Out of Africa!

Wow! There's so much to take in, digest, ruminate about and I'm really glad I had the opportunity to write down so much of what we've done in the past five months since we're just reeling and revelling in all that we've seen, done and participated in during our wonderful time with the Africa Mercy in Lome', Togo.  Wish I was more articulate - but it seems that every thought begins and ends with - Wow!  Hmm...

So, this past week has been a real roller coaster of emotions and experiences.  Since our last blog post we've had several good bye dinners.  Last Monday we said good bye to many good friends flying out that night. We then headed off to a Chinese restaurant to say farewell to the folks I got very close to during our crazy three weeks that we put together an approximation of the musical Godspell.  Since Peter and I wanted to say some good byes we came later so that meant I drove a Land Rover from the port to the restaurant.  Yikes!  What an adventure!  Rumor had it that the port of Benin - several Km to the east had decided to close for awhile.  Many reasons were touted but no matter the cause it meant that hundreds of semi trucks headed to our port for business.  Talk about gridlock!  I've never been so glad to be in a Land Rover since in order to get from point A to point B one had to have nerves of steel and a low threshold for jumping curbs and off roading thru the medians of Lome'.  So, we got where we were going but the adventure started as soon as we put the key in the ignition. 

This curb jumping junket was repeated on Wednesday night when we had another good bye dinner with our hospital sanity keepers Dr. Finona and radiology tech extraordinaire Brigid whom I've written about before.  Peter and I thanked them profusely for being the recipients of multiple rants about just about everything, our coffee break partners and purveyors of some of the best baked goods we've ever tasted.  God bless both of them as they make their way to London tomorrow night.  We can't wait to see both of you again. I'm glad our dinner turned out well since I was loathe to brave the truck impacted gauntlet of the beach road once again and was a less than jolly chauffeur but fortunately once the road opened up I think I recovered my decent mood.  I was mostly concerned about the roads being impassable the next night when we needed to get to the airport and since I'm a pretty nervous traveller it doesn't take much to get me worried about all things related to travel.  Yeah - I'm not a real trusting soul.  Yet another thing that the Lord has sent me to Africa to work on.  I get it....

This dinner was a nice closure after the emotional send off of all our day workers from the ship.  Since it was so crowded we did not get to eat lunch with them or attend the fancy ceremony that was held but we were happy to at least get to say good bye after everything was concluded on the dock. It is hard to say enough about the wonderful, hard working, patient, good hearted day workers that really made our mission possible.  We treasure our friendships with them and will never, ever forget them.  They are the face and heart of Togo to us.  Here's one of the pictures posted after the good bye ceremony.

Backtracking to Tuesday night we opted to walk over to our fav spot - the Seaman's center with our oldest and dearest of friends we first met in Texas- Simon, Tina and Jen as well as Annika and her new hubby Idrissa.  A final night under the stars enjoying the ocean breeze with our customary bier mit french fries was a little bitter sweet as we've treasured our new found friends so very much and trust the Lord will bring us together again in the not too distant future. 

Thursday was a whirlwind of packing, setting out box after box of give aways, packing, sign out slips, packing and a surprise abandon ship drill! Each time we'd look at our watches it was hard to believe that along with all the usual hour by hour things we were doing that in a few more minutes and hours we'd be leaving the ship, our friends and all that had come to be routine these past five months. 

And then at 6:30 a cadre of folks scooped up all our bags and our cabin was...empty!  I turned out the lights for the last time, locked the door that no longer had our name tag on the empty brass plate and headed to the gangway for the last time for our final "kiss and cry".  After oh so many times before saying good bye to all that had left before us - now it was our turn.  Such a lovely tradition of everyone meeting at the bottom of the gangway.  So many hugs, so many "when will we see you again?"  So many, "thank you for your help, your contribution, your service, your sacrifice."  Wow!  This is really, really a wonderful send off.  And then the gauntlet of people lining up, waving good bye.  Sort of like the munchkins lining up along the yellow brick road but way, way better since - well, it wasn't a weird Frank Baum dream but real, live send off Africa Mercy style.  Yup - another Wow! 

