Beauty...sigh

Lately I've been rereading Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge.  (ladies if you haven't read it you really should! and if you have read it...read it again!)  It's made me think about our God being a God of beauty.  If beauty wasn't important to God...imagine what our world would look like.  No flowers or sunsets.  No dew dripping off leaves in the early morning.  No dances or peices of art that catch your eye and leave you speechless.  No peices of poetry or songs that make you weep for joy.  If beauty was no more, beautiful women (so that means all women!) would cease to exist and in their places would be creatures of misery.  If beauty was no more you would look at a baby and just see...a baby...not a precious lovely being.  Our God is a God who values and desires to show us beauty.  That's my thought for the day :)
 In other news: Today was quite eventful...i will let it speak for itself :)

The beautiful Bronte making delicious crepe's on crepe day (monday!)

Break time on the Africa Mercy

 we went to the market today with Tom (our day worker) and had a fantastic time!!! I got some really adorable adorable fabric.   Then we went to the tailor and 'ordered' some pieces of clothing.  I'm getting two shirts and a skirt (pictures to follow...when i get the clothes).  The tailor only spoke french, so it's good that Tom was there.  After the tailor Tom took us to his house and showed us where he lived.

Getting measured for my shirt

Ben, putting up with all the girly clothes shopping etc

Tom (in pink) Elise and the tailors

Ben, deciding he did want something made by the tailor

 Tonight the hospital had an open house.  There were games, races, sutcher stitching lessons, IV finding exercises...lotsa fun!

This is empty the urine bag race.  You had to put on a hat, gloves, goggles, gown, and mask then run over to the urine bag and empty out 100 ml dump it out in the sink and then take off all the accessories.  It was lots of fun! Tori and I beat Ken and Bronte in a relay race at it!

Ken!

Another game: Nurse for a shift.  Jenny force fed (LITERALLY!) her  'patient' the meds.  It was awesome!

Jenny and Noel! congrats for winning Jenny

And finally sutcher lessons...sorry it's difficult to see.  btw...harder then it looks.

It was a fantastic day! I had such a good time.  I know i've said this before but thank you to everyone who supported me (and is still supporting me).  Thank you all!

Perspective

Life is all about your perspective.  Sometimes life seems to overwhelm us. And sometimes we can handle life no problem.  What's the difference? Yes, you have different stresses at different times in your life.  But the big difference is your perspective on life.  Are your eyes on the road directly at your feet? Only seeing your problems? Or are you looking around? Seeing other people's problems?  If we can take the focus off of ourselves and look at the people around us...our problems start to seem smaller instead of fogging up our vision and completely overwhelming us.
Perspective is something that God has been teaching me.  Living in Spokane i didn't realize how big the world is.  How many people are living in tattered clothes, going to sleep each night in a dirty bed (or on the dirt floor), living on scraps of food, walking on streets filled with feces and garbage.  I can specifically look at times in my life when all i could do was focus on living out one more day.  I was so overwhelmed with the problems of that day i couldn't think about anyone else.  I was drowning in my own problems.  If I had simply looked at the poor of the world, seen the hurt of the people even in Spokane, I wouldn't have felt like i was drowning anymore.  I would have seen what true hurt and true 'drowning' is. Getting out of Spokane, seeing a different side of the world, and learning perspective is yet another reason I am so thankful to everyone who helped send me here.  thank you thank you thank you!

The last two weeks has been extremely chaotic on the ship.  The eye team had their first screening on Monday.  This means that potential patients came, were selected for a second screening and came to the ship today.  Today they were told that yes we could help them and scheduled for surgery.  Or no, we won't have a doctor for their specific ailment and were prayed over.  On Wednesday we have the main screening for general surgeries.  It's going to be a HUGE event.  Please pray for us as there are many many details to work out and coordinate with the government, transportation, food, security etc. Specifically pray that God would bring the people that He wants there to the screening, and keep away the people that He doesn't want there.  This prayer (as Doctor Gary explained) will ensure that every single person who is there is meant to be there. That by being at that screening they will be touched somehow.  Even if it's only to be prayed over and given a drink of water.  I will keep you updated on how that goes

The other day i went into town with some awesome girls! Bronte, Rebeka, Julie, Fatmata, Sarah and Tori

Togo market place...one of them

A man trying to sell Bronte a shirt for her dad

getting a coconut from a lady...notice the machete they cut them with

Tom, a day worker friend, eating his coconut :)

Sorry that I haven't posted in a couple days.  and I will keep you updated about the screenings.  Thanks for the prayers :)

Bread lessons!

I know that I haven't updated in a couple days and i'm sorry :( I get busy with work and knitting.  Since Ellen Peller sent me some lovely yarn i've been knitting a whole bunch! I went into town and found some yarn and am making little bunnies for the patients.  Ellen you have renewed my passion.  Today i was asked to come on to the ward after the hospital opens and teach the patients to knit.  That could be pretty fun...and quite interesting.

Today is sort of picture day...i don't feel like i have very many good stories so i will just tell the ones that go with the pictures.

On my last day off i spent the day in midships knitting away!

Some of the beautiful batik fabrics sold in the market place

This is what a pretty large vendor looks like....lots of necklaces and beaded things

Today the day workers asked me to teach them something.  Since i was already making bread, i included them in the learning process.  They learned how to shape the dough into balls, how to roll it into loafs, egg wash and slice the top.  Overall, it was a very interesting experience.  I think that they all learned something but mostly we just laughed and had a good time.  

for some reason this apron does not flatter me...but i liked the rest of the picture.  

The boys egg washing the bread! 

Tori 

We have two pairs of welding goggles in the galley.  The welder says that there are tons of goggles on the ship so he doesn't need the ones that were left in the kitchen...so we take awesome pictures with them instead of using them for their intended purpose!!!

The Dining room just got hats that say 'dining room' on the back

Ken...doing what he does best :)

Something cool i learned about MercyShips today: We are a ministry with a long term vision.  For example, the eye team is not focused on doing as many surgeries as possible.  They are focused on training a local surgeon to do operations/procedures effectively and efficiently.  We teach him how to we do things so that he can stay behind in the country after we leave.  Part of the deal of us training him though is that he has to train someone else.  So eventually, there could possibly be enough doctors to effectively care for the visual needs of Togo.  Remember a while back i went to an eye screening and was in charge of escorting the 'no we can't help you line' to the gate? Well...with the mindset that we are focusing on long term care by training surgeons...it's a lot easier to be the 'no' person.
lastly i have a huge prayer request.  One of my fellow crew (and a friend) had a fairly serious concussion a couple days ago.  She was kicked in the head in a rather violent card game.  Please pray for her miraculous healing.

Walking through town

Sometimes it takes me a while to post something because i don't have any pictures...and i feel like blog posts are boring without pictures.  That's why it's taken me a while to blog.  However, i've had more then one person (looks pointedly at mom and Drew) ask me to blog so...here i go!
Went for a 2 hour walk in town with Josh Dodge, Matt, Julie and Florian.  We got a little bit lost at one point and ended up walking through some people's back yards.  We saw a lot of little gardens/nursery's. Some of them were really really pretty.  One guy was watering his garden and all i could think was...OMG he's watering all this by hand probably two or three times a day!!!
On the way back to the port, we were stopped by someone wanting to know when he could come to the ship and see a doctor.  Unfortunately he didn't speak enough English and we didn't speak enough French to be able to tell him the screening dates.  We ended up stopping different people on the street until we found someone who spoke enough of both languages to translate.  I've got to learn more French.
We are starting on week two with our day workers.  Last week went pretty darn well! They all speak enough English that we are able to make jokes and have a good time with them.  For this field service each galley team has day workers that work on the days they work.  So on my team we have Tom (Pittoh), Yao (who worked on the Africa Mercy a couple years ago), Ohini (I remember his name because it sounds like tahini) and Fatmata (the only girl).  Tom is very much meant to be a teacher.  He is faithfully teaching me and Tori (a new crew member in the galley) French.  I can introduce myself, ask your name, ask how you slept and ask if you work on the weekend.  He's a good teacher because he's teaching us how to conjugate verbs and such instead of just making us memorize phrases.
Lots of crew are starting to come on board! it seems like every day we have new people.  I'm getting a new roommate on Tuesday, so please be praying for her travel and pre arrival jitters.
I'm starting to feel just about as nervous to go home as i felt before i came to Africa.  I was going to an unknown place with unknown people.  And i'm returning home not knowing where i'll live or where i'll work.  One thing i've learned in Africa though is that God is faithful.  End of story.  I'm confident that he will take care of me.  I'm learning how to let go and just put everything in God's hands.
Anyway...a new day is soon upon us in Togo.  Pray for God to bless this land!

