May 27th --- weekend May28/29 --- May 30

May 27th

Friday morning I was on a 10-7 shift in the OR. Anilee and I met up in the morning and headed over to the eye clinic. We met Matthew there and spoke with him to see how he was feeling. The surgery had gone well and Matthew was very excited to be able to drive his taxi again in a few days, especially wearing his new sunglasses! Mercy Ships does a lot of prevention teaching to patients. Because Pterygium is more prominent in places that are very sunny and dusty (both of which Sierra Leone is), there is a lot of emphasis on preventing re-occurrence of this condition.

We had a special guest in the afternoon on Friday. The president of Sierra Leone came to the ship to address the people on board Mercy Ships and to thank us for the work that we were doing for the people. There was quite a bit of security and we ended up having to pack lunches and eat where ever we could as the kitchen was closed off to crew members while awaiting the arrival of the president. It was amazing to hear Dr. Gary Parker address the president and give a speech on all of the work that has been done so far. Dr. Gary (as he likes to be called) is a maxillofacial surgeon and has been on the ship for over 25 years doing cleft lips/palates as well as all of the large facial tumours.

May 28/29 Trip to Mama Beach

On Saturday morning early 15 Mercy Ships crew members gathered together and jammed into a Poda Poda along the driver and 2 friends.  A Poda Poda is a taxi van (about as big as a full size van) that depending on how creative you are, can fit quite a few people inside. On This excursion we managed 18! The drive was about an hour and half through the town of Waterloo and many other small villages. It was very eye opening to see all of the villages and the people going about their daily lives. The horn of the Poda Poda would blare off and on as we passed through the village because people would try to race across the road in front of us and oncoming traffic would try to pass other cars as we were approaching. Everyone held on and there was only on moment when there were gasps inside the Poda Poda as we almost hit a man trying to cross the street who didn`t judge our speed correctly!

inside the poda poda... it was hot and sweaty, jammed full of people but it was fun!

beautiful scenery on the trek

We made it safely to Mama Beach after 1 minor detour. The Poda Poda`s originally thought we were going to Kent to take a boat to Banana Island (you can see it is a little further on the map above). The beach was beautiful and we had a relaxing overnight stay at Eden Park Resort. It was very clean and safe.

getting ready for the sun

Mama Beach

The rolling hills in the background were so beautiful

We spent the day enjoying the sunshine! The village at Mama Beach is mainly a fishing village. While we were suntanning we saw some of the villagers working to pull a net. It took a while to figure out exactly what they were doing... but we figured out that really early in the morning the men put the nets way out in the ocean and then during the morning they pull the nets in (they have a rope at either side of the bay and by pulling on either side they slowly drag the net in to shore bringing it into a circle shape to trap the fish inside).

Sarah and I helping the fishermen pull the nets around the bay

I love this picture!!! you can see all the rope that is coiled up from bringing in the nets

(sorry I couldn't get it to rotate to be upright)

Later in the afternoon, while Sarah and I were cooling off in the ocean 2 boys swam up to us. It was really funny because at first they kept their distance and just looked at us. I smiled and the smaller boy came up and quickly touched my hand and swam away. They eventually started to play with us in the water and talk to us. The bigger boy (in the picture below) is Morris and the little boy is Ali. They spoke very good english (which they learned in school) and ended up staying with us for most of the weekend. Morris works at the resort that we stayed at. He sweeps the floors. The boys ended up being our tour guides for the weekend showing us different areas of Mama Beach! It was so cute to have a little 10 year old walking us up the beach and pointing out the sights.

Ali, Morris, and I swimming

After a long day in the sun the boys were tired

In the evening we had a nice dinner in the open air looking out onto the sea. It was quite beautiful! We ended off the night with some star gazing on the beach. We saw the most vivid shooting start I have ever seen. It looked like fireworks in the middle of the sky! I shared a room with my friend Sarah. The room was very hot but it was comfortable and mosquito free!

A wonderful dinner! Everyone had fresh fish except for me... I had fish of the land (ie. Chicken)

The next morning Morris and Ali returned and showed us the beach side of Mama Beach Village. We met a fisherman who allowed me to photograph him. Apparently in this village the men fish all week and on Sundays they go to church and then take time to repair their nets so they are ready for another week! 

