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!