And then - thank you Lord!  My big fear was for naught.  The beach road was clear as a bell - no traffic, no trucks jammed all over the place!  Thank you Lord for answering my prayers and thank you to the wonderful Miriam - probably the best ship's driver I've ever ridden with.  So - we had a lovely ride to the airport and then the incomparable Miriam even helped drag our many bags into the terminal.  Everyone should have a Kiwi friend like Miriam!  Many thanks to you, our favorite pharmacist ever! 

So - we made it thru the airport check in without a hitch, had friends to chat with in the waiting area since we had not only the three nurses leaving the ship with us but also two families and others going off for vacation before rejoining the ship on the next chapter in Guinea.  We even all sat together on the uneventful plane ride to Brussels.  I can't say enough about how lovely Brussels Air is, too!  They actually fed us a full meal in coach at 11pm at night!  What American carrier would do that in this day and age?  I know - none of them!   They even fed us a petit dejeuner so that we didn't have to forage in the airport for those of us with short connections between flights.  Then, lo and behold - on our 45 minute flight to Paris they literally threw sandwiches at us just after take off so that we were quite happy collecting all five of our bags that were the last off the carousel at Charles de Gaulle.  Fortunately, Peter slept most of the time any of our planes were in the air or taxis were moving in Paris.  I, on the other hand didn't sleep until we made it to the apartment Friday morning.  So, thanks to my Mother in law we had a clean beds, a full refrigerator and blissful silence in her Paris apartment and I finally got some shut eye. 

So- lucky us.  We've got three days in Paris to unwind and re-enter Western society after five months in Africa without having to worry about the day to day. Three days before we have to deal with our regular lives in California, house, cars, bills and broken computer that we left in January.  Yesterday we had a simply idyllic day in Paris and I was able to check off one of my bucket list items that Peter didn't even know I'd yearned to do for nearly 30 years!  We spent a gorgeous day in Versailles and I finally got to see all 32 of the spectacular fountains in action!  Wow! 

By way of explanation - the summer after my first year of med school I came to Europe and after working at the Army hospital in Nurnberg I travelled around for a month on my own.  I spent several days in Paris and ventured out to Versailles on a bus trip.  Although I'd long known about this spectacular, royal retreat it was the gardens and especially the fountains I wanted to see.  I was so very, very disappointed that on the day I was there they did not play the fountains and for the rest of my life I've wanted to see them in action.  Up until this visit we've never been in Paris during a time when we could get there when they were would be on.  So, when Peter not only had the idea to go, and we found out the fountains would be played with music for over two hours that afternoon - I was simply thrilled!  We took a train that left from very near the apartment.

Since the fountains didn't start for awhile we were able to spend some time in the gardens walking around.  Here's the front entrance to Versailles Palace.  Since both Peter and I have been inside this before we didn't go in and saw both the Grande and Petite Trianon residences on the far side of the Gardens.   

But first, we sat by the Grande Canal to have lunch while watching the boats, duck and swans.  Really idyllic. 

Here's Peter in the Hallway of the Grande Trianon.  I prefer staying outside looking at all the gardens, especially at this time of the year so Peter appreciated the few times I would go inside and wander thru the halls.  He and our older son are the history buffs and would, if given the liberty read every placard under every painting and display in every museum.  Even now, Peter is off at a museum near the apartment while I'm writing this since I'm just not high brow enough to appreciate all the art that Paris has to offer. I'm sure it's my fault but I attribute it to the difference between us as I'm the product of public education and Peter, of the upper crust has his prep school and ivy league education in the finer things in life.  C'est la vie....

So - I'm writing this and I'm into fountains, so please indulge me or hit delete - your choice and I'll never know the difference.  

