On Tour!

 A trip in Africa in the places we serve usually involves some or all of these......sand, mud, heat, humidity, rain, bartering, getting lost, someone being sick, conversations or parts of them lost in translation, rain, lush beauty, being laughed at, traffic, rain, mosquitos and other bugs, beautiful beaches and lots and lots of fun! Memories are made that will be cherished forever, looked back upon, retold and expanded like the size of the fish.

So when some friends offered us a trip to Antananarivo (or Tana), the nation's capital, over Easter, promising an adventure, we jumped at the chance! We began our journey at 4:00am as we were taking our friend's family, who had been guests on board, to the airport in Tana. A large percentage of our crew fly into Tana and take a bus to the ship in Tamatave.

 

As we travelled out of Tamatave I was amazed at the number of people beginning their day so early in the morning, walking along the side of the road carrying large loads, when normally I would be snug in my bed. The sun rose behind us in brilliant oranges and reds, the weather sticky and warm, even at that hour of the day. We watched the signposts of Malagasy town names flash by as we continued our windy, mountainous journey. Lush greenery surrounded us on every side and we began to see a different side of the island.

 



After a few hours on the road we made a pit stop at a roadside Pizzeria, of all things. We got the owners out of bed! It was definitely time for coffee!!

Jess was none to happy about the early morning start and after I drugged her with Dramamine for motion sickness, it was a little hard to rouse her to get out of the car.

A photo cannot capture the beautiful countryside. Whereas Tamatave is pretty much completely flat, Tana is at a much higher elevation and is full of steep streets.

After ten hours on the road averaging around 60km per hour, we barely made it to the airport in time after mistaking a "shortcut" for a much longer route, right throughout the heart of downtown Tana into the most maddening traffic you can imagine in a large four wheel drive through teeny, tiny streets. As we hurriedly tried to get all the bags off the roof rack of the car, we were surrounded by children begging for money, "Madame, Monsieur, S'il vous plaît". We raced inside and lined up, only to hear the announcement that the check in for our friend's family's flight had closed. Some urgent negotiations followed and they just made their flight.

It was a breath of fresh air to finally arrive at our bungalow at a guest house on the outskirts of Tana, after a late and rather nondescript lunch at the airport. Above Jess stands outside our bungalow. Below, the dining room and guest sunroom.

 

The guest house had some fun residents and Jess was very excited to finally be able to pat a dog without the fear of rabies! There was also a rather sociable turtle getting around as well. What would any respectable guest house be without a pet turtle?

 

Beautiful, fragrant frangipani outside our room.

Andrew looking rather relaxed! We then headed out to dinner at a Creperie. How very French of us! As we began to eat, the heavens opened up into a most spectacular fashion,  with a thunder and lightening show and torrents of rain rushing down the narrow streets. We were drenched running from the restaurant to the car, even with the friendly "umbrella man" to escort us. On the way back to the guest house, the traffic was just as hideous and we got caught in a gridlock. Our find Joe performed an amazing manoeuvre to get us out, admits the cacophony of horns from irritated motorists and lashing rain.

After falling asleep to the sound of rain on the roof, a sound we rarely get to hear anymore, we arose nice and early for a scrumptious breakfast in the guest house dining room. Let the day's adventures begin! We were all pretty excited about our plan to visit an actual shopping centre, a never before done activity, for us, in a host nation!! Three indoor stories of glass and shopfront, even an Apple Store!!!! Culture shock much! I remember thinking how odd it was walking into a Claires/Kleins like store and buying Jess some earrings but not paying in Euros, US dollars, the Pound or the Australian dollar, but the Malagasy Ariary. How very strange....

We were stunned by the sight of  Food Court! I was enraptured by my Magnum Black Espresso ice cream that had not been re-frozen! We had a nice lunch in a café overlooking the busy streets of Tana.

Above......after our trip to the mall, we took a little drive through the city and found a cute little place that promised cookies! So we had to stop and I was a very excited to have a milkshake topped with whipped cream!

