Safari in Pendjari

Last Thursday I set off with 5 other people for northern Benin - a national park called Pendjari. The group consisted of Shawna, Ryan, Katelyn, and me from the U.S., Corrine from Australia, and Ingeborg from Norway. We got on the Coton Bus (which we later found out it was the worst bus we could have chosen) around 7:00 am. It was basically a really old coach bus. The seats were small, there was barely any room for our legs, no air-conditioning, and the bathroom was being used for storage. We stopped about every couple of hours for people to stretch their legs, buy food from street vendors, and do as nature intended on the side of the road. We reached Natitingu 8 hours later. We had been communicating with 2 French ladies, Nadine and Dany, who owned a small "hotel" in Natitingu where we made reservations. Because none of us spoke French, and the French women didn't speak much English, this made things challening. But we were so happy when they drove up in their van with a sign that said "INGEBORG & CO." They brought us to the hotel, we got settled, then had a dinner of lamb curry. The rooms were separate little huts. Each room had a bed with a mosquito net and a bathroom attached. There were showers, but they didn't work the first night because Natitingu has a water shortage. Here's a pic of the hotel:

Because we hadn't really planned past getting to Natitingu (many people had told us we could try and make plans, but not to really count on them because "this is Africa, afterall") Nadine and Dany contacted someone they knew who gave tours of the park. He came to the hotel and gave us his proposal. He had brought his wife from Nigeria who spoke English. He asked if we accepted the proposal, and we said we did as long as his wife came along to translate. They said that would be fine. We got up at 5:30 the next morning to have breakfast and leave by 6:00. Our tour guide, Marcel showed up with not his wife, but another man who didn't speak English, Tousen. We asked where his wife was and he said she couldn't come because she has 3 kids at home... Of course.

Well, we headed off anyway in their SUV. We got to the park 2 hours later, and stopped outside the entrance to climb on top of the vehicle. Not once were we given any instructions to keep our hands in, hold on, watch out for branches, or anything to prevent us from becoming lion bait. We all mused at how long the waiver would be in the U.S. to be able to do something like this. Anyway, the countryside was so beautiful and it was such an exhilarating feeling flying throught the bush with the wind whipping through your hair.

That morning and afternoon we saw baboons, antelope, deer, hippos, crocodiles, and water buffalo. More excitement came after we took a siesta at the hotel in the park. We checked in about noon, and napped until 4:00. When we went out that evening we saw an elephant! We never actually saw a lion, but we heard one. We went back to the hotel that evening and I felt so sick. I realized I must have been dehydrated (although I was drinking lots of water throughout the day, you don't realize how much you're sweating when it's instantly being dried by the wind). I chugged a liter of water, then felt so sick I had to just lay down to try and keep it down. I went to bed about 8:30 that evening. The next morning we got up before the sun and saw more of the same animals. We stayed in the park until about 11:00 then headed back down to Natitingu, stopping at a waterfall on the way, where we went swimming, climbing, and jumping (no, I did NOT climb the waterfall; yes, I am a chicken). We got back to Nadine and Dany's, and they took us to this neat restaurant that was in an old traditional house made of mud. We had duck - I never knew I liked duck! The next morning we got up early once again to catch the bus back to Cotonou. We ended up getting there an hour early and Ingeborg and I realized we needed to use the bathroom before we got on the bus. We asked Marcel (our tour guide - don't ask me why he showed up at the bus station, but he did) where we could go and he brought us to a house next door. He asked the owners something, then pointed to the back of the house. Well, we hiked back there, relieved ourselves, then thanked the homeowners. After another grueling 8 hour bus ride we made it back to the ship safe and sound. Needless to say, my safari in Pendjari was one I will never forget.

Hospital Visit

It's been a long time, I know. I am sorry for that. It's party because I felt I didn't have anything to write about, and partly because of laziness. But I've given myself a pep talk, and here goes.

We are wrapping up the outreach in Benin. All the patients are gone, and the hospital is closed. There were a few people we had to send to clinics, and one we had to send to a hospital because she had a giant wound that was not healing. We head to Tenerife next week, and will hopefully arrive about 10 days later.

A couple days ago I went to two different hospitals here in Cotonou. One of the day volunteer translators brought a group of 5 nurses and 1 dietitian. The first was a public hospital. All the units were in separate buildings, connected by outdoor corridors. We went in to the emergency room and saw about 10 people laying on gurneys with ancient-looking IV fluids running (although about half had run dry). They were people who couldn't pay the hospital fees. They were waiting for money before they could be admitted. Some had enough money for the IV fluids and a few drugs. We walked around the corner and were hit by the most horrendous smell. There was a man laying there with just one leg covered by a sheet and flies all over the sheet. We were told he had been in a motorbike accident and needed his leg amputated, but couldn't pay for it. He was waiting for money to be brought to him and his leg had become gangrenous. He had waited there one week. He was clearly out of it, breathing extremely fast, glazed over eyes, and laying in his own feces. Now here are some sad financial facts: one night in the hospital is $9, or for a private "VIP" room about $60. To have your leg amputated costs about $160, plus $12 for the CT scan.

