Visit from the president

So, last night we had an announcement saying that the president would be coming...and today he showed up! It was cool having a visit from the president of Togo! I especially enjoyed looking out the windows and seeing the secret service guys around the ship with their machine guns! The president got a little tour of the hospital, met a few patients, and then came up to the International Lounge and spoke for a few minutes about how much he appreciated us being here and serving his country. It was a short and sweet visit, but I was glad I got to be there for it and hear him speak...

    The president was greeted by little Anna with flowers

The president visiting some patients in the ward with Dr. Gary

                                            

                                                 The president in our International Lounge

Inescapable tragedy

As I look back on my work in nursing over the last couple years, I reflect on the tragedy of death...particularly death in children. While I was blessed with some really amazing experiences in the cancer center at Phoenix Children's, I knew I couldn't handle watching more patients suffer through chemotherapy or seeing another family suffer because their little one had died.

So, it's ironic that after leaving the cancer center, crossing the ocean, and coming to Africa, I am faced with death all over again...somehow A Ward has become the palliative care ward...it wasn't intended to be, but several patients from the outreach in Benin made their way back to the ship because it was the only place they knew to go...Vincent is battling cancer right now and just recently, we had another woman come to the ship who also has cancer..

But among the palliative care patients in A Ward was a small little girl named Anicette...Last night was the first time I saw her...I had heard about her when she was in Benin...my friend Kelly had asked me to pray for little Ani, who was in the feeding program and needed to gain weight for her surgery. I had prayed and God had answered, as little Ani got big enough to have her surgery.

Ani came back to the ship a little over a week ago for more feeding issues...her weight had dropped considerably and she had regressed to the size of a one-month old, in spite of her past progress and age (over 1 year old)...Last night was the first time I saw Ani...the little girl I had prayed for from across the ocean...I felt somehow connected to this little girl through past prayers...and now I saw her...but what I saw broke my heart. She was like a little girl out of a tv ad for children in Ethiopia...completely emaciated and tiny. The doctors were thinking that she had some kind of metabolic issue because of her dramatic regression.

Today, little Ani took a turn for the worse...I wasn't there..I had already gone to bed after working all night...I didn't even hear the overhead page for the emergency team to go to A Ward...but, it was too late...they tried to code little Ani, but she didn't make it...she went home to Jesus this morning.

Even though I had just met little Ani, it broke my heart to hear the sad news...it seems like a lot of people on the ship were hit hard by the tragedy. She was  a precious little girl and we all loved her. Her death has brought me back to the reality of this world we live in. It is amazing to be a part of an organization that brings hope and healing through the surgeries we do...But, the hope is so much bigger than having a fixed cleft lip, a tumor removed, eyes that can see, or legs that can walk. The hope is found in Jesus.

I'm reminded of the heart of all we do....it's all about our hope for eternity...no matter how good our efforts may be, there will still be suffering and pain in the world. We cannot fix it all. But, whether our patients have 4 weeks to live or 40 more years to go, Jesus is the one who ultimately brings hope...new, straight legs that are able to walk bring a bright future...but how much greater is the hope of walking on the streets of heaven!

I pray that in the work that all of us do here, we will keep our focus on bringing the greatest hope of all..the hope of knowing Jesus and sharing Him with every single one of our precious patients...after all, life is fleeting and we never know when it could be their last day.

Adventure to the waterfalls

Well, this weekend a group of us decided we wanted to venture up to the highest waterfall in Togo: Akloa Falls...we really didn't have all the details together before we left...one of our translator friends had tried to help us make a hotel reservation for the place we wanted to stay at up north, but the number had been disconnected...after multiple calls, he turned to me and said "you know, in Africa, we don't usually make reservations anyway"...I laughed and realized he had a point...so we headed out Saturday morning praying we'd find a bus up north and a place to stay when we got there...thankfully, most of the friends that I travel with are laid back like I am, so we weren't too worried...we figured we'd just go with the flow and enjoy the adventure...

