"For our stuggle is not against flesh and blood" (sorry, this is a long one)

I have been working with the VVF women now for the last 3 days. This was the first night of 3 night shifts in the same ward. Little did I know at 930pm what I would be walking into. First, here is a little history.
Bed 17 (Ramatou) and bed 11 (Kolani) are from the same village up north, Muslim, and met on the bus coming down here. Realizing they were going to the same place for the same thing and from the same village, they had an instant bond. Ramatou is the only one who spoke Kolani’s language, although Ramatou could also speak French. Ramatou was going to be discharged but we kept her for Kolani since she was the only one who could speak her language. Kolani was really upset when we told her Ramatou was maybe going to go home, so relieved when we let her stay. I had also been told in report that Ramatou had become a Christian and since then Kolani and her had not gotten along as well. Clemintine (our awesome ward discipler came down to pray with them and talk in the morning yesterday and they went for a walk and things seemed to be fine the rest of the day.
So I walk onto my shift and there was a lot of noise on that side of the room. Bed 11 and 17 seemed to be arguing with the other ladies chiming in. I asked the translators what was going on. He kind of gave me the same story as I had been told. There was only one translator (who wasn’t stationed in my ward) who kind of spoke 11's language. He came over as well. I was told bed 11 acted up a bit the night before as well and that tonight she was paranoid and not going to sleep , saying she thought the white men were going to kill her. I’m not sure if this is because she was Muslim and her friend was converted, or what. But later she tried to warn the others that she had seen me pouring poison. We finally calmed everyone down and I gathered the translators and some other nurses to pray. One of the translators said that this was a spiritual battle and the woman would not find rest until she finds the Lord. I agreed that this seemed to be spiritually rooted. Another patient later was saying that Kolani had a "bad spirit" and it could not find a place to go while on the ship so she (Kolani) wanted to leave.
Well, we finally got everyone calmed down and Kolani was just sitting on her bed. I was sitting at the computer and had a curtain up to block the lights from the patients at night. I heard a yell from behind the curtain. I pull the curtain back and Kolani was crouched by bed 14. Now bed 14 is all upset cause she was sleeping and woke up to Kolani just crouched by her looking at her. Well, this got the whole side of the room in an uproar again. All the ladies woke up and starting talking loudly back and forth. Bed 14 refused to go back to sleep and wanted a light on because she was freaked out by Kolani and said she had a bad spirit and was practicing witchcraft. I told her I would take the curtain down and leave the light up front on so I could watch Kolani so the others could sleep.
Everyone went back to sleep for about another 30 minutes. It’s about midnight now and I look behind me and Kolani is standing by bed 17 now. I go over there and this commotion wakes bed 17 up. Kolani refuses to leave "her friend’s" side and says she wants to sleep with her. This gets everyone riled up again and the translator and I decide we need to move either bed 17 or Kolani. Bed 17 was fed up with 11 always bugging her. We figured we wouldn’t be able to get Kolani out on her own will so we decide to move 17 into another ward. Bed 14 wanted to leave too, but we can’t move everyone. Well, moving her friend made bed 11 more upset, but there was no compromising with her.
Again, things calmed down for about an hour…Kolani went back to sit on her bed. However, anytime anyone would come into the ward or the phone would ring she would get startled and stand up and go over to bed 19 and shake her legs, wake her up and cause more commotion. This happened almost every hour or two. The translator and I finally had to take turns sitting in a chair at the end of her bed so she could not get out. At times when she had gone to bed 19, the translator and I had to forcefully pull her back to her bed and sit her down.
At one point at like 3am during another escapade, 14 came over and started yelling at Kolani again. The translator interpreted that she said, "I have Jesus in my stomach (they use that instead of heart here) and if you come near me He will kill you!" Thank goodness no one else spoke Kolani’s language or I feel like that would have been another whole ordeal.
I spent most of the night reading scripture and praying for Kolani and for protection for the other women against whatever Satan had in His mind to do. It was a long night needless to say. At 6am I went to empty her foley catheter and it was not by her. I was so confused cause I had been watching her and she had it with her all night. I finally found it under her bed. The translator had fallen asleep watching her at one point and I’m guessing this is when it happened. At this point I am beyond frustrated. She had just had surgery 3 days ago and was now dry from leaking urine...if she pulled a catheter out, that would cause some serious damage. However, when I saw the catheter, she had managed to tear the rubber part so the bulb of the catheter was still in her. She would not let me touch her to get it out. I paged the VVF coordinator on call and we discussed what to do. We decided to leave her alone and wait until bed 17 comes back and see if we can get it out without having to hold her down. This is where I left it at shift change in the morning.
I went to bed and slept until about 4pm. I ran into one of my roommates who was in B ward in the morning and asked her how it turned out. It took them until 10am to convince her to let them take out the catheter. Then she still refused to stay here. We are not going to hold them against their will, so she got discharged. I guess midmorning she calmed down until the Jesus film came on at which point she just sat in her bed and screamed for 30 mintues. They had her then sent to the hospitality center. On the way out she sat in the middle of the hallway and screamed again. When they finally got her to the hospitality center she caused more chaos and either left on her own or was kicked out. So now she is wondering somewhere in Cotonou, even though she is from up north.
I continue to pray for her that she finds the Lord and that the devil will release His grip on her. I also continue to pray for Ramatou who will be going back to the same village that her faith will remain unshaken and used to convert many in that village and even in Kolani’s life. I praise God for His grace and protection last night as it got a bit scary at times. This was the first time in Benin that I really was involved in something like that. I know there is a big spiritual battle going on and it is even more prevalent here with all the voodoo and witchcraft we are surrounded with. I truly believe everything that happened last night was spiritual. I also continue to pray for the other ladies on the ward that God will protect them and not be affected by Kolani. I know Kolani is a precious child of God and I pray so hard that she will find Him and His freedom and love! The spiritual warfare going on is very real! I am so thankful that Ramatou became a Christian!. Our God is a God of healing and reconciliation emotionally, spiritually, and physically. What an awesome God we serve! He is breaking bonds, revealing His love, giving freedom and healing right in front of my own eyes. The resistance from the enemy is very real, but our God is bigger!!!
Ephesians 6:12
"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

