Hot Chips, Egg Flippers and Jumpers!

Our friend, Melissa Heustis, from Brisbane, Australia - who we worked with in 2011 aboard the m/v Africa Mercy while it was docked in Freetown, Sierra Leone - has been here the past two days and we have had an absolute blast!  We have laughed and hugged and laughed some more!  She brought us chocolate caramel tim tams - oh, they were good! - and pineapple lumps which tasted rather banana-y, but they were covered in chocolate!  (I would say she knows me well!)  And we had the most enjoyable conversations about hot chips, egg flippers and jumpers!  Let me know if you need to know more!     

Do You Ever Wonder What God Was Thinking?

Today I just had to smile - because it hit me!  Micah and I will be leaving for Mercy Ships International Operations Center in Tyler, Texas to lead the Kids On Boarding Program for children who will be joining the ship this fall as it goes to it's new outreach location - Cotonou, Benin (the location was changed just this week from Guinea due to a deadly Ebola outbreak)!  And where were we in 2009 when we were serving with Mercy Ships?  Well, of course - Cotonou, Benin!  I think God is smiling, too . . .

Cotonou, Benin 2009

The "Official" Sam Report

Sam is doing so well after his rotator cuff surgery that he's on to weight training in physical therapy - and that's down to just once a week!  And he has an MRI on Monday to check out that left shoulder which now hurts more than the right! 

When the sump pump fails . . .

It's never on a day when you have nothing else to do!  No, ours died about 3 a.m. Tuesday morning.  Fortunately, Sam found it before any damage was done AND he left me in bed!  When I woke up at 6 a.m., he was already at Home Depot buying a new one, so I walked the dog and got the kids off to school while he put the new sump pump in.  Unfortunately, when I got home from work at noon, it just did NOT sound right (or left, for that matter!).  Sam encouraged me to call neighbor Don as he was sure he could fix it.  Fortunately, neighbor Don willingly came over and solved the problem.  Unfortunately, Don asked me to help him and I got a screw driver impaled in my hand (totally my own fault!).  Fortunately, it did no major damage.  Unfortunately, blood and I don't do well.  Fortunately, Don snuck out to the garage and called his wife.  Bernice came running over to take care of ME!  Unfortunately, Don left to try and get a new part and that left dear sweet seventy-plus year old Bernice emptying the sump pump well by hand with my one gallon ice cream container.  Fortunately, Don was able to find a part and fix it.  And now the rain has ceased, the swelling in my hand has gone down and I can type again!

   

Blessed are the flexible . . .

 As you probably know, if you've seen the news, there is currently an outbreak of Ebola in Guinea, West Africa.  The same Guinea where the m/v Africa Mercy had planned to spend her next field service, bringing hope and healing to the world's forgotten poor.   There's been a task force in place for about a month, with both eternal experts and internal stakeholders, evaluating the different scenarios and possibilities in light of the outbreak and the subsequent hoped-for resolution of the outbreak.  Based on the wisdom of those in the know, the m/v Africa Mercy will be now sailing into port in Benin for her 2014-15 field service.  We were able to serve there in 2009.  Blessed are the flexible . . .  

"P" is for PARTY . . .

I have very few regrets in life, but one is that I was never able to attend a dress ceremony on the Africa Mercy.  Maybe one day, God will grant me this desire . . .

There are parties, and then there are parties.

On the Africa Mercy, no one does a party quite like Ward B.

You may remember that I’ve written before about VVF (vesico-vaginal fistula) – a childbirth injury sustained in regions where emergency obstetric care is unavailable. A very rough description would be that, often after several days of labor, women develop a hole in their birth canal that leaks urine. In short, these women need C-sections and when they can’t have them the damage leaves them incontinent, if not dead. They almost always lose the child they were carrying from the trauma of the birth. There are approximately 2 million women in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia who live with VVF, according to the WHO. Two million.

When you are incontinent, you smell. When you smell, people avoid you. In several days’ time, young women go from being expectant mothers to grieving, injured, and outcast. Over and over again I hear from these women that they have been left by their husbands, rejected by their communities. In all of my time in Africa, I’ve never been as moved as I’ve been by the plight of women with VVF. They have suffered in ways few of us will never understand. I think they must be made of God’s strongest fabric.

