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 :(