Crossing borders solo

As I sat on a hot, black, old, cracked leather seat of a rickety VW van, my hot sweaty skin stuck to the Ghanaian squished in next to me, I looked out the window and couldn't stop the huge grin that came across my face.  Sometimes I take it for granted where I am and I forget to appreciate the beauty of the West African countryside.  I remember seeing pictures and movie clips from West Africa with the tropical green trees, red sandy roads, beautifully crafted mud-brick houses with thatched roofs, and people walking about in brightly colored African fabrics that just add to the beauty of the countryside.  A few years ago, I never would have dreamt I would be here enjoying this myself!  And here I was, traveling solo on a mixture of motorcycle-taxis and VW vans from Togo to Ghana-- being the creepy "yovo" in the back of the van looking out the window with an all-too-giddy smile!  God is good!


With a 4 hour journey, I had plenty of time to enjoy the countryside and remember how amazing it is that I am doing what I'm doing right now!  Along the way, I had time to think about the patients we were seeing in the hospital, and especially the new plastic patients (burn contractures, deformed extremities, etc) that would be coming in the next week for surgery.  As I was thinking, I felt the Lord prompting me to pray for the people I would be seeing in Ghana and especially for people with deformities that would be good candidates for surgery that I may come across.  I prayed and napped as I traveled to Accra and waited very IMpatiently for the adventure that lay ahead!

Tim and I at the Accra airport- together at last!! and in Ghana of all places!!

I generally don't like traveling by myself, but it was very empowering to know that I could work through language barriers and make my way from Lome to Accra when I had no idea how to get there in the first place!  I was beyond excited to meet up with my good friend Tim and a group from my sister-churches back home who were coming on a 2 week mission trip to Ghana. I initially only knew 2 out of the 17 people in the group, and they all took me in like family and welcomed me as a member of their team.  By the end of my 5 days with them, it was hard to leave as we had grown so close together!

Our amazing group!

Before I joined the team, I had no idea what we were going to be doing in Ghana! Being the organized planner that I am.. NOT! I was just along for the ride to hang out with Tim!  When I got there, I found out that we were staying at a vocation woman's school  that gave women from poor and oppressed backgrounds training in useful skills such as cooking, sewing, fabric dying, hair dressing, as well as others.  We did some work at the school, and then also did medical clinics in nearby villages and schools.

The group taking a walking tour of the woman's school

cooking class

Sewing class- with manual sewing machines!

Fabric dying-- I had some dresses made by the women-- the fabric-dying and sewing is all hand done by the ladies!

setting up the pharmacy for the medical clinic

Working in the pharmacy! I'm practically a pharmacist now

Screening the patients

The first night I was there, I was talking with some of the ladies on the team discussing our experiences and travels in West Africa, and one of the ladies started talking about the year before when she was on this same trip in Adidome, Ghana.  She had met a little boy who was born with his hands and feet webbed together which greatly affects his lifestyle, with his acceptance in his village, education, and ability to find a job in the future.  She was very burdened for him and prayed fervently for him for the past year, and recruited her grandsons to do the same, in hopes of finding a way to help him.  As she was telling me this I was immediately covered in goosebumps at the connection between our 2 stories.  I said to her, "I think I might be able to help!"  How great is our God that he brought us together as 2 pieces of the puzzle in this boys life!

Timme! kid-magnet.

Throughout the week, we tried and tried to get ahold of the boy so I could see him to see if he was a surgery candidate, but we were unable to find him during my time there.  It was disheartening, but I know that our God is Good and nothing can stop him from bringing grace and peace into this boys life.  
I don't know if we will be able to help him; if his complication is something we can operate on, or if there is room in the surgery schedule, but I know that there was a reason that Susan and I were brought together to pray for this boy.  Now this boys family and the surrounding villages know about Mercy Ships, so I pray and trust that he will get the help he needs someday!

