Here is Pamela’s last despatch from the Africa Mercy ship, sent von 24 June. As you will see, she is now back in the UK.—Editor
Thank you everyone for thinking of me my whole time here on the ship. It has been more than helpful to know this. At first I was unsure how I would settle into this environment but after being here longer and thanks to the grace of God, I have made a few amazing friends. Jane has been such a great friend and I am going to miss her so, so much. It’s not often you go on a mission trip and find someone who is a farmer and knows what a Deutz Fahr is!! [It’s a kind of tractor -- Ed.] Becky is another girl I will miss so much, from Somerset and the craic we have had was fantastic... we can hardly look at each other without laughing or finding something hilarious in our everyday surroundings and she has had many a drama in which we can laugh about now.
As I’m down to my final week, I am trying to get myself ready for leaving. It will soon be me walking down the gangway next Sunday night and doing the usual leaving ritual.
I had a lazy weekend past as we had a heavy night on Friday, we had a patient for VVF who the surgeons worked with for 9 hours. I scrubbed in around 4.30 p.m., we worked till 7 but the surgeons were having real difficulty with closing the fistula, long story short, but the surgeons had to leave to get their flight, they left no time to spare at all. They were devastated they could not fix her and we were all emotional. Doctor Jose came in and assessed the situation again and so we worked till 10.30 p.m. trying to fix her. Much to our delight Dr Jose did a great job and we recovered her and she is doing well. Everyone worked hard and we thought that the patient was leaking urine into her abdomen and so we thought we were in a losing battle on that one. But as we discovered her urethras which take urine to the bladder from the kidneys were still intact and functioning but the hole in the bladder was difficult to retrieve and fix. It was managed and we left that night feeling very satisfied. Knocked me for six the next day though and I spent most of it, lying around the ship not doing very much.
Today we had the great opportunity to do the VVF screening with the new surgeons who have arrived. It took me around 40 minutes to get a history from the patient as it had to be translated up to 3 times before we could understand each other. Successful day though all in all and we look forward to seeing these ladies come in to us in the next two weeks (oh I will only be here for one of them.. ) but hopefully having them healed! After that I found two playmates and we played footie together.
Margreet and I are having our goodbye dinner tomorrow night and altogether we have thirty people coming. It’s really nice to know that people are coming and spending the evening with us, or maybe it’s just that they will be celebrating the fact that we are going! I feel as though I have a lot to do before I come home, my list is getting longer and I wanted it to be a stress free week oh well!
For most of you, I will see you next week! and for the others I will see you soon after that, with a trip to the weegie land and Manchester in the next coming month I’m sure I will cover most bases.
Very sad to be leaving here but I really look forward to seeing you all again.
Thank you everyone for thinking of me my whole time here on the ship. It has been more than helpful to know this. At first I was unsure how I would settle into this environment but after being here longer and thanks to the grace of God, I have made a few amazing friends. Jane has been such a great friend and I am going to miss her so, so much. It’s not often you go on a mission trip and find someone who is a farmer and knows what a Deutz Fahr is!! [It’s a kind of tractor -- Ed.] Becky is another girl I will miss so much, from Somerset and the craic we have had was fantastic... we can hardly look at each other without laughing or finding something hilarious in our everyday surroundings and she has had many a drama in which we can laugh about now.
As I’m down to my final week, I am trying to get myself ready for leaving. It will soon be me walking down the gangway next Sunday night and doing the usual leaving ritual.
I had a lazy weekend past as we had a heavy night on Friday, we had a patient for VVF who the surgeons worked with for 9 hours. I scrubbed in around 4.30 p.m., we worked till 7 but the surgeons were having real difficulty with closing the fistula, long story short, but the surgeons had to leave to get their flight, they left no time to spare at all. They were devastated they could not fix her and we were all emotional. Doctor Jose came in and assessed the situation again and so we worked till 10.30 p.m. trying to fix her. Much to our delight Dr Jose did a great job and we recovered her and she is doing well. Everyone worked hard and we thought that the patient was leaking urine into her abdomen and so we thought we were in a losing battle on that one. But as we discovered her urethras which take urine to the bladder from the kidneys were still intact and functioning but the hole in the bladder was difficult to retrieve and fix. It was managed and we left that night feeling very satisfied. Knocked me for six the next day though and I spent most of it, lying around the ship not doing very much.
Today we had the great opportunity to do the VVF screening with the new surgeons who have arrived. It took me around 40 minutes to get a history from the patient as it had to be translated up to 3 times before we could understand each other. Successful day though all in all and we look forward to seeing these ladies come in to us in the next two weeks (oh I will only be here for one of them.. ) but hopefully having them healed! After that I found two playmates and we played footie together.
Margreet and I are having our goodbye dinner tomorrow night and altogether we have thirty people coming. It’s really nice to know that people are coming and spending the evening with us, or maybe it’s just that they will be celebrating the fact that we are going! I feel as though I have a lot to do before I come home, my list is getting longer and I wanted it to be a stress free week oh well!
For most of you, I will see you next week! and for the others I will see you soon after that, with a trip to the weegie land and Manchester in the next coming month I’m sure I will cover most bases.
Very sad to be leaving here but I really look forward to seeing you all again.
Pamela Graham
