Floating Blood Bank

Today I gave blood.

On the ship we are rather like a floating blood bank. It is truly unique. If you wish to be a blood donor, you can sign up, have your blood tested and if it is O.K., you can choose to be available. So I knew this month I was rather 'on call'. Yesterday I found out they would need me today possibly, so I stayed on board. This morning, when a certain patient went in for his surgery, I was called. we do not have a way to store it, so pretty much it went from me to him. A young man in his 20's named Jacob.

When else can you do something so important by doing nothing except lie there?

Truly amazing!!

Three in a Bed!

Three nights ago at around 4 in the morning a mother of a young patient went into labor and a baby girl was born. Despite a little pressure to name her baby Mercy, she is called Nancy and she is beautiful. She weighed in at around 4 pounds 9 ounces.

Now there are 3 people in the bed!

Garmeh

This is Garmeh.

She is an amazing woman. She has been on board at least three times for the VVF female surgery that we do. Vesico Vaginal Fistula surgery. For 27 years she has been leaking urine continually. Today she is dry. Her problem was due to obstructed labor, when she was in labor for days and days. Her baby was born dead. During those 27 years, she also spent one entire year in the local hospital. I cannot tell you the hazards of that alone. She thought she was the only one with that problem.

Garmeh found out we were doing surgeries for women just like her when she brought her uncle to the ship for a cataract surgery and that very same day, we were screening women for the VVF surgery. A coincidence? I do not think so.

Recently on PBS, Nova showed a documentary about women just like Garmeh, called A Walk to Beautiful. You can find our more about that at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/beautiful/program.html

I believe you may be able to watch it online.

I had the privilege to be part of the team that took Garmeh home. Her home is blue, the only painted home in the village. And she has flowers growing around it which is very, very rare. It seemed a shining light to me.

Scissor, bags and Madame President.....

Today I was reading a book and found this great description of fabric. It could just as well have been written about the great fabric I see here in Liberia.

“…the patterns were loud or subtle, anything could be on them: patterns of fashionable shoes, perhaps, or a mobile phone print – this was very popular, as were sky scrapers, electric irons, kettles and radios. Flowers, animals and trees were rare – the preference was abstraction or abstract impressions of modern things. Like lawn mowers. Then there were travelogue prints – Sacré Coeur patterns, Saint Peters, the Statue of Liberty, Big Ben, Arc de Triomphe…There were the special celebration prints; you could tie the Pope’s face round yourself, or (in Liberia, the President) or you could have a run of cloth specially made celebrating your grandfather’s seventieth birthday or funeral, or your son’s graduation, or praising your candidate for local office.” From a book on Benin titled Show Me the Magic by Annie Caulfield

I have seen here electric fans with cords, here in a country with no electricity. Lipsticks, Madame President, Cups of coffee, coffee tables with lamps, Jesus saying Come to me…, Mary saying she is the Immaculate Conception. Sometimes I think I should not drive in this country as I am fascinated by all the fabric that I see. I do enjoy it.

Ken's Mom

STRATHAM — Marjorie Edith Cleary Berry, 91, died Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2008, at Exeter Hospital.

She was born in 1917 in Dorchester, Mass., the daughter of Charles W. Cleary and Gertrude (Brayden) Cleary. She grew up in Wollaston, Mass., and graduated from Bridgewater Teachers College in 1938. After moving to Stratham to teach, she met and married Robert S. Berry in 1941.

She is survived by four children, William S. Berry of Bristol, R.I.; Gertrude B. Guth of Wallingford, Conn.; Kenneth R. Berry of Mercy Ships, now serving in Africa; and Donald B. Berry of West Springfield, Mass. There are 12 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

She was predeceased by her husband, Robert S. Berry, and a daughter, Kathy Laurin.

The Berry family would like to extend its appreciation to the staff at the Exeter Hospital and Exeter Health Care, who took exceptional care of Marjorie, and to the community of Langdon Place, where she made her home.

WE REMEMBER: "Marge" was a past member of the Stratham School Board, a trustee of the Exeter Hospital and a member of the Board of the Rockingham Co. Community Action and Head Start Program. She was instrumental in bringing child and family services to the Seacoast region, serving on its board for some years.

