Sunday, August 10, 2014

The Canaries, Dry Dock, and Ebola

Well hello there and good day to you! I wanted to wait until we were nearly finished with our maintenance period before I posted anything but it turns out that wasn’t so wise; now I can hardly remember what happened at the beginning of the summer! It has been crazy busy with a lot of crazy fun mixed in. So as usual, this is a bit long; feel free to skip over as much as you like. 

I’ve never made a three point speech or anything but it seems like you should write about the points in the same order as the title,  ja? (I’ve been reading Bodie Thoene’s series of pre-WWII Europe and ja seems way funner to say; much like the Spanish hola to our English hello. I like happy sounding words.)  

So, to begin with: the Canaries. I had never heard of the Canaries until we came to Mercy Ships. In case you also don’t know much about them, here’s a picture so you know where we’re at. 


The Canary Islands belong to Spain and are about 100 km off the coast of Morocco (see the bottom right corner of the picture). We sailed straight to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria from the Congo--the round island right in the middle. The shipyard there has done maintenance for the AFM for years, so any work that has to be done by a shipyard (and not ourselves) is done there. 

Then the remainder of the maintenance period is spent in Santa Cruz on the island of Tenerife, which is the big island to the east.  

I’ve now decided that I’d like to retire and live here, if only for the fruit. And the ocean. And the mountains. And the weather. OK all of it. 
Really, it seems a little unfair that we get to work in such a beautiful location but it’s been really refreshing. It’s a good place to stock up on items that are hard to get in Africa--for instance, we were able to purchase new sheets for the ship and some other needed things. And in Africa, it’s unheard of for the sun to go to bed at any time other than 6:00 pm, but here it’s light until 9 or 9:30 so we get plenty of time exploring the island(s) after work is done for the day. It’s been a fantastic mixture of hard work and fun. 



I already posted about going up into dry dock--I’m so glad we got to experience that! It was really neat to see the ship out of the water. Some of you may wonder why all this hard work needs to be done on a ship that sits in port for 10 months out of the year. I heard someone make a great analogy for that--it’s the same thing as getting back into shape after you haven’t exercised in a few months! Your body has to work harder to get into good condition; being still doesn’t just keep it in shape (although I think we all wish that were the case!) 

Here’s some progressive pictures of work being done on the OUTSIDE:







Unfortunately, I don’t have lots of pictures of inside projects being done because I was busy doing my own thing most of the time. But I’ll try to explain a few of the projects here (with some technical lingo help from Jordan): 


One of the projects was fumigating the galley (kitchen) to clean out any critters that had made it their home. A lot of people pitched in to take EVERYTHING possible out of the galley and then wipe all the cupboards, walls, ceilings, down to move everything back in 24 hours later. Because the galley was shut down for a full day, we had food brought to us--I had to laugh when I saw “AFM fumigation pizza party” on the menu! 


My department has a fairly good-sized pantry off the end of the galley and it got fumigated as well. All of our dishes were moved out into the International Lounge for the evening--it looked like a massive kitchen goods garage sale! 


Some other big projects that were done:
  • New flooring in the OR section of the hospital
  • Lots of new water piping
  • New flooring for some family cabins 
  • Old vents cleaned 
  • Prop shafts removed and serviced (pictured below) 
  • Bow thrusters removed and serviced
  • Freshwater tanks sandblasted and repainted 


Out to be serviced … 

And back in! 

There were lots of other smaller projects done as well. I absolutely loved seeing all of the work being done and the camaraderie of the crew throughout the whole 6 weeks. We were down to a much smaller crew--from 400ish to 120ish. So when there was something that needed to be done, anyone that was available pitched in to help. 

There are also people that come every year just for this part of the field service--when there’s no air conditioning and the water gets cut off and we have to go down 3 flights of stairs and up the street to shower or use the bathroom. It’s amazing to me to see all sorts of professional people who selflessly use their talents to serve the God they love! 

My department got to know Ikea very well. We were tasked with beginning a life-cycle replacement for some tables & chairs for family cabins along with some other things. Our first order came out in a few more boxes than we expected. 


But we managed to fit it all in to the car and make it back to the ship. From there it all had to be loaded on to the ship via crane because our gangway was taken out and replaced with a scaffolding stairway. I think we made 5 or 6 total trips and were loaded to the hilt every time.






