The Finale

As many of you know by know, I have returned home to the States indefinitely in order to take care of my mom. She spent three weeks in the hospital and a skilled nursing facility and finally went home on Friday. We moved her into a new place as she is not able to live independently in her condo.

Having left so quickly, I didn't get to say goodbye to everyone including most of my patients. Two have died since I returned home. I did get to see Michael off to Ghana as he left the Monday before I left. He has not started his chemo treatment yet (I don't know why they are delaying) but hopefully it will start in early May.

I did get a job the day I returned home...see, all that planning and polling about my future apparently didn't help - God had other plans. I'll be self-employed (yea, a real income) working from home as a software designer for the next 6 months (that's what I did before becoming a nurse). After that, who knows. I'll have to see how my mom is doing - I hope to return to Africa at some point.

I don't plan on blogging anymore since this was about my experiences in Africa. Good-bye!

Weekly update

My wonderful patient, Monica, died this week. She was in her 30s and had breast cancer. We only met her about three weeks ago and when I saw her last Friday, she was doing seemingly well. No complaints, just a small cough. We had a fun visit, just sitting outside by the river she lives next to and talking. In another place and time, she is someone that I could have been good friends with.

When I showed up for a visit on Friday, I knew something was wrong as I was walking to the house. There were lots of people just sitting around on benches outside and inside the house - that's always an indication of a death. As soon as I walked up, Monica's sister Rose came up to me, grabbed me in a hug and started to cry. 'She fini-o, she fini-o' Rose kept repeating, meaning 'she died.' Rose told me that Monica started having trouble breathing on Sunday but decided not to go to the hospital for any help and she died Tuesday morning.

The family will be meeting on Saturday to decide on funeral arrangements and what to do with Monica's four children. The children will most likely be given to Rose to raise (that's what Rose thinks anyways). Their biological father is dead and the stepfather will probably not take any responsibility for them.

We also got three new patients this week, all children. Nelly (5), Princess (10) and Alexander (5). All three will be getting chemo for Burkitts lymphoma (cancer) starting Friday. On Friday, five of our patients will be at St. Joseph's hospital receiving chemo at the same time. Makes for easy visits when they are located in the same place!

Here are some random photos from the week:
The U.S. Navy was in Liberia for PR/humanitarian reasons. Many Mercy Shippers were able to tour their High Speed Vessel (HSV) and their big ship anchored outside the port. Here is a group heading out to the Navy ship. Notice the sunken ship behind them.

Father and daughter.

















Surrounded by kids.











My friend, Liz and my translator/friend, Jerry next to our LandRover.
Random pig walking around in front of my friend Rose's church.





Only God Make Me Big Boy #2 (there is a #1 taxi as well, I've seen it:)

Photos

More photos to share! This is Nemle (aka Old Man Wallace although I can't bring myself to call him that). He's in his 70s which is really, really old for this country. You can see his cancerous tumor on his neck. He's a retired teacher.


































Here's Nemle's aunt. She looks like she's close to 100 years old.

This is Alfred, one of my newest patients. He's a mechanic but has had to quit working because of the cancer in his right arm. He moved to his fiancee's house so that he has someone to care for him. On our first visit, his soon-to-be mother-in-law gave us a whole sack full of avocados as a thank you...it's so humbling to receive such a gift from people who have almost nothing - but they don't think twice about offering you what they have.

Just some cute kids at Alfred's house.










This is Armstrong, one of my patients from last outreach, and our translator Jerry. He is mentally and physically handicapped but doesn't have a terminal illness. I hadn't seen him since November - he has grown in inches but his body seems to be shrinking and he's now very stiff.


















Armstrong's mother just had a baby two weeks ago named Favor. Here I am holding the new baby!