There IS some good happening to health care in Benin, however. For example, the government will pay for any Beninese person who needs dialysis. We witnessed this, and were amazed by the modern-looking dialyses machines. The government also covers cancer costs and cesarean sections, which brings me to my next hospital visit. It was a Catholic hospital a few miles away from the public hospital. Things looked a little better here, but we still felt like we were in 1940. We talked to many of the patients, heard there stories, and prayed with them - there is no HIPPA here in Benin. We walked by the operating theater and saw that it was in use. There was a woman on the table, about to have a cesarean section. Our tour guide asked if we would like to watch. We quickly agreed, but refused to take pictures when he insisted we could. We all watched through a window. I have to say, from what I could see they kept it sterile (I guess gauze could work as a face mask?), but their monitoring equipment was a little lacking - the woman had a pulse-oximeter on and a manual blood pressure cuff. As there was no infant bed in the room I wondered what would happen with the baby. Well, as soon as the baby was delivered and the cord was cut she was placed on a tray and handed, through the window we were observing from, to a nurse on the other side. The nurse then brought her to the nursery. When we asked if we could see the baby the nurse was more than happy to bring her outside where we were waiting. We all got to hold her and take pictures before the mother held her - quite strange.

The next day on the ship some nurses got money together to bring to the man who needed his leg amputated. Unfortunately by the time they got to him he had died. Apparently his brother had scrounged up the money, the man got the surgery, but then died - more than likely of sepsis.

The hospital visit was definitely an eye opening experience, and it has made me greatly appreciate health care in the U.S., even when you think you have good dental insurance and end up paying an arm and a leg to have 3 wisdom teeth taken out. At least I could have the darn things taken out.

Well, I hate to end on a sad note like this, so maybe I will blog about my safari experience in a couple days. No promises though. Excited to see everyone very soon!!

It's beginning to feel a lot like.....Africa

Unfortunately not all the stories from Mercy Ships are happy stories. This past week we had a patient who was admitted to have a facial tumor removed. It was a huge growth, right under his eye extending 4 or 5 inches. When the screening was done at the beginning of the outreach the doctors must have thought the type of tumor he had was one that they could operate on. However, they did a test when he got to the hospital and they realized it was cancerous, and it was growing just as far inside his head as it was growing outside. Unfortunately he couldn’t be operated on because it would actually decrease his life expectancy, with him having no chance to get chemo, radiation or anything else they would do back home. It was one of the saddest things I’ve had to experience here – letting him eat dinner, then sending him home. His hopes were crushed after months of expecting to eventually lead a normal life. Then there was a 21 year old who came to the ship to have a fistula repair. After going through the surgery and the recuperation period she had to leave the ship still "wet" - meaning the fistula wasn't able to be repaired, and she would continue leaking urine. These are devastating stories to hear, but I have to be hopeful and believe that although they did not receive the physical healing they were hoping to, they received some spiritual healing in hearing the message of Jesus. At home they are despised and outcast because of their afflictions, but here they are loved and cared for because they are children of God - and I hope and pray that they leave the ship knowing that this love and acceptance can continue through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

This weekend I went on a trip to a little place called Bab’s Dock. It’s actually the personal residence of a family that moved to Benin from Holland about 10 years ago. They open their home on the weekends for visitors. It took about and hour along a bumpy, wild dirt road. We then hopped on a boat that took us to this beautiful oasis! There were kayaks, a volleyball net in the water, hammocks hanging from palm trees, donkeys, a monkey, and a restaurant. I went with a bunch of women for a retreat. Saturday we hung out in the sun and went swimming. The water was the color of tea, but I was assured it was safe to swim in - something about the amount of iron not allowing parasites and bacteria to thrive. Next we were served a delicious dinner of beef stew with vegetables over basmati rice. We then had devotions and retired beneath our mosquito nets under the open sky. I’m hoping my malaria medication is working its magic because my net did not keep every mosquito out, and although I doused myself with plastic-melting deet I came back with some bites. Here are some pics of Bab's Dock:

Malaria and Eggs

Well, it's been an interesting week here on M/V Africa Mercy. Last weekend a group made a trip to Ghana for the weekend. When they returned 3 people from the group got sick with malaria and ended up being hospitalized here on the ship. Thankfully they have all returned to good health. Interestingly, malaria is so common here that we don't ask patients if they have had malaria - we ask them when they last had it. Then last week one of our security guards was on an early morning run with a group and was hit by a motorbike. Included in the group were 4 nurses, a surgeon, and an anesthesiologist. So they got him out of the road, tried to stop the bleeding from his head, and called an ambulance and someone from the ship. He never lost consciousness. The Mercy Ships vehicle showed up first, then a minute later the ambulance arrived (which was just a car with a red flashing light on top and a stretcher they put over the seats). The ambulance driver got in an argument with the Mercy Ships people because he wanted to take the injured man to the local hospital. Luckily there was a random European running by who spoke French, so she explained to them that the ship is a hospital, and he needed to be taken there. So the ambulance drove him to the ship. They did an abdominal x-ray and a CT scan, and there were luckily no internal injuries. He lost about a liter of blood, and has some pretty bad facial bruising, so he's still hospitalized, but it looks like he'll be alright.

