The last week or so has been a lot slower in terms of work in Hospitality.... therefore I have had the chance to work in some other areas which has been super fun!
I spent monday and tuesday morning in Hospitality, and both the afternoons I worked in the galley helping prepare the dinner for the crew. You may not think this would be the most exciting job, but working with new people, in a different team was so much fun. There is such a great atmospher in the Galley, and many local Beninese are working as day volunteers... this happens in most of the departments on board the ship. Many help in general areas such as housekeepers, transportation, galley, dining room... but there are also a lot working in the hospital as translators cleaners and many many other jobs. They are vital to the work here and we couldn't do it without them!
So my time in the galley was spent with a lot of fun people, some african music.. and so inevitably there was dancing!!
This morning I went out to the eye clinic, with the eye team, We were at the 'hospitality centre' where there are 2 'wards' and the eye clinic, patients go there if the are having an operation and live very far away, and there are some post op patients that stay there also. It is basically just a warehouse, where they have built in 2 hospital wards and the eye clinic is a tent inside...
The clinic I was helping at this morning was seeing patients that have been through the screening process and are having their surgery this afternoon so we gave them pre-op checks... we also saw lots of the patients that had their surgery yesterday. It was so exciting and the first time I actually got to help with something medical!
I have also managed to get a minor job for the rest of my time here, so I will be working as a dental sterilizer for one day a week... I cannot wait to start that!
It has been a real blessing, from a situation last week where we were getting a little frustrated with lack of work, I prayed about it with a friend and this week so many oportunities have opened up!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Pictures of Church Last Sunday
This is the church building from outside
Inside the church
Inside the church
Afterwards we were invited to the local pastors house with loads of kids!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Dress Ceremoney, African Church
Just to let you know I'm struggling with uploading photos at the moment, but will try and get some up as soon as possible!
On Friday morning I went to a dress ceremony for one of the VVF patients, VVF stands for Vesico Vaginal Fistula, this is a condition that occurs when a woman has a difficult labour or something goes wrong and they have no medical assistance. The result is a whole in the bladder and the woman is left incontinent, these women are often ostracised from society and feel a lot of shame because they quite often not only loose the child but are left constantly wet and smell quite bad. On the ship the surgeons are able to completely cure them, which consequently brings them a whole new hope and reason for living...
Every time that a woman is discharged that has just had the VVF surgery they have a dress ceremony, which is what I attended last Friday. A new dress is bought for the lady and they have their make-up done so they look and feel beautiful. It takes place in the ward, singing and dancing are followed by the gospel being shared, and the ladies give their testimony. It was such a great atmosphere down there, and was my first time in the ward since it has been up and running. It was the first time that I actually experienced firsthand how these people’s lives can be changed so dramatically, and the new sense of joy and hope that they experience.
This morning I went to a local African church, it was an Assemblies of God church that one of the crew planted in 2005 when he was working for YWAM in Benin, when he left it there were 15 people and today there must have been at least 150 people in the church. As you can expect from a typical African service there was a lot of brilliant singing and dancing, there were about 16 of us from the ship and we all got up to dance at the front during one of the worship songs, which apparently they thought was brilliant! Though I’m not sure we have quite as good rhythm as they do!
The lively worship was followed by about 10 minutes of singing from the children’s choir, which there is a video of below, the sermon was incredibly short for an African service... bearing in mind that it was said in French, then translated into Fon (the local dialect) and then English it only lasted just over half an hour!
We were invited to the pastor’s house after the service, he is actually the director of YWAM for Benin, and was so excited to have us, displaying his generosity with food and drink for us! There were loads of children around and we played with many of them up in the YWAM base. Our car actually broke on the way home and we had to sit in the Landrover for about 45minutes holding the door shut because the door wouldn’t close!
I had Friday off and therefore have had a very long weekend! I took the chance also to go to a local swimming pool for most of the day on Saturday. I went with one friend and it was a great chance to relax and rest after such intense community life on the ship. It was a slightly strange experience, you walk for half an hour along a dirty street, typical of Benin, seeing plenty of poverty which you almost get immune to walking round every day, and then go into the hotel, which is completely westernised and feel like you are on holiday! It is strange to see such diverse levels of wealth so close to one another...
On Friday morning I went to a dress ceremony for one of the VVF patients, VVF stands for Vesico Vaginal Fistula, this is a condition that occurs when a woman has a difficult labour or something goes wrong and they have no medical assistance. The result is a whole in the bladder and the woman is left incontinent, these women are often ostracised from society and feel a lot of shame because they quite often not only loose the child but are left constantly wet and smell quite bad. On the ship the surgeons are able to completely cure them, which consequently brings them a whole new hope and reason for living...
