Minor Job - Mercy Ministries

On the ship we have a minor job program that allows crew staying longer than 3 months to be allowed off work for either half a day or a day a week to participate in a different job.  The idea is that this gives people the opportunity to see a different area of the ministry of the ship, to work off-ship, to engage with local people or to work down in the hospital. 

It is very easy to live in a western bubble on the ship.  Whilst there are some real challenges to living here (such as living in such a close community, having no personal space and the constant change of people), these challenges are very different to those experienced by a traditional missionary or aid worker in the developing world.  We are very privileged to have reliable power, clean running water, and good varied food, among many other things.  Because of this it is easy to forget that you are actually in Africa and difficult to have any idea of what life is like here.  My job also requires that I work with equipment, and on the whole I like that, however, equipment doesn't have much personality and with such a small team (just two) I sometimes miss doing work that engages with people. 

As a result I decided that I would apply for a minor job with Mercy Ministries.  Mercy Ministries provides off-ship ministry opportunities for crew working alongside existing ministries demonstrating hope and healing to those who can't be reached and helped through our onboard services.  The Mercy Ministries program, run by Ines Kronester, is made up of visits to a number of different local partners in the country.  We partner with existing ministries to support and encourage them, and to ensure that the work continues after we leave the country.  The opportunities are varied and include homework clubs, orphanages, youth detention centres, the local hospital paediatric wards, HIV/AIDS women's hostels.  Anyone on the ship can sign up for a session to come out with a Mercy Ministries team.  As a team leader I am responsible for briefing the team (some of whom may have no previous experience with Mercy Ministries and may not have been on the ship long) to ensure we are respectful to the organisation we partner with, liaising with the leaders of the partner organisation, planning what the group does during the sessions and coordinating the session whilst we are at the place.  This is challenging me greatly as I need to ensure that we as a team are respectful of the people we partner with and maintain a wider picture outlook on what we do (to achieve long term goals rather than short term), which isn't always understood or shared by the participants.  My hope is that I can help them to understand more about how to facilitate long term development, and to develop deeper relationships with the people I work with through Mercy Ministries.

What do I do?

It's a good question really, and one I get asked fairly regularly on ship: what do I do?

Many would assume that I am a nurse; I live in scrubs, and frequently can be seen sporting my dragon scrub hat (necessary for venturing down the operating room corridor).  However, thankfully for the patients I am not a nurse!  I work as a biomedical technician.  But what does that mean?  Most people have never even heard of this position, let alone know what the job involves. 

Well a biomedical technician (also known as a biomedical engineer or clinical engineer) works with medical equipment.  Engineers are problem solvers, they are technical, and practical, and to some extent they like to take things apart...although not all are so quick to put them back together!  I am an engineer, and as such there is a lot of problem solving in my work.

Myself and Tony, the other biomedical technician on the ship, work in behind the scenes to keep all the medical equipment running smoothly.  We look after all sorts of equipment, from your basic temperature probes, to your patient monitoring systems (which monitor blood pressure and pulse), up to the anaesthetic machines, the CT scanner, X-ray system and the machine known as the OPG (which actually stands for Orthopantomogram - it takes a panoramic dental x-ray of the upper and lower jaw).  Not only do we look after the ward and OR equipment and the imaging systems, we also look after the laboratory (on ship), the dental clinic and the eye teams who work off ship.

Our work is very varied.  We set up the new equipment as it arrives, catalogue it and distribute it.  We perform routine maintenance and checks of the equipment to keep it in good running order, things like changing the water filters for the sterilisers.  We respond to difficulties people are having with using the equipment and we fix equipment when it breaks.  We even provide some training to guide people in how to use the equipment.

When we have problems with our equipment we review the literature we have about the equipment to find the fault and try to fix it.  Sometimes we don't have much information so we get in and do some testing and look at the equipment to try to find out what the fault is.  Sometimes we have to contact the manufacturer or their support centre to help us.

All in all my days are very varied.  Sometimes I am climbing in the small space beside the CT scanner getting information to allow us to fix the lasers, other times I am unpacking syringe pumps or emergency suction units and putting them into our system.  Other days I am conference calling with a support centre in Israel, or making power cords safe again after the wires have been pulled out.  No day is ever the same, but life would be dull if it was!

(Picture to follow)

Ward church!

On Sunday mornings down on one of the wards, something special happens.  Patients, staff and Mercy Shippers gather to praise God and worship together.  Led by our Togolese crew member (Clementine) and the day workers we have an hour long service full of praise, prayer and a message.  The songs are African and sung whole heartedly, accompanied by drums and various other percussion instruments, with clapping and dancing, by the patients and day workers alike.  Some patients are able to get up and dance, some have both legs in plaster casts, but this doesn't stop them dancing, their upper bodies are swaying and moving in time with the rhythm, their arms are up in the air and they are singing loudly.  A patient shared his story of how he had been suffering with his illness for many years, but how God sent his servants to heal him and he is now feeling very well.  It is a wonderful opportunity for three different groups of people to join together, the Africa Mercy crew, the day volunteers and the patients, and share together, and it was obvious from the participation and the smiles and dancing and clapping that everyone was blessed by being there.   