Dirty Jobs

We think we have a new idea for the show Dirty Jobs. Four brave divers had the chore today of going down to clean off the air conditioning vents on the ship. This has to be done on a regular basis because they get clogged quickly and then the air conditioning doesn't function so well.

Tracy was one of the lucky divers. She got to the ship this past week. She did gateway with me and is so fun to be around. The last 6 months before gateway she spent hiking the Appalachian trail. Well, I had to giggle because when she got here she was all excited that she was a certified diver and she wanted to go down and help look for all the honey and other paraphanalia that fell to the ocean floor when a couple crates broke when unloading a container. Others heard about this and next thing she new she was designated to go on the honey expedition as well as clean off the vents with some others.

I saw her coming out of the water after I finished my run. Needless to say, Im pretty sure she will not be quite as quick to volunteer for the next dive...the look on her face said it all. I think the pictures do all the explaining. It sure takes a lot of soap and scrubbing to feel clean after comin up out of that water:) But thanks to Tracy and the other ship divers for doing that so we can have air conditioning!!!:)

On a cleaner note...I am doing night shift right now and at about 1030pm one of the translators who plays guitar came in and we had a spontaneous (those are the best!) worhsip, dance, singing session. We had already shut the lights of but the ladies loved it, so we sang for about an hour. I wish I could videotape some of this stuff some times because words can't explain it. Several of the translators and a couple of us nurses just sang and danced. One of the translators can make a trumpet sound...different notes and everything..sounds exactly like it...he joined in as well. It was amazing starting the night out like that...praising God and asking for His presence here. I just wanted to share how cool that was. Praise the Lord!

