Ships log # 2
After yet another solid night’s sleep (no doubt due to either the hum of the air conditioning or the sea air) I was up according to the ships timetable to have breakfast and make my lunch (only in the wkends) and then we were off for a half hour walk to the HOPE centre for patients and their families either waiting for surgery or having had surgery. These patients need nursing and nutritional care that could not be provided for in their home environment and they might stay there for several weeks. I played with some of the smaller children using board games and animal dominoes. My limited French came in very useful and I was able to communicate with one six year old girl effectively and even persuaded her to let her younger brother participate as well !! My French lesson this afternoon, however, involved finding out more animal names and revising names for colours. But I was able to teach her numbers beyond 10 – sacre bleu !! I also interacted successfully with a 10 year old boy and we discussed what was in my backpack. He even reminded me to close it before I walked back along the road. How very perceptive he was and how clever of me to understand what he said J I immensely enjoyed the morning and we departed before their lunch was served vowing to go back next wkend. I will endeavor to find some puzzles for them in a local shop before then as there were none at the centre and they rely on donation of equipment.
This photo shows HOPE centre manager Sheryl Wells with some family members…
This photo taken of me on our return to the ship is on the dock beside the Africa Mercy with the gangplank to the right and the patient preoperative assessment tents to the left.
There are eight decks to negotiate and I am rapidly becoming familiar with where everything is – I am also now very good at planning well in advance as one does not want go up and down the stairs too often J But I will be very fit upon my departure I am sure. I can’t believe how much at home I feel here ….and have had to take the role of cabin mother already !!
The days have quickly become a mixture of timetabled activities and reading, learning French, email checking (most grateful for all), blogging, swimming in the lap pool, checking what activities are coming up, putting my name down for said activities, and catching up with more new found friends. I have already made plans for next wkend to visit some bush areas with waterfalls a few hours inland with an overnight stay. But I must now concentrate on my first week of work which could be somewhat arduous after over 3wks since I last scrubbed up.
I would love to have more photos to put up at this point – and there have been many occasions when I would like to take some but taking them would feel like an intrusion on people’s lives. The city is a hive of activity with children playing with small toys in the dirt, men playing soccer on a hastily made pitch which extended from one side of the pavement to the pavement on the other side of the road, mothers feeding babies sitting on wooden crates, stall holders hawking their wares, taxis tooting, loud diesel trucks being loud and issuing diesel smoke, and these are the typical street conditions …
Needless to say the 2nd annual Guinea half marathon was still run today in 33 deg C heat and 85% humidity along these roads , police with machine guns blocking traffic at each intersection. One of my fellow cabimates participated and did it in 2.5 hr and survived to tell the tale – I challenge my brother, Chris(of Taupo Iron Man fame), to do the same J
Well I think its bed time for me – up early tomorrow to start the reason why I intended to come here. I am so pleased to finally be here. Also very pleased the rain has finally come to NZ – it is due here in a couple of months J
