There's hope out there.

As I am starting to finish up my first semester here in Ottawa, one of the things I have loved in one of my classes we actually got to write a blog! We got to write about many different topics and we got to know our classmates that much more!

Many of my posts refered to my trip in many different ways, I got to write about the amazing people I met and the experiences I had. I just finished writing my last blog and of course mentioned my goal of heading back to Africa sooner rather than later!

Here is the blog post!

First semester in just a matter of days will be complete, and many of us will be heading home for Christmas with family and friends. But as I reflect on these past few months, I really do see growth in all of us in many different ways. Over the weeks I have learned so much about myself and made many new friends from many places, I have enjoyed all my classes and can’t wait till next semester. This semester has really taught me many new things about college and just what is expected of me. My greatest accomplishment wasn’t necessarily academic but it was a growing experience. Since I graduated high school two years ago, I had been very tentative to going back to school, but I am beyond glad I made this decision and have started this amazing journey.

 My end goal has always been heading back to Africa, with or without medical training. I have always had a dream or a goal of opening an orphanage somewhere in West Africa, so every day I could wake up and be greeted with dozens of precious smiles.  During our last full in class time last week, when we got to watch an amazing video I turned to the person beside me and said “I want to go back to Africa today.” That really is my dream, when I went last year I never realized just how much of an impact it would have on me, I always knew I would enjoy it but I just didn’t think I would want to end up there forever. Africa is really good at capturing your heart and keeping a part of it there. I don’t want to go back for myself, I want to go back to just be in the atmosphere that makes them so happy. The people I had the privilege of meeting in many ways were way happier than us North Americans, which is the joy I want to experience.

I have always tried to think of unique quotes or sayings when I finish something, they are not much but they can mean something to the right person. Though one semester may be done, another lies ahead with its own surprises and adventures. Some pieces of advice  that have always helped me along, are laugh often and always try to smile  even when it seems like you have no idea where you are headed. Just know that someday it will get better, you cannot focus on the bad or the negative, it may not happen today or tomorrow but one day you will get that dream you have always hoped for.  

Another quote by Mahatma Gandhi is, “Be the change you wish to see in the world”. These are very simple words but they hold such an amazing message and really help you when you have a hard day or just need to hear some encouragement.

I really am enjoying school and cannot to further my education and head back over seas!

One step closer to heading back to Africa!

As I sit here, in my new residence room and think about the past few months it really is hard to believe that I left the ship almost 10 months ago and I am now ready to start school and start the long but exciting road back to Africa! :)
I am now living in Ottawa, Ontario and attending Algonquin College studying Pre-Health Sciences and then hopefully onto Medical Radiation Therapy. I have looked back on many memories and am so ready to start this step in life! I've already met some new friends and will only meet more! This journey will be long but it will be worth it all in the end to see those precious smiles!

Here I go!!!

Home Sweet Home

My Baby!

Well, Its been a little over a week since I left the Africa Mercy. Time really has flown by, home is freezing! And its both different and the same. Flying home with some of my friends from the ship was a true blessing, it made the painful goodbye hurt a little less. Two of my closest friends from the ship, Amy and Bronte, came to airport with us, and waving goodbye to them was my last memory of the ship! I miss them sso much!

Arriving home, last week in Fredericton, walking through the doors, seeing my parents for the first time in 7 months was amazing! And having a couple friends there was such a nice welcome home touch! I arrived home with my African braids and tanned skin.

Since Ive been home, I really have noticed much more "stuff" we have. My room is massive, the past 7 months i lived in the same space but with 7 others! And it was more then enough! I don't need all this stuff but really wish there was a way to offer the Africans more!

My last week on the Africa Mercy was a busy one!

I think I had about 4-5 going away dinners with all the amazing friends Ive made! Saturday, was my formal going away dinner on ship! Ken, the ships chef, cooked up an amazing meal! And we all got dressed up fancy :) Amy took the pager, and wouldn't let me do my arrivals, I cannot thank her enough! Bronte ended up running the dinner, with games and then got everyone who came to tell me something about me that had touched them. Nearly lost it, these people have been there for me through it all, and it was so nice to just be with them all together one last time.

