Video of screening day

Here is the official video of screening day....tell me what it says: ) The computors here don't have speakers: )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prJxp346a6U

First day of surgeries

Today was my first official day on the ward. Surgeries started this morning and I believe that all 6 OR rooms (or theatres as the Brits call them) were busy most of the day. We nurses and translate rs gathered in the ward and prayed for the day. I had 3 fairly simple patients, bilateral hernia repairs on a young boy and a very old man and, on a young woman,a huge shoulder Lima removal. My patients did well and were very happy and relieved at the end of the day. It was the first surgery for all three. My nurse partner sent a baby to the OR for club foot repair...thank goodness for pediatric nurses...not my comfort zone.

We had a very sad event yesterday. A young woman (I think that she was 17) who had been operated on for cleft pallet on the Anastasis as a baby was here to visit with some of the medical team that had cared for her as a child. She had longstanding cardiac problems possible congenital in origin. She collapsed at her hotel yesterday and was brought to the ship. Don Stephens made an announcement asking everyone to pray. Despite everything being done for her that the medical staff knew to do, she passed away in the night. I cannot imagine how this must be affecting those that knew her and those that worked so hard in ICU to save her life. I understand that she was a special person. But I also believe that she is now in heaven and if those on Mercy Ships had any part in God's work in that matter...then there should be great joy for her in addition to each one's personal sorrow.

I am adjusting to the rhythm of life on the ship and even slept for a full 8 hours last night..whooohooo. I have become quite addicted to frappacinos after supper and fresh pineapple for dessert. The food overall has been good. We had baked spaghetti for lunch. I understand that many of the African staff do not find the food so palatable and will cook their own meals in the crews galley.

I tried to post earlier about screening day but it did not go through so I will try again later. Hope that all are doing well. Here is another picture supplied by the ship of screening day. I understand that there is a video on you tube with this years film. We can't look at it on the ship as it will hog the bandwidth. Let me know what you think: )

Reflections from screening day

I have some time before my next job, the Internet cafe is quite, so thought I would post reflections from screening day. I am not a very good writer so will do bullets, mostly chronological.

Up at 4AM by accident, but had awesome devotional as result.

• We left at 7AM in a long line of land rovers for the stadium which was about 15 minutes from the ship.

Arrived before daylight to an empty stadium which was set up within about 45 minutes with everything we needed to do the screening. Awesome organization.

• Met my interpreter for the day...Roland who was very conscientious and was great to work with through out the long day.




• Patients stood in line outside, some having been there all night. They where pre-screened with those that we might be able to help ushered into the stadium while those with problems we could not help offered prayer in a separate area. Those who we might be able to help where sent inside to go to registration, they then sat in chairs and waited to have their health history taken (that was the job I did each day). After history, they were taken to see the doctors (another long wait), then if they had a condition we could help, they were sent to physical, pharmacy (we gave each patient vitamins and other medications to help build them up before surgery), blood work, and finally surgical scheduling where they got their all important appointment card. If at any point it was decided that the patient would not have surgery, they were offered prayer. At each station, they might have to wait for hours or in some cases had to come back the next day and pick up where they had left off on Thursday.




• The first patient I had was a woman with a large growth on the side of her face. She wore a scarf attempting for hide it from view. She had waited in line all night in the hopes that she could be helped.




• Throughout the day I had many children with cleft lips and pallets as well as club feet and what appeared to be problems from rickets (bandy legs as the Brit's called it). Many women and some fairly young children with huge goiters. Some would meet my eyes, others would not. The women with VVF (which renders them incontinent) where screened in another area. Those with cataracts where also sent to the clinics set up around the city for screening.




• As I reflected back, I was impressed with how patient the Benin people where as they waited in line after line through this process.




• One elderly gentleman was carried to the screening on the back of his son, I do not know what distance he had come from. Don Stephens spoke to him personally after they pulled him out of the line and brought him in right away.




• A long, long, hot day, but so rewarding. Thursday was somewhat slower for the history people as they quit screening new patients about noon. I believe that everyone where seen who came, which is a comfort.

The patient that affected me the most was a young gentleman who used crutches as he followed me to my table. It was late in the day and he was one of many until he showed me his leg. As he pulled up his pants leg, I was expected a misshapen leg or perhaps a tumor....I was not expecting the several inches of steel sticking out of his thigh. Perhaps it was the surprise, but I lost all of my professional nursing composure. My eyes flew open and (thinking "this man needs a hospital" I blurted out, did you show them in the screening line. I thought briefly that it might have just happened until I took a closer look. I then realized that at some point, this man must have had an accident during which he had a steel rod placed in his leg which for some reason was now poking out of his skin. He quickly covered his leg back up, I continued with the history taking and he was sent off to the next station. What affected me so much was the hopeless stoic look of his face. I can cry still when I think of it. I am not sure as yet if we will be able to help him. It will require more than one surgery to fix. I hope and pray that we can and it would be great if he came for surgery while I was here and I was able to see an expression other than sad and stoic on his face.

