Screening Day; Memoirs of a Patient Escort

I think it's a forgone conclusion that I am the very last person to write about the Congo screening day, who intends to so (or selection day as is the French interpretation). Since this was my fourth screening day (and fourth subsequent blog post) I was wondering what new and exciting ways I could possibly present a post. Having thought about it for a bit, I have decided brutal honesty about my day should be a good read. So stop now if you are after a fluffy piece because this 'aint it!

 

Frankly I did not want to go! I couldn't be bothered. I don't know why exactly; maybe because it WAS my fourth screening day and I have pretty much seen it all now from senseless death to ecstatic jubilation. It was too early in the morning, I hate sunscreen and sweat and I can't speak French, let alone any local dialects.

 

Well I got up at the crack of dawn, long after Andrew had left at 4:30am in the first land rover convoy. Good he remembered his water bottle (unlike last year)! I had all the bags packed one for me, one for Andrew and one for Jess-all of us leaving at different times of the day, to pitch in. That was a problem in itself. Who owns three backpacks anyway? I gathered with my group in the café-the last convoy to leave the ship at around 7:30am. I felt a bit better, after all I was awake, dressed and breathing.

 

Our landie was mostly full of mums who had found babysitters and on call parents for all their kids so they could assist and feel a sense of purpose. (I have to shout out to the mums who stayed behind to mind all the rug rats!) They worked pretty hard too. We piled in, full of energy and expectation. What would this day be like? How many people were lined up? Was everything peaceful? The sky was overcast and grey with a bit of a pre-rainy season nip in the air. The mosquitoes were still thick. Our drive was uneventful.

 

On arrival we all placed our belongings in the crew break room where many crew, who had already been hard at it since well before sunrise, were resting. We heard the lines were beating all records. I felt the adrenaline rush through me. This was it-the day that we talk about, pray about and dream about every, single field service. I felt as if all of my days had led to this, as if God had placed me there with his very hand. I am not a doctor or a nurse but I can feel and I can love.

 

Our little group soon dispersed to their various areas and I found myself working as a patient escort at the prayer station. Great-not! I had worked this station at previous screenings and it was hard, gut wrenching work. It is the last stop. After lining up for hours and hours in the heat and humidity, praying and hoping for a chance of healing only to be told there is none, people are asked if they would like to receive prayer. Sometimes that is all we can offer. Brokenness is so very raw, painful and personal. Sometimes it is better to say nothing. As I escorted patients to the "sortie" (French for exit-I learnt that word pretty quick smart) I saw all range of emotion from laughing to weeping to ambivalence to confusion to anger. Have you ever wondered how you would react if you were at the end of hope? I watched a man argue vehemently with many different crew as they tried in vain to escort him out of the screening site. He refused to budge for a very long time, begging and pleading and finally loosing his temper. I found out later on that a couple who sat silently at the prayer station for a large part of the day had lost their young child in the crowd. Everybody has a story.

 

After a few hours at the prayer station, during which time I did my best to organise the patients into some kind of "order", I took a short break for a much need drink. The temperature was rising. I was switched to another area of patient escorting, between individual surgical stations to either the prayer station or the "yes" bit". Well at least I could now make some people happy. As the sun beat down and I struggled in the soft, sandy conditions, dozens of patients and their caregivers made their way to the various stations, some needing an arm to lean on, some needing to be carried, most looking bewildered and lost. I wished I could have conversed with them to offer some words of comfort or join in their joy. We would have been lost without our newly employed day crew, but what a baptism of fire for them. Most of them had never before seen the conditions we look for and yet they worked hard, side by side with the crew, their translation skills invaluable.

 

While I was working this area I was watching Andrew with pride. There are many unsung heroes of screening day and Andrew was one of them. The first to arrive and the last to leave, he worked behind the scenes tirelessly, ensuring that all the crew were transported all day long. The land rovers were also used as barricades and to aid in security.

 

Time to stop for lunch. I found myself wondering if my chicken sandwich had survived the heat, even in a cooler bag with an ice pack. Using liberal amount of hand sanitiser, I took the risk. Time for the Academy kids to take a break too. Jess took this moment to tell me that she had not used hand sanitiser after helping to run the children's ministry. Gross! I prayed against gastro right then. I was pretty proud of those kids. They worked as hard as the adult crew and were shining examples of the hands and feet of Jesus. 

 

Being of the pale skin variety it was time for me to move undercover. I relocated to the escorting station between registrations and medical history. Whew-stations BEFORE the big bad "no"! WARING-ABOUT TO TALK ABOUT A TOPIC THAT NO-ONE ELSE DOES BUT HAS ITS FAIR SHARE OF LOGISTICS DEDICATED TO IT(true fact).......Not long after arriving at this station I found myself needing to go to the loo. Now this sounds trivial but noooooo, not in Africa. Those stupid anti-diarrhoea tablets had not worked as planned. A small hike later I made it and fortunately there was enough water in the bucket to bucket flush-praise the Lord!

