Meeting the Heroes

Today's post is reblogged from Mercy Ships photographer Shawn Thompson's blog.  It's a good one!

One thing I have figured out in the month I have been here is that time passes much quicker here than anywhere I have ever been. It seems to parallel the African culture in that time is more measured by experiences and events rather than a point in which a hand points to on a clock. There is always a multitude of people getting together, playing games, going out, and just generally doing life together that it is so easy to forget about time altogether.

“In the West you have the watches, 

but here we have the time.” 

– a local Cameroonian pastor

That being said, this first month-ish in Cameroon has been a whirlwind. We’ve wrapped up training (for the most part) and are finally finding ourselves getting to do what we came here to do. It’s so exciting to see the friends I have made fully operating in their gifts and talents. I feel proud to be a small cog in this amazing machine of professionals daily operating and successfully running a hospital ship in Central Africa. I’ve always heard it takes a village to run this ship, but you don’t fully realize just how true that statement is until you are a member of that village. We all need each other. Without everyone on this ship – Mercy Ships wouldn’t exist. 

Another thing I had heard, but not fully understood, was that the patients we serve are the real heroes of the story. I guess coming from a Western mindset, even though I’ve been a part of Mercy Ships my entire life, I have always subconsciously thought of us as the heroes of the situation, coming in and changing the lives of so many that wouldn’t otherwise have a chance. However, now that I’ve met these wonderful people I find myself realizing why they are the real heroes after all.

I can only imagine the courage it must take to be completely and utterly vulnerable to the point where I am desperate to the point that I would leave everything I knew and travel sometimes days to a place I had never been to be poked and prodded by people I had never met, that don’t speak my language, or even look like me. Not to mention I am ashamed of the way I look and have been most likely talked down my entire life, resulting in an incredible shyness and the feeling of hopelessness and even perhaps worthlessness.

I’ve sat here for awhile trying to come up with a metaphor or simile as a way to compare what this would be like for someone from a Western culture in order to relate, but I’m not sure there is one. That’s just the thing – WE CAN’T RELATE. Even hearing about and seeing these people through pictures and videos my entire life could not prepare me for the utter respect I have for the courage of these people.

These first few weeks have had their extreme highs and lows. I’m finding that it will be a constant battle the entire year between loving and honoring the patients we are serving and the feeling that I’m exploiting these lovely people in one of the most vulnerable times in their life. Finding this line where I can do my job successfully while simultaneously honoring the patients and watching out for their best interests is just a lot harder than I thought it would be. I just have to keep reminding myself that my job is necessary and that it can and should be done in a way that respects our patients while at the same time allows us to continue to share stories and spread the word about Mercy Ships so that we can continue the work we are doing.

I know this blog was a little heavier than the previous ones, but don’t let that fool you into think that I am not absolutely loving this experience. I am learning SO MUCH and would not want to be anywhere else in the world for this season. I can’t even imagine what the next nine months will look like in Cameroon, but I can tell you that my life will never be the same because of them.