They just put up the official pictures of screening day and there was this brave stoic man. I pray that he will be able to get surgery.

Screening day

Just wanted to post this little blurb about screening day. I'll send more later. It was a wonderful, but emotional day and I am sooo happy that I was here to participate. We were not allowed to take photos during the day out of respect for our patients.

An estimated 1300 patients (not including family members) stood for hours outside the Hall des Artes stadium in Cotonou Benin on yesterday in the hope of receiving care onboard the Mercy Ship. More than 600 eye patients were referred on to field eye clinic sites at other locations. Many had arrived the day before to begin queueing for the special surgeries advertised: maxillo-facial, plastics, orthopaedics, reconstructive, cleft lip/palate surgeries. Screening continues today.
More details from Programs here

Screening Day

It is 4AM here and I am up and showered, so thought I would post quickly while the computors are available. We are leaving at 6 this morning and traveling to a nearby stadium. People began lining up yesterday for the screening. Please pray for those who come with hope for healing. They will be prescreened before the come into the stadium. Those that Mercy may be able to help are then sent in, registration, then history (that's me), then on to the different specialty areas, lab work, appointment cards, and then they are done. I think they screen for Malaria, so that it can be treated before the surgery.

I am posting a picture of the fishing village which is near the ship. If you look at the Google Earth picture, it is located where there appear to be logs in the water.

Another picture

It takes awhile to upload a photo. Here is one of all the nurses I will be working with on the wards. They are from all over the world....what an awesome experience.

Wed. in Cotonou

It is Wed. morning, I'm sitting in the Internet cafe drinking my coffee (not a latte as Starbucks is not open yet) and trying again to post pictures. I have had some trouble with sea sickness which really surprised me as we are docked. However, the ship does quite a bit of swaying to and fro and when I am on the 3ird level which is where the hospital and my room is, you really feel it. So far today, no queasiness, but I know to run up to deck 7 should I start today. Yesterday couldn't make it out of my cabin until I had tossed my cookies.

We have had a few busy days. Those that have been here before set up the hospital and us newbies continue to attend meetings and orient. It is wonderful to be in such an openly Christian environment and I love praying with those with whom I will be working closely. Tomorrow will be very busy as it is the first screening day. We will leave the ship and 6AM and I notice that they don't say when we'll be coming back. Please pray for those that will be coming. They may have come from long distances and waited for many hours.

Yesterday they hired the Translators that we will be using during the outreach. I am looking forward to meeting them and hopefully learning a little French which is the universal language of Benin.

The picture is of the hospital ward where I will be working. I'll try and send more pics later, it takes awhile for them to upload and I am still trying to get my laptop registered so that I can send emails and posts from my room.

More to come later, must rush now as we are taking an official picture of all the ward nurses today.

Please pray for the screening day tomorrow.

First Sunday in Benin

We were able to get off the ship today as our paperwork was completed last night. We are encouraged to attend local churches while we are here and a group of us set off to to find a local church that was rumored to have services in English. After wondering this way and that, we gave up and attended the catholic church which was beautiful....but all in French. On the way back to the ship, myself and few other adventurous souls ended up on the beach which proved to be a great side trip as we met and played with some of the local children.

I'm have arrived!!

Hello all,

I have arrived. Myself and 17 other new crew members got here last night about 9:00 PM which was only 30 minutes later than anticipated. It was snowing in Paris so the plane had to be de-iced. After customs, which took forever, we where taken to the ship. We had one interesting moment when we lost the lead car, a road we where trying to take was blocked, and our drivers did not know how to get to the ship, but then the lead car found us. For those of you who have never been in an area with a lot of scooters, that means that we dodged and tried to avoid running down multiple vehicles. The scooter are actually used as taxis and have a name which of course I have forgotten. According to Tim (our driver who has just started a 2 year stint on the AFM) it was much better than when they had driven to the airport a few hours earlier.

Speaking of names, I am trying to be good with names, you know how they say to connect the name with something? Of course I am "my Bonnie lies over the ocean", then there is Ragnar...a young dentist. After the 4th time I asked for his name, he said remember rags. Well then I couldn't remember the last of his name.....it was late which I will use as an excuse but truly, I have a hard time with names...he reminded me that the first of his name was ra and the last was ar. Thereafter as we were introduced to people...being my helpful self...I would tell everyone how they could remember his name. Marlee became Sur la Mar (which means on the sea) and Lee which is a ships term, Annette became A Net, again a ship connection....and on and on.

We have the weekend off, then things start heating up Monday. I have orientation...multiple orientations...meetings, setting up the wards, etc. Next Thursday and Friday are the screening days. I am of the understanding that at that time all of the surgeries for the entire outreach will be decided. Please pray for all that come. There will be some that cannot be helped.