Repairing the nets

Morris showing us that the this type of Jelly Fish do not sting

 

The boys from the village came in front of our resort and started a soccer game

We had a great time at the resort. As it neared time to leave, the clouds came rolling in and it started to pour! Our trip home in the Poda Poda was a little bit more scary as most of these vans have no tread on their tires. Our driver was quite alert though and we had no accidents. We did however witness a few. At one point as we were in town nearing the ship an oncoming Poda Poda decided to pass when there was not enough room and he took out part of the side of the Poda Poda infront of us. He hit our rear view mirror but did not do any damage. It was funny because the Poda Poda in front of us stopped to assess the damage but the van that hit him just continued to drive away. The other interesting thing about our drive home was that the driver was sitting on the right side of the vehicle while driving on the right side of the road! These vans are not in very good condition... due to all of the rain there were many big puddles/lakes in the middle of the road. every time we went through one water would spray inside of the van and soak us with muddy water! Lets just say I had to take a shower once we arrived back at the ship!

Some of the flooding during the rain

Monday May 30

Today it was back to the working grind in the operating room. I am in opthamology again this week but we have 2 new surgeons. It was such a change to last week! We were busy all morning and afternoon. In the end we did 27 cases (25 cataracts and 2 pterygium). We had such a rhythm down in the end it felt really good! I scrubbed all morning and then after lunch circulated for 2 patients.  Everyone leaving the room was so thankful to God and to the medical team. Everyday that I have been able to help a few more people gives me such a greatful feeling, knowing the difference that the short surgery we do will make in their lives!

This evening I went with a group of people to do british aerobics from a DVD! It was actually really fun! Exercising is the one thing that is really hard to do on the ship so it was nice to be able to get in some physical activity during the rainy evenings!

Hope all is well with everyone!

Talk to you soon!

May 26 - Back in Action

This morning we received a wonderful announcement from the captain. The water main break was not as bad as originally thought and because the break had stopped all clean water flow to the city of Freetown it was a high priority and they were able to fix the break! Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers! I am washing a load of laundry as we speak so that I will be all set for the weekend!

Another day working hard in opthamology!

Today in the OR we did 7 more cases. I talked to a patient named Matthew while we were waiting for his local anesthetic to set in. He is a taxi driver and was very proud to tell me that he owned his own car! Matthew has pterygium in both eyes which makes it very difficult for him to see. The surgery that we did today will allow Matthew to continue to work as a taxi driver and provide for himself.

Talking with Matthew

Anilee putting her feet up for a moment to rest!

Anilee with Matthew and Maime (one of our day volunteers who is in her last year of nursing school and is helping us out in the OR with translation)

After work we sat by the pool for an hour to soak in the last rays of the afternoon. I am posting a picture of the garbage collection that I told you about before. This shows you why we have to be so careful about what we throw out in the trash!

Going through the garbage... all the blue bags are from the OR... SickKids people will know that Mayo stand covers make great garbage bags. Here nothing is wasted! Everything has more than 1 use!

Here is the picture of Anne Marie that I promised. This is after successful cataract surgery. Maime our day volunteer is to the right of me

May 25 - uh oh no water!!!

Here is the picture I promised from my hike yesterday. It is kind of hard to tell because it was hazy and you can't really get a feel for the steep incline, but all the dots on the hillside are houses jutting out from the rockface. I put a red circle over the university campus that we hiked to... if you click on the picture to make it larger it is easier to see!

So this morning as we were working away in the OR when we had our first overhead announcement from the captain ... everyone stopped what they were doing to listen as these are infrequent and usually don’t bring good news. The captain informed us that something has happened to the water supply in Freetown.  Apparently the a major water main within the city broke. We get our water from Freetown’s supply (and then treat it and filter 2- 3 times depending on which tap you take your water from).

To make matters worse, today was supposed to be the day that we topped up the ship’s water tanks. So we are officially on severe water shortage alert... this means that they have turned off all the hot water to encourage short showers (which is still pretty good because this apparently happened a month ago and they had 2 days of no showers... but this is just day 1... we may get there), no more laundry (and I had just signed up to do some today), we have to eat with paper plates and utensils so they don't have to run the dishwasher. Anyway it could get interesting because our main water supply tank is pretty low (as today was fill up day) so we have to be very careful with our water! I think they are looking into other options for bringing water in for the time being since they have no idea how long this will take to fix.

I am thankful that we at least have water still... I am not sure what is happening to the people in Freetown as this is their only supply of water. I guess maybe because it is rainy season they will be trying to collect rainwater.

