Ana

Hey Ana I got your comment but have no idea how to comment on a comment. I'd love to talk to you! maybe send me an email? Emmalwolfe@gmail.com  Although i'm not on the ship anymore i can certainly try to answer any questions you might have!

Home

Hello world!!! I made it safely to little Spokane Washington.  The trip was uneventful in the sense that we didn't crash or miss planes.  It was eventful in the fact that we almost missed our plane in Belgium, had beer for breakfast, and completely freaked out over a trolley of REAL milk (not milch!!!).
Here's the story with Belgium.  We (Joshua Dodge and the Mercy Team we were traveling with) had a 5 hour lay over before we left (all on the same plane) for Washington D.C.  So we decided to take a train into Brussles and get breakfast.  Sounds delicious right? It would have been awesome except that we 1) didn't speak the language and 2) missed our stop...opps!

Josh and I before we realized we'd missed our stop

Brussles

Brussles

Back at the airport having breakfast.  I had a beer, a coffee, 1.5 liters of water and a chocolate croissant...i had to use the bathroom like every hour on the plane!

   We ended up about 25 KM outside of Brussles wondering if we were going to make it back to the airport in time for our flight.  We ran around trying to figure out which train to take to take us back to the airport.  We ended up at the airport and through security with enough time to grab some breakfast!
For those who didn't know, i came home about a week early to surprise my family and boyfriend.  The surprise was AMAZING!!!! I called Drew from the airport and he bout cried when he realized i was actually home.  He picked me up and took me to a prearranged meeting place (my dad was in on the surprise) to surprise my family.  The look on my mother's face was priceless.  I'm so glad i decided to surprise them.  It made coming home a bit more bearable.
Now onto what readjustment has been like...it's...hard.  It's hard to WANT to reconnect with people.  Part of me wants to just hide away and then go back to Africa.  It's certainly not easy to come back to this place.  It was slightly depressing to go to church today and realize that most of the people there didn't even know i had left for 7 months.  so for those who have been asking how it's going...i'd really appreciate your prayers.  I miss Africa, i miss my friends there and i miss the culture (never thought i would have said that).
I will try to write a few more updates in the upcoming weeks.  I can't believe this adventure has ended.

Made it home

So in order to make it a surprise for the people at home I didn't post about it on my blog, but I left Africa on Monday and got home Tuesday.  So.... I'm home now!  I miss everyone I met on the African Mercy. Thank you all for your prayers.  I'm in Portland right now, going to disney princess audition in the morning!! I'll post more later.

Surgery

One of the perks of being on a hospital ship is that we are able to observe surgery! What an awesome experience! Especially since I don't get to work with the hospital very much it was really cool to see what the ship does in West Africa.
The first surgery I saw was Dr. Gary Parker with a facial tumor removal.  The man had a tumor removed in 2010 by a local hospital.  Unfortunatly it grew back and so today Dr. Gary opened his face and removed the rest of the tumor and reconstructed his cheek bone.  It was pretty amazing.  When i entered the room the mans face was opened up and i could see like all the insides of his face...there was lots of blood.

Dr. Gary is amazing.  He explained a lot about how the surgery worked, how the man would look after.  It was quite informative.

The second surgery I saw was with Dr. James and (i don't know the other surgeons name...).  The lady had an abdominal hernia.  Pretty darn interesting.  It was 12 centimeters so they had to insert a 'patch' to help the hernia not come back.  

So today was a pretty exciting day.  I checked off another thing on my African bucket list!   The days are slowly ticking by.  Thank you everyone for your prayers.
Please, pray for the hospital on the ship.  We are very understaffed.
Love to all and lots of hugs!

Counting down the days!

My time on the Africa Mercy is slowly drawing to a close and all i can think is "AAAHHHH!" I'm so excited to come home.  But at the same time here on the ship life is pretty safe.  I have a job, a place to live, a mode of transportation and all other things i just don't have to worry about.  I have no one to text or call so i don't need a phone.  I have a laptop, and internet is provided.  I don't worry about paying bills, getting laid off, traffic...everything is just an adventure.  Thinking about going home brings up the thoughts of "what if i take the wrong job?" "what if my car breaks down and i can't afford to fix it?" "What if i don't have enough money to pay rent?" "what if...what if...what if..." Tonight I was on Deck 8 praying about all of these questions and thoughts.  Not once have I doubted that God will take care of me.  Not once.  However, the thing that I have learned while being here is that it is really easy to trust in a loving powerful God when you have absolutely nothing.  I have no bills to worry about, i have no money to spend, i have no hours to make sure i get at work.  At home...it's easy to 'forget to trust' God.  I tend to feel that there is always something else i can try (notice the word I?).  I always have a back up plan.  No money? Call the parents, take out a loan etc.  No food? call the parents.  It doesn't really cost me anything to trust God.  I don't have to sacrifice my plans and my wants.  I have nothing to begin with...so i have nothing to lose.
 So tonight I was on deck 8 and i realized that coming to Africa wasn't the test of trust...coming home is.  Do I trust God enough to take care of me? provide for me? Tell me which job to take? put food on my table?  The lesson that i feel i'm learning (and going to learn) is 'what is trust?' and 'how does one trust?'.  Part of me reels back at the thought of learning new lessons.  It's never easy or comfortable.  The other part of me is glad God still has work to do in me,  that He doesn't give up on me no matter how stubborn i am.
Another lesson to take away is to see everything as an adventure.  You never know what getting stuck in traffic might lead to? Perhaps you see a sign for a store you'd never noticed before, or you see an old friend on the sidewalk and get back in touch with them.  Maybe your coffee gets cold and you realize you like it better cold.  Instead of complaining or worrying about ANYTHING see it as an adventure.  You never know where it will take you!

