Another outreach for the community!

So last week we did an outreach for the Seniors at a senior home.
Each day during the week we transported about 7 or 8 seniors to our clinic and they were our patients.
They were adorable and also very thankful! Makes me feel happy to see the patient thank us after us helping them. Especially when I sometimes feel like we are not their favorite place to be.. They still thank us!

It's hard for them to get from their location to our screening days with the chance they won't be picked also.
It's been so much fun to work with all the Congolese people!
Learning French and speaking a little to the patients.. And if they laughed at my French or whatever I was telling them it made my day!

Some crazy people we saw while driving..

 Welcome to the dental clinic "gun" show. :)

Some of my friends from the Hope center!

 Last day at work.. The 3 whistlers together!

Sad to say goodbye to all my friends on the ship. We had a night we dressed up and went out for Indian food. :)

The following are just fun photos of our goodbye parties and such..

 Our Survival French class with our market challenge.. :) So much fun! We were given a goal to buy 6 things in the market. Using our French.. The team that spent the least money won.. Well.. we thought we were doing fantastic! Then we met some other cheapskate teams.. ;)

 Going to the beach for sunset with the girls!

I <3 my friends!

 Having fun in the dental clinic! :)

I love how they transport things in Africa. :)

 Saying goodbye to friends from the dental team!!

 Amazing crew we had!! :) I miss them!!

 My lovely cabinmates!! 10 in my cabin!

 Some amazing friends of mine! I like these people.. :D

It took me a while to post this post! So much has happened since I started to write it.. Now I can't remember everything I wanted to write.
Mercy Ships has been an amazing experience for me! It was a great privilege for me to be able to work in Congo with the Congolese people. I had a great time meeting our patients at the dental clinic and trying to communicate with them. I will miss this time spent in Congo a lot. I knew when I was coming though, that it would not be for a long time.

I've made so many friends living on the ship as well and it's sad to say goodbye to people that have become my close friends.. Especially not knowing if I will ever see them again.. It's more horrible to write it out. :(
The hardest part about living in a community like the one on Mercy Ships.. Is that you say hello and goodbye all the time.. The hello's are fantastic! If you like to meet new people(which I LOVE to) all the time. The goodbyes stink like dog poop.
So now that I've said goodbye to my shipmates! I'm off to Europe to see visit some friends that I've met on the ship and then to see some old friends in Finland..So , a few more adventures left.
I'll be home middle of April and it will be back to the normal life for me.
To all my New England friends... I've missed you and I'll be seeing you soon!! :D
Please let it be warm and springy and no more winter and just wonderfulness!!!!
I <3 New Hampshire in the Spring and Summer!!!

Another week done at the dental office!

Visiting the baby creche! About 12-15 babies live here. Not sure about all the stories for the babies. But they either don't have parents, were abandoned or their parents could be in jail. They were so precious! Pray for these sweet children that God will provide for them in their lives.

 

 

My sweet friend and Co-worker Bene and I! :)

Finally I was able to see a dental screening! What does this mean? Well... Dental gets their patients through 2 screening days a week! Several hundred people are always waiting on Mondays and Thursday for our team leader to choose the patients we can help for the next few days. It's a hard job.. We wish we could help every single person that lines up. A lot are in pain.. Or have MANY broken teeth. Some have swollen faces. Those are the first ones taken because the problem is serious if their face is swollen. Last week was the first time I went out to screening. Not sure if I'll get a chance to see it again before I go home. Please pray for our team leader as he is out during the screening days. He asks for God's help to lead him to the patients that need us the most.

This is a photo of the dental clinic! I work here! Monday- Friday! And I LOVE it!  By the way.. Progress with my French! I can now ask more questions and understand more dental French. :D

Our dental team all dressed up ready to go out to eat Chinese food! Our two dentists treated us to a lovely dinner on Wednesday night! We had the whole restaurant pretty much to ourselves. Got up and sang out favorite morning devotion songs and had a lovely time!

 

So, obviously I'm loving my job and I truly feel needed here.

