Celebration of sight ceremony, the drive through Conakry and back and a walk for some ice cream :) round out work week 1.

  • The eye team from my 1st week.
  • Average meal on board ship…lots of white rice and fresh fruit.
  • The start of a beautiful sunset out the ship window.
  • Thursday community meeting with worship and singing with the youth leading.
  • Followed by ice cream in the cafe 🙂
  • The start of our drive to the eye clinic for the celebration of sight ceremony. A hotel.
  • Trash littering the areas nearer to the ocean.
  • More of the same
  • Ferry boats, LOL! We rented one the next to take us to an island…more later.
  • Random people making and selling things along the road
  • Hard at work, some cook for passersby and hope to sell it.
  • at a glance this is beautiful…until you see that it is all trash on the shore
  • Confrontation on the streets, cops involved!!
  • Dental clinic volunteer making bridges, etc for patients
  • Autoclaves!!!
  • We sang a few songs to celebrate the gift of sight that these people have received.
  • We sang it in a foreign language listed on the music sheet.
  • But it was nice having the English translation as well
  • Analee, the eye room lead, and some street people in the background
  • more ‘businesses’
  • The man with the sewing machine caught my eye…
  • This man, older, pulled that heavy cart up the hill!! We were impressed and glad it wasn’t us.
  • People
  • Homeless population exists here as well
  • Better housing
  • More homeless
  • We walked to ‘Le specialle” the ice cream parlor 20 minutes away!!
  • The Taxi stop outside the window. People would jump into cars and cram 8 or more people in a small car!! We saw a fight break out because one woman snuck around and jumped while 3 other women were putting their items in the trunk!! lots of shouting and finger pointing there!!

We spent 2 more days doing eye surgery…around 50 patients over the 3 days I worked with only the 1 cancellation 🙂 The Celebration of Sight Ceremonies are a big deal. They sing songs giving praise to God for healing that they never expected to come their way. They have an opportunity to speak and share their experiences and their thanks if they choose, several had. It is translated in 3 languages for the patients and we have a translator for the few of us so we know what is going as well…King Ish wearing a gold crown, LOL (kids crown) but he was fun and accepted that way.

While we were there we had the opportunity to tour the dental clinic as well. Here they train local staff to care for their own as they provide dental care to them. They have a lot of locals who want to participate in the program.

The local homeless only had one of 2 places that we noticed them but some of the houses that people live in don’t look much better.

We wound out our day walking to the common ice cream shop for most. It is a 20 minute walk, which is not a big deal until you factor in the 85 – 90 degree weather, which isn’t all that bad either except for the 85% or higher humidity. As you could imagine the A/C and ice cream are very refreshing at that point 🙂 Our entertainment is sitting above and watching the taxi stand below. We watched for over half an hour as we ate! People would jump into cars: 8,9,10 people at times in 4 seater car. No, they don’t know each other. Yes, they do have an occasional argument that gets heated. And, yes, sometimes someone just has to slam the door and hope it doesn’t bounce off of the person on the end!! (saw that a few times!!)

All in all a good 1st week…

Small tour of the ship

It is hard to imagine just how big the ship is until you see it. Here are some pix to help you see just that!! I skipped many areas and a few decks. Pool is on deck 8, no pictures.

  • Ship sized wind chime!!
  • Notice the bumper between the ship and dock…
  • This is how big they actually are!!
  • And this is how small they look not zoomed in (from deck 6 or 7)
  • The 3 buildings behind the gangplank are for patients…2 are for rehab, one is for screening the new patients, pavilion for preops.
  • Gangway or gangplank…42 steps!! Carrying a 35 lb. suitcase and 2 backpacks!!
  • For the dockworkers for the ship.
  • A few of the ship/dock bumpers
  • Nice pavilion on deck 6 or 7. I have eaten dinner out here once or twice.
  • Trying to get the entire ship or even the name is not possible…to big.
  • Part of the dock area in front of the ship.
  • Playground on the upper deck 1.
  • Playground 2. There is also a little ‘zipline’, trampoline, and others.
  • Center stack, the person in the background gives a better idea as to how big this is!
  • Back deck.
  • Steep stairways!!
  • LOL, escape route?? It is on the lower deck!
  • Outer deck stairs
  • Ended up with a bruise on my lower calf from the back of the stair!!
  • Our Starbucks cafe!
  • Lower level is near Starbucks, upper level is more casual seating and internet lounge.
  • Cool decorations in many places, this is above Starbucks.
  • Rocking elephant, LOL!! No horse here!
  • Narrow hallways but kids still play in them outside the wards.
  • Operating Room hallway during Tuesday Morning worship.
  • Eye sugery room…2 patients at a time!!
  • Gym 1
  • Gym 2
  • Jail cell…LOL, not really sure what this is but there is one on each side!!
  • Patient area near the rehab tents.
  • Not zoomed in, same area.
  • Sunset
  • The garden!!

Tuesday, April 2nd

  • Tuesday morning worship and devotions in the OR!!! Loved it 🙂
  • Songs in English with a verse or 2 in French.
  • One of our Chaplains gave the message on Psalm 23 but from a unique perspective…how it relates to our Mercy Ship journeys.

