Desire's photos

Sorry to everyone who was unable to see the pictures of Desire before and after in the emailed newsletter. Here they are hopefully.

What an amazing transformation.

Miracles do happen

" You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas, " Psalm 65:5

Today I want to share with you some of the amazing medical stories that are happening daily. Many are miraculous and true answers to prayer. If you don't believe in a God who knows our every need and has us in the right place at the right time then please read on. If you do believe in this God than please give Him thanks for His awesome and wonderful deeds.

Where to start- perhaps with a hernia repair patient from last week. In the middle of the night a man (approx 40 yo) started to bleed- badly. He was opened up by a great team in the ICU before been rushed to surgery. The lab was called for blood (I wasn't on). Night reception was asked to pray and pray they did (along with many other staff). The patient was B Pos which is a little hard to come by but 4 donors were found and woken between the hours of 1am and 6am (gotto love it that we can just go upstairs and wake our potential donors- and at times the other 10 people in their cabins). Conveniently our ward physcian was B pos, the Captain was also roused from his sleep along with many others. After a haemoglobin around 40 and been on the brink of death with the added risk of infection from been opened up again this patient miraculously recovered and was discharged 5 days after this crisis. A true answer to prayer.

Next is a Nigerian man I met at the hospitality centre awaiting surgery. He tells an amazing story of God's place and timing. Emmanuel has a large facial tumor. He is from Nigeria but was in Benin on business. In the market a women left her stall and ran to him speaking in Fon- speaking English he couldn't understand. The women found another lady who could speak English who told Emmanual of a hospital ship in Benin. The womens young nephew who's had had a similiar tumour removed only months earlier wanted this man to have the same opportunity. Emmanual asked the women to take him to the ship and she did. On Sunday Emmanual will be admitted to have his tumour removed. The market visit was his first time in Benin and he gives great thanks for this women and for God's timing in having them both in the same market at the same time.

Emmanuel with the lady from the market and her nephew after his surgery.

There are many toddlers around who can brighten any day.

Meet Maiomi- a sweet little girl who had a haemangioma (large mass in laymans terms) on her neck nearing the size of her head i'm told. She was tiny (and still is- she looked newborn although she was 4 months). I'm speculating but it is likely she couldn't feed properly due to the mass. She has a stomach feed in although now drinks by herself and after been in hospital for many months finally went home this week. Her mum was ostricised because in this culture children with her deformaties are believed to be cursed. Even now her mum has fears that the feeding tube which will remain after her return home will cause the villiage to reject her. Our prayer is that she will be lovingly received by her people just as she is by the God who loves her.

Then there is Geraldo the little fellow below. He was born with a neural tube defect in which a part of his brain coming out through a hole in his skull. Now he is the snuggliest little boy in the hospitality centre.

Meet Ansette ( Below). She has a cleft lip and palate which means she has trouble feeding and is very small and malnourished. She is currently on a feeding program to bring her body to a condition to cope with surgery. At present the max- fac team and plastics team of surgeons is on board so the focus is on facial reconstruction and tumour removal. Ansette will be one of many to received this surgery. In Benin children with this condition are considered cursed- some are left to die, others die because they are unable to suckle. The lucky ones survive.

The picture for confidentiality and the confrontational nature of the injury I am prevented from showing you. I walked through the post op door to deliver some results on my first day and a gentleman named Ganiyou was sitting on the bed awaiting wound care for his burns. His entire torso was pink, white and raw looking. Both his arms were amputated above the elbow. He was doing some electrical work on his mothers home and was eletrocuted over a year ago. At first he was left alone- believed to be dead but he came around sometime later and was taken to the local hospital. His burns were so severe to his arms that both were amputated. For a year he went through the terrible pain of wound dressing and care at the local hospital. His wounds failed to heal. After 6 weeks on board his wounds have healed and he doesn't need any grafts . He awaits prosthetic arms and is keen to get back to normal life. Praise God for such amazing healing!