Scrubbing in the opthamology OR

In the OR we had another busy day. One of our patients named Anne Marie, who Anilee (an OR nurse) and I met today was so sweet. Anilee got our picture with her so I will try to get it posted. This lady was so sweet. She looked to be in her early 40s but she was actually 65! While waiting for the surgeon we chatted with her as her English was quite good. She told us about her life.  Anne Marie had had 9 children, four of which have died (3 as babies and 1 during the civil war). She has had a very hard life but was so positive. At the end of her surgery she gave us all big hugs and even sang a song for us thanking Jesus for everything he has done for her!

Glenyis (has been on Mercy Ships 5 years) and Anilee (has been on mercy ships 6 months)

The OR that I worked in today finished a bit early so we did a major clean of the OR. On Mercy Ships the nurses do a ceiling to floor clean of each OR once a week. I don’t think I have seen a cleaner OR anywhere else! For your viewing enjoyment you can see my ceiling cleaning technique!!!

Another funny thing that happened in the OR was that I was moving the PHACO machine (for the SickKids people its a different brand of the the ACCURIS... Mercy Ships has an accuris but it is only used to hold our drinks right now because they received this new Phaco machine... I said they should donate it to Sick Kids haha)... Anyway I moved it into another room and turned around to grab some supplies and the machine rolled halfway accross the OR! The Ship is constantly rolling from side to side. Most of the time you don't notice but today it was a bit rougher and we saw many things rolling around! It is not too bad for the surgeons though because it is a slow smooth motion.

After work today I went for a walk with a few other girls. We walked through the shipping yard because someone had told us that there was a beautiful old college campus that is no longer used but is really nice to walk to at the end of the pier. We started our walk and as you can see from the pictures below, there were walls and walls of cargo boxes... which we shortly found out were in the process of being loaded onto a ship. After a quick assessment of the crooked cargo boxes piled 4 and 5 high as well as the trucks running back and forth carrying boxes we decided that it was probably not that safe to be walking about. On our way back to the boat, I saw an amazing picture of the back of some of the slums up Bad Boy Lane... so I pulled out my camera. Immediately a security guard came running up to me and asked me what I was doing. The way he was looking at me I thought he was going to take my camera, when I explained that I had not taken a picture he became friendlier and told me that I needed to ask before taking a picture because some of the workers in the yard might not be so friendly. He did allow me to take the picture in the end though. I have learned now first hand that the people of Sierra Leone can get very upset if you are taking pictures of them/where they live.

The Cargo Boxes

You can see the red box in the back bringing another container... these trucks were zooming around the yard so we decided that it probably wasn't the safest place to be!

This is the picture of the slums that I almost lost my camera for trying to take :(

May 24

Today started bright and early with hospital personel gathering for morning devotions before work. It was great to be able to gather all together and be inspired before starting the day... although another coffee would have helped me be less tired... Next week I will be sure to bring my travel mug!

I then did a whole day in the opthamology OR. We did 8 cases between 2 rooms (there is currently 1 surgeon - so the nurses set up in one room and did the "peribulbar" block (the local anesthestic) while the nurses in the other room worked on the case with the surgeon). I was able to scrub and circulate for cataract surgeries as well as scrub for 1 Pterygium case.

A Pterygium is a non-cancerous growth of the clear, thin tissue (called cunjunctiva) that covers the white part of your eye (the sclera). No one really knows what causes these but they seem to be much more common in places like Sierra Leone because people at higher risk are those who are exposed to sunny, dusty, sandy, or windblown areas. Farmers, fishermen, and people living near the equator are often affected. I don't have a picture to show you because I know some people who may read this will not be impressed with a big picture of a bloody eye staring back at them (unless you really want it... let me know and I can post them). When I move to plastics and maxillofacial I can post some interesting pics!

 It was great to see how thankful the patients were! Most of the patients are quiet as english is not their first language... but the first man this morning couldn't stop saying thank you as he left the OR! The nurse walking him out had to eventually pull him along :)

This afternoon I decided that it was finally time to go and see the city! A couple of the anesthetists  were heading out for a walk so I decided to join them. As we were getting ready to leave the ship I found out that our walk was actually a semi hike up the mountain! I was pretty much prepared except that I was wearing my birkenstocks sandals and not running shoes... but I thought how rough can the path actually be? Well I was wrong the path was rough next time I will wear runners!!!

