mama wata

i know. i've been missing in action on my blog. i have found myself without words more often than not this year. so many stories, so many lives have touched mine, but no words to go along with them. i owe stories about cleft lip repairs and changed lives and harding and the chaos on the streets and such. i'm sorry that my words have also been m.i.a. but here is wata's story

Wata, also, was too young to remember the infection that destroyed her mouth, stiffened her jaw joint and robbed her of speech. She’d been told she was born normal. But then, something happened, and her upper lip was eaten away by infection and her jaw joint was stiffened, only able to open millimeters. This infection is known as Noma and is a disease of poverty. Poor sanitation, unclean drinking water, malnutrition, poor hygiene, lack of immunizations and lack of basic medical care all contribute to Noma’s occurrence. It is an opportunistic disease, often occurring after a childhood illness when the child’s immune system is already weakened. Noma generally occurs in the poorest countries of West Africa. If it is left untreated or treatment is delayed, it is fatal 90% of the time. For those who survive, the effects are permanent. However, Noma can be easily be stopped if diagnosed immediately and treated with intravenous antibiotics.

In Wata’s story, she was one of the few who survived but at terrible cost. She was unloved and unwanted in her village, shunned due to the deformed features left behind after Noma’s ravages were complete. Her frame was slight due to the difficulty she had eating. Eating through a single plate of rice could take hours since she was barely able to move her mouth. Speech was impossible due to the inability to move her mouth up and down. Wata was one of the potential patients seen by the Advance Team. The Maxillofacial surgeon, Dr. Giles, knew there was hope for Wata. A precious appointment card was given.

From the moment she arrived to the ward, Wata had no trouble making her “voice” heard, despite her inability to speak. She assumed the throne of her bed and looked on as daily activities occurred. She murmured unintelligible sounds as she pottered about. She seemed undaunted by the mid-phase where she now had to small mouths that she needed to squeeze nutrition in and breathe through. Daily, Wata’s strength and joy and patience spoke to all who interacted with her, touching lives. After the second stage surgery, Wata’s eyes filled with tears and a sense of wonder crossed her face as she beheld her new features in the mirror. Daily her smile grew more and more pronounced as she continued to direct from the throne of her bed. For the first time in her remembered life she could open her mouth, she could attempt true speech, she could eat!

newsletter

June 2011

Dear Family and Friends,

Is it already June? How this year has flown! I started my last newsletter with those words…6 months ago. I apologize for the lack of communication. Though I have wanted to share with those of you at home about the work here, I must confess that at the end of very long days at work, sitting and writing is not high on my priority list. But again, I apologize. This work is not mine alone, it starts in the heart of the Father and is made possible by those who support me both in prayer and financially. I am just the hands and feet. And my lack of communication has meant you haven’t heard how the work you are part of is going.

This outreach has been much more challenging all around. We had a late arrival, a shortened set-up and start-up phase, a riot at our first screening which broke the hearts of the crew and hurt many of the West Africans, and the crew faced a gastric bug that just wouldn’t die and was quite violent in effect on the body. Added to this is the fact that I am now in a leadership role and have felt very stretched by this role. It has been a long time since I was a charge nurse and I forgot just how much goes on behind the scenes. This now falls on me. God has been more than gracious in providing the strength and wisdom for the days, but they are hard days nonetheless.

But all the frustrations and stresses and hurts aside, I have seen broken people made whole. I have seen patients come to be made physically whole and receive spiritual wholeness as well. I have been able to cuddle African babies and shake the hands of men and women who have been outcast or shunned from their villages and homes. They joy in this seemingly nothing gesture because it speaks acceptance and love. I also get to share the knowledge I’ve learned over the years with nurses and day volunteers alike. It is humbling and amazing that God allows us broken people to be part of the work He is doing…He doesn’t need us and yet He invites us to work with Him. Wow!

The story below went out to the crew just before Father’s day. It is what I get to be part of. It is the work you also are part of. Samuel’s story is because of you. When he is finished healing, I hope to share some after photos.

May God bless and keep you and make His face to shine upon you.

As Father’s Day approaches, our thoughts naturally turn to the “father figures” we have or have had in our lives. We treasure our fathers for their love and all the things they provide and teach us.

Samuel, a recent patient of ours, lost his dad when he was very young. Growing up in war-torn Sierra Leone, Samuel’s parents were killed by rebel forces shortly after he was born.

But his troubles do not end there. Samuel had been born with a very large fibrous growth covering his eye and the whole left side of his face—exploding his features. Parentless and scarred, his future was bleak.

Samuel was blessed to have a father figure step in to guide him through the rocky path of life. His Uncle Allen overlooked Samuel’s deformity and instead saw a boy who needed a father’s love.

Now, ten years old, Samuel has undergone corrective surgery on the Africa Mercy. He is on the road to recovery, with Uncle Allen by his side to support and love him.

To all our Dads and father figures – crew, patients, and supporters alike - Happy Father’s Day!

Mercy’s on its way.

how to renew your nursing license while in a foreign country on a ship

Step 1. Wait until close to the last minute to work on continuing education hours.

Step 2. Check the board of nursing website to verify nursing license number for continuing education hours.

Step 3. Notice comment line on renewal date “Fingerprints required for renewal”.

Step 4. Freak out….I’m on a ship in West Africa?!?!?!?!?!

Step 5. Call the board of nursing and ask for a deferment, get denied.

Step 6. Freak out a bit more…call the purser to ask about the chances of being fingerprinted at the U.S. embassy.

Step 7. Wait until the next morning for the embassy to be open (just b/c it is an emergency to me doesn’t necessarily constitute an actual emergency).

Step 8. Find out fingerprints can only be done by the Sierra Leone government due to the country law.

Step 9. Call the board of nursing and ask for them to mail the fingerprint card.

Step 10. Wait.

Step 11. Wait some more.

Step 12. Receive the paperwork and head to the purser’s office to gain assistance in getting to the police station.

Step 13. Get fingerprinted by the local police.

Step 14. Call my sister-in-law to send a check for the renewal fee (did I mention I’m on a ship in West Africa? She has my checks.)

Step 15. Fill out the paperwork. Worry over what to put in the zip code of employer line…that whole ship thing again.

Step 16. Worry about how to figure out what my primary area of nursing is since I met 13 of 16 possible choices. Choose other. (options included pediatrics, ICU, medical/surgical, community health, post-operative...yes, yes, yes, yes, yes...other it is)

Step 17. Write a letter to go with all the forms. (fax it just in case it gets lost)

Step 18. Put the envelope into the hands of a trusted friend to put in the mail the moment she arrives back in the States.

Step 19. Wait. And pray.

Step 20. Wait some more.

Step 21. Decide to check the board of nursing website even though it is too soon for any decision and find my license has been renewed!

Step 22. Share with my boss and friends and family and cry happy tears of relief. Thank God for His hand over all of it.

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!