The last little guy I want to tell you about is Daniel. Daniel is about 10. He was born with probable cerebal palsy which meant he never learnt to walk- instead he had calloused knees from crawling. Daniel has been a regular in the hospital halls for many months doing rehabilitation- first for core strength to his body which had never been upright in the standing posture and to his legs as this tendons and muscles were stretched and strengthened. The pictures below tell his story and amazing transformation from been unable to stand or walk to walk out of here last week when he was discharged.

The best part of Daniel's story is that his mum now believes in the God of the bible who through some miracles and the work of loving, skilled people on the Africa Mercy has brought her son to be able to walk.

This is why I am here! I love it and the little ups and downs an inconveniences of living in ship community are far outweighed by the impact had on the lives of our patients. If you can walk how much have you to be thankful for!!

" You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas, " Psalm 65:5

Hello Mr President

The entrance to our wharf- see fishing villiage at the end.

Well there is never a dull moment here.
But first some pictures from the orphanage mentioned in my last blog

On route to the orphanage- this is the main rd heading North out of Cotonou

Live chickens in their hundreds on a Zime John to market


We arrived at dinner time. This little fellow is under nourished and on a feeding program. Hey drank faster than I can.

Oh so sweet

Emma having a cuddle The balloons were such a hit

Road side home and cooking stall

A 'FAN Milk' bike- These guys are out in there hundreds and wind in and out of traffic selling frozen icecreams and yoghurts that taste amazing and cost only 30c. You just slow down in traffic and falg one down...If the traffic moves no problem he will catch up with you to give you your change.

Village kids outside the orphanage checking out the Yovo's (Yovo means white person- the children yell out all the time in a very cut song that they have made up about us. The song seems universal as the kids in the capital city also sing it to us. It goes:

Yovo Yovo (white person white person)

Bonjour (hello)

Cava (how are you?) Bien (good) Mercy (thankyou).

The adults will also yell out and sing it to us. Often they then add a Mercy ships? to the end of the song in Cotonou paticularly as the assumption is if you are white you are from Mercy Ships. It is almost true though we have met several other missionaries who are white and live here. A few business men and very few tourists can be seen in town.

Kids singing Yovo song to us.

This week I had Wednesday afternoon at the hospitality centre playing games with the kids and painting the ladies nails softening their hands with cream. Language is a barrier to some extent though you can show love to people in these simple ways without much conversation. Hand gestures and a smile go a long way. We had balloons, bubble blowers and bible stories (in French) though the gorgeous little french speaking boy Daniel who I brought the stories for had left for home which is great for him. He has been around the hospital for a long time for contracture releases of both his legs. Before coming to the ship he could only crawl. His legs were contracted from the knees. He was depressed and quite (apparently). Now he can walk upright a short distance on his own and he gets around fast with a walker. Hopefully with continued walking his muscles will improve so he can walk unassisted. He curled up asleep on my lap in church last week. On leaving his mum told the OT staff that she gave thanks to God that he had brought people to help her son to walk.

Another boy Evie has also been around for a while. I felt so sorry from him, He also has a contracture (I think) and they stretch out his leg with a horrible looking brace. His hamstrings appear contracted and as they are stretched he was screaming the halls down this week. I had promised him i'd visit him but no amount of distraction could calm him. He comes to the ship for regular exercise up and down the hall ways.

Friday night I went with the team to show the 'Jesus' film in a nearby villiage. The Jesus film recounts the gospel stories. We arrived at the designated meeting spot- it seems like the middle of a sandy street just outside a fishing villiage/ tin shanty town. We were told to park there though and the guys put up a big screen. To start with we had a few spectators then the drums started and soon we had a crowd- mostly young children under 5. People here know all the Christian songs so soon the crowd are all singing and clapping along in Fon a local dialect. A local church brings out some wooden pews and puts them in the street all but blocking it. No one seems to mind- the Zimie John motorcycles just toot and divide the crowd to get though or take an alternative route around us. I take a seat on the sand to watch the film and pretty soon some children have made there way one my lap and snuggled up- totally amazing these kids have no idea who I am and I don't know them but they cuddle in and their parents who I assume are somewhere in the distant crowd don't seem worried at all. A few children are scared of the white people and stay away occassionally venturing close and then over time into the laps of some of the girls.

