Wee Word Wednesday - Getting around...

Let's just say, that I've had some pretty interesting adventures just trying to get around here in West Africa. These pictures give you just a small idea of what we see and go through in our travels...

Wee Word Wednesday - MIA

Now, often times, I know that MIA is an acronym used for "missing in action". And while that still does apply, I'd like to also note that it could stand for "missing in Africa".

Some of you may be wondering what I am going on about...but, yesterday, Miriam went on vacation for 3 weeks...effectively leaving me as the only pharmacist on board...and kind of the only one in the pharmacy.

Not that I begrudge her going on vacation...it's a whopper of a wedding dash across countries that she's doing...it just means that I miss her.

Hope you have a fabulous time away, Miriam! But, I'll be a bit selfish and say that I am looking forward to your return. :-)

Mighty Ships...

I don't know if any of you guys remember me talking about a film crew from Discovery Channel Canada that was here on the Africa Mercy when we were sailing from Tenerife to Togo. If you do remember, that was back in January/February of this year. The crew was with us during the 11 days of sailing and the two weeks leading up to the hospital opening for it's first day of surgery.

I don't know everything or anything that it will cover. We have yet to see it here on the Africa Mercy ourselves...but, I imagine that it would cover aspects of ship life, getting the hospital set up after sailing, and I do believe that they followed a patient or two from screening to operation.

So...if you live in Canada...check it out. I believe that it first airs tomorrow, Wednesday June 23rd. To view the link and the details, click here. If you live anywhere else in the world other than Canada, I don't know if you'll be able to watch it...but if there is a way, I'll be sure to let you know!

Wee Word Wednesday - VVF

The beginning of the month marked the start of VVF...

There is lots of celebration around the ladies that are brought here on the ship for surgery.

When their surgeries are over, and declared a success (meaning that they dry and no longer leaking urine), a dress

ceremony is held. They start off in another room, where they are given a new dress, a clean dress, a dress that was never touched by the constant leak of urine. They get their makeup done, and a headdress

placed upon their heads.

The ceremony then begins with...yes, lots of singing and dancing. They come down the corridor in the Oak Fountain Hospital, singing songs of praise and thanksgiving to God. And of course, we, the Mercy Shippers are there, to join in with them in song and dance.

We are there to hear their stories...

...stories of being exiled from their villages and communities, stories of heartbreak over the loss of a baby through difficult labor, stories of being abandoned by friends, family, and husbands.

But, in the end, theirs is not a story to end in sorrow. Theirs is a story to end with the chance of life, and life abundant. All thanks to a simple operation done here on the ship.

And so it continues...

Last Sunday, my friend, Hannah, and I got invited to have dinner with one of the families onboard here. Not gonna lie to you, I felt like it was quite an honor to be invited over and have dinner with them in their cabin. Please also note, family cabins are awesome...especially in comparison to my open four berth.

It was really great for me to sit and chat with this family from Ghana, the Bineys. They have such an amazing story, and lots to know and share. I learned quite a bit about them (and I am sure, through conversation, they learned a lot about me and Hannah.). It was great to hear about the history of Mercy Ships and the making of the Africa Mercy through their eyes, as they were a part of it.

As always, the cultural differences and similarities struck me. It was interesting to hear the culture shock that they went through, both here on the ship (which, evidently does have it's own culture) and when they went to the "western world". You see, the Bineys are from a "hot-climate" culture...very community oriented, very warm (in personality and greetings), very open, very inclusive. Hawai'i is also a "hot-climate" culture...but, Canada is the opposite...yep you guessed it, it's a "cold-climate" culture. Not saying that they aren't warm in personality. But, in general, they go about things differently. "Cold-climate" cultures are more exclusive, more time-oriented, task-oriented, and selective in sharing and greetings (I hope that makes sense...in order to fully get what I am saying, check out a book that they recommend here on the ship called, 'Foreign-to-Familiar' by Sarah A. Lanier.). Being here on the ship, I have learned so much about myself...and where certain characteristics of mine can be attributed to.

