Goodnight Moon....

So, it had to happen sooner or later I guess.  Well - I guess that's true of alot of things.  First I guess we're having to come to grips with all the winding down of our mission here in Togo and of all the saying good byes.  And the other thing that has been a long time in the waiting is for one of us to get sick.  Yup - I got a bug of some sort.  :(  Sadly - it sort of came on as we were out for a lovely evening with our good friends, Simon and Tina.  I was glad we could get back to the ship prior to me really feeling bad but I had a rough night on Sunday.  Monday I don't remember much at all as I think I slept the entire day and now today on Tuesday Peter says I look like I've been drugged.  He's a nice guy.  I guess it could be worse.  In fact, one of the things I thanked the good Lord for was the fact that during my infirmity our toilet was not one of the over half on our side of the ship that was non-functional for three full days!  So - in all these things there is still plenty to be thankful for. 

Which leads to my other train of though the last few weeks.  Not only are there alot of things here that we are thankful for and many that we will miss in the 10 short days we have left on the boat.  But there is also - as you can imagine - a lengthy list of things we'll not be at all nostalgic for once we head on outta here. 

Not surprisingly, many of the items on the "not gonna miss this" list had to do with water.  This is common on a ship - since water is at a premium.  Not only do we have to take quicky, two minute showers but we often are aware of the status of the plumbing with frequent and often constant moans, groans, gurgles and other hard to describe noises.  These noises are actually a welcome reminder that the plumbing is working since as I mentioned earlier - it often does not.  There's been a couple of times when we've had complete water shortages and we go without laundry service but thankfully there's not been a time of no showers on board like they had in Sierra Leone!  That would have taken our experience to a whole 'nother level, I'm guessing. 

And fortunately since we have been able to shower each day we've gotten to really enjoy the friendships we've made on the boat these past five months.  So - the exodus of folks leaving these past several weeks has been getting harder and harder to deal with as people are starting to leave by the dozens on Monday and Thursday nights and there have been many tears.  I call it the twice a week "kiss and cry". 



And as I've been reflecting on the list of "will miss" and "ain't gonna miss" I've had the rhymes of that childhood favorite bedtime story book - Good Night Moon stuck in my head.  So, with my apologies to the author Margaret Wise Brown, here is my version of  "Good Night Ship".

Good Night Ship

Good night ship leaving soon your slip

Good night ship, our home away for a bit

Bye we say to new family made here

Bye we say to friends we’ll long hold dear

So long rocking, rolling home

So long grunting, groaning gangway stroll

Not much longer tents for exams

Not much longer ears plugged like dams

Already missing African smiles

Already wondering if thru the miles

We’ll maintain friends and new found relations

We’ll maintain good habits and new found occupations

Like no more nightly TV marathons

And no more daily you tube goings on  

Au revoir groaning moaning ship at night

Sayonara motor bikes running traffic lights

To anti-malarials we say “take a hike”

And welcome back to the stuff we like

So good night noisy neighbors burping

Good night intermittent plumbing chirping

Adios to Tuesday African Night

And Adios to red, yellow and off white Crystal Light.

While Starbucks prices could not be beat

And Monday Crepes and mid-week Waffles were a welcome treat

Our sense of humor for Thursday fire drills in retreat.

Time to peek at shoulders and knees

And maybe even streaming videos we’d like to see

How about a long, hot, steamy shower

Or maybe soak in a tub for an hour?

So as the waning moon grows dim

We’ll wax poetic to our kith and kin

‘Bout screening days and on-call nights

Of feeling useful and basking in our Lord’s bright light

Our sense of mission not nearly complete

But a sense of peace due to our obedient feet

So good bye ship this June we say

But not to earthly missionary days

We hope that the genuine heart of our stay

Will ever be in the Lord’s service we pray

 

Thank you Jesus – Thank you Mercy Ships. 

And Next On.......

60 Minutes Mercy Ships! 
 
      Perhaps I (Peter is writing this week to give Ann a well deserved blog author rest)  should start at the beginning, back in March when Don Stephens (Mercy Ships President) was aboard he mentioned that 60 Minutes was thinking about doing a story about Mercy Ships, he noted that nothing was definite and asked that we keep the information confidential. We immediately had thoughts of a Mike Wallace hard hitting type interview but hoped if they came it would be a story with a more positive bent.  We did not think much more about it until I was in Texas at the IOC at the end on March and I was approached by Don and asked if we would be interested in being interviewed as 60 minutes was interested in our perspective as we had both served on the Navy's Hospital Ship USNS Mercy.