After obstetric surgery, our VVF patients stay on Ward B for several weeks recovering. Do you know what happens when you place a bunch of women who have suffered for years in solitude together in the setting of a great big sleepover? While they rejoice over the fact that they’ve just won the healthcare lottery and will receive free surgery that will change their lives forever? Can you imagine this? Well, I’ll tell you: it is a non-stop musical hen party. They braid hair, do crafts, and parade in the hallway singing. I walked in a few days ago to find that they had pushed their beds together. Seriously. Like in The Parent Trap. Then they redecorated the entire ward. If we don’t leave soon there will be a sorority house where the hospital used to be.

When these incredible women are ready to be discharged, we throw a hell of a party. We call it a Dress Ceremony. With full hearts and dry skirts, the patients sing and dance and celebrate their re-entry to society and the emotional restoration they have found through the care and counseling of our amazing medical staff. It’s the happy ending after  a long road of suffering that began because they needed a doctor and didn’t have access to one.

This week, we celebrated the journeys of eight patients who no longer suffer with VVF.
It’s my great honor to introduce our debutantes, the Beauties of Ward B. 

Thanks for reading.

Photography by Catherine Murphy
(+ nifty behind the scenes footage by Josh Callow)
Copyright Mercy Ships 2014

Dr. Ouedraogo

Taken from the Captain's blog . . .

Surgery began at the end of February for Mercy Ships obstetric fistula program. Obstetric fistula is a childbirth injury that leaves women incontinent and often makes them outcasts in their communities. Volunteer surgeon Dr. Itengre Ouedraogo has joined us in Pointe Noire, Congo to provide free surgeries to these women.  “We had another successful screening Wednesday with more operations scheduled.” Obstetric Fistula Team Leader Stephanie Fiduk says, “Dr. Itengre Ouedraogo is great to work with; he is patient, very astute, and great with the patients.  Overall I would say that there is an amazing peace surrounding the fistula program.  I’m looking forward to what God has for the next few weeks, and for more lives to change.” To learn more about Mercy Ships obstetric fistula program watch this video: http://youtu.be/lVYX_G5K_hY

Dr. Ouedraogo took some time out to be interviewed by our communications team:

You can easily point to his homeland of Burkina Faso on a map—but Dr. Ouedraogo prefers to call Africa his home. This pan-African obstetric surgeon received his medical and surgical education in Cuba. Soon after, he earned his Masters in Epidemiology and Humanitarian Aid.

Impressed?

So are we! But Dr. Ouedraogo gives all the glory to God: “The fact that I am a surgeon today is a divine grace of God’s—He has a specific goal for me.”

Dr. Ouedraogo has chosen to dedicate his life and skill to the forgotten and ostracized people of his beloved continent. He is currently ‘vacationing’ from his role as medical director of a fistula center in Niger so he can serve with us onboard in the Congo. Wherever he goes, Dr. Ouedraogo is working to provide life-changing surgery to women who have sustained traumatic childbirth injuries.

Tell us why you chose to serve with Mercy Ships.

Through Mercy Ship, the dignity of the outcast is rebuilt. Mercy Ships gives the opportunity to people from all nations to demonstrate their passion for the forgotten.  Yes, as an obstetric surgeon, maybe it’s true that I could get more money and popularity working in a big city and a big hospital. But every time I see a woman joyful because she is healed, I know I have contributed to the reintegration of an outcast into her society. I have helped rebuild a broken house. So, when Mercy Ships accepted my application this year to serve as fistula surgeon, I felt it was an honor. It is like I am adding my block to the building of the new Africa that Mercy Ships is helping to build.

In your own words, describe Africa.

I see Africa as a sleeping giant who needs to be awakened. Africa has great potential for development due to its natural and human resources. There is a popular saying in my tongue that says, “You cannot clean the flour on the floor with one hand.” I think what is needed in Africa is that other strong hand—which in my personal opinion is the developed world—to awaken him and wash his face so that the direction for real development can be found. Up ‘til now, Africa has been receiving so much help from the West— but truly, it is better to teach how to fish rather than giving the fish.

If you could give one piece of advice, what would it be?

I would say that maybe for the world we are one person, but for one person we are the world. We cannot change the entire world, but we can change the world of somebody. Let everybody seek and accomplish the purpose of God for his life, because mortals become immortal by the things they do and that remain after them.

 

It's great to have Dr. Ouedraogo working alongside us.