The last few days of work were busy but fun! We went out for a department lunch Monday, as both Lauren and I were leaving that week. We enjoyed each others company and then went shopping in the local market! Tuesday we had a function for the Eco-bank ( local bank in Guinea) and then we were done! Marilyn signed off on our disembarkation forms and we were one step closer to coming home!

Tuesday night, as my last night on the ship. Over the past 7 months, Ive spent so many nights up with people on their last night, it was really hard to think that people were staying up with me... We laughed and did laundry. As we went to bed, I thought of all the many nights I spent on the ship and how the longest nights were some of my best memories. 

Wednesday, was packing day, and everything fit! As I cleaned up my room, took all the pictures, and put everything away, it finally became real, I was leaving the ship that Ive called me home for the past 7 months. 

When it came time to walk down the gangway one last time, with many of my friends looking up at me, it hurt, honestly I didn't want to leave this place but I knew it was time, my time, this time on the Africa Mercy was up, but one day I will be back just not sure when!

Over these many months, I have done and seen so many things that I really either enjoyed or never want to see again. Seeing all the pain and hurt, and knowing that we are helping in a small way, is amazing! We are really bringing hope and healing to those who need it! 

Africa has taken my heart, and I know one day I will end up there, maybe not soon, but I will be back to my precious kids and all the gorgeous smiles!

Thats all for now, But It has been an amazing 7 months, I wouldn't trade it for anything!

Amy!

Bible Study!

Big Brother!

Sweet Girl!

Last Community Meeting!

Going Away Dinner!

Sage :)

Michael

Mommy Jen, and my two of my three sisters! Bronte&Tori

Last Fire Drill!

FMS girls, we met in January!

Last visit to the hope center!

Missing these precious kids!

Blackbeard!

Kevin& Innocent!

Lauren, my travel buddy!

My big sister!

Mykola....

Hope Center!

President's Visit!

My Roommates!

Susan!!

Tori!

Last function!

Proof that I actually did work..

He was so proud of his casts!

Amazing Sunsets!

Amy Moser!

Bronte Smith

Bronte!

Till Next Time Africa!

Almost November 1st... :)

Well in just over 4 days I am leaving this ship, after seven long, amazing months. Its been a really great time here and I have learned so much about life and myself. The people that ive met and built relationships really will last forever. So many things Ive seen here have changed me, opened my eyes to whats happening in our world. And I wasnt medical but I was and still am a small peice of the much bigger puzzle, making these precious kids smile was my job, its everyones job. And its not that hard! All they need is to know they are loved!

This past week as been my going away week, last bible study and last nights out with my friends. Friday night we went out as a big group to a fancy restuarant and it was alot of fun! Saturday I had to work, but Amy graciously held the pager for me so I could go see my Babies one last time. It was honestly one of my hardest goodbyes I had to do ever. Hugging my Geroge, saying I wont be back, hurts knowing he wont understand me. I held him so tight and kissed his head, and said I love you. Waving goodbye, he looked at me with those eyes, and tugged on my heart. He's my little buddy and I am going to miss him so much!

Last night was my formal going away dinner. Amy planned it all, and it was everything i ever wanted.! Ken cooked up some amazing food and I was so glad that everyone had a great time! We all got dressed up really fancy and had some great laughs. Memories I wont soon forget!

There was one girl, whom Ive grown really close to, and might try and bring her with me. Bronte Smith, Shes been here the longest and all of my time here. We have so many random memories together and Its really going to be one of my hardest goodbyes. But I will see her again, all the way in Texas!

Im ready to come home, to see everyone, and just be home. But being with the kids and playing with them, I could do this for the rest of my life. So yes im ready to leave, but i dont think i will ever be ready to wave goodbye to the kids that have stolen my heart. Good Luck getting it back. They are so precious and if one could come home with me, id bring 10!