The Bineys told me how they had to adjust and realize that people not greeting you and not asking how you are doing isn't because they don't like you and are snubbing you. It's just a cultural custom. Learning things like this and knowing where people come from can help you to understand what they do and why, to some degree. I guess, in part, it also explains why I went through some culture shock when I first moved to Canada. It's realizing that the little things that you didn't know were ingrained in you aren't necessarily ingrained in everyone else.

However, I think that the thing that struck me the most, and that I walked away cherishing is...realizing how important it is to play your part in the body of Christ. To know, that even if you don't feel like you are needed or a vital part...you actually are.

They were telling me how on the Anastasis, people on the ship would know when a surgery was over. How? It was announced...well, sort of, they announced that the patient transport team was needed. And, I guess now you are wondering why there was a patient transport team. It's because on the Anastasis (unlike the Africa Mercy), the OR was on a different deck than the wards. So, people from Deck and Engineering would take shifts on the patient transport team and carry the patients down to the wards when their surgery was over. Agnes said that it was nice. Nice knowing what was going on in the hospital...nice to be in the business of working for smiles.

And, it was wonderful for me to hear this perspective. Agnes works in HR, her husband works in the Engineering department. They aren't involved in the hospital at all. But, to see their joy in playing their part of making this ship work...it was amazing for me. It really made me sit back and re-evaluate my stance on things. I guess the adjustment continues.

Once again, God shows me that there is a reason to why I am here. There is a reason as to why I am a pharmacist. He has given me my role to play. He has put all the parts together to make an intricate work environment to bring glory and honor to His name. Who am I to tell Him that it should be any other way?

Once again, He's showing me and teaching me to find the joy in this journey of life that we are walking through together. It's not always easy playing the part that He has laid out for me, but in the end, my part is needed...however insignificant or significant I personally deem it.

¹²The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. ¹³For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

¹⁴Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. ¹⁵If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.¹⁶And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. ¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. ¹⁹If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

²¹The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" ²²On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,²³and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, ²⁴while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, ²⁵so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. ²⁶If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

²⁷Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

- 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 (NIV)

How happy am I to know that He doesn't give up on a work in progress?
And how lucky am I to also be in the business of working for smiles?

Wee Word Wednesday - Knitting

Remember how I told you about that Tuesday night thing that I do down at the Hospitality Center? Well...it looks like maybe, they're picking up what we're putting down...

Thanks to one of our photographers here on board, Tom Bradley, for capturing these shots and showing us that our efforts and our time spent with the patients at the hospitality center are not in vain.

In other news, just read an update on one of our patients, Aissa. If you all could stand in the gap and pray for this little one, I would be ever so grateful.

Big Splash...

It's rainy season here...

And, unlike places that I am used to like Vancouver, British Columbia...it doesn't rain for days on end or lightly here. I have found that it's usually a torrential downpour and for less than an hour at a time. Even though that may not seem like very long, it does quite a number to the roads, especially since there aren't any real drainage systems in place here.

Hopefully, the video loaded properly (I can't test it here on the ship, as we can't stream video.). But, this depicts what our drive to and from the orphanage looks like. So far, we haven't gotten stuck in a puddle...but we have had to change a spare tire or two.



Even though I know the water is dirty (It smells badly after you've disturbed the it.)...somehow, the rainy season has made puddles fun again (especially when in Land Rovers or Nissans).

And...I must say, I love it when it rains. It reminds me of the warm rains back home in Hawai'i...and last night, I couldn't help but play in it. :-)

Need to adjust...but what?

If I am going to be honest here and say what's been on my mind...

The last two weeks have been hard ones. They were awful. Most days, I wanted to cry or pull my hair out. Instead, I ended up closing the "chatting door" (the half door to the front room of the pharmacy) or laying on the floor in the pharmacy (very therapeutic, I must admit). Just to get a moment of reprieve, just to have some time to shut the rest of the world out.