After being disheartened from not finding the boy, God lifted my spirits when I met a 7 year old girl named Enyonam in one of the villages who has a cleft lip.  She was very sweet and smiley and shy and kept her hand over her mouth to cover her cleft.  I sat down and held her hand and talked to her mom in my fluent Ewe (Ok just kidding, I had a translator!) and found out that the girl doesn't go to school because she is ridiculed for her lip.  I explained to her mother that I work for a volunteer Christian hospital just across the border in Togo, and we would be able to fix her lip.  She asked me how much it cost, and I said, "nothing, it's free."  Then she asked, how much is food and lodging? and I said, "nothing, it's free."  Then she asked, how will we get to the ship?  and I said, "I'll pick you up at the border."  Then mama knelt down in front of me, grabbed my hand and started crying, saying, "akpe akpe caca"  which means "thank you thank you sooo much!"

After screening day, it was such a sweet, humbling experience to meet this family.  Yes, we do have to say no to a lot of desperate people, but here was an example of complete, genuine, mercy that we can provide.  God clearly placed this girl in my path and provided me with the means to help her and change her life forever.  If Enyonam is the only reason that I am even in West Africa, then Praise God!  I would do it all over if just for the sake of Enyonam.  Enyonam's surgery is Marcy 29th, so pray for her and watch for updates and photos!

I returned from Ghana with a renewed heart and attitude and ready to finish out my next 3 months!















Dance Party!  Why can't white people move like black people?!

And guess who we got to see?! Gifty and Comfort!  I met these ladies at my small group at Westbrook church over a year ago!

 

Tim met the children that we sponsor together!  Unfortunately I had to return to the ship before I could meet them.

Prayer requests:
- For Enyonam and her mother to travel safely, and for a pain-free uncomplicated surgery!
- For a young lady who has been in the hospital since the first week we opened in February.  She has a terrible wound, infection, and poor immune system, and has endured many surgeries over the past month.  Pray for her miraculous healing and for any emotional or spiritual burdens to be removed from her heart.
- For this coming June-- What in the world is Danielle going to do next?!  I need direction :)

Screening Day.

Disclaimer: This was a painful blog to write and may be a painful blog to read, so read at your own discretion.

The last 2 weeks the ship was busy preparing for the big patient-screening day which was held this past week.  A lot of planning and organization went into this day, and nearly everyone from the ship was needed to help.  Only a few bare bones crew were left on the ship to keep it running.  We spent a lot of time praying for this day, because thousands of people were expected to come from all over the country who are desperate and see Mercy Ships as their last hope.  Security has to be very tight, and things have to stay very controlled and organized otherwise they could get out of hand quickly. We were fortunate enough to have use of the national stadium in Lomé.  The event started with security at 2pm the day before the screening.  People started lining up that evening, and a crew of people worked to pre-pre-screen patients throughout the night.  By 4:30am, the ship was emptied, and a convoy of landrovers took everyone to the stadium to begin the long, exciting, yet heartbreaking day! 

For me, the heart break started as we pulled up to the stadium, and in the dusky morning light, I could see the thousands of people lined up outside the stadium.  It was at that point that I realized that screening day was not going to be a busy, fun day of seeing thousands of people and giving hope to the hopeless, but it was going to be one of the hardest days of my time here in West Africa.  I started crying right then in the front seat of the Landrover and it took everything inside me to control the sobs.  I knew that only a small percentage of these people were actually going to make it on the ship for surgery.  Before screening day, I lived in a naive little bubble where every patient I saw was someone that we could help, and now I see the reality of the thousands that we can’t.  As one of my friends put it, “I feel like this is a sick version of American Idol, and we are choosing who does and doesn’t make it through”.

I was fortunate enough to be a part of the children’s ministry team.  We split up and went to find children to entertain and occupy their time while they waited for hours to be screened.  My friend Jenny and I decided to leave the stadium and head out to the long line up of people who were standing in the hot sun since at least 2 or 3 in the morning.  We had so much fun walking up and down the line, greeting people and giving them something to do; blowing bubbles, painting nails, coloring, stealing and holding babies—anything to help them pass the time, and give the parents a little rest by entertaining their children for a while! 