I had some very grateful patients this week. One 9 year old boy I took care of had a release of his ankylosis - basically, your mouth is frozen shut. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankylosis. I'm not sure the cause of his, but it can be caused by untreated trauma or infection. To fix this the surgeon needs to break the jaw and reset it. The patient then has a bite block in their mouth for 24 hours. After the bite block comes out they need to begin jaw exercises - here we have them stick more and more popsicle sticks in their mouth hourly. If they do not do the exercises the jaw will become locked again. Obviously this whole process is very painful. This first day I had this boy he still had his bite block in, and when he wasn't sleeping he was crying and asking for the block to be taken out. The next day I came back, the block was out, and he was a new boy. He was so happy because he could stick his tongue out for the first time in his life! Another man I took care of had a mass removed from his cheek. His wife came in to see him, and gave me a bag of eggs! There were about 20 eggs in it. One of the translators told me that eggs are a blessing. I was very touched by this.

I went to the fabric market on Friday. There are so many beautiful fabrics, I could go crazy there! I bought 4 types of fabric - one is a rooster print that I've seen a few people wearing. I'm excited to make skirts or pillows or curtains when I get home!

Well, I am off from work today and tomorrow, so I think I will do some exploring with a friend, and I'm planning to make a quiche!

Night Shifts and Weekend Fun

This week started off with 3 night shifts. They went much better this time around, I got through them pretty painlessly. Friday night I went out to dinner for my friend Jamie's birthday. This is us at the restaurant:

Saturday morning I went with a group of girls to a town called Possotome. It's 2 hours northwest of Cotonou, on a lake. We learned how to fish the local way! It was neat, except for the fact that we did not catch ONE fish. Apparently because the lake is connected to the ocean salt water filters in. So when the lake is saltier there are more fish. The lake was very unsalty on Saturday. Here I am learning to cast the net:
After fishing we walked around the town. The kids were so friendly - much friendlier than they are in Cotonou, and they rarely asked us for money which was a nice change. We scared one baby who had probably never seen a white person in her life. She started SCREAMING when she saw us. Some just latched themselves on to us, holding our hands as we walked through town. We noticed that many of the children had umbilical hernias (the belly button sticks out, much more than just an "outie"). Later we learned that it is because they are strapped to their mothers' backs for so long, and they skip the crawling phase. This causes them to underuse their stomach muscles, making them weak and at risk for developing hernias. After walking around town we had dinner at one of the hotels. For dinner they had one option: a mexican salad (lettuce, red onions, corn, TUNA, and some sort of dressing) grilled chicken (a whole leg), rice and peas, and chocolate mousse for dessert. It was pretty good, but I wasn't a big fan of the chicken - a little too rubbery for my taste. After dinner we went to our hotel rooms (which were $12 each). In my room was a double bed with a foam pillow and a fitted sheet, a mosquito net over the bed, a table and a couple chairs, and a bathroom - which was a toilette, a shower, and a large bucket (no idea what it was for). There was no air-conditioning so we didn't need any more sheets or blankets on the bed. Luckily there was a fan. Here are some more pics from the trip to Possotome:

My friend Katelyn, in our hotel room

Oranges. They peel the outer peel, cut a hole in the top, then suck out the juice. I bought 8 for $.20

Today, Sunday, I went to the Benin vs. Ghana soccer match here in Cotonou. I went with a group of about 25 people. There were hardly any women there, let alone white people. We had to get there 2 hours early to make sure we had seats, so we ended up sitting in the hot African sun for about 4 1/2 hours. Thankfully I had lots of water and sunscreen with me. The game was tied 0-0 until the last minute when Benin scored, winning the game. It was a very neat thing to experience, but not necessarily something I need to experience again.

That's all for now!

My Job

I realized I've written about what I've been doing outside of the hospital, but many of you are probably wondering what I actually came to Africa for! So let me give you an example of a day at work.

