preparations

::sitting in the Midships Lounge, enjoying the sounds of a crewmember plunking away at the piano::

This week has been chugging along pretty smoothly since Monday's incident (read about on the previous post).  On Tuesday, we (the Eye Team) trained our day volunteers.  Day volunteers are local folks who work on the ship, fulfilling a variety of jobs, such as housekeeping, kitchen, and deckwork.  Also, a lot of day volunteers work with medical units, escorting patients, translating, and serving in other capacities.  Mercy Ships reimburses the volunteers for their travel, but for some people, working with us serves as their actual job.  While the reimbursement is minimal by American standards, it is several times more than the average daily wages here in Freetown, so in addition to free lunches and medical screenings for themseleves, it is a pretty great deal.  They work really hard and I can say that I would definitely be lost without their translating abilities.  While English is the official language of Sierra Leone, about 90% of the population also speaks Krio, with is an English-based language.  If you talk slowly, locals can understand you most of the time, but it is definitely a challenge to understand fast-spoken Krio. 

Anyway, back to the week.  Wednesday, Thursday, and today we had patients on board for their secondary screenings.  These patients were seen at the stadium on Monday before things went downhill.  So far we have scheduled 13 patients for surgery next week.  While this number is low, it is at least a start.  We have also been getting ready for this coming Monday, which will (hopefully) be our first screening day at Kissy Eye Clinic (we will be there every Monday until October).  Since surgeries don't start until Tuesday, I will get to go this Monday and help out.  I'm looking forward to it since our screening time last Monday was cut drastically short.  However, in light of the events at the stadium screening, our security team has very strict requirements for letting the Kissy screening happen, so if things are perfect on Monday, then we will have to refrain from screening.  We have all been praying that things go well and that we can make this happen.  

Wednesday night, the hospital department sponsored an open house for the rest of the crew.  Each ward had a different activities and/or snacks.  Even the Operating Room wing was open, which gave us the opportunity to see all the different theaters.  In our eye room, we set up a maze that a participant would lead their blindfolded partner through to represent guiding a blind patient around the ship.  At the end of the maze, my teammate John made a large eyeball out of cardboard and an exercise ball and we had a mock cataract extraction surgery.  It was a lot of fun and the kids here on the ship really enjoyed walking their blindfolded parents through the maze (and bumping them into furniture!).

This afternoon I had a meeting with Glenys, the OR coordinator for the ophthalmic surgeries.  Although I've only known about her for a few days and have only talked with her for a total of about an hour, I already know she is a tough cookie with a heart of gold.  She is from New Zealand (near where The Lord of the Ring was filmed) and gave me a run down of what my job will look like once surgeries start.  I'm excited to get started, but am a little overwhelmed already.  There is a lot to do in coordinating the flow of patients: giving a bunch of different (timed) eye drops, escorting them to various rooms, paperwork, checking vital signs, communicating with the OR, etc.  I will have 2 day volunteers and a nurse working directly with me, but it still feels like a lot of responsibility.  Glenys assured me that the first day would include a lot of mistakes but also a lot of grace.  Later on in the day, the hospital staff had a prayer and praise service since the hospital officially opens Sunday evening.  It was a good time to relax at the end of the work week and to remember the reason why we are really here.

I am going to try to make more frequent posts in hopes that they will not be quite as lengthly.  Every time I sit down to make a post, I think that I will be just a minute, but then I end up writing these long posts as I spill out everything that is on my mind.

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods, wherever you are reading this from.