Like a Tree

My Dad insisted that I bring this map from my bedroom wall in the city to my going away party in their backyard last month.  After all my friends and family left that night I snapped this shot and concluded that I want to be this tree, and you all are part of it...
You can often find sycamore trees near moving water, like the one pictured above, they grow in many different shapes and statures.  In the winter their bare branches and stark white bark stand out, their presence not easily overlooked (at least not by nature lovers such as I).  I've picked them out along the east and west coast, at the beach, in the mountains, very adaptable perennials.  I want to be this sort of person, like a tree, carrying a passion and love for the people of this vast, yet small world. That night I was left thinking about how blessed I am by all of you!  I have felt SO blessed by the amount of love and generous support from my family and friends and a few anonymous donors(!).  I just want to say THANK YOU!! Your prayers and love are reaching the far places of the earth.

⁷ “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
    whose confidence is in him.
⁸ They will be like a tree planted by the water
    that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
    its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
    and never fails to bear fruit.”

Jeremiah 17

After our whirlwind visits to Casablanca, Morocco and Amman, Jordan, Carolyn and I made it to the ship late last Sunday night.
The first week was hard for sure.  There are around 400 volunteers working on the ship at one time, so that's a fairly large community, most of which have been here since the beginning of the field service here in Benin which began in August.  Remember that feeling in the cafeteria on the first day of middle school?  That's how Monday felt at lunch.  I was so glad to finally be here on the ship which has been a dream of mine for the past six years now, but also entirely overwhelmed with the newness of absolutely everything.  When you start a new job back in the states it's stressful for sure because the learning curve is steep but then you get to go home to your normal house and eat your normal food and hang out with your friends who know you.  I just plopped myself in a sea (literally ;) of people I don't know from all over the world and a new job; caring for people who don't speak my language (or Spanish...as much as I find myself speaking to them in Spanish it doesn't work).  In my last week at home I quit my job, moved out of my apartment, sold my car, gave my bed away, scattered my remaining things in storage and have no idea what I will do if/when I come back to Pennsylvania at the end of May.  Life is exciting! and really, I am so glad to be here.

People are very friendly here once you just pull up a chair and start asking questions, the past week has gotten better and better with each day and familiar face.  

Here's a little taste of my living situation.  I'm in a six berth cabin on Deck Three with an extremely loud little bathroom in the front due to the vacuum plumbing system.  My bunk is the bottom one in the picture on the right.  The first week I had a bunk mate named Brittany who is a Nurse Anesthetist from Florida, she was here for only two weeks and left after my first week, so now I have this space to myself until we get another roommate probably won't be long!

All of us are nurses working odd shifts so it is usually pretty quiet in there.  The hospital part of the ship is also on deck three so I walk right down the hall to work on B Ward, as pictured below.  Who knew I could ever have a shorter commute to work than I did at Lancaster General a block away from where I lived.  The wards hold 20 beds with a dividing wall in between two sections of 10.  This "open floor plan" makes for some pretty chaotic but also super fun times on the ward. 

My job here is very different from home.  I am on B ward.  What does that mean?  B Ward is the ward that rotates between plastic surgery, orthopedic, back to plastics and then vesicovaginal fistula repair surgery.  Currently we have a few post-op plastic surgery patients who are waiting for their wounds to close.  Most of these patients were burn victims for one reason or another, some accidental and sadly, some purposeful.  One of my patients was burned with acid by her husband three years ago for wanting to go to church.  Her skin healed poorly, leaving her unable to move her neck and right arm.  The surgery she got enables her to finally move her neck and have use of her arm!  Most of them have been here for weeks now.  We don't send them home sooner because the risk of infection is too great, so they stay here and get their dressings changed and we give them this awesome protein filled drink to help the healing process.  There are only nine patients left on B ward now until orthopedics start up next week so there is a lot of soccer ball kicking in the halls, fingernail painting and dancing.  I come from a complicated, busy, fast paced environment on a Neuroscience/telemetry and post gastric bypass floor back in PA, so it took a few shifts to get used to the pace and flow of nursing here on the ship.  Here, it gets loud too but not because of one million alarms going off instead it's the babies crying and laughing, family members singing and nurses dancing with whoever wants to.  I'm still a nurse, but I think at this point we are caring more for the soul than the bodies of these precious ones, and that is no small thing.  The first day we got a tour of the hospital and I couldn't keep the tears from welling up in my eyes, this is a truly special place and I'm so glad to be a part of it. 

We are only allowed to use photos of the patients of official Mercy Ships photographers and so here are two, more to come in future posts :). Once orthopedics start the ward will once again be filled with kiddos hobbling around with tiny walkers or crutches. I'm so excited!