Life aboard the Africa Mercy is pretty amazing. I am in a 6 berth cabin and presently on the top bunk but I am counting the days until I get the opportunity to descend to the bottom bunk, praise God! Our cabin of 6 is divided into 3 "cubbies" of 2 each with a curtain to pull for privacy or sleeping. We each have a 12-14 inch wide wardrobe that has 3 shelves on the bottom and a place to hang clothing on the top. There is a small foldaway table with one chair in each cubby which just allows space for the ladder beside it to get up and down from the top bunk and still permit the person on the bottom bunk to get into and out of bed. We share a tiny bathroom and are allowed 2 minute showers each. That is best accomplished by getting wet, shampooing and soaping, then rinsing off! I am told at times water is rationed but so far that has not happened for me. I have lovely cabin mates from South Africa, Great Britain, Canada and Minnesota. Most are here for another 2 months but 1 like me is here until the end of the Congo field service which ends May 31, 2014. As soon as 1 person leaves, another arrives. The ship is nearly full with 400+ crew members. It is an awesome thing to sit in the dining room and look out the windows and watch other ships come and go into the harbor. It is shallow and tugboats move them where they need to go. We can feel a slight movement when that happens but for the most part I hardly feel the ship moving at all.
I love my job as one of the 3 Admissions Nurses. We put together a chart then bring in the patient who has a caregiver if under the age of 18. There are many tribal languages so there is always an interpreter for us as we ask the questions necessary to determine health issues of concern for the surgeons. Currently there are three types of surgery being done; General surgery such as hernia repairs, Max-Fax such as cleft lip or palate repairs or Noma surgeries, etc and Plastics which are burn contracture releases, skin grafting, etc. Each type of surgery has a post op pathway to be followed. Once the Admissions Physicians are available they complete a health history and physical exam and order lab work with an occasional EKG or chest x ray. (My cardiac nurses will enjoy knowing that a stress test is completed by having the patient go up and down the 2 deck gangway twice and if they can complete it without having to stop because of shortness of breath or chest pain then it is negative!) We draw lab work; everybody gets a CBC and some are typed and cross matched for blood as well. The patients all wait in a tent then until it is time to take them to the ward and bed where they will stay. It is quite an event, getting everyone up the gangway and then down to the 3rd deck which is the hospital deck, give report and introduce them to the nurse who will care for them until they have surgery the next day. Lives are transformed, one patient at a time. This is the most purposeful work I have ever done. I am so blessed to be a part of Mercy Ships!
