11 days in Togo, West Africa: days 8–10

In previous posts, the title was "10 days in Togo." However, it was really 10 full days, plus an 11th day when we left at night. So there will be at least one more post after this one. =)

Day 8 was Friday. Friday is waffle day on the ship. At the snack shop / Starbuck's cafe, they make waffles in the morning. I think each one was 50 cents, which is about ten times cheaper than IHOP (International House of Pancakes). That's one thing I never understood: in a restaurant, why do waffles cost so much more than pancakes? One of life's great mysteries.

For the waffles, I worked the cash register. Selling something that people want that is also at a good price is a good feeling. I don't have any photos or videos of the waffles, though.

Here's the video for days 8 and 10. What about day 9? Those videos are separate, but they're later in this post.

The video starts with Jillian and I playing my sister's new djembe.

Before I left for Africa, my sister, Mary, emailed me and asked if I could bring her back a djembe. Whenever I ask people if they want anything from a trip, I rarely get any requests. So I determined to bring Mary some kind of djembe, though I didn't even know what a djembe was!

Thankfully, Jillian knows my sister, and Jillian knows a lot in general. I could have gotten Mary a mini djembe, about 10" high. But Jillian knew Mary wanted a full-size one. The first problem was buying one. Thankfully, Jillian knew a day worker she could ask to buy one for us, thus ensuring that we would get a quality product and the local price. (As opposed to the "white man price," or even the "white-man-who-buys-in-bulk price.") I think it cost $35, whereas a similar one in the U.S. might cost $200, and that might even be manufactured and not handmade. To top it off, Jillian paid for the entire djembe, as a gift for my sister!

The second problem would be getting the full-size, handmade, djembe home. I'd deal with that on day 11.


I suppose this post's theme is music, so here's a question:

What kind of music do you like listening to?

Friday evening, Bill took our team out for an authentic African meal. It was the only one during the entire trip, so I was very excited. They sell grilled rats on the street, so I was wondering if I'd get to try that. However, the restaurant didn't have that on the menu. =) Instead, I ordered a grilled fish. It was delicious!




A group photo from the restaurant. The black woman was our server. I liked the restaurant, but their lighting was funny. They had a couple of compact fluorescent bulbs hanging from the ceiling, but that didn't help much. Toward the end of the meal, I couldn't even see what I was eating!

The African restaurant also had kittens. (As pets! Not to eat.) (0:25)


Because we had a late dinner, we missed the "Jesus" film! I don't think I've actually seen this film, but it has been called "the most-watched motion picture of all time." There is a movement to translate the film into every language and show the film everywhere. Going along with that, volunteers on the ship borrow a Land Rover equipped with an LCD projector, drive to a remote village, and show the film each Friday evening. It's supposed to be quite an experience: the villagers gather around, especially the children. There are tons of mosquitos. And the people will often cheer when Jesus does something they admire, such as speaking out against the authorities.

Day 9 was Saturday. I didn't take any photos, and I took videos of only two events. The first was Briggs teaching the djembe again. But this time, he was giving our team a special lesson! He wanted us to record him so that we would be able to practice when we got home.

This video is part 1 of Briggs teaching the djembe.

Part 2 is on YouTube. (If you go to YouTube via part 1 above, you'll probably see a link to part 2.)

Briggs, thank you for being such a thorough teacher!

What kind of music do you like listening to?

Easy question, right? We've all asked or been asked that. Ever wonder why we don't ask this first:

Do you like listening to music?

Everyone likes music! But the same isn't true of other things. I could reasonably ask, "Do you like traveling?", "Do you like watching TV?", or "Do you like reading?" Not everyone likes those things, but I feel everyone likes some kind of music. Why is that?

Even stranger, I'd say our love of music isn't very logical. For example, I hear people describe all the time why they like a particular TV show, food, or person of the opposite gender. But I've never heard someone adequately explain why they like a particular pop song compared to some other pop song. We just do.

So everyone likes music, and it's not very logical, or at least it's not very conscious. It must be innate. But why? If you believe in Darwinian evolution, then what's the evolutionary advantage to liking music? Don't people get distracted by music and cause car accidents? 

