Sail away! Sail away! Sail away!

Good’ay mateys! Greetings from somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean!  It’s such an incredibly freeing yet confining feeling to be out on the open sea!  Plus I get to learn really cool words like “muster” and “bunker” and starboard, port, aft, bow, bridge, etc. I’m a pretty able seaman!  It’s been a while since I last wrote, so I will rewind for a minute and re-cap my last weeks in Sierra Leone before I get to the sailing stories!

Hiding from the teary-eyed mob!

My last few weeks in Sierra Leone were wonderful and awful at the same time.  After the hospital closed, I transferred to work in the galley- cooking food for all the crew on the ship!  It has been a lot of fun- we even cook food sometimes amongst all the music and dancing!  The nice thing about working in the galley was that it gave me more days off for my last 2 weeks in Sierra Leone (SL).  I was able to enjoy some extra time in town with local friends, and I even managed to get in a few extra trips to the beach, and watch one last soccer match between the ship crew and the locals (never mind that the game was delayed due to a riot at the earlier game resulting in tear gas and a fleeing crowd that I got swallowed up into...)! 

Here is a photo journey through my last few days with my SL friends..

vicious game of musical chairs at our beach party!

Do these kiddos look familiar? Look at my blog on Aug. 22- I met these kids at Mama beach, and ran into them 3 months later at a different beach! And they remembered me!

Beach football game

This guy provided a nice obstacle for the football game... he is currently crossing the center line.

Joey and I on our 5 mile walk to another beach!

Crab attack!! These little buggers are exceptionally difficult to catch!

Found some monkeys in the tree! Oo wait, is that Israel and Abdulai??!

Christian found the best napping spot

The crew with Crooksy on her last day :(

Becca and I went to Autie Fatu's (one of the day workers in the ward) and saw her and her husbands farm

Manual labor! No motorized equipment at all!

I have a photo with a basket of cucumbers on my head.. I will post it later! I need more training.. it's not so easy!

 Video of the Day worker celebration day on the ship during worship time

Day worker celebration day

We got to see the baby of 2 of our friends right before we left! It was perfect timing!

My thinking spot!

It was a wonderful last few days, but I knew each great adventure was just another day closer to saying goodbye.   I was very fortunate to be able to say good-bye in a real West African time-frame: to spend the entire day with a friend before actually hugging goodbye at the end.  I didn’t understand why saying goodbye seemed so hard until I sat down and really thought about it.  I said goodbye to so many family and friends at home before I came here and none of those goodbyes seemed quite as difficult as the ones I had set before me here.  It bothered me at first because I thought, “I have known these people for 4 months… why should it be harder to say goodbye to them than to people I have known for years back home?”  Some people suggested it was because I would never see these people again.  But I didn’t buy that because I strongly believe I will return to SL someday.  I spent some time in my best thinking spot- the end of the dock in Freetown- and I finally realized the answer, and it broke my heart.  

When I say “goodbye”, or “see you later”, or “until next time” to people in America, I know with about 95% assurance that they will be OK.  But I can’t say that with any assurance for my SL friends.  When I left for Africa and I said goodbye to Mom and Dad, I knew that unless the great depression came back, they would have food in the fridge, lights at night, a safe place to sleep, medical care if they got sick, and they could count on that being true for the next 50 years or so.  But the heart breaking part about “goodbye” in SL, was that I wasn’t sure if any of those things would be true for my friends- tomorrow, or any day in the next 50 years.  But yet it is so powerful and encouraging to see the hope and faith they have for a safe and healthy future. 

I have also done a lot of contemplation and theorization on the cultural differences between my American culture and the Sierra Leonian culture I have so enjoyed for the past 4 months.  I absolutely loved the culture and way of life here; there are so many beautiful aspects.  The people are so welcoming and friendly, they would literally drop everything to help a perfect stranger, and they would give up all of their comforts to make you feel welcomed.  My friend Johanna and I were walking to one of our SL friend’s homes when her sandal broke.  She tried to fix it but couldn’t, so a woman on the street gave her a new pair of sandals.  Then when we got to our friends compound, Johanna asked for some tape to fix the broken sandal, and instead the entire compound came together, examined the shoe, and scurried off with it, only to return 15 minutes later with a perfectly repaired sandal.  Not only that, but they reinforced the other sandal just in case it were to break someday too!  If I broke my shoe in America and took it to my neighbor’s house, he would tell me to go to Wal-mart and buy a new pair!  That’s the kind of community that exists here.  If you walk by somebody in the street and don’t say “hello, how is your family?” it is just about the most disrespectful thing you could do.  They are a very relational culture that depends on each other for enjoyment, comfort, safety, and survival.  I can only imagine that the West African’s who come to America feel very lonely and isolated because of how independent we are. 