      A junior producer arrived almost 2 weeks ago and started getting more background information and scouting out the ship. She was followed a few days later by a senior producer  and a South African  team of  2 cameramen and a sound engineer.   The team started shooting and shooting and shooting what I learned is called B role in the industry. B role are the pictures of  background that are fit in between the interview segments. They took pictures of all aspects of life on the ship and were present for rounds on the wards (Peter was in a few shots). I am sure they have over 10 hours of B role footage. Most of it  will never be seen as the entire story will be edited down to 12 to 13 minutes by air time.  We both were interviewed by the producers for over 20 minutes on Tuesday and asked many insightful questions. The story is likely to focus on Don Stephens the founder as well as  Dr. Gary Parker (the Oral Surgeon) and his family who have lived and worked on the ship for over 20 years. The team selected a few patients whose story they wanted to follow including a woman from Nigeria with an Ameloblastoma. 
    

    Ameloblastoma is a jaw tumor that is benign in the sense that it does not spread to other areas of the body but is locally very destructive and if left untreated will eventually cause the patient to succumb to a slow and agonizing death by suffocation. These tumors occur in the west but are generally taken care of by a dentist or oral surgeon when they are only a few millimeters in size. Here in West Africa they grow to be massive over many years.  Surgical treatment involves removing the diseased  portion of the jaw bone and replacing it with a titanium bone plate. After the patient's mouth has healed for 3 months they come back for a bone graft which is harvested from the hip and placed around the jaw bone plate to strengthen it. Once the bone graft has taken and fused to titanium (a process that takes over 6 months) the patient can be fitted with dentures. Here are some  pictures of a patient with this tumor and a post-operative x-ray of a patient with a bone plate.

Bone Plate Xray

So on Thursday Peter got miked ( no make-up however) and was filmed doing the admission interview of the Nigerian woman with Ameloblastoma.  Let me tell you that even the shoulder held TV camera is pretty big. So we will have to see if this segment of "Must see TV" ends up on the cutting room floor.

  Scott Pelley arrived Friday night in Togo and on the ship Saturday morning to start doing interviews and observe the surgery of the Ameloblastoma patient. We both got a chance to meet him and found him to be incredibly gracious and down to earth. It was strange to hear the voice that has come into our living room nightly as we watch the news right in front of you.  After hearing about his work commute I don't think any of us have anything to complain about. Scott did the evening news Thursday night left the studio immediately went to the airport and left for Togo (via Paris) and arrived late Friday night (no corporate jet). He spent over 12 hours on the ship working on Saturday and put in another 11 hours today before leaving for the airport to fly back to New York. He will arrive in New York Monday and head straight to the studio to do Monday night's CBS Evening News.

   The 60 minutes segment should air sometime in the fall.  I know this post was not as humorous as Ann fair (she is the better writer). We pray that you all have a good week and await what is in store for us the last few weeks we have in Togo.

Anchor's Aweigh.....

So, I'm going to take a stab at trying to write a Blog post here this evening.  I've spent the past several hours attempting to load some pictures to be posted with this write up but it has been a real struggle - grrrr!  Not sure if it's my lack of understanding of how to move a picture from the camera to the computer and then magically load it to the picture platform for blogger which then has you paste them into the narrative and whether the problem is my talent, the size of the pictures or the intermittent snails pace that the internet runs at here most of the time.  But here goes.....

 

So, I was beginning to think there'd be little or nothing to write about this week until we learned that our old friends, the good, ol' U S of A Navy was going to sidle up behind up on our pier for an overnight this weekend!  Not only were we going to be blessed with some men in blue - (someone hold those nurses BACK)!  But they were showing up in a rented experimental ship of sorts so even the jaded, long in the tooth Navy vets like my room mate the CAPTAIN were a bit excited by this turn of events. 

You have to admit by looking at this sleek, unusually looking vessel that it would be worth  a chance to see if one could get a look around, hmmm?  

Swift Boat HSV-2

     

50cal Machine Gun on the look out for pirates

Naturally, everyone wondered if we'd be able to get on the ship to take a look around.  CAPT Peter figured, no problem for this old salt of the sea. I'll just put on my trusty blue Navy ball cap I happened to bring along complete with "scrambled eggs" all over the brim.  It didn't look very promising since we heard a rumor that they were entertaining dignitaries that night and we had a home grown film festival and party afterward on our ship.    

