Hope Center: JOY

Only six weeks left here for me. CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE IT?! I cannot. Hm. I think I’ll start with the struggles, so your reading ends with happiness. {so you’d better read the whole thing!} I admit that the week before last was pretty rough for me at work. It’s hard to talk about negative things on my blog cuz I am always aware that anyone can read it {including shipmates as well as their families}, and I really don’t want to put this place or anyone around me down. However I also do aim to be my usual honest self. Work was frustrating. I was trying to learn new things in new rooms with new doctors and new leaders in a new specialty. Though I was completely fine with being there to help and learn new things, I felt dumb, and useless, and sidelined. Some fabulous friends on the ship were very helpful with encouragement and hugs, and just listening. And Anita, a friend I made on the ship in Madagascar who is currently back in the USA, was super helpful with calming me down over Messenger, and asking mutual friends currently on the ship to give me hugs from her. It was really sweet, and helpful. Anne was even brave enough to give me one at breakfast {she’s the best, warning all new friends not to talk to me at breakfast. sadly for me but excitedly for her, she left the ship a week and a half ago to finish wedding preparations for next month!}, with “I have something for you, from Anita”. After getting a chance to have coffee with my supervisor last week, I’ve been feeling a ton better. Today a new surgeon is doing screening for general surgery {which I’m a little more familiar with from my time in Dauphin}, and I’m excited to be in that room for the next while.

Most people might think a random day off during the week is exciting. Though I actually know it is the truth, I have to convince myself that it’s not punishment for sucking at my job. But really, they just had extra nurses for that day’s surgeries and wanted to bless someone who is here longer with a day off to attend any Mercy Ministries opportunities. {The ship runs Mercy Ministries, where they do things like visit orphanages, schools for the deaf and blind, the HOPE Center, and I don’t know where else. They do singing, a Bible story, a craft, and just straight up give attention and love.} This was a Thursday and they were going to the HOPE Center in the afternoon, which meant a morning completely OFF!

{The HOPE Center is the Hospital Out-Patients Extension Center. It is a place where patients stay when they live far away and no longer need to be in our on-ship hospital, but do need to stay nearby for physio, dressings changes, blood tests, reassessment, etc.}

So I slept in, had a waffle with white sauce I’d saved in the fridge, and found a buddy to walk to the store with. We had a lovely relaxed perusal of the grocery store ‘Spar’ [the other times I’d been there it was more like “grab what you want and let’s go”, so I enjoyed just wasting time looking at what’s the same, what’s different, what prices are like, etc.] where my main objectives were obviously Coke Zero, coffee, and filters. Now, I have no real palate for coffee. I’ll drink anything. {last time I was here I mainly drank chai tea, so I figured since I don’t care the “bad coffee” everyone talks about would be fine for me.} But ship coffee is actually a rather impressive level of bad. Plus, our massive dining room machines were consistently breaking, as was the Starbucks latte machine. {the [free] dining room coffee isn’t even consistently the same type of bad. sometimes weak, sometimes strong, always gross. but it’s a massive perk [slow coffee, as Maarten calls it] that is not set up consistently by the same people…} Anyway, when my friend Kealy asked what she could mail me, I was desperate for better coffee but didn’t know what would be mailable. She had an amazing idea! I got a surprise in the mail a couple weeks later of a collapsible coffee dripper {think pour-over style} that I just needed coffee and filters for! My mommy also mailed me some McCafe grounds and regular filters with bag clips so I can do a teabag style coffee. After some experimenting, I’ve got much better coffee! I even added a little of the dining room coffee one day to top it off due to weakness, and it made the whole thing nasty. Good to know it is still not worth drinking, I guess… Thanks Mom and Kealy!!

The group who was going met after lunch and piled into ship Land Rovers. There were some lovely people I got to know a bit better while we drove there, and who I leaned on with my eyes closed for the end of the trip as I started getting nauseous [not sure why I thought sitting sideways at the back was the best idea for me, but I’m usually fine in the Land Rovers…].

{the sneak-in, coming to hang out with Gertrude aka Lynda [Canadian!] and I}

{we were all under a tent for some shade, with a little bit of a breeze. notice the funky hair at bottom left?! I’ve seen quite a few colorful extensions worked into hair here.}

As soon as we arrived, there were kids everywhere excited to see us. They generally went to the ward nurses that they knew first, but were not shy in the slightest to just grab one of us and make friends. We sat down under the tent for the “program”. Like you read before, we did some singing where obviously there were actions involved, and you were told [read: mocked] if you weren’t doing them enthusiastically enough [aka most of us white people weren’t wiggling our butts adequately…]. I did not always know what we were singing, but some songs were in English and if not I just made noise along with the song.

{dancing, and lots of giggling. I didn’t purposely wear pink to be easily found in photos, but it was effective!}

Our story [complete with volunteer HOPE Center actors and translation from French to English] was about the rich man and the tax collector praying with very different attitudes before God, and which one pleased Him. One little girl climbed into my lap pretty quickly into the story, after sitting between Gertrude and I and then on her lap, looking for attention. Then there was a craft that included coloring and glue, for which we handed out supplies and helped [mostly just admired their work, as the kids and adults alike were very happy to show off what they’d done]. My favorite thing was the lack of shyness, and all the snuggles and affection you could ask for. Just so much joy in the air.

{Gertrude makes me laugh. I like her.}

I don’t know what else to say about it exactly. It was hot and sweaty, only sometimes in English, and an incredible experience. Pure JOY. Just excellent for my soul. I’m excited to get back there for a Sunday morning church service. Hopefully you can get a better idea of it from the photos that our Mercy Ministries staff took than from my rambly wordsing.

{after the craft, this one turned around to me standing behind her on the bench and raised her arms. I thought she just wanted me to lift her over the bench, but she climbed into my arms and stayed there until we left, through the final action songs. ❤ LOVED. IT.}

Shockingly, I’ve just hardly gone through my first chapstick. But don’t worry, I have at least four more. Though at least another two are also “on the go”, which is likely why it has taken almost ten weeks to finish one off. In case you didn’t know, I had backup Carmex emergently mailed to me in Madagascar [again, thanks Kealy!] cuz I’d used it up so quickly and didn’t like any of my available options very much. Between the ship’s polar air conditioning and the harsh sunlight, I needed to use it super frequently to keep my lips unchapped. So this time I brought at least two pots of Carmex and my favorite triple-pack of Blistex Fruit Smoothies sticks. [so no one needs to mail any!]

As always, thank-you. Thank-you for your prayers [my back has been giving me a little less grief lately overall, yay!!!], your encouragement, the amazing letters [that’s you, Kirstie {THREE impressively ugly cards from her!} and Tiger! <3] and gifts [Mom and Kealy] that I get, texts and messages [Anita talking me down from a bad week] and all the love. I appreciate it so much. It’s amazing knowing I have so many fantastic people backing me up. Have a fantabulous week!

“Although I am currently serving with Mercy Ships, everything communicated here strictly reflects my personal opinions and is neither reviewed nor endorsed by Mercy Ships. Opinions, conclusions and other information expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of Mercy Ships.”