Emma's Birthday

The other week I was invited to Emma's 17th birthday party. Her and her family have lived on the ship for quite a while now. I became close to her when I was here last year. She is such a fun girl! Her family is from England, but she is actually thinking about doing nursing school in Texas next year...:)

Well, when you have been living on a ship for years you kinda have to start getting creative with birthdays. This year Emma had a custome party/video scavanger hung. Emma gave each person an invitation and a person/job on the ship they had to dress up as and act like throughout the evening. It was quite fun...i had to come as an officer, there were some who had to dress up as a nurse, baker, academy (school on the ship) kid, housekeeping, hairdresser, engineer, surgeon, etc. We thensplit into teams and each team given a video camera. We had an hour to go around the ship and do the tasks that were on our sheet. Each one was worth different points. Then we had to have our team videotaped while doing it. The team with the most points at the end one. Some of the things we had to do included:

-forming a pyrimid in by the cafe and singing a song from Sound of Music

-having a team mate shower with their clothes on

-knock on the door of a family cabin and sing a Christmas carol

-have a team member run through the midships lounge (where everyone hangs out) singing and acting out I Believe I Can Fly

-drinking from the sludge bucket (where everyone dumps their unused liquids after meals)

-the group doing the Macarena

-borrowing money to get a coke then having someone drink it in one swig and burp the alphabet

It was great fun needless to say. I will try to add some pictures:)

Team Rockstar

The last week or so I have been working on D ward....the maxillo-facial surgery ward. It has been pretty busy in the evenings getting patients back late and having several little kiddos that have had some not so fun surgeries needing lots of care, meds, suctioning, etc. I have to say...I don't believe I would enjoy having those mouth surgeries, having my jaw wired shut and spitting up blood. It has been quite busy but I have been working I have been working with Linda...my favorite Dutch Canadian and we do AWESOME team work if I don't say so myself.

Linda and I have so much fun together and work so well as a team....well...except the time we were drawing blood and I got stuck with a needle. I am good at IVs and she is a pediatric nurse so we went to another ward to draw blood for a baby. Well, long story short, after getting the blood I was holding the needle and she was trying to push up the safety cap and somehow I got poked (always a bit scary in Africa). Luckily it was a small needle and not deep and I bled a bit after. And again... God is SOOOO good....the patient's blood was negative for HIV and Hepatitis. I will get rechecked in another 3 and 6 months...so it is still a prayer request, but God has been good! Now it's just a big joke. But we are a great team at drawing blood on kids I have to say! It is just quite humurous now when we do it and how far away from the needle we stay:)

Anyhoo...sorry about the rabbit trail. But Linda and I have had some busy days but manage to still laugh, have fun, and help each other out. After our run of evening shifts last week we went and had some cookies outside up on deck 8. It was quite entertaining. Around midnight we saw cars pull up to the ship next to us and people on the ship with flashlights so we made up this whole story of how they were dealing drugs and gonna throw a body overboard any moment. Well, it was entertaining to us anyway...I guess anything is at that time of night though:) It will be a sad day when she leaves in June:( I'm sure you will hear about her again;)

Oh, and random thought of the day: I have had about 6 people now (nurses and African day workers) ask me if Im Australian because of my accent. ..ya, I have no idea. But I thought that was kinda funny. Maybe that is what happens when you mix midwest accents with Texan ones;)

Joy

I just wanted to share something that really made me smile...and even shed a tear. We had a 7 year girl named Blandie staying on the ward a few days before surgery with her dad. I got into work Friday eve. and told that she was in surgery, but apparently that day the doctors looked at the cat scan and realized how critical this surgery was going to be and even if it was worth the risk. They would be awfully close to the carotid artery to remove the tumor the girl had. The doctors had talked to the father earlier in the day and told him his little girl may not make it through surgery. Since they were working so close to a major artery, if they nicked it, it could be life threatening. The patient was in surgery for 7 hours with people outside praying pretty much the whole time. It was a bit tense on the ward as we awaited news.

