Christmas on the Africa Mercy

I haven't been keeping up with my blog since I've been sending out newsletters this outreach but I thought I'd write a little about Christmas here on the Africa Mercy since this will likely by my last one on the ship…at least for a while. Christmas is a BIG deal here! It's hard being away from family and friends at home during the holidays so it's nice to have lots of festivities to make it special. We also try to cover Christmas traditions from all over the world (at least from countries represented on the ship) and that means ALOT of events to plan. I've picked just a few to give you a glimpse of what celebrating the birth of Jesus looks like on a ship in Africa. 

Deck the Halls - the weekend after Thanksgiving, a large group gets together to decorate the whole ship. Plenty of Christmas trees, lights, garland and decorations to go around transforming this place in just a few hours. Like home, there's a magical feeling once things are decorated and the season can officially begin.

Door Decorating Contest - To add a little cheer to the rest of the ship, people decorate the doors of their cabins or offices. And to make it more fun we've turned it into a competition. I was so proud of my nurses who decorated the ward doors with themes for their specific specialties. Creative, huh!?!!

MaxFac ward - Nutcracker with a facial dressing and feeding tube

Our fistula ward…Let it flow, let it flow, let if flow...

Ortho ward! "Hopper" New Year…and a few walkers and crutches thrown in

Jingle Bell Dash - A little like the Santa Run at home except we ran to our port gate and back and instead of dressing up like Santa we just wore red and green and some of us had antlers ;)

Christmas Concert - One of my favorite parts of ship life is living in community with families. Several of the Christmas activities have special parts just for our families and children. One evening there was a Christmas concert with choirs (adult and child), instrumental pieces, and special music. We have some really talented crew members! Felt like something I might go to at home. 

Winter Wonderland - One of the most anticipated events of the year. Imagine a Christmas craft fair and a bake sale combined with an African twist and that's pretty much what Winter Wonderland is. I was in charge of the event last year but was out of town this year so had to miss it. But people still went shopping for me ;)

Gingerbread House Contest - Teams signed up to decorate a house out of REAL gingerbread pieces and the top 3 favorites were chosen to display. I entered with a few friends and we had a great time. Our house turned out cute but not nearly as creative as some of the teams. Included in the top 3 was the Wizard of Oz house (complete with the wicked witch crushed under a house).

Advent Services - I love the idea of spending the month of December in 'expectation' of Christ's birth. This year, the focus of our advent was God: the Giver of Good Gifts. Each Sunday we've been talking about a new gift that God has given to us including Power, Peace, Purpose, Provision, and Promise. 

Silent Night was sung in 7 different languages Christmas Eve

Carols by Candlelight - Another one of the most anticipated AFM traditions (an Aussie tradition). Many churches have some sort of candle light service usually on Christmas Eve, but this one happens outside in Australia so we hold it on the dock each year here. 

Christmas Shoes - One of my personal favorites on the ship. On Christmas Eve night, everyone leaves a shoe outside their cabin door and then goes around in the night to pass out gifts! We don't have access to a lot of "stuff" here so this tradition focuses on small or handmade gifts that may not be worth much but mean a lot to receive. Families, couples, groups of friends all spreading love, cheer and surprises to wake up to on christmas morning. Really special and from a Dutch tradition on St Nicholas day. Sinterklaas delivers gifts to children's shoes on St Nicholas day in Holland.

Christmas Brunch - And finally, on Christmas morning, we have an amazing brunch provided by our galley team. It's the one day of the year that everyone eats in the dining room and shares a meal together. 

That's only some of the events that happen during the Christmas season onboard. It's probably long enough though. I wish I could say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to each of you in person but if I can't be home, there's no place I'd rather be than living in this amazing community with friends I've grown to love. That baby born in Bethlehem was the first "missionary" who left his home in heaven, and I am honored to continue that tradition serving in Madagascar. 

January in the AFM Hospital

Screenings

Our screening team spent this last week in a remote village in Madagascar looking for patients in need of surgery. They had 3 screening days and saw on average 450 patients each day. I’m not sure of the exact number but they gave out between 200 and 300 patient cards to come to the ship for a surgeon screening and that was enough to fill the rest of our surgery schedule this outreach.  Big praise! With our quick arrival to Madagascar in November and short prep time we’ve pretty much been going week to week with our surgery schedule. In fact, this last week we gave surgery spaces to the last of our plastics waiting list. It’s always nice to have a waiting list for our specialties so that when we have to cancel patients for various reasons, or a patient doesn’t show up, we have someone on standby we can replace them with. But we just haven’t had that luxury this year.