On the other hand, what if God gave us a love of music? Does that idea pan out?

The second event I recorded on Saturday was the Apostolic Praise Choir. This is a choir at a church in Togo. A volunteer named Penny Forbes visited them, and she was so impressed that she arranged for them to perform on the ship.

Here's part 1 of the choir's performance. I didn't record the performance continuously, but I tried to get significant clips of each song.

If you watch this video on YouTube, the video's description will say when each clip is.

They're pretty good, aren't they? I love their vibe. Of course, seeing them live is better than watching the video from my iPad and its tiny microphone.

The Apostolic Praise Choir, part 2.


In part 2, Penny asked Jillian to sing with the choir. I think Penny gave Jillian a couple hours to prepare, and she didn't get to meet the choir until right before their performance. =) The video below will start at Jillian's song. (7:33)


Apostolic Praise Choir, part 3.

What kind of music do you like to listen to?

Everyone loves some kind of music. Did that come from God?

At church, we have a mixture of older and younger generations. Inevitably, they like different kinds of music. However, I think many would say that our church has been able to find a balance that is appealing to most of the people in our church. After all, we have a very devoted, intentional worship director.

A church in which different people enjoy the same worship music. Isn't that a picture of the harmony that will exist in heaven?

Is it?

Last year, I took a class on being a missionary, called "Perspectives." One of the guest speakers was an expert on music in different cultures. He made a strong argument that music is tied to one's culture, and to force someone to listen to music from another culture is not helpful. (For example, building a church in a native village and having them sing American hymns.) The speaker also gave an example of how different music can be: he played some guttural-sounding "music" which I really didn't take to. Then he explained how he saw a native woman transformed by that very same music: she was inconsolable before they played the music around her, but afterward she was able to find peace.

I told the speaker that I went to a church that wanted to be "multicultural and multiethnic." I asked how we could be truly multicultural in terms of worship, since different cultures may have opposing musical styles. He said he didn't think it was possible; one would need separate worship services, so that people could enjoy the music of their culture.

Everyone loves some kind of music. If that came from God, then what purpose does it serve? Cultures who have vastly different styles of music are separated. And if we will all enjoy the same type of music in heaven, what kind of music will that be? Country? 

I think everyone was blown away by the Apostolic Praise Choir. (In fact, only half of them were there!) Afterward, the choir joined us for dinner in the ship's cafeteria. I was sitting with Jim, who runs the ship's convenience store, and a woman named Pam.

Jim said, "Man, I'll bet a lot of people at dinner missed the concert. I wish they could hear them." Then he said, "You know, I'll bet if I asked them to sing right here in the cafeteria, they would."

Pam said, "Yeah, you could ring the bell."

The cafeteria has a bell in the middle that people ring to make announcements. When I think of Pam's line, I can see it almost being, "Yeah, I double-dog-dare you." =)

Initially, I had some meek objections. Thankfully I was overruled. Jim talked to the choir, then rang the bell. So here's the Apostolic Praise Choir, part 4.

I am honored to have been part of such a wonderful moment. Thank you to Jim, Pam and the Apostolic Praise Choir!

That night, Alison and Louise also played a game of Scrabble. One of the other players was Ernest, the ship's Scrabble champion. I think they said he had never lost a game on the ship. The game was very close, uncertain until the very last turn, but Ernest won again!

Day 10 was Sunday. I was wondering if we'd go back to the Fishing Village for church, but instead we went to the ward service. What they do is pack all the patients into one of the hospital wards on the ship, then any guests who signed up (like us) can squeeze in. There are no pictures from the ward service, for privacy, but it was really nice to worship with the patients and nurses.

Before the ward service, my team took group photos. We're all wearing our "Mercy Ships" T-shirts! From left to right, it's Alison, Gene, Bill, me, Louise, Peter and Christine.

If you look at this photo in just the right way, it can seem like either Gene's arms or mine stretch all the way around the team.

Another group photo.

From Mercy Team Alison

Our version of a silly group photo. I think the command was to "stretch out."