Tana traffic through what I coined as Asian West Africa. I think we spent more hours in traffic than we did out of the car! Luckily there was so much to look at everywhere we went from bustling street vendors to rice paddies to colourful little shops and men hand making asphalt.

 

These cute little Renault 4/Citroën 2CV taxis were everywhere in Tana as, unlike, Tamatave, tuk tuks and pousse pousses are not present. We managed to score a miniature tin model after some sidewalk shopping and bargaining, also picking up a pot trivet made of bottle caps of all the drinks available in Madagascar. I love to collect bottle caps from all the different counties we go to, so it was a lovely addition to my collection. I think we got a good deal!

Street sights....Soupe Chinoise or Chinese Soup anyone? A regular staple on the Malagasy menu where the Asian influence is very evident! #bestspringrollseva

A colourful shop advertising said drinks, my all time favourite in Madagascar being Grenadine, reminiscent of Australian Creamy Soda!

A pictorial reminder of why we are here. Tana was an eclectic mix of slums and grand colonial mansions dispersed with the traditional red earth brick homes. Poverty is rife in Madagascar and in some ways, the huge gap between rich and poor was even more apparent in Tana than in Tamatave. 

How so many Malagasy feed their families and make a difficult and backbreaking living, working the rice paddies right in the middle of town.

After battling the traffic we made it to the highest point in Tana, the Queen's Palace, last occupied by a Queen in the 18th century. The palace was destroyed almost completely by fire in 1995, leaving only the stone walls of the building. The palace belongs to a complex of a further seven monuments, which originally occupied the Royal Palace complex, also called Rova which is translated into the word fort. Above is the chapel, which is still intact and used today for special events for the Presidential family.

A statue at the palace.

The view was pretty amazing from the palace. We could see right over Tana in all directions!

 

Looking down over a slum area.

Another view over the city centre including the "heart shaped" lake, Lac Anosy. For those Amazing Race fans, season 10 of the Amazing Race include a leg in Antananarivo, Madagascar!

Us at the palace with our friends from Chicago, nurse Jessica and Transportation Manager, Joe.

We had a fantastic Malagasy guide at the palace, who took great pleasure is giving us all kinds of history, facts and titbits, some a little dubious but fun nevertheless, such as the web from this spider is used to make Kevlar vests! Jess was game enough to hold the big, scary Malagasy spider!! 

This is our guide! Apparently the word about Mercy Ships has spread far and wide and he was profusely thankful for all Mercy Ships had done in his nation. It was so touching to know that we have really made a difference in this massive country! Just before we left, Andrew gave our guide his Mercy Ships cap. The guide was so happy and excited. We watched him as we left and he was showing all the other guides.

Next we headed into town for a closer look at the sights. Taking a leaf out of Hollywood, the giant Antananarivo sign with the Queen's Palace to the right, stands tall and proud.  

We took a little stroll to the middle of Lac Anosy as there was a pathway. Amazing Race fact.....upon arriving in Antananarivo, teams traveled to Lac Anosy and had to find the Black Angel statue in the middle of the lake, to encounter the very first Intersection of the Race. Another fact.......the Back Angel statue was painted white because locals thought it looked "dirty".

On our walk we attracted a lot of attention from the locals. Being a rather seedy area, we were the only "vaza's" (Malagasy for white man) in sight and we certainly drew some curious stares. Luckily we were not mugged  after disregarding Lonely Planet's advice to avoid the lake after lunch, but we did have some cute little girls follow us around, giggling and chattering away in their mother tounge.

The Black Angel statue in the centre of Lac Anosy.

After a very busy day of sightseeing, we stopped in at the Sakamanga (Black Cat) for dinner, supposedly Tana's number one restaurant. It was still pretty cheap and the place was packed. We had a nice meal as the skys opened up yet again and we were treated to another massive downpour and awesome thunder and lightening show. Once again we were drenched getting to the car. For us it was a bit of fun but for the local people of Tana it is a complete disruption to their lives, flooding their streets, their homes and their businesses. Flooding has even taken lives and displaced over 20,000 peole in Tana, just while we have been here in Madagascar!

