final backlogged blogging

What I’m up to this year…this year I am doing a bit different role on the ship…well, a lot different in that this role is completely new. We have gone to team nursing this outreach to match the different surgical specialities we have onboard. I am the maxillofacial team leader. Because this role is new, it isn’t fully defined yet but it is clinical (meaning I’m still in the wards) somewhere between a charge nurse and nurse manager. I oversee the care of all the max-facs patients in the ward but don’t really do any of the day to day nursing care. I’ve been doing a lot of education of the new nurses and our day volunteers (African nationals who work in the wards as translators or housekeepers). I help manage the bed/nurse assignments and I think more will eventually fall into this role as well. The more is a hard pill to swallow right now since I am already working about 50 hours a week but I think that mostly has to do with how start-up and setup happened and that it will get easier and less every week (just in time to add more in J) It also means a Monday-Friday 8-5 schedule (or close anyways).

I have never really viewed myself as a leader so this leadership position has been a huge stretching role for me. Often I find myself “on my knees” asking for His strength and wisdom b/c I cannot do it on my own.

We also have a plastics team leader (who did ortho at the beginning of the outreach) and a general team leader. The three of us along with the ward supervisor and assistant ward supervisor and ward educator make up the leadership team on the ward side of the hospital. It is a great group of ladies to work with. Each of them has taught me and encouraged me in ways they likely don’t understand. We do tend to see each other at our most frustrated so we make it a point to pray together and also to get off ship and not talk shop together every so often as well.

So, now that my role is likely clear as mud to you…(me too)…that’s what I’m up to this year. Your prayers are greatly coveted for this stretching period.

more backlogged blogging

so, one night when i couldn't get internet to work but knew i had some back-logged blogging to do, i sat in my cabin typing away in a word document. it was my normal method of free thought but with four subjects i wanted to address. i put the subjects down and then went back to address them. a few days later, i started uploading in the order they appeared on the page, not necessarily the order i typed about them. just a f.y.i. on why the next bit begins the way it does even though it is 3rd in line of the backlogged stuff. =)

Being back is probably the easiest place to start or at least the one that makes the most sense. I arrived mid-January to South Africa. The ship was in a phase of dry-dock for having new generators placed. Things were delayed with the repairs so rather than get straight onboard, I went instead to the unused teachers’ college campus where the bulk of the non-technical crew were staying. Each weekday, those who didn’t have specific work at the campus (ie the teachers) rode the hour and a half drive to the ship where they put in hours cleaning the ship. It is amazing how dirty this place can get without constant cleaning. I only went the first couple of days before being assigned to a job staying on campus. I can’t tell you how happy I was to see the ship that first day going up to work. It was definitely an experience of coming home. Unfortunately, I struggled with motion sickness each day of the drive so someone who wanted desperately to go the ship daily took my place and I was assigned to work in the dining room staff. It was an interesting experience. While I’ve always recognized how hard the dining room staff worked, now I was learning it by experiencing it. I found that those who knew me and that I was a nurse went out of their way to say thank you to me. Those who didn’t know me previously and only knew me as dining room staff didn’t say thank you. I didn’t need the thanks…in fact, I was often uncomfortable with it. By the end of my days there, I was thankful for those who just accepted that I was there serving in whatever way I was serving.

About two weeks after I arrived in South Africa, we all moved back on ship and continued daily cleaning in preparation of sailing. As soon as we were back on ship, I was transferred back to the hospital staff. We were able to get a jump start on the hospital, doing things we normally do after arriving into our host country…things like stripping and waxing the hospital floors which get terribly dirty over a year’s time. And the first time through of double bleaching. Then it was time to tie down and get sailing.

There is a saying that says “you can’t go home again.” Now, while that is not completely true, it is true that you can’t go someplace you’ve been before and expect it to be completely the same. After the years of travel nursing and even for the six months I was home, I knew this was true and expected it upon my return to the ship. The person who has been away has changed over the time and life has continued wherever they have been. The same is true for those “left behind”. And you have to work at those relationships or they don’t survive the return. I experienced this a bit while I was at home—not feeling quite as at home in my life group at church or not really fitting in well at work. I also experienced it/expected it as I returned to the ship. It hasn’t been bad, just different. I still enjoy being here. I still enjoy my friends here. It’s just different.

backlogged blogging again

Sailing as usual is one of my favorite and least favorite parts of the ship. I enjoy being out on the ocean and seeing the waves, feeling the ocean breeze, watching the sun rise and set over the endless blue. But, no matter how calm the sea, I always also live with the motion sickness throughout the length of the sail. This particular sail was 16 days long. I worked a few hours each during the morning and afternoon and rested the rest of the time. Once again we played sock-golf during the sail. One of my friends Sam, despite having designed a new course still managed to take first place and remain reigning champion.