Sunday afternoon was spent on the computer. We had email to check, photos to transfer, and videos to copy. I didn't have my laptop, so I ended up borrowing one from a girl named Ali, who works in hospitality. I feel like Ali was an unsung hero, because she let me borrow her MacBook Pro twice in two days, even leaving it with me and giving me her login password. And we had met only a couple days ago! Without Ali's laptop, my iPad would have been full after Briggs' lessons, and we wouldn't have any videos of the praise choir. So Ali, thank you!

While I was working on the computer, I talked to Penny and Jillian. They're roommates. Penny does finance on the ship and … well, you can just listen for yourself. =) (0:41)


That evening, we went out for pizza! Bill took us and Jim to a really nice pizza place. (Maybe the only pizza place in the city? =) They had many unusual varieties, and I think everyone enjoyed what they ordered. In the city we saw some goats but no cows. I wonder if the cheese was from goat's milk?

Below is my last video clip of the entire trip. After dinner, we returned to the ship to hang out. A couple of Africans were playing the piano and singing in the cafe area. Gene joined them. Watching that gave my heart a warm, fuzzy feeling. (2:06)

What kind of music do you like to listen to?

I like different kinds of music. But one commonality is that I like songs with a female vocalist. That's true whether it's pop, rock, alternative, country, anime or opera. It makes sense: I'm a guy, so I like hearing the female voice. The problem is that I also like singing along! When a girl starts talking about how much she likes a guy or some other girly thing, I'm not sure what to do. Other people must have run into this situation, but I still don't have a good solution. So far, I just stick with the lyrics and try not to think about it too much.

One of my favorite songs? "It's Raining Men" by The Weather Girls. =)

10 days in Togo, West Africa: days 5–7

Day 5 was Tuesday. Here's the video for days 5–7. It starts with me doing inventory at the ship's snack bar. (0:00)


Day 5 was also when Christine and I got to observe surgery. This was the highlight of the trip for me. It was such a privilege and life-learning experience.

In the picture, the surgeon facing the camera is Dr. Gary Parker! In the videos I had seen before, Dr. Parker seemed very kind and patient. He was just that way in person! After the surgery, Dr. Parker–or Dr. Gary, as some call him–gave Christine and I a mini-presentation about the types of surgeries they do on the ship. I really appreciate that he took the time to help us understand more fully.

The surgery we observed was a woman with a large, "benign" tumor in her jaw. It was the size of a small meatloaf, maybe 6" x 3" x 2". It had been growing in her mouth for 6 years, and it had consumed almost her entire lower jaw. Dr. Gary was able to save her two lower-right molars, but the rest of the jaw was replaced with a metal plate. Also, normally a patient would return months later for a bone graft, to help the jaw muscles re-attach better. But that might not happen since the Mercy Ship will soon be in another country (Guinea), and the woman probably won't have the resources to get that far. But I'm glad they did what they could.

Before the jaw surgery, Christine and I also observed two cataracts surgeries. They were also amazing. In just 20 minutes, a patient would come in, they would give the patient local anesthetic in the eye, and a surgeon would operate on their eye and replace their lens. After a short recovery period, the previously blind patient would be able to see again! Also, the surgeon we watched was an African native who had been previously trained by doctors from Mercy Ships.

In case you're wondering, there was a lot of blood (in the jaw surgery). But neither Christine nor I fainted. =) Perhaps this was because we didn't get too close. Actually, the part that made me cringe the most was when the eye surgeon was poking around the patient's eye. They had a video camera that showed the eye up close, and you could just *feel* the guy poking around and scratching stuff. (He had to do that to break up the cataract.)

Oh, lastly, in the photo there's this person in the center background; you can see only her head. That's Donna, whom I saw later in another context…

In light of all we've seen from Mercy Ships, here's another question:

  Is life fair?

Do you ever say things like, "That's not fair!"? Is that accusation really … fair? Is that like saying, "That car's not blue!"?

Later that day, Bill, Jim, Louise, Alison and I moved potato chips from the cargo bay. (0:11)

(Note: The videos are supposed to start at specific clips, as designated by their timestamps. For example, the video above is supposed to start 11 seconds in, at the start of a clip in which we move potato chips in the cargo bay. I've learned this feature may not work in devices without the Flash browser, such as the iPhone or iPad. I'm sorry for any inconvenience.)