Ship life continues

A lot of people back home ask me how I like ship life and I can't say really that I dislike it or like it. It's just different...so I was trying to think up a way to explain it. So I want you to think about all of these people and picture them in your head:

You
Your boss
Your boss's boss
Your boss's boss's boss
Every single one of your coworkers
Your doctor
Your doctor's nurse
Your hair stylist
Your librarian
Your local grocery clerk
Your local Starbuck's clerk
Your car mechanic
The person who washes your car
Your teachers
Your principal
Your pastor
Your church worship teams
All the people in your church
Your dentist
Your dental hygienist
All of your neighbors within a one block radius
The person who fixes your computer or helps you with your internet access
The person from whom you rent DVDs
Your local post office clerk
Your local bank teller
200 random people you crossed paths with today that you don't know but look vaguely familiar

And now imagine that you see these people all the time because you all live together. You see them at breakfast, lunch and dinner; you see them in the library and while doing your laundry; you see them at meetings and at church; you see them when you go out to a restaurant and when you are looking for a quiet, private place to read; you see them when you are working out or when you go to the movies; you see them when you hang out at Starbucks or when you go grocery shopping or when you are on your break at work or you go to the bank; you see them in their work clothes, in their casual clothes and in their workout clothes; you see them with their spouses and children and with their friends.

You basically see every person who has a connection to either your home life, work life or church life everywhere you go. Even in the middle of the night when doing laundry - one of these people is bound to be there!

Some days I miss my nice, quiet condo back home but, for the most part, I'm acclimated to ship life and it is just normal now. I'm not sure what I'll do when I get home and I actually have to make an effort to see any of these people!

An odd day

Today started off normally with a quick visit to Levi to make sure he was doing ok after his chemo treatment last week (which he was) and also to give him a soccer ball we promised. Here he is with his new soccer ball.


















So after this visit and a couple of other stops, we headed back to the ship for lunch. As I was pulling into the port, my translator saw a little girl who was just sitting at the entrance. She looked familiar so we stopped and found out it was one of our patients from last year named Grace. She's 13 but looks maybe 10. She got in the car and we asked what was she doing here. She told us she had walked from her house (a two hour walk, I'm guessing and through heavily congested streets) because she wanted to come on the ship. She'd been to the ship before a couple times last year to watch movies and have lunch. She didn't tell anyone at her house she was leaving.

We turned the car around and drove her home. Her granny and step-mom were furious. She had left early that morning to go buy some peanuts and just never came home. I can't imagine how worried they were - it's not like there is a process here to find missing children as far as I know. She was obviously in big trouble. I'm just thankful we went to the ship for lunch and saw her - we don't always do that. She would have had to walk back home.

Then we headed back to the ship for lunch (again) and while I was there, I got a message from my boss saying we were getting another patient. It was a little 1 1/2 year old girl with retinoblastoma (cancer of the eye) that was referred to us by another organization working here called The Next Right Thing. This organization connects sick kids in developing countries with medical care in countries like the U.S. The patient hadn't actually been seen on the ship but this organization was trying to find someone who would help care for her because there was nothing they could do since the cancer was too far advanced. So we called the phone number we had and talked to Habib. He said he would meet us and take us to the patient. He told us the location which happened to be right near where we have another little patient who is a 1 1/2 year old boy named Archie with retinoblastoma.

So we drove an hour to meet this man Habib. We picked him up at the junction and started to ask questions about this little girl and, after a few minutes of discussion, we discovered it wasn't a little girl at all but it was our little patient Archie. For whatever reason, the family had not told this other organization that Archie was under our care so they referred us a patient who was already a patient. This is a city of 1.5 million people and we only have 7 patients so I find the odds incredibly small that this would happen. Anyways, I'm glad there isn't another little patient out there!

We went to Archie's house and just made our visit a day earlier than planned. He is not doing well. He has a large tumor where his left eye would normally be. A week and a half ago, he could see out of his right eye and was out playing with other kids. He cried at our white skin and wouldn't let me hold him. Sometime last week, he lost his vision in his good eye and is no longer up playing. He let me get close to him and touch him because now he can't see my white skin. He is restless so we upped his pain meds and will revisit tomorrow to see how well that worked. His family is really sad so they could definitely use your prayers while they go through this horrible time.

One final update: we had planned on sending our patient Michael to Ghana this week to start his chemo treatments. But it may actually work out that he can receive the treatment here in Monrovia and about 1/10 the cost of sending him to Ghana. He would get to stay in his home and hopefully continue his college studies while in treatment. Please pray this would all work out for him!