The most amazing thing was that as the night grew dark so we could start the film we had a crowd of around 200 people. Advertising unknown- drums bring people out of anywhere here.

The film is shown in Fon. I couldn't understand any of it but I could guess from the pictures what part of the bible we were up to. Amazingly when Jesus's miracles are shown 2 cause the whole crowd to errupt in clapping and cheering exclaimated by someone beating the drums. Those 2 are when Jesus's turn the couple of fishes and bread loaves into enough food to feed thousands and when Jesus healed a blind man. Ironically these two challenges- hunger and cateracts are two of the afflictions the people can most likely relate to best. It is great to not only serve these peoples physical health needs but to also give them a hope beyond the struggles they face in this world. The hope of eternal life that can never perish, spoil or fade kept in heaven for those who simply trust Jesus.

Today is Saturday. We took a road trip to Porto Novo the capital of Benin. We went up a toll road- wow the first tarred reasonable road in a month. The drivers were still crazy although we mostly kept to our side of the road with the occassional diversion around the hundreds of broken down cars littering the road.

Porto Novo is much like Cotonou. The level of living standards appear much the same (later on I have added some general life pictures from Benin to give you and idea of living standards in the cities).

In Porto Novo we went to some markets and were sung the Yovo song on every corner- some kids even broke into dance whilst singing to us. The kids and even some adults want to touch white people so shy children run up touch you and sneak away giggling. The bolder kids want to hold our hand or shake it. We stumbled across the tourist info centre- a run down building that was full of beautiful craft wares. A girl with us spoke a little French thankfully and we got some directions.

The market Porto Novo

One of the many amazing fabric stalls

We attempted to find the botanical gardens when the sign posts are in French it's fun times. After going the wrong way down some streets and venturing down a street where cars are not permitted we made it (our French speaker was in the back so only read the signs after it was too late to rectify our route).There are two gardens- an free entry one which was a square of dry red dirt with an occassional green plant. The paid one we was green and from the gate it looked quite nice.

We went to the local sports stadium which had a good reputation. On arrival there were security guards and militray every where. We were directed in. Many people were arriving in beautiful clothing. We just followed the crowd having no idea what the hype was about. Then a military helicopter landed and out stepped the President of Benin to open the days game of football (or soccer as we call it). The game was free so we entered the stadium. It was huge and reasonable modern with more entrances than I could count. Some of the crowd makes it's way into the grandstand- just as many are on the field. Many vendors wander through the crowd with huge baskets on their heads- some are merely children. The weight people carry on their head is astonishing. Kids start young with unbreakable things like plastic bottles on their head and progress to baskets of vegetables then entire bakeries of bread!!!

Waiting for the Presidents arrival at the stadium.

The Presidents Helicopter.

The Vendors

General photo's around Cotonou



All apologies for bad gramma and spelling....I'm a little tired and my English isn't the best most of the time.

Au Revior.

Love Naomi

Petrol anyone?

Well time is flying- My 3rd week is over and I have 5 to go in Africa.

I had a lazy working week last week with only 3 days at work.

On Thursday we had quite the adventure to an orphanage for children under 2. The 20 km drive was the start of fun. The roads here are amazing. We travelled up the main road heading North. If you get stuck in traffic in your lane you simple cross to the wrong side of the road over the centre concrete and into the on coming traffic- it moves sort of with a few horns then when traffic improves back you cross. The trucks line up in their hundredes to enter the port and at times completely bolck one side of the road at which point police generally direct you to move into the lane traveling the other way. I think the only law about driving here is get there fast, anyway you like so long as you don't hold the traffic up. Weaving in and out of the traffic are vendors who come up to the car to sell goods when the traffic is thick and slow. If the traffic moves they will run back to find you with your change- amazingly crazy. These guys have a death wish for sure.

The main road is lined with stalls. Most of them are out the front of small concrete buildings- usually homes of the stall owner.

Benin has had much rain so the road we go to the orphage is very boggy- as are most roads here. Thank God for 4WD.