Anyway, a little girl came to the village screening with a fresh burn covering her chest and neck. It was a scalding burn that happened in September and although her mom tried to keep it clean and her baby comfortable, the open wound of course got infected and is still fresh, raw, and painful. We normally wouldn’t take patients with fresh burns on the ship. Open wounds typically mean infection here and when you have a ward of 20 patients we just can’t risk that spread. However, this girl was in so much pain and just touched our hearts so much. We were able to say yes with some extra wound protocols in place and MAF flew her to the ship the next day.  Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) is a Christian organization that we’ve partnered with here in Madagascar and they have made our jobs so much easier! They are able to fly into remote areas that would take days to reach by car and have been flying our screening team around the country all outreach.  The little girl is comfortable in the hospital now and awaiting further medical treatment in the following weeks.

I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of the patients they found in the coming weeks as they arrive for more assessments.

First week of surgery...

first day of screening

After 5 days of intense screenings we were able to fill the first few weeks of surgery spaces. And on Friday we completed our first week of surgeries onboard. It was exciting to welcome our first patients onboard this week!  We did around 25 surgeries in week one and have hundreds ahead of us here in Madagascar. More to come soon, but wanted to give an update of how our first few weeks have gone. 

the warehouse on the dock is huge, and the port is letting
us use it in place of some of our dockside tents. 

first patients in the wards…still getting screened

My amazing team of ward nurses!

"For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does."

Psalm 33:4

Cape Town, South Africa

We finally made it to Madagascar Saturday! And WOW, we were greeted with a beautiful arrival ceremony. There was singing and dancing on the dock, the President and Prime Minister and their wives came down from the capital city and had a few words to share with us and then we gave them a tour of the ship. It was a special day, one I will certainly never forget. It’s been such a long and challenging journey to get to this day, it’s almost unbelievable that we’re actually here. I am beyond excited for the year to come and can’t wait to see what God has in store for us.

On top of Table Mountain

But before I get too far into this outreach, I want to share just a little about my time in Cape Town, South Africa. We stopped there for 3 weeks on our way to Madagascar for several reasons. The biggest reason was to buy some time. We just made the decision to come to Madagascar at the end of August, which was not that long ago. Our advance team normally has 4-5 months in a country before we arrive to make arrangements for us, find hospitals to work with, buildings to use, patients to treat…. And this time they only had 6 weeks in country before we arrived.  There was no way they could get everything ready for us in just 3 weeks so we waited in Cape Town while they paved the way for us. But we didn’t wait idly.  We arrived September 29^th and by October 1^st the hospital was set up and we were giving tours. We tried a new approach, the communications department put together what we called an “experience tour” where people came down to the hospital as if they were a patient caregiver and were walked through the hospital from one area to another watching videos along the way as if they were really a part of it. One of our nurses told a patient story and at the end of the presentation they got to see the end results of the surgery for their “patient”.  It was a very moving experience even for those of us that have lived onboard for a few years. Thousands of people came through the ship in that 3 weeks to see the hospital, we had a medical function, a pastor’s event, alumni event and several other PR opportunities while in South Africa. It was really a special time to be on the ship. I would love to know how many of those people end up serving with Mercy Ships one day or decide to become nurses or doctors after their experience…. Lots of seeds were sown and only God knows what will grow from them.

The line for public tours of the ship one Saturday

Table Mountain and Lion's Head

There were some other really cool things that came out of my time in Cape Town as well:

I got to visit with my new friends Kim and Gavin. I stayed with them when I was in Cape Town in May and it was fun to have them visit my “home” on the Africa Mercy.