SL has an amazing and beautiful culture that I have learned so much from; but with the beauty of any culture also comes the frustrations.  I have found trust to be a big struggle for me here.  More than once, I have felt betrayed by a West African friend.  It hurts and it frustrates me, but I also realize that often it is done to just save face.  They change a story or say something false just because they think it is what I would like to hear.  Trust is also a struggle in their culture when it comes to male-female relationship and marriages.  Complete fidelity to ones partner is all too commonly broken.  Many women constantly fear that their men will leave them, and many men constantly fear that their woman will cheat on them.  It is a sad reality that many couples have a lack of trust in each other. 

To think about these issues, I returned to my best thinking spot: end of the dock in Freetown.  A friend of mine gave me the idea that maybe some of these cultural differences, especially with faithfulness and trust, sprout from the roots of how our cultures were founded.  If you look at West Africa, the first people groups here and thus the basis for the culture comes from the indigenous tribes which had animistic and tribal beliefs.  If you look at America and the original founding father’s beliefs, America was founded on Biblical principles.  “In God We Trust” is not just a phrase on the back of a dollar bill.  Even though American’s may not practice Christianity so strictly anymore, and much of American culture is far from Biblical, the truth is that the basic morals we teach and attempt to follow are originally Biblical, and it is very evident when you travel to a culture that is not founded off of God’s word.

Loading the last Land Rover

Don't drop it!

After all the thoughts and theories I developed on SL, it was finally time to depart.  All of the goodbye’s aside, there were a lot of fun and exciting things about leaving and leading up to the sail.  Some of the locals started to panic about us leaving- with good reason.  If we left, that meant they or their family member couldn’t get the surgery that they needed.  So there were a lot of attempts to get on the ship at night.  Some friends and I were sitting out at our thinking spot at the end of the dock when one of the Ghurkas (security guards) walked up holding a sling shot.  I said, “what is that for?!” and he pulled a handful of marbles out of his pocket and said, “that’s how I keep people off the ship!” and OOo my goodness do they have some wicked aim!  The night before we sailed out of Freetown, I got to do pirate watch with a friend from midnight to 2 am.  The best part was one of our Ghurka friends let us shoot his sling shot!  I shot the containers on the dock with expert aim! (Or close to it…)

Pulling away from the dock was bitter sweet.  There were a few people who slipped past the port security guards to wave us goodbye.  Most of the crew was standing out on the top deck to wave goodbye, and the Captain came across the loud speaker and said a beautiful prayer for Sierra Leone, Freetown, and for our travels.  It was a great send off to a wonderful outreach.

Our small goodbye crew on the dock as we pulled away

We had a beautiful first day of sailing with gorgeous weather and smooth waters.  Even with smooth waters, the ship rocks a considerable amount!  I even fell over in the shower once (probably due to my extremely poor balance early in the morning).  It is funny to watch people walk down a straight hallway; they all weave left together, and then right together! 

The water is so incredibly blue, it is amazing!  They opened up the bow for us to go out and watch the sunset and watch for animals.  So far I have seen a ton of flying fish (they can glide above the water for 100’s of feet, its incredible!), a few large iridescent-looking fish, a lot of dolphins, and a few whales!  I haven’t seen a whale close up, just a fin or 2 and a few blow holes, but all the same, it’s neat to see!  The dolphins have been the entertainment of the weekend.  Once they realize the ship is there, they come jumping from miles away in pods sometimes numbering in the hundreds.  They like to swim and jump at the bow of the ship.  I swear some of them are straight from Sea World with the shows they put on!  I even gave one a high five and scratched his tongue! 

On the 2^nd night of the sail 3 other girls and I slept outside on the top deck.  It was a beautiful night!  The moon was full and very bright, so we couldn’t see any stars, but it was still gorgeous.  We got up early the next morning and bumped and bounced our way to the bow to watch the sunrise, coffee in hand, and a warm ocean breeze.  It was an amazing way for a Wisconsin girl to spend a December morning- watching dolphins jump in the light of the sunrise!  The only thing that would have made it better is if I was sitting in my canoe with my fishing pole in hand :)

The sunrise gang!

Goooood morning Atlantic Ocean!

Prayer requests:

- For our time in Ghana- that it will be a nice relaxing vacation for crew to rejuvenate and recharge for our Togo outreach!

- For the few patients we left behind that weren’t completely healed.  They were transferred to the local hospital with precise directions on care.  Pray for a speedy and uncomplicated healing!

- For people left in Sierra Leone who didn’t receive surgery- that they will recognize that God is still all loving and in control and just, despite their discouragement. 

- For the good friends I left behind in Freetown- that they will have health and safety, and the inspiration and motivation to help pull their country out of poverty and devastation.

Miss and love you all, and thank you so much for your prayer s and encouragement!  And a very merry Christmas to you all, as I probably won’t write again until after the holidays!  