The orphange was set up by an Italian doctor and his wife who were given siamese twins 16 yrs ago. The twins were separated in Italy. Both survive though one must live in Italy for health reasons. From this they started the orphange. We arrive walking through the only green grass I have seen in this country yet. On entry the smell of urine is overwhelming. Inside there are about 20 infants and toddlers all who squell and run toward us with arms out. Most are wet but who can resist picking them up and playing with them. The nurses there are doing a great job. Watching them while we were there it is a constant cycle of changing them all one by one then bathing them all followed by bottles. I had prejudge the place on entry by the smell of urine but I quicly realised I was wrong. These little ones were been cared for it's just that no sooner then you change them and they are wet again.

I am handed a tiny baby who is actually 6months old but aside from her head size Lucy looks about the size of the month old near her. She was born in a village. Her mother died and the facility where she was born could not afford the formula milk to care for her. So she was very malnourished when she came into the orphanges care. Each baby has it's own cot. The toddlers wander around in a play area. We brought balloons which they loved- a few frights when the burst but even the little ones had fun with them in their cots- African babies have the brightest eyes and watching there different facial expressions was remarkable. The older boys love chasies outside in the large yard that they have.

This orphanage is unique in the that the aim is to rehabilitate the children to thier families. Many of the infants mothers have died in child birth and when the father can't afford formula or is unable to look after all his other children the new born is given to the orphanage. Once the child is off formula and a bit more independant the aim is to reintroduce them to their families. Where that is not possible they move onto an orphange for older children.

Friday we had a very amusing trip to the craft market. I vague directions and a few others joined me trusting I knew the way. On route we ran into a loud and dramatic protest of military men- we took a detour around that for safety. A few wrong turns and we were at a fenced are full of huts. Each hut had 6 stalls around it.
The people are very skilled and there are so many beautiful things. Some not so beautiful also- this country is the origin of Voodoo so there are wooden statues and masks around quite a bit.
It’s a weird system of shopping. If you pick something up to look at it they assume you want to buy it. Ask the price and they are certain you want to buy it. The storeman gives you his “small small price for Mercy Shippers” (if your white in the country it’s a given you’re a Mercy Shipper). It’s often a rip off so you offer him half his suggested price and settle somewhere in between. I quickly learn that if you don’t really love something then don’t show any interest in it or it can turn into a lengthy bargaining process even if you don’t want it as the storeman won’t let you leave with naming your price.

Saturday the whole ship was without power all day except emergency back up for the hospital. As the showers and toilets are vacuum flush and the deck I live on has no portholes we left the ship for the day and caught a taxi to Bab’s dock. The drive was again interesting. The road was giant dams of water in the sand as we travelled the beach road- a fairly main road (see pictures below). We caught a boat from the dock to the resort area. It is a restful day- you almost forget your in Africa. The resort is on a large lake. It has kayacks, water volley ball and great decks and hammocks for relaxing in. The resort employs people from the local village so we go into the village. Below are pictures of the children from the village and some of their homes. As we wander around kids pop out from around the corners and watch us. Some follow showing off with dancing and running games. Pigs, chickens and goats roam around. The crops are in mounded rows in amongst hundreds of coconut trees. We take some of the kid’s pictures and show them they are fascinated and despite the language barrier play with us taking pictures, laughing and running around. They would have played all day had we stayed.

Arriving back at the ship we are still in darkness- particularly as the sunsets. Flash lights and some small emergency lights are the only redeemer from complete darkness.

Today I went to church at the hospitality centre- the warehouse converted for Mercy Ships patients to stay pre and post op. Today they are only half capacity around 20 patients. One of the deck hands from the ship is scheduled to be preaching. When we arrive some patients are still in bed asleep. When we enter the sleeping rooms we are joyfully greeted by the kids- who have an amazing memory of names. Few of the patients today speak English but the couple who do make great translators. There are a number of mums and babies. Even though we don’t speak the same language a hand hold or a hug still mean the same. Quickly I have the privilege of holding numerous babies. One post op was born with a part of her brain growing outside a hole in the skull, another is awaiting surgery on a cleft lip, another a hernia. Two young boys may 10 have had surgery on possibly club feet and they are rehabilitating – we see them often at the ship when they come for physio so they are very confident.