Yesterday I took care of 5 patients. One was a 24 year old pregnant woman who had a tumour removed from the back of her tongue. She had a naso-gastric tube, so required NG feedings. Another little 5 year old girl had a pharyngoplasty - a repair of a cleft palate that is VERY painful because there's a lot of stretching and repositioning of the roof of the mouth. She also required NG feedings. Then there was a little boy who had a cleft lip repair. This is a pretty easy recovery compared to a cleft palate repair. Another woman had a thyroidectomy. My last patient had a big old tumour removed from her eye socket - I think it had just taken over her eye, which had to be removed. It's a lot of wound care and teaching with these patients.

The plastic surgeons are gone now, but we still have quite a few of their patients here that we're praying will heal quickly so they can go home. Some have been here over a month. Most of these patients have had burns on their hands or feet that have caused contractures. So the surgeon releases the contracture, and uses a skin graft from the thigh to cover the wound. The extremity never looks "normal" again, but we warn the patient about this and explain that the goal is function.

Now that the plastic surgeons are gone we have general surgeons who will be doing lots of hernia repairs and thyroidectomies. We are also getting ready for the VVF ladies who come on October 10. They come for a repair of their vesicovaginal fistula, which is usually caused by prolonged labor. Basically, the baby presses on the bladder through the uterus for so long that it produces a hole, or fistula. These women then constantly leak urine, and become outcasts in their communities. Thankfully if and when this is fixed they are usually welcomed back into the community.

So that's what I'm doing!

So what have I been up to the last 2 weeks...

I had the opportunity to go to an orphanage a couple weeks ago. I went with about 8 other people. There were about 25 toddlers at the orphanage, many of whom had been left in dumpsters as babies, some with signs around their necks reading "HIV +." I held one sick and malnourished boy the whole time who was too weak to stand. He held a cookie in his hand, but didn't have the energy to eat it. He got pee and snot all over me, and all he wanted was just to be held and loved. It broke my heart. So we had story time, played games, then we fed them. I was so glad that my guy was a good eater when I helped him. After lunch they were brought inside where each child was set on a little bowl and encouraged to relieve themselves. I'm not sure how well their system works, many of the kids had wet pants before they got to the bowls... It was quite an experience.

Then I started my night shifts. Let's just say those 4 nights were definitely a low point for me. You may have noticed that I have a new verse in my heading. My cousin Grace shared this verse with me, and it was such an encouragement to know that I could just cling to God. I was also very encouraged after talking to my parents. I started to realize during these night shifts that God did not intend for this to be an easy time for me. He is testing and refining me, and being so faithful in the process.

This past week I finally made it to the craft market (twice!). The first time I walked with some friends, and it took about 45 minutes. The second time I took a taxi with other friends. Here it is:

There were a bunch of different booths that sold exactly the same things (table cloths, necklaces, wooden carvings), and everyone yelled at you, saying "Please, let me show you my shop! I give you good price!" Needless to say, it got a little old. The craft market wasn't as busy as the main market which I also had the chance to experience. At this market there were aisles and aisles of batteries, underwear, sunglasses, chickens, goats.....you name it, they had it. I think it was like Cotonou's Meijer.

This past weekend I went to Grand Popo with some friends. I camped. Yes, camped. I went with a group of 5 girls and 1 guy. I was the only nurse in the bunch, the others work as teachers, in hospitality, in HR... We took a taxi (just a mini-van that we crammed 9 people in - a couple other people from Mercy Ships were going with a difference group, but rode with us) We left Saturday morning, and it took about 2 1/2 hours to get there. This is the van we took:

Here's some info about Grand Popo if you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand-Popo. So we set up our tents at the resort (it cost us $3 each to camp), then laid on the beach - it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!! Saturday night we had dinner at the resort. The other girls just ordered chicken and fries, but I thought I should try something African. So I ordered calamari with curry. After waiting 1 1/2 hours (the electricity kept going out, so that may have had something to do with how quickly the food was cooked) I got a SLAB of squid. It was approximately 6" x 6" x 1". As soon as I put the first bite in my mouth I had a gag reflex. It was like chewing on a tire. Never in my life have I eaten something so vile. And I never will again. Here's some pics of the resort:

This is Jamie, she's from Arizona and works in hospitality.

Paul (from the U.K. - does something in the engine room), Jamie, and me.

Christina (from California, teacher), me, Haley (from Alabama, teacher)

Then on Sunday we hired a local guy to give us a tour on a canoe. It was so peaceful and serene. We went through a mangrove and saw a bunch of crabs, drank from a coconut, then he took us to a village called Hévé, which is a Voodoo village. Many of the people are Catholic but still practice Voodoo. It was so sad to walk through the village and know that the people knew nothing of the freedom, forgiveness, and love they could have in Jesus. I didn't get many pictures from the village because the people believe that if you take their picture you are stealing their soul. But here are a few from the outing:

The canoe we took, the guide (in white and blue) and the paddler (in red)

Crayfish! Caught by local fishermen, and kept in this basket.

The Voodoo village

A Voodoo god - the protector of the village.

We got back Sunday night, and I'm ready for another week!