Mercy Ministries Begin

Hey there everyone. I am sorry it has been so long since I last posted, lots has been happening both on board the ship and off too. We have been in Liberia a little over a month, and already so much has happened.

The ward opened its doors on March 17, the first lot of patients being flown in by the Red Cross from the interior of the country. One of the ships Maxillo-Facial Surgeons Dr Tony Giles, and his wife Ann (who is a nurse) had arrived well before us in January and travelled to all the major counties and regions in Liberia, searching out and screening patients in need of surgery.

For this reason we have not needed a mass screening like we had in Ghana. The ward will be open for 7 weeks, and we have filled all the surgery slots for this time with the patients from the interior. In Mid May the new ship The Africa Mercy arrives into port, so we need to close the ward down to transfer personell and equipment over to the AFM. The ward will open up again in late June, unfortunately this will be after I have finished my year or service.

To fill up the many more surgery slots that are available on the AFM, we will be having a mass screening on the 3rd of May. I will of course post about that when it occurs. In the meantime the rest of the ward nurses and my self are happy that the ward is open again after the long break as we travelled from Ghana and set up. Here we all are, 30 of us from over 15 nations.

On one weekend we were also lucky enough to be invited to take a group of Mercy Shippers by train to an old delapidated mine 2.5 hours north of Monrovia. The Bong mines were at their height in the 70s, but continued to produce iron ore until the civil war began - ending chances of its survival. We loaded the land rovers onto the train, and were able to sit on top of them for the 70km journey (don't tell OSH)! It was a great view and a great opportunity to see the countryside out of the capital. Liberia is so green and lush.

We felt like celebrities as every village we passed on the train hooting our horn, all the children would come running out and wave to us with so much excitement! We had a great time waving to about 30 villages on our way there. At the mines there is a man made lake where we could all go swimming and cool off, as well as washing some of the diesel dust from our faces. We had a great picnic lake side, and again enjoyed the view from the roof of the Rovers on our way home!

The other cool thing that happened recently was my 25th birthday. It is not every birthday that you spend in Liberia, so I had a great day. I worked on the ward in the morning, and went out for dinner that evening, to a nice restaurant on the beach. We parked our Mercy Ships Land Rover between a UN Rover and a Red Cross Rover, and opposite a Doctors Without Borders Rover. The NGO presence in Liberia is massive. My door was decorated by fellow crew members and JP made me a wonderful cake. I was quite spoiled!

Looking forward to screening and telling you more about some of our wonderful patients. Until then Happy Easter, and may this be a time for us all to reflect on the death and ressurection of Jesus Christ, and what that amazing act on the cross means for each of us today.