Stay tuned next time, as I will be revealing my newest and latest crafty hobby!  I am recycling water drinking bags into weaved purses! (or attempting to…)  I figure I can sell them on the street for some extra cash.   Seeing as how I was denied my desire to work as a moto-taxi driver…

hey, your back boot is open! ..my what??

The anxiety is growing as we are about 4 weeks away from leaving Freetown!  Who knew 3 months could go so quickly! I thought I would have lots of time to see and do everything in Sierra Leone that I wanted, but time is running short!  There are lots of villages, countryside, and beaches I would love to see that I won’t have a chance to, but the more distressing part for me is leaving the friends and patients that I’ve grown so close to.  I have been soaking up every opportunity possible to spend time with friends in the city! 

I was blessed enough to be able to attend some new local churches the past few weekends.  I went to a “Thanksgiving” service at a church where several of my friends attend.  They had been talking about it for weeks and were so excited.  Because it was a special occasion, I was preparing myself for a long service, especially since the normal African service is 2-3 hours!  I was slightly surprised when it turned out to be 6 hours long… but I loved every minute of it.  It could have been 12 hours long and I still would have loved it, because my friends were sooo excited and honored that we came.  Being there made me realize how important my friendship is to them, and likewise how important their friendship is to me.  They all live very busy lives, balancing work, families, schooling, and Mercy Ships—just trying to make ends meet-- or at least come close.  But when I saw them in their church community with their friends and family, any of that stress and worry that may have been on their faces before was gone.  It was such an honor for me to be there to praise God together with them and to learn from their example of leaving all their stresses and worries at the foot of the cross and giving everything up to Christ.

As my FOMO grows stronger (FOMO= Fear Of Missing Out, compliments to my friend Emily), I have been trying to do as many things as possible whenever I have free time!  This weekend I went on an Island adventure, visited an amazing village, and went to the women’s prison. 

I FINALLY fulfilled my dream of riding in one of the sweet wooden fishing boats!  These nice guys picked  me and group of friends up right off the dock, and we took a 2 hour boat trip to Bunce Island.  The boat was complete with 2 buckets for bailing out water every 30 minutes or so, as well as a very kind 10 year old boy who did most of the driving.  Bunce Island was the main site where slaves were sold and distributed.  It was so interesting yet heart breaking to see the other side of the slave trade.  The European traders would go to the tribes along the river, take captive men and women, and take them to a large fortress on Bunce Island, where other European traders would come and trade food, tools, and supplies for the slaves.  It was interesting to see the African historical side of slavery after seeing the American side. 

There are only 2 days of surgery left!  The last day of surgery is November 17^th.  The hospital will then close a week later.  Patients are healing up nicely, but there are still a few patients who we are avidly praying for who have fairly extensive wounds will not be healed by the time we leave, unless by God’s miracle.  Arrangements are already being made to send patients to local hospitals, which is not the ideal situation.  Luckily there are very few patients who will have to do this, but I definitely ask for your prayers to heal them rapidly before we leave!

Earlier this spring there were a bunch of children here for bowed and windswept legs.  There was an amazing surgeon here who placed an implant called an “8 plate” in them.  It basically stops the growth of the growth plate on the affected side of the leg so that the other side can catch up and straighten the legs.  It’s a fairly uncomplicated procedure with quick recovery.  The only concern is that the plates have to stay in for 6 months to 2 years depending on the extent of the deformity, and follow up can be quite unpredictable with the patients here.  Last week was the appointed time for all the “8 plate” kids to return.  We were praying hard for all of the kids to return, as well as straight legs for all of them, because if we didn’t remove the plates now, when would we remove them?  If they didn’t return for their follow up, the kids’ legs would end up over correcting completely the other way and could destroy the growth and function of their legs.  After much worry and prayer, ALL of the kids returned!  It was such a miracle that they all arrived, especially since many were from hours and hours away.  A few of the kids were able to have their plates removed because their legs were straight, praise God!  The other children are scheduled to travel to Guinea (a short distance from Sierra Leone) next fall when the ship is there, and it should be the perfect amount of time needed for their legs to grow enough to straighten!  It was a great encouragement to see all the kids and see how everything worked out despite our worry and doubt!