By Saturday morning the stealth vessel was either very well cloaked or running a bit late so we went off to the market and picked up some more presents for our loved ones and by the time we returned there was quite a crowd on the upper decks of the ship as the rumored vessel was still late but showed up soon after our return.  By its looks you can see it was well worth the wait!    

If you recall from last weeks blog I showed a picture of 50% of Togo's Navy berthed just across from us and how this is what makes the 100's of container ships that hang out off shore feel safe from the increasing presence of Pirates in these waters. I don't know about you, but the looks of this 50cal machine gun makes me feel quite a bit more safe. Obviously, we weren't the point of this poor guy hanging out in 100 degree weather in full fatigues and ruck sacks but I think they were a deterrent nevertheless. 

HM1 on the left provides all the med care for crew of 30+




Sunday morning I was down in the hospital computer room working on my trusty procedure manuals when out of the corner of my eye I noted something I hadn't seen in many, many years - Camouflaged fatigues!  No question - these were Navy dudes!  I jumped up and introduced myself as Retired Commander, Medical Corps, yadda, yadda and they acted happy to meet me.  I called Peter to let him know his opportunity to see the ship had walked in the door and he ran downstairs but by this time they were gone.  Less than a minute later he must have found them because he called me back to let me know we were leaving for a tour NOW!! I grabbed my camera and he grabbed said baseball cap and off we went with a few lucky others.   Here we are lined up in the main hallway of the ship just behind where their galley and one lounge area is for them to hang out and rest.   The picture below that looks like a giant garage is really just that.  They have a large ramp that can drop down to the pier and roll on and roll off any type of cargo, including M1 tanks.  I think they said they could hold three of those mighty machines! 



Then they took us up to their bridge and showed us around.  This was, of course, cool and interesting in that Peter and I haven't gotten a tour of the bridge of our ship yet.  I guess we should ask sometime....

As you would expect for something so modern it was very high tech, lots of computers and joy sticks for driving things around.  I thought - at the very least our children with all their computer games have got this to fall back on as far as marketable skills. 


Bridge of the Swift Ship

While on the bridge I was able to get a picture of the Africa Mercy from a different vantage point.  We then went through their minimalist berthing spaces and everyone felt very blessed to be on the Mercy - no matter the size of their cabin or number of room mates.  Our Navy friends have no room to call their own. 

    

We then went out the back to their impressive helicopter landing platform. They do not have helicopters attached to their unit but can call them in to help say evacuate someone who is very ill. 
And then it was over!  Of course, it would have been a thrill to get a ride!  But we mere civilians can't be too greedy! 

Their current mission is to go completely around Africa - actually looking to intercept pirates to help keep the seas safe!  In addition to the 50 cal on the front and the back they have huge water cannons that they shoot at intruders to turn them away without having to use lethal force. 

We were very lucky to get to go inside and look around. 

A couple of hours later they cast off their lines and headed back out to sea.  Peter and I both said we felt a real sense of pride when we saw the ship pull away flying the Stars and Stripes.  I guess you can take us out of the Navy but you can't take the Navy out of us.....
Yikes!  So - enough of the Navy nostalgia.  I figure I've put it off long enough.  I've been avoiding putting anything up on the blog about my venture back into the performing arts by participating in Godspell for Easter.  It was traumatic seeing the DVD a mere week later so I needed some time to recover after that.  But it's been a full month so I'm less traumatized now and can face sharing a few of the pictures and just thank the Lord we don't have streaming capability so I can truthfully decline any requests to see the show... 

In this photo I'm the narrator that tells the story of the soils.  The lady in the middle is a seed that is choked out by the weeds on either side of her. 

Then there's the parable about how God separates man into two groups based upon whether they get into heaven or not - like separating the sheep from the goats.  Sadly, I was stuck as a goat.  But, a clever goat thinking I could sneak into the sheep group and the shepard would be none the wiser.  In this first picture you can see that I was found out and sent packing so my face was none too happy.  Apparently, my series of faces was quite well received.  So, despite my mother having warned me that if I make ugly faces my face will stay this way, I took one for the team and after some therapy, I am willing to share with you all.                        

