Caribbean Mercy

This picture was taken in December 2010 at Colon, Panama. Sad to see our old home in such a state. Mercy Ships bought the M/V Caribbean Mercy in 1994. It was a Norwegian ferry, "Polarlys". Ananda flew with a small crew to Norway and sailed with the ship via Rotterdam to the USA. I went and visited the CBM in Rotterdam. Picture below is a picture of the Polarlys. We left the Caribbean Mercy end 1998 and Mercy Ships retired the CBM in 2006. Below a picture of how we remember her. This link gives some history on the amazing service she served.

http://www.mercyships.ch/fleet/fleet-history/caribbean-mercy.html

Second Big Screening

The Africa Mercy held the second main screening in Freetown, Sierra Leone on Saturday, 26 March 2011. The setup of the place where the screening was held was completed on Friday afternoon and there was a security team present throughout the night. Many eye and dental patients were referred to the appropriate screenings. Three hundred people were seen by Mercy Ships medical personnel and sixty-three were scheduled for surgery, 96 were scheduled to return to the ship for a later surgeon screening, and 39 were waitlisted for surgery if a surgery slot becomes available. Some were referred to the Ponseti program, physiotherapy, and X-rays, while others we were unable to help. God provided a cloud cover to keep the day cool and the screening was peaceful without any disturbances. It was a good day.

View from our cabin

This is the view from our cabin. Nice and peaceful, although I would not have mind to look out onto the dock, this is beautiful.

National clean up day in Sierra Leone was last saturday. From 8-12 everyone is required to help clean up the streets/gutters in preparation for raining season.

Below view of the ocean taken from Freetown.

The big Cotton Tree, an famous historic symbol in the center of Freetown.

Shops in Freetown.

Hospital Open House

Last week

What a week! It has been a very busy, interesting and difficult week for us.

Ananda has been really busy in the engine room. The seawater suction intake for the generators and a.c. systems are getting blocked due to the floating plastics and other debri around the ship. This gives a lot of additional work, cleaning strainers etc. (every hour).

The screening for potential surgery candidates last Monday did not go as planned. People got hurt and many were shocked and shaken. Please see this link for more information http://www.mercyships.org/blog/entry/screening-day-update

In the Hospital we have been very busy setting up. We've unloaded containers, labelled, put away, stocked OR's, wards and sorted lots of stuff. Wednesday evening we had open house in the Hospital.

Rick and Andre found out their bloodtype, saw their own DNA cells on the coolscope, found their veins, raced to fill urinals with... learned CPR, dressed up like surgeons and operated on a monkey, learned some nursingskills and did lots more. Always fun these open hospital evenings!

Sorry tried to add pictures..no success I'll try later.

Engineering Team

It has been a busy week, cleaning and setting up the hospital. Here a picture of the dental clininc being set up.

Freetown, Sierra Leone