Updates

The days here sometimes seem like the longest days of my life but the weeks seem like they are flying by. Almost every day is really hard. There are so many people with medical needs that aren't being met in this country due to lack of accessible healthcare, lack of money and lack of education (I recently talked to someone who lives in Monrovia who didn't know there is a free pediatric hospital here - seems like something you should know when you have 12 children). Every day I have to tell at least 5 people that we can't help them. It makes for really long days (not to mention it is scorching hot here - much worse than last year).

We're on track to send my patient Michael (22 years old with Hodgkins lymphoma) to Ghana for chemo, hopefully this week. His brother will go with him to take care of him while he is in the hospital and if he's home sick from the chemo. Neither had a birth certificate so it took awhile for them to be able to get passports. Michael is currently attending college thanks to sponsors in the U.S. but he will have to give up his studies for at least six months while he is away. He is the hope of his extremely large family. Here's a picture of Michael with his father Rudolph.

My patient Levi (10 years old with Burkitts lymphoma) is still receiving chemo and is almost done with his treatments. So far no one has survived this cancer even with chemo so I continue to pray that Levi will be healed completely. Even though the chemo kills the cancer pretty quickly and the tumors can go away in as little as two days, their little bodies are almost always undernourished and immunocompromised so the chemo is hard on them. Here's a picture of Levi (with my sunglasses) and his little brother Ivan.

We have been visiting the family of Survivor quite a bit since he passed away on March 1. They are devastated - I can't think of much worse than losing a 5 year old to cancer, especially when he finished his chemo and everything seemed to be going well for him. His family left this week to go upcountry for what they call the feast. It is what they do when someone in the family dies - everyone comes from all over the country to pay their respects and have a big meal. They already had this feast planned because James, Survivor's father passed away in October. So they decided to combine the feast for both James and Survivor.

For cultural reasons, Rebecca (Survivor's mother) is no longer part of her husband's family even though they were together for 12 years and have 6 children. Her children remain part of the family. One of the things that will go on while they are at the feast is decisions about Rebecca and her children. They will take up a collection of money that will be used to support her and her children. Her children, however, will probably not remain with her - they will probably be given to the oldest brother of James (named Steven) and his wife Doris to raise. On my last visit, Rebecca said to me 'Oh sis Michele, you need to just forget about me.' As far as she's concerned, she's out of the family. It made me cry...I told her I would never, ever forget about her.

Here is a photo of their large extended family. Rebecca is third from the left in the back row and Doris is first from the left in the back row.

My patient Mark (26 years with squamous cell carcinoma) is really having a hard time. While we were in the Canary Islands, he went to the local hospital and they debulked his facial tumor. However, the skin grafts didn't take and now he has a large hole in his face that is infected. And, since they couldn't get all the cancer, it has returned and is growing very quickly. He's having a hard time coping with the pain and the daily sterile dressing changes. We are working to get his pain under control but it's not an easy task here since we don't necessarily have access to the meds that we would use back home. Here's a photo of Mark with his 2 year old daughter Angelina.

Here's Angelina 'driving' our car! She's a beautiful little girl with a big smile.

My patient Sarah is a wonderful, vivacious 75 year old with lots of energy even with the cancer. She loves for us to visit and likes to tell us about her family and her growing up years. She wants her whole family to meet us ('her people' as she calls us) so next Tuesday I'm expecting a big group of people at her house. She is well cared for by her family. Here's a photo of Sarah.

We made a visit to the family of Rose who passed away last summer to see how her four children were doing. Here they are with the neighborhood kids goofing off.

Baby George eating his rice.

My partner June and I had a large box of metal and plastic bowls that we donated to an orphanage called SOS Village. My translator Jerry's sister Dorothy is a house mother there who lives with and cares for 8 children. She called my translator and told us she wanted us to come by so she could thank us. So when we stopped by on Friday, she had a whole African meal cooked for us.

I have been here over 8 months and so far have avoided, on purpose, eating at an African's house. But there was no way I was going to avoid this. It was such a humbling gesture considering these bowls weren't anything special but to her, they were a big gift. She said this was her way of inviting us into the family - her own mother, she said, was really hospitable and they always had strangers over to their house for a meal.

