One Month Left in Mercy

So my time here is quickly dwindling away... 25 days until I  am home! I can't believe it's been almost five months.

Some shenanigans we get into at work

My job here on the ship recently changed and now I am working in the Galley (the kitchen). My team and I help prepare almost 1500 meals a day for the crew. The Galley is very loud and chaotic, but oh so  fun! The music is loud, but the people are louder. French, Creole, and English are always being tossed around and the dishes never end. I either have five days off a week or two days so I really love my new schedule. The job is physically demanding as well as mentally demanding at times. The language barriers are difficult to get over sometimes and we are always moving at a fast pace while standing on our feet for nearly eight hours a day.

The concert Friday night

This past weekend I was off of work and tried to pack it as full of activities as possible. On Friday some friends and I went to what would be our local civic center where events are held. There was an international festival going on there with a concert at night. There were about three or four live rather interesting performances including rapping and break dancing. I have made a wonderful group of friends here so no matter where we go or what we do, it's always a blast. Saturday I went up country with a friend and then Sunday I went to a local island to soak up the sun all day.

Monday and Tuesday I worked, but today (Wednesday the 24th) I had the day off so I observed surgery on the ship. I observed three surgeries. The first one was a Maxillofacial surgery (surgery on the face). The patient had a tumor growing up his face instead of protruding out. The tumor consumed his left side of the face including his eye. For the surgery they basically cut his whole left cheek and started sawing/chipping away at the bone that was responsible for this growth. The surgeon used a "saw" to cut this bone like a grid and then proceeded to chip away this bone in small and large fragments. We were all joking in the OR (Operating Room) how this was similar to the way we cut our mangos, except this was a very unripe maybe even fossilized mango. Only on the Africa Mercy does a MaxFax surgery get compared to cutting a mango... I've included a picture below of the way we cut mangos here to clarify. The next surgery I observed was the removal of a thingy I can't remember the name for. It was a large fatty mass on the front of the neck, about the size of a pear. The surgeon carefully cut it out then sealed up the skin! The final surgery I saw was a cleft palate repair done by a MaxFax surgeon named Dr. Gary Parker. Dr. Parker has been with Mercy Ships for more than twenty years. He is the head of the hospital and probably one of the most skilled surgeons out there, yet the most patient, kind, loving, understanding man I have ever come across. He explained to me detail by detail what he was doing while keeping conversation with me such as where I'm from, where I work, and what my name is. This is a man who just radiates Jesus in everything he does. I was extremely blessed to get to watch him work.

In the OR 

I've officially been accepted to YWAM so from late September to December I will be in Kona, Hawaii and from December to March, I will be placed in any country they wish to place me in to spread The Good News of Jesus Christ! Woooohooo!!

 "Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits  who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles" Psalm 103:1-5