In true African style the service is postponed until 10am. The service starts with singing with drums and instruments made from gramma pumpkins (shakers of sorts). As the patients are from different parts of the country each song is sung in 4 dialects (at least I think that’s what was happening). A preacher arrives and starts preaching. He’s not the scheduled person from Mercy Ships that I came with. The service goes for a long time and one of the children falls asleep in my lap. The women like to have their nails painted and the kids like to play games. These kids have an amazing memory- my cabin mates returned to the centre this afternoon and the kids were asking for me and wondering where the games were- guess I’ll be back there before the end of the week.

P.S the snails here live in mansions compared with ours at home.

A ship in darkness

Wow I am exhausted!!! Today is a ship holiday- I think it is because it is a public holiday in the US for the 4th of July and as the ship is US I think we get it off. Whatever the case i'm so glad to just be oncall as i'm so tired.

Yesterday was a day of excitement (or should we say drama). The power failed 4 times and the emergency backup power didn't kick in straight away. Thanks be to God that the surgeons had finished some surgeries and had just anethetised the next patients so there was no cutting in the dark. The machines in the lab didnt cope well with the power outage so that was a bit stressful. We all took a tea break while the poor engineers worked hard. We have had 2 more outages today. I think we have some sick generators. A little flooding in the wards added to the excitement- they were cleaning 2 wards to reopen them now a few more surgeons are on board.

I collected my first 2 blood donors with huge 16 gauge needles. I flet like a nasty vampire but a fistula patients was in need of transfusion. We don't keep any blood in stock. We transfuse whole blood only so we can't use O Neg in an emergency. Instead as the blood needs to be group specific we have a list of donor's and their groups and call them up as required. Currently our only B Neg donor is in Ghana for the weekend so i'm hoping not to require any B Neg blood. I'm sure somewhere on the ship is someone who is B Neg (maybe a needle shy person who hasn't volunteered).There is no refrigeration and no wastage- it goes from donor almost straight to patient.

My second obliging victim of the giant needle.

Today I went for a wander into town. It is oh so hot and muggy. The wharf today was swarming with people. A goods ferry had arrived in front of us and all the store people from town had arrived to pick up there goods (so far as I could guess). Any walk down town sends all your senses crazy. The first step of the gangway and you smell a gross mix of human waste (from the local fishing village and town) and rubbish from the mounds that line the roads. Within moments your nose has acclimatised. Zimiejohns zoom past tooting their horns to indicate they are overtaking. The guards sit out in the hot sun. The end of the wharf greets you with the smells of African home cooking coming from the huts along the road. Today is super busy the streets are chaotic. It has been raining so everyone is dogging puddles. Some roads are mud, others a flood. (See below). There is never and inch of road available and foot paths( or drains as they are better described) are also shared with cars and motorbikes. Below some typical streets in the city of Cotouno. We enter a food market- it's not the place for grabbing a few things after work. It is like a circular maze of fruit and vege. The noise is deafening. People and dogs. Small toddlers wandering around. I find myslef at a dead end right in the middle of the raw fish sections- I hate fish. The stench is overwhelming. There is no refrigeration so the fish sit out in the sun. Heads must be a delicacy. They are strung out looking charming.

Today I experienced my first supermarket. It is tiny but otherwise not that dissimilar to ones at home. Even the brands of shampoo are the same - just not in English. It is an airconditioned haven- particularly as the locals don't shop here so it is very desserted.

Housing in and around Cotonou is a world away from what we are familiar with. As a picture paints a thousands words see below:

From the top deck we watch dumper waves hit the beach. Not many beaches are good for swimming. The beaches are so steep. (see below) The currents are deadly- you can see them swirling in all directions somwhat like a whirlpool on a bad day. It's wierd been so close to the beach yet been unable to swim.

Well my washings finished (still getting used to rostered washing slots) and its dinner time- designated meal times is another thing i'm still getting used to.