From Owatonna to Africa: December 2013

It has been interesting living on a ship in an active African port . . . we see lots of different ships come and go on a regular basis . . . so this blog post is some snapshots of some of those ships!

This is a container ship that docks at one of the two container berths in the port.

This is a close up of the name of the container ship pictured above . . . we include it because it is also the name of one of our friends back in Minnesota (no photoshop involved!)

This ship is docked across from us. It comes and goes back and forth to China with loads of logs from the forests . . . as you drive by the log yard, it is common to see logs that are 5 feet across!

This is the harbor's newest tugboat. It doesn't look that big until you compare it to the car parked next to it!

This show the general cargo berths behind our ship. The ship next to tug is a fish processor that is here to unload tons of processed, frozen fish.

This is some of the Pointe Noire fishing fleet.

This French navy Amphibious Assault ship came in today. When I read up on it, they often do humanitarian missions and given the collapse of the government in the Central African Republic, it is not surprising they are here! Additionally, the French navy has a strong presence in the ocean outside of this area combating piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.

And finally, I did say AFRICAN port!! This boat load of cattle docked next to us yesterday morning and unloaded their herd. The herd was led through the port and was last seen grazing in a field near the port gate!!!

Hope you had a great Christmas and a refreshing holiday break!

I am back after a challenging 12-day trip to three towns in the interior of Congo for patient selection. On Saturday November 30, we loaded up and flew to Brazzaville. Our trucks had been loaded on a cargo train the previous week and (supposedly) would be waiting for us. Well, the trucks were present but still on the cargo car and the freight master indicated his crew was done for the day, we should come back on Monday. That posed a bit of a problem as our first selection day was Monday in a town 450 km north of Brazza . . . after many phone calls and involvement of higher ups the cars were unloaded and we were off!

Our first selection day was held in Oyo. We worked through about 6 hours of rain, some quite torrential (Thank goodness there were a couple big tents to protect us and the patients!) We selected 39 patients, many of whom will have truly lifechanging experiences on the Africa Mercy. There were a couple challenges for me setting boundaries for media and others, but once the boundaries were communicated they were respected. One of our first patients in Oyo was a man who has a neurofibroma growing over much of his face. When told that we would be able to help him, his whole body straightened and his face (what you could see) just lit up!

However, he is not the case that is my "one" . . . at the end of the day a mamma brought her 3-year-old son to see us. The son was obviously well cared for, well fed and groomed, dressed in nice clean clothes. At a glance we all knew that there was nothing we could do for this boy, you see he suffers from hydrocephalus, a condition where excess fluid causes the head to swell to enormous sizes. The boy was interactive, giggling as we tickled him and played with him. We had to tell mom that while she was doing everything she could, there was nothing we could do. For this boy, those words are very likely a death sentence . . . yet in the west, this boy would have had a shunt placed and would be monitored and lead a very normal life. It is hard to accept that children live and die simply by the continent on which they are born . . . I don't know if I will ever forget the tears coming down mom's face (and several of ours!), nor will I ever forget the bright eyes smiling at me from within that beautiful child's face.

The second selection day was held in Ouesso, another 450 km north, right on the Cameroon border. We had excellent weather and a wonderful day. We could not have been more proud of our Congolese partners. They had done an excellent job of identifying possible patients and transported many of them to the site. At Ouesso we were able to select another 71 patients for travel to the ship. In Congo, the Government has made arrangements to transport all patients selected from the interior to the ship, which alleviates a huge, often insurmountable, burden from these people.

On our drive back to Brazza, we had a couple team building experiences . . . the first day we sat on the equator and ate lunch, the second, in the Plateau region, we found a ridgeline a bit off the road. When we got to the top of the ridge we could see the savannah all the way to the horizon! It was an amazing view of God's creation!

On Monday December 9, we loaded onto a 10-seat Cessna 208 operated by Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) and flew to Impfondo, approximately 1,000 km northeast of Brazza. This is a town that is only reachable from the air or by barge. It is also about 200 km south of the Central African Republic, a country that is currently effectively without a Government, being run by warlords. The UN has several refugee camps in the area.

At Impfondo we met Dr. Joe Harvey who runs the only mission hospital in Congo. The facility, Pioneer Christian Hospital, served as our home during the 3 days we were in Impfondo. This experience was humbling, as we recognized we have the Cadillac of medicine in Africa while those who serve on the ground in remote locations are using duct tape and baling wire to keep basic services available. Dr. Harvey is amazing!!!! We found 62 patients in Impfondo, including a very cute little boy named Elvis who has a cleft lip. Elvis will soon be in the house (or on the ship).

While there, we were treated to a walk in the jungle led by 3 men and 2 boys from the Aka tribe. This tribe is small in stature and have been controlled by other tribes in Africa until recently, thus, they tend to isolate themselves and not interact with outsiders. We were truly thankful they honored us by showing us some of their traditional ways!

Then we were on our way back to the ship, flying a local airline. I witnessed something I've never considered . . . when the luggage was being unloaded, I watched them pull a wrapped rice sack out of the cargo compartment but something didn't look right . . . the sack had a head . . . and it was moving!!! Someone had checked a live goat as cargo! Only in Africa!!!!!!

Here are a few pictures of the adventure: