Africa Mercy - In the Land of Congo: One Nurse's Journey

Long awaited news from my dear friend in Africa! She has finally arrived in the land of Congo and has yet another interesting tale to tell. This is a running post about her journey as a nurse on the Africa Mercy, a fully staffed hospital ship that travels up and down the coast of Africa. Learn with her as she discovers and relates  to life in Congo and the people firsthand.

Online image of Pointe Noire market

 8/19/13

In the Land of Congo

We arrived in Pointe Noire, Congo a little over a week ago now, although it seems much longer ago that that.  As expected, we spent last week in a flurry of cleaning and unpacking.  The job is not done yet, but it's beginning to look like a hospital again, and it is certainly much cleaner than it was before.  We'll be ready in time for our first patients on September 2nd.

This week, we are beginning to train our day workers.  We have eleven day workers assigned to the Eye Team.  They are all Congolese who speak English, and usually four to seven other languages.  They are not medical personnel, however, so we begin at the beginning. Today I taught basics like handwashing, use of gloves, body mechanics, and waste disposal.  Tomorrow we'll teach about blood pressures and administering eye drops, and then move into basic eye anatomy and eye diseases. I do wonder how much of this they are understanding--but we do a lot of show and tell and we give them written material so that they can read what they miss.  And I'm sure we'll be re-teaching the material individually in the coming weeks, but at least we've laid some groundwork.

Probably the most interesting exercise we did today was to blindfold half the class and have their partners lead them up the gangway and down two flights of steps into the hospital eye room.  I participated, and it was interesting to see how frightening it was to make that journey blindfolded, and how much difference it made when my partner led me by the hands and gave me verbal cues.  That's what our patients will experience, only more so, since they are not familiar with our ship, have probably never been in a hospital, and don't get to take off the blindfold at the end of the journey.  Most of them have been blind for a long time and depend on family members to guide them.  Now they have to leave that caregiver outside the ship (we don't have room for them inside) and go in alone to face surgery among strangers.  It makes you appreciate their courage and their desperation, to entrust themselves into our care that way.  Well, hopefully today's exercise will make our day workers both sensitive to the patients' situation and skillful in guiding them along.

First impressions of Congo: 

1.  Weather:  Right now is their winter season, very pleasant, usually sunny, but not too hot.  I hear that the rainy season lasts from October to May, and it gets hot and humid then.  So, I'm enjoying this good weather while it lasts!

2.  Plastic:  Congo outlawed plastic bags a couple of years ago.  You can get quite a fine if you put a WalMart bag in the garbage.  We didn't know that when we arrived--a lot of plastic went out with the trash that accumulated during the two weeks of sail  Oops!  Well, someone is figuring out what we need to use to collect our trash in--it'll all get clear sooner or later.  Meanwhile, I can certainly see the wisdom of such a law.  Pointe Noire is not buried in plastic like the places I've been before.

3.  Market:  Pointe Noire has a very large open air market downtown.  It is organized and relatively tidy. Here there is a whole row of little stalls with traders selling shoes.  Next is a whole row of little stalls with bananas.  Fruits and vegetables are in abundance as far as the eye can see.  Some stalls have clothing, or cooking pots, or electronics.

Whatever you want, it is probably there somewhere.  I was struck with the lack of trash piles or garbage underfoot.  I hear that the traders must completely vacate the market two days a week so that the city can clean the area.  It certainly makes the shopping more pleasant.

4.  Traffic:  Unlike Guinea, Congo has traffic laws that are enforced. Policemen in the intersections are not offering suggestions, they are giving orders. There are a few traffic lights in town, and they actually work.  Taxis are abundant and relatively cheap; most people do not own cars.  The roads are crowded, but not like I've seen elsewhere, and traffic goes in the right direction, not every which way.  For the most part, traffic flows without major bottlenecks.

5. Port Security:  Congo takes their port security very seriously. That's good, but it has also been a hassle for us, bumps in the road that haven't been ironed out yet.  It is about a mile from our ship to the port gate.  Our vehicle generally gets stopped about three times in that mile so that they can check our ID badges--very carefully, comparing our pictures to our faces for everyone in the car.  Problems arise when we pick up new crew at the airport and try to get them to the ship, since they don't have a proper ID badge yet.  We've worked out a compromise, giving the port authorities a list of expected arrivals each day.  Then  our new people just need a picture ID of some sort, which is compared to the list.  In theory.  Not every guard seems to know the procedure.  Vehicles get hung up, and Mercy Ships officers have to go out and negotiate again. Soon we'll face the same issues trying to bring patients in to be ship.  Do all of them have a picture ID of some sort?

I doubt it.   We are an odd duck, moored here for ten months, with

patients, caregivers, patient visitors, new crew, and ship guests all coming and going, giving those port guards heartburn, I'm sure.  Well, resolving these issues is above my pay grade...but I'm sure it'll get smoothed out before long.  This is the first time Mercy Ships  has been to Congo, so a lot of little details have to get ironed out as we go.

Blessings on you all.

