Archive for March, 2008

The week before Easter I (tyrone) went out to work at a local orphanage on my time off. I signed up for maintenance/concrete work. Well let me tell ya, the ride there and back almost did me in NOT the work!

Carl, who is a Dutchie, along with his wife are here helping build new places on some ground the orphanage acquired. The orphanage (that the Children live in now) is just a small walk from the ship port BUT the place where the new one is being built is what we call, ‘in the bush’.

Carl has this half motorcycle half mini-covered wagon thing that we (Tony an English man about 6′4 or 6′6 and three of the boys from the orphan) all piled into the back of. For the boys it was plenty of room and of course Carl was up front ‘riding’ the motorcycle part. But for Tony and I it was like riding as a hunchback on a hard metal bar while traveling thru a dried river bed for 45 minutes.

We mixed concrete and lay bricks till it really became too hot out to continue (I probably drunk at least 2 liters of water easily and sweated it back out!) and then we prepared for the ride back. Apparently there was a tow truck trying to pull one of those massive Mercedes workhorse trucks/vehicle out of a diagonal position after it slipped off the edge of the road, so we had to turn around and go another way after 20 minutes of back breaking bone jarring fun ride (ahem) in Carl’s Ladybug as he called it, thus stretching out our ride for a total of about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Yes, we stopped at the orphanage on the way back…but it was really like the old ‘bait and switch’ tactics of advertisement. Here we thought we would ride a mere 2 or 3 minute ride down the street, do some work while being inundated with children playing all around…yeah, not quite. Ha!

But it was good time, and we got to help work on the new place. I have some pictures from the orphanage with some of the other women that went from the ship specifically just for playing with the kids. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of the actual site or motorcycle contraption we rode in because I felt it would not be very good on the camera if I brought it to do dirty work(and I made a great decision by not taking it too). It looked almost Identical to this, with us riding in the back!

I met 3 of the boys that worked with us – Aaron (who was the oldest at 15 although physical stature only looked 12) Peter, and Mo Mo Joe. (they looked to be about 8 and 10, but who knows?)

The following pictures are linked to bigger pictures. It is a new feature just added to the Wordpress blog software I use to run my website.

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* Hope you enjoyed the ‘fish & chips’ and if you were some of those lucky ones that had to wait in line for more fish and chips (YES, I said lucky…if you were waiting for them then you know they were coming out hot & fresh!) then please continue to do so with that joyous smile I see in all the pictures you put on your blogs, send back home, or take with friends. Those are the best smiles.

Don’t let me catch you giving the Dining Room staff the ‘eyeball’ or I will ask the Captain to put you on trash duty with the food service department (and you thought a few dead Weevils were bad? At least they don’t smell!)

We basically had to start ahead of time in order to get a ‘jump start’ on dinner. One fryer was used for fish, and the other for chips…these fryers do not have the capacity of the ones on the Anastasis, but they are newer.

* As you have probably noticed Monday slipped by without nary a mention of ‘African Food Night’ and that was because it was so close on the heels of the Easter Brunch and activities…so it will pick up again Monday after next as it is only every 2 weeks. And to give local procurement a break on the plantains since they struggle trying to fill any big demand we have here locally.

* Last weeks menu was a little loose and unpredictable due to my own sickness, I still feel a bit weak but most of my symptoms and fever have quit returning. The good Dr. Wolfgang (which I like to say because it reminds me of a great Chef, you may have heard of him? Wolfgang Puck? Ok, well…) checked me out and had blood tests run so we know it was NOT Malaria but a Virile Infection due to pass in time.

* Peter (THE BIG BOSS) is ‘cooking up’ (pun intended) something new for you to possibly participate in and…nah, not going to give you that much info at this point. Something interactive is coming up in the Food Service Department.

* Pasta is whittling down, which means MORE COUSCOUS YEAH!!! (which is a pasta of sorts, and its Weevil free!) Ok, so maybe that doesn’t really make you happy? Well here is the short version: We are working on cleaning up stores, moving things into new spots, making way for more ‘weevil friendly’ products to be stored in colder areas so they won’t return to visit (which means we will have to keep frozen storage to a minimum for meats, its all a give and take)…and the current stock of pasta which is only mildly infested is almost used up. Done. Finished. Almost. Yeah, thought you might be happy about that.

Mercy Ships definitely has some urgent needs in staffing that helps things run smoother in the overall picture if we can get these positions filled.  So I will pass on to you the needs list for positions within Mercy Ships and if you think

‘oh, I know the perfect candidate!’  or ‘that sounds like something I would like to do…‘

Then here (drum roll please!) are the latest offerings ~

March 28th Staffing Alerts

Tel: 1-800-772-SHIP (within U.S.)
Tel: 1-903-939-7000
Fax: 1-903-882-0336
Attention: Urgent Needs/Staffing Alert (ask to speak to someone in HR)
E-mail: info@mercyships.org
Website: www.mercyships.org

Last night was my first of 4 night shifts. The night went well for the most part. We have started ortho surgery so we have a row of beds that all of little children in cast, each with their mama. It is so funny because each cast is different. One is pink, one is camo, and one is blue. Each one telling a little about the personality of the child wearing it.

On night shift the busiest part of the shift is at 6am. we hang the IV fluids, clean up a little, pass meds, and make sure all our charting is done. I was doing vital sings when I felt a little tug on my scrubs (well the strings that tie in the back to make them a little cuter). I turned around and saw the biggest, cutest (Sunday-boy, 2 years old) eyes starring back at me still holding onto my strings. So for the next 20 minutes held onto my strings as I went on with my nursing duties. I had to walk a bit slower, due to his 2 year old lenght of legs, but it was worth it.

We have been on the ship for 3 months, I have worked on the ward for 29 shifts, I have had many wonderful meals, and basically experienced life changing things…. but right now I am tired and annoyed.

It would be nice to be able to to go a meal and not hear someone complain about the abundant food that is on the line (hello look out the window, we are in AFRICA. We eat more in one week than most families eat in a month). It would be nice to work one shift on the ward with our thinking how nice it would be to transfer to the Starbucks Cafe.

In reality nothing on the ship has changed, nothing has gotten any worse, it is just me. I am tired and obviously having an attitude problem. So today I went to the ward to pick up something that I left there last night and they were having worship. Man, it gets me everytime. I was quite content wallowing in my own self pitty, but when you see the Liberians worship the self pitty somes to a skreeching hault. Some are patients that had life changing surgery and others are translaters, but they all are Liberians that worship the Lord with such Joy. So for now, I will stop with the pity party and move on and try to have some perspective.

Today is my Dad’s Birthday. I have been thinking about him all day. I hope he had a good day, to him I’m sure that included playing soccer and hanging out with my mom. With the 6 hour time diffference, I couldn’t get hold of him today, so I will try tomarrow.