The Hope Center, where many of the healing patients are staying, is nearing closing time as well!  There are very few patients left there, so it has been hard saying goodbye to several patients the past few weeks!  One patient that I was very close to, Hassan, left a few weeks back.  He is 12 years old, and his mother and baby sister had been here with him the past few months.  He had surgery on a burn contracted hand, and had trouble healing, as well as needing extensive therapy to get movement back.  If you read back a few blogs when I was talking about making my patients cry, I talked about Hassan!  (I enjoyed reading my old writing about him.. “He is a quiet, sweet, boy”.. haha! Ooo how I was wrong!)  At that time, his dad was with him, but half way through the stay mom traded places with dad.  I grew to really enjoy Hassan and his family, and enjoyed talking with them about God and how he uses blessings and hardships to shape and guide us.  I fell in love with Hassan and his family, and it was very difficult to say goodbye.  He cried and hugged all of us whenever he thought about leaving.  One of my favorite yet hardest experiences was saying goodbye to Hassan and his family.  The night before he left, the Hope Center was having a musical worship night around a campfire.  I sat with Hassan and held his hand as we sang, and I just prayed and prayed over his hand asking God to use his experience- the pain and torment of the surgery, dressing changes, and therapy, as well as the joy he had in his time on the ship- to turn his heart to Christ and accept Him as his only Savior.  It was such a powerful and humbling moment for me to say, “God, you made this hand, you allowed it to be destroyed, and you worked through us to fix it, and you have the power to use this hand to glorify YOU and bring Hassan’s family to you!” 

I have had a lot of feedback about my blog and people requesting me to finish my story on Esther!  Well I have good news and bad news.  The bad news is that we still don’t have the results of the lump that was removed on her other breast.  The GOOD news is that I saw her today!  I was having a rough day working in the containers moving boxes (since there are less patients, they don’t need as many nurses, so we get reassigned to different positions! Like working in the hot, sweaty containers!) I was walking through the ship, drenched in sweat and all dirty, and I turned a corner and saw the beautiful Esther sitting in the hall talking to the Mercy Ship story-writer!  She jumped up and gave me a huge hug and we talked for a while.  She is doing great and her smile is as big as ever!  She is disappointed not to have the results of her biopsy back yet, but that just gives us more opportunity to pray for her that the results will be non-cancerous!  Because I honestly don’t know what the plan would be if it was positive.

Me and my trio at Jonathan's

I know many of you were curious to hear about my chicken-slaughtering experience, so here’s the story!   3 of us white folk, Crooksy from England, Spiffy from Texas, and myself, went to our good friends compound for the day to cook African with his mom!  We had one lucky Chicken to add to the pot, and I had the chance to be the murderer, but unfortunately I just couldn’t bring myself to do it!  He was the cutest little chicken, as you can see from the pictures!   And cute chickens are hard to come by in Sierra Leone! (Most of them look like they got in a bad fight with the sewer monster and had the worst hair (or feather?) day in history.)  

  

Chester! 10 min. prior to his departure from this world..

And I named him Chester, which I realize now that naming something you are about to kill and eat is not the brightest idea! Apparently it is not OK for African women to kill a chicken, but they said that because we were white, we could do it! Crooksy was the bravest, and decided to do the honors of killing poor Chester.  I have a video of the event, but unfortunately with my internet connection I can’t upload it!  Basically, she had all the technique, but after a few girly squeals in an adorable British accent, she held Chester down while Jonathan did the slicing! 

The killing combo-- Jonathan and Crooksy

Crooksy after the deed was done!

We had a lovely afternoon of cooking, eating, meeting all the members of their compound, and playing some “balance ball”, which is basically monkey-in-the-middle.   

The compound- notice the kids creative sled.. a laundry basket!

 

My balance-ball partners!

Of all the great adventures I’ve had in Sierra Leone so far, all of my best memories are spent with my friends at their homes experiencing their everyday life!

preparing the crane-crane leaves (i.e. weeds..)

 

Spiffy and mama-Abigail

 

Jonathan- pretending to cook so he can be in a snap-snap

Everyday gets harder as I count down the days until we sail.  And each day that passes I make sweeter and sweeter memories with my friends here.  I am looking forward to new adventures in Togo, but it has some big shoes to fill after this incredible, incredible country :)

Here's some snaps of the beautiful countryside I stroll through everyday:

 

I swam to this Island twice! "flip-flop island"

Walking through one of my friends neighborhoods

watching a local futbol match

2 of  my besties, Sahr and Israel.  went to their university for a tour.

Sahr and Arthur, after a long days work of walking me around their village!

Prayer requests this time around:

-          For the patients who are still left with open wounds and other medical issues, that Christ will heal them FAST and they won’t be left here after we leave.

-          For Esther- pray for her test results to come back non-cancerous!

-          For Hassan and his family to come to know the Lord.  I hope that they could see something different in the way that the Mercy Ships crew lived and worked, and that they could see Christ lived out through us, and want to be a part of it!

-          For encouragement and positive attitudes for my local friends here who are trying to get into the University but don’t have the funds and resources to do so.

-          And please pray for the lives we are going to touch in Togo! Let us have a positive impact on the country, and let them see us as more than just a hospital, but Christianity in action!

Love and miss you all! I send my warmth and sunshine your way!

**New phrase of the week: “Your back-boot is open”.  Translation: your plumbers crack is showing!