Dental clinic set up

As part of my job I help oversee the medical equipment used for our offship dental clinic.  This off ship clinic is where we provide free dental work for the people of Togo.  It can include fillings, cleanings, tooth removals and abscess removals.  Unlike many western people who generally aren't a fan of dentists, the people of Western Africa are often incredibly pleased to have an opportunity to see a dentist.  Many have suffered with tooth ache or other such maladies for a considerable time, and welcome the relief that is brought when the Mercy Ships dental team work to treat their dental problems. 

The dental clinic is based a 20 minutes drive from the ship in a three storey building which thankfully has some air conditioning (when the Lome power is on!).  On the ground floor is the wonderful receptionist Joyce and the dental educator, who teaches the people dental hygiene whilst they are waiting.  On the first floor in a large open plan room there are stations for 8 dentists and 1 hygienist.  And on the top floor there are the generators which supply the power for all the dental equipment, the compressors which provide the air for the dental units, and the sterilising room.

I spent two days out at the dental clinic helping set up the equipment and get the new suction units installed.

The place where people get their teeth pulled!

 

Refuelling the generators

Starting up the generators

 

  

Getting to work

Hello Togo!

As we approached the dock the mass of colour and sound came into focus.  Awaiting our arrival at the end of the dock was a large group of people who were singing and dancing and praising God.  The Togolese churches had joined our advanced team to welcome us, bringing with them an ensemble of brass instruments and drums, which rang out a song we had learnt only the day before on the ship, There is no other God.  The mass of colourful outfits was astounding, many of the Africans dressing in their best clothes to welcome us, they waved scarves and other fabric as they danced, a great display of excitement as the ship pulled in, making their way along the dock with us until we ground to a halt and our mooring lines were attached.  As we stood and watched from deck 7 and 8 the first of our crew went down the gangway meet the Togolese dignitaries.  We have arrived in Togo!

 

The Pilote boat delivers the pilot to us who directs us through the port waters safely to our dock.

  

 One of the tugs that shuffles us into position, carrying some of our advanced team and land based personnel.

  

Some of the crowds gathered to meet us (including buses from the local churches and a very large drum!)

  

 The Togolese navy who live next to us, and lots of green trees!

And we sail

Sunday just after lunch we left Tenerife and set off on route to Togo.  Unfortunately there has been a low pressure system out to the West of us and that is pushing some rather uncomfortable wave fronts towards us, resulting in a few days of rather rocky sailing, lots of spilt milk (literally rather than figuratively!) and difficult sleeping conditions.  Hopefully though as we move further down the coast things will settle down and be more comfortable so we can sleep a bit better and arrive at our destination well rested and ready to hit the ground running to serve the people of Togo.  On a brighter note though we have already been privileged to see some whales and dolphins!

The journey of the Dronning Ingrid

Imagine you are the Dronning Ingrid: a rail ferry, that chugs across the Baltic Sea connecting Danish islands.  You are content,  your flat bottom sails smoothly across the sea, transporting your cargo.  Then they build a road....a road that connects your two islands, and you're just not so popular anymore.  You feel your world crashing around you, but alas someone see something in you that no-one else would ever imagine, and suddenly there is hope for you.  You won't just become scrap metal, torn to pieces in a shipyard, instead you will change the world! 

But before you can do this you need a major facelift, in fact not just a facelift, but major reconstructive surgery, shoving new parts inside you (deck 4) and bits on top of you (family cabins deck 6 and 7 aft).  To some extent ripping out whole chunks of you, yet somehow managing to still keep the core of you alive.  Years pass as people grapple with your insides until you are transformed, and out of your butchered shell, once resembling a rail ferry, emerges something unlikely, a hospital.  One that looks to bring hope and healing to the world's forgotten poor. 

You are now the Africa Mercy, and you are raring to serve the people of West Africa.  But to do this you have to get to them.  You have left the safe waters you used to operate in, but you are unfazed, and excitement fills you as you travel down to West Africa.  You are braving the the Atlantic ocean to give free operations to the people of West Africa, and you are filled with joy. 

But life is hard.  You are no longer as young as you used to be, at over 20 years old you are way past your prime (remember you are a ship), and the toils of your work are beginning to show.  You were not designed for the Atlantic ocean, and your flat bottom causes you to rock and roll so violently that just occasionally you fling your precious cargo around with tremendous force.  But you were also not designed to sit in port, not least an African port for months and months at a time.  Parts of you start to cease up, and parts get clogged, and generally you lose motivation to keep going.  You are tired and you ache.

