Why I work for Mercy Ships

A friend of mine sent me these questions so she could use my responses in a talk she is doing and seeing the questions made me think of answers I thought I would post them here.

How and when did you first hear of Mercy Ships?
A friend of mine Kat Stout was a nurse on the Anastasis for 5 months and she told me all about it.
Why did you decide to join the crew?
I have always had an interest in Medical things, but never wanted to go into it as a field and recently before hearing of Mercy Ships I had been feeling an urge to go on a ship and had been looking at OM ships, but then Mercy Ships just fit me better
What did you plan on doing on the ship? What are you doing now?
I originally planned on been an assistant cook on board working in the ships Galley. However not too long after arriving I found myself been stretched as I learnt alot taking on the role of cooking team leader in the Galley. I did that for a year before leaving as my time serving was up, but later decided to return and since returning I have worked in the sales department helping to provide the essentials as well as a few extra luxuries for the crew, working in the ship shop and helping run the cafe. Most recently though I have been thrown (willingly) into a whole nother role entirely. I have taken on the role as one of the accountants onboard the ship for the rest of the year. I have no formal training for this but have a head for numbers so I am feeling stretched but learning alot. I take care of all the business transactions of the ship and transfers between US$ and the local currency as well as looking after the payroll for some of our locally employed staff such as translators.
How long have you been on the ship? How long do you plan on staying?
I have been onboard the ship for a total of 19 months over a time period of just over 2 years and at the moment do not know when I will be leaving, so I will keep working till that day comes.
What is your favorite part of Mercy Ship/ being a part of the crew?
I would have to say the community, it isn't the best point for everyone but I just love it. The fact that I am living on a ship with 400 other people from over 30 different nationalities and cultures and yet it somehow works. I like that there is always a friend around when you need one or someone to support you when you are down. And the crazy fun stuff you can get up to in you time off.
If there was one thing you'd like people to understand/know about Mercy Ships what would it be?
The fact that although Mercy Ships is a great organisation that’s main focus is Medical work with surgery there are opportunities for people with a whole range of talents and skills to come and get involved and play a role in helping support the doctors and nurses get there work done. The fact that without the non-medical staff there is no way that Mercy Ships would work at all.
What are a few of the lessons (if any) you have learned on/about Mercy Ships/mission work?
I have learnt to be aware of cultural differences even more than I was before and that to make any lasting change you need to work at the base of the problem and not just focus on the end result. Not only that, but changing the smallest thing in someone’s life such as a simple corrective surgery can drastically impact someone’s life here for the better.

80's Party

This Saturday just gone by some of my friends here on the ship decided that it would be a good idea to throw an 80’s dance party just because we could. A fair bit of work went into the planning and advertising of the party mainly by my friend Meg. There was an emphasis in the advertising put on the fact that everyone coming needed to try and dress up as “80s” as possible. Now been in a West African country this is not as hard as you might think with there been loads on cheap cloths in the second hand market in town (a lot of which probably are from the 80s) and also there is a boutique on the ship full of people old unwanted cloths free for the taking.

The party kicked off at about 7.30 and we had it up on deck 8 of the ship which is the top deck out in the open so we wouldn’t disturb too many people. There weren’t many people there to start with but once the music was going and some people started making idiots of them selves on the dance floor, people started showing up and really getting into it. The costumes that people (mainly girls to be honest) came up with were amazing and you could really see the people that enjoyed dressing up.

All up it was a great evening and people had loads of fun and we will defiantly have to do something similar again.

Football Match

Last Sunday was quiet an experience for some of us from the ship. A group of what ended up been about 45 of us decided we would go to cheer on the country of our current residency Benin as they played in a world cup qualifier game against Mali. I would have to say the Mali with a few more well known players than Benin would have to be the favourites in my book, but it was a do or die situation with both teams needing a win so it made for an exciting game.

The day started with us going to get tickets for everyone in the morning to make sure we got in before they sold out. There were 3 options in tickets a 1000CFA, 2000CFA and 5000CFA(460CFA = $1), we were told by a local driver who was taking us to pick up the tickets that the 1000 and 2000CFA tickets were the same the only difference was that one cost more and then the 5000CFA ticket got you a nicer seat in a sheltered area. So we bought a bunch of both tickets with some people wanting to the cheaper option and some wanting the nicer seats.

We went back to the ship and handed out the tickets and went about our days before gathering together at 1pm to head to the game. We hired a few local mini buses to take us to the stadium and made sure we left early knowing that the traffic would be bad and the line to get into the stadium would also be bad. After getting in we sat and waited for the match to start as the stadium rapidly filled up. We were easy to spot in the crowd a bunch of Yovos (white people) all sitting in a row in Benin supporter shirts.

For most of the match it wasn’t very exciting football although the atmosphere in the crowd was great. With about 10 mins to go though Mali scored a goal and then things got a bit exciting. Benin was doing all they could to try and get the scores back level but to no avail. Until just before the game finished Benin managed to get the goal and the stadium erupted with cheers from the crowd. The game ended in a draw 1-1 and now you would think this would be the best fair outcome, but what it means is now both Benin and Mali have no chance to qualify for the world cup.

Fire Drill Training

Well First off I am going to make an apology for my lack of blogging well that is if there is anyone still checking this almost dormant blog I am apologising to you.