I don’t know if I would consider us extremely blessed or horribly punished to be one of the few crew who got to be outside the gate and have the devastating reality of interacting with the thousands of people who never even made it past the initial screening.  Approximately 3500 people came to the screening, and less than half of those even saw the surgeons.  There are very select surgeries that we do, so it is very difficult to tell people who have been standing in line for hours that we can’t fix their stomach ulcer that they’ve had for years, or their arm that broke a few years ago and healed completely wrong.

Before the screening day, I asked God to help me see his people the way he saw them, and he definitely answered, and held nothing back!  Throughout the day, Matthew 25:40 kept infiltrating my head and breaking me to pieces: “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”  And here I was, telling thousands of helpless, hopeless people that we couldn’t help them.  I felt like every time someone walked out of the stadium, we were saying, “Sorry Jesus, I can’t help you”.  I am still having difficulty fully processing the day because it really challenged the way I see the world and my position in it.    

 I think the hardest job of the day was the prayer team, who was in charge of talking and praying with the thousands of people who we were not able to help.  My prayer is just that everyone who came to the screening came for a reason, whether it was for a chance at a life changing surgery, or for a chance to see Christ’s people in action and receive prayer.  By 7pm, everyone had finally returned to the ship, dirty, sweaty, tired, and hungry.  What a long, exhausting day, but I am so glad that I was able to see this part of Mercy Ships and be a part of it. 

This is a broken world that we live in, tainted with pain and corruption, and that won’t change until Christ returns to bring us home.  All we can do is to continue to plod along seeking one hurting human after another and showing them love.  God is Holy and Sovereign and can do greater things than we could ever fathom.  It was in His plan and will that every single one of those hurting people came to the screening.  I have no doubt that His glory was seen and His purpose was achieved at the stadium that day.   

 

These are a few more pictures from screening day and everything that went into it. To the right is my friend June working on collecting patient history.  Lots of work went into collecting histories and doing physicals, which was especially difficult due to the language barrier.

 

Prayer requests:

Please continue to lift up in prayer the thousands of Togolese people that we were unable to help.  God is a big God and a miraculous God and has the power to heal these people- and he doesn’t need a scalpel and a surgeon. 

This little cutie is a picture of hope.  She has already had surgery, and I was playing with he and rocking her to sleep just a few hours before I finished writing this blog!  She is down in the ward and will probably go home tomorrow!  God is good and despite the heartbreak I had during the screening, God never fails to shine His glory through and reveal His purpose!

"Yovo, Yovo, bonsoir..."

“yovo, yovo bonsoir,

Ca va, bien, merci”

This is the song that is sung by a chorus of children around every corner that I walk in Togo!  It says, “white person, white person, good evening, how are you, fine, thank you”.  It is a joke ridiculing the fact that white people, or “yovos”, generally only know these 4 common phrases in French! 

So far during my time in West Africa, I have been called an Opoto (Temne), Pumwe (Mende), Obruni (Twi), Toubab (Wolof), and now Yovo (Ewe)!    I’m making quite a collection of names for myself!

So I arrived in Togo about 2 ½ weeks ago. I had a lovely relaxing time with the family in Ireland, Germany, and Belgium.  You can read all about the adventures at spotofblueadventures.blogspot.com.  It was a perfect and much needed break and a good half-way point for my time in Africa.  I was getting a bit tired and run down on the ship, especially because we were in transition between countries, the hospital was closed, and there was about a quarter of the normal amount of crew members on board.  I came back excited and ready to start a new field service! (and excited to be back in the warm weather!)

My first Togo adventure was to the beautiful Mt. Agu.  We had no real plan of how we were going to get to the top of the mountain, but we packed our camping gear and hit the road.  As we were aimlessly wandering up the mountain, we stumbled upon a YWAM (Youth With A Mission) base, and stopped in to ask for help/directions to the top.  After making fast friends with the ladies who live there, we ended up staying at the base, and then hiking up the mountain the next day!  The people at the base were so sweet, and I will definitely be returning there anytime I need a little getaway for some R&R up in the mountains!