At 8pm we heard the surgery went well and we could get the patient back from post op soon. At 9 we got the privilege of getting Blandie back. As they pushed the stretcher in the room the dad followed...with the BIGGEST grin on his face. A nurse and I stayed over after our shift to help get the patient situated and I don't think I saw the daddy once without a huge grin from ear to ear. I hugged him a few times and was just over joyed to watch him and his girl. He was SO happy his daughter made it through surgery. We are so thankful that God guided that surgery and protected her through it. It's days like this I leave work reminded again why I am here and so blessed to be doing what Im doing:) ...And also reminded it is not by our strength, intelligence, resources but God's. I am just blessed and humbled to be a part of it:)

The "Beach"

I was sitting at dinner and a friend was telling me that there was a nice little place to eat right off the dock on the beach by the ship. This really excited me so a few of us went there to get a coke one evening and take a walk. I was warned that the beach was not so clean before I went and as you can see from the ship, the beach near here is lined with shacks/huts. And since it is on the beach, the beach is the choice toileting place for the people who live there...it only makes sense right?;) We walked through a fish market to get there, but unfortunately all the fish were put away for the eve....but the smell sure didn't. I will have to go back and check out the fish next time. As we walked through to the beach many little kids swormed us and hugged our legs and followed us for a bit. As we walked along the beach we definitely saw several people "using the bathroom" there on the beach. Sure made us look twice before each step:) So nice to get out and walk along the beach though...I love the sound of waves crashing and the breeze brushing against my face. We went to get a drink and some fries and then left to walk back shortly after dark. And yes, I washed my hands a few times before eating after witnessing what I did on the beach and giving all those little kids a high five:)
Anyway, we had walked down the beach a bit toward the fish market when our waitress came running after us yelling. I thought we had forgotten something. Instead, in a cross between french and sherades I could make something out about bandits and white people and stabbing. She did the stabbing motion quite well;) She pretty much told us we could not go back that way becuase it was unsafe and we may be attacked. So we took the road home instead. We made it back safe and sound but thought it was afully nice of her to run after us and enlighten us. God is good:)

And, on different note, I survived my first set of night shifts. They went quite smoothly actually and I stayed awake quite well...better than I remember. Although, I do believe some of that was adrenaline as I had to take care of a nauseated little boy who had his jaw wired shut from surgery. I was giving him some NG tube feeds and I would only get halfway done when he would motion to me to stop and motion he felt like throwing up. So, being on night shift and not having a lot of extra hands around I did not push it. We keep wire cutters above the bed in case those patients throw up and start choking because the fluid cannot get out. However, I REALLY was hoping I would not have to deal with that situation on my shifts. Needless to say I did a bit of extra praying for him those nights:) Praise the Lord he did not end up throwing up:)...But I think I constantly kept looking at him half the night paranoid he was going to and that I would have to use the wire cutters.

Sorry so long..I know, I promised they'd be shorter....next time;)

Celebration

Last Sunday instead of going out to church I went to church on the ward. I know I wrote about this last year as well. I always enjoy being able to worship with the patients and hear their testimonies and it's always so vibrant and joyful. Patients covered in bandages from their legs to some on their faces with drains all come together into one ward to sing, dance, or if they are unable to do that, at least clap:) Although many of them are uncomfortable and healing from surgery it is a time for them to come together and enjoy each other, sing, laugh, and smile!

This past Sunday during service and again Tuesday I was able to be a part of the dress ceremony they do for the vvf women who have had surgery to fix a hole that causes them to leak urine and are now dry. Many gave their testimony and told about the tragic life they had suffered many years because of this and all the options they tried including hospitals, fetish priests, and witch doctors-none of which worked. Most women tell of how their own husbands, families, communities disowned them. C-sections are not available so women suffer through labor days before having a still born and consequently having a fistula between the bladder and vagina from the prolonged labor. And as if all the suffering they go through is not enough, they are often blamed for their 'illness' as a consequence for a sin or something they have done. their husbands often abandon them and just use their other wives for child birth.

Anyways...back to the ceremony.....It is such a cool thing to see the women with a new beautiful dress and make-up leaving a brand new woman. The joy and happiness they express is life changing. Because all the other solutions they tried failed, many of them are now going home believeing in the true God and say they are no longer going to sacrifice chickens and give money to witch doctors because they know who the true healer is! This is such a cool thing to be a part of!

Attatched are some pictures from Sunday's church/ceremony.:)