I also met more friends of friends. This is the Koontz family. They've lived on the ship for several years. The wife is the sister-in-law of a girl I went to elementary school with (Joan Orr, now Joan Orr Myers). Small world!

That evening, Shauna joined us for another djembe lesson from Briggs. (0:36)


Day 6, I woke up earlier than usual. Normally we'd drive to the ship around 7 a.m., as breakfast ends at 7:30. However, our team leader Bill teaches an exercise class at 6:15 a.m., and I wanted to check it out. So I was up before 5:30 a.m.!

Here, we're just warming up before class. (0:50)

Bill is on the right, facing away from the camera. Sadly, I didn't take any videos of the actual exercises. But they were intense! One was called the alligator walk or something, and it involved crawling around on our forearms and toes. Sounds easy, but try doing it for even one full minute!

Bill is 59, I think, but I can honestly say he's in better shape than I have ever been. A great example to follow! Also, Bill teaches the class three times a week, totally on a volunteer basis! What's it called when someone *pays* to volunteer to help you, then they spend their free time volunteering on top of that? I believe that's called awesome.

By day 6, Gene was still working on the floors. There are a lot of floors on a ship, after all! In the photo, look at the orange sections near the bottom-left and the totally dirty section in the top-center. Imagine when the entire floor was like that.

That evening, we watched a presentation by one of the ship's doctors. This happens weekly, and it's a great way to help the entire crew better understand what happens in the hospital.

The presentation was on vesicovaginal fistulas (VVFs), which is a really sad condition. I'm not sure on the specifics, but it happens when a woman has obstructed labor. Usually the baby dies, and a hole develops internally in the woman, resulting in uncontrollable urination. This happens only in poor countries in which a woman can't easily get a C-section. And if your country is so poor that you can't get a C-section, you probably can't get your fistula fixed. So you'll never be able to have a child again, and you have uncontrollable urination the rest of your life.

The doctor who was speaking had so many sad stories to share. Like the fetus would die from obstructed labor but remain in the woman for months. Then the bones of the dead fetus would start to damage the woman from the inside.

On the bright side, healing VVFs is another thing that Mercy Ships does!

Of course, sometimes with obstructed labor, women don't even develop VVFs. They may just die. In the United States, the Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) is about 1 in 10,000 women. In Sierra Leone, it's about 1 in 50 women. Put another way, imagine that a large group of women in Sierra Leone and in the U.S. faced the *same* dire complications related to pregnancy. Then, 200 women in Sierra Leone might die before even 1 woman in the U.S. would.

  Is life fair?

Sometimes I'll complain at a sports event or retail store, "That's not fair!" But maybe I'm missing the point. Fundamentally, life is unfair, isn't it? So why should we expect a particular part of life to be fair? *When* life is unfair, what's the proper response?

The morning of day 7, we joined the deck crew for worship. (0:55)

A fun time of worshipping God together.

Later, I joined several of the crew who volunteer at a special-needs school. This was another example like Bill's exercise class: volunteers who pay, volunteering even in their free time! Here's the description:

"Visit and spend time with about 50 special-needs children (Autistic, Down Syndrome, ADD, Cerebral Palsy), ages 6–18 in a school setting. We'll be telling Biblical stories, do simple crafts, play indoors and outdoors, have fun and love on them."

Isn't that awesome? This was led by Jillian (ship hairdresser) and another woman named Tiffany. They go weekly.

The special-needs school. (1:40)

Sadly, I didn't take any other videos of the school, because we didn't want to distract the children. But you'd have loved to see it … so maybe you can still imagine! Jillian made a sock puppet to act out the story of Jesus and Zaccheus the tax collector. Then Jillian and Tiffany sang a song they had written about it (and translated into the native language). The teacher taught the song to the children and the rest of us, complete with hand motions. We also did watercoloring of a tree, as Zaccheus had climbed a tree to see Jesus.

Then, there was the dancing.