I've decided to start praying already about returning to the ship for a few months longer than 2... If God would like me to return I know all will work out in that direction. There are many things that would have to happen to make it possible..If you feel like joining me in praying about future decisions please do! I love and miss my family and friends at home.. But I'm willing to be where God leads me.  

 

I love my life on Mercy Ships!

 Some random photos of the last week! I donated blood!!

 Flooding in the streets on our way to work. :(

 Thursday night community meeting with all of the day crew and ship crew! Hamburgers!

 Going out to our favorite ice cream/pastry shop!

This week has been good! Working on the ship on Tuesday breaks up my week a little. It's nice to eat a good lunch at lunch time on the ship.
The food we eat at the clinic is usually not my favorite. :D
Tonight the whole dental team was taken out to Chinese food by our dentists from England!
We enjoyed some time just relaxing with the team for a change. Usually we just work together and don't ever get a chance to just chat with each other.

Now we are saying goodbye to 4 people from our team. Another change. But I know one of the dentists that is coming so I am very excited to meet again!

Last weekend I was able to visit an orphanage with the Mercy Ministries team from the ship. They have several outreach programs with trips going several times a week to orphanages, senior center, the hope center and various places to reach out to the community. This Friday I am signed up to go to the Baby Creche(Baby Crib).
The story about this place is there are babies that have been abandoned or their mothers can't care for them. We get to go and share some love with the babies. I've been told it's not an easy place to visit.
I'll maybe write about the experience later.

Hmm.. Also last weekend I went to the Hope Center(also where the dental clinic is). I finally got to hang out with all the patients(kids mostly) that I see every day when I'm leaving the dental clinic.
It was loads of fun. I was able to communicate with a few of the young girls because they had learned some English living on the ship while recovering from their surgeries.
Then with my limited French it was fun!
I've added quite a few words to my French Vocab. I will be trying them out tomorrow.

I'm off to knit now. We have started a little crafty corner on the ship. I've been knitting and others have been sewing or croqueting or cross stitch. I finished some mittens and I'm on to a scarf. And hopefully next week will learn how to do a hat.

Brazzaville weekend trip!

