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.

Journey to the Africa Mercy

The original plan was to leave for Benin immediately following our field service, but the plan changed as the government in Benin required us to have a two week quarantine after being in the D.R. due to the swine flu outbreak. So Becca, Leah, and I decided to extend our layover in Paris from a couple hours to eight days to meet the quarantine regulations… and this trip was amazing! We visited France, Germany, and Switzerland and had an amazing time together (and I do want it to be known that our time in Europe was not funded with donations).

And now… I am on my fourth day of ship living in Cotonou, Benin. And Africa began as soon as I stepped foot off the plane. We got to customs and it was chaos… people sitting on the floor filling out their paperwork. We had to wait two hours to collect our bags as people were crowded around the luggage belts and no direction as to which belt the luggage would appear.

Yesterday I started my first day of orientation in the hospital aboard the ship. I come with a two year background of working with adults in an ICU setting and have not worked with children since nursing school. I always thought maybe one day when I am more comfortable in my nursing shoes, much further in my career of course, maybe then I will elect to work with children… but for now I enjoy the adults… and then for my first day of ICU orientation my patient is a nine month old baby boy.

A very sad story. The baby was born with a cleft lip and palate- which in many cases is reason to leave a baby for dead. The whole family (mom, dad, and sister) has scars on their cheeks which is a voodoo practice and signifies a certain tribal bloodline. Mom and dad have chosen not to mark baby Hubert as they are undecided whether or not to accept him into the family or disown him. Baby Hubert is struggling for his life and the medical team is working around the clock to keep him alive. We hope to bring him back to health in order give him the surgery he needs to repair his lip and palate, but his little body is fighting against many factors. He came to us malnourished and fighting malaria. The team was able to get some weight on his little bones and treat the malaria which left him immunosuppressed and now he is fighting another illness. This story sounds so tragic to me, but from what I hear this is common...

Baby Hubert's Big Sister

I know my time here aboard the Africa Mercy is going to be challenging and I am going to be stretched, but this is my heart's desire: to help those less fortunate, the least of this world, the forgotten poor... So here I am, a little nurse from Phoenix, Arizona just beginning my great escape out of my everyday life in the suburbs to embark on a journey for which my heart has been dreaming of for years...

Dominican Republic Field Service

Following four weeks of training in Texas, eleven of us left for our field service (which is also part of Gateway training) in the Dominican Republic. We arrived to Puerto Plata in July knowing that we had several projects in front of us. We came to aid a couple ministries and were going to take part in construction, agricultural, and health projects.

Most of our work was done in a small section of Puerto Plata composed of Haitian and Dominican families called Aguas Negras or “black water” named after the sewage that runs freely in the streets. We worked with a ministry that runs a school and clinic along with a few other services. I mainly took part in health care projects and did many house visits as I was one of the main translators.

I joke that in the D.R. I will never be lacking friends under the age of ten… and it is true. As soon as we would exit the bus and step foot into the town, the children would run from all directions and gather around us. They would ask us to play with them, to hold their hands, to pick them up, and to come to their house. Everywhere we went in the town they would follow us and it was soon apparent that for many of them there was very little parental guidance as they had no time to be home or no one to answer to…

One of my most treasured times in the D.R. was with a little boy named Daniel. His little sister Naoi was one of the children that greeted us in the streets and asked us to come to her house. Having some free time, we accepted her invitation. Upon arriving to her house we found a four year old boy named Daniel sitting on a bed underneath a mosquito net with a large burn on his face and scalp and a few on his leg. The story was that he was playing with matches on his bed and lit his bed on fire, which caused flash burns to his face and leg. He got some treatment when the burns first occurred, but he was now two weeks out and not getting any care.

We were so glad to have come across him and throughout our time we made daily visits to dress the wounds and were able to teach the mother proper wound care until she was able to take care of the burns herself. The greatest thing about stumbling upon meeting this family was the relationship we were able to develop… and this brave little boy accepting us as his friend even though he knew each time we came it was time for a dressing change- something synonymous with pain.

We also taught first aid classes, took part in feeding projects, worked in medical clinics, and attended basic medical needs of people we met. I was a little nervous about doing so much translating as the Spanish I learned is very formal and the Spanish I heard in the Dominican was full of slang and spoken very quickly… but God was at work. My Spanish was the best it has ever been. I was asked many times to pray in Spanish, which is something I have never done before, but it soon became something much more natural than I thought it could be. But out of all we did, I must say that my favorite part was spending time with the children, especially the little girls. I know many of them grow up in homes where they are deprived of affection- where there is no father and many times ten other children in the home. Each time I got to hold them or hold one of their little hands I made sure to tell them how beautiful and precious they were- and I took great joy in that…

Gateway

I arrived to the International Operations Center (IOC) in Garden Valley, Texas… yes I came to the land-locked town of Garden Valley, which really does not exist on most maps, in eastern Texas for four weeks to train for ship living in West Africa. Gateway is the name of the training and all volunteers with 9 months or more of planned service are required to attend. The first three weeks consist of classroom training regarding spiritual and cultural aspects of living in West Africa. The fourth week includes basic safety training in which we all pretend to be fire-fighters and learn how to live at sea in case of having to evacuate a sinking/ ship on fire.

It was great arriving and seeing so many familiar faces as many of us met in January during our introduction week. We now call ourselves the “Gates Family” :). The three weeks of classroom training were intense- approximately 40 hours a week. We learned much about the poverty and corruption in Africa and discussed ideas on ways to aid a people living under such oppression. My heart was broken as we learned about how rich Africa is in resources, yet how poor the continent is… Questions arose of whether or not our aid would be enabling the current situation or empowering the people… And I ask, someone who has been a Christian for several years now, the question long asked over many centuries- how could a loving God allow this?

I wrestled with this question for quite some time… and a verse in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 came to mind. 1 Corinthians 13:12 reads, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” I have always said that when I get to heaven I will have so many questions to ask God… and maybe that will be the case… but my focus is shifting. I know that my mirror may be covered in dust, cobwebs, and scratches acquired from 25 years of living in a world where you have to lock your door at night… and I will not fully know as long as I have life on this earth. But, I can rest in that I am fully known and that God fully knows the situation and He is who I am alive to serve. I do know that the forgotten poor of this world are God’s beloved children and I do not believe this was His plan for them. I go in hope that I can be hands of love to them… that by offering my time and my service I may be able to make a few lives better.