As a communicant of Christ Church in Exeter, Marge served in many capacities. She taught Sunday school, served on vestry and altar guild, and was the first woman lay minister. On the Diocesan level, she was involved in leadership training, was an Episcopal Church Women officer, and was the first woman to be elected to the Standing Committee for the State of New Hampshire. She was also one of the first women elected as deputy to the General Convention.

SERVICES: There will be no calling hours. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 20, at Christ Church, 43 Pine St., Exeter. A luncheon at the church will follow the service. Burial will be in the Exeter Cemetery, Exeter. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to the Christ Church Memorial Fund, 43 Pine St., Exeter, NH 03833, or to Mercy Ships, P.O. Box 2020, Lindale, Texas 75771. Brewitt Funeral Home, Exeter, is handling arrangements. To sign an online guest book, visit http://www.brewittfuneralhome.com/

Wheelbarrows

Wheelbarrows –

I have been thinking a lot about wheelbarrows…thousands of them being pushed about Liberia…mobile store fronts for flip-flops, clothing, fabric, tools, bras, toilet paper, eggs, tapes and DVDs, baskets, towels, Chiclets, candy, charcoal, head bands, coconuts; a means of delivery for a host of purchased goods; even recliners for sleeping men…but I think one thing that has shocked me and that is common here is when I first heard of a child dying in the wheelbarrow on the way to the hospital. I thought “Surely not!” But then a pastor friend of ours in a village said his wife was so sick in the middle of the night that they thought they would have to put her in a wheelbarrow and take her to the clinic. So, yes, it is a common means of transportation when you live way out in a village and it is the rainy season and there is no other way to get to the main road. Shocking. I find it shocking.

There is so much I need to think about here.

Sensory Overload

Last week I saw a cobra.

I went out to the village with the community health care team. What an afternoon it was. Sometimes I think it is all the sensory overload that can be overwhelming. First stop Duala market because we needed some peppers and onions for the meal provided for the participants in the class. While waiting in the land rover, there were so many things to see. UN vehicles, taxis, taxis, taxis….So, after the buyers got back into the vehicle, I reach in to the bag to see what they got and pulled out……chicken feet. Wow!! Not expected. Then on our way to the village, watching from the back of the vehicle - A beautiful young pregnant woman hurrying through the crowds. What must it be like to be her? What does she see. I know as women, our dreams must be the same.

As we travelled along to the village we saw a large black stick in the road which, of course, started to move and crawl along the road. And it raised its flat little head. Cobra! The picture here is not the one we saw but - it looks like it! It was about 5 feet long.

Reaching the village, something is amiss. We find out that the baby our team took to the hospital on Tuesday died of malaria on Wednesday. Today is Thursday and she is already buried. It is her 4th child to die. They think all died of malaria. We got started late with the class, held in a small Catholic church which functions as a school in the mornings. We talked about nutrition and they coloured and played a game. It was a review day and they seem to know their stuff. Rice is the main thing they eat. And in talking to our crew, we learn that if they have not eaten rice they have not eaten that day. A crew member from Guinea told me that he might eat potatoes, carrots, and corn but if he had not had rice he would not think he had eaten. And I have also heard that if rice is hard to come by, it is considered a desperate situation, like a war time situation. And we know that right now rice is hard to buy. It is expensive everywhere. It poured while we were there. It rains so hard during this rainy season that if you are in a building with a zinc roof, which most public buildings are, it is so loud you cannot hear the person beside you talk. All teaching stops. It was like sheets of rain. On the way home, we stopped to see the young mother to offer our sympathies. Losing 4 children I cannot imagine. And from Malaria?? Next week the team begins handing out mosquito nets, training in the villages at the same time and then the teaching and hanging of the nets will be continued by the participants in the class. They will go from house to house in their villages and teach at the same time.

Here is my latest little song, sung to Happy Birthday…

Use your net every day.
Keep mosquitos away!
Use your net when you’re sleeping…
It is the best way!

Saturday, I went along to a meeting of various NGO’s with a friend. I was just observing but it was interesting to hear the difficulties of obtaining the tests to rapidly diagnose malaria. Malaria is a very big problem here. Right now I cannot imagine being back in North America and getting bitten by mosquitos and knowing you do not have to be concerned about malaria. What a privilege that is and I do not even think about when I am at home.

Anyway, it was five hours of sensory overload.

And again…..so much to think about!