wordless wednesday

If there is one thing God has reminded me over the last few weeks, its how fragile and short my life is. Our days are indeed numbered. Knowing this, I want to live each day loving, giving, and encouraging others and those that my heart holds dear. But, also believing and trusting my sovereign God, that He holds all things in His loving hands and has a purpose for everything under heaven. 

I say all this because over the last few weeks the crew has been pretty shaken over some tragic events... one of our day volunteers that I work with on the ward was killed in a motor bike accident. He is survived by a wife and two small daughters. Another day volunteer was brutally attacked one night and had to have surgery on an injured arm. Three of our crew were pretty sick with malaria and had to be taken care of by our staff in the hospital. Thankfully none of them got cerebral malaria and are well recovered now. And lastly, another crew member was badly hit by a motorbike when running. 

Oh, how I think we all should take the moments in our days to express our love... give out more hugs... be more patient with the long line at the teller or grocery store... sing instead of curse when stuck in traffic... be thankful & content... give... laugh... smile... the list goes on...

May we loosen our grip on "the things" in the day to day and hold tighter to the people... those whom we love.

i heart africa

My precious little friends...

fun-loving Julian & sweet Glegbenou

giggles face :) "Nai-Nai"

joyful Henriette & spunky Mama Anicette with my beautiful friend Becky

cuddly Peter

brothers :)

dental clinic

Last week I spent a day out with the dental team. Every week day the team goes out to their clinic, a local facility that Mercy Ships rents out, to provide free dental care. They give cleanings, perform lots of teeth extractions, and make referrals for dentures paid for by Mercy Ships. They have already seen over 7,000 patients and see approximately 50 patients a day.

While the patients are waiting, they receive teaching on proper dental care and other health education.

The large room full of dental chairs and instruments.

Table full of sterile instruments

I got to help Donna, one of the hygientists while she cleaned teeth... suctioning! :)

...and help Simon, one of the dentists as he was pulling teeth. 

This man got 15 teeth pulled at one time!! They like to do only a few at one visit and do the rest another visit, but since its the end of the outreach there isn't room for second visits. Everything is done under local anesthesia.

This is Roseanne, their one and only sterilizer. She's amazing!

The instrument sterilizer

Lunch break... :)

At the end of the day, a patient came before her scheduled appointment because she had lower jaw pain and swelling. She had a raging infection and was at risk if immediate action wasn't taken. I got to watch as the dentists performed "surgery" in the chair, putting in a tiny drain (penrose) to drain out the pus. 

I had such a fun time observing another aspect of the ministry here and interacting with the staff. So many here have dead or broken teeth that need to be pulled, but they can't afford to see one of the few local dentists. I was amazed at how trusting the patients were and the pain that they tolerated. Even so, each one walked away with looks of relief and appreciation.

weekend get-away

Finally some photos from our weekend at Grand Popo beach for our anniversary...

We had a gorgeous oceanfront view!!

just the two of us

Playing life-size checkers... who would have thought checkers could be so much fun! :)

After finding this creature in the field behind him, the man tied it up and was trying to sell it to passersby.

No water irrigation here... the fields are watered by hand!!

Lounging on the beach under "umbrella huts"... 

we think the oregon coast should have these :) 

i love you too!

Not shown: 

-When we arrived to the hotel we learned our reservations had been accidentally given to someone else...the owner offered to give us a ride to another hotel down the street... we took turns riding on the back of his motobike with our bags, holding on, in the dark!! :)

-Dining out...pizza & beer...yummy!

-Memories made, reminiscing and dreaming...

A day in the Purser's Office

An excerpt from our September 2009 newsletter:

My day starts by quickly gathering all the passports of new arriving crew of the past few days and departing crew for the up coming days. I then put together the shore passes for them. A shore pass is a piece of paper that is signed and stamped by immigration for each crewmember to carry with them while they are in the country. Once passports are compiled, and the shore passes are put together I put them in a shoulder bag, put on my sunglasses, grab our wonderful translator named James from reception, scan off the ship, and head down the gangway on to the dock. We get into a Mercy Ship land rover, and drive about a mile from the ship to a building that is shared by our shipping agent and the port immigration office. The shipping agent is a local business that is our liaison with the government.


As we arrive at the big yellow building, which looks like an old used tire store built in the 1960s that still has tires and mattresses lying around, we get out of the vehicle and walk inside. I knock on Simon’s door (our agent) and walk inside. I reach over a desk of cluttered papers and miscellaneous junk and give him a handshake. He then sends me to another office to meet one of his colleagues who leads us around the building to the port immigration office. As we walk into the immigration building, I walk though dozens of confiscated motorcycles called zimi-jeans and begin smelling the odor of urine and feces coming from an old-fashioned jail cell around the corner. We then walk into the actual immigration office. The office is a small room that is filled with a fridge, four chairs, one desk, three televisions, a lot of junk, and four employees sitting down watching the only television that works. I hand-over the shore passes to be signed and stamped. This takes a while because the African culture is all about relationships, so they want to spend time with you. I am asked questions about what we can give them, women, family, & America.

After building relationships downstairs, it is time for me to go upstairs to another office. Now this office is special. This is where our passports are stamped. Until recently, I was not allowed in the office. I had to hand our passports to Simon to get them stamped. After much persistence and relationship building, I am finally able to walk in the office and hand the gentlemen our passports!

This whole process usually takes all morning and half of my workday twice a week. ☺

what we've been up to...

>Celebrated our anniversary a few weekends ago at a local beach resort!! More to come soon!

Beautiful bouquet of local tropical flowers Tim bought Hannah

>Writing our latest newsletters... hope you enjoyed them :)

>Started reading President Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope."  So far so good.

>Finally saw the doctor after 4 weeks of coughing & got antibiotics... it's getting better.

>Exercising again now that the energy is back!!

>Spent a very relaxing afternoon at another beach with some friends. Had fun playing games & miniature golf, sipping espresso... just enjoying the day off ship. I'll post pics of this outing soon too:)

>Dreaming and praying about the future... 

>Sporadic evenings veggin' with NCIS :)

>Saying hello and good-bye to friends

Three of the four "Hannah's" on board! :)

>Working of course :)

>Making plans for our vacation the end of December... can't wait!!

>Encouraged by others and much-needed time in prayer (re: last post).