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."