 

I worked this station for the rest of my time. "Bonjour, cava", followed by wild hand gestures beckoning patients to follow me then, "Au revoir". Over and over and over......A man accompanying his son mumbled something to me in French. "Pardon", I say in my best French accent. "Piss", he says. "Ohhhh". Seems some words are universal. Back to the toilets I go. Ohhhh my feet are sooooo sore. I have seen everything today. My heart is heavy and light all at once. I am exhausted beyond belief. It was at that time that the day worker helping to translate at this station took the opportunity to tell me I am fat and I should have more lunch because I like to eat. I took the opportunity to let him know that he should never tell a white women she is fat-EVER! Culturally speaking he was paying me a compliment.

 

The mood did not stay light for long as I noticed a young women, carrying a small child on her slim hip, looking lost and wandering aimlessly. Another crew member, who spoke French, helped me to translate. The women had a ticket to proceed though the screening but her child had not. Turns out there was nothing we could do for the child. She began to weep. This was the low point for me. I began to cry alongside her, helpless and frustrated by my lack of communication and the situation. Through translation she begged for her child to take her place. It reminded me of Jesus and how he took our place. I was thinking about what I would do as a mother, the same without a doubt! Whatever it took. I convinced her that giving up her surgery would be of no benefit to her child and she could help her child by getting healthy and living a long life. I clumsily tired to hug her. It was awkward and I don't know if I helped any but I tried the best way I knew how and that is all God calls us to do.

 

While in this area I was able to watch Jessica interact with children, some potential patients, some accompanying their mamas and other relatives. Her ability to look past defects and to see the child inside bore witness to her blossoming maturity and testament to all she has seen over the past three years, far more than most kids her age. Balloons, stickers, pipe cleaner glasses, face painting and colouring wiled away the long hours.

 

Finally, when my feet and back could take now more, as the sun began to lower in the sky I made my way over to Andrew to catch one of the dedicated crew shuttles back to the ship. The line still stretched and many worked longer and harder than I, continuing by torch light into the night, finally having to send some away to return to the ship for screening the following day. Still the work continued as all the desks and chairs from the classroom of the school we used for the day had to be returned, tents and marquees needed to be dismantled, rubbish collected and the site fully cleared.

 

 I was spent emotionally and physically but I would do it all over again. It was hard for me to sleep as the images of the day washed over me. We did the very best we could. Today we have lived with abandon.

 

"......I want my life to count, every breath

I wanna live with abandon
Give You all that I am
Every part of my heart Jesus
I place in Your hands
I wanna live with abandon

I'll drop everything to follow You
It's only Your hands I hold onto....."

 

Newsboys: Live With Abandon

 

Photographic memoir.......

The line wrapped around the corner......

 

A land rover is used to gain an eagle eye view over the screening line.

Mercy Ships founder, Don Stephens greets a patient waiting in line, with a large tumour.

A little girl in the line with orthopaedic deformities.

A blind lady is assisted by a friend or relative.

A couple of pics for Andy. Below the land rovers bringing crew into the screening site.

 

 

Some prospective patients.....

 

 

 

 

 

Little Emmanuel with his mum and dad. Looks healthy right? Emmanuel was one of the first to be operated on due to a rapidly growing tumour in his airway. Several times a day Emmanuel would lapse into brief periods of unconsciousness as he struggled to breath.

 

 

 

Sixteen year old Grace had a massive facial tumour that would soon kill her. Now she has been successfully operated on and has made a wonderful recovery at the Hope Centre.

We also always try to feed the patients during the day with bread, apples and water. One of the biggest requests of the day was for a "pomme" (French for apple).

Some patient escort photos. Patient escorts walk all day and are a vital link between various stations, especially at this screening day where the screening site was particularly large. This wonderful photo of John, the Africa Mercy Finance Director went viral shortly after the conclusion of the screening day, even making it as far as Fox News in the USA.

Me and another patient escort in our Congo field service t-shirts.

I just like this photo.

Jess and another crew member working in children's ministries.

Jessica's arm working in children's ministries.

Registrations- look to the far left corner to see Jess (with the cap on).

Most of the Academy Junior High and High School.

Mercy Ships founder, Don Stephens handles the media.

Prayer-one last hope.

The sun sets on the end of a long day with the packing up still ahead.

Final Numbers:

7,354 showed up in total.

4,236 patients came through the gate

Peak crew at site: 311

Line was open for 12 hours and 20 minutes.