The next day we had to head back to the ship. This time we could take it at a more leisurely pace which was good fortune as we got stuck in the now familiar Tana traffic. We were struck again by the beauty and stunning shades of greenery along the way. Soaring mountains, rushing rivers and waterfalls crashing down ravines surrounded us at every turn, a visual feast. We saw men selling bananas on the side of the road and tiny villages dotted the edges of the highway every few kilometres. Colourful, chaotic and beautiful.

There is a darker side to this beauty, We were disturbed by the many accidents on the notorious, windy road. One of our day crew lost their father on this highway and we saw several over turned trucks and smashed cars along the journey. At one point we stopped as we saw a wailing women carrying a limp bodied child along the road side, fearing that a car had gone over the cliff,  but there were so many vehicles and people already perched precariously on the verge that we felt helpless and decided to move on. The language barrier and our lack of equipment would have served no purpose. We craned our necks as we rounded the corner but didn't see a car in the ravine. We were quite for a while after that. No ambulances, not hearses, no medical treatment for the poor......


We did have time to make a stop at the Mercy Ships Agricultural site. It was the first time I had a chance to go see where the "Food for Life" program, that takes place in every field service location, was held, as they are usually located so far from the ship. It was so encouraging to see the work that had been done to provide successful agricultural training to over 50 in country NGO staff who serve as consultants to local farmers. The goal of the Food for Life program is to improve food security in Madagascar by increasing farming capacity and I think that goal was achieved!

The photo above this script is of Elipahz, who is a crew member of the Africa Mercy but has been the Ag Site Team Leader for as long as we have been on board. He does an amazing job and being a native French speaker from Benin, he is able to relate to those he is training on a more holistic level.

All kind of crops had been planted, from bananas to guava to corn to pumpkins! There is a green house, an aquaponics set up, chicken for eggs and meat, and a very successful rabbit breeding program. :) Above is a gorgeous sunflower. Took this photo just because.......

In keeping with the petting zoo theme of the trip, we were all pretty exited to hold the baby rabbits, except our friend Jessica who got peed on! :) Our Jess loved holding this soft, cuddly bunny. Kind of fitting since we were there at Easter, I think!

Once more photo from the ten hour trip back to the ship. (not including stops!). We stopped at the largest town on the highway between Tana and Tamatave. Moramanga for lunch in what could best be described as a Malagasy road side diner.  Moramanga is the only town large enough to support pousse pousses, on the whole highway.

We finally made it back to Tamatave at around 7:00pm and finished a great adventure with a simple meal at our favourite hotel in Tamatave, The Calypso.

* Sand- check
* Mud- big check
* Heat and humidity- check
* Rain- big check
* Bartering- check
* Getting lost- big check
* Someone being sick- check 
* Conversations or parts of them lost in translation- check
* Lush beauty- big check
* Being laughed at- check
* Traffic- big check
* Mosquitos and other bugs- big check 
* Beautiful beaches- not quite, we were inland after all! :)
* Lots and lots of fun- BIG CHECK!

 

The Vampire Diaries

It wasn't "Twilight" but there was plenty of blood involved! A definite highlight of the Academy school year is Work Experience Week and this year, Jess was finally old enough to work down in the hospital. She spent a week shadowing her youth leader and Senior Lab Technician, Jenny.

Jenny didn't go easy on Jess and she worked long and hard, on her feet all day and even returning to work one evening to assist with blood donation for an emergency surgery. Turn outs Jess is a natural vampire and Jenny decided that Jess could even have go at drawing blood herself. She was so proud of herself as she "got it on my first try".

Mum even dropped down to have her blood typed (by Jenny, not quite brave enough to have her child stick her)!

Jess kept a diary during her week of work exercise. These are some of her thoughts....

Day 1: "On the first day I went around the lab and did QC (quality control). That includes checking temperatures of all the incubators and fridges. Next we made sure all things were in date and all machines worked, using synthetic blood. After I learnt what each machine did briefly and did blood bank, which is checking blood types and cross matching blood donors. There were a few donors so I learnt how to stick a needle into someone. I learnt about antigens and antibodies, so like which blood types could go with who. I was also called back after dinner which was really interesting..."