Kim and Gavin came for a visit

I was the Plastic Surgery Team Leader onboard for the last 2 years and Dr Tertius Venter, our plastic surgeon, is from Cape Town. He wasn’t home this summer, but his wife was and I got the privilege of meeting her.  One afternoon she took us to see her ministry sites in town and it was one of the best days I had. She teaches life skills classes to farm hands so she took us on a vineyard tour. We got to meet some of her students, see where they live and get a small glimpse into their lives on the farms. Most of them are illiterate, alcoholism is a huge problem, and these classes have changed many of their lives.  It was really amazing to hear her stories and see how God has worked in her and her husband’s lives over the last several years. And at the end of the day she took us to the winery where all of the grapes from the farms she teaches on are turned into wine. They showed us around and had us do some wine tasting while we were there.  So delicious!

A little wine tasting

And to top it all off, Hillsong has a church in Cape Town and one weekend Martin Smith came and did a concert there. Martin Smith is from the UK, was part of Delirious, and most recently made a worship album called Live From New York with Jesus Culture!  So, I got to go to a worship concert with Martin Smith/Jesus Culture, at Hillsong, in Cape Town South Africa, with my friends who were from at least 6 different countries. Is this really my life?!??! I never would have dreamt of this experience but it was absolutely incredible and made me realize one more time how big God really is.

Martin Smith concert at Hillsong

 And now it’s full steam ahead in Madagascar!

Summer Adventures

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the skies announce what his hands have made. Day after day they tell the story; night after night they tell it again.” Psalm 19:1-2

This has been an epic summer of traveling for me and I have been reminded day after day of God’s glory on this earth. One of the many things I love about Mercy Ships is that I’ve met friends from all over the world on the ship. And in the last several months I’ve had the opportunity to visit some of those friends, see new sights and fill up my soul. It’s been an incredible adventure and I feel compelled to share.

I left the ship at the end of May once the hospital closed, with my friend Deb, and headed down to South Africa visiting Johannesburg, Cape Town and Victoria Bay on the Garden Route. We went on an overnight safari in a national park a few hours outside Johannesburg and on the ride out of the city our tour guide told us all about the city and it's surrounding areas. We saw independent settlements (the politically correct word for shanty towns or slums) crammed together, rust iron roofs held down with old tires, power lines strung like spider webs in between and no running water.  The distance between rich and poor was very plain to see there as well as in Cape Town. In West Africa, where I’ve spent most of the last 3 years, the majority of people are poor yet that somehow seems easier to witness than this. It made me wonder what West Africa will look like in 20 years as those countries continue to develop, how much change I’ll see in Africa over my life time and how I will be a part of it.

In Cape Town we stayed with a physical Therapist from the ship and her family.  We saw beautiful beaches, sea life, PENGUINS, and even did a little wine tasting.

In a small town near Victoria Bay we visited an Ostrich farm where we learned all about Ostriches then got to feed and RIDE them!

From South Africa we went up to Ireland. We flew from the bottom of the world to the top in virtually the same time zone. We spent a few days in Galway (West Ireland) before heading up to Northern Ireland. It’s hard to see in photos just how huge the cliffs of Moher are (700 feet high and stretch for 5 miles along the Atlantic coast). The cliffs consist of Namurian shale and sandstone and although I didn’t see them, there are 300 million year-old river channels cutting through the cliffs. Fun fact, the cliffs of Moher are the same as The Cliffs of Insanity in The Princess Bride.

The Cliffs of Moher

In Northern Ireland we stayed with the most amazing host, my friend Jane, and her 2 sisters.  And another friend flew over for a few days from England. We had an awesome time exploring together.

One day Jane took us to her family farm and we got to see places dear to her heart. It was beautiful to get a glimpse into her life.

I also didn’t realize what trouble still faces Belfast and the rest of Northern Ireland with the Protestant and Catholic divide. It was quite the education to learn about all that still goes on there, and heartbreaking to see.

The Peace Wall

One afternoon we went out to see where the Titanic was built. My interest in ships has grown tremendously since I began living on one, as you can imagine.

 We spent a few days in Dublin with our friend Mary before we had to say goodbye to Ireland and I enjoyed one of my favorite drinks, Baileys Cappuccino. What better place to have it than Ireland, creator of Baileys Irish Cream.

A hop across the ocean and we landed in London, where we put our walking shoes on and enjoyed the sights.  We stayed with another amazing host and got to catch up with lots of Mercy Shippers while we were there. I almost wore out the soles of my shoes walking so much:) 

We said goodbye to friends in London and headed off to Paris via the Eurostar and before the day was over we were up the Eiffel Tower watching the sunset and checking out spectacular views.

