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!!!