First, a few of the kids went up, one at a time, and performed to music. It was just like you dancing in front of a mirror to your favorite song, except they were dancing in front of the entire class. And they were good! Their stage presence was so strong, it changed my preconception of what special-needs people are capable of.

Next, we had dance-off competitions. The first started with two contestants in front of the class and a stuffed animal on the ground between them. (It was a Pokemon named Psyduck.) Both contestants had to dance freestyle while the music played. When the music stopped, the first one to grab the stuffed animal won. The kids did this among themselves, then of course they had each of us visitors compete against one of the kids. Yes, even me! And remember that woman from the surgery photo, in the background? Her name is Donna, and she had some very memorable dance moves. It's pretty neat to see someone both at work and when they're just having fun.

The second dance-off was musical chairs. We participated in this as well. The final round was me, Tiffany, and three kids. One by one someone was eliminated, until it was just Tiffany and I! (I won.)

Hmm, were we supposed to let the kids win? They seemed to have fun regardless. =)

That evening, there was a ship-wide "dock community meeting." While that sounds serious, what that really means is that we had a barbecue on the dock, followed by more dancing!

Dinner, and dancing, on the dock. (1:56)


This is Teresa Chau, a nurse from the San Francisco area in California. I first ran into Teresa in the hallway of the ship. She sort of looked at me and said, "Are you Chinese?!" Actually, I was thinking the same thing. That's because we were the only two Asian-Americans I saw on the entire ship! There were a couple of Asian-Canadians, and a native Korean, but all of the 400 other volunteers seemed white or black. When I realized this, I actually felt a bit ashamed. First I was ashamed of the relatively small number of Americans volunteering, and now the relatively small number of Asians.

Anyway, Teresa and I talked for several hours. Everyone on the ship had a story that broke any stereotype I had about what a volunteer/missionary should be like. Teresa was no exception. But I'll save that for a later post.

At the dock festival, there was a native band. The drumming especially impressed me, such as how well they worked together. (4:32)


That evening, we visited our befriend-a-patients again. This is one of my teammates' patients. The ship has the ability to print out photos and laminate them, so we used that to give this photo to her. I was surprised at the huge difference a simple lamination can make!

The evening wasn't over yet! First, Gene ran into Lord Ian McColl, a surgeon. (5:04)

Lord Ian is a member of the House of Lords in the UK. He also visits the ship occasionally and volunteers as a surgeon! Lord Ian is frequently the oldest person on board, at 79 years young. However, our teammate Gene is a few months his senior!

From Mercy Team Alison

The last event of an eventful day was the "Pepsi vs. Coke" taste test. This was an impromptu event that came up probably because someone on our team said they preferred Pepsi vs. Coke, and someone else questioned whether they could really tell the difference.

The idea is simple: Two glasses, one with Pepsi and one with Coke. Identify each one by taste. Repeat 3 times for good measure.

Several of our teammates were tested. The last was our leader, Bill.

However, Bill's taste test was slightly rigged. For fun, of course. Afterward, Alison and Louise explained Bill's test results. (5:21)


So I asked earlier:

  Is life fair?

  If life is fundamentally unfair, then what's the proper response?

I don't know if we're supposed to fight for things to be fair. Maybe that's not quite the right tact. Or maybe it is, and we need to fight with every last breath.

In the absence of an answer, I will close with a verse from Romans 12:

  "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn."

10 days in Togo, West Africa: more on Mercy Ships

Last time, I finished with day 4 in Togo. In a later post, you'll see this photo from day 5:

We're watching a surgery on the ship!

This was a very unique experience for me, and it's a central part of what Mercy Ships does. However, I have really only this photo and no videos. So, this post will explain more about Mercy Ships and their goals. We'll use a Q&A format.

What is Mercy Ships?
This video gives a nice overview of Mercy Ships: the problems they address, the people on the ship, what they do, and why. The video is about 5 minutes.


If you can watch only 6 seconds of the video, please look here. (2:16)

This brief video of the man was a bit overwhelming for me. I found it very helpful to go back, pause the clip, and just look. To think about him, how I would treat him. How God would treat him.

Why does Mercy Ships serve in West Africa?
This video explains and has some nice visual aids. (Briefly, it's based on the United Nations' Human Development Index. Many of the poorest countries in that index are in West Africa.) The video is 1 minute.