Tuesdays are my favorite work day aboard ship. We meet as a unit (O.R., Recovery room, anesthesia, day crew, translators, sterile processing, etc staff) for worship and devotions before morning announcements. This morning we even had instruments!! Word sheets and books help as well. I tried to add the video but so far no luck. I will try again. The message on Psalm 23 was timely for each of us as he viewed from our Mercy Ships journeys…The first section we are taken care of by our Shepherd. He makes us rest, he restores us, refreshes us, leads us in calm waters and green pastures. The next section is our first time serving…we are nervous, did we make the right choice in coming here? Will we be welcomed? Will we be useful? What were we thinking!!?? But even though we are nervous/anxious He is walking with us, (no longer a shepherd but a constant companion) comforting us, calming our fears and nervousness, preparing our way. Then in the last section He is You…You prepare for me here…there are others who have come before to make sure we have food, water, clean rooms and bedding, etc. Our cups surely are overflowing. His goodness and mercy is all around here. I can see Him in many ways all the time. They truly live by their motto of bringing hope and healing to the worlds forgotten poor.

Off to work… I get to help people regain their sight this week. On the schedule today are 11 cataract patients and 2 pterygium patients. Most their sight is so poor they can’t make out fingers held up from 6 feet away. We have translators with us for each as they speak French basically but 3 or 4 other dialects as well. Our eye surgeon this week is Dr. Joe from Tuscon, AZ, USA. We start each morning with in eyes with introductions, if needed, a brief sharing and prayer for the team as well as the patients and the day. One man’s surgery was cancelled after he got in the eye room…his eye was good enough for glasses and he can’t see out of the other eye. He was too young to take that risk when glasses would serve him well. Beautifully explained by Dr. Joe through the translator to the patient he was grateful that Dr. Joe cared that much about him. He would be issued glasses at the eye clinic.

  • This weeks eye team
  • Our casual look!!

The eye team this week (left to right, front to back)
Karalee (USA) Charity (CAN) Analee (SWE) Me 🙂 Hanna (KOR)

Moise (Guinea) Lamine (Guinea) Dr. Joe (USA)

Monday, April 1st

After a short night of sleep (stayed up until after 10 trying to finish the mandatory child/ministry safety videos and test that wouldn’t work from home) we had mandatory community meeting this morning, and each Monday morning. After some worship songs and a short devotion the room is updated about the week, events on board and around the area. The captain gives his weekly update which includes things like water usage aboard ship, how to keep the toilets in our cabins working well, when to put ‘toilet juice’ in the toilets, LOL, etc.

Then is was off to orientation: ship living, crew health, dining area, coming and going from the ship, crew bank, African money, Conakry things like beggars and safety. There was so much information to take in after flying for 21 hours and sleeping a few!! Then off to Operating Room orientation…in a small classroom right after lunch with 4 people in the dimly lit room watching slides… I dozed off at least 10 times!!! I had to apologize to the O.R. manager for that. After our tour of the operating room department we had a free hour until dinner followed by a one hour tour of the ship.

So very tired but tried to do the safety videos/test again until after 10 (new link from ship staff). Watched all the videos but they must email me the test sometime over the next week…off to bed I went!!

  • Finally made it to the operating rooms!!!
  • Very steep stairways!!!

I arrived and met up with Mercy!!!

Met up with Mercy Ships and 25 other volunteers at the airport in Conakry…loading up to head to the ship.

It was great to see other volunteers at the airport!! Once we made it through customs the Ship people were there to greet us and speed us on our way. Unfortunately for 5 of us, speed was not on our side…neither was our luggage 😦 I had one piece but not the other but the other 4 had none of theirs. Once the paper work was finished for that we were on our way!!

Conakry International Airport…not very big but big enough 🙂

Our official (LOL) greeter at the airport before going through customs.
Our 1st view of ‘home’ for the next 3 weeks (Sunday 3/31 7 pm)
And they live by this…
Official representative by 8 pm Sunday!!

It was pretty late when we finally were able to get in our cabins. Here is the hallway to mine followed by the view from inside, our section is the lighted area on the right. Our bunk area is next, the bottom one is mine (because I arrived 10 minutes ahead of my roommate). We each get a cabinet, 2 shelves and desk space to share. When you walk in our door, the bathroom is to the left, the next area is a similar 2 bunk area like ours. There are 2 ladies from Australia in that one. There is another 2 bunk area beyond ours as well with 2 ladies in as well, one is from Texas and the other, I think, is from England. The young woman who shares my area is from Canada. Very cozy!!!

It is 10 pm (on Saturday) and I am heading to bed. I plan to go to the island for some beach time with several others tomorrow so I may get to update tomorrow evening while I do my laundry…

Almost missed my 1st flight!!!

I am on the plane for Paris at this moment. I almost missed my flight to JFK, LOL. After a great lunch I went to the military lounge since I had almost 2 hours, set my timer for 45 minutes in case I dozed off, and relaxed on a recliner. I woke up 10 minutes before my flight was going to depart 😯, grabbed my stuff and ran to my gate as I heard my name overhead for last call to board. Turns out I set the timer for 45 hours 😁🤨🤔 Apparently I am where I am supposed to be or I would have never made it, LOL.