Saturday morning, we headed out to catch a taxi to the bus station....after lots of Africans arguing over us (we were all amused that they were more worried than we were about which taxi we were going to take), all eight of us squished into a taxi together and took off...for about 30 seconds....the taxi stalled and then wouldn't start again...we hadn't even been driving for a full minute and had already broke down...we all laughed and got out...transferred to another taxi and took off..

 

In all my travels around the world, I have driven in some pretty shanty-looking vehichles, but I think our little mini-bus up to Badou topped all of them....some of the chairs were only halfway latched in and would move up and down with the bumps that we hit...the back door made a really awful cracking sound every time they opened it and the sliding door on the side looked like it was about to fall off every time it was shut...we all found the state of the vehichle very amusing...we looked at each other and just laughed...we all agreed that it would make for a more interesting time and started off...The ride ended up being about a 6 hour drive...a huge part of that was in the mountains...before we went, I heard that the road to Badou (the city the waterfall is in) looks like the moon: full of craters...well, that ended up being no understatement! It was an interesting combination of bumps and bouncing seats...not to mention, the driver attempted to dodge the bumps, so we were all moving back and forth like we were on some kind of rollercoater ride! It was actually pretty fun...but we were all in pain after the ride! Shockingly enough, we broke down up the mountain on the way to Badou...but the bus driver fixed it in a few minutes and we were back on the road again!

Our lovely chariot to the mountains :)

The best part of the drive was that we picked up random passengers along the way and at one point had 18 people crammed in together, including 3 adorable babies who got passed around! The cute little boy that I had didn't seem to mind all the bumps in the road and even fell asleep on me! It was precious :)

Me & the cutie pie who joined us for the ride

Some of the African mammas and their kiddos all crammed in

We said goodbye to our new friends on the bus and managed to arrange for our driver to come back the next day to drive us back in the afternoon...Badou was a great little place...I just really like being in the countryside...it's so different from being in the capital city...everything is much more quiet and laid back and we were able to just walk around the town and meet some random people along the way...the kids were adorable as usual, but a little more shy up in the countryside...I don't think they see white people up there quite as much...

Sunday, we headed to the waterfall..all 8 of us, along with our bus driver and another guy named Sam, a random passenger who we met on our way to Badou...he spoke English and helped us negotiate our prices with our driver and at the hotel (which cost a whopping $6/per person for the night...and didn't even have mice...gotta love Africa)...Sam was from the city, but was up north visiting his sister...he told us he hadn't been to the waterfall in years and really wanted to see it again, so we invited him to tag along...it's great how often we just meet random people in Africa...I love it!

Hotel Abuta

The waterfall was beautiful and we enjoyed swimming in it since we were all hot from the hike up the mountain! Akloa falls is the biggest waterfall in Togo and was definitely worth the journey up there!

Akloa Falls

Me & the girls by the waterfall

It's said the waterfall is "like something out of a shampoo commercial"

so we had to do our shampoo pose :)

After the waterfall, we gassed up at this little Texaco & headed home

dance party on the ward

What do you do at work on a friday night? In Africa, we have dance parties! So, tonight I worked the evening shift. One of the other nurses called me down to B Ward at about 8:30pm to tell me that a dance party had spontaneously broke out...

I walk down and enter B ward and find a bunch of the mommas singing, clapping, and dancing....the fathers and translators are playing some wooden drums that are kept on the ward, and the children are sitting up in bed with their casts on legs, clapping and smiling and enjoying the fun..

I got sucked into the dancing fun very quickly...the ladies thought it would be fun to make us "true africans" and tied their extra little skirts around us (they keep an extra piece of fabric with them at all times to wear around their other clothes and to tie the babies to their backs)...so we're dancing and singing and next thing we know, we all have these african skirts around our scrub pants and everyone is cheering for us...the kids are smiling and giving us high fives and thumbs up from their beds...

The ward had really come to life! The dancing and singing went on for at least half an hour...there was the traditional chicken dance and no, I don't mean the American chicken dance....in Africa, they do this really interesting dance move with their shoulders that we all think looks like a chicken....so we call it the chicken dance....there was even a conga line for a little bit! When the dancing finally came to an end, we were all pretty tired...Who says you can't have fun at work! :)

The candy cane princess

Her shy, sweet smile could win your heart in an instant...she is very quiet, but always watching and always aware of what is going on in the ward..not to mention, she is the perfect little patient and always does what she's asked...so it was sad to hear 8-year old Mako's story...