This weekend is alot of "lasts". My last duty day, my last tour, my last arrivals, which is really putting it into perspective. I wont be giving new crew a tour anymore, I wont get to be the first person they see once on the ship! I have done so many arrivals over the past 7 months, made alot of beds, folded towels and made cookies. And as much as that was, I am going to miss it! Ive trained people that will now carry on! My time here, i will be forever grateful for. The time is drawing near, and if the past few days show anything, its going to be a hard day on Wednesday.


See you Soon Canada! Till later Africa!

The past few weeks..

Well its been quite awhile since I wrote one of these things...

Over the past few weeks, Ive worked quite a bit, played down in the wards, gone out to eat, played with my babies again, and met the President of Guinea!

Just over a week now, my bunk mate from Togo, Tori, arrived back on the ship! She is here for two months, and I am so glad to have her back! We now have 7 people in the 8 berth, so its quite full at times! We also won the Captain's award for the cleanest cabin, after failing our inspection last week, whoops. The next people to leave the 8 berth, will be Lauren, and myself, in just over two weeks!

Over a week ago, i ventured out with some people from the ship to the local hospital. We visited the pediatric ward, for about two hours, of playing, coloring, and loving them! We played soccer with balloons, made bracelets, and played with playdoo! We also saw a precious baby of only 2-3 weeks old, that was not doing well at all! It was a real heart wrencher night, but a very nice night and it was good to be off the ship and in Africa!
This past weekend, was our ship holiday. So we has a crew, had Friday off, with only a skeleton crew working. Tori, Kelly, and I headed off to a water fall, near a city named Debruka! They had two sets of waterfalls that we could visit, the first one was literally a stream, so we headed onto the other one! This one was beyond beautiful, and we could go swimming it it! We also got to eat fresh cooked fish, and fries! One of our many adventures of course, always comes with a long, bumpy taxi ride, but we got to see the amazing scenery of Guinea, and the lush green for miles! On our way back to the ship, we stopped at the local super market, and got some various different items, for our baking day on Saturday. That evening, we all headed out for supper, with Michelle this time! We went to Indochine, which is a nice Chinese type of restaurant. We all enjoyed our food, and flamed dessert! Saturday, was Tori's birthday! So for the first event of the day, we wrapped our door with Saran wrap, and put balloons in between the two, so that when she opening the door, they came down on her. She was completely shocked, and loved it! Then in the afternoon, we headed out to the Baby Rescue Site. They gave moved to their new site, and it is much nicer! Much more quieter then the other place. I got to see my George again ( real name Sage) They were a bunch of sleepy babies this time! But the one girl who is going to Canada, may be going in the next couple weeks, she is getting less and less shy too!

Once back on the ship, we started cooking up a storm, and made, red velvet cupcakes, and many other pastry dishes that I cant even remember the name... It was a fun evening of laughter and music, with of course some panoramic pictures too! Sunday was a rest day! Literally slept a lot and hung out on the ship.

This past week, well before Thursday at 1:30 pm, was going well, nice and relaxed. Then Marilyn comes into our office and says " we have one hour, the President is coming at 3pm. GO!" Well Ive never seen the ship come together so fast! Marketing was ready in 30 mins, we were ready in uniform, 20 minutes to spare, and Our Chief had our food ready with time to spare as well! The president was also visiting the French Navy Vessel behind us, and decided to drop by to see our ship! So we had a quick set up, and I even got to shake his hand! He was very moved by what we are doing here in his country!

Before all that craziness happened, we were calculated numbers, since this Field service started.

So As of August 1st, 2012:

New Crew ~ 211
Guests~ 40
Vision Teams~17
Mercy Teams~ 20
Personal Guests ~15
Formal Functions ~16
Formal Luncheons~ 2
Departures ~ 114
Cookies made~ 340 dozen

So we have been a very busy department at times, and our work really has paid off!