“We made history on Wednesday. We broke all of our Selection Day records – it was a remarkable day for Mercy Ships and for Congo-Brazzaville. It could not have happened without the continued support of our donors, volunteers and local partners like FELBO.” Donovan Palmer, Managing Director Africa Mercy 

“Thirty-five years ago this was just a dream. Selection Day only got me more excited for the future. The best is yet to come.” Don Stephens, Founder Mercy Ships International
   

The Big 4-0!

Why does Andrew looked so surprised and pleased? Well he has just walked out of our cabin on the pretence of going out to dinner with me but unbeknown to him I had been sneakily planning a surprise 40th birthday party for him to celebrate his birthday in August (ok people, I know I am behind-ok). It's not everyday an Aussie turns 40 in the Congo!

We have a small alcove just round the corner of our cabin where everyone hid and when Andrew walked up, a loud chorus of "Surprise" greeted him, followed by a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday". Needless to say Andrew was pretty taken aback. It was priceless!

We all piled into a couple of cars and headed for a local hotel called Twiga. Bearing in mind we had only been in the country for about ten days, we had little idea of what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised by a lovely hotel with a restaurant on the beach front were we dined to the sound of the waves crashing.

Andy and I

Our group

A Congolese version of a mixed grill. I was very pleased that it included a lamb chop-oh joy!

The currency has a little more value than in Guinea but it still cost the big notes-lol!

Andrew's actual birthday was celebrated with gifts in the cabin, brownies baked lovingly by yours truly and a hamburger and fries with me and Jess at a local place.

Happy 40th birthday Andy. May you always remember this one!

Where's Wally?

Right now the Africa Mercy is packed to capacity! We are even using some of the cabins reserved for guests, to house short term crew. After a recent fire drill the communications department took the opportunity to gather us for a rare all crew photo.(there are still some crew missing though!) Can you find us in the bottom photo? Jess and I are near the front and Andrew is at the back.

Home Sweet Home

Since we have now lived in our cabin for longer than we lived at our previous house, I felt it was time to invite you all over for a virtual visit...... Above, our front door.

We are one of two cabins on the whole ship who have a "patio". This is because we have a fire door as well as our normal cabin door. On our door we have our prayer card and a favourite verse that a friend gave to us before we left to do our Mercy Ships training in 2006.

" If I rise on the wings of the dawn. If I settle on the far side of the sea, even there you  hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast."
Psalm 139:9-10.

We also have a noticeboard to keep track of each other's whereabouts as our home is pretty big and climbing all those stairs can get tiring!

All our walls are magnetised so everything is held up by an array of different sized and strength magnets. We have a cool map of Africa that we bought at a Chinese supermarket in Togo for about $1.00! It has a yellow arrow that says, "We are here, just in case you are lost". We move it around according to which country we are in and when we sail.

Coming around the corner of our little dog entrance leg you can see the collection of books we have managed to obtain from the Boutique (op shop) on board and a few we brought from home. There is a whole container on the bottom shelf just to hold some of mine and Jessica's flip flops! Jessica's artwork adorns our cabin everywhere.

Next you come into our lounge/kitchen/dining etc.. We have a sink and a small fridge/freezer. We used to have a huge full sized fridge that got dumped in our cabin before we arrived. Fortunately the freezer part (it was an upside down fridge/freezer) died while we were back in Oz last so we were able to get rid of it for a smaller model that fits under the bench. We have a TV and a DVD player which is often what keeps us sane, especially when we sail and during the weekends. Next to the TV you will see out pets! We have 17 fish in the glass bowl. Some of them are pretty tiny. On the wall above the table are two batiks-Jess made the one on the right and I made the one on the left ,in Togo last year.

Our cabin also shares the honour of the most windows as well. We have five double windows along the full length of our cabin and we have an eagle eye view over the gangway and the dock. Andrew likes to check his babies (the land rovers) out the windows. Our couch is as hard as a rock but we manage to squeeze all three of us on it on occasion. We have a few plants around the place to bring a little bit of nature to our home. You can just see the hanging plant above the couch.

Another perspective of the living area. The side of the cupboard where the computer has it's home is plastered with photos of family and friends and our dog Barney. The blue things hanging from the ceiling are surgical caps from the hospital (yes, they have many uses) that cover our A/C vents to capture dirt coming out of the vents. Jess painted the canvas of the giraffe on the wall. You can see the door into our bedroom.

Our bedroom-straight ahead. Yes-it's not an optical illusion-our bed is tiny and I sleep on the side with the racing car sides and it drives me crazy! We just got a new doona cover in June as we can't really change our furniture or even the curtains, so the doona cover it was! To the left you can see our blue fold up chairs and to the right our hot pink laundry bag. We wake up to a beautiful sunrise each morning-lol.

Our bedroom-to the right. Andrew and I have one small cupboard each for all our clothes and shoes and the middle drawer holds sox and undies. The small drawer is a pull out table. The harp holds Jessica's vast collection of earrings.

