. Life here on the Africa Mercy means that you are constantly saying hello and goodbye to special people. It’s good, but hard too. The long term crew say the goodbyes are one of the hardest parts of being here.
We had a going away party for Kelly on Friday evening. We played ultimate Frisbee, then ordered pizza and had a massive game of spoons. For those of you who don’t know, Spoons is a card game that can get really crazy. You end up wrestling to get your spoon, and sometimes get a little bruised in the process. It’s a lot of fun.
As you can tell by the pictures, some people get a little competitive and go to great lengths to get their spoon!

African Clothing

I finally got all of my items from the tailor. I really like my African dress. It fits amazingly well! Usually they make the clothing a couple sizes too big. I can't blame them since all they do is take your measurements and your description of what you want made, and voila!... your items are finished! No patterns necessary here!
I worked this morning, and it was a good day. My blood buddy went back for surgery again today. He's improving everyday, and getting a little closer to being able to go home. It's nice to have patients stay for a while so you can get to know them.
I had two patients to practice French with today. The little girl didn't talk much, but the man from Guinea was great. He was quite gracious with me as we tried to understand each other.
Tonight I'm playing ultimate frisbee and saying goodbye to my dear friend Kelly who is leaving on Sunday. We're planning a pizza party and night of playing spoons! Fun fun!

Missionaries of Charity, Water Street Market

This morning we went to the Missionaries of Charity home. It is an HIV/AIDS home started by the order of nuns that Mother Theresa was a part of. It was a really nice place with a womens, mens and childrens section. I went with the team to minister to the women. We started off by greeting them, had an African worship and testimony time, and then talked about Psalm 23. It was amazing how little they knew about sheep or shepherds when we had our discussion time and games. It was encouraging that they understood the most important part of the lesson: that Jesus is their Good Shepherd. Some of them have such strong faith.
Some of the women were literally skin and bones. They had no energy to get up from bed at all. We are not allowed to take pictures for obvious reasons. I really sensed the presence of God there with us today. It is such an amazing ministry. It would be really difficult I'm sure, because you would always be working with dying people, but also so rewarding to be with someone in their last days of life, and encouraging them to fix their eyes on the Lord.
We went to the market on the way home, and spent hours picking out beautiful lappas of material to bring home with us. I'm excited about the bright colours and patterns!

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone!!! Yesterday was Canadian Thanksgiving on board the Africa Mercy in Liberia. We have 29 Canadians on board, and we had a lovely chicken and mashed potato dinner followed by an evening of playing games and eating pumpkin pie together! We shared what we were thankful for, and the common theme was family, friends, health, and being able to be here. God is so good, and there is always "plenty, plenty" to thank Him for! We played a game of jeopardy with Canadian trivia, and I guessed on a couple questions and luckily got the right answer! Fun times.
Today I worked day shift. Even though yesterday I had 7 patients and today I had 5, I felt less on top of things today. I had a little 5 year old girl going home today and I spent a lot of time getting her ready to leave. There is a lot of teaching to do. At home you take for granted that people know the importance of washing their hands and basic hygiene, but here you have to go through everything in great detail to make sure you're understood. One of the most common things we teach them is how to make salt water to do their wound care at home. This is the procedure: boil one litre of "clean" water in a "clean" pot on the fire for ten minutes, add one teaspoon of salt, take it off the fire, let it cool, and you can use it for one day. Can you imagine how much time it takes to simply make clean water to prevent infection? We take so much for granted! If you could see the conditions people live in here, you would be amazed that wounds ever heal! It's so hot and humid and dirty - perfect conditions for bugs to grow! The human body is truly an amazing creation of God!
Speaking of the conditions here, one thing I really am incredulous about is how people keep their whites white. Sorry, that was a bad sentence. What I mean is, how do people have brilliant white clothing when their water is at best a medium brownish colour? I've been told it's elbow grease! I truly am astounded by that, especially when my clothing gets incredibly dirty just walking around in flip flops. The mud sprays all up your backside as you walk. It's quite funny to see yourself at the end of a walk.
I had a lady going for surgery today who was terrified. She'd had surgery twice before on the ship, but for some reason, she was very fearful. I love it that here you can openly pray with your patients because that is the best comfort and reassurance I can give someone in a situation like that. I can't guarantee that everything will for sure go 100% right. There are always risks and complications, but you can trust your life into the hands of the Good Physician and know he'll take care of you as no one else can. Praise the Lord for His faithfulness!
My "blood buddy" is doing well. His wound isn't healing too great though I've heard. He was telling me that he doesn't know where his mother and himself will live when he is discharged. They live in a village that is inaccessible by car. It's way off in the bush. His mother Esther told me that she used to have 10 children, but 7 of them and her husband were killed in the war. I didn't really know what to say to that, but told her that God loves her and will continue to be with her as He says in scripture. She obviously has depended on God for strength to keep on through the years. I can learn so much from these amazing strong people!
Tomorrow I'm going to a HIV/AIDS care home of some sort, so I'm sure I'll have something to write about!
Oh, and if Michael James Roste is reading this today, Happy 23rd Birthday!!! LOVE YOU!

