A new season

It is officially 35 days since i walked down the gangway of the MV Africa Mercy for the last time in Sierra Leone. Do i wish i stayed, yes!Do i think i'll go back? If thats where God wants me!

Saying goodbye

Final wave off

Since I came back to the UK I have had the most amazing support by friends and family and church family to help me transition back into western life. 9 weeks was not the longest amount of time but it certainly made an impact on my life. My wonderful mam came to Heathrow to collect me with my adopted english family who had huge banners and massive smiles as they wrapped their arms around me and said Welcome Home Hannah! I can honestly say at that moment my heart sunk and I had a moments thought of....right, how do I get back on that plane? Not because I didnt want to see them but I just felt I had left a massive piece of my heart in Africa and i needed to go back and collect it. I relunctantly got in the car to drive away from the airport and officially was 'back in the UK' where it was clean, not very warm, and organised!Everything is very neat and tidy.

It was and has been an overwhelming 4 weeks not helped by the fact that my job didnt start when it was supposed to and I had way too much thinking time. I finally started my job last week in a palliative and elderly care unit. It is very differant to the ship for sure but I do love looking after elderly people and making a small difference on their day even it means putting some rollers in their hair or reading a newpaper with them while also attending to nursing needs, i do get some satisfaction from it. Its very slow paced and I know I wont be there long as I like the fast paced movement of the wards but its good for now while I plan my next escape to Africa.

I wanted to write this note as a thank you to all of you (you know who you are) on the ship and at home for your continued and loving support of my time in Sierra Leone with my fees and with prayer. I have met the most amazing beautiful people from Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone not to mention the other 41 nationalities that were onboard while i was there. I have so many memories and wonderful moments etched in my mind that will never fade. Moments like carrying a baby (on your back if you prefer) while mum is in surgery, sitting with the day volunteers trying to learn some more Krio to make communication with the patients more effective, giggling when trying to open the doors of the ward and they are just so heavy because the ship is leaning to the side or the opposite and running after the BP machine as it trundles on its own down the ward as the ship leans the other way, the ship shuddering and bouncing right at the moment you are about to pour some lactulose, peaking out of B wards door and seeing that the laughing and giggling is coming from beautiful children from A-Ward looking like the walking wounded with many bandadges wrapped around their healing limbs but smiling and playing none the less. I could go on and on and on!

Tamba, Umar and Alberta

These children and patients have made a lasting impact on my heart and life. The pain and agony they have gone through both physically and mentally after years of verbal abuse and hurt from their communites and they still laugh and smile and see the good in life makes me actively conscious about how much i moan and complain about such stupid things. I wish i could watch these wonderful kids grow up and see what they will do with their lives. I can truly say i have never met such wonderful and thankful children as them.

Me and two of my Padis (friends) Umar and Osman.

One of our precious ortho patients

I am thankful that I as given this opportunity to serve with this organisation and I encourage you to keep them in your prayers as they complete this outreach in Sierra Leone until December. This outreach has been known to be a particulary difficult one and resources and options for wound healing and managing chronic condidtions are becoming more and more difficult. As are the nurses bodies and minds. It is hard for some to be so far away from their familes and it is hard to have a refreshed mind when you are surrounded by people 24/7.

I am content being back in england knowing that I am here because that is how God planned it. He knows exactly where and what and who and why! It says in the Bible that He knows the plans he has for you....thats not talking just about the future. Thats about right here right now. I went to Sierra Leone for 9 weeks and I came back and God was with me the whole way. I will honour him if i am I England or Africa and I now look forward to this new season in my life whatever it may hold. I am willing to come and tell you about Mercy Ships and give you a more detailed idea of what they do there if you are interested in serving. You dont have to be a nurse. Anyone can serve there!

Team B!!

Me with Ali

Umar saying goodbye in his own way!lol!FISHFACE!

Alberta

And now after radical surgery she is free and can use her arm completely!