We signed out from the ship and headed up the dock. When we left the dockyard, we headed up a road that is called "Bad Boy Lane". It has been named this because in the afternoon and evening there are lots of men out on the street selling everything legal and illegal right in plain sight. We crossed 2 busy streets and headed up hill. It was really sad and eye opening to see the way that the people from Sierra Leone live. Little kids are running around in the street almost naked (and sometimes completley naked) with no shoes on. There is garbage and broken glass everywhere. I would have liked to take a picture to show you but I didn't bring my camera this time. We have also been warned that the people of Sierra Leone generally do not like to have their picture taken and have been known to steal cameras from Mercy Ships volunteers. I didn't want to loose my new camera yet so I played it safe.

We continued our trek up the hill... there were huge holes in the pavemment and as we continued the pavement turned into brick and then dirt road. The incline became steeper and steeper as well. Soon we were climbing steps that had been carved into the rock face and at many points there were no steps, only rocks to climb up. It was really interesting because as we continued to climb the huts still continued along with us. The children called out to us as we climbed and they waved yelling hello and "white man" over and over again. The little ones were sooo cute because they would run up to us and just grab our hands and walk with us. At one point a little girl who must have been around 4 ran up to me and just hugged my legs. She was so cute and kept saying hello hello. After her little hug she ran off again waving to me as she left.

Because there are so many huts and space on the rockcliff is limited we ended up having to walk through the front yards/areas of people's houses. One of the guys who was leading our group (an anesthestist from Holland) would just ask the people how to go up and they would lead us right through their hanging laundry and around their burning fires!

After about an hour of climbing up we made it to a university that is almost at the top of the mountain (I will try to post a pic tomorrow) The amount of garbage on the hill was really sad. I can't believe how much garbage there was everywhere! The view was amazing though! One of the other girls who had her camera took a picture so I will try to get a copy and post it! You could see the Africa Mercy as well as all of Destruction Bay (haha yes that is the name of the bay that the ship is docked in).

The trek down the mountain was just as interesting as we tried to go a different route... we ended up walking right through the university`s pick-up soccer game, oops! We had thought we found a trail going back down the mountain but it turned out to be one of the older garbage pits from the university... lets just say there was a lot of garbage and we had to walk very carefully. On our route down the kids followed us and yelled hello. Some of the kids even helped us find our way through yards and down little trails! One really funny thing was while the 6 of us were struggling our way down the mountain... 5 kids who were probably around 6 years old, caught up to and passed us while ballancing  huge water containers on their heads (for those who know the blue camping jugs they were probably one and a half times as big).

We finally made it back to the ship! After 2 hours out in the heat we were all dirty and tired. We cleaned up and made it back to the international lounge just in time to hear a United Nations representative speak on Sierra Leone. It was a very interesting talk! After that we played a few games and now I am ready to go to bed!

I will try to get some pictures up tomorrow!!!

Monday May 23 - Orientation to the OR

Today started bright and early with a quick breakfast and then a ship meeting at 7:45. As of today there are 409 crew on board the ship, and pretty much everyone gathers for Monday morning devotions and any important announcements. After this the OR staff meets around 8:15 at the whiteboard for an overview of the days cases and any changes ("the huddle" for all my Sick Kids people) a quick prayer and then its off to the races.

Due to staffing and available nurses/surgeons there are only 5 of the 6 ORs running right now. The 6th room was an orthopaedic room but because the Ortho surgeon has just finished, there will be no more ortho surgeries until another arrives. Today there was 1 opthamology (eyeballs) team working in between 2 rooms, a plastics team, and a maxillofacial team working.

I had my orientation for most of the morning. We spent a lot of time going over paperwork and policies and then we were able to go into the rooms and figure out where everything is. I spent a little bit of time this afternoon in the opthamology OR's learning the routine and talking to the nurse who leads the service. Most of the opthamology cases are done under local anesthesia. The surgeon who is here this week can do about 8 cases in a day. He has only been here for 2 weeks and goes home on Friday. One of the more regular surgeons will be back next week and he apparently can do anywhere from 15-20 patients in a day! It will be interesting trying to keep up with him! Apparently he can do a cataract surgery in anywhere from 3-5 minutes.