Bong Mines photos

Bong Mines

This past Saturday was Bong Mines. It is one of two places where everyone says you have to go while you’re here. I’m still recovering two days later because it was such an active day! It’s an old abandoned mine that was destroyed during the war. Again, everything has been stripped from it that can be taken away. There were people at the mine hacking away at it and removing more bits to use wherever they take them. I got incredibly dirty climbing around the building, scrambling up and down old broken staircases and getting sooty and oily. It was a lot of fun to explore.
I need to backtrack to the beginning of the day. We took a train to the mine. We drove our land rovers onto a flatbed car and rode on the roof of the vehicles as the train rolled away. The view was awesome from up there and I got some great photos of the surrounding villages as we passed by. We also got to ride at the front of the engine. Safety standards aren’t quite as high here! ☺ We were fine though. Don’t worry Dad, I’m being careful!
After the mine adventure, we went hiking through the jungle and up a waterfall. That was the best part of the day. It was just a lot of fun and great to be out in God’s amazing creation. In the city you just see pollution and derelict buildings.
We also stopped at a local hospital and toured it. They only had one oxygen and suction machine and one baby incubator, otherwise they had very little modern machinery. The hospital was big and quite clean however. They just need the funding to actually operate it to its full capacity.
We had a bumpy 3-hour car ride home, but thoroughly enjoyed our steak dinners that were waiting for us at the other end! That was quite a treat!

Sunday morning I went to an African church. It was super hot, and I sat in the wrong section by accident. I was in the kids section and was totally smothered with children crowded around me. I never really can catch on to the words of the songs because they don’t enunciate very well, but the singing was lively and wonderful anyway. The sermon was quite understandable, which was really nice.
We didn’t get back until after 2 in the afternoon, and as I was exhausted after an active weekend, I just hung out the rest of the day and watched “The God’s Must be Crazy I” this evening after ship church.

Today I worked day shift and had 4 pediatric patients! Apparently I’m going to be a pediatric nurse by the time I get home! One of the little babies had a raging fever. I hope he’s going to be alright. I spent the last half hour of my shift holding him against an ice pack to bring down his body temperature. Even with the ice pack in my arms to counteract his heat, I think I got a little overheated by the little furnace.

I'm still alive...

I bet y’all thought I’d dropped off the face of the planet since I haven’t written in a week! Well, let me inform you that no, I am still alive, and enjoying life immensely!
I’ll do my best to summarize. Monday we went to the beach again and had fun playing in the waves, playing ultimate Frisbee, sketching, talking, and enjoying the sunshine. We stayed for the sunset and then ordered pizza when we got back to the ship. The pizza delivery guy had a hard time finding the ship, and when he did, I proceeded to burn my leg on his motorbike exhaust pipe as I leaned over to count our the money for him. We finally had our pizza, and quite enjoyed one of the comforts of home. It wasn’t Boston Pizza or Dominos or Panago, etc., but it was quite good.
I was off duty Tuesday, so I went to an orphanage in the afternoon with a few other women. We were there to spend time focused on the teenage girls at the orphanage. We had a Bible study on the story of Jesus healing a blind man by smearing mud over his eyes. It was good to discuss misconceptions about why people have disabilities or sickness in their lives. The girls are really great and a lot of fun. We taught them the card game Uno after the Bible study, and I was amazed at how quickly they caught on. I hope I can go back so that I can really get to know them and minister to them more fully. There was a girl there named “Jenneh” (that’s how it was spelled), and I realized why people always think I have an African name and pronounce my name a bit different than I do.
My Uno partner was Mary, and we became friends. I hope to go back and develop my relationships with them more fully.
I worked Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evening. In the mornings I read my Bible, went to the tailor and got my new skirts and my dress. The evening shifts were good. One patient shared with me about his experience during the war, which was pretty tough. He was hiding out in the bush, and his entire family died. They were trying to escape by boat, and their boat capsized and they drowned. It’s so hard to believe what they’ve gone through. I love that I can pray with my patients here though.