Our bedroom-to the left. One thing I bought in South Africa, when we briefly lived on land, before we came to the ship was a full length mirror. It is secured to the wall by super strength magnets.

Our teeny, tiny bathroom where you can sit on the loo, lean on the sink and prop one foot on the edge of the shower, all at the same time. (Hey, it's comfortable.) Our plumbing is a bit unusual. It is operated by a vacuum system which sucks the water away very loudly. Sometimes the vacuum fails and the water comes up trough the toilet or through the drain in the floor and floods the bathroom (often).

An earlier purchase was a toilet paper holder after we kept running out of loo paper because we had nowhere to store it.

The busiest room-Jessica's room, located opposite the bathroom just next to the bookshelf in the dog leg entrance way! The beds are on the left and fold down-Jess sleeps on the bottom bunk. To the right is the same cupboard, drawer, shelf arrangement as in our room but Jess gets them all to herself. One is full of clothes, the other with toys, books, old school work and art. Jessica's room is almost fully outfitted with items from cabin sales and the Boutique.

We hope you enjoyed visiting our home! Stop by anytime!

Breaking New Ground

There is an air of anticipation. I have already picked out our clothes and have them hanging, ready to put on in the quite of the morning. One last night of rocking and rolling with the promise of sweet stillness just hours away. One last sunrise at sea. After thriteen days on the Atlantic Ocean we finally glimpsed land on the horizon. Back in Africa, where our hearts beat to the rhythm of the djembe and the laughter of the children. Back in Africa where the dust sticks to your legs and the smell of garbage gives way to the scent of the jungle and the sea. Back to the rains and the dry, the poverty of the people and the richness of character and culture. Home at last.........but a new home! For many, many years it has been the dream of Mercy Ships founder, Don Stephens to take the Africa Mercy into Central Africa. So we were very excited to be making history as part of the first Mercy Ships crew to sail into, and complete the first ever field service in Pointe Noire, Republic of the Congo, Central Africa!

The crew wave to onlookers as we approach our berth in the Port of Pointe Noire 

The pilot boards the ship from deck three, ready to guide us safely into port.

Josh, the ship's videographer jumps aboard the pilot ship to film some awesome footage of our arrival, from the sea.

Our deckies man the lines ready to tie the ship up next to a small fishing fleet and a rusted out shell of a shipwreck.

I love this about Mercy Ships. Everything we do is covered in prayer. Every single patient is prayed for right before they go into surgery, standing in their hospital gowns bewildered and afraid and our only long term surgeon, max fax surgeon, Dr. Gary Parker lays his hands on each anesthetized patient and prays over them before he begins his surgery. Each department begins the day in prayer and each Monday morning the community gathers and we are directed in specific prayer points. Perhaps my favourite ship prayers are those that the captain makes over the PA system at the beginning and the end of each sail to thank God for his protection and provision as we sail. It is always a very moving experience, as the crew stop where they are and what they are doing to close their eyes and join the captain in prayer.

Berthed! Tied up alongside, the berth is adorned with tents splashed in the colours of the Congolese flag. The gangway is lowered to solid ground. Terra firma at last!

Touchdown!

The crew wave at the advance team who have paved the way for our arrival, already clocking up five months in Pointe Noire, before the ship's arrival.

 

Some of the West African crew wave bonjour!

The elementary kids wave their homemade Congolese flags, excited to be in a new country and ready to feel dry land again! Sailing can be tough for a kid!

Jess all dressed up out on deck with the Academy.

A poignant moment indeed; Mercy Ship's founder Don  Stephens and his wife, Deyon stand on the dock, waving in the Africa Mercy. After 38 years at the helm, they had yet to see a Mercy Ship sail into port. They purposefully chose this historic moment as Mercy Ships breaks new ground into Central Africa, as their time.

Congolese buglers play as crew begin to make their exit.

Captain Tim had first honours to walk down the gangway.

Followed by the Africa Mercy's managing director, Donovan Palmer and his lovely wife, Mae.

Congolese military sit on the dock in full regalia

The media surround a VIP Congolese guest.

The media hang on every word of Mercy Ship's founder, Don Stephens

Captain Tim makes his way back on board assisted by the ship security officer.



The AFM hospitality team shine, ready to welcome on board a boatload of VIP's and dignitaries.

Head Chef Ken encourages the visitors to sample his finger food.

The Africa Mercy proudly displays the fluttering flag of the Republic of the Congo. For the next ten months we will endeavour to bring our best to the nation of the Congo, offering free, live saving surgeries to the poorest of the poor, while delving into the culture of this land, to form long standing relationships with locals and the government, to ensure a future for Mercy Ships in the region of Central Africa.