Screening Day - Take 2

Success!

"Therefore, as it is written: 'Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.'"

On Saturday, March 26, 2011, Mercy Ships held a second screening day in Freetown and the Lord redeemed the first! The day was a testimony to the beautiful way the Body of Christ functions as many people from various departments on the Africa Mercy worked together so that we could link up with people that have conditions that we can help with our particular surgical specialties.

Our day began dark and early as we carivanned through town to the Minister of Health and Sanitation's "Pharmacy Board".

In fact, the beginning was really the afternoon before as a team of folks hauled truckloads of stuff to the site and began preparing for screening and crowd control. There was a security presence on site from that time forward as they not only managed the lines that were forming, but also educated those in the lines on the conditions that we can and cannot help. This proved to be a very productive exercise that kept people with inappropriate conditions from having to wait for many, many hours for nothing.

Daybreak came and we began admitting people into the gate to go through the stations to record information, health histories and then to be seen by a surgeon. If it was decided that we could offer surgery, the patient would proceed to the data entry station and on to the scheduling station where I was with a team of OR nurses assigning dates for surgery.

Below is a sweet baby with a cleft lip. She's holding an appointment card so she can come to the ship with her mamma for surgery.

A woman with a tumor of the mandible has her blood pressure checked. Here I am looking all serious & professional in black and white...assisting Orthopaedic Team Leader, Kathleen Haydon, in scheduling orthopaedic surgeries.

Our Managing Director, Donovan Palmer (in the blue ball cap) escorted the Minister of Health and Sanitation, Haja Zainab Hawa Bangura (in the light blue top), around the site.

The Lord blessed us with orderly, peaceful crowds and cloud cover until the line outside the gate was gone. Everyone was inside the gate and proceeding through the stations before 9:30am. And by 2pm, the last patient for the day was being scheduled. What a difference from the previous screening day! I believe that God wanted to remind us that we are not in control, but when we trust Him in our weakness, He shows Himself strong!

Jenny

Screening Day Mourning

Monday, March 7th, was our first big screening day in Freetown. Lots of preparation had gone into mobilizing all the people and resources we would need to screen thousands of potential patients. Our team assembled (mostly between 4:00 and 5:30am) at the national stadium, including a large number of local police, security personnel and translators, and so did thousands of people seeking what we could offer. At past screenings there had often been some isolated problems in the crowd, but this time things were very different. The following is my personal account of what happened. By 10:00am as our screening process was progressing the crowd outside the stadium had become agitated and the security forces present were struggling to maintain order. The crowd pressed in toward the area near where people were being brought into the stadium grounds. At around 10:25 a large, steel car gate at the front of the crowd burst open under the pressure. The lock was broken off and the steel bars in the concrete were bent back and dislodged. The result was heartbreaking. As the people in the front of the crowd suddenly flowed through the gate, those in the rear pressed forward causing people to stumble and be trampled. One man was killed and 12 people hospitalized. Several minutes later the police were able to get the gate closed and restore some order. Many of our medical crew immediately began treating the injured and preparing them for transport to hospital. Screening was discontinued and our crew packed up and returned to the ship much earlier than planned. Among the first to leave the stadium were the Academy kids who had come to help entertain the children of adult patients who had come to the screening. It was a very tense and very sad day for all involved. There is a statement on the Mercy Ships website at the following link: http://www.mercyships.org/blog/entry/screening-day-update#

There are also a number of newspaper articles that can be found online (keywords that worked well for me in finding articles: "stampede freetown stadium"). There has been a great deal of effort poured into analyzing the event since by our leadership to identify ways to improve safety at screenings. It is a far more complex event than one might think. They have also been trying to come up with stategies on how to reach those still in the city who we were unable to connect with at the screening. There were a large number of people in the crowd on Monday who had very visible evidence of some of the kinds of problems we can treat. It seems clear to me that the crowd at the screening and the tragedy there highlight the extent of desperation that the people here feel. The crew have been processing this past week and working through the emotions and questions that have come with this event. It hasn't been easy at all, but we have to move forward. I trust that God will give us the grace to do that.