So we had rice, chicken with pumpkin, fried plantains, french fries and hot dogs (I didn't eat one - that seemed like a sure way to food poisoning). It was all really, really good and it was a fun lunch. She told us about her family and told tales on her brother (our translator). She talked about living during the war and about the kids she cares for. We met all eight of her kids at the house (plus she has four of her own children who live at another house).

This house she and the kids live in was the biggest, most furnished home I have seen here. It has at least 8 rooms - two kids per bedroom. It had a living room, a dining room, kitchen and even a TV (haven't seen a TV here before since it takes electricity). All the rooms were furnished and each child had their own bed. The floors were concrete instead of dirt. I think these orphaned children were living well above the normal standard of living.

Here's June and Jerry before the meal.

Here's a picture of Dorothy and her 8 children (plus a neighbor boy).

A little one getting a bath!

My friends Marilyn and Lesley and I went out for dinner tonight at a Lebanese restaurant called Sajj. The tables are under huts out on a patio. As usual, no matter what restaurant you go to, there were other Mercy Shippers there! Now that I can drive, it's a lot easier to get out and there are plenty of restaurants that cater to the western/NGO crowd. The difficulty is getting home at night since there are no street lights and so many people walking the streets. They are dark-skinned people usually wearing dark clothing and they dash across the street in front of you. I'm not sure they understand that you can't see people at night when there are no street lights and it's a scary experience to drive here at night. Here we are at the restaurant.

Updates

I have some sad news about my little 5 year old patient Survivor. He passed away on Saturday morning in a local hospital here. I did get to spend about an hour and a half with him at the hospital on Friday afternoon so I'm very grateful that I got to see him.

Survivor had Burkitts lymphoma and had been receiving chemotherapy. He had his final chemo treatment a week ago Friday. When we saw him last Tuesday, he was up and about but not feeling very well. Then on Friday morning, his family called and said he still didn't feel well and so I told them to take him to the local children's hospital (run by Doctors Without Borders and it's free). When I arrived Friday afternoon to check on him, he was awake but very weak and jaundiced. They were giving him IV fluids as well as blood. We prayed over him for quite awhile and just talked and sang to him.

His family will bury him today (Sunday) and we will visit them Monday afternoon. He was a beautiful, shy little boy. He'd sit on my lap but I could never get him to talk. His mom says he talked all the time but he wouldn't ever talk around us. Survivor's father just passed away in October so his mother, siblings and extended family are really hurting so please pray for them.

Here are a couple of photos of Survivor.
Survivor (r) and his older brother Promise (l)
Having fun on the ship.

















I also have some photos from our screening courtesy of our communications team. I never heard a final count as to how many people came to the stadium but there were easily over a thousand people.

The line of people waiting and hopeful that we could help them.
Nurses (in blue) taking health histories and vital signs.
The United Nations and the local Liberian police were on hand to keep order. Thankfully, it was very orderly chaos at the stadium.

Entertaining the kids. Some of these children waited with their families for up to 15 hours.

More kids entertainment (jumproping). We had singing, face painting, coloring and balloons.

A little one getting her vital signs taken.
Since we do orthopedic surgeries, there were many kids with bowlegs.
Getting a physical examination by nurse anesthestist John (a fellow Iowan from Carroll)




Making friends and showing the love of Christ.



Father and daughter.
Results of inadequate healthcare. Her foot is fused to her leg due to burns she suffered.

The prayer team (I'm in the far background in blue). I was on the team who prayed for those we weren't able to help medically.

The golden ticket. He is holding a green surgery card.

Last week

In the last week, we've screened over a thousand patients, hosted the president of Liberia on the ship and I talked with five new palliative care patients. Plus President Bush was in Monrovia for a few hours.

Screening
Screening day was last Monday at the soccer stadium. We left the ship at 6 am and by the time we got there, there were already hundreds of people lined up. I left the stadium around 9 pm when the last patients were seen. I was in the prayer room where people came for prayer if we weren't able to help them medically. We also had a few people who came for prayers of praise and thankfulness when they did get a surgery date. I'll post some photos when our communication team has released them.

