Random Update Points

-The water situation is improving- normal restrictions continue to apply, but praise God, we have secured enough water to: drink, run our sterilizing machines, wash our hospital laundry, wash the dishes for our family of 400, to flush our toilets, to wash our personal laundry, and to have an occasional “ship-shower.”



-We have officially completed our first full week of surgeries. This year we are starting with the orthopedic, eye, and maxillo-facial, surgical specialties. We have some of the most beautiful children on-board right now. It isn’t a secret that I love the African children, but the ones with cleft lips, bow legs, and club feet are my favorite and my ward is full of them!


-This year I will be working as a ward nurse, a charge nurse, and during our 10 weeks of orthopedic surgeries I will be the Orthopedic Nurse Team Leader- which sort of means I am the nurse manager of the Orthopedic Ward. My ward has 40 beds and almost all are full! My responsibilities include organizing beds- admissions & discharges, rounds with the surgeons, kissing the babies, writing daily progress notes, sitting on the floor with the babies, assisting the ward nurses, blowing up balloons & making sure the little kids share them, answering questions, playing balloon volleyball on the ward, changing dressings, finding the elevator when it gets lost upstairs, sorting out the location and placement of supplies in my ward, assisting with patient allocations, kissing babies, arranging follow-up care for the orthopedic patients, orienting and welcoming our new day volunteers-translators to the ward and helping them find things, reminding them to wash their hands, & guiding them in the right direction when they are lost, working with our physical therapists, frequent runs from deck 3 where the ward is, to deck 6 where the only working ice machine is, to get ice for all my patients with aching legs, hugging the children, praying with the patients when they are in pain, answering more random questions, running to the lab to see the malaria parasites that my patient was just diagnosed with, talking with the dietician to see if we can order milk for my patients since the pharmacy has no great source of calcium supplements for the patients, trying to get the translators to distribute the milk to my patients instead of letting it sit in the kitchen all day, making post-operative checks, ensuring the patients are receiving adequate amounts of meds to relieve their pain, smiling at my patients, making sure the patients get craft supplies, delegation, putting up curtains with magnets around my patient’s beds for privacy, kissing the babies, dancing or attempting to dance when we have worship time, and of course any other task that may presents itself! I love my job!


-This past week I worked 69 hours in 6 days, averaging 11.5 hours a day. God has given me amazing strength! Unfortunately, I caught the respiratory bug that is spreading around the ship. My throat is as rosy as my sun-burned skin, my body aches all over, my nose is running, I feel feverish, but couldn't be happier! I love being back in Africa!