However, once a year you leave Africa to go somewhere else, somewhere cooler and calmer.  Where people come to visit you and to tend to your aching wounds.  Where you have a nice long bath (tank scrubbing and engine cleaning), and your have your annual MOT, and your safety gear is checked and replaced.  And to top it off your prized possession, your hospital is given much needed time off duty to allow the various pieces of medical equipment to be overhauled, updated, and fixed; to have exciting new equipment and pressured airlines installed; and generally to clear up the mess of tired equipment left from the past outreach and prepare for the upcoming year.  Really it's not much of a break for you, more like a combination of a health check/ deep cleaning treatment, with some minor surgeries, but you feel so much better for it, ready and renewed for the next adventure, back where you belong off the coast of West Africa.  

 

The Dronning Ingrid coming into dock in Denmark ready to disembark her trains

 

The ‘new’ Deck 4 (where my cabin is) being installed over the rail deck (deck 3) where the hospital is.

 

The Africa Mercy after the conversion.

 (Pictures from Mercy Ships)

My cabin

Sorry for the delay since my last post, I have taken a bit of a break over the Christmas and New Year period to spend some time actually settling here.  After many changes since I graduated in June I am now in one place for a while and really wanted to settle here.  Just before Christmas I moved rooms, and after a slow process of sorting my stuff out I finally have my cabin tidy enough for me to feel happy putting pictures up for everyone to see!  I live in a four berth cabin, however, am currently blessed to only have one cabin mate which means we each get a little section to ourselves.

This is the corridor I live down, the door on the far right is my cabin.

This is the view as you enter my cabin, the first door is the bathroom, and then there are two curtained cubicles and a sitting area with a fridge!!! at the end.

The bathroom is small but perfectly functional (most of the time - occasionally the vacuum system struggles and the shower takes a long time to drain or the toilet doesn't flush, but on the whole it works well).  We don't have a bath (not enough space and use too much water), and shower should only use two minutes of water (but can take longer as you switch it off whilst you put the shampoo on).

Next we go past Lisa's bunk (one of my Gateway family who works as hospital administrative assistant)

The we get to my bunk.  Currently as we have only two in the cabin we each have our own bay and have folded the extra bed up to give us a little more space, normally we would each have a bunk above ours.  The double wardrobe furthest from the corridor (covered in photos) is mine and the other will belong to my bunkmate once they arrive.

With a little sitting area at the end.

All in all, it is a nice cabin.  My parents will testify though that it is a noisy cabin with the generators constantly chugging along (and that's with the hospital in between us and them!), but you get used to it, and I am quite able to sleep hearing them.  Space is limited and you have to get creative as to how best to store things, however, we have far more storage than the 6, 8 and 10 berths, and I have managed to find a home for all my stuff.  Just a little picture of my world now!

Happy Christmas from Tenerife!

I just want to say a huge happy Christmas to you all.  I am currently in Tenerife as the ship has it's annual maintenance and surveys to ensure we are able to continue to serve the people of Africa.  It is a wonderful time for the crew to take a break and wind down from what was a long and intense field service and to spend a bit of time in a Western culture.  I am working with the medical equipment as we prepare ready for going to Togo the very end of January, however, the net couple of days are ship holidays as we celebrate Christmas.

It is weird being here for Christmas as many of the traditions and feelings (and weather!) which I associate with Christmas are missing.  With so many changes and so much to take in it is difficult to even try and get into a Christmas mood, but hopefully as we take a break I will be able to focus on the real reason I celebrate Christmas - the birth of Christ.

And finally I want to wish you again a Happy Christmas!  This last year has been a real journey getting here, and there are so many people, without whom I would not be here.  The support I have received both spiritually, financially, practically and emotionally has been incredible; THANK YOU all for everything you have done.  It is a real blessing to be able to share with you as I continue this journey, and I know the next year will be a year of many new experiences and lots of learning.  I hope that you are truly blessed over this Christmas period and the coming year.

Stars

On the first night of the sail I went out and looked at the stars and was astounded by their beauty.  As I gazed into the sky I could see hundreds of stars, far more than I could ever count.  Some prominent and bright, others barely visible, faintly glimmering.  As I stood in wonder I couldn't help but be completely in awe of what I saw.  Here in front of me were stars that were millions of miles away from me, that encompassed an area beyond my comprehension, and furthermore what I was seeing was only a tiny proportion of the universe as my field of vision is so small and my ability to see faint light is so poor.   

How humbling that here is an expanse that is far too large for me to ever imagine with happenings that have consequences which reach much further than I could imagine, yet my small problems often seem huge to me.  I love the stars, they look beautiful, they shine out for miles around, and in the dark of the ocean, away from the light of land, you are able to see far more than I have ever seen before.