My roommate Megan described the whole day in her blog so I'm just linking to hers instead of repeating everything she said! http://megisinafrica.blogspot.com/2008/02/screenig-day.html

Presidents
On Tuesday, Madame President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf came to the ship. She's an amazing lady and I have great respect for her and the job she has to do here in Liberia. She gave a brief speech in our large meeting room which I got to hear. Some of our leaders also gave presentations about what our plans are this outreach in Liberia.

On Thursday, President Bush visited Monrovia. Monrovia has three main streets (for a city of 1.5 million) and they closed one of them for most of the day. I had to cancel all of my visits because traffic would have been gridlocked on the other two roads plus I couldn't get to the patients who live off the closed road.

My new patients
I received four new patients from screening and one additional one later in the week. Each one of them has cancer for which there is no treatment. Each one received the news from the doctor and then from June and me that they were going to die from it. Two of them probably don't have much time left here on earth.

There's 75 year old Sarah with a large tumor on the right side of her face. We visited her in her home on Friday and she is the cutest lady. She's pleasantly confused and because of her confusion, she doesn't know the whole prognosis.

We were supposed to visit on Thursday but couldn't come because the roads were closed. She doesn't have a phone so we couldn't call her to tell her we would come on Friday. So when we showed up, she just kept saying, 'Oh my people, my people have come!' It was so cute. She said she waited the whole day by the road on Thursday telling everyone that 'her people' were coming to visit. I don't know if she really did that or she was confused but she was so excited when we showed up on Friday.

Next is 70 year Nemle Wallace (or Old Man Wallace as he told us to call him:) He's a smiley guy who just took his diagnosis in stride - he never stopped smiling. When we visited him on Friday near his home, he was just so happy to see us. We only got to talk for a few minutes because it took us an hour to find him (they don't have street addresses like we do back home). He told us what junction to go to and then told us to just start asking people where Old Man Wallace lives. Well, we did that but no one knew Old Man Wallace! Mainly because we were about a half mile farther than where we were supposed to be.

Next we saw 22 year old Michael. He came to screening because of a tumor growing on the side of his neck. Unfortunately, it's Hodgkins lymphoma. Back home, this is generally an easily treatable and curable cancer. Here in Liberia, it's a death sentence for a 22 year old young man. He goes to school and runs a small business. He's good-looking, strong and healthy. I had no idea how to tell someone that age that he is going to die from this cancer.

He stayed on my heart as well as on the heart of Dr. Shrime who examined him and gave him the diagnosis. So Dr. Shrime, his wife (another Dr. Shrime), June and I are working to find treatment for Michael outside of Liberia. There is treatment in Ghana and Ethiopia but there are many obstacles to overcome for him to go.

When we visited Michael and his family (he's the oldest of 9 kids) on Friday, they were pretty devastated and worried about his diagnosis. We told them we were working to find Michael treatment. Please pray that God will make a way for all of this to happen.

Next there is Deddeh, a 26 year old with advanced cancer. She has a very large tumor protruding from her face and she is skin and bones. She doesn't have much longer to live. She has two small children. When we went to visit on Friday, we found out her family had sent her upcountry to an herbalist (a medicine man) for treatment. We had already told them there was no medicine for her sickness but they said if they didn't send her, the village would think they didn't love her. It's sad because it will cost them a lot of money they don't have but I understand - I'm sure I would do the same if I lived here and believed as they do. So we won't be able to visit her since she'll stay upcountry.

Finally, our last patient Sandi was received on Thursday. He was at screening for some large tumors on his left forearm. We knew it was cancer then but brought him to the ship on Thursday for an x-ray. If the cancer had not metastasized (spread), then we could amputate his arm to stop the spread of the cancer. Unfortunately, it has already spread to his lungs.

It was a sad visit. He's 37 and has 8 children ages 1 - 15. He lives an hour and a half from Monrovia so I won't be able to visit him. I sent him home with 3 months of pain medication and told him to come back after 3 months if he needed more. I don't expect him to live that long.

The hospital
We started surgeries on Thursday and so the hospital is starting to get busy. We currently only have one of four wards open but that will change over the next few weeks as we get more surgeons, more OR nurses and more patients. The dental clinic and eye clinic both open tomorrow (Monday). Those clinics are actually not on the ship - the dental clinic is at a local hospital and the eye clinics are at various locations throughout the city.

