Just a kid

Being at the beginning of an outreach has been an unexpected blessing. I have been able to participate in the screening day which only happens in the beginning, there were less people on the ship, ergo less people's names to learn (and of course now all of us that came before the hospital opened feel like real experts). Also, we were able to ease into our roles a little easier and orient a little longer. So, I am so very glad to have come when I did. There are however a few things that are not as good. One of which is that the crew activities are not in full swing as yet. One of the things that the crew does each outreach is find a few local charities and partner with them. This has been a little slower than us who are anxiously awaiting oppertunities to serve off the ship would like, but they really want to make sure that the charities we partner with are in line with the model of Jesus and that we will not have to back out later.

Yesterday, the first one actually occured and, as I was off work, I was able to participate. Mercy Ships will partner with a local orphanage run by the same order of nuns that Sister Theresa was in. We left at 8:30 and drove about 20 minutes away through the crowded city streets (always an adventure). Our driver was a petite British blond who has been on the ship with her family for several years. She and her husband have 3 children one of which they adopted in Liberia. She kept us in stitches as she made comments about driving in an African country. I can tell you that I WOULD NOT want to drive here. When a 2 lane road becomes a 6 lane road....Scooter, car, scooter,other direction, scooter, car, scooter....not me! Oh my and never mind the pedestrians. It makes for quite the adventure each time we venture out. Anyway, I digress...



Having arrived at the orphanage, we were ushered into the courtyard and then got to play with the children for the next several hours. (actually since there where so many of us, a few of us cleaned the nursery. It is cleaned once a week from top to bottom. We left it cleaner than my kitchen..please no comments from all of you who have seen my kitchen. Later we had time to play with a few of the children. Several had been orphaned within the last few weeks. You could tell they where new as they were underweight. Me and 2 others played and sung any childhood song we could remember. They particularly liked the Itsy, Bitsy Spider and Brother John (which I could sing in French). Actually that was a song that everyone knew, it was just some knew it in Dutch, some in Norwegian, and some in French. I plan to google songs and simple games before I go back. We forget so much from childhood don't we? We helped to feed them lunch which was awesome. Sometimes I think I missed my calling as an Italian mother....eat, it's good for you! And then there was one special little kid. He was shy at first just like any other kid. He smiled, played ball, and sang just like any other kid. But I was so glad to see him there. I was especially happy because the last time I had seen him was on screening day, and seeing him there at the orphanage on Wed. meant that sometime in April, Dr Gary and the Mercy Ship team is going to give him life saving surgery,,,