And now in the second picture I am skulking away, clearly - one very unhappy goat.  

And by the time I make it back to my fellow goats of the damned I'm just a sad, pathetic goat.         OK....so, enough about the goats.  I was in a few other scenes, sang some songs.....

So, here we are singing one of the classic Godspell songs.  It was amazing and terrific.  Too bad I've had such bad luck with video files or I would have regaled you with something and trust me ...you would have loved it.                       

And then, as I learned from my son Andy oh so many years ago... you can't have a show without a kick line...and here we are, well at least some of us are kicking our little hearts out to some song.         Since we pretty much put the whole show together in under three weeks and even had a couple of the songs choreographed less than 48 hours prior to showtime the fact that we made it to the end was a bit of a miracle.  That and the fact that tomatoes are at a premium and no food is allowed in the International Lounge - also a blessing!

So here we are at the end, still standing and free of any flying objects due to the generosity of our fellow crew mates.  They seemed to enjoy it and in the end we decided we'd had a good time after all.  Thanks to Michele and Marty for pushing us through and making this a special Easter season for all of us. 

Have a wonderful week everyone and a belated Happy Mother's Day to all my mommy friends. 

Lights, Camera, ACTION!!

Amy, Drs. Strauss and Wodome with family of 4 kids w/ cataracts

Yikes!  What a crazy week!  Well, as a review - I did mention that the week before was the really the calm before the storm.  And no, we did not get any more rain!  The storm was of the media variety.  Sunday night the founder of the Mercy Vision project and his wife showed up for two jam packed weeks of surgery.  So, bright and early Monday morning we headed out to ye olde eye tent on the dock and did our best to sort out all the kids that we'd seen in ones and twos during the entire field service starting last January.  We had over 40 kids show up, everyone had a parent or guardian and some had some extra siblings along for the ride.  It was a bit nutty.  Henry Ford would have been proud of our assembly line as the patients were lined up on long benches and the famous Dr. Strauss wheeled along on his little doctor stool examining their eyes and letting us know which kids were good surgical candidates and which he didn't think he'd be able to help.  Dr. Strauss knows that getting the story of these kids out to charitable groups that can help makes a huge difference so he actually travels with his own PR team.  To make matters even more crazy, Amy - the morning DJ from my favorite Christian music radio station - K-love were also here last week along with her entourage, visiting the patients, observing surgery, etc...  Their first stop was with us last Monday morning.  So, it was an incredibly crazy, chaotic but fun kind of day. 

Amy was completely taken with our little Angel Akou who I've posted about before.  She's the darling little baby with bilateral cataracts that we found at a screening a couple of months ago.  Amy's picture with Akou has appeared on the K-love site and on her morning show blog.  I've shared these links with those of you that read my blog via my Face Book site but for the rest of you, here is the link to her blog so you can read about all that she did while she and her marketing friend were here with us last week.  http://www.klove.com/blog/post/2012/04/30/Arrived!.aspx

In addition to Akou, Amy got involved with a family of four brothers and sisters as well as a cousin who all have congenital cataracts.  Very unusual story.  The four sibs also had malaria which we treated prior to their surgery.  Peter saw the kids when they were admitted to the hospital and then during their two days on the ward.  He mentioned that their poor mother was at her wit's end since up until that time she had four kids feeling a bit puny with malaria that couldn't see.  Now all four of them have a normal blood count and can see the whole world for the first time in their lives.  Watch out Togo!  I guess it's a good thing that they rely on their whole village to raise their kids. 

So, back to darling Akou.  She was seen by Dr. Strauss who agreed that she was not too young to have her surgery.  I was relieved since earlier in the field service we'd heard that they didn't want to operate on the very young babies but I thought that didn't make sense so I had them see her.  You can see the white in the middle of her eye.  Poor baby has never been able to see anything, which affects how her brain develops.  After too many years like this their brain can no longer learn how to process the information and the opportunity to fix their vision is lost. 

So, after Dr.Strauss saw the kids it was my turn to determine if they were medically fit for surgery.  This entailed more intensive evaluation than we normally do because the adults are usually done with just a local anesthetic and go home later in the day.  The little kids they have to be put to sleep so their general health is more of an issue. 

