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The crowd at the Stadium gates. SOURCE: Courtesy Mercy Ships Australia Facebook page. I have been challenged to be transparent. That doesn’t mean telling everyone your business. It simply means not hiding or disguising the truth or how things really stand. I know most of you have been reading all our Facebook and blog posts and seeing that we have pretty nice accommodations, albeit small and cramped, we eat fairly well and the ship is air-conditioned. We have seen amazing things and been to some wonderful places but let me tell you about today… Today was screening day at The Freetown National Stadium. The first lot of crew left at 4:00a.m. Anticipation was high, the mood was upbeat. I left at around 8:30am in a ship’s land rover with some other Mums and a few other crew. The traffic was unusually light, if that’s how you describe complete chaos. We were smiling and laughing and wondering what the day would hold. For some it was our first screening, others were veterans. We arrived and things appeared to be orderly and under control. I was working as an escort or guide. Someone to take patients to wherever they needed to go. I was stationed at the pre-screening area. I either had to take people to registration-they had received that coveted plastic card or to the prayer station after they had been told that they could not be helped. So I was the first point of reference for someone whose dreams had been crushed. Someone who had been standing in the hot sun for six hours with their small child, someone who couldn’t see, someone who had been holding up their child whose legs could not support their own weight. What could I possibly say? I know I said sorry about 500 times but that seemed so inadequate. During the morning the crowd became increasingly noisy and agitated. They began to put pressure on the large metal gates that held them in. I was returning from the prayer station and was greeted with scenes of Mercy Ships Crew holding hands in 2 lines in order to form a human chain in a desperate attempt to control the pressing crowds. The gates had been stormed and people had been crushed and trampled. Thirteen people were injured, include 2 critically and one fatality. I watched in horror as the nurses treated those whose who had been injured, lying on the concrete, several passed out. Two people were intubated. Nothing compared to the scene next to me as I noticed a body covered in a white sheet. I could not believe that someone had died. One of the nurses asked me to stand by the body while she helped to find a stretcher so the body could be taken to hospital in one of the ship’s land rovers. It took everything in me not to bust in to tears at the desperation of the scene. Mercy Ships crew were running everywhere, Sierra Leoneans were begging me to be seen and I could not help them. A woman screamed at me that we did not show here any mercy. Then someone else screamed at me to get water. I didn’t know where I was going or what to do but I found water. Then I and the ship’s hairdresser carried a giant cooler of water towards the main gate. We were told that they desperately needed water outside the gate. I went without a thought. People were crying for water. It was unbelievably hot. We quickly distributed water to everyone in the smaller line. A woman was passed out on the ground. She was wearing nothing on the top and some of the male Mercy Ships crew managed to lift her above the crowd to receive help. I then noticed the pressure on the metal gates again. Police were trying to hold the gates. I had to walk past the gates to go back inside the stadium and right then I was so scared that the gates were going to burst open and that I would be trampled. I couldn’t move very fast as some crew were assisting another woman in front who could not walk very well. I was so relieved to get back into the stadium. I went to try to find my supervisor as it appeared that screening had come to a grinding halt. We were told that all non-medical personal were to leave immediately. The land rovers travelled in caravan with all the windows closed for extra security. It was stifling. I was wet with sweat. None of us had eaten or had much to drink. Just before I left I overheard a nurse say that the screening had been cancelled as it was too dangerous to continue. The medical team tried to stay on but were told by the police, shortly after I left that everyone must leave now! The mood was sombre in the land rover on our return trip. There were so many haunted faces amongst the crew. The things people had seen today. We had been told of the extreme poverty but today the desperation became tangible. The galley staff went above and beyond and kept lunch going for several hours past lunch time and served us all ice-cream for tea-a special treat. The evidence of a day gone pear shaped in the unopened cartons of chips, apples and cookies sent to the screening for crew. I finally allowed the tears to pour out of me in a flood. I wasn’t the only one. The Captain asked all those who were near “The Incident” to write down what we saw so they could establish what exactly had happened. I watched from my cabin window as people slowly retuned. No one was smiling. I saw the lady who was responsible for the organisation of the day and the husband and wife security team and my heart broke for them. But not as much as it is broken for the dead man, the injured and all those who had a desperate need who were unable to be seen today. Two arrests were made for inciting a riot. Mercy Ships has been screening for 25 years and this is the first time this has ever happened. Our Managing Director was able to visit the injured in hospital alongside the Minister for Health late this afternoon. The deceased appears to have no relatives so remains a John Doe. We were reminded that God is in control and he has called each and every one of us here for a purpose. The crew acted heroically and professionally and with great compassion under the most difficult of circumstances. God has a plan for the people of Sierra Leone and we believe that the right people will be seen. In a life time you can pin down days that define you, that change your world-today was one of those days. |
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| First up country patients arrive, Africa Mercy Freetown, Sierra Leone. SOURCE: Courtesy Africa Mercy Communications Department. On a much happier note, the wonderful advance team who arrived in Sierra Leone several months ahead of the Africa Mercy were able to secure dozens of surgeries. Here are the first patients arriving at the Africa Mercy and heading up the gangway last week. On Saturday, 26th March we are heading out for our second attempt at a mass screening in Freetown. It will be held at a former UN compound and much work and planning has gone into the day. Many improvemnets have been made and new protocols adapted. I (Jodie) am once again acting as an escort to take patients to wherever they need to go. |
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| First patients going up the gangway. |
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