Me, Stephen, and Jenny on our way up to the YWAM base

June cookin Breafy!

 This is Aimee- one of the amazing women at the YWAM base!  She didn't speak English, but that didn't stop us from becoming fast friends!  They were so welcoming and cooked us some delicious fried plantains after our tiring hike!

And it was tasty!

We walked through many villages on the way up the mountain.  It was the best part of the hike, winding up small trails and around houses that cling to the side of the mountain.  There were tons of goats and the cutest little baby goats!  My obssession with them has given me the title "goat girl" once again... I thought that title was history, guess not.

This is a picture with our amazing friend and guide, Gilberto.  He works at the YWAM base as a teacher and was kind enough to lead us up the mountain after a very long week of work!  Fortunately he spoke English!

 He bought a stick of sugar cane and let us try some. It was a deliciously sweet snack at just the perfect time!  We were almost down the mountain, hot, sweaty, tired, and shaky legs!

The 3 amigos :)  Jenny loves Wisconsin, she's a keeper.

Our jungle trail

 We made it to the top!  This is standing on the highest point in Togo.  It's nearly Everest. We are awesome.

The last 2 weeks, the hospital has been busy at work getting the hospital set up and ready for patients.  One of the fun things this included was hospital open house.  This is a time when the whole crew is invited down to the hospital before we get patients, and every ward and department set up fun activities.  For example, we did things such as learn to put in stitches, intubate a dummy, do brain surgery, put in an IV, remove a cataract,  and one of the best things (in my opinion) was my ward’s activity which was be a nurse for a shift.  Some of us nurses played patients, and the crew had specific nursing tasks to do in a relay race against each other.  It was hysterical and fun as the crew ran around trying to give medicine to someone who kept spitting it out, putting a bed pan under a patient and being surprised to find coffee grounds poo, and changing a dressing on a ketchup and mayonnaise wound!  

This is me- dead on the dinning room table during lunch!  (I survived, don't worry)

Advertising in the dinning room for the hospital open house- rocking out to
 "staying alive" while they are doing CPR on me

Fake surgery at the hospital open house

June and I laughing at "nurse for a shift"

This is how our crew try to give medications to an unruley patient during "nurse for a shift"



All of the ward nurses in a group photo! See if you can find me.. it's like Where's Waldo!

So some of my friends tell me I’m getting too comfortable Africa, but I choose to think of it as “cultured”.  I’ll share some of their evidence with you and let you judge for yourself:

1.        

      1. If I have the choice between a squatty-potty and a porcelain throne, I will choose to squat.  I mean, how many times do I have to explain that it’s a more natural and healthy position for the human body!  And I’m pretty proficient at the “African bidet”(if you don’t know what this is, then I will spare you the details)! 

2.     2. I ate cat.  And I liked it.  I don’t condone the way the poor little Garfield died, but if it was served to me again, I wouldn’t hesitate to chow down.  The only weird thing is that it gave me a strange sensation about an hour later like I had a hair ball stuck.  And the after burps… not so appetizing. 

3.      3. And last but not least is the possibility that I have a little friend named Willy.  Willy is a worm that lives deep down inside me somewhere.  OK, I don’t really think I have worms, but my friends are convinced that I do simply because I enjoy the occasional street food and street juice.  When it’s hot out and I’m parched from the sun, I just can’t deny those enticing baggies of homemade juice!  Or better yet the old used water bottle half filled with the delicious concoctions.  Besides, it’s nothing a little Albendazole can’t cure!  

Prayer requests:

-Screening was yesterday (blog to come), please praise God for the patients who were accepted for surgery and will be coming to the ship in the next few months.  Pray that they will be able to see Christ’s love on this ship and have their hope restored!

-For the people that we were not able to provide medical care for, that they were able to walk away from screening feeling loved, cared for, and having a renewed hope in the Lord. 

- For the cultural interactions on the ship- that people won’t cling to the cultures that they are comfortable with, but that the crew can be better integrated and learn to understand each other better.