So this last weekend was fabulous! We left Friday for Brazzaville as planned. I've been still catching up on all the stuff I could not do over the weekend.. Still have a couple things to do.. Like Laundry.. Bleah. And we had some cabinets repaired in our rooms so we had to take everything out and I need to unpack everything again. Boring stuff though.
Ok, Brazzaville!
We left by train Friday after work. Julie, a Congolese friend and I. Julie and I were the only foreigners on the train. Sooo we did attract some attention.. I'm sure everyone was laughing at us.. I pulled out my yarn and knitting needles and started working on my mittens and of course was stuffing myself with american snacks for the first 2 hours. :)
It only took us 14 hours to get to Brazzaville by train! Whoohoo!! Long train ride. It was such a neat experience. :) We tried to sleep as much as possible.. But you know how that goes with travel by train or plane.. We were rubbish by 8 am. We were picked up by our congolese friends driver in the city and brought to a relatives house where we promptly cleaned up and took naps.. Yes.. I took two naps before the wedding.
The wedding was such an interesting experience. It was kinda hot and long. And I was really wishing I spoke the language so I could really understand what exactly was going on.
It seems the actual ceremony is really just the groom presenting gifts to the brides family. And the family can say yes this is good or no.. We want more from you.
Some examples of gifts?
A suit for the father of the bride(FOB), Shoes for FOB, Meters of gorgeous african fabric for MOB and aunts,Scarves, case of coca cola, many bottles of whiskey, and I think there was food and more money also..
Then the brides family gave gifts to the other family. So a lot of exchange and talking about it and making jokes too(there was an MC).
Then after a long time.. they send a taxi to look for the bride to bring her to the groom. When I say Taxi, I mean a lady grabs a trash can lid and pretends to drive a car around the room making car noises.. Dead serious. This was a fun wedding. :)
So then after the taxi brings back the wrong lady(you can volunteer to be the wrong lady) she gets the bride and all her bridesmaids make a train behind her and they trail out around the room to some music.
The women in the family all wear dresses made from the same African fabric. And even some guys too. Then some people from the grooms family dress in the same fabric or color. The brides family was pink and grooms was green.
All the women here put a lot of effort into hair. There are beauty salons on EVERY cornor. They must look at our boring hairstyles and feel bad for us. :)
So the women look gorgeous and especially the bride. Similar to our weddings in that way.
Then there is not so much a ceremony(keep in mind this is not a Christian). The bride gives a drink to her husband, father, mothers brother and then his father. The drink is an agreement of the family that the bride can marry the man with their blessing. Does that make sense? I hope my writing is not confusing.
Then after all that everyone eats!
Our hosts family treated us so nice! I was blown away by their hospitality!
Great experience!
The next morning we traveled around Brazzaville to see the heart of the city where Brazzaville founded ,by some guy something De Brazza.
They have a beautiful monument set up in the heart of Brazzaville with lovely landscaping.
After that we went to a site where we could see The Congo river and across the river was the DRC(Democratic republic of Congo). Soooo cool! When I think back to elementary school I remember learning about the Congo river and now I can officially say I have seen it AND put my feet in it!
We sat by the river for a while at a restaurant. Then we headed back to the house where the wedding was held and hung out with the LOADS of people left over from the night before.
Then we headed out for the airport and flew home in 45 minutes to Pointe Noire. Funny it took us so long to get there and then super quick flight home.
So.. yep. Made it home safe!
Now this week has been fabulous and FUN!
I LOVE love love LOVE our crew. Dental seems to always get the best teams! Each team is just as wonderful as the last. Now we have a great group of singers in dental.
So morning worship/ devotions is so fun!
Last night we had HUGE rain storms causing a lot of flooding and come to find out this morning it was very serious and people died in the flooding. One of our dayworkers told me that it happens every year and children always die for not being able to swim. It is very sad. :(
Back to my story.
On the way to work this morning there was SO much flooding in the roads. Pointe Noire has NO drains or ditches or anything where the water can drain. Our normal road was flooded over and we had to discover new roads. It was the longest ride to work ever! But we had a marvelous time because we sang the whole morning. Funny how people from all over the world can know the same Sunday school songs. And of course I learned some new(to me) crazy Brittish songs. Ask me some day and maybe I will teach you one. Hehehe.:) When we got to the clinic our whole car was in a great mood to start the day. We had just sung and laughed our way to work.
I am sad that this team will be leaving eventually. Sigh* You make friends and then they leave.
That is the Mercy ships life.
Oh yes! We have a new dentist also this week! I've been alternating working with dentists. He is an INCREDIBLE oral surgeon! 10 seconds and the tooth is out. I'm impressed. He has been to Mercy ships about 20 times or something like that. Such a nice person as well.
And I now have a new job! Working with the long term dentist on the ship once a week! I'm seeing long term crew patients. Doing fillings and Root canals. yep! It's great to be in that world too!
Now a few photos. Below my friend and I with our hosts in Brazzaville!

 Touring the Brazzaville monument!

And hanging out at the Congo River! :D
Tomorrow night after work all the crew and day workers get together for a praise and worship night on the dock! It should be loads of fun!

Hard week at work.

Last week was one of the hardest weeks at the dental clinic. Ugh*
It almost made me want to go home.... Not! Ok.. It was hard but not so hard that I would pack up and leave.
We were working very late and had very difficult extractions. Seeing over 60 patients a day. It was every other patient we saw needed a surgical extraction.. Or 2 or 3. Many times we did surgical extractions. I think every night we came back we were all so dead tired.. The thing is there is so much going on, on the ship that you still don't slow down once you get home.. So many meetings and fun and that stuff.. I guess it's my own fault for going to bed late? :D

