That time of year again!

So VVF has officially begun for this outreach. It is so wonderful to have my favorite ladies back. The day they all came was quite intense as we had to screen patients for 6 weeks of surgery in one day. On top of organizing 70 ladies from all over the country and neighboring countries we had to work lack of bedspace (anywhere-on ship and hospitality center) as well as many languages from the north which none of our translators know. The Lord was definitely in the day and much prayer went into it. The screening went faster than it ever has and we only turned down a few ladies. Last year we turned down SO many because they were too complicated or they had a different problems we could not fix. At the end of the day we filled the schedule, put 4 on a waiting list, and only turned away 6. As for the bedspace...we had to get creative and open up our extra ward just for housing and made little bunk beds. Nothing like puting 18 ladies in a room meant for 10:) Creativity and flexibility is always the name of the game here!

I was in charge that evening when we admitted everyone. Despite it seeming like mass chaos most of the evening it finished well. And there is never a dull moment when working with these ladies. My favorite part was teaching these woman how to do sitz baths with a syringe. Since some of the ladies speak a northern language that no one can translate I decided a demonstration would be best...fully clothed of course:) I got the pan and syringe and sat on the floor like I was doing it. It was quite funny. After doing it one of the ladies had a question about it, so the translator grabbed the syringe from me and proceeded to continue to demonstrate how to use the syring to clean "down there"...except she continued to demonstrate on me. Let me just say a bit akward, but all the ladies got a big kick out of it and some good laughs:)


The first dress ceremony was today...6 days after the first surgery. Five ladies danced and all five are dry!!!! Praise the Lord! The exitement for these ladies NEVER gets old.

Happy International Nurses Day!!!!

(and Florence Nightingale's Birthday of course)

Even captain Tim joined in on the festivities!

Kids, Craziness, and Coffee

The last couple days have been a bit crazy. Ali is gone to Ghana for a week with her husband which means I am playing assistant ward supervisor for the week...full well knowing this is in a small way a ploy to get me 'used to this role' in hopes of me doing it next year. This has been the basis of much thought and prayer lately.

As for this week, however, it means that I am the day charge nurse in A and B ward Monday-Friday. In other words, I am more or less in charge of 8 nurses (many of which are new) and 40 patients. Now that the wards are full, it is a bit chaotic, especially when you are trying to do a bajillion things at once with 4 kids hanging off you, tickling you, poking you, mimicking what you are saying in English (quite hilarious actually), and trying to sit on your lap. Playing the chicken dance song does keep the kids quite entertained, however, and they have it fully memorized.

Today was just crazy. Everything that could possibly happen, happened. Or so it seemed. I really do enjoy charge nursing but today I could not think straight...between missing labs, caregivers needing to be tested for typhoid, surgeries added and cancelled, discharges, figuring out who we can possibly send home to find space for the 7 patients coming in tonight, questions from nurses, missing patients (luckily we found them), chasing escaped kids down the hall, trying to find an IV or deciding to put an NG down a little baby who isn't eating well, and dealing with the wrong amount of food trays...to name a few....I could barely catch my breath.

All this to say, I really do love my job and I really do have amazing friends. Two of my closest friends-Julle and Jenn- came down to help me out. They know how busy it can get and thought they would check on me. Jenn came down first...not knowing what she was getting herself into. She came with a fresh cup of coffee and helped me out SO much. Julle came later and also did a bunch of work for me. Even with the two of them helping, and no lunch break....I was still finishing the nurse allocations when the next shift was coming on. I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends and work with such helpful and amazing coworkers!

Please pray that God directs me this week as I do this job and gives me wisdom about the future. We also have several really big cases this week while a neuro surgeon is here to help Dr. Gary. This means several post op ICU patients. Please pray for wisdom for the MDs and nurses caring for these patients and the decisions that need to be made. For example...a woman with several large facial tumors went to surgery today at 2pm and at 9pm there was a page overhead for B+ donors to come to the lab. The woman had 8 units of blood already and they were only about half done with surgery. We are praying that we find enough donors for them to finish the surgery. Thankfully not every week is this crazy.

Sorry for the crazy long blog. This is just a little bit on my life at the moment. I am so behind on blogs...partially because of lack of motivation, partially cause I find it will be so hard to catch up, and partially cause so much is happened -many personal patient and friend stories that I do not know where to begin sharing, so I haven't. Not only is there a lot happening on the ward, but so much with crew as well. Two families have had to leave within weeks of each other very unexpectedly due to family health emergencies. It has taken a toll...but the devil ain't gonna win! In the meantime, we all keep keepin on....and to God be the glory!!!

Independence Day

April 27 is Togo's Independence Day. It was quite the memorable experience. I worked in the morning, but there was much celebrating and dancing on the wards...as well as balloons and flag making. The best idea of the day was from one of our translators who suggested we take the patients to the parade in town. I mean, sounds logical right? After we said, ya..that's a great idea he again replied, "no really, we should ask them if they want to go". Well, apart from finding a large bus, and herding about 50 patients with casts, drains, bandages into town...it sounded like a great idea...:) At least the translator was really trying to help the patients out! In the afternoon there was a large celebration in the dining room for the day workers..complete with food, prayer, and dancing....LOTS of dancing.

(Aissa really was having a blast...I think this picture just caught her off guard:) Oh, and can you see the balloon crown we taped to her head....she was queen Togo in the ward that day. Will have to write a seperate blog just on this precious girl.)

The rest of the day was spent with two of my close friends- Jenn, and Kristen. We met up with some of our day worker friends and they had big plans for us. We checked out the new monument the president had built and opened that day. It was fun listening to them telling the political history of Togo. They are all so proud of their country and really take praying for their country and leaders seriously...something that convicted me about how often I need to be praying for my country and leaders.

The dancing and celebration at the soccer stadium was my favorite. The president even came for this celebration. At one point there were hundreds of dancers doing a choreographed dance on the field, complete with pink and blue flowers. We thought the chinese music they danced to was a nice touch for Independence Day...haha:) The dancing was quite impressive actually. As we left in a huge squashed crowd Kristen leans over to me and laughs, "I think these are the exact crowds we are supposed to avoid". It was pretty crazy as thousands of people exited, but our friends took good care of us.

And of course the evening would not be complete without visiting a couple family homes. Eric (one of the day volunteers) had his sister cook some yummy akume for us. I was pretty proud that one of the Africans started sweating from the spices before us yovos did.

All in all it was a wonderful day!..except for Jenn's really bad burn from the exhaust pipe on the zemi we rode home on...oops. It made a nice tattoo though.