Quite the night, but God is still good...

I am in the middle of a night shift right now that has slowed down considerably in the past few hours. Goodness it was busy at first! I am in charge of 10 patients, which is fine, but a few of them have fevers, and others are just generally unwell.
My little 2 year old friend had an episode last evening, where I almost called the emergency response team. His lungs sounded terrible, and we tried to give him some medicine by nebulizer to open up his lungs, and did chest physiotherapy, but nothing was helping. He settled a bit and went to sleep during the nebulizer treatment. A few minutes after the neb was finished, I went over to check on him, and realized he wasn't breathing, and his lips were turning blue!!!! YIKES! At that moment, my coworker for the night has stepped out briefly and I was in the 20 bed ward by myself. We didn't have a "charge" nurse working tonight, so I was just about to call for emergent help when my lovely friend Ali walked around the corner. She's an ICU nurse, and a charge nurse, and just amazing! She helped me wake the baby up, call the doctor, and totally supported me through it all. God definitely sent Ali at just the right time. Nothing with this kid was really resolved by bedtime, because although his lungs sounded terrible, he was in no respiratory distress. We just kept his oxygen monitored continuously overnight, and miraculously when I listened to his lungs at 2 am, they were clear as a bell. God is good. I was really worried about my little friend because kids can go downhill pretty quickly. I think he'll be just fine.
No sooner had that episode been resolved, when another patient started to seizure. The doctors came and did a battery of tests, and can't figure out what's going on. We had to start an IV, put him on a monitor, put up side rails so he wouldn't fall out of bed, and give him some medicine. Now he seems completely fine. Strange night. This is again my blood buddy who is sick. It's been nice developing a relationship with him and his mom. I prayed with his mom this evening, and trusted him into God's hands. I really believe God heard those prayers, because he seems okay.
Would you keep my patient friends in prayer over the next few days?
God is constantly proving His faithfulness and goodness to me. I shared some stories from my past with my new friends that show God's goodness, and it really impacted them. We've named that night the "weight room experience" because we were working out at the time. God continues to work on areas of our hearts each day. I love the verse that says "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus". May God continue to make me into a vessel of his love and peace in this world to be used for his purposes.

Learning new languages

This evening I worked on the ward where the patients I've known for the longest are. The three boys who all had infected wounds on their right lower legs, all got skin grafts and all are on crutches now, are there. They are so much fun. They always greet me "Jeena, Jeena" - that's how they pronounce my name here. Almost everyone thinks that I'm saying "Janet" at first. I guess Jenna is not a common name around here.
My blood buddy is on the unit also. That's my new code name for him because he has a half litre of my blood coursing through his veins. SO cool! He was trying to teach me Kpelle again. I'll teach you what I learned.

These are the phrases he decided to teach me (I have no idea if I'm spelling correctly, this is just phonetics):
Pago Mamy? - Can I eat?
Meteme baba de la? - When you will be going?
Ee la se lai? - What is your last name?
Eeg nun la wombai - What is your fathers name?
Coomuna? - What news?
Balli muna pelle? - Where are you going?

These are the phrases I asked him to teach me, because I thought they would be a little more useful for me :)
Ba kulai munam pelle Canada - I am from Canada
Eela mbae? - What is your name?
Baong - good morning
Batuaw - hello (when the sun is hot - in other words, this greeting is used in the daytime only)
naoowa Jenna - My name is Jenna

I had another patient who helped me with important phrases in French for me as a nurse, such as "have you gone poo-poo today?" I'm serious, that's an important sentence in the nursing world!! Sometimes it's a very embarrassing question for me to have to ask, but it's important to be regular!