John

Arrivals

A couple of days after leaving Durban we arrived in Cape Town. (Above are photos made by Airserv as the ship left the shipyard in Durban.) The ship refueled in Cape Town and the crew had about 24 hours to visit the city. We were docked at the V&A Waterfront, a very active and interesting part of town. There were lots of sea lions in the water in the area and the kids really loved watching them interact with each other. We had a chance to visit Table Mountain and to get acquainted with the city bowl (downtown area). Others ventured further afield and went to see a penguin colony on the peninsula. We really liked Cape Town and would have loved to have spent more time there, but the ship needed to get to Sierra Leone as soon as possible. We considered ourselves very fortunate to have had a day in Cape Town and left with thankful hearts, some photos, some groceries and a take away pizza. (Below is a video still of the ship leaving Cape Town that was sent from the Mercy Ships South Africa office.) After leaving Cape Town we sailed for about two weeks across pretty remote stretches of the Atlantic. We didn't see very many other ships, but occasionally would pass some dolphin pods. We crossed the equator and passed through a little squall simultaneously on February 24th. The captain let us know on the overhead announcement that we wouldn't see the dotted line you usually see on globes because we would be passing directly between the dashes. He was kidding of course! I like that he has a sense of humor. Most of the crew gathered on the outdoor sections of deck 7 to mark the occasion, but other than that there wasn't much to see. We arrived in Freetown, Sierra Leone early in the morning on February 27th. There were large numbers of people on the dock, many of which would be coming to live on board the ship. They were part of the advance team and Gateway (Mercy Ships' long-term crew preparation program) participants who had been working in country during the weeks and months prior to our arrival. There was a lovely local band there that played a number of songs and the Minister of Health spoke. We all really enjoyed being reunited with friends we hadn't seen in a long time. There is a nice slide show of the arrival made up of some of my photos and the photos of the other photographers present (at least four of us - two on the ground and two on the ship) at the following web address: http://www.mercyships.org/blog/entry/the-africa-mercy-arrives-in-sierra-leone

After the arrival, everything was very very busy on the ship, as we had fully expected, getting ready for the screening and the beginning of surgeries and putting all the pieces together to do the work we had come to do - an enormous undertaking I must say! Fortunately some prior upcountry screening had already been done and land based facilities had already been prepared for support of hospital, eye and dental functions. A large team of local day volunteers had already been assembled and prepared to join us as well. The advance team always works so hard to prepare the way for the ship's arrival. They did a great job! It's a little hard to believe that we are here. It's really nice to be back in West Africa. Sierra Leone is a predominantly Muslim country. It is full of friendly people and overflowing with need now nine years after the end of a bloody, eleven-year war. Freetown is so full of people, in fact, that it is difficult and dangerous getting around in town. Driving is very difficult due to the narrow roads, which often have deep concrete trenches on either side, and the enormous number of pedestrians using the roads not only to move from one place to another, but for any number of daily activities like selling items and even bathing children. It is a lot like Monrovia only the roads seem much more narrow and crowded. It will be an interesting field service.

John

Departures

The last weekend in January we all packed up and left Appelsbosch to return to the ship. There were some mixed feelings, but mostly I think everyone was ready to get back to living on the ship even if it meant doing without some things like electricity and air conditioning periodically while the final projects were completed. We were very happy to leave the dampness, mildew, bugs, rats, etc. at Appelsbosch, not to mention the long daily drives back and forth to the ship for Jenny. It was a good season there - there were blessings and relationships made - but the time had come to get back to the ship. We had been preparing to return to the ship for some time, but when move day came there was a buzz of activity with loading the moving trucks and convoy of Land Rovers. I must say that the move back seemed far easier than the move to Appelsbosch as much of the work was done in increments ahead of time. Of course our cabin initially looked like a disaster area as we worked on unpacking and settling back in. It didn't take that long though - nothing like a move would be from home to home in the U.S. with the mounds of stuff I remember moving from place to place. Jenny and I are getting pretty good at it too with nearly as many moves as we have years of marriage. Now we are pretty settled in our cabin. The last of the shipyard work was completed and we set sail out of Durban yesterday. The port pilot who guides ships in and out of port was lifted from our ship by helicopter as we approached open ocean. The tugs helped us along and stuck with us though the harbor. Jenny was impressed by how much we are like tugs for one another from time to time, offering a little help through the tricky stretches, even a nudge or a tug or two to get us going in the right direction. There was a huge push to complete all the work and get all the preparation work done for sailing, but it all got done and its hard to believe we're actually at sea now. All the usual drills, briefings, and stuff took place earlier this week and now we're rocking and rolling, literally. Next stop, Cape Town, South Africa. We were going to spend a week or so there and do some P.R., but since the shipyard work took longer than hoped, we will probably have a little over 24 hours to visit and to pick-up/drop-off crew. After our brief stop in Cape Town, we head for Sierra Leone and the huge work of getting surgery underway. We should pass by off the coast of Cape Agulhas between Durban and Cape Town, the official place were the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet. Later on our way to Sierra Leone, we should cross the equator and become "shellbacks",or at least the civilian equivalent thereof. I'm sure both events will be a little anticlimactic in that there are no lines in the ocean and nothing really to see, but it will be fun anyway. We have departed Appelsbosch and the shipyard and are on our way again. God is faithful!