Excitement!

Yesterday on the Africa Mercy a mooring line broke and we started drifitng off to sea! just kidding...it wasn't that exciting.  The line broke (i believe the deckies called it 'parting') and all the deck hands went to the bow and we watched them throw out a new line.  There was no way we would have started drifting.  But it was fun to watch all the deckies in a rush!

exciting!

 During the sail we had to take down some of our decorations.  Today the boys and Susan Parker put them back up! yay!

I've been doing a lot of knitting lately.  Here's a picture of some fingerless gloves i just finished.

Well folks...i don't have much to report today :)

A moment in Africa

Today is picture day (picture day is really when i have nothing interesting to talk about so i find pictures and post them).

Shoe shops...there are tons of these all over the place

Sierra Leone clothes shop

All of the poda podas in Sierra Leone had little sayings on them.  

bags and bags of African peppers...i think that many peppers could kill a man if he tried to eat them

Always interesting to watch people carry stuff on their head

This was taken right outside of the hospital that Jenny and i visited in the last couple days of our time in Sierra Leone.

Another shoe shop.  At one of these shops we found a whole bunch of Toms.  We wondered if they were just fake or if they were the pairs that Toms promises to send to a third world country when you buy a pair back home.  Interesting thought.

Ladies would carry these big huge buckets filled with things they were selling.  

GHANA! this is the Wild Gecko.  i believe i've mentioned it before.  it was a really neat shop with lots of recycled craft type things.  Very interesting but kind of expensive.

 As promised, pictures of the new years eve masquerade ball!

Jenny found this shirt in town and for some reason fell in love with it.  

Michael Jackson's thriller

dancing it up with Bronte

Somehow during the evening we convinced the Gurkah's to dance, so here i am dancing with Ganesh

my mask!!! Everything i wore was bought/made in Africa.  Including my shoes (which i have no pictures of).  

matt and nathan....lovely napkin masks boys :)

Lara Palmer and some of the other high schoolers planned the dance.  They set up a photo booth.  great job girls!

the Gurkah's

My group of peeps! We had such a good time!

Dancing with Jay! Yay! He knows i love swing so he played a couple of nice east coast songs so we could dance.  Thanks Jay!

In case anyone was wondering about the real Jay Swanson...this is him...

So i just remembered! earlier i said i had nothing to talk about...but today we got our new day workers!!!! wahoo!!!! Today they had orientation and tomorrow they start work.  Sometimes you don't realize how much you need someone till they are gone...and sometimes once they have left you realize you can live without them but you don't want to.  Our day workers provide us with laughs and encouragement.  Since i don't work in the hospital and have no connection to the patients on a daily basis, the day workers are our immediate connection to Togo.  We are here, in West Africa, to minister to West Africa.  And that includes our day workers.  I'm so excited to get to work with new people!!!!
We are starting to get set up here in Togo.  We have a lot of screenings coming up.  Prayers for safety at the screenings and for God to be present are much appreciated.
In Saturday i went into town with some friends.  We went to a lovely indoor craft market.  SSSOOO many beautiful things! The quality of artwork here is so much higher then in previous places we have seen.  Craft markets sell wood carvings, necklaces, hand died fabrics called batik, paintings, hand crafted jewelry etc.  So we went to the craft market and had a grand time

A guy making wood carvings

a leather working shop

the outside of one of the shops

Outside the market there was a 'workshop' area where they were making batik.  here is a guy stamping the white cloth with wax

The dye pots (with Pat)

Hanging the cloth out to dry after it's been dyed

 After the craft market we went to a fruit market.  CHECK OUT THE GORGEOUS PRODUCE!

things i haven't seen in a long time: fresh parsley, zucchini, purple cabbage, spinach  MMMMMMM

So far Togo is awe (wait for it) SOME!!! I'm so excited what God is going to do in the lives of the crew, the day workers and the patients while we are here.