How is Togo?

How are you?
What's Togo like?
How is life on the ship?
How are your patients?
What have you learned?

How do I find the words to do answer these questions?
There is no short answer to explain this experience.
the people.
the poverty.
the joy.

I can't quickly describe the culture on the ship
people from a multitude of countries,
of differing languages, customs, backgrounds, beliefs.
Bound by faith and the beautiful people of Togo.
Living together within the walls of a large ship
in 6-berth cabins
small bunks
tiny bathroom
communal meals
communal everything.
How can that work?
It works by the grace of God.

And then there's the Togolese people.
Beautiful
Smart
Creative
Joyful
Gracious
The list is unending
Walk down the streets
greeted by each and every person
Hello! How are you? What is your name?
The smell of food
and sewage
mix in the air.
the sounds of trucks, motorbikes, music, and people
Bustling, greeting, selling, playing

Smiles.
So many smiles.
Our patients, their families.
Patient, thankful, loving.
My heart feels full.
I wonder
Are they helping me
more than I am helping them?
It is so easy to care for them
to connect with them
to love them.
Despite the language
and cultural barriers.
That just doesn't matter.

They teach me so much
More than I have ever learned
or could learn
in a classroom.
How to enjoy life,
be thankful for what we have,
learn what is really important.
Care for everyone.
because we are all family.
Dance.
Sing.
Laugh.
Always from the heart.

And always, always
to LOVE.

Kpalime

February 11-12

A group of us were off work this weekend and went on a trip to Kpalime (pronounced Pal-i-may).  I unfortunately worked the night shift Friday night, so I left on Saturday morning on no sleep (not a good idea, but I didn't want to miss out!)  We had some plans, we had a contact of a guide that could take us to a waterfall on Saturday and a guide to take us to the mountain on Sunday. We knew we needed to get to the bus station to take a "bus" for 2000 CFA from Lomé to Kpalime. But first, we needed taxis to the bus station. As funny as this sounds, the taxis were probably the most difficult part. We walked to the gas station where it is easiest to find a taxi. First we had to find someone who knew what we were talking about and where the bus station was.  Then we began bargaining with drivers for how much we should pay to get to the bus station. Finally, we ran into one of our day workers from the ship who knew where the station was and how much we should pay, and she helped us. There were 10 of us, so we piled into two taxis (4 in the back, 1 in front), and off we went! Easy as that? Of course not! Once again, the police spotted us white Yovo's and we were soon pulling over again.  The police said we could only have 4 people in each taxi (guess we don't learn well from previous mistakes, huh?). One person from each car had to get out and take motor bikes (they are everywhere here), and the drivers each left to pay the fine to the police.  [As a side note, it is typical that many people ride with a lot of people per taxi here, however we are white and are stick out like a sore thumb.]  Then we all drove off again, 2 on motorbikes, and the rest in our 2 taxis. We drove for a little while then we saw the girls on the bikes stopped on a side road. We soon pulled over to learn that they were going to get back in our taxis and we would drive down side roads the rest of the way to avoid police. We made it to the bus station.

rear-view mirror. doesn't do the bus justice :)

There, we were greeted by many Togolese men who directed us where to pay. We each paid our 2000 CFA for our bus ticket and piled into a large van with 4 rows of bench seating inside, what we were told was enough for 19 riders: 4 in each row, 3 in front (including the driver). Needless to say, we were preparing to squish.  With just our group, we were a comfortable fit. Then we sat in the heat and waited. And waited. After about an hour and a half, we finally had enough people join our "bus" and enough cargo on top that we proceeded. We made stops along the way to pick up more people and to drop some people off.  We ate our snacks we packed for lunch in the bus.  We made one stop for the bathroom (they get out of the van, lift their dress, and go...). We all stayed in the bus :) The bus driver agreed to take us to our hotel if we would call him the next day to make our return trip. We obliged and dropped our stuff off at the hotel. The hotel was nice, we had 2-3 per room, with wall mounted air conditioners, running water, a flushing toilet, and a pool! We talked to our potential guide who told us the only way to the mountain was by motorbikes (you ride on the back of a motorcycle driven by a Togolese man), and they rarely have helmets available so we had to decline. Since the mountain opportunity was gone, we decided to just wander around and look in shops. When we finally lost momentum (mine was lost long before this moment...), we sat and grabbed some waters and sodas. The group was then ready to wander to dinner, at which point my body gave up and couldn't go any further, so I returned to the hotel for a nap.