Faith

Faith is so evident, clear and spoken about here in Africa. I feel free and finally content that I can care for patients and show them Gods love and compassion through actions but also through prayer. It is such an encouragement to walk down the hall and see people praying together in a little group, walking into the ward where the patients and day workers from Freetown are singing freely and worshipping their God, sit by someone and have them ask for you to pray for them, walk hand in hand with a patient to surgery and pray with them before they walk through the OR door, praying for peace before a shift and thanking God for another day and honour to serve Him in Africa. I ask patients how they are doing and their response so often is' By Gods, grace I am well'. I am sitting here on a night shift listening to Tamba who is 40 praying and exercising as he does. He has recently had a Mastectomy (breast removal) for a cancer. He is now on treatment that he has managed to pay for himself for a year but he needs to have the treatment for 5 years. It is so difficult to know that we cannot help everyone as volunteers on the ship and as a charity. Our money and resources just do not extend to providing chemo or required medication to all patients. It is so frustrating to know that even if we had all the money in the world we still would not be able to help everyone physically however, it is a blessing that the ship managed to removed the cancer before it spread any further. The best thing we can do is pray!

God is a very present help and source of strength for these patients. It blesses me to see their faith and hope in God and that He is praised in good and bad times. Tamba is one such a patient who displays such faith in God. He knows that even if he does not have the money to pay for treatment for the whole 5 years he is trusting and relying on God. Do you trust that God holds your future and cares for you? His love is so unlimited and free and He just wants you to accept it. Trust that He knows what our future holds and cares so deeply for us. He just wants us to accept His gift of freedom, peace and love. All things work together for good even if we cant see it or understand it.

Ephesians 3 v 20:To Him who is able to do far more than all we ask or even think be glory forever and ever.

Changed Lives

Fanie when he came for surgery

There he is on the left walking with a crutch about 7 weeks ago....and here he is now on the day of discharge walking free smiling that gorgeous smile with his Physios and mum!

Lives are truly changed here!

Reminiscing

As i sit here on my cabin floor dressed in my scrubs ready for an evening shift on the worlds largest NGO i am feeling a bit reflective....I am first of all blessed for the amount of amazing and awesome (becker, that's just for you) friendships I have made here in 2 months. Living in such a cramped and small community forces you to be friendly and talk, not that i have a problem with that but thankfully by doing that I made friends that i know i will be in contact with for life!!you know who you are :0) I am sad that today i have sad goodbye yet again to a precious friend and crew member but at least I know I have places to stay when i go on holidays now!lol!

I am also blessed that i have have had the privilege of being a crew member on Mercy Ship. Although its not perfect like every organisation run by man it is no doubt trying to make a difference in the world and is achieving some amazing things. Lives, bodies, faces and limbs have truly been transformed and it is an honor to be part of it. I have uploaded some photos on to my facebook of the patients I have met and I will try to get some more pictures uploaded on here as a stories can truly be told through some of the before and after pictures i have seen!

So, as another evening shift begins where I will greet new patients who come onto the ship for the first time and walk into the ward for the first time and maybe even meet a white person for the first time I will attempt to show them Gods love and honor Him through my actions. It will be an evening full of teaching like how to use a toilet, how to wash their hands correctly, cannula ting which is absolutely NO problem normally because these men have veins like ropes because of all the manual labor they do and perhaps receiving some patients back from surgery. All in all I am feeling blessed and honored today and slightly sad because I don't have much longer left.....

Love to you all....

A day in the life of a nurse on Africa Mercy (Morning Shift)

Morning shift:

6.15:Smack my alarm off, stumble down the ladder from my bunk, jump in my scrubs, grab my pens, badge, door key and water bottle and wander up the very steep set of stairs to the dining room.

7.00: After breakfast walk 3 minutes down the corridor past the hot engine room door and past D and C ward into B ward where i work, whispering as some patients are still asleep and grabbing my assignment sheet from the magnet on the door (everything is magnetic) and seeing what my day holds for me. Some days I have 4 patients , some days i have 8. It depends!

7.00-7.30: We pray together as a group and commit the day to the Lord asking for healing for our patients, wisdom what to do in difficult situations, that that we show Gods love through our actions and that we have fun as a team working together in Africa on a ship!!Then we have handover, i get to meet my patients for the day or i see the ones i have got to know very well over the last month or so who have been with us due to complications post surgery. I introduce myself 'Na mi name Hannah, na mi na u nurse tida' and i get a smile and a bemused look as i then explain that ' I de try fo tok small small Krio' and they nod and smile. Happy I have remembered my Krio i continue to meet the rest of my patients.