BBQ on the dock!

Tonight we had a fantastic BBQ on the dock! We invited all the dayworkes to eat with us and then stay and participate in community meeting.  It was a blast! Below is top secret information!!! if anyone knew that we have a BALL in the galley...well it wouldn't be good.  (Oh and i can't believe they let us out in public to cook in front of people...what is this world coming to!?)

The guy in the A&W shirt in the background is my big boss Peter.  Nice :)

Ken treats us so nicely...

Starting the BBQ's Ken doused them in gasoline.  Notice the fire extinguisher standing by

There were so many people! the line went for like forever!

We had a really strange thing happen in the galley today.  We looked over at the steam kettle and noticed the little balls of light on the tongs.  Something had happened and there was electricity running through the tongs! crazy right!?  It was pretty exciting

After work I went to visit Ama (my patient friend) in the ward.  She saw my hair and immediately wanted to braid it.  So...she braided it :)

It was a great day! now i'm exhausted.  Tomorrow i'm going to brunch, pictures to come!

The phone isn't working!!!

Hello all! I have pictures to upload but unfortunately my phone isn't working and won't let me upload anything.  Hopefully tomorrow the phone is in a better mood.
I am slowly but surely completing my Africa Check List! Yesterday we went to a restaurant (wish i knew the name).  It was a REAL African restaurant! yay! Tom (our day worker) took me and Roxane (my new roommate).  You know it's off the beaten path when there's no white people and they don't speak any English.  We had Fufu which is a VERY West African starch.  It's made out of either Yam or Cassava.  Both are a type of root looking thing.  The yams here are not like the yams in the states.  So our Fufu (pronounced foo foo) was made with Yams.  It's a lot like mashed potatoes.  You eat it with some kind of sauce (which ever you order).  I had some kind of spicy tomato beef sauce.  I think i burned my tongue from the spiciness of it and not from temperature.  It was really delicious though!  I would totally do it again.
I have pictures of this wonderful adventure on my phone! but my stupid phone is being uncooperative.
Hey look at that! I just tried to get my phone to work again and it's working now!

Walking to the market :)

Roxane washing her hands before eating African food

Tom and I eating fufu

I have no idea what this was...supposedly it was beef but i've never seen beef like this before.  It was rubbery and weird...

So guys that's all for the day!

Another day, another story!

Hello all! I don't have much to write about but i figured it's time for an update.  For those who don't know, my time with MercyShips is slowly drawing to an end.  My service here is up the middle of March.  I'm so excited to come home! But i'm also really sad about leaving Africa.  I've really grown to love the markets, the taxi's, the people and the relationships i've formed here.
I've started a list of things i have left to accomplish before I leave:

1. Ride on a Zimmi -COMPLETED
2. Stay the night off the ship - COMPLETED
3. Donate blood to the ship
4. Befriend a patient 
5. Eat at a side of the road food vendor (African style!)
6. Observe a surgery

Currently i've done the first two.  I rode on a zimmi (motorcycle) and it was awesome! However, i did take the precaution of riding on Ken's bike. 

It was lots of fun...but i prolly won't do it again. It messes up my hair to much.

Staying off the ship i completed last weekend staying at Kpalime. I already posted about that trip and i don't want to double post pictures.  that would be embarrassing.

I've signed up to "befriend a patient".  It's a program where you get matched up with a patient.  You visit them, encourage them, pray with them and in general just be there as a friend.  I got assigned two different patients.  So tomorrow I'm going to go make some new friends!

As for the donating blood one...I signed up to donate blood.  In Sierra Leone I donated blood to a local clinic.  The Aberdeen women's clinic came onto the ship and a lot of crew donated blood to them.  So i guess that counts if i don't actually get to donate to our on board hospital. 

I've been thinking a lot about coming home.  I feel like i'm in a weird transition period.  I've been having a hard time focusing on being here.  I'm ready to come home.  I miss home.  