When I got back, there were chairs and tables and music set up all around the pool for a Togolese celebration.  There was loud music and food and dancing and singing (for part of it, "Happy Birthday" was sung in Ewe for about an hour straight).  We quickly learned we weren't going to get to bask in the pool as we had been looking forward to for the long, hot day's end.  Surprisingly, I was still able to sleep a little bit, and my body was just thankful to lay down. When the group returned about 3 hours later, we all gathered for some games and snacks then went to bed.  They had met someone at dinner that was going to be our new guide for the mountain the next morning.
We all set our alarms and woke up ready for another adventure. 

measuring rainfall

thermometers and measuring humidity

Sunday went much more smoothly :)  Our guide came to get us around 8:15. We were able to take a bus up the mountain most of the way, then hike a little higher, and walk back down.  It was beautiful, I was so happy to be among so many beautiful, green trees, to breathe in what felt like fresher air than Lome, and to be away from the clutter and noise of the busier city (not to mention be OFF the ship!) On our little hike up, we came across a weather man. He showed us what he does daily.... He checks the temperature every hour, then also checks the temperature in the ground for farmers, etc.  He also measures rainfall when it occurs.  Also, he uses a globe-like device to measure what time sunrise and sunset are. The sun shines through the globe and burns little holes into the papers, when the sun goes down the burns stop, so you know what time it was.

"sunrise, sunset..."

We stopped at a hotel on the way down for breakfast. When we came, the owner offered us a choice of beef or chicken and rice. One of the girls asked if there was any breakfast food like eggs and toast. He agreed and went to prepare the food. About an hour and a half later (as we were all struggling to stay awake and carry a conversation), he brought out two pots of hot coffee accompanied by steamed milk (!!!) and sugar cubes. Then he brought out large platters of fresh, toasted bread with butter and jam on the side.  After that came our own personal omelets! They were plain with some seasoning and the perfect size... SOOOO delicious. Maybe one of the best omelets I have had.  We were very pleasantly surprised and our stomachs and hearts were filled.  We traveled down the mountain and came across a waterfall on the way down, where we stopped to take some pictures.
 

after breakfast - rejuvinated! with our guide.

The hike down ended up being pretty long and we were not meeting our timeline (as usual) to meet our bus driver for the ride back to Lome. So we called them and they met us at the bottom of the mountain, took us to the hotel to check out and pee, then we paid our guide and proceeded to Lome. Sweaty and tired, we were surprisingly upbeat from the adrenaline of such a positive day and nurturing breakfast. I enjoyed the ride home, got a window seat (yay!) so I could feel the breeze and look out at the scenery, the people, the animals, and take in all of Togo.  Amongst the heat and dust and noise, it felt so peaceful.

screening day

 February 1, 2012

Screening day, in many ways, marked the beginning of our service.  Thousands of people from all over the country (and neighboring countries) travel to see Mercy Ships, many of whom are relying on us as their last hope.  Some come with stomach aches or general medical problems which we cannot help - we must limit ourselves to surgical problems only.  Some surgical problems we do not have the capacity to responsibly treat. We are also not doing orthopedic surgeries this outreach as there is not enough time to allow for proper healing and follow-up. As you can imagine, the hardest part is turning people away.

A lot of planning and organization went into screening day, and nearly everyone from the ship was needed to help.  Many prayers were made before and during the day for safety and for the patients who come to be ones that we can help. Security has to be very tight, and things have to stay very controlled; it is easy for a situation like this to spiral out of control quickly. We used the national stadium in Lomé as our screening site.  Security set up at 2 PM the day before, then people started lining up. A crew of people began pre-pre screening the line throughout the night. Breakfast was served at 03:30am, we met our group at 04:15, and we left by 04:40 in a convoy of landrovers to the stadium.  We drove through the dark, 9 people per car, in the safety of our caravan with the occasional communications among drivers through the radio. I felt that I was part of some undercover mission.

Pre-screening commenced in the early morning hours to allow people through the first gate, then they are screened by nurses through the second gate.  After that, they went to history taking, which was my station. We took vital signs, their weights, and worked to get the health histories with interpreters (15 nurses took about 1000 histories).  This was definitely a challenge due to language barriers not only between us and the patients, but also sometimes between us and our translators.  It was very exhausting, time-consuming, and energy-consuming to not only try to explain what each disease or problem is to our patients, but also to the interpreters. It was difficult to know whether it was being translated correctly, and often it was not judging by the responses :)

- Do you have chest pain or shortness of breath?