In the video, you can see that Togo is a little strip west of Nigeria, just east of Ghana.

Some patients have medical conditions that look terrifying. Can Mercy Ships really help? What do the patients look like afterward?
Here's an important video. It starts with images of some patients. Then it shows more patients, but with computer-generated transitions between their "before" and "after" states. This video is only 2.5 minutes, so I encourage you to watch it entirely.

Here's another video with some amazing before-and-after photos. Click below to jump straight to the relevant part. (6:03)

The speaker is Dr. Gary Parker. That video is actually Dr. Parker's acceptance speech for the 2012 Alumnus of the Year Award from the UCLA Dental Alumni Association!

Dr. Parker is one of my personal heroes. I was lucky enough to meet him while on the ship. In fact, he's one of the surgeons we watched! (In the photo at the top, he's the surgeon facing the camera.)

In the video, Dr. Parker shows the before-and-after photos in the context of something he once heard:

"For hope to be credible in the future, it needs to be tangible in the present."

That statement has clearly had enormous impact on Dr. Parker. I am still mulling it over.

In the video, Dr. Parker also says, "I really do take things a day at a time. The need is so overwhelming." That's a remarkable statement, because Dr. Parker came to the ship years ago as a bachelor, he now has a wife and kids, and I can only imagine how many surgeries he has performed and how many people he has life-changed in his years of service.

Exactly how long has Dr. Parker been living on Mercy Ships? Find out by watching Dr. Parker's speech in its entirety. =) Just click below. (It's 8.5 minutes.)


What is life like for the patients? What are their stories?
Mercy Ships has many patient stories. Here's one: the story of a father and his son, Abel. It's 5 minutes.

One more thing.

I was walking around the ship one day, and I saw this photo. Can you see it?

From Mercy Team Alison

That's Dr. Parker on the right. But his hand isn't on the top of his patient's head; it's on a tumor. That giant thing in the middle of the photo is a tumor, growing inside the person's mouth and jaw. You can see the mouth opening on the right side, and how they had to prop up the tumor so they can operate on it.

What's Dr. Parker doing? He's praying for his patient.

"For hope to be credible in the future, it needs to be tangible in the present."

10 days in Togo, West Africa: days 2–4

Our first full day in Togo was a Friday. Most of the ship has the weekend off, like in the United States, so days 2 and 3 were days off! My team wished we could work more beforehand; maybe we didn't feel we had earned a rest. But we were also taught that the most important part of being on a Mercy Team is to be FAT: Flexible, Adaptable and Teachable. Being flexible enough to take a break early: God's perfect timing!

Questions for today:

Think of a machete. What thoughts and feelings do you have about one?


Do you have any regrets? Anything you would do differently if you could?


Day 2, Saturday, started with Bill driving us to "the artisan market." It was a small, enclosed area with a couple dozen souvenir shops. Everything was hand-made. Most of the people knew a select group of English words, like "yes," "no," "buy," "please" and "come in."

At the artisan market, Bill introduced us to Therese, who makes batiks. (0:02)

Batiks are like posters, but made of cloth, for hanging on a wall.

Also at the artisan market, I saw a machete, similar to the one pictured above. (0:41)

This whole encounter had an impact on me, so I want to give you a good chance to see the clips before I talk about them. At the end of this post, I'll share my thoughts.

After the artisan market, Bill drove us back to the ship. Along the way, it was fun just looking out the window at life in Togo. (2:26)

There were a lot of scooters on the road; many were taxis. The road was also well paved. Bill said this was done in the last few months; other roads we drove on had potholes bigger than our tires. You can see women carrying huge bundles on their heads; it's both surprising and resourceful. Bill mentions two places to eat: a burger place called Akif's and an ice cream place. We made it to both on the following weekend.

Here's a nice photo of Bill eating ice cream on the ship. Saturday is movie night, and they also had make-your-own-sundae. Yum!