The rest of these pictures are the best that my eye and my little Sony digital camera could provide by way of the gorgeous and simply spectacular fountains of the grand Versailles gardens just outside of Paris.  They are in action on Saturday afternoons.  In the summertime - actually starting next week - they even play in the evening so I'm sure the light show in addition to the music makes them even more worth the trip.  So, if possible, don't wait the thirty years that I did to see them in action if you can.  Here is a smattering of what we enjoyed yesterday....

Fountain of Apollo's Chariot in the foreground just as all the fountains in the park started playing at 3pm.  This was the only time that it was crowded as there were 32 fountains for everyone to see in the next two hours and it took that long to see them all! 

Here I am, ecstatic to be in front of the glorious Latona Fountain and Parterre which is one of the largest fountains just down the mall from the main palace, which you can see in the background.  Yes, that is a sweater I am wearing because it was actually chilly in Paris while we were here!  It was so unusual to be outside and not sweating after five months of trying hard to stay hydrated! 

Here is Peter in front of the grove of the Three Fountains which is a spectacular terrace of what looked to us like at least four of more fountains - Peter says the French don't count well, sounds like a German thing to me but I think they were just mesmerized by the beauty of it all and got confused. 

Here is another view of the terraced fountains

This is the Colonnade Grove that on the map just looked like one statue and since I didn't want to waste time on non-fountains was reluctant to peek into this grove.  Peter insisted as he had a plan and of course we had to stick to it - I ate crow as this turned out to have gorgeous fountains in every arch around the statue. 

This spectacular fountain was surrounded by an arbor walkway that you can see in the back.  Quite thought provoking to see this man in the lava rock - called "The Encelade Grove" 

This picture doesn't look like this is a fountain - just a grotto of sorts but there is water rushing down the inside walls behind the statues - gorgeous!  It is called The Grove of Apollo's Bath.

Of course, there were many other fountains - some coordinated with music.  The type that the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas have done their best to recreate but this is really the original and amazingly much of the piping for all these waterworks has been unchanged since the 17th century! Just so awe inspiring! 

It was so very nice to get out and have a nice long walk in the crisp, cool weather.  Peter is back from the museum so I should finish this up so we can both go out for a bit.  Tomorrow we return to San Diego to start catching up with all that has fallen by the wayside in our absence.  We thank the Good Lord for having his watchful eye on us and keeping us safe through out our journey.  Thanks so much for all your kind, loving comments regarding our blog posts and the mission of Mercy Ships.  We hope you will keep Mercy Ships and all the patients and their care givers in your prayers as we will since the mission continues.  All our love from Paris....Ann and Peter. 



Leavin'...On A Jet Plane....

That's what Peter has been humming for days now and we're getting pretty excited about coming home in a few days.  As we've mentioned in the past few blog posts our mission here has been winding down.  The hospital had it's "last" surgery last Friday - although a couple of patients have had to go back for some minor procedures but there's been alot of packing up and saying good bye. 

Last Friday we had our last laser eye surgery day and it was a doosy!  Usually we've done between 30 - 60 patients each Friday morning and we've gotten pretty efficient using a two tent system where we funnel the patients through a series of stations both inside and outside the two tents that we use.  Well - for some reason several weeks worth of patients were scheduled to get as many done so the surgeon we've trained is not inundated with too many of the 6 week post op laser surgeries.  It was not until I was in the midst of putting drops in patient's eyes that I was told we had 120 patients scheduled!  WHAT!?  So, this made the snafu from yesterday all the more upsetting.  Snafu is standard military terminology - sorry if you don't know acronym.  It's probably on google.  Anyway - the guy in charge of pack up decided to take down the tent we used for the actual laser surgeries.  I wandered outside to ask my team leader a question and saw them yanking the innards out of our tent and thought - hmmm, this will not go well.  Wandered into the big tent and informed our leader and that's when it got fun.  Fortunately there was enough time to run in between all the remaining tents and negotiate enough room for the following day to get the laser surgeries done of the 100 patients that did show up.  So - it wasn't a disaster, fortunately it didn't rain on people waiting outside the tent and things moved reasonably well given the added wrinkle and the addition of way more patients than usual.  Needless to say I'm glad it was the last time for all of that! 