I've had a teenage girl for the past few days who has been hardly eating anything. It's really tough to know how to get someone to eat nutritious food when they completely refuse, and barely even acknowledge that you're talking to them. She doesn't like ensure, doesn't like porridge, didn't want bananas, wouldn't have a smoothie, wouldn't eat egg, hardly drank any water, and only wanted a bit of bread and tea. We finally got her to drink a bit of chocolate flavoured ensure and eat a bit of yogurt, but I think it'll be an ongoing struggle.

It was a good evening. I got to talk to one of my patients about reliance on God for strength for each day, which was pretty cool. God is SO good. I can't praise him enough!

Today a group of people from the ship were on their way to Nimba mountain for the weekend, which is a 9 hour drive, and they got in a head on collision (it was not our driver's fault). Praise the Lord that no-one was seriously hurt! I saw some pictures tonight, and the cars were definitely pretty smashed, so it's amazing that everyone is alright! Thank goodness the policeman was on our side, because they are often against white people for some reason. Thank goodness there was a nurse along to bandage wounds. Thank God for the generous people of Liberia who stopped on the side of the road to give up their fruits and vegetables and whatever they had to those who were standing in the hot sun at the accident scene for 8 hours. Honestly, God is SO good!

A side note: These pictures have nothing to do with the content of this message, but I thought they were awesome pictures of the sunsets we've been experiencing lately!

Pastor Nick

Things have finally slowed down for me a bit. My birthday week was so much fun, but I was exhausted by the end of it. I've been working evenings this week, so life has been a bit quieter because during the day when I'm off, everyone else is working. It has been less rainy lately, which has been welcome. However, I don't mind the rain because it cools you off quite nicely. On Monday a few girls and I went to the tailor which is a 10 minute walk away. It was lightly spitting when we left, but definitely raining by the time we returned. We were soaked, but happy. I'm finally learning my lesson about flip flops. They should never be worn in the mud here! They flick mud all over your backside when you walk! You get completely covered in red/brown mud!
I'm excited to go back to the tailor to get my two skirts and a dress! I'll take pictures for you all!
Yesterday I got to work on B ward, where there are a bunch of little adorable kids. One little boy is irresistable! He reaches up to you and looks up at you with his big chocolate brown puppy dog eyes, and you can't help but love him to pieces. He has his own "Mercedes" - a cardboard box someone made with a rope in front to drag it around on the floor. He even has a little pretend steering wheel and a license plate!
I haven't been working with my friend who was teaching me Kpele, so I still only know "pago mamy". He looks so much better. He's really healing well.
This week we had a man named pastor Nick here. He's originally from Australia. He was born without arms or legs. He literally has a head and a torso, and a little appendage he calls his "chicken drumstick", which is sort of a foot. He's an evangelist and is traveling to ten countries in ten weeks all over Africa and different places. On Wednesday there was a large gathering at the stadium here in Monrovia. I went to it with Katelyn and Lanita. We squished into the back seat of a taxi to get there African style. It was really fun. It was definitely on African time though. It was supposed to start at 4 pm, and even though we were late, they were setting up the stage still and nothing started for another hour. When things did start, it was another hour or two before pastor Nick came on.
It was amazing to worship the Lord loudly, singing with thousands of African voices lifted up in a stadium. Everyone was dancing, clapping, and praising the Lord. It was awesome.
Pastor Nick gave a very good message, especially for the Liberians. In much of Africa, people with disabilities are looked on as cursed. If that was true, pastor Nick would certainly be cursed. However, he is such a living testimony of God's goodness and plan in spite of much difficulty. God has helped this man to rise above depression, ridicule and trials, and be an amazing witness of His love and mercy. You probably won't believe me, but I've seen pastor Nick dance with my own eyes! He can swim, use a computer, answer the phone, wheel himself around on his motorized wheelchair and really have a great time. He was up all hours of the night laughing and talking with crew members on the ship. He really was an incredible man to meet.
If you want to learn more about him, go to http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org/ or google "life without limbs" or "Nick Vujicic".
Well, I'm off to work. I hope you are all well!!!