- For my continued French and Ewe learning!!

Thank you all for your love and prayers!  I’m looking forward to a great outreach over the next 5 months, but I can’t believe my time here is already half way over!  I love hearing from all of you so continue to update me on your lives!

Holiday adventures of a traveling vegabond

     "Make sure you write a blog before you leave for vacation Danielle..."  "Oo of course I will Mom, Don't worry!"  --Oops.  So I sit here now in the Hethrow airport with a 3 hour layover, and I figure now is a good time to update you all on my where abouts the last few weeks! 

The last few weeks have really felt like a weird limbo.  I feel like a wandering vegabond just visiting places that I don't actually belong.  The 2 weeks surrounding Christmas I was in beautiful Ghana!  The ship was on holiday there- just a time for the crew to relax in a semi-developed country.  And WOW did I have some reverse culture shock!  There were stop lights, and cross walks, and a MALL.  I was in a car that went faster than 30mph for the first time in 5 months, and I almost had a  panic attack!

I had fun exploring some of the touristy areas of Ghana, as well as the local markets in Tema and Accra. 

 It took me a while to settle in and get use to being away from Freetown, and deal with a lot more of my ship-family leaving, but we had a great Christmas that helped to make me feel more at home in Ghana.  A lovely Christmas play put on by the kids, a Christmas eve service complete with a bell choir, and a fun night of gift opening with friends!  But one of the best parts was being a part of the crew that made Christmas brunch!  My Norwegian counterpart and I, also known as the "culinary nurse food presentation specialinsts" (it's kind of a big deal, ok),  had a blast setting up a fruit and dessert table and making everything look beautiful for a wonderful, homey, Christmas brunch!

After the Christmas festivities, I took my vegabond travels northward to Dakar, Senegal to visit the one and only Kelsey Staudacher!   I had an amazing hostess and tour guide to give me a great taste of Senegal in one short week.  here are a few points to sum up my Senegalese week:

1. Don't let West Africa fool you, it's COLD!  What a shock to arrive during the cold season when my body is use to the Ghanaian heat!  Granted, it was 70-80 degrees, but I'm getting wimpy :)

2.  If you want to go to Senegal, make sure you speak French, Wolof, or have a great translator, because nobody speaks English!

3.  If the public transportation is on strike, no problem, just hitch hike through West Africa!

4.  I have never been so afraid of food in my life.  I started to get anxious as meal time came closer every day-- we would sit around a big shared bowl, and the cultural thing to do is to make sure the guest eats as MUCH as possible.  Even to the point of bursting.  For every meal.  Thank goodness Kelsey stratigically planned for us to skip some meals!  and I have had about 10 years worth of MSG-- my blood pressure is probably 160/100 by now.

5.  We didn't enjoy watching fireworks on New Years Eve, we went one step further and enjoyed being IN a firework!  No firework laws equals insanely dangerous explosions all around you!

6.  I have perfected the African bidet and scoop shower, but I am looking forward to a HOT shower without the 2-minute ship limit!

7.  We walked all over the country, but probably the most intersting walk was a 10K hike through the back streets of Dakar following a Bifal (basically a very interesting Muslim Rasta) in the dark.. oo the memories! 

8.  and lastly, the Senegalese people are so kind and welcoming, despite being a vegabond, I felt very welcome and at home!

So now here I sit in the Hethrow airport, paying way too many Euros for internet, waiting to begin my next week of vegabond life in Europe with the family!  Then it's back to the ship to make a new home in Lome, Togo for the next 6 months. 

As always, thank you all for your prayers and support! 

Prayer requests:
- for fun, safe, and memorable travels with the family in Europe!
- For the people in Togo who we will be serving soon, that their hearts will be prepared for amazingness, and we will be able to make the biggest impact on the most amount of people in only 5 months.
- For my language learning- that I will learn French quickly and have the courage to use it!

Due to the not-so-hot internet speed and weird british keyboard, I will be adding pictures later! stay tuned!

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…