Movie night was funny. They showed "The Adventures of Tintin," a cartoon. But they were originally going to show "Titanic." At first, I heard they switched because they had lost the DVD. But later, there was speculation they had switched because of the scenes in Titanic (nude scene, sex scene, etc.). I can totally see this happening, because there are a lot of children on the ship and the ship has a code of conduct with certain "Christian" values (no alcohol, no pre-marital sex, etc.).

The Mercy Ships Code of Conduct is here, with an addendum here.

The next weekend, they were going to show "Casablanca." That day, Bill wondered if the movie's themes were appropriate. (The girl is married to one guy but is in love with Humphrey Bogart's character.) Sure enough, they didn't show that movie, either.


Day 3 was Sunday, which meant church! I don't always get excited about going to church, but we were going to a local African church, so this might be a once-in-a-lifetime event. It was called the "Fishing Village church."

Bill told us there would be a lot of singing and dancing at the church, but I was still blown away. Sadly, I wasn't able to shoot any video of the worship service. In later videos, there will be singing and dancing from other events. While those events were energetic and fun, the singing and dancing at the Fishing Village was … off the hook! (And yes, I danced, too!)

After the church service, lots of fun was still to be had. All the children came by, and they gave, and got, a lot of attention. I feel like they would literally jump into your arms if you let them. =) (3:26)


Aren't they precious? Pictures like this make me forget that we really couldn't speak to one another.





One of the girls in the video is Shauna, a dental hygienist. She wasn't on our Mercy Team, but she arrived the same day and we all became fast friends. Shauna is from Calgary, Alberta. As a dental hygienist, she went ashore each day to clean the teeth of the people of Togo. Shauna saw people with conditions she had never seen before, such as teeth completely covered in tartar.

Shauna also sponsors children with Compassion International. I sponsor one Compassion child, and sometimes I feel pretty good about that. But Shauna sponsors six! Three are from Togo(!), and Shauna was able to arrange to meet them while volunteering with Mercy Ships.

This is Louise. She's a nurse from Vancouver, and she loves to travel. (Before coming to Africa, Louise had spent five weeks backpacking through India!) Louise wasn't volunteering as a nurse on the ship, perhaps because of the timing. However, she may volunteer as a nurse in the future!

Was it a coincidence that Shauna and Louise are both from Canada? Jillian, the hairdresser, is also from Canada. In fact, the ship has a crew of about 400, with volunteers from 35 countries. The most volunteers are from the U.S., with maybe 100 people. But I think there are also about 40 Canadians. Considering that the U.S. has ten times the population of Canada (312 million vs. 34 million), it's almost sad that we have only twice as many volunteers. Mercy Ships is based in Texas, too!

Oh well. Props to Canada!

Our team, plus many children, at the Fishing Village church. The church is basically this one open-air building. Notice the holes in the back wall.

Many of my teammates loved holding and picking up the kids. I still haven't gotten used to that, but that didn't stop this little guy from attaching himself to me. =)

By the way, Togo was HOT. The air was very humid, which I'm not used to. And for church we wore our "Sunday best," then we had all that crazy dancing! So I was definitely ready to change and take a shower.

I also really enjoyed an ice-cold Coke. Though afterwards, I felt like a sell-out to corporate marketing. (4:40)


On the way back to the ship, Alison took this nice photo of me and Peter. Peter and Alison are from England, I think the southern part. They have three kids. Peter's a RedSox fan. Peter had been on a Mercy Team before, and Alison had been on more than half a dozen. We learned a ton from them, and from their example!

That evening, we got to go to church again! The regular church service on the ship is on Sunday evenings. (4:49)

I think my singing sounds a lot better in person than in recordings. Am I the only one who thinks that way? Or maybe I always sound terrible, as evidenced by the recordings, and everyone just puts up with me?

Anyway, there's something quite nice about seeing people that you've met outside of church, suddenly in church. I knew that most of the ship's crew is Christian, but I guess knowing something isn't as good as seeing something, for me.


Day 4 was Monday, so we were back to work! I was assigned to help Jim Twining, the ship's sales manager. Here's Jim playing with the locals. (5:17)

I think Jim is from Florida. He signed up to serve two years on the ship. I think about half the crew was serving for 2 years or more, which is ideal. The rest were staying anywhere from two weeks to eighteen months. Many times, I heard one of the hardest part of being on the ship is the constant change of people: making new friends, saying goodbye to old ones. It can be emotionally draining.