We also went shopping for a hundred sets of sheets and towels and I decided as we were in the check out line for the second time in a half hour with three completely full carts that I would never ever again give anyone’s purchase a weird look. 


Jordan’s big highlight of the summer was going to dive school for a week with his buddy Derek. All of the coolant water for the air conditioning coils and the generators comes in through intakes on the bottom of the ship. Because of that suction, they also suck up dirt and bags and trash in the Arican ports. Usually that would all get washed off by sailing but since we sit in Port for so long the divers have to go down periodically and clean all the trash away. Also, because we sit in port so long, stuff starts to grow on the bow thruster blades and the main propellers and sometimes those have to be scraped off and cleaned. 


Jordan and Derek were sent to dive school by Mercy Ships so that they can be divers for the ship during our next field service. They both really enjoyed it and actually got to dive under the ship last Saturday to help with some testing on the main propellers.  Because the ship owns the diving equipment, they’ve also been able to go out and do some diving for fun around the Island.




Last but not least: Ebola. 

I have many jumbled up thoughts about that word lately so I hope the following paragraphs make sense. The news is such a wonderful and terrible thing, isn’t it? On the ship, we hear about Ebola much differently than I imagine you might. Or do you? It has affected the Africa Mercy and it’s crew so deeply that it’s hard to imagine not talking about it daily. But is it making headlines where you are? 

First of all, Don Stephens, founder and president of Mercy Ships, released this public statement about the Ebola situation:

As its hospital ship, the Africa Mercy, prepares to leave for its ten-month mission to perform life-changing surgeries and train local healthcare professionals in Benin, West Africa, Mercy Ships continues to be acutely aware of the Ebola situation in the region. The organization is taking appropriate steps to protect its volunteers and staff. In April, Mercy Ships redirected its upcoming mission from Guinea to Benin out of caution for the safety of its crew. Benin has no reported cases of Ebola. 
The Africa Mercy is the world's largest civilian hospital ship, designed to operate as a surgical specialty hospital. It is not configured to provide the type of treatment required by Ebola patients.  In addition to having changed its itinerary, Mercy Ships has also implemented strict travel restrictions to the affected areas and will continue to monitor the situation closely, making programmatic adjustments as needed.
Founder Don Stephens commented, “The well-being of our patients and dedicated crew is our greatest priority. It is fundamental to our continued service to the forgotten poor in Africa. Our prayers go out for the countries impacted by Ebola. These are places and people we know well because we have served them in multiple visits over more than two decades.”

Ebola is a terrible way to die. Can you imagine being contaminated and knowing that you had to spend your last few days absolutely alone or your loved ones would die in the same painful way you are going to? 

Yes, it is awful. But Ebola in any 1st world country would be blotted out almost as soon as it was discovered. In countries where there is health care training and adequate resources it would not even be an issue. West Africa, however, is another story. Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone are three of the poorest countries in the world. Mercy Ships has spent a good deal of time in all of those countries for precisely that reason. 

Ebola is yet another disease that affects the poor the most. Mercy Ships’ mission statement is: “We follows the 2000-year-old model of Jesus, bringing hope and healing to the world’s forgotten poor.” It’s hard to watch suffering and want to do something--anything--and know that there is physically nothing we can do. However, this is ultimately why we do what we do: in addition to providing surgeries, we are actively providing more and more health care education so that we can leave behind trained professionals in the countries we serve. We hope and pray for a day when Ebola will be just as quickly snuffed out in West Africa as it would in Europe or North America. 
Please do not quit praying for West Africa--for help, for resources, for understanding, and most of all, for God to be glorified no matter what! Please also pray for us--Mercy Ships has a long history with those three nations in particular and we have many friends in them! We also work alongside West African crew members, of which a majority come from Liberia and Sierra Leone. 

My (Katie’s) family has deep roots in West Africa--my great-grandparents were missionaries there and each generation since (on both sides of the family) has spent years and years there. Hope Clinic, where Jordan and I have many dear friends, was just last week brought directly into the news with their first Ebola case. Our hearts are grieving with our friends and their countries. 

The bottom line is that we are perfectly safe--Mercy Ships first priority in this situation is the care and safety of its crew. We have a team of medical professionals who are constantly reviewing the situation and we get updates very regularly. We changed field service locations from Guinea to Benin in order to take no risks at all for the crew. There have been travel restrictions to those countries as well. We are in no danger but there are three (now, four) very special countries that are and we ask that you join us in prayer!