Dear all,
This is my first post since arriving safely to the Africa Mercy and two weeks have quickly gone by. I'd like to say its all been smooth sailing up to this point (pun completely intended) but that wouldn't quite be true. I have been here for 15 days now, and last night my second bag finally turned up from its 2 week vacation in Paris. So it was an interesting first two weeks of rotating what little clothes I did have in order to stay somewhat fresh and clean!
As well as my continually rotating wardrobe, I've also been trying to get to grips with life on the ship; living in community, sleeping in a 4 berth cabin, working in an intense and hot environment and all in all a completely new style of life. At times its been more difficult than I initially expected, but having friends here already who I spent time with in Texas and the D.R. has made a significant difference and I think we've all been a positive help to one another (well....they have been for me at least!!).
We've also arrived at a funny time of the year, as the ship is coming to the end of its outreach here in Benin, so most of the medical work ended the week we turned up. So its been an unusual time to be here, as lots of people are leaving for the Christmas holidays, or their time or service with Mercy Ships has come to an end. Either way, the ship is getting quieter by the day, as people go home and we prepare to sail to Teneriffe for 6 weeks of ship maintenance.
But one of the most amazing things is that we have been able to walk into an atmosphere of reflection from the past 10 months of work in Benin. There have been lots of stories that have been shared of how people's lives have been changed by the work done by Mercy Ships. There have been literally tens of thousands of people who have had their lives changed through the care and attention of the medical teams that work in and from the ship.
Here is a snippet of one amazing young girl who's life has been turned
around by Mercy Ships:
“When the tumor first appeared, my husband and I took Alba to the hospital, but we didn’t have money to pay for it, so they wouldn’t treat her. We had to use traditional medicine,” said Ankosua, her mother. Alba was taken out of school so her mother could give her the traditional medicine daily.
When asked how the community treated Alba, Ankosua stared at the floor and remained silent. After a 10-second pause, she looked up, her eyes filled with tears, and she painfully replied, “Some people received Alba with good hands. They prayed for her and encouraged me. But others shunned her. They said, ‘Go away, we don’t want to see you.’”
After Ankosua explained that she had no money for treatment, the woman told her about Mercy Ships. “This woman had heard Mercy Ships was in town, helping people and healing people for free. She gave me directions to the Africa Mercy, and I immediately went,” Ankosua added.
Still attached to noisy monitors and IV fluids, Alba had been dozing in and out of sleep since returning to the Africa Mercy ward. Finally, a few hours after surgery, she opened her eyes and sat up. Seeing she was awake, Becca, her nurse, came to Alba’s bedside and handed her a small mirror.
Alba looked down, paused in a state of bewilderment, and began touching the empty space on her mouth. The tumor was gone. After 20 seconds of staring, a single tear rolled down her cheek. With great determination, she tried not to cry. But another and then another tear soon followed. Finally, she gave up trying to hold them back and cried freely. Alba’s tears were earned through years of heartache and rejection. They were mature and raw – heavy tears for an eight-year-old to cry.
Thank you for your support!
Photo's as we left the port in Cotonou, Benin.
DOLPHINS DOLPHINS DOLPHINS
We also sailed past numerous pods of whales, though they were slightly more shy than these guys!