Restarting Palliative Care visits

I've enjoyed all the comments and emails I've received about my poll. Currently it looks like I could be adopting a Liberian child and moving to Alaska! Now that would be a culture shock for the child since Liberia is near the equator and it is hot, hot, hot 12 months a year! I still have to see how God weighs in on all these ideas. If anyone hears from Him about this, let me know:)

Last Wednesday, my partner, June, and I restarted our palliative care visits. It was great to be out in Monrovia again despite the terrible heat. Even though it has only been two and one half months since we were here, I am feeling a little more hopeful about Liberia and it's future. Last outreach, especially towards the end, I was really feeling disheartened - that the problems here were just too big to overcome. It seemed like most of the Liberians I came into contact with were downhearted. Maybe it was just my attitude. Maybe it was just because I was surrounded by death all the time and that I needed a break. Or maybe it was true. I'm not sure but I feel like there has been a change here.

The government has been working on the roads and there is quite an improvement in some areas - Jamaica Road, Somalia Drive and Tubman Blvd. There are still plenty of potholes but at least there is hope that maybe some day there will be decent roads. And there are now city buses! I'm told they are cheaper than taking a taxi and they have provided additional jobs (including the wife of my translator).

There are people (mostly women it seems) cleaning up the streets that are littered with trash. There are hundreds of women out and about with brooms sweeping the streets. I'm told they are being paid and I hope they are earning a living wage - I'll have to ask. New houses are being built at least in the couple of neighborhoods I visited. The stick frames are going up and there were lots of clay bricks to be seen which are used for walls.

On the other hand, crime has slowly been increasing month by month and the UN is decreasing troop size. It continues to feel like there is an uneasy peace. I believe there is still a lot of corruption although I haven't experienced it first hand as some on the ship have.

We had five patients remaining from the last outreach and we decided to visit them before we started getting new patients next week. First we started with Sah, the 54 year old man with throat cancer. He had a tracheotomy and was unable to speak but I loved our visits with him. When we arrived, Sah's brother in law, Joseph was there. When I asked about Sah, he said 'please come sit here.' He went into the house and brought out Kumba, Sah's wife and then told us that Sah had passed away on Feb. 3, the day before we returned to Liberia.

Kumba told us that Sah's last three weeks were not good - he was unable to eat or drink and was in pain since he was no longer able to take the pain medication we had provided. I'm thankful his suffering is over and that his wife was able to care for him in his last days. We looked at photos and reminisced about our visits. He leaves behind 3 little girls (ages 13, 6 and 4) plus several older children.

We also went to visit Martha. She was a 50ish women with some type of cancer that was eating away her face. When we arrived, we were told by her brother in law Prince that she had passed away on Jan. 9. She had gone upcountry to her parents village to seek treatment from a medicine man but she died while there. As we sat inside the house talking to Prince, I could still smell her sickness - it's like it had permeated the walls of the house. It's not a smell I will soon forget.

We also visited Levi, Survivor and Mark, all of whom are still surviving. Each has a story that will take some time to tell so I will leave that for my next blog.

We have our big medical screening on Monday at the large football (soccer) stadium. We have advertised throughout the country and hope that only the people with the type of sicknesses we can treat will come. We don't know what to expect, possibly between 1000-2000 people but that is really a guess. I will be working at the prayer station - this is where people come after they are told that we cannot help them. And out of these people, I expect some will have terminal illnesses which is where I will get my palliative care patients. So I'm praying for none but will probably get a few.

Tomorrow I'll talk more about how screening will go. We have been warned that we will possibly see thousands of people lined up, all of whom have a great need and we could potentially be turning away a lot of those. When we advertised, we indicated the types of sickness we could help with but people with other types of sicknesses will come just to see if we can help. While we will be saying yes to many, many people, we will be saying no to a lot as well. It will be an emotionally draining day - one I am looking forward to because of the number of people I will get to pray for and tell of God's love for them and one I wish I never had to experience in my life. How can my heart not be forever broken by the magnitude of the suffering I am going to see all in one place?

Today, I believe that God's grace is sufficient. I'm not sure if I will believe the same thing after Monday.