- Yes, when I exercise or work hard (or when I'm

angry) I have shortness of breath and my chest hurts.

- Have you ever had surgery?
- Yes, I saw a doctor two weeks ago and they told me to come here.
- What surgery have you had?
- (confused look)
- (me, to the translator): do you know what a surgery is?
- (response): Is it not a doctor?

etc etc etc...

Then they went to their respective surgical team rooms (general, plastics, or maxillo-facial) for further physicals. They also got biopsies of tumors because we don't operate on malignancies since we cannot provide chemo or radiation or any further management of their condition. They get blood drawn, and their information taken and recorded again.  If they make it past all of that then they get their surgery time sorted by acuity, their "before" picture taken, then re-explained all of the consents and when to come and to make sure they have enough money to get home after surgery.

There are teams of people that escort from each station to the next (also to the prayer station or to the exit, depending on their condition), teams that provide water and sandwiches to everyone, that pray with people we can't help, that play with the children, etc... A very very long day and extremely well-organized. My group worked all day and got home around 1730. Some got back later.


I only regret not being able to see the masses of people outside while taking histories and to delight with the patients when they were cleared for surgery. The line seemed to go on forever in our station, but I would have really loved to get a feeling for the whole process.  It was only afterwards, looking at pictures and hearing stories from all the crew, that I really realized how massive and impactful the day really was. So many lives were touched. Our goal was to have a positive impact on all who came even if we could not provide surgery for them, whether it be through a loving touch they may have not received for years, looking them in the eye as equals, or praying for their strength and God's presence if we could not help them. I think that overall, the Mercy Ships crew did an excellent job of this. I am so thankful to have been a part of this day.

Here are just some adorable kids who came through the line. Just to make you (and me) smile.

beauty.

january 28. 2012.

Bear with me as I start up my blog. These are all late entries. Just a few stories or observances in the past couple weeks. Enjoy!

First story to tell (of what I'm sure will be many) in Togo.  A few of us wanted to go to Greenfields for pizza (they are supposed to be great, have a wood-burning oven).  A few turned into many more as the invites spread around so nobody would be left out. By the time we headed out, I turned around to see a giant mass of Mercy Shippers following.  There may have been 35-40 of us. Everyone stopped at the gas station and tried to figure out what to do.  As you can imagine, most people who come to serve with Mercy Ships are pretty independent. Everyone was attempting to lead and make decisions so we wouldn't all overwhelm one small Togolese restaurant.  We split up eventually and a group of 7 of us grabbed a taxi to Greenfields.  The cab driver told us he could fit us all in but would charge us 4,000 CFA (approximately $8.00) instead of 2,000. Being naive Yovo's (white people/foreigners), we all agreed and jumped in.  It was the driver, a girl and guy in the front, then 5 girls in the back (two were on laps, including me).  Keep in mind that every time you take a taxi you negotiate the price depending on distance before you get in.  You also need to do this in French or Ewe, of which we understand very little.

Back to the story... so we are driving along, holding onto whatever we can to weather the bumps. We pull over at a place the driver thought we wanted to go to (it had a green sign on it).  It was not Greenfields. He got out and asked someone for directions. When he hopped back in to continue, the car wouldn't start. One of us got out to help push and then two Togolese men ran over to help us push. While rolling, the car started and off we went into a roundabout, where the police started yelling at us, but we didn't know why.  Our driver did not stop, just kept driving.  Later, we saw the police following us on motorbikes until we pulled over.  For the next 30 minutes (which felt like even longer) we sat, the 7 of us, sweating, scrunched in the small car which was idoling so that it would not die on us again.  The police proceeded to yell at the driver, who yelled back. It was in French but we knew enough to know that we were not supposed to have so many people in a taxi.  He received a fine of 5000 CFA, which of course he wanted us to pay.  We refused, as we were told to (we are not supposed to pay off the cops ever).  He wanted us to pay the 5000 for the police and also the 4000 for the ride but would take us the rest of the way.  After maybe 15 minutes of back and forth in broken pieces of French, we just agreed to pay 5000 total and he took us the rest of the way on back roads to avoid further police.  We made it, and we enjoyed our belated meal.  Needless to say, we took 2 separate taxis on the way home. And we had an exciting story to tell.