New Screening Day Fast Approaching….

Hi y’all,

I’ve been trying to post last years stats for you of the work we did while we were in Sierra Leone. I haven’t been able to copy it into my blog in a format where it is large enough to read, so I will have to give up for tonight…It is coming though. Watch this space…:)

We are starting a new field service in Lome, Togo. We were here in 2010 for 8 months. Usually we spend 10 months in a outreach, but because we had to have our generators and air conditioning system replaced and we could only book certain times to do that with the shipyard in South Africa we left after 8 months and went to Durban, South Africa (see past blogs in 2010) to get the work done. So, we are back now to finish our original time commitment with a little extra thrown in for good measure. LOL :) Seriously though because we had this discrepancy in our commitment and Togo being the 15th country from the bottom of the Human Index Scale (poverty and lack of access to fundamental needs, such as, water, electricity etc.) obviously needing our help, we are back to work here for approx. 5½ more months. While we are in this returning field service and can take advantage of extending our yearly maintenance to 1½ years instead of 1 because of our extended work in South Africa, Mercy Ships is going to change the outreach dates from the end of January to the the end of November to the middle of August to the middle of June. This change benefits the ship, the crew and most importantly the people of West Africa in a number of ways, but as far as I can tell the 2 main ones and most important ones are not being in West Africa during the heaviest part of the rainy season thereby avoiding mass outbreaks of Malaria with the crew, and secondly, working on the same schedule as the Academy onboard, so when school is out for the summer and the families want to go home or away for some family time and/or vacation and fundraising a large amount of our technical crew won’t be gone in the middle of an outreach. Makes sense right?

So as we begin this new outreach, this short outreach, our VVF (Vesico Vaginal Fistual) surgeries are already full from our left over waiting list in 2010 (approx. 200 cases) as well as the general surgeries (goiters, hernias etc).

We begin screening this Wednesday, 1 February and will be screening for mostly Maxillofacial deformities (including tumors, complications of injury, cleft lip or palate, infections etc); plastic reconstructive conditions including burn scar contractures and eyelid and ear reconstruction, Noma etc. (We will also continue plastic surgery on past patients like Tawny – do you remember her? I hope so because you will be hearing more about her soon. (you can find her in past blogs)); I believe we will also be performing a nominal amount of orthopaedic surgeries as the healing and rehabilitation time for this type of surgery is extensive.

My part in the screening is to make a number of early morning trips (5ish am) as a driver transferring the crew to the screening site and at the end of the day taking them back to the ship. In the in between hours I will once again be on one of the prayer teams praying with the patients that we can’t help. I seek your prayers for this part of my job as I began to find it very emotional and  difficult bearing the pain of these people whom we couldn’t offer any physical hope for last year….

In addition to the “big screening” above we will continue to hold Dental screenings and clinics every Monday and Thursday ; Eye screenings and clinics Monday – Wednesday with both specialties working with the selected patients throughout the week.

While these surgeries are being performed and rehabilitation is taking place there is also our hospital out-patient center known as the Hope center that houses between 40 and 80 beds. This facility houses patients that need help before surgery (putting on wait, etc.), or need to wait for surgery (if they came a long way from up north for example) and secondly to recover from surgery so our 80 beds in the hospital are not full with recovering patients; thereby, allowing for a constant flow of surgeries.

We will also be providing palliative homecare and training for the terminally ill and their families; leadership conferences and training; mental health teaching which addresses mental, neurological and substance abuse disorders.

I’m not sure I’ve exhausted the full gamut of what we will be providing while we are here, but I wanted you to be a part of it from the beginning and be able to pray with us that God brings to these screenings the people he would have us help and keep away the ones he wouldn’t and the troublemakers. Please also pray for the ones that need help that don’t fit into our specialties, the crew and their health and the surgeons for wisdom and steady hands! May we all be given a bounty full of love, joy, kindness, humility, grace, empathy and mercy as we spend time with the people here in Togo.

My prayer is the same as many on the ship this season…”[We} have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave [us] to do. John 17:4

Pictures will come, but as yet I haven’t been out to get any – sorry!

Be well, be safe and God be with you!

Love,

xx Carol :)

Happy New Year!

This is my second blog to you today…did you get my first one? Okay, I have to be truthful right now – I’m a little more than frustrated! I wrote a blog this morning which I really liked, published it and then 3 hours later deleted it. NO I don’t know how, I just did it!

Apart from being very busy with the amalgamation that I mentioned in my last  blog and having very few days off since visiting y’all in the summer because of it, the above mentioned problem is a theme I’ve had since returning to  Africa and the ship – computer issues of one kind or another! I have had constant complications in transferring data to my new computer, losing ALL my folders  (pictures, music, documents etc.) from my hard drive with no backup (long story), and not having access to my email addresses and the Internet@#&*?!!

To make a long, long story just long (LOL), when I boot up my computer to write you and/or blog I've just had one issue after another, so consequently, I turn it off and don't look at it for awhile only to turn it on to another set of random problems, and on and on it goes…, AND now I am blogging you for the second time today and have to recreate the first blog which we know can’t be done and I am feeling like this won’t say the things as ‘eloquently’ as my first efforts,  but I am sticking with it and sending this today if it’s the last thing I do!!!!

So for those of you that know me at all, know that I have a love/hate relationship with the computer in the first place. I have had some real hate feeling and have been in mourning for my beloved pictures, music and information. You laugh, but as I’m writing this I’ve had an epiphany and stopped to pray against the bitter feelings that have taken over when I think COMPUTER because of the series and long lasting negative consequences I’ve been dealing with. (I prayed against oppression that might be an influence and not just me being electronically challenged...)

I digress… @#?&!! (Okay, I still have some praying to do…LOL)

My New Years resolution other than to blog regularly is to email you at least 3 times a year, as I have done in the past, so we can communicate a little more personally and privately. That’s not to say that if you are in need of prayer, or just a simple conversation that you can’t email me or call me. I am as close as an email or phone call away and I love to hear from you also.

Just because I have been electronically challenged by no means does that mean that you are not in my thoughts and on my mind – you are - and in my prayers too! Seriously, not having computer access to you all and being sooooo busy has been a monkey on my back and I feel guilty, lonely and disconnected as I’m sure you have felt somewhat as well @#?!! (Imagine what it must’ve been like for missionaries before the Internet!! I guess we can consider ourselves fortunate that it’s only been 4 months and now should be able to stay connected). Now that all my computer problems seem to be resolved (we’ll see) I promise even if I have to use my work computer  (which I have purposely not done) I will not let such a lengthy time exist between communications again! NO pictures for awhile though. :( --- :):):)

I’m excited to be a part of what Mercy Ships will be doing in West Africa in 2012, what God has prepared for us to do and sharing it all with you.

I look forward to our friendship continuing to flourish  in 2012; that you and yours are blessed with purpose, love and deep joy; and that the Holy Spirit confirms in your heart for the first time, or yet again, that without a doubt, God lives!

Bonne Année!

Love and hugs,

xx Carol  :)