Mercy Ship Expedition - Winding Down: One Nurse's Story

My friend Marilyn is off on another 

Mercy Ship adventure in Africa. Those 
who followed her story before on the 
Africa Mercy know that Marilyn is a 
volunteer nurse on a hospital ship that 
sails the African coast in search of patients. 
She emails me and I share her post with you. 
I hope you enjoy!

Winding Down 04/04/17

We finished the children's surgeries last Friday. On Monday they were all checked again, and then we had the Celebration of Sight. All the children seem to see well, even those who left the ship not seeming to see well immediately after surgery. Remember Sophie, the second patient? She acted quite blind the day after surgery, but now, two weeks later, she was running around and obviously could see! My heart had been sad for her, so I was very happy to see such improvement in the eye-brain connection so quickly.

Today, we are doing adult cataracts again. One grandpa had his granddaughter as his escort and caregiver. She appears to be about 10 years old, but she hasn't been able to go to school because she takes care of grandpa. We thought it best to bring her onto the ship with him rather than leave her on the dock with no adult. That was a scary thought to her! It is a big ship...even if you can see, it is pretty daunting, going up 41 wobbly gangway steps just to get to the doorway. 

Once inside, she was fine...in fact, I think she rather enjoyed her time with us. Hopefully, grandpa will be able to see, and she can be free to attend school in the future.

 I have only two more days of cataract surgeries, then a day in the clinic, and then I go home. I remember when my son was in kindergarten and I was visiting his class. His teacher needed to get something out of the file cabinet, so to keep the kids occupied while she searched, she had them all stand up and turn around twice while patting their heads. I sort of feel like that just happened to me. Stand up, turn around twice, pat my head...and it's time to go home. Sigh.

 Marilyn

Sharon M. Himsl

Writer/Author. Blogging since 2011. 
Published with Evernight Teen: 
~~The Shells of Mersing
 

Mercy Ship Expedition - Darkness and Light: One Nurse's Story

My friend Marilyn is off on another 
Mercy Ship adventure in Africa. Those 
who followed her story before on the 
Africa Mercy know that Marilyn is a 
volunteer nurse on a hospital ship that 
sails the African coast in search of patients. 
She emails me and I share her post with you. 
I hope you enjoy! 


 "Darkness and Light" (04-05-17)
 
West Africa seems to me to be a place where superstition and witch
doctors thrive alongside western medicine and Christianity, sometimes
mixed together, never too far apart. Today, our eye team saw a
heart-wrenching example in the clinic. A little boy, maybe aged 4,
developed a fever. Malaria? Who knows? The mother took him to two
hospitals, but they didn't help him. Not sure why...maybe she couldn't
pay? So she took him to her neighbor, a witch doctor. He had the child
walk barefoot on hot coals, which burned his feet severely. He fell
down, so he burned his hands and body also. Then the witch doctor
poured acid in his eyes. Strange cure for a fever, if you ask me. Now
the mother brought her son to us, hoping that we could repair his
eyes...but they were completely destroyed.

Sometimes the darkness in this culture is very dark. I can only imagine
the anguish that that poor mom feels, seeing her son destroyed. I
wonder what the witch doctor feels. Is he so evil that the suffering he
inflicts doesn't move him, or is he so bound by superstition that he
thinks that he is doing good? There are things in this culture that I
simply don't understand. The prevalence and persistence of witchcraft
is one of them. It seems so obviously evil to me. I suppose consulting
a witch doctor is a little like a "hail Mary" in football--not likely to
help, but when you are desperate and have no other options, you try it
anyway. 

On a brighter note, another 15 people received their sight today, and 15
more are scheduled for tomorrow. 'Tis but a drop in the ocean of need,
but this ship signifies hope and help for the people of Benin, and they
know it. To end with an amusing observation: My co-worker is a very black, very
British woman from England. People from West Africa readily identify
white people as foreigners, but they are confounded by the idea of a
black foreigner. How could she not speak their language? Surely she
comes from Kenya or Uganda or somewhere. She should go home to her
tribe and learn her own language. It leads to some hilarious moments
when patients persist in turning to her to translate for them--surely
she speaks at least one of the local languages. If not Fon, then
Mina... Even the day crew that have been working with her for months
find it amusing that her native language is English.

Marilyn

Mercy Ship Expedition - Pictures of Kids: One Nurse's Story

My friend Marilyn is off on another 
Mercy Ship adventure in Africa. Those 
who followed her story before on the 
Africa Mercy know that Marilyn is a 
volunteer nurse on a hospital ship that 
sails the African coast in search of patients. 
She emails me and I share her post with you. 
I hope you enjoy!

"Pictures of kids" (03-27-17)

Here are some pictures of some of the kids we did surgery on last week. Thought you might like faces to go with the names.  I couldn't find a picture of Maurice and Sophie, but Jacques, Marie, and Elodie were the three kids from the one family that I mentioned, and Anna, with the broken leg, and her sister Dorcas had surgery after those three.

Marilyn

Anna and Dorcas before surgery

Anna and Dorcas going home

Dr. Wodeme - surgery

Jacques, Marie, Elodie with Papa

Sharon M. Himsl

Writer/Author. Blogging since 2011. 
Published with Evernight Teen: 
~~The Shells of Mersing

Celebrate the Small Things: Behind the Lens

What did you celebrate this week?

How about good eyesight? I wear reading glasses with a little correction in the mid and top range of my glasses (we call them progressives), but to be honest, if I were to lose them in the wilderness and get lost, I could probably read a map in the daylight and possibly find my way home (barring also being somewhat directionally impaired). Has anyone actually experienced this?

 But my main point here is I try not to take vision for granted. At my last exam I had the beginning of a cataract in one eye, and my husband has worn glasses most of his life. He has dealt with more eye issues than I likely will ever have.

And here's another thought. What we see behind the lens of an eye is not all we see in life. We also see with our hearts, our minds and our souls, but the vision gets foggy sometimes and out of whack. When I get too busy and attempt to do more than I should to maintain a healthy balance physically, mentally and spiritually, that sometimes happens to me, and I forget the beauty of the moment. I have to slow down . . . and you should too if that happens to you.

Some food for thought by the famous:

"Eyes for Invisibles"

"I have walked with people whose eyes are full

of light but who see nothing in sea or sky,

nothing in city streets, nothing in books. It

were far better to sail forever in the night of

blindness with sense, and feeling, and mind,

than to be content with the mere act of seeing.

The only lightless dark is the night of darkness 

in ignorance an insensibility."   --Helen Keller

 "The man who cannot wonder is but a pair of
spectacles behind which there is no eye"  --Thomas Carlyle

"Auguries of Innocence"

 "To see a World in a grain of sand,

And a Heaven in a wild flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand, 

And Eternity in an hour."  --William Blake 
 

Happy Weekend Everyone! 

Thank you Lexa Cain for hosting one of the 

best Blog Hops ever; And co-hosts:

 L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge  

and Katie @ TheCyborgMom