Here is a picture of the tent area that is now in the throws of disassembly and pack up into shipping containers that will then be loaded on top of the ship along with all the trucks and land rovers that we use. 

In addition to the pack up there have been going away get togethers for this and that official work group, as well as for multiple groups of friends that will soon be saying good bye.  Last night my little group that put on Godspell for Easter went out to a local Chinese restaurant.  It was nice to get off the ship, go to a restaurant we've never been to before and think about something besides the 20+ folks we said good bye to during the usual Monday night airport run that left at 7pm.  Two of the women I worked most closely with on the eye team went home last night so it was a hard "kiss and cry" for me. 

Since we've not had our usual hard work to keep us occupied and this WAS my old knitting blog I feel like I should confess to at least my fellow yarn-o-holics reading this and exclaimed when I said I'd only brought 14 skeins of yarn with me regarding "what would I do when I ran out''?  Well, I wondered, too frankly.  I have been long collecting various skeins of gorgeous Noro silk garden that I'd planned on knitting into the famous Lizard Ridge afghan from Knitty.  So, I was quite excited to get started on this as my Africa project. 

Here are just four of the squares I made from this lovely pattern.  I enjoyed it alot but had gotten down to the very last skein about three weeks ago and was starting to panic wondering where I could score some desperation yarn as I've done during past trips when my planning was not the best?  We even went to the Grande Marche in hopes that we'd run across someone, somewhere with a few skeins of something I could play with.  No luck. 

What I did run across during one of my late nitht forays on the internet was a free pattern from an online magazine called Craftsy that was a Entrelac scarf pattern using - Noro's SILK GARDEN!!!  Get OUT!!  Not only did I have 14 skeins of silk garden waiting to be liberated from their wavy Lizard Ridge existence but I am insanely IN LOVE with Entrelac.  OK - for the uninitiated, entrelac is a knitting style that is oh so addicting since you build and knit in little squares and triangles to make gorgeous patterns.  Here are a few squares I've made since losing my mind to the Entrelac song that never ends.... After just a few rows it was clear to me - and I think that you will agree with me, this yarn was begging me to turn it into entrelac.  Peter thought this was quite bizarre that I would rip out square after square of knitting I'd spent hours on, but I explained to him that I am what is known as a "Process" knitter vs. a "Product" knitter.  Meaning I'm sort of addicted to the act of knitting and couldn't care less if I ever see an end product or not.  After likening it to his lack of desire to really improve his golf game vs. just enjoying the act of being out there - he sort of got it. 

So - there you have it - the Knitdoc part of the ancient blog writes again.  And I now have enough yarn to get me through our last three days in Togo, four in days in Paris and the long plane rides until we touch down back in our beloved San Diego.  140 days into the 143 days total that we have been here!  Yes, sadly, we were counting the days and each time we entered a new month we were ecstatic.  We're extremely grateful that we've had the chance to be here, to be a part of this awesome mission, to get to know the wonderful people of Togo and West Africa.  We're amazed at the spirit and resilience of the people here.  Stunned by the lack of very basic medical care and attitudes toward the sick.  We are proud to be a part of a ministry like Mercy Ships and the loving, selfless way the organization gives to all in the sacrificial manner of Jesus Christ.  We have really grown and learned and met people we want to be in contact with for the rest of our lives.  They are part of us now and we never want to lose what we've gained here.  We're hopeful that we will continue to have some sort of role in the future of Mercy Ships as they evolve and grow and pray that we and they will recognize God's call for whatever He deems is next for us. 

If any of you ever want more information regarding our time in Africa or our time on board the Africa Mercy, please don't hesitate to e-mail or ask us in person.  We pray everyone has the opportunity to do exactly what God has created them, and prepared for them to do in this world.  We look forward to our next adventure.