 The dream team photo above. AKA the nerd herd. :)
So now 3 dentists left us last weekend! We had so much fun working with them(even through the difficult times). Sad to see them go but also happy to welcome new dentists and friends and DENTAL ASSISTANTS!!! Most of my time here there has only been 1 other dental assistant.. For 4-5 dentists. Our day workers have been working hard and keeping up real well. But now we have 3 Dental assistants to 5 dentists!
I now know that I was needed here! Shortage of dental assistants these days. So many months contemplating to come to the ship or not. I feel like God really wants me to be here.
I've learned how to hold peoples hands and speak words of encouragement in another language. A smile goes a long way too. :-)  And when a patient looks me in the eye when we are done and says thank you.. It's so amazing and confirms  to me.. This is where God wants me to be right at this moment.
. 
And now.. Something I've learned. We are here doing dental work.. And yeah.. It does not sound glamorous at all. We are just extracting teeth and doing some fillings, when the tooth is saveable. We can't treat everyone but we try to treat as many as possible. We have a screening line 2 days a week where hundreds of people line up with great big swellings on their faces. And horrible toothaches that have lasted weeks. Maybe longer.
The bottom line ,that not many people realize is.. We are saving lives here in Africa. It blows me away. Because in a developed country(like USA) when someone has a toothache you can go to the emergency room and get help. It may take a while to be seen but most people can and will be seen by a doctor. The patient can get antibiotics. And go on with life
Here, people do not have this option. If they have no money. They will not be seen. They will not get antibiotics. They could die very easily from the infection in their tooth. Or if they do eventually get help for their infection they could have problems in their mouth for the rest of their life because the infection went on so long it destroyed bone or what not.
So, we see patients with major infections. Yes it's gross and we help them get rid of the infection. In the end we could be saving their life. The end. :)

Oh! Last weekend we had a ship holiday and that means.. We did not work Friday! Whoohoo!! So a group of 9 of us traveled by bus 4 hours to go to Dolosie. It is the 3rd largest city in Congo! Super cute city/village. We had a great adventure.. Almost camping conditions.. Bathroom left much to be desired..But we did have a roof over our heads and running water. So yep! It was good and hey! This is Africa! :)
We traveled to a little tiny village outside of Dolosie to see some waterfalls. Hiked about an hour to get to them through the most beautiful terrain! Also had to brings gifts to the chief of the village and pay a tribute kind of fee to see the waterfalls.. Quite interesting all these happenings as only 2 of us had much knowledge of French to communicate. But it all worked out well and the waterfalls were nice!
Got stung by a bee and scratched up nice by bushes and weeds.. But yes. Great adventure! :)

This week we have a whole new team at the clinic! A husband and wife team of dentists and 2 new dental assistants! yay! I'm working with the long term dentist(with Mercy ships) now and it's going great!
Today was sooooo much better than the days last week. :) I'm hoping to see very few wisdom teeth and premolars! Please and thank you. :)

Now I'm getting ready to start the sad goodbyes. A very good friend is going home this weekend. :( So far I've only had a few goodbyes. This is the worst part on the ship.. Saying goodbye.

Then some other news.. This weekend my friend and I are traveling by train(12 hours) to Brazzaville. The capital of Congo. We will be going to a wedding potentially. :) We are becoming "wedding crashers". Should be interesting! A Congolese wedding! :) We then fly back Sunday night. It's going to be another adventure.
And my cough of 4 weeks is mostly gone! Thanks for the prayers!
And I'm off to bed!
Good night!
Don't mind the grammar errors. I did not proof read this. I maybe need to come back to read later and edit. :)

Thursday and Friday outreach.

Our Orphanage dental outreach went fabulous!
We had kids from 2 different Orphanages come to our clinic and were able to do dental treatment on them! I was thankful it was a lot of older children. :)
But still there were some young ones that were  scared. They were troopers though(and so was our children's dentist.. she is AMAZING). Again, God bless all Children's dentists.. What would we do without them? In Africa??? Well.. Probably a lot more children getting very sick or even dying from abcessed teeth. Sad reality. Parents.. Help your children keep their teeth healthy. Brushing morning and night.. Please.
 So all of our hard work with the orphans was awesome!! I rode home with some of the orphans and was discussing things in my broken French. :) The kids invited me to come to visit any time. :) It's about a 45 minute walk from the ship so I hope to do it some time. :) 

 Here are some working photos from the clinic and outside with kids at the hope center.

  

 3 coworkers of mine on the ship and I. :)

Working with an orphan.:) She was super sweet!

Yeah, so our week was fabulous! Great dental team! Now they are talking about a prison outreach.. But I think I will be gone. :( Can I stay longer?