Thursday last week we had a fire drill here on the ship. Now that is not at all an uncommon thing as we generally have a drill every fortnight (or 2 weeks for those who don't know what that means). This drill however was different because A. it was in the morning and most of our drills are in the afternoon, and B. we didn't simulate a fire instead those of us on the fire teams got to have a go at using some of our special equipment that we have heard and talked about but never used.

Some of the equipment we tested includes the foam dispensing nozzle and the container penetrating nozzle, as seen below. The foam nozzle is very good for laying down a blanket over the fire and suffocating it out and the container penetrating nozzle as the name suggests is great for penetrating through the side of a shipping container or even a thin wall in the ship and putting out the fire without having to open the door to the space. After we had tested and learnt how to use both the nozzles we did a test that no one was sure would work we tried pumping foam liquid through the container penetrating nozzle to see if it would be a possibility in a real situation with great success.

Foam dispensing nozzle
Container penetrating nozzleShooting the foam dispensing nozzle

Using a sledge hammer to poke the nozzle through a practice wall
How the nozzle works once its gone through the wall
Testing if the penetrating nozzle works with foam (success!)
Shooting foam over the side of the ship into the wind.

Generators

One thing I would like to bring up that is needed here on the ship is the fact that we are in need of some new generators to replace the ones we currently have, which we are constantly having problems with. The way things are set up in the engine room on the ship is there are 2 large generators which we call the harbour generators and then there are 4 smaller generators called the Fricks generators (spelling probably wrong). In order to have enough power to run everything on the ship we have to run 3 out of the 4 Fricks generators or the 2 harbour generators or a combination of both. Now we don't have any major problems with the harbour generators, but the Fricks have been giving us lots of problems. So why not just run the harbour generators you may ask well you see the problem is that the harbour generators while running cause alot of noise and vibration through some of the hospital wards and even some of the operating theaters. So therefore we try and run the fricks generators as much as possible so that none of the hospital needs to be shut down. Except when we have problems with the fricks we need to run the harbours and thus the hospital is not going at its full potential. So the plan you see is that we are hopefully going to get 4 new generators to replace the fricks, about the same size but slightly more powerful so that it only takes 2 of them running to power the ship and then the other 2 can be on standby and maintenance. The plan was to hopefully do the change at the end of this year, but due to lack of funding it has been postponed until hopefully the end of next year, because it is quiet a process as a hole needs to be cut in the side of the ship to get the generators in and out. So I would ask that you pray for this, That the money would come in over the next year so that this generator switch is possible and also pray that the generators last for another year without giving us too many problems and don't hinder the running of the hospital at all.

A new means of Transport

Well I have done it what mum probably never really wanted me to do even in Australia because its too dangerous, I have bought a motorbike. Well not a motorbike exactly more of a scooter or moped really, in fact its a Italian made 1982 Vespa 150cc. You may ask why this rather strange choice of bike. Well there are a few reasons the main one been the person who owns the other half of the bike only wanted to get a vespa and nothing else, and then there is the fact that they are very well built and reliable I mean there are lots of 1960s vespas on the streets here. The only other real choice unless u want to spend alot of money is to get a cheap Chinese made bike that are everywhere but are known for breaking down. We got the bike for US$600 so my half was $300 and I am quiet happy with it at the moment. I got the bike mainly to help with getting around town as there are not taxis everywhere like Liberia and I am unable to drive the ships vehicles due to been underage for the insurance.


On this Saturday just gone by I got to give the bike a good test out as I went on a bit of spontaneous bike cruise. I was sitting in the dinning room just eating some lunch and one of the other guys that owns a bike came up to me and asked me if I was interested in going for a ride to Porto Novo which is the capital of Benin. I said sure why not I didn't have any other plans. So at 1 o'clock we gathered together 4 bikes in all and set out on our road trip adventure. It was great fun riding up the highway to Porto Novo and really getting to test out the vespa fully and I must say I was impressed with her. I was able to keep up with the other 3 bikes without too much effort at all and it was great just feeling the wind in my face cruising along the highway (although next time some sun screen for my face would be good as I forgot this time and regretted it a little). Once we got to Porto Novo we took a short break and then proceeded to drive around the streets all over the city just looking around. It was a lot of fun and we got a lot of strange looks and shouts our group of Yovo's (white people) on bikes just riding around. We had a great day and ended up been out for about 5 hours which is the longest I have ever spent on a bike, but the vespa was surprisingly comfortable for such a long ride.

meeting Ambrose

First of all I would like to say sorry for my period of silence. I don't have a good excuse for not writing so I won't give one.
I have been well, as you may remember I gave blood not long ago, well I thought I would follow up with the rest of the story.
You may recall that I had struggled a bit with giving blood as I was less than sufficiently hydrated. You also may remember that I was videoed a bit for a documentary, but it seems that I missed out the fact that there was also a photographer there taking pics for the ships communication department (they write stories about the crew and patients on board). Well this photographer came up to me at work about a week later and asked if I would be willing to come down to the ward and have my pic taken with Ambrose who was the one who received my blood. I was one of eight people to had donated blood to Ambrose so he had lost alot in surgery and it was good to see the end result that all the cysts had been removed and he could now use his right arm again. I posed for a photo with him and then sat and talked with him for a while through a translator, it was good to just get to see and meet the person that I had given some of my own blood too.