Over the weekend, I had to take a step back and wonder what was going on. I was grumpy most days than not, short tempered, and easily flustered or frustrated. One slightly unpleasant interaction in the morning could ruin my precarious mood and spoil my entire day. All by some thing that should've been easy to shake off!

In part, I came here hoping that if there was any way that God could redeem the profession I got educated in - surely it would be here, surely by using my skills to serve Him and a greater purpose beyond my own. In the short 4 years that I have been a pharmacist, I have encountered a lot of things that have disillusioned the job for me. All too often, people would rather treat you like a customer service agent, rather than a specialist. All too often, people will have no qualms about taking out their frustrations with waiting to see the doctor on you, when all you asked was for 15 minutes of their time. Too many times...and yet, I have a hard time believing that God would've opened so many doors for my education just to have me ditch it without showing me what I am to do next.

These past two weeks haven't helped that perception, even though I am working in a hospital and not a community pharmacy (i.e. Safeway, Walgreens, Wal-Mart). When I stepped outside of my offenses, and listened to what others were saying around me, I realized...we've somewhat hit a wall of sorts. We are more than half-way through our outreach here in Togo. Everyone is getting tired; everyone is getting stressed; everyone is getting frustrated. It happens. We work hard, we encounter lots of changes, and some times, we don't get the down time that we need to recharge and regroup for the next week ahead of us.

Now, I don't know about you, but when I am frustrated, I find that someone else getting frustrated with me or at me doesn't really help the situation or ease the emotional tension. So, over the weekend, I sat on this and thought about it. I knew that I could continue on getting frustrated and losing it over little things...and being irate when people decide that things should be done one way, when they've always been done another way...since the beginning of the outreach. This is something that's easy to get mad about, but at the same time, I realized that I had to take into consideration that there is such a high change over here on the ship, and in the hospital. Not all of the nurses that are down there right now were with us in the beginning. It's pretty overwhelming being thrown into an entirely new work and living environment...and it's easy to get things mixed up or not really know how things are supposed to be done.

But, I knew that something needed to change...something needed an adjustment. And, not just in respect to the outreach here...but perhaps to my job in general.

This week, I decided that I would do things a little differently. This week, I decided that perhaps I should be nice to people. That rather than responding in frustration, to respond in kindness. I don't know about you, but when I am stressed or frustrated, I am more receptive to someone who will come along side me gently and help me through whatever is at hand...rather than just be irritated with me and looking at me like I asked an erroneous question. And shock of all shocks (please note that there is a bit of sarcasm in there)...people have been nice back. I am learning that you get a better return on gently showing someone something then just saying no, you're wrong and I am right. Yes, shocking, I know. If you think that I am lying to you or that my results over the past few days are skewed, I suggest you try it.

Although it's working now after the adjustment is made, I am sure I will find that all to soon that adjustment will need realignment. Time and time again. And time and time again, I am sure that I will be thankful for His grace.

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power my rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in the weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

- 2 Corinthians 12: 9-10

I know that my perceptions often leave me thinking that people don't appreciate the work that we do in the pharmacy. It's easy to take slights from others when they weren't really intended, to take them personally and as an assault on your own abilities. It's not true. Even though our work in the pharmacy is behind the scenes, even though we don't get a lot of glamor shots to be shared with people around the world who can't see what we do for work...

I know that, indeed, our work is needed and appreciated. And, again I am thankful for the grace that helps me to see that.

Wee Word Wednesday - Pharmacy Notes

Not going to lie to you...some times, working behind the scenes, especially in a place like this - where so much emphasis is placed on the life-changing surgeries that people receive, it's easy to feel unappreciated. I am sure that goes to say about any behind the scenes job or ministry. (No worries, I am planning on writing more about this later.)

However, this all too often can be just a perception, and not the truth or the heart of the matter. I am reminded of this when I get notes like these on the pharmacy door:


It's nice to be reminded every now and again, that your job (and likewise, your ministry) does matter. And that, in spite of what you think or how you feel...it is appreciated. :-)