A New Adventure

I am terrible at blogging so I figured giving you an update on what has been happening since my last post only seems appropriate.  What started as a 3 month journey to Madagascar with Mercy Ships and a trip to Kenya to teach neonatal resuscitation, resulted in quitting my job, spending six months overseas, rearranging my priorities in life and in general rocking my world as I knew it.  To say there has been a clear cut, non tearful path to this point would be a lie.  There have been so many days back home in Cincinnati where I have sat down and told myself “this is okay… you could be happy right here in this comfortable spot.  Why do you need to go halfway around the world to be satisfied?”  Doesn’t help that every time I leave my family at the airport, my dad cries and I half consider abandoning ship (pun intended) and jumping back in the car.

But alas, here I am.  Halfway across the world living on a ship off the coast of Cotonou, Benin with a bunch of crazy, but amazing people who decided to jump on the non-conventional bandwagon. I have made it safely and finally settling in to a normal ship routine.

The ship arrived in the middle of August to begin its field service here in Benin and will spend 10 months providing free surgical and dental care to thousands of Beninese people.

   

I was lucky enough to be surprised at the airport by some of my favorite people on this earth.  Being reunited with old friends and seeing their smiling faces made all of the doubt and fear completely disappear.  My first week on board was pretty uneventful.  While most of us unpacked, cleaned and organized the hospital, our screening team was in full motion finding patients for this field service.
 

The screening team is a group of nurses and translators who are real life superheros.  I mean that in every sense of the word.  They have spent the last three weeks on the ground working tirelessly to sift through the thousands of people who show up to our screening days for a chance to be assessed by our surgeons and ultimately given an appointment card for a surgery.  The lucky few receive surgery appointment cards, while many are turned away for various reasons… possibly too sick to undergo surgery, suffering from conditions and diseases we do not treat on the ship or they are turned away simply because we have run out of room in our appointment slots.  While handing out those appointment cards brings incredible joy to our screening team, there is a heaviness and weight to turning away countless suffering people.  So if you are the praying type, please keep this team in your prayers.

Last week the hospital officially opened its gangway to our first patients and we all are excited to be back working on the wards.  We are currently doing general surgery, plastics surgery and maxillofacial surgery. Throughout the year we will also being doing orthopedic surgery and women's health/VVF surgeries.  I currently work on the maxillofacial surgery ward, or D ward as it’s called on the ship.  Maxillofacial surgeries are those that specialize in treating diseases and injuries of the head, jaw, neck, face and the soft and hard palates of the oral cavity.  

Once things start settling in more I will touch on more specific surgeries and patient stories that occur on the ship. But I cannot begin to tell you how exciting and rewarding it is to be back working on the wards of the Africa Mercy.  Nursing here is just different.  I can never seem to put my finger on the reason why.  Whether it’s the language barrier, the incredibly grateful patients of Africa,  working with nurses and doctors from all over the world, working with local day crew who teach you SO much about their country, surgeons who come to check on their patients at all hours, worship music filling the background of the wards or praying as a team at the start and end of shifts… It all makes for an indescribable work setting.  The combination of the physical, emotional and spiritual healing that is witnessed on this ship is the reason why I became a nurse and I could not be more happy to be "home".

Thank you to everyone who has reached out to show their love and support. I don't think I could ever articulate how grateful I am for that. I plan to be much better at updating/blogging about the ship so if there is ever a specific topic or question that you would like me to touch on, please let me know!

"The things that excite you are not random. They are connected to your purpose. Follow them."