Sadly, the very first boy I saw sounded like his heart was very abnormal.  Fortunately for me I had a world famous Cardiologist at my beck and call (sort of) and was able to get my suspicions confirmed that this poor boy had a very bad heart defect so we couldn't do his surgery.  As you can imagine.  After the parents see that I've sent their child away after already being OK'd for surgery I became the one to not tell the truth to when it came time to ask about medical history.  From then on every child I saw was in perfect health, never had a fever in their entire life, yadda, yadda, yadda.  It was a challenge. But obviously little Akou made it thru the gaunlet and she and her mother are sitting at the scheduling table to get their long awaited appointment card!

Even the baby looks quite excited by the new card in her mom's hand. 

The next morning Akou was on the operating table with quite an audience.  We not only

have a modern operating microscope to perform these delicate surgeries but you can see the screens in the room there so that others can see what the surgeon sees as he's operating. 

Her surgery went without a hitch and she did beautifully.  They spend the night in the hospital so that they can be observed as the anesthesia wears off and also so that they have nursing care while both eyes are bandaged.  In the morning the surgeon makes rounds and takes the dressing off the kid's eyes and we see whether they can see or not. 

As we see here - our little cutie pie is enjoying her first view of balloons!  She was able to go home later that morning to enjoy a long life with perfect vision.  Just really a wonderful feeling to be part of something so awesome. 



The women in their dresses holding their gifts

Another great event on the ship this past week was the first graduation or Dress ceremony for our VVF patients.  VVF stands for Vesico-Vaginal Fistula.  This is a nasty condition that is very, very prevalent in Africa and other third world countries and is 100% due to the lack of good obstetrical care in this part of the world.  These poor moms, some only teenagers at the time, will labor for days and even weeks on end.  The baby dies in over 90% of the cases.  The pressure of the baby as it is trying to be born ends up causing so much damage to the soft tissues in the pelvic area that these tissues die and slough off.  When this happens there can be holes formed between the bladder and the vagina or the rectum and the vagina.  And yeah - these poor ladies are left with a mess for the rest of their lives.  Since this part of the world believes that medical problems are a curse they not only don't feel compelled to help very often but usually shun the person from society.  So, these poor little ladies lose their babies, their family, usually their husbands and everything else they hold dear.  Since being here for just a short time I've learned that this culture is nothing if not completely relationship based.  No matter what you've got going on, job, meeting, meal, appointment of any kind - if you run into a friend or hear of some gathering that people are headed off to all bets are off as far as whether you'll make any of the other obligations since being with your peeps is number one.  It's sort of the "Surf's Up" mentality that we've encountered since moving to So. Cal but on steroids, I think.  






It is hard to find medical help for VVF but the wonderful Dr. Romanzi, a gyn urological surgeon from New York City does this sort of work all over the world.  We only have her for a few short weeks but we were able to do surgery on about 50 women, I think.  After they have healed up Mercy Ships presents them with a new outfit as well as multiple other gifts to represent their new lives and their re-entry into their society.  There is much dancing and singing and the women give their testimonies.  It is so awe inspiring to hear of women who have lived as outcasts for more than a decade and how thrilled and thankful they are to be able to just go to the market again. 



Graduates with translator on left, charge nurse in scrubs and the wonderful Clementine top row blue shirt





Well, that's about enough for one week I think.  It is hard to believe that exactly one month from today we'll be getting back on a plane heading for home!  In some ways it feels like these past four months have gone quickly but in other ways I am really ready to come home.  More and more people are referring to the work that needs to be done to get ready for the ship to go to Guinea and since we won't be making the sail to dry dock in Tenerife in June or the new mission in August it's hard to feel the connection.  Each week a few new people come to the ship but it seems that more leave than come and it's the leaving that puts a hole in your heart for some of these folks.  So, even if we come back again it won't be entirely the same since each mission is really a small package in time.  It's been such a privilege to be part of this little bit that God has chosen to do in this tiny country.  I often wonder what his plan is for each of these people we've helped?  Will one of these VVF mom's go on to be the mother of the next president of Togo?  Will our little Akou be inspired to be an eye surgeon and help those in the way she's been helped?  God's ways are not our ways but He has work here to be done and I'm so thrilled that Peter and I've had a chance to see some tangible evidence of being used in this work.  I pray each of you feel like God's instruments in some way and start each day offering the next 24 hours to be used for what you were created for.  Thanks for coming along on the ride for the past four months.  Have a terrific week and check K-love's blog for more stories from the big white boat!