Before even working with the patients I have noticed that there are a lot of similarities and differences between the ORs here and the ORs at Sick Kids. We have a lot of the same equipment (although most of the machines are older models). It is amazing to see the amount of donations that are made to the ship as well... sutures, Bairhuggers and blankets and a lot of other disposable equipment! There are a lot of differences as well. In some ways they are even ahead of us! It was really funny to find out that the ORs all have megadyne pads for their cautery pads (something that we have just finished trialing at Sick Kids).

There are many simple things that we take for granted living in Canada. A simple example is the garbage here. All of our sharps (ie. needles, blades, etc) and bio hazard garbage (ie. anything disposable that has touched the patient especially if it has blood or bodily fluids on it) is put in a special bag and then into a paper bag... it is then stapled shut and taken to an incinerator on the ship to be burned. The reason for this is that all of the ship's regular garbage is taken to the dump where people (including many kids) come and cut open every bag and sift through them.

This afternoon I had to go get some local currency from the ship's bank. I felt sooo rich leaving with my 300,000 Leones!!! Even though it really only equals $69 us... the thick wad of cash made me feel like I should go spend some money haha! This evening we had our ship orientation where we learned how to be true ship crew members! haha maybe not so much, but we did learn how to evacuate as well as what to do if someone falls overboard! We were also briefed on the security of the ship... so to anyone who is worried I can tell you that they have an amazing team looking out for the safety of everyone on board!

Alright I am off for the night! hope everyone is doing well and that you all had a great May long weekend!

A Relaxing Weekend on the Ship

Saturday


On the weekends, breakfast is served from 7:30-9 during which you have to make and bag your lunch for the day. This gives the kitchen crew a break :)

I have met so many new people in the past 24 hours it is hard to keep track of everyone! Thank goodness for name tags!!! Saturday morning after breakfast I had a tour of the ship and then unpacked and organized my stuff. I met another one of my roommates, Hannah from England. She is a dental assistant and arrived last week. Her first week was spent off ship in a remote community where they slept in local hospital, so she had some very interesting stories!

A view of Freetown with lots of fishing boats

Fishing huts near the water

The freight yard. There is a wall of cargo boxes surrounding the ship.

The rest are being loaded and unloaded onto barges during the week.

Hannah with a little fishing boat in the background

We decided to take it easy and spend the afternoon at the pool. The pool is tiny but great! It almost feels like you are in a mini ocean because as the boat rocks so does the pool water. We caught some sun and had a very nice afternoon. As this is the beginning of the rainy season in Sierra Leone, there have been big storms every night. Last night was no exception. Hannah and I were in our room and we could feel the boat swaying back and forth. We went outside to see sheets of rain pouring down along with massive bolts of lightening. A dance party had been scheduled for that evening on one of the outside decks. Instead it was moved inside. We had a great time and it felt almost like home listening to Black Eyed Peas and Lady Gaga!

This morning I met some more nurses who work on the wards. One of them Timo (one of 2 male nurses on the ship) is a Dutchie from Holland. I told him that I will be finishing my trip by heading through Holland so he is going to try to teach me some Dutch while I am here! Another girl Sara came up to me and said I looked familiar... it turns out that Sara is Emilie's friend from work in Ottawa. She also goes to Church in Ottawa at the MET where Christina goes (I met Sara at Emilie's going away party and at a wine and cheese that Christina took me to when I was in Ottawa last year). What a small world!

This afternoon I am going to take it easy, do some reading, meet some more people, maybe go for a walk and sit by the pool again.

Take Care,
Karin

Made it Safe and Sound!

Wow. Talk about a long trip! Thank you for the thoughts and prayes for safe travel!

31 and a 1/2 hours of traveling!!! I left Oshawa at 12pm on Thursday Canada time and arrived at the ship Friday night at 11:30pm Sierra Leone time (which is 4 hours ahead... so 7:30pm in Canada). But I am here now safe and sound and am happy to not have to be in an airport for 6 weeks!

Here is a quick recount of my travels for anyone interested:
I left Pearson at 6:30 pm and had an overnight flight to London, England. The flight was nice and uneventful, although we did have to return to the terminal because just before take off the crew was notified that there was a passenger who did not make the flight but whose bag was on the plane. They were very efficient at getting the bag off and we were soon underway.

I arrived at Heathrow at 6:20 am (1:20 am Canada time). It was a weird feeling because I had not slept on the plane and I was tired but the sun was shining and I felt as though I should be awake. I went through customs hoping that I could find some grass to sit on and get some fresh air during my 6 hour layover... To my disappointment there was just a lot of construction and concrete.