We spent a day at the Palace of Versailles, and my goodness there was so much to see. The gardens were beautiful and went on for miles. We were in Paris less than 48 hours, but fit A LOT into that time.

We decided to take an overnight train from Paris to Italy in an effort to save money on a hotel, and let me just tell you about that experience. I’ll start by saying I’ll never do it like that again! We slept in a 6 berth, which we thought would be fine considering we’ve slept in 6 berths on the ship for years. They were stacked 3 tall and the space was tiny, we were disturbed by sniffer dogs in the middle of the night, and woke several other times between 2 and 4 am, and I got maybe 2 hours of sleep. It was a unique experience though, and makes for a good story now.

The overnight train took us to Venice where we ditched our warm cloths for short sleeves and flip flops. I loved the slower pace of Venice, with no traffic except the boats on the canals. We met up with more friends from the ship and wandered the streets looking at Murano glass, drinking coffee, eating pizza and soaking up the sights until we were so turned around we couldn’t find our way back home. They say you should get lost at least once in Venice. We managed to do it multiple times in our 2 days there. Venice was one of my favorite places of the entire trip! It was everything I had imagined it to be and more.

We stayed at a beautiful mountainside hotel in Cinque Terre where we had the most breathtaking view of the ocean and two small villages below us. Manarola on one side and Corniglia on the other.  For 4 days we explored 5 little coastal villages with more Mercy Ships friends and hiked the mountainsides in between. It was always a surprise what we’d find around each corner in this peaceful little part of Italy.

The view from our hotel

Manarola

I found myself savoring little glimpses of God's goodness and His majesty everywhere I went in Italy, so thankful for the gift of beauty and nature! 

The last shuttle picked up in Manarola every night at 7:40 and went to the top of the mountain where our hotel sat and it was our goal to be on that shuttle every night. One day, however, we had so much fun hiking with our friends we lost track of time and got back just a few minutes too late. We had to climb 1,095 stairs and walk a few streets to the top. We got there out of breath and exhausted, but were greeted at the hotel with the tastiest cup of hot chocolate and a magnificent sunset.  

The stairs

Next stop, Florence. The Cathedral Duomo was HUGE and couldn’t even fit into one frame.  We even found a bridge that had shops built into it’s sides, which was once common.

The Ponte Veccio bridge

From Florence we headed through Tuscany to San Gimignano, a small, walled, medieval village on top of a hill, known as the Town of Fine Towers. San Gimignano is famous for its medieval architecture and uniquely preserved tower houses.  It was so nice being in the country for a few days. Rolling hills and vineyards for as far as the eye could see, a 360 degree view of natural beauty.

From San Gimignano we traveled to Rome for a 24 hour (SHORT) visit. I took a tour of the Colosseum which has always been on my bucket list, then did a hop on hop off bus tour of the city. 

Then it was off to Santorini, Greece where we were picked up from the airport by the most hospitable hotel owner I think I’ve ever met and taken to our hotel for the next 5 nights. They took great care of us and went above and beyond to make sure we had everything we needed and had a great stay. It was a small, family owned hotel and it was so fun to watch the entire family work together taking care of their guests. We stayed in Fira town which had the most stunning views! The greek styled architecture was so unique and picturesque.

I rode a donkey!

Last port of call was Athens, where we surprised two of our friends who were flying over to start their summer vacation with a mutual friend of ours. This has been the year for surprises for me and it’s been so fun. I loved getting to catch up with these girls and discover Athens together.

Temple of Zeus

The first modern day olympic stadium 

The Parthenon at the Acropolis

One of my daily Greek Salads

And then it was time to go home to America. I’ve been in Texas for 3 weeks now and my time at home has been almost as much of an adventure as my travels around Europe. I floated the river with my family and some great friends, babysat 3 of my favorite kiddos for a day, visited a few first world hospitals (not as a patient), and had many great conversations, catching up on the last several years with old friends.  

My high school reunion was this summer

floating the river

It's been an incredible summer and I've been reminded over and over how rich my life really is. My heart is overflowing as I look back on the last several months. But it's time to say goodbye again, and head back to my ship home in West Africa. Please join me in praying for those countries affected by the Ebola virus and pray for protection over the ship as we sail into Benin in a few weeks and set up for our next field service.