So last night, after being on this ship for over 6 months, i finally can now say i have been down to deck one! The Engine room! It is very loud at hot, but it was beyond cool and interesting too see! We saw the different air compressors, main engines, oil pumps, sprinkler tanks, vacuum system, bottom of the elevator, and many other things! We also found all the "secret doors" so once Michael leaves we can sneak around, haha. It was a great tour!

Michael!

Michael, has been all of my time, and more. The time has now come, for him to leave this ship. This time next week, we will be one less bearded person on board. He's off to the states for some sort of school.... But this past Wednesday was his last bible study, so we brought our past works. Rolo cookies, Apple Crisp(Penelope), Flavored Popcorn ( Josh Callow!) and of course cause he thinks he's Canadian, a Canada Flag Cake! We had many laughs that night, that none of us will forget anytime soon! For his last community meeting, Amy, Bronte, Tori and I dressed up as his security team for the night, in our sunglasses, heels, and uniforms!

Well the past two nights have been going away dinners, for Mykola, and Michael. Both are two of my closest friends, and I am so glad that i got to meet them!
I recieved my departure notice today! Two weeks today I fly away! :)

As my time here on the Africa Mercy is also drawing to a close, this time. I can truly say that this time has been amazing, and life changing to the fullest. Ive seen so many eye openers, and hurtful sites. But i really do see myself coming back here longtime, maybe not in the near future, but its defiantly very possible.

I am really going to miss this place. The Sense of community living, all the people that Ive met, and have formed relationships with, and of course all of the patients, with so much pain, a little smile can brighten anyone day. I'm going to miss our day workers, they bring something to the ship, i don't even know how to describe it. I'm NOT going to miss 2 minute showers. I will miss living with at least 9 other people, my room might feel too big! I'm going to miss movie nights, and game nights. But I really will cherish these memories forever, no matter where i end up in life!


Pictures to Follow :)

Half a year done, One month left.

Over the past two days, I’ve had the amazing opportunity, to go down and visit the wards of our hospital. We have 4 wards, and right now are using 3. We have a program on the ship, called Be-Friend-A-Patient. You can sign up and you get assigned a patient, whom you can visit down in the hospital or outside on deck 7!

This time when I signed up, a got a 13 year old girl, named Aisha. She has surgery about 2 weeks ago, for clubbed feet! She is beautiful, and has a precious smile. My first visit to the wards was last night, and I got to meet her! She is in a bed near the wall, and has both her mother and baby brother with her. I held him, while talking to her. I told her I would be back tonight with a coloring book. Her baby brother kept trying to take my glasses, but he did not succeed, he only left many little finger prints on them.

Tonight after a long work day, Amy and I headed on down to B ward. We arrived to see Aisha and her brother! We gave her the coloring book and crayons, and off she went. I also walked around the ward seeing all the other patients. There was one boy, who loved saying my last name, over and over again. We walked around, hand in hand for a while, and then I met another little charmer, named Abu. He was a patient back in Sierra Leone, in 2011, and is now back for another surgery. He is a heart stealer, when I was getting ready to go back to my patient, I kissed his hand, and he grabbed my hand and did the same thing! Heart stolen yet again. When I went back to Aisha’s bed, the other little boy, came over and climbed into my arms, and pretty much fell asleep. So a few minutes later, I walked him back to his bed, and off to sleep he went. I also saw another little boy, who just had surgery yesterday on his legs, when I went over, I could see just how much pain he was in, he was lying there crying, and tears were just flowing nonstop, broke my heart, I almost just started crying. This is one of those hard moments; we are here helping, but in our helping them, comes a lot of pain.

