Leaving home, going home

I left the ship one hour ago.

I thought I was ready to leave until I had to say goodbye to friends that won’t come back to Senegal. I am one of the few that is leaving just for a good summer break to visit my family and my country, to then come back to the ship by the end of July.

It is exactly 18 months ago since I left Colombia, and I am very excited to spend 4 days in Paris with colombian friends and then fly home to my family. But it still hurts to leave my ship family, the people that I live with and work with, the people that have come to know me just as I am, no make-up, no pretending, just me. It is pretty amazing to say goodbye to people from so many different countries that have become my community. I pray for the ones that will have a good rest like me, hoping they will come back with new strength and joy for the work God will let us do in Senegal. And I pray for the ones that are moving to a new season in their lives, that God will comfort them as they mourn and adjust to the place God has prepared for them.

As I look back to this field service, I can only say thank you. I am grateful for how God brought more than 190 nurses to serve and love our patients, I am grateful I had the chance to meet and work with them. Their joy, energy, talents, knowledge and passion for this job kept me going even when I was be discouraged or tired. 

I am grateful for the crewmembers that came to the ship to serve with their heart even if they didn’t work in the hospital. The people that kept the ship running, clean, safe, with good food, the crew members that pray for us and with us, the ones that make great coffee, the ones that manage the finances, the teachers that are a great blessing for the children on the ship, the crew members that represent us to the government, the people that take care of the patients at the Hope Center, everybody, each one of the crew members is so valuable and necessary for the surgeries to happen. 

I am grateful for the guinean people that I had the privilege to meet and work with. Their hearts for the patients, their talent to translate and keep the ward running is amazing. The way they connected with us, strived to understand our culture and the joy they had in sharing their world and lives with us, I am blessed by all of them.

The hospital team makes me very proud, I have to say it! Such talented and compassionate people, humble, willing to learn but also ready to share their knowledge and experience, making the best use possible of the resources we have. If I ever get sick (hasn’t happened… yet…), I feel safe and confident that the hospital I work at would take great care of me.

I had the opportunity to be part of the emergency medical team this year, and just by practicing every two weeks what would we do in different scenarios, not just bonded us together, but prepared us to respond to a variety of situations that we had to face on the ship.

I also had the great challenge of team leading the Maxillofacial ward for the last three weeks, and I learned so much!! I am grateful for how patient and graceful the nurses, the surgeons and the other team leaders were, as I tried my best to make sure that the last patients could go home!! We said goodbye to the last max fax patients on Wednesday morning, and although there were some tears, my heart was hkappy as I saw them going back to their villages, to share their experience with their communities, and hoping they will remember not just the physical change the surgery brought, but also the love and hope that God wanted to give them through the crewmembers that served them. 

It’s hard to think of so many patients that I had the chance to meet, today I checked the statistics and from a total of 2230 patients, 254 adults and 142 children received a maxillofacial procedure that gave them the chance to face the world in a new way, literally!! Some of their names come to my mind and all I can do is smile and give thanks for them. I am mostly grateful for the patients that I met in Guinea. From the city of Conakry, from all the regions, even from other countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone, they came with great expectations and the hope of never having to hide again. I hope they understand how precious their lives are, what an impact they will make as they let others see their new faces and their new lives. I am grateful for their smiles, their hugs, how some of them would pretend they were mad at me for not coming to the ward to visit on my days off. The ladies and the little girls liked to touch my hair and ask how to make theirs straight like mine, we would just laugh and I would touch their heads and tell them how beautiful their hair was.  Dancing with them was always fun, this is the only place were no one is shy and gives it a try! 

Some of them had hard times, hospitals still have difficult times, but I am grateful for how strong they were, how patient and brave they were as they endured the unpleasant dressing changes and the time they couldn’t eat the food they craved, to protect their wounds and speed the healing they needed. Instead, they accepted liquid smoothies and peanut based milkshakes. 

Finally, I am incredibly grateful for the supporters that invested one or more times in this ministry. Thank you so much for your help and your prayers, nothing on the ship would be possible without you all! I personally could not do this job and plan to come back to serve in Senegal, if it wasn’t for your donations.  God has shown to be faithful for this whole year through each one of you, and I am humbled by the trust you have given me. I pray God will continue providing for your needs as He has provided for mine through you, and I am excited to see the plans He has for the coming months.

Here are some pictures of our patients. On behalf of Morigbe, Hannah, Kadiatou, Amadou, Aminata, Mohamed, Israel, Zainab, Bintou, Massona and all of our patients, we say thank you!!!!!