Peace,
Michele

My journey

I have only 4 1/2 months left here with Mercy Ships and have reached a time where I need to start thinking about my next steps. I had purposely not thought about what I would do after Mercy Ships because I wanted to enjoy where I am without thinking about the future. But now, it's time to start some planning.

As a single person with few things to constrain me I have thousands of choices available to me about what I want to do with my life after Mercy Ships. It would be easier if I could get it down to two choices but when I have a thousand choices, I'm afraid I won't be able to decide.

So for fun, I set up this little quiz to get your input on the next journey of my life. I've listed some of the things I've thought about that are interesting to me and I would possibly like to do. So now you can vote on what you would like me to do. Just a disclaimer, this is just for fun and I'm not necessarily going to do what random strangers vote for - we'll see how it goes. Of if you have other ideas I haven't listed, you can post them in the comments.

The quiz is on the right hand side. Good luck, my entire future balances on the outcome of this! (not:)

Back to Liberia

We made it safely back to Liberia after a six day smooth sail. There was an hour and a half ceremony on the dock welcoming us back. We had to stay on the ship to watch since we weren't cleared by immigration yet but our two Executive Directors plus our media team particated dockside.

Not much has changed. It's very hot and humid, just like when we left. It's also been pretty hazy as you can tell from the pictures.

Here are a couple of photos from our arrival:

People awaiting our arrival










One of the two singing groups that performed for us.

This ship will be our neighbor for awhile. Notice all the UN soldiers aboard. It was seized by the government because of the large amount of cocaine found on board.

Sailing

We left Santa Cruz de Tenerife on Wednesday and are now heading to Liberia. We are three days into a six day sail and I'm not sure where we are other than off the coast of West Africa somewhere. The sail seems to be much smoother than the last and I have only been sick off and on. Last sail I spent almost the entire time in bed.

The pace on a sail is much slower than usual (except for those who are actually making the ship sail - officers, engineers, etc.). We've had some briefings on Liberia (not much has changed since we left but crime continues to increase), watched a few movies, eaten some great food thanks to our new chef Tyrone and his kitchen crew, and we've had fire/piracy drills.

Here are some miscellaneous photos of Tenerife and of us leaving.

Back on the ship

Canary Islands
I made it back to ship safe and sound and with only two different 7 hour layovers, one in Chicago and one in Madrid. We are currently in port in Tenerife de Santa Cruz, Canary Islands. We are scheduled to leave here to return to Liberia on Wednesday, January 30th.

There isn't much to report right now. I've been working on developing a workshop to teach churches how to take care of the terminally ill. I've also been working some in crew services, helping clean the ship, working in the library, helping unload containers and supplies and I watched a welder for a couple of hours to make sure he didn't catch himself or the ship on fire (called Fire Watch).

Liberia
On a completely separate note, I've been thinking a lot about our return to Liberia and trying to prepare for it. If you follow global news at all, you have seen articles recently on Liberia. The trial of former president Charles Taylor is ongoing in The Hague and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia (http://www.trcofliberia.org/) has been holding hearings and some horrible atrocities are coming to the global light.

When we return, I don't know if the people will be different now that these hearings are going on...do they care? Does it just reopen old wounds? Will it trigger more violence? Will it bring reconciliation? These are just some questions I'm thinking about and areas to pray about.

The following is a link to a recent Yahoo article on one of the hearings...parts of it are very graphic and so unbelievable the suffering humans inflict upon other humans.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080121/ap_on_re_af/liberia_general_returns;_ylt=AmuAkGfoKXfR4vCO.RvurEpI2ocA
I also finally watched Blood Diamond last night. I wouldn't recommend this movie for general entertainment but more as an education about what the people of Sierra Leone and, similarly, Liberia, have inflicted upon themselves as well as what innocent people have endured.

Baby Joanna update
So many of you emailed me about and prayed for baby Joanna last year. She was a six month old baby for whom we performed a cleft lip surgery - she then went into cardiac arrest and was put on a ventilator for 3 days. She survived and was sent home and we visited her a few times at the end of the year. I received an email last week forwarded from my translator that baby Joanna passed away in December. I don't know any details other than that. We knew she had brain stem abnormalities and too low of a heart rate so I'm not completely surprised, just sad.

Peace,
Michele