7.30-12.00: We give out our medications, teach patients who are about to go for surgery that they need to 'scrub very fine' the area they are having surgery and explain how and what will happen. So many people here have never interacted with white people, never been in hospital, never been on a ship, never had a cannula inserted in their arm, never had their blood pressure taken, never had some of the medications we give etc. The list is very very long. Some people don't even know for sure how old they are which gets very interesting when doing medications for kiddies because its done by age and weight but that's another story. We encourage people to go for 'small walka' but they really do like their beds so its hard to get them out into the corridor but we eventually manage after our translators have a little chat with them. We have devotional time with a team from Freetown who come in a sing, pray and dance with our patients African style for about 20 minutes. They are LOUD! I didn't know how loud people can clap, its unreal!I feel slightly deaf after they leave. Then its movie time...we try to cater for kids and adults so its Madagascar or some other cartoon most mornings and we get to sing along to 'We like to move it, move it'. Patients go to and from surgery. Life can be very busy in the mornings along with trying to entertain some of the kids who either hate or love white people. We blow balloons up or blow bubbles for them!

12.00- 14.00: Dinner is at 12 and no matter how much you need to do their observations or a dressing or give medication you do not disturb them during their meal. They do not like it and you either get a very resistant arm when trying to do a blood pressure or a disgruntled grunt. So, its best to either plan every just before 12 or just after. We then run around doing bits and pieces just before the next set of nurses come in at 14.00 for handover. We check our all charts, make sure any of the orders the doctors made for the morning have been done, do the dressing changes and give more medications.

14.00-15.30: We pray, commit the evening shift to the Lord and then handover to the new set of nurses. Then its time to bring the patients up to Deck 7 where the patients get to get some much needed 'fresh' air and for them to see Africa!! We either climb up the steep steps together or use the lift depending on what surgery everyone has had. We open the doors feeling the massive blast of either hot or humid air after being in air conditioning all morning. The kids from the other wards cycle around up and down the deck on the little bikes and carts we have up there while the adults watch the boats and ships passing by, chatting and talking on their mobiles. Its a great chance to just interact and get to know your patient which has been such a blessing and enjoyment. I love hearing their stories and seeing the impact the surgery is going to make on their lives. We stay together on deck for about an hour if it doesn't start getting too stormy and then we wander back down to the hospital and that is the end of my shift for the day!

Grace

Meet Grace....
She is a 50 year old lady who is a Sports coach at the local women's prison. She has attended courses in South Africa to become a certified coach and she has been able to teach boxing, cricket, football and handball. 5 months ago she found a lump in her breast. She has breast cancer. She lives in a country with limited resources and limited finances to do anything about this tumor growing inside her chest. She comes to Mercy Ship for surgery to remove the tumor which she would not have been able to afford to have here in Freetown. We have no resources to give her the medication she needs so she needed to find her own supply of Tamoxifen. She has been able to do this as she has some family in Australia but it is distressing to see the difference in how a women with breast cancer in England and Africa is treated. In England, within two weeks of a referral the lady is seen and a plan of action is made in regards to getting rid of the cancer that is growing.

Grace is one of many women here who have probably found lumps and never been able to do anything about it because they cant afford surgery and they are too scared to go to the doctor. So they live with the cancer and they allow it to eat away at their bodies until they cannot provide for their families anymore. I had the honor of looking after Grace at length this week and I had so many opportunities to chat, pray and read the bible together which was such a blessing to us both. We spent half an hour together singing and praising our God (Oh Happy Day & Our God is an Awesome God) while removing her staples and dressing her wound on her chest. It was such a breath of fresh air to be able to release such a big part of my life into the open and into my patient care rather than suppressing it and worrying every time God's name is mentioned at work that someone might be offended. Her faith in God is amazing and so strong. Pray that she holds onto the promises that He is with her and will strengthen and guide her through the hard times. She has three girls (one who she adopted) and because she has pain in her hips and the back of her head we are worried the cancer may have spread but there is nothing we can do. We have managed to contain a problem that may spread and become fatal for her.

Remember her in your prayers.