Anyway, Jim runs the ship's convenience store, snack shop, and the Starbucks cafe. That day, a cargo container had arrived, so we had to unload it. However, it would take some time before we were ready to do that, so I checked up on my teammates.

Christine and Gene were cleaning the Starbucks cafe, top to bottom. (5:38)

Christine is from England, I think near London. She's over 70, but she (and Gene) worked just as hard as anyone else. It was neat to be in a group that was so cross-generational: Louise and I are in our 30s, Christine and Gene in their 70s, and Peter, Alison, and Bill are in between.

Christine had a funny story about serving with Mercy Ships. She had originally wanted to serve in a different capacity onboard, either longer or shorter, and she had a physical exam as part of the process. The physical cost about 200 pounds (British money). But then Mercy Ships said she couldn't serve in that capacity. Since she had already spent a lot of money on the physical, she signed up for a Mercy Team! I might've been tempted to let the money go, but I'm thankful for Christine's tenacity!

Gene was really into cleaning the floors. We should have taken "before" and "after" photos, but I was too late. In this "in progress" photo, notice the darker squares along the top. The entire floor used to look like that.

I found Peter and Louise at the bottom of the ship, cleaning the weight rooms. (6:00)


Alison was up on deck, cleaning a rusty exercise bike. (6:09)


Then it was time to unload the cargo container. Those things hold a lot! We had only two carts for moving stuff, and we had to carry individual boxes down some stairs to the stockrooms. It was hard work, but we had a lot of help. (Besides the volunteer crew, there are about 200 local day workers on the ship. A couple of them were helping us.) Anyway, it was great to feel useful.

That evening, we had dinner in the cafeteria as usual. Then the girls practiced the djembe before our next lesson with Briggs. (6:48)


Louise and Alison enjoying drum/djembe practice.








Besides djembe lessons that evening, we got to participate in the befriend-a-patient program. The program matches crew members with patients. You can/should visit your patient once or twice a day and just make friends with them. I really like the program, since it gives non-medical volunteers a chance to know the people we serve.

Here's Bill with his patient, Tyrone. (7:01)

Tyrone said, "Thank you very much. I'm very happy to be here."

From Mercy Team Alison

My befriend-a-patient patient was Augustune Binney. I think Augustune had a tumor on his forehead, but thankfully the ship's surgeons removed it.

Augustune has twelve siblings. Both of his parents are dead. Augustune works by painting and by digging wells. He likes the U.S. because blacks and whites work together. His dream is to visit there someday.

Augustune didn't speak English, but thankfully there was a translator in the ward. His name is Kodjovi. (7:17)


Whew! That was a whirlwind of new experiences: driving around Togo, church at the Fishing Village and on the ship, unloading a cargo container, and befriending a patient! But I'd like to close by returning to the questions and the videos from the artisan market:

Think of a machete. What thoughts and feelings do you have about one? 
Do you have any regrets? Anything you would do differently if you could?

Woman with a machete. (0:41)


I don't like machetes. My only context for them is from movies or the news: people use them to hack through a jungle, and when there are civil wars in African countries, people use them to hack one another to death.

However, I like the woman with the machete. She's very strong outwardly, and no doubt inwardly. She wields the machete with skill and could definitely hurt someone, but she uses it to make a living. For her and her baby. At twenty cents a coconut.

When I bought my coconut, I wanted to tell the woman to "keep the change." She didn't speak a word of English, but she probably would have understood. However, for some reason I kept my change.

Amazingly, the next weekend we ran into the woman in a different part of town. How many miles did she walk each day with a load of coconuts on her head? How far did she have to walk to replenish her stock? That next weekend, I wanted to buy coconut from her again. However, we were on a busy street and had somewhere to go.

I had a 500-CFA coin ($1) in my wallet. It wasn't the right time to buy anything, so I should have just given the woman the coin. But I hesitated, and in the end, we simply left.

I have a better appreciation for machetes now. But also a couple of regrets.