Marilyn


Click here to learn more about the nurses and doctors on board the Africa Mercy.

Combine Ride: Harvest on the Palouse

I have lived in the Pullman-Moscow region, which borders the states of Washington and Idaho, for over thirty years now. I have watched the dust swirl up around me surrounding these fair towns as the farmers till and harvest the deep black soil of the Palouse, as the land is known. I have stopped behind them in their large farm vehicles, as they traverse our two-lane roads, halting traffic to make a cumbersome turn. I have traveled through the scenery they create in the fields that changes dramatically from green to golden yellow each year without fail. My husband and I have been privileged to meet and know only a few.

BARLEY (about a foot tall; wheat is much taller)

As a child I lived west of the Cascades, but sometimes took trips with a friend's family through Eastern Washington to Coeur d'Alene Lake. En route, we always passed the fields of wheat and other crops. One of our favorite things to do was to stop and sample a stalk of wheat. We would remove the chaff and chew the wheat kernel, as if it were the best snack in the world. And what did it taste like? Bland, salt free flour of course, but oh what a treat. Ever do that?

Barley up close at dusk (my camera lens was dirty from the harvest dust)

Big teeth!

So imagine my excitement yesterday when my husband and I were invited to ride in a combine harvester on the Ensley farm. They were busy harvesting their barley crop. 

"Frank"

I have to admit I thought of Pixar's movie, Cars, when I saw the big teeth of the combines up close. Remember the scene where Mater and Lightening McQueen scare the 'grazing' tractors and they go belly up in the field? Then Mater warns Lightening to watch out for Frank? Ha! Combine harvesters are huge like that, and I mean HUGE.

Cathy, co-owner with Mike Ensley in front of Ensley Farms harvest truck, which follows behind the combine for grain dumps. The Ensleys currently grow wheat, barley and garbanzo beans.

Big tires! Vince climbing into Mike's combine.  Here they come! Dumping the barley

Mike at end of day. Time to shower!

Today farmers sit in air-conditioned and filtered cabs, although there is plenty of dust. Check out Mike's photo on the left! They have talk radios and music to pass the time and use cell phones for communication.
Imagine how it must have been before combines existed (or modern ones with enclosed cabs). I am told that farmers often suffered from emphysema from the heavy dust exposure.

                                       Combines were horse drawn in the "old days."

Jeremy (Mike's son) and my driver. This is a multi-generation farm.

View from inside the cab with Jeremy. It was surprisingly quiet inside. We could talk easily, but oh was it ever dusty!!

Combines get around 7 miles to the gallon, I am told. The farm uses around 100 gallons a day during harvest. That's me on the bottom step. Thanks for the ride, Jeremy!

Take a look at my shoes. I was told I would get dirty . . . and I thought I was being careful. My face was gritty with dust, too, as was my camera lens. But what a marvelous once-in-a-life time experience. Thank you Ensley Farms!! Sharon M. Himsl Writer/Author. Blogging since 2011.  Published with Evernight Teen:  ~~The Shells of Mersing

Lake Entiat: Sailing and More

Well, we did it. Vince and I took "Duet" out of storage after nearly four years of neglect and sailed for two days in a row. I must admit though we had a comical Laurel and Hardy start, rigging the boat and trying to remember which line went where. Vince was beginning to question the work-to-fun ratio. What had once been a thirty-minute process to rig this fifteen-foot wonder (a Montgomery 15) quickly turned into a two-hour fiasco, with a lot of head-scratching and staring at instructions. But our efforts did eventually pay off. 

Duet was a beautiful sight when the sails were finally hoisted. She was the only sailboat on Lake Entiat last weekend. Sailing is all about the moment, not the destination. One glides along at the mercy of the wind on a zig-zag course. In a world spinning faster the older I get, I find this pace relaxing at times, but the work getting the boat ready was hard in the hot sun. (Note to V&S: do not rig in 90-plus heat!!)

Vince at the tiller, his favorite position.

At the tiller or on the bow. Either spot, I like both!

Lake Entiat is a large reservoir located near Rock Island Dam, one of Washington's many hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River.

Near Orondo, Washington next to the Wenatchee Mountain range, Lake Entiat is a nice recreational destination for campers and boaters. It is about four hours away for us. Vince and I camped three nights on its shore at Daroga State Park along with my brother and wife's family.

Site 24. Where we camped.

Lots of food and good company!

 

 Delicious campground beef stew with home grown vegetables, made by my sister-in-law. I was surprised to learn that this is the same Coleman stove my parents used when I was a girl. My brother had discovered it recently in storage. Still works great!

Besides sailing, I also tried water skiing behind my brother's boat, but alas . . . after a hiatus of probably thirty years, my legs just were not strong enough. ~Sigh~ I so much wanted to be up on those skis. I still remember skiing under the Narrows Bridge in Tacoma, Washington behind my father's boat as a teen. The water was quite choppy that day in Puget Sound under the Narrows and there had been whale sightings nearby. I held fast to the rope and avoided jumping over the wake, as was my usual form, on the lookout for anything black and unusually large.