Oh! before I sign off a quick prayer request.  Our ovens in the galley are on the fritz.  Two of them are completely broken which leaves us in a very tight spot.  Please pray that we will be able to get the necessary parts ASAP.  Love to all!

KKKKK PALIME!!!

Time to hear about the trip to Kpalime!! We (Julie, Ben, Josh and I) had a fantastic time!  So sorry that the pictures are not in the right order.  I had a really difficult time trying to figure it out... :(

We took a taxi to the bus station and piled into a mini bus (above)

Any trip in Africa wouldn't be complete if it we didn't get stopped on the way! The police stopped our bus and we all had to pile out.  We really have no idea what was going on because it was all in French and no one spoke English.  But we took a picture to commemoration the event :)

Back on the bus! Surprisingly we weren't that cramped.

One of the first things we did (after getting a fanmilk) was to go to this church.  It was huge and beautiful.  Lots of stained glass windows.  

We wandered around the town a lot just to see what Kpalime  looked like.  Eventually we were really hot and sweaty and just wanted to sit down and eat out lunch.  So we stopped into a little restaurant and ate our lunch with soft drinks

A man came buy selling what we call 'street meat' street because you buy it on the street and meat because we have no idea what kind of meat it is.  It was really spicy but pretty good.  I think it had at least 3 different kinds of meat on the same skewer.  

At the market we bought fresh pineapple and mango for breakfast in the morning.  Josh tried to buy some fabric as well but we had a really difficult time with the language barrier.  None of us spoke French (Julie spoke the most but still rather difficult to have a conversation).

We took a Taxi up to Mt. Agou YWAM base.  

The base had one large main building.  It had lots of rooms in it and a  lovely wrap around porch.  While we were there  the sky opened up and it poured rain for about half an hour.  We sat under the porch and just watched the valley get drenched.  It was amazing.

We went hiking around the base (just to see what was there) .  We found some fruit trees and the boys found a long stick and knocked some of the fruit down.  We opened one of them up and couldn't figure out what the fruit was.

The weird fruit....any ideas?

There was also a catholic shrine.  It was pretty interesting.

In French it's called the JEM base.  Luckily we knew that before hand 

We hung around the base and played card games and other silly games when it was to dark to be outside.

The lovely main building and it's wrap around porch

During the storm the electricity was pretty dodgy.  It kept going out so we ate part of dinner by candle/flashlight.  It was really an adventure! Aimee (the lady who ran the base) made us fish and casava fries (sort of like potatoes).  It was delicious!

We went hiking and had some lovely views...sadly...the pictures don't really do them justice.

Hiking! (yes mom i really did hike)

One of the two little villages we had to go through to get to the peak of the mountain.  In this village some of the kids showed us the way.  We paid them in trail mix   On the way back down we happened to come across a woman who had lived in Ghana and had learned English.  She guided us through the town and introduced us to her entire family (and in laws) and took us to her house.  This is Africa people.  

The first village we went through.

This guy (in the tree) really wanted us to take a picture of him... i have no idea why. 

It was such a good trip! Unfortunately I can't figure out how to put these pictures in chronological order.  Sorry :(  The hike was really sweaty but really enjoyable.  The only thing that would have made it better was a lake at the top.  Oh! About the top! We got to the top and there was a security guard there who wouldn't let us through unless we bribed him.  We decided we didn't support corruption so we sat down ate our lunch and hiked back down the mountain.  Slightly disappointing to not get to see the view from the top of the mountain but well...life goes on and there were lots of views as we were hiking up.  Since we were hiking on a Sunday, all the churches in the villages we passed were going on.  We heard singing and worship for almost the entire hike.  Pretty cool!
So folks, that's our trip to Kaplime! My first and only night i've stayed off the ship.  Totally worth it.

aaah!

Hello my devoted readers! I so apologize for not posting more often :( I took a trip to Kpalime this last weekend and I've been meaning to post about it.  Unfortunately (as seems to always be the case) i don't have the pictures.  I promise to make it a point to get them tomorrow and write a nice long post about how the weekend went.  It was my first night off the ship...and i went on a hike.  Two things i'm not very comfortable with.  But i had a lovely time.  More is soon to follow.

Another birthday party!

Today i have to things to talk about.  The first is very short.  Below is are the key words to put into Youtube to watch a video from the big screening we just had.  I highly recommend that you watch it to see what the Africa Mercy is doing in Togo.

MercyShips Togo screening 2012

Please be praying for our equipment on the ship.  things are getting old and they break all the time! It can be really frustrating.  So please pray that equipment will hold together so we are able to continue to do what God has placed us here to do.

And the second thing i have to talk about is my African birthday party!  we had a birthday party with the dayworkers! It was so much fun! We made African food in the morning and I made a cake.  We all ate together in the Cafe.

It was a really fun 40 hour birthday! Thank you everyone!