Over the last few days we were privileged to watch an incredible display. The Geminids meteor shower was happening and we had a brilliant view from our floating platform, particularly as we are just coming up to a new moon.  Since I was very young I have always dreamt of seeing a shooting star (which aren't actually stars but objects - normally fragments from a comet - which burn up as they fall into the earth's atmosphere).  As I lay up on deck 8 I looked up, bit by bit I spotted these streaks of light traversing the sky.  One can't but be in awe of such natural beauty.  It was an opportunity I am very thankful to have had and one that I will not forget.

Sailing!

Whilst sailing I have had the privilege of seeing some incredible sights.  During the sail they open up the bow of the ship (that is the front for none sailing types).  It is wonderful to stand at the front of the ship and feel the wind blowing in your face.  As you look down you see the ship crashing through the waves.  As the ship goes into the waves it creates a wake of white spray just in front of the ship.  This spray creates beautiful little rainbows as the sun shines through the water droplets.  Every so often out of the spray will jump over ten flying fish.  These fish flick their tail side to side to generate enough energy to 'jump' out of the water, where the glide above the surface ahead of the ship.  Once in a while the ship crashes down in to the crest of a wave creating a larger splash and water comes flying upwards towards those of us still stood at the front of the bow, but it's a small price to pay for being able to experience these things!

As a young child I loved dolphins, I adopted one and read all I could about them, I knew hundreds of facts about the different species, their sociology and habits (alas I can't remember any of this now apart from that pink river dolphins exist but that is not so useful!).  Anyway whilst I had seen dolphins in sealife centres, and had fed them at seaworld, my desire was always to see them in the wild.  The beauty in these creatures was not in seeing them cooped up in small tanks performing the same show day in day out, but was in seeing these animals in their natural habitat, playing and enjoying being in the open ocean.  During the sail I have been blessed to see many wild whales and dolphins.  Depending on when you see them they can either be playing and swimming with the ship, or you can see the jumping and playing as they pass the ship.  My favourite moment was watching a pod jumping and dancing alongside the ship, particularly as the jumped in time with each other, with some baby dolphins alongside the larger ones.

 

 

(Pictures by Daniel Um)

We have also sailed past an incredible water spout.  These are similar to tornadoes, but they are slightly less powerful and occur over water.  For me this was extremely exciting, to see such power and occurrences that we cannot create or recreate for our pleasure.  Something that we just have the opportunity to observe and marvel at.

(Pictures by Daniel Um)

 There have also been some amazing sunrises and sunsets.

Sailing!

We have now been sailing for 8 days, we have travel up and around the West Coast of Africa from Benin towards Tenerife.  

So we say goodbye to Benin with the ship having spent 10 months here.  The following is a summary of a small part of what we have done here.  These statistics alone cannot convey what has happened in Benin through the work of Mercy Ships.  These statistics don't tell of the friendships built and the hope shared, they don't show the many local people who worked on the ship as day volunteers and spent time with us.  They don't tell you how many orphans were played with and allowed the joy of colouring, or prisoners who finally had someone to talk to, or churches who invited us in to have fellowship with them as we all realise how God is the same wherever you are.  These figures are only a small part of what is achieved through Mercy Ships, but hopefully they give a small idea of the scale of what goes on here.

33,851 eye evaluations and other treatments;
13,174 oral health education;
10,175 dental patients seen;
7,083 pairs of sunglasses distributed;
5,689 pairs of reading glasses distributed;
3,521 cataracts removed;
1,161 general surgeries;
996 reconstructive and plastic surgeries;
794 dental hygiene patients;
570 other eye surgeries (pterygia and stabismus);
231 orthopedic operations;
154 obstetric fistulas repaired;
185 cleft lip and palate repairs;
119 church & community leaders trained in mental health;
50 prison officers and workers trained in mental health;
28 patients received palliative home care;
25 oral health teachers trained;
23 local agricultural trainees;
19 mental health workers trained;
19 families trained in wound care;
18 community eye field workers trained;
10 agricultural staff trained;
6 Burkitt's Lymphoma patients received palliative support;
2 local surgeons trained;
2 local eye surgeons trained;
4 local surgeons trained in fistula repair;
2 dental assistants trained;
1 hostel constructed for agricultural college;
2 church leaders conferences attended by 602 attendants;
and 12,000 people watched the Jesus Film

In total we have directly helped almost 80,000 people in Benin. A record breaking field service for Mercy Ships.

So goodbye Benin, it was good to be here if only for a short while.

 

 

 

 

The first few days of the sail were really smooth, far smoother than it was on my Introduction to Mercy Ships course which was on a small boat (held 30 people) for a few days, however, as time has gone on the ship has begun to rock more (although it is still rather smooth really).  Certainly we are sailing onto new waters and new opportunities.