After she was born, Mako's mother left her in the garbage...like so many other children in Africa who are born with deformities, she was unwanted...but she wasn't even abandoned on a church step or at an orphanage...she was left in the trash...thankfully, God had a plan for Mako's life and she was found by nuns..She now has an adoptive mother who loves her and takes care of her...

I don't know if Mako knows about her past, but as I cared for her this week, I did my best to communicate to her that she is precious and loved....Mako came to the ship to get her bow legs straightened out...so, after surgery, she had both legs propped up on pillows...when the team came in to reinforce her casts, they decided it would be nice to make it colorful, so they used red over the white...problem was, they ran out of red on the second leg, so they decided to make her right leg red and white striped...just like a candy cane...thankfully, Mako liked the design and I resolved to call her my little "candy-cane princess" after that...

She is one precious little girl and I'm so thankful that I got to share lots of laughs and smiles with her...while the story of her past is a sad one, it is encouraging to know that she has a bright future ahead of her...here are some pictures of me and my little candy cane princess out on Deck 7...

Mako trying to figure out the camera

Check out the candy cane princess & her casts :)

No sad faces...or I'll have to tickle you Mako!

Such a little sweetheart

Yovo, yovo

Well, this past week I worked the night shift, which came with it's challenges, but actually went pretty well. I was thankful that in spite of the late hours, there was a little slower pace and I was able to get familiar with some more things in the ward. It was also nice to have visits from friends on the ship bringing me coffee...I was even able to start an IV on one of my friends to practice my skills and practice with the different supplies they have here that I had never used before. 

Some of you who have travelled may know that practically every country seems to have their own special word for "white person"...In Mexico, I've been called "gringa" or "huera"..in Kenya, it was "muzungu"...in Thailand, it was "Colowa"...But, in Togo, the word is "yovo"...It's not a derogatory thing to be called "yovo"...in fact, the kids have an interactive song that they sing to the white people beginning with "Yovo, yovo"...we had fun singing it with the kids in the village when we hiked up in Kpalime a few weeks ago.

Out of everything that went on during my night shifts, the most rewarding was to bond with one special little 7-year old patient named Bobo...Halfway into the night, Bobo starts calling out "yovo, yovo"..Thinking he was scared of me and crying because I'm white (some of the kids are!), I started to walk away...But, then the translator tells me "No, he's calling you because he wants you to stay with him....he likes you." I walk back over to Bobo and he takes my hand and holds on tight. The translator goes on to tell me what he had gathered from the woman staying with Bobo...His mother died when he was younger and he needs lots of love and affection. The woman staying with Bobo is his aunt.

Throughout the night, Bobo would call out "yovo, yovo" and I would go and stroke his little head until he fell asleep. Later on, I would hear him calling again and the same process would repeat...at the end of the night, I told him I had to leave but a new yovo would be coming to take care of him and I would be back again that night to take care of him again...But he shook his head and held on tight to my arm...He didn't want another yovo...He told me he would follow me out, which was kind of amusing thought, since both of his legs were in casts from his feet to his hips...but I guess he wasn't thinking about that...

It broke my heart to think that he was so desperate for love and affection and didn't want me to leave...But, I couldn't very well stay there all night and day, so I said goodbye and thankfully he fell asleep not too long afterwards.

That night, I came back to take care of Bobo again...he started crying in the middle of the night...but this time, he wasn't calling out "yovo, yovo"...he was just crying unconsolably and wouldn't wake up..."He's having a bad dream," his aunt said. So, the translator and I put our hands on him and I began to pray for Bobo...The minute I started praying, his head relaxed to one side and he stopped crying. "I think this is a spiritual battle," the translator said. I would have to agree...I have no idea what Bobo has seen or what has happened throughout his life, but it is evident that he is often plagued by fear, so it was awesome to be able to stand in the gap and pray for him! It is so amazing to be a part of a ministry where we are encouraged to pray for our patients...and when we see God answer those prayers!

No more tears, Bobo