Jess and Jenny

Day 2: "Today I basically did a little micro-learning about gram positive and gram negative cells. Also did blood smears. Mainly what we did was run in and out of the OR giving blood that we took from donors. I saw my first bit of surgery which was cool...."

I remember Jess saying to me, "Mum, today I went into the OR and saw a guy with half his face peeled off!"

 

Day 3: "Today was an exciting day. I started with QC and then haematology, working with CELL-DYN, seeing the amount of white blood cells, red blood cells, haemoglobin, platelets....other. Then I worked with  a little micro-biology and learnt how to streak plates and made up micro scan ID plates-they identify the bacteria based on chemical reactions and give antibiotic sensitivity. I also learned how to use a small needle and drew some of Jenny and Scott's blood. It was very good and I got it on my first try!...."

 

 

Day 4: "On day four we did QC the just jumped around from blood bank, haematology, looking at stained streaks. Typing in more patient information, Safety Committee meeting, community meeting, departmental devotions, coags...."

Ready to run into the OR to deliver life saving blood donated by crew members.

Taking blood all by herself!

Day 5: "I did more blood bank and drew blood! I did a bit more micro and haematology......"

What Jenny had to say!

Work experience on board the ship is an amazing opportunity to see how the ship operates outside the walls of the Academy. The kids get the chance to see where Mum and Dad work and to become a little more involved in the day to day running and mission of the ship!

 

    

"Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men"

Colossians 3:23

Little Bean

(Photo credit: David Forrest)

"Our hearts are broken over the loss of a young patient.

 

The beautiful 5-year-old girl from Northern Madagascar passed away on board the Africa Mercy on Thursday 10 March, at 5.45pm. She died two days after a very unusual, rare and severe reaction to the surgical procedure in combination with general anaesthetic, during treatment to remove a complex tumour of her lower face and neck. Her mother had been at her bedside since their arrival to the Mercy Ship on 20 January and her senior uncle joined them Thursday evening.

 

Official formalities with the local authorities were completed and the family and the body were flown back to their village  to prepare for her funeral.

 

Our prayers and our love leave with them."

(Mercy Ships Media Statement March 2016)

Little Bean, I did not know you, but as news of your passing filtered through the decks my heart broke for you and you family. I am a mother too, you see and while I cannot fathom what you mamma was feeling that day when she said goodbye, I can imagine her pain. I can hear her wails of despair.

As we waited for your condition to improve, all of us as a united crew stopped what we were doing, wherever we were on board, to pray. The galley stopped preparing lunch, the housekeepers stopped mopping, the teachers paused with their classes, meetings came to a standstill, the hospital staff dropped to their knees, to storm heaven for your healing.

But God chose to take you and whilst our frail human minds cannot comprehend, we have chosen to trust in Him.

As Andrew co-ordinated clearing of the freezer to store your broken body, now just a shell, your soul was flying free in heaven. As one of our carpenters skilfully crafted a coffin to carry you back to your village and some ladies on board lovingly created padding to soften your journey, you were dancing beside Jesus. As your body was dressed in a beautiful outfit, by hospital crew, you were free of the tumour that had taken your life.

Little bean.......your last days on earth were dignified. You were loved, prayed for and treated like the Princess you were! A daughter of the king.

Little Bean.......we did our best for you but it was not enough.

Be uncomfortable with us as we have mourned and we continue to mourn and pray for all the other beans......all 5,165 people whom our screening team saw and for whatever reason we could not treat! Yes your eyes did not deceive you, five thousand, one hundred and sixty five.

Then there are the thousands that we could not physically reach due to poor roads and sheer isolation in this vast nation. There are those we pass on the street from day to day that we cannot help as our surgery schedule is full to overflowing. There are five operating theatres running, an extra ward as been opened and the Hope Centre is overcapacity, as we race to the finish line, desperate to help as many beans as we can.

Do you feel uncomfortable? We do. We rest comfortably in the knowledge that we can access world class medical care, medication, clean water, electricity, education and freedom of religion while others are dying just trying to access these basic human rights.