Although I have been in the southern hemisphere and crossed the equatorial line 3 times, it has been by plane. This sail, however, I crossed from southern into northern on a ship. If you have never sailed across the equator, you are considered a shellback. After sailing across, you are considered a pollywog. I have to admit to a teensy bit of jealousy of my friends who stayed aboard for the shipyard phase when they sailed across. But, now I am a pollywog too! J There are all sorts of traditions that go along with sailing across but very few onboard took part in them (things like dancing naked which is definitely not mercy ships approved or shaving your head which a few of the guys did). I celebrated my pollywog status by vomiting for the first time ever while sailing due to the change of the currents making my motion sickness kick into overdrive. L I enjoyed several movie and game dates with friends as we prepared for the upcoming outreach and then…we were here!

backlogged blogging...setup and startup

Okay, now for some backlogged blogging. Sorry for the long delay in blogging but things have just been absolutely mad here…we hit the ground running and well, it is just now starting to settle down.

Setup and start up looked so much different than in Benin and Togo. We had a shorter amount of time to setup this year due to our delays in shipyard. Because we had done more work in shipyard than we normally do, we thought it would be okay. As it was, as soon as the mooring lines were tight, the “old” nurses were down moving boxes even though it was Sunday. We unpacked for a few hours and then the race began the next morning. Normally the ward cupboards have supplies in them packed tightly and secured for sail and the hold is filled with supplies as well. This year, however, the hold was full but it was all stuff that normally lives in the ward. So we had to start from scratch…nothing in the cupboards, only a handful of people who had seen any of the stuff in its rightful place ever before and lots of dirty, rusted and molded stuff where water had seeped into one of the containers. So, with a few “old” nurses directing a lot of new nurses, we tried to finish the floors, unload containers, double and triple bleach everything, sort through the rusted and molded stuff to see what was salvageable, setup the beds and cupboards and carts, unpack the pharmacy, unpack newly arrived containers filled with supplies, fill the ward with supplies. We had 10 days to setup, screen patients (I’ve already blogged about that) for the outreach, hold a reception for the crew who aren’t hospital staff to see the hospital before it got into full swing, orient new nurses to working on the wards and figure out how things were going to work for the new team leader rolls. They were long, exhausting days pushing hard. And because setup was so crazy, it set the tone for startup as well. The first month we were here, I think I worked on average 55-58 hours a week. I didn’t have a full day off until the 5^th week (unless you count a couple of sick days from a nasty head cold).

Now while all that sounds like a complaint, (and it was exhausting), the truth is from day one we were seeing lives changed and broken bodies made whole again, spirits touched by the love of Jesus, strength provided for each of us. I cannot say I didn’t have days of tears or frustration. But I can say I saw God’s hand at work. Now, things are running a bit more smoothly the more nurses settle into their rolls. We’ve already seen the first wave of 8 week commitment nurses leave and new ones take their places. And I am acutely aware that all this work that the Father is doing, He doesn’t need me here to do, but He has graciously asked me to work in His work and given the strength to do so. I am humbled by that. I am broken by that. I am honored by that.

kept

Psalm 146
Praise the LORD!Praise the LORD, O my soul! I will praise the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, who made heaven and earth,the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free; the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous. The LORD watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. The LORD will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the LORD!

I was reading this the other day in my Bible study time. I’ve switched versions I read in this year to get a fresh glimpse into His Word and verse 6 struck me…”who (the LORD) keeps faith forever;” I looked it up in several more versions and many said “keep”. I felt the Holy Spirit nudge me as I read this…He keeps faith forever. There is the obvious understanding of the LORD being faithful forever, of keeping faith with us forever. But, what the Spirit was speaking to me was from an understanding of the word keep. (the dictionary defines keep as a verb meaning "to retain possession or to hold as one's own)…He keeps the faith for us; He holds our faith as His own. Yes, we have a responsibility to seek Him, to do in accordance with His purposes. But, He keeps our faith for us. We can trust Him to hold our faith in safe, strong hands. It goes along with Philippians 2:12-13 “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will (desire Him and His purposes) and to act (works of faith) according to His good purpose.”