 (Brrr . . . Don't worry, I can do this! I think I can, I think I can . . .)
 

 My brother remembers a similar experience skiing over a swarm of yellow jelly fish when he was younger, also worried he would fall. By the way, he bounced right up on those skis when it was his turn. Way to go, Bob!!

Vince and I brought bicycles, too, and enjoyed the bike trails that run through the park and beyond alongside the lake. Five hours of sailing and and an hour or two of biking gave us a good workout, and yes, I was a bit sore when I came home. Not bad for a couple getting ready to retire in a year or so, huh?

Copyright 2013 © Sharon Himsl

Sharon M. Himsl

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

Africa Mercy - Sailing the Ocean Grey: One Nurse's Journey

The Africa Mercy has finally left port where it has been undergoing repairs and maintenance for some time. The medical team is on their way to Pointe Noir, Congo now, where once again they will provide critical health care services. This is a running post of my friend's journey on board this amazing hospital ship as a nurse. I love the dolphins she describes in this post. What a blessing she also happens to be an excellent writer!    



"Sailing the Ocean Grey"

7/31/13

We set sail last weekend, headed for Pointe Noir, Congo.  It's an almost two week sail--seems like a long time, in this age of air travel, but since this ship can't fly, we chug along through the waters off the coast of Africa to reach our goal.

The waters are grey, not blue, this trip.  That's because the sky is overcast, dense with sand blowing off the Sahara.  I had trouble sleeping last night, so I went up to deck 8 for a while.  There was not a star in the sky, no horizon to be seen, just a closed-in world of water churned up by the wind.  I held on to the railing, of course, since the ship rocks quite a bit with the wind and waves.  It felt almost greasy, damp with sea spray and covered with fine-grained sand.

You should have seen my hands afterwards!  Who knew I'd find a sandstorm a hundred miles out to sea?  It wasn't like the stinging sandstorms we used to have in El Paso Texas, though, because only the finest grains of sand travel this far.

When the ship rocks gently, it can lull you to sleep.  Last night, however, it felt like my bunkmate was kicking my bunk or stepping on my mattress while climbing into her bunk.  It was rather like someone was shaking me awake--so naturally, I would wake up every time it happened.

My bunkmate was safely tucked into her bunk, not guilty of causing any commotion--it was just the whole ship shuttering under the impact of the wind-blown waves.  I can't imagine what it would be like in an actual storm! I hope I don't have occasion to find out!

A couple of days ago, we suddenly had an escort of a dozen dolphins for about half an hour.  They were amazing to watch as they swam alongside, dived under the bow, and leaped into the air for us.  At dinner, I heard a seaman describe it from the dolphin's point of view.  "Ho hum, another day like other days.  Hark!  I hear the drone of one of those large, boring old fish that just swim in a straight line and sing  one note the whole time.  But often, there are parasites on those fish that can be a lot of fun.  If we jump out of the water, they make the grandest noise, cheering and clapping and talking to one another.  Let's go see if we can make them perform for us."  And indeed, that's just what they did.

Once we arrive in Congo, sometime around August 9, we will be busy cleaning and unpacking the hospital.  It's very dirty from all the construction, and of course, everything is all packed away and tied down for the sail.  We are planning to do our major screening on August 28, and will begin surgeries not too long after that.  Anticipation is running high.  This is what we've all come to do, and it is about to begin, another year of life-transforming surgeries for the world's forgotten poor.

The advance team has been in Congo for several months already, making relationships, finalizing contracts, preparing the sites for the dental clinic, the eye clinic, and the Hope Center. (The Hope Center is basically housing for patients who live far away and need ongoing physical therapy or dressing changes after they are discharged from the hospital.)  Containers of supplies should be waiting for us when we arrive.  Surgeons, nurses, and others are making their final arrangements at home, preparing to come before the big screening event that kicks off our field service for the year.

The advance team has been interviewing and hiring several hundred "day crew", Congolese nationals who live at home but work on the ship as translators, galley crew, deck hands, and other jobs. We couldn't manage without them.  Getting the right mix of job skills into each department and getting translators for multiple languages into all the departments that need translators is quite a project in itself.  Then, all these workers need to be trained, not only for their particular jobs, but into the Mercy Ships culture, expectations, and standards.

When you think about it, it's pretty incredible.  We have to have a full crew with technical skills to sail a large ship, a full crew to provide hotel services for an average of 500 people a day, a full surgical crew to staff several operating rooms, and a full hospital crew to care for the patients.  Then you try to staff that with volunteers from 30-35 different countries, go cross-cultural, deal with language barriers, move the whole operation from place to place every year, stretch your supply lines half-way around the world,  and work with a dozen different host nations.  Somehow, the Lord sustains the whole messy business, and we actually do a fair amount of good wherever we go. I am still thrilled to have a small part to play in this grand scheme.  What a blessing it is to be here.

May the Lord bless each of you in your endeavors, too.

Marilyn


Click here to learn more about the nurses and doctors on board the Africa Mercy.