John

Flexibility

There is a saying around here that must be in the Bible, although I haven't put my finger on the reference:

"Blessed are the flexible, for they shall never be bent out of shape."

We've been practicing flexibility here in South Africa as timelines change due to surprises and delays with the many projects that have been taking place on the Africa Mercy during this shipyard phase. There have been and will be many contingency plans in place so that we will be as prepared as possible to sail away to Sierra Leone and begin our 2011 field service when all the work is completed.

One of the highlights of the past month has been the presence of a very flexible Mercy Team. About 15 people from all over the world (including Margie from Hamptonville, NC:) answered a plea for help and came to work alongside the crew of the M/V Africa Mercy as we tackled the huge task of cleaning the vessel. Five months in shipyard can result in a pretty dirty ship! Deck 3, where the hospital is, happens to be a high traffic zone and needed a lot of scrubbing up! The Team came in and blessed us with their great attitudes and willingness to do whatever it took to get the job done. They joined the Appelsbosch cleaning team that began travelling daily to the ship (a total of 4 hours riding per day!) on 4 January. The last trip was this past Friday, 28th January, for a total of 19 work days times 3 or 4 shuttles full of people each day. It was exhausting, but very rewarding to be a part of the clean-up crew. I did some figuring and discovered that from the 4th to the 27th, I travelled a total of 64 hours to help and direct the efforts of the team. Whew!!

Below are photos of the stripping and waxing of the hospital, courtesy of our Swedish OR nurse, Anneli Persson.

We love being a part of this team that proves that "many hands make light work" as every one has pitched in to help one another! And hats off to all those who lived on board and worked tirelessly, hours on end in the hot temperatures to keep us as close to schedule as possible! What a team!!! We were able to be reunited and all returned to live on the ship on Saturday, 29th January. How happy are we? Very! And although there is still some work to be done to get us on the open ocean and headed to Sierra Leone, we're almost there. We hope to be on our way next week.

With flexibility,

Jenny

Fall (um Spring?) Semester at the Academy

I need to mention some of the highlights of this past semester in the Academy here. Mercy Ships Academy moved off the ship to Appelsbosch in early September when we moved here. The Academy operated here over the past several months and is now back in session although most of the educational materials have been moved back to the ship already in anticipation of the completion of the generator project and the move back on board. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I worked this past semester at preparing and teaching a 4-week student life class on photography for some of the junior high and high school kids. We made pinhole cameras out of paint cans took pictures with them. We used paper for our negatives and processed them in a darkroom that I put together. We then made positive images by scanning the negatives into the computer and inverting the tones in photoshop. The students got some really amazing photos with the pinhole cameras they had made! We also did classes on some history and basics of photography, depth of field, ISO, white balance, and basic artificial and studio lighting. The P.E. teacher has been working with the Academy kids on doing some gymnastics and they did a nice demonstration for everyone here in early December. The last week of school just before Christmas break, the teachers and kids put together a Christmas play and many of us invited friends from the surrounding communities to come and watch the play with us. It was really fun! Bethany was Mary in the play, David was a wise man, and Joey was one of the angels. They also did signing to a song under black light. They all wore white gloves so their hands showed up really well. It was really cool!All of the Academy kids (and teachers!) did such a nice job with the play!

I think the kids had a really nice semester here at Appelsbosch. They had a lot of neat opportunities too to do stuff they could'nt have done on the ship (like having a couple of non-poisonous pet snakes in the science classroom just as an example - that wouldn't have happened on the ship).

John

Interesting Signs

Here are photos of some of the interesting signs that we have seen here in South Africa. I think that "no pass outs" probably means "no hand outs". I don't think that it means "no fainting here", but its interesting that its at the entrance to Lion Park where the lions often stike fear in the hearts of onlookers. The hippo warning sign was up north a fair distance outside Kruger Park, the monkey crossing sign near our church in Umhlanga (Durban), and the beware of crocodiles sign in Tongaat on the way to Durban from Appelsbosch.
John