It is so hard to consolidate. I don't think we can really. We can only place our faith in a loving God who sees each little bean. Every. Single. One.

Can I ask that you pray for the 5,165 people who we had to turn away, for the family of the little girl who passed away, for the patients recovering in the wards right now and for those who are yet to receive surgery in the next few weeks before the hospital closes it's doors in Madagascar for this season?

#5165

Mercy Meets Hope

Jesus really loves the people of Madagascar. What are the odds of two ships with entirely different missions, serving one God, crossing paths in a tiny town off the east coast of Madagascar. A town that is friendly and safe by day but whose demons come out at night, to play. A town seeped in prostitution, kidnapping and robbery. A town where the locals are warm and friendly, where coconuts hang from palm trees swaying in the sultry air and the brilliant blue of the Indian Ocean beckons seductively.

This town, this beautiful nation, that we have come to love has had an influx of hope, healing, help and knowledge in hundreds of different ways, depicting the love of Christ, channelled through the crew of the Africa Mercy and the Logos Hope, representing over 60 nationalities.

I cannot tell you how excited we were to have a sister alongside. We began as strangers and parted as friends, immediately bonded by our passion for the people of Madagascar, our faith and our unique lifestyle and ministries!

Here she comes!! The crew of the Africa Mercy lined the decks to catch a long awaited glimpse of the much anticipated arrival of the Logos Hope.

A view from our bridge. Captain Jan in the green shirt.

Getting closer. The Logos Hope have a wonderful tradition of gathering on their decks, on arrival into a new country, proudly waving their countries flags. It is an awesome spectacle!

Panning out.....
(Photo credit: Carol Tanzola)

From the bow.
 (Photo credit: Robbie Lerma)

Jess and her two Aussie friends, sisters Charlotte and Annabelle represent!!!

 Aussie to Aussie (look real hard to the top right).
(Photo credit: David Forrest)

Side by side.

(Photo credit: Kristin Jack)

 

Nice panorama!

On Christmas Eve we were privileged to be amongst the first in Madagascar to visit the Logos Hope for the opening of the book fair. We listened to quite a few speeches, watched the "Parade of Nations" and heard a number from the Logos Hope choir.

We then moved down to the book fair, where a local dignitary cut the ribbon for the book fair, officially opening it in Tamatave. Oh yeah.....there were snacks :) Above, just a small section of the huge book fair that expands over almost an entire deck.

Jess and Andy at the book fair.

Having our snacks in the Logos Hope café.

We also celebrated Christmas side by side, each of us empathizing with the other, the feeling of being far from home, our own cultures and traditions and the family and friends we had left behind, never far from our thoughts.

Not long after we had finished our Christmas brunch we heard a lot of commotion coming from outside. Andrew and I ran up to the deck and were greeted by the amazing sight of the Logos Hope crew clustered on their bow, proudly waving their countries flags. In unison they called out "Merry Christmas Africa Mercy!" It was a whole lot of fun!

An aerial viewpoint.



Our first joint gathering was on our dock side and was basically a huge getting to know you event, reminiscent of a speed dating night! :) We call them Connect Groups though!
(Photo credit: Kristin Jack)

A crew member, Mathieus, who runs their Transportation department hosted us for dinner one evening on the Logos Hope. It was eerily similar to our dining room. Spaghetti Bolognese and white chocolate brownies were the order of the day and we enjoyed a great evening of getting to know several of the crew. There was plenty of...."Do you have this, do you do that?. We also had a guided tour and I was finally able to peek inside the Logos Hope library. We also toured the bridge where I took my turn at the helm. Captain Jodie!! Fortunately this was a drill.

The Logos Hope leadership came to have a special dinner on board with our leadership. Worse luck I was down with gastro for this event but you can see Andrew in the back row on the right and we couldn't go to their leadership dinner as it was on Jessica's 16th birthday.

Each time the Logos Hope is in a port they take on many short term projects. Their advance or "line up" team find needs within the community, prior to the ship's arrival, similar to how Mercy Ships operates, expect we mostly search for patients and long term ministries we can partner with.