When I was sitting near Aisha’s bed, she said something to one of the translators. He then told me what she said, “you promised yesterday, that you would come back, and you did. Thank you and God bless you”. That was probably the nicest thing I have ever heard. I did something so little, and it made her day. To think that a simple act like that, makes someone so happy. We really do take our happiness for granted, if you really take the time to just smile at someone, they can have a whole better day, and all it took you was not even 2 seconds. The kids are precious on these wards, and have already taught me so many amazing lessons. It’s okay to be white, its okay to laugh and be crazy. But most of all, all they want, is Love. They won’t ask, but once they get it, that gorgeous smile appears, and is stuck on their face. Seeing that baby boy wave goodnight is what I wish I could see every night. That Smile. Those chubby cheeks. The love spread in his eyes. His joy. His Peace. He’s happy. That’s all that matters.

As my time is starting to draw to a close, here on the Africa Mercy, it really is going to be hard to leave those kids. I’m going to miss visiting the wards so much! But Africa now and forevermore has a very special place in my heart, and I will be back soon!

A weekend full of cute kids! :)

Precious Rebecka!

These past few weeks have been an interesting challenge, there was some issues, and it put a lot of tension on things. But this past weekend I had an amazing opportunity , to go off ship almost the whole weekend. It was just what I needed!

So early Saturday morning, I headed off to a orphanage, about 30-40 minutes from the ship. When we finally arrived, we were run over by the first set of kids. There was one little boy, named Daniel, that was beyond precious. He ran up to Shelly and cried out "Mama!" with a large smile. It brought out the joy in his eyes.

Many of the kids would just run up to you, and put their arms up to be held. I got to hold one boy, he just snuggled right in, and wouldn't let me put him down. We then got out our bubbles, and toys. The kids LOVED the bubbles, they would chase after them, and pop them! Once the bubbles were gone, some of us sat on a mat, and sang songs to the kids, some even started dancing for us!

We then went inside the building to their classroom, to do some coloring and crafts. They all enjoyed it alot!
The kids would keep showing me their drawings, and one time i said it was beautiful and one of the workers just started laughing. These precious kids, have so much talent! There was one boy that the owner pointed out to me, that he's never been to school, so the craft that i thought was easy, he had no idea what to do, but he could speak french very well, and he was great with the little kids! It hurt just to think that he couldn't attend school, but it was a blessing to hear that he's starting school in 3 weeks! When we entered this room, I was holding another youngster, who ended up falling asleep in my arms, but I couldn't let him go, it just felt so right!

When we went back outside, and since its raining season in Africa, it was raining, ha ha. To the kids this seemed pretty normal, but to us, we didn't want to melt! We hid under a shelter for awhile, still playing with the crafts and boats. It was then time to go, this time i had little Daniel on my lap, and he wouldn't get up. ApparentlyIi wasn't going to leave. One of the workers told him to get up, and i stood up, and ended up with his arms around me. I cant wait to go back and see them all agian real soon!

Once we left, we drove back to the ship, picked up our lunch, and then set of again, this time to a baby rescue center! It  was about 30 minutes away from the ship. The center was in an apartment building, with the radio station on a floor, the lady that runs it has her offices on another floor, and then the baby floor!
Right now they have about 12 babies, and all of them were either found abandoned, or not wanted. When we first walked into the room, all the precious babies came running, it was beyond cute! The lady that runs it, is from Grand Prairie, Alberta! She told us that currently 3 of the babies will be adopted, one little girl named Rebecka, is going to a Canadian family, and the twins, named Jacob and David, are going to a family in Ohio! The story behind how the twins got to the center was literally heart breaking, they were left in the middle of the market, abandoned, in hopes that  someone would do something. I kept asking myself the question, why would anyone abandon such a precious baby? And as the afternoon kept going, and i held my new little friend named Sage, nick name Curious George, and kept making him laugh, i never was able to answer that question. We played and cuddled with these cute babies for over 2 hours, and when it was time to leave, we kept pushing it off. We did not want to leave these cuties!

Curious George :)

All of the little ones!

This weekend really was a good experience, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I also got to go to an African Church, my first in Guinea! It was about 4 hours long, with lots of music and a baby dedication! They even fed us afterwards! It showed love can spread no matter where you are in this crazy world!