Every time that a woman is discharged that has just had the VVF surgery they have a dress ceremony, which is what I attended last Friday. A new dress is bought for the lady and they have their make-up done so they look and feel beautiful. It takes place in the ward, singing and dancing are followed by the gospel being shared, and the ladies give their testimony. It was such a great atmosphere down there, and was my first time in the ward since it has been up and running. It was the first time that I actually experienced firsthand how these people’s lives can be changed so dramatically, and the new sense of joy and hope that they experience.
This morning I went to a local African church, it was an Assemblies of God church that one of the crew planted in 2005 when he was working for YWAM in Benin, when he left it there were 15 people and today there must have been at least 150 people in the church. As you can expect from a typical African service there was a lot of brilliant singing and dancing, there were about 16 of us from the ship and we all got up to dance at the front during one of the worship songs, which apparently they thought was brilliant! Though I’m not sure we have quite as good rhythm as they do!
The lively worship was followed by about 10 minutes of singing from the children’s choir, which there is a video of below, the sermon was incredibly short for an African service... bearing in mind that it was said in French, then translated into Fon (the local dialect) and then English it only lasted just over half an hour!
We were invited to the pastor’s house after the service, he is actually the director of YWAM for Benin, and was so excited to have us, displaying his generosity with food and drink for us! There were loads of children around and we played with many of them up in the YWAM base. Our car actually broke on the way home and we had to sit in the Landrover for about 45minutes holding the door shut because the door wouldn’t close!
I had Friday off and therefore have had a very long weekend! I took the chance also to go to a local swimming pool for most of the day on Saturday. I went with one friend and it was a great chance to relax and rest after such intense community life on the ship. It was a slightly strange experience, you walk for half an hour along a dirty street, typical of Benin, seeing plenty of poverty which you almost get immune to walking round every day, and then go into the hotel, which is completely westernised and feel like you are on holiday! It is strange to see such diverse levels of wealth so close to one another...
Sunday, March 1, 2009
6 Weeks!
So I have been here 6 weeks already! It is amazing how fast time is flying, so many new experiences in what seems like such a short period of time. It doesn't feel like i've been away from home that long at all, but I really feel at home here, and am still having an amazing time!
We'd prepared a meal for him and all the other guests, which was about 70 people in all, but unfortunately the president didn't actually stay for dinner! We still served lots of other guests, but it was a long evening.
At the moment we have quite a few guests on board that from a vision trip, where they are coming to see what we do. They are leaving today, so for their last evening we had an 'African Dinner' All the crew from West Africa were invited along with all the vision trip guests. They ate traditional West African food and there was some singing and dancing aswell. It was a really fun evening and a friend Judi and I had some African clothes made by a local tailor during the week which we wore while we served.
Earlier in the week the American Ambassador also came on board, so this week was a realy week for guests!
American Ambassador
This week was pretty exciting, it's sunday morning as I'm writing this and this is my only full day off this week... On friday evening the president of Benin came on board, it was a hectic day because we didn't actually know when exactly he would arrive... and he was only 3 or so hours late! There was a ceremony where we welcomed him and showed him what we would be doing while we were in his country, he also said a few words, within which he invited us all to go and have a meal with him at his palace!
We'd prepared a meal for him and all the other guests, which was about 70 people in all, but unfortunately the president didn't actually stay for dinner! We still served lots of other guests, but it was a long evening.
At the moment we have quite a few guests on board that from a vision trip, where they are coming to see what we do. They are leaving today, so for their last evening we had an 'African Dinner' All the crew from West Africa were invited along with all the vision trip guests. They ate traditional West African food and there was some singing and dancing aswell. It was a really fun evening and a friend Judi and I had some African clothes made by a local tailor during the week which we wore while we served.
Our African Outfits!
Earlier in the week the American Ambassador also came on board, so this week was a realy week for guests!
American Ambassador
The first surgeries also started down in the ward, so the real work is underway down in the hospital, in a few weeks we should be able to go and watch some surgery which will be amazing!
There will be more photos to come of the president, and African dinner, they were taken by the photographers on board so just waiting for them to become available!
Photos of Screening Day
Inside of the Stadium, and the queue at 3am, when the security guys arrived.
The queue outside and the stadium
Some of the patients
Don Stephens, the founder of Mercy Ships, is on board for a few weeks
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