Arrived at Heathrow... what a warm welcome

(This picture is for you Natalie!!! 2 am)

I could have ventured out on a bus to the city, but since I had not done my research and didn't know where to go or how to get back I figured it would be best if I just stayed at the airport. I decided to wake up 'Natalie style' by drinking a diet coke (this was now 2am Canada time) and headed back into the airport. The layover went relatively quickly as Heathrow does have nice stores in the airport and I was able to get some english breakfast.

My second flight departed at 1:15 England time and was with British Midland International. We had a 3 hour flight to Marrakech where we made a 'technical stop' to refuel and get water and then had a 3 hour flight the rest of the way to Lungi airport in Sierra Leone. One of the best surprises was that another lady named Chris (who was coming from the US) had been delayed and ended up on my flight with me. It was really nice to know that I had someone else to go through the rest of my travels with!

landing in Marrakech, Morocco

Sunset somewhere over West Africa

The landing into Sierra Leone was very interesting. First of all it was pitch black. Usually you can see the city as you approach, but there were just 1 or 2 scattered lights here and there. The second interesting thing was that we landed in a thunderstorm. The lightening was striking right outside of our plane! When we landed we walked onto the runway and through the rain to the 'airport' which was basically one room for customs and one room for luggage claim. We had to go through customs and show our proof of yellow fever and then wait for our luggage. I am not sure how the security works in the airport, but there were tons of people milling about and calling to us saying they would take our luggage. Luckily Bridget (a woman from Mercy Ships) found us (I think we may have stood out a bit :) haha) and helped us gather our belongings. Bridget's son and a paster from one of the nearby churches carried our bags on their heads to the car and drove us down to the ferry.

My first experience driving in Africa was quite interesting as well! It was about a half hour drive to the ferry docks on a dirt road with no lights and it was raining and lightening! There are many people on motorbikes as well as people walking on the road. The general rule is that the bigger vehicles win so when they honk everyone else moves out of the way! When we arrived at the ferry we had to go thru security again and were able to get onto the the boat.

The ferry ride took about an hour because of the bad weather. There was a big crash as we came into Freetown, I thought it was maybe just a rough landing but apparently we hit the wharf! Everyone was okay though and we made it to the shore! The Mercy Ships welcome crew were there to meet us when we arrived and we hopped into their vehicle to drive to the ship! The drive thru Freetown was quite interesting as there are many hills and the road is very narrow and full of people as well as vehicles. Once again the horn and size of our truck worked wonders! Finally we made it to the dock. There is a huge fence surrounding the ship and a big gate that keeps the area secure (I will get a picture up in the next few days if I can). We checked in with the reception, had our pictures taken (not excited after traveling for so long) and then were welcomed with a bite to eat!

Arriving at the ship at 11:30

After no sleep and all of that traveling I was very excited to try out my new bed! I had a good sleep and was up early this morning for breakfast. Chris and I met with Marylin this morning who is one of the long term crew members (she has been here 4 years now) and she gave us a tour... A couple of interesting facts about the ship:

• There is a pool on the top deck... its quite small but it does exist and we can go there to relax and cool off after a long day of work.
• There is a deck with an outdoor play area for kids/families to play at. There are many opportunities to go off of the ship in groups and expore!
• There is a gallie kitchen where people can do their own baking or cooking
• Even though the ship is huge it still rocks. There is a constant sway back and forth... good thing I am used to boats and motion!

 Alright, I am off to my room to unpack and organize my stuff. I will try to get some more pictures today so I can post them and show you more of the ship and Freetown!

All my bags are packed... I'm ready to go!

Today is the day!!!

I am off to start my 24 hour plus trek to Sierra Leone. I am sitting in the airport and the count down is on. 2 hours to go! I have had my last Tim Hortons and feel a little bit wired on caffeine as well as excitement (no nerves yet). I can't believe that its finally happening! This is something that I have wanted to do for so long that it is strange to be sitting in the airport realizing that I am about to make it a reality! Thanks again for everyone who donated and helped make this trip possible. A special thanks to the anonymous donors who I couldn't thank personally!

The Trek
I am starting with a 7 hour flight to London England... then a 6 hour layover in Heathrow (which apparently has great shopping... too bad I have no space in my carry-on)... and then a 8 hour flight from London to Lungi Airport in Sierra Leone. Once I arrive I will be taking a bus/van to the docks and then a water taxi to the ship.

Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I travel!