Living on a ship will take some getting used to (as I'm sure my cousin Pam who served in the Navy can attest to). As I sit here, the ship is slowly rocking back and forth. Earlier today I wasn't sure if it was my imagination or not....but no..it definitely moves. We are only allowed 2 minute showers so you get wet, turn off the water and soap up, then turn on and rinse. I'll need to remember starboard, lee, aft, etc...I would explain the terms but have forgotten them myself already...seems I'm doing a lot of forgetting! I will have to learn to be much more orginized than is my nature as there is such little living space. Horror of horrors, the captain inspects each room at least once a week so they must be shipshape all the time. I can do all things through Christ: )

I had to be up before 9 this AM and must bless my roommates for awakening me otherwise I would have missed breakfast and lunch. Breakfast is served until 9 on Saturday and lunch materials are placed out at that time. I went to bed at 1AM last night after being awake for 36 hours (following a short sleep night). And then of course, couldn't fall asleep. Ended up taking Benadryl. Thanks goodness, the bunks are very comfortable and once I fell asleep had no problem remaining that way. In fact, I wonder if my roommates hadn't been trying to wake me up for awhile before I finally got up as I dreamed that I needed to get up and go to breakfast before I became conscience. There is room for 6 in my room which is just down the deck from the hospital wards....are we talking shortest commute ever!! There are already 3 crew plus myself. Tomorrow Linda from the UK arrives and she will be sleeping over me in the top bunk. I'll try and post pictures later. I have to register my laptop with IS before I can use it on the ship so am not sure at this time how to get pictures off my camera and on the web....more learning.

God is good all the time.....

One more day....

One more day and then I'll be on my way to Benin. I've bought the requisite new underwear (for when one is going to be sharing one's room with up to 6 people), been taking my malaria medicine for the requisite 2 weeks before travel, and I've taken Perspectives which was for me a necessary precursor to serving. I've completed my NP degree and passed the certification exam....I'm just waiting to go....but not long now. The ship docked yesterday in Cotonou, Benin. I'm going to try and post a Google Earth picture (something else this trip has taught me) of where the Africa Mercy will be docked. More later...........

Benin and Outreach Information

I found this information while reading "Rachel's Report" which is a blog written by another nurse who is currently on the Africa Mercy. I thought you might enjoy reading. Just a few more days and I'll be able to tell her thanks for all the information in person.

So we are about a day away from Benin, so I wanted to give you all a briefing on life in Benin.
1. Benin is ranked 163 out of 177 in the Nations Human Development Index. , so it one of the poorest nations on earth. The life expectancy is 55 years with a 35% literacy rate and a 8.9% infant mortality rate. There is a huge lack of medical care for the poor of the country. There is some infrastructure for health care in you have the money, but none for the poor.
2. Benin is consider one of the most stable governments in Africa, having no governmental over throws or coups in the last 40 years, and having a peaceful transition to democracy about 19 years ago.
3. Most of the goods coming into Nigeria, Togo and Ghana come through the port that we will be docked at. Major port city is Cotonou(that is where we will be docked) The actual Capitol is Porto Novo. But it is more of a political capitol than the business center of the country.
4. The biggest religion in the country is Voodoo. Benin is considered the birthplace of Voodoo, and the palace of the high priests of Voodoo is located in the city of Ouida, a western city in Benin. The other two predominant religions in Benin are Islam and Christianity.
5. Weather in Benin is similar to that in Liberia, except more hot and humid. Temps are high 80's to low 90's with humidity about 95%. There are 2 dry seasons January to April and August. and 2 rainy seasons May to July and September to December. In the wet months they receive 7 to 15 inches of rain.
6. The official language in Benin is French, but most people speak one of 54 tribal languages. The one spoken in the area that we will be docked in is Fon. In the Fon language we are called YoVo(Whitey) Which is literally translated "foreigner". The kids in Benin sing a little song that makes fun of the only 4 words they believe that the YoVo know. Bonjoiur, Bon Soir, Ca Va bien, merci.
7. The ship has set a number of goals for this outreach
1. To use the hospital and all 6 operating theaters to capacity
2. Provide eye screening and care for 20,000 people
3. Provide reconstructive surgery for approximately 2,000 people
4. Train 4 surgeon to be able to preform these surgeries once we leave
5. Provide 140 VVF surgeries
6. Provide orthopedic surgeries for 240 patients
7. Dental care for 11,500 people (19,000 procedures)
8. Teach 20 dentists to do procedures
9. Provide palliative care for 25 people and train family's of these patients to provide
10. Train 8 biomedical technicians

I feel so blessed to be able to be even a small part of this ministry. Thanks to all my friends and family. You all have made me feel very loved and supported!

Bonnie