One of the large projects the Logos Hope crew undertook during their visit to Tamatave was the complete overhaul of the local libaray or Biblioteque, in French. On behalf of the Africa Mercy I was able to donate about seven boxes of books to the Logos to take to the Biblioteque. I also visited one day to see what was happening and stayed to help catalogue books for a while. No mean feat as the titles were in French!

Above, a Logos Hope crew member and I working on cataloguing books.

Locals helping out with cleaning the books which were very dirty and dusty. Some were covered in mould.

Logos Hope crew sanding shelves.

Inside the Biblioteque.

Outside-right next to the local tip!

We couldn't miss the opportunity to get together with the Logos Hope mum's! There are a few less families on board the Logos than on the Africa Mercy, mainly due to the fact that the Logos Hope school finishes at the end of grade six. So lots of little ones!

The Logos mums came to visit us first and the next week we went over to visit them (above photo). There was lots of mutual "checking out" of family cabins! We were surprised to find that some of the family cabins on the Logos had he same carpet as the cabins on the AFM.

We found a unique bond with the Logos Hope mum's and it was great to be able to compare notes. I mean how often can you find a group of women in the same boat as you? Since then we have formed a Facebook page for the Logos and AFM mum's called Ship Sisters.

Having some fun on the Logos Hope!

We heard the rumours long before the ship graced the sunny shores of Tamatave. Was it true? Did the Logos Hope really have a soft serve machine in their café???? Much to our delight the rumour was completely founded and I am sure our crew doubled the Logos Hope's usual port intake of soft serve ice cream!

Above, Andrew enjoys a vanilla soft serve. Below, Jess and friends with a soft serve selfie! (Photo credit: Kristin Jack)

 

The Logos Hope is largely evangelical as well as programmatic. During the course of their visit they had several concerts/shows for the local people where the gospel was presented in an appropriate manner and translated into Malagasy by local translators.

We had the pleasure of attending the International Cultural Festival where we watched many of the crew perform. It was an upbeat concert with a serious message.

Above, me, Jess and friend Charlotte with some AFM crew photo bombing behind, at the concert!

Some Logos Hope crew who were amazing on the drums/djembes!!

A large proportion of the Logos crew are very young, with many kids doing a gap year (or two) fresh out of high school. This proved too good to be true for our youth on board, who took the opportunity (as much as possible) to hang out with the Logos gang.

 Above, some of our youth on board the Logos Hope.

Logos Hope engine room tour-Jess and friends.

Logos Hope + AFM youth=fun!
(Photo credit: Zach McKillop)

To bid our neighbours fond farewell we hosted a combined BBQ, our dockside. Around 700 of us gathered, relishing new found friendships and lamenting our impending goodbyes, over dinner. The fun continued as the heavens opened up and a torrential downpour took us by surprise. Many of the crew danced in the rain while about 200 Logos crew invaded the AFM leaving our poor security guards a bit frazzled.

In West Africa, a downpour of rain after a significant event is often called a "shower of blessing" signalling Gods approval on the event. Oh how the angels must have be rejoicing over the gathering of so many Christians together, sharing a common goal to bless and serve the people of Tamatave and beyond! 

I love this photo. The Logos "line up" (advance) team beside our Logos liaison team with swapped t-shirts!
(Photo credit: Kristin Jack)

All good things must come to an end and it was a sad day as we bid the Logos Hope farewell. Jess and some new friends (on each end) pose for a final photo!
(Photo credit: Patricia Royston)

Africa Mercy crew, locals and other ex-pats gathered dock side (or quayside as the Logos crew prefer :) ) to wave off the Logos Hope after their short but impactful visit to Tamatave.

(Photo credit: A Logos Hope crew member)

Jess and friends say their final goodbyes.

(Photo credit: A Logos Hope crew member)

Au revoir, Veloma, goodbye....

Fair winds and following seas, Logos Hope. God bless you on your future ministries and we hope to meet again! #madameetsmercyandhope

(Photo credit: Patricia Royston)