The patients slowly begin to arrive to the ship. They are brought up the gangway, down the stairs, and enter the corridor, looking down at the wards and nurses eager to welcome them to their temporary dwelling place. They quietly, timidly, and very politely, walk to their prospective wards depending on the surgery they will receive.
Then the corridor transforms.
Soon it is full of patients and caregivers.
It is bustling with nurses walking up and down to different wards, back and forth to the lab, to radiology, to pharmacy.

Patients being walked down the hallway toward the OR, accompanied by day crew and a nurse with their arm lovingly wrapped around them, dispelling their fears and praying for them. Then, being wheeled back on a stretcher from recovery to their ward.

The obstetric fistula ladies walk up and down the length of the corridor, at least twice a day. They tie up their gowns, carry their catheters, and walk in a group up and down, up and down. They sing a song as they walk. Songs of praise and worship to God, who is always faithful. Their songs can be heard from the floors above, resonating throughout the ship. They are not just songs. They have meaning, and lift up patients, day crew, and crew of the AFM. There is always a reason to be thankful, always a reason to be joyful, always a reason to sing.


The corridor seems like any other corridor when you look at it. Then, you look at all the individual people who walk down this corridor. Nurses and doctors from all over the world, here to serve others, here for the same reason. Patients who could see no end to their suffering, transformed physically and spiritually through their care here. You see the stories, the heart break and pain and years of solitude when they first walk down the corridor. You see this replaced with giggles, mischief, and games as they are healing. Then they walk confidently, joyfully back down the corridor, up the stairs and down the gangway as they leave. Changed. Not just physically. They are changed forever. That is the magic of this corridor.
