My Everyday Job.

Working onboard the Africa Mercy is much different that anything I have ever experienced… Patients from Benin, Togo, Nigeria, and Ghana come in hopes that they may be helped. Any given day, one can walk in the hospital to find many lives afflicted with different conditions, but all with similar stories: stories of living with a debilitating condition and the inability to find and or receive healthcare.

A boy treated this year on the Africa Mercy for removal of his tumor

Working here on the Africa Mercy, I have the privilege to witness lives being changed on a day to day basis- disfigurements being removed, the lame given the ability to walk, sight given to those blinded by cataracts. Babies coming severely malnourished, many with a cleft lip and or palate and their lives are truly saved through the work done here.

The patients not only have to cope with their physical ailment, but many times something that can be much more devastating: the attached stigma. A common view held here in Benin of those with disfigurements is that they are under the power of a curse, which many times is enough to be shunned from their community.

Before, during, and after treatment: An example of one of the many lives changed.

Something I find the most heart-breaking about my time working in the hospital are the children that have to suffer because of this. Regularly we see babies come in with a cleft lip and or palate that are severely malnourished- most of the time disabling them from being able to suck properly. Coupled with the mother’s reluctance to feed the baby (many times due to beliefs of the baby being cursed) babies present to us with six to nine months of life weighing below a normal birth weight, sometimes barely holding on to life. So much pressure is placed on these mothers, many of whom have just become of child bearing age. If the mother does decide to feed the baby, her decision may be met with strong opposition from the community. When mama and baby come in, it becomes obvious that there is a lack of bonding and much teaching is required to help these mothers take care of their babies properly. But how do you teach a mother that does not have much of a desire to learn about her child? A mother who has not yet decided whether or not she wants to keep her baby or leave it to die?

A patient I took care of with Leishmaniasis, a condition rare to the developed world, but more commonly found in Sub-Saharan Africa caused by a flesh eating parasite. We gave her treatment for the parasite and she will return to the ship for facial reconstruction.

This aspect of the work here I find the most challenging and heart breaking. How do you convince someone that life is beautiful; that life is not expendable and its value is intrinsic? I do have hope for these people and believe in the work being done. I pray that through our efforts, we may show the people here, our patients that life is valuable. We are here to serve them and love them regardless of the way they look. We encourage mother and baby bonding and congratulate the mother on how beautiful her baby is… and from time to time us nurses are given the privilege to hold the babies which we take great and obvious joy in. Our mission is to transform lives by love- and on occasion I am given the opportunity to witness this happen before my very eyes.

A tumor removed from a patient I worked with who watched his tumor grow over the years until he was finally able to receive treatment.

Everyday the work here is challenging and rewarding- and from time to time heartbreaking. Everyday I see lives being changed and through my time here, my heart’s burning desire to serve those less fortunate has been confirmed. I am thankful for the privilege to be here, all the things I am learning, and the honor of being able to serve these people in love.