Ali’s African Blog
Day -1
That’s it. I’m packed and ready to go!
I leave in just under 24 hours time for a night in Brussels before heading on to Monrovia. It’s been a manic week at work. We’ve finally bought the new practice up in Ashington, a deal that's been four months in the making all done and dusted with just over 20mins to spare. We completed at 4.38pm on the last Friday afternoon before I leave. I should call it God’s timing I guess, though I'm not sure, because it wouldn’t have been mine!
Within an hour we had the old surgery taken apart & ready for refurbishment while I’m away, and after s series of potentially damning crises about wages, bouncing cheques and disgruntled staff, work has now been left behind with Amanda, Katie and the others. Thanks to all of you who’ve helped out with that, both at work and on the prayer chain.
Teresa has had to bear the brunt of the stress I’ve been under, and it’s not about to ease up by my leaving. I hope God’s grace & peace finds it’s way to Ponteland as much (or more) than it does to Liberia.
Packing is now, sort of completed. I have been given lots of freebies from various work reps to take with me. More than the airline will allow, so I’ve had to leave behind a fair chunk on stuff – apologies to James & Clark Dental. The Nomad was just too heavy, which is a real shame because it was such a generous offer. I’ve over packed some of the other dental gifts (10kg of toothpaste) too, but I’m hoping I can persuade the airline to let it on anyway. If not Teresa & the girls will have VERY clean teeth!
I’ve got a story to tell in church tomorrow if I can. It’s been a bit of a week for HBC too; two bits of bad news about deeply loved women in the congregation and one bit of good news about the new building. Anyway I hope to get to tell my story but it’s not the end of the world if not. I’ll post up the script tomorrow if I can.
That’s it for now, more from Brussels tomorrow if I can get internet access, or later if not.
Bye for now,
Ali
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Day 0
Travelling
Ow! I’d forgotten how dull travelling is and how tired you can get sitting around doing nothing. Apart from breaking a Belgian coffee machine and signing up to be the bus driver by mistake the journey was OK.
We touched down in Liberia pretty much on time and, as expected the heat punches you in the face as soon as you step off the plane. As long haul flights go it was a good one. The plane was about 40% full from Brussels to our (unexpected to me) stopover in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. A pretty much cloudless flight allowed me my first glimpse of Spain, the Med, the African coast and two hours of the Sahara. I can now definitely inform you that
a) It’s big
b) It’s sandy
c) It’s empty
Don’t know what all the fuss about the heat is though. It was -60C where we were, mind you 35,000 feet of altitude might have made a difference.
My biggest fear for the whole trip would be that there would be no-one at Roberts International Airport with a big Mercy Ships jeep. But, to my momentary panic, when the immigration officer saw me in the queue holding a Mercy Ships letterhead he pulled me aside to put me through the fast lane to my waiting driver. Praise God for that one!
An hour’s drive through the best star gazing darkness, and half an hour’s drive through the worst nerve jangling chaos brought me to the ship and air conditioned relief. Within an hour I’m fed, watered, signed in and met my American anaesthesiologist roommate.
The room’s air con keeps it cold overnight & I need my nice warm jammies.
Bliss.
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Day 1. 26th February
First Impressions
Hot, smelly, pretty, ugly, friendly, effective.
The day starts with a great cafe style breakfast buffet, led round my roommate John.
Quick shower in our cabin’s En Suite & off to Morning Worship. I meet the amazing Don Stevens who dreamt up this whole project, and his wife, and a whole bunch of big hitters. They’re all really nice. At first glance at least, this really is a society of equality and our new ships captain, me and a new housemaid all get the same welcome.
The dental team manager comes to find me and take me round the dental stores to pick up a few bits before 10 of us pile into a pair of 4x4’s for the 15min drive through Bigg Market level anarchy to Redemption Hospital. Waiting for us is a long line of patients who are triaged, (not by me), and given a number. We then work through the line, starting with the worst cases.
This system, whilst right and proper, means my first patient has the biggest swelling I have ever seen. For the dentally minded, his lower right wisdom tooth has a long standing pericoronitits which has tracked into his cheek, neck & chest to below the nipple line. It’s encroaching on his lung and he is having difficulty breathing. Trismus reduces his opening to less virtually nil so he’s packed off to the ship for IV antibiotics and a GA.
Lovely!
As the day goes on it gets better though. 15 patients, 40something teeth out, one filling, one request for implants. Yeah, at a cost of over 100years average wages that isn’t happening!
Lunch for us all is brought in by a typical African woman carrying it in three great bowls on her head. It’s great and beats a dental hospital course standard buffet hands down.
Off for me tea now, so see you all tomorrow.
Ali
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Day 2 27th Feb
WARNING –Today’s blog contains a graphic description of the Liberian War and how it might be if it were set in Newcastle instead of Monrovia.If you would like to read it please download it here.
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Day 3 28thFebruary
Today I’m going to talk a bit more about life on board the ship. The overall atmosphere is very similar to my days and Henderson Hall, my University hall of residence. There are around 350 – 400 people on board staying either for just a couple of weeks like me, or a few months, and a few long term crew members.
From what I can see much of the logistics and ongoing jobs are done by the long termers and most of the actual patient contact is by the short termers. It’s probably the only way it can work but I think many of the long termers would prefer more patient contact. That’s certainly the view of the dental manager. Vicky, a hygienist, is here for a year this time round and seems to spend most of her energy worrying about exactly the same kind of things that I do in the practice; will the autoclave hold out, what new equipment do we need, can we resource that equipment, what will happen when our dentists leave, what will we do if we have the wrong mix on dentists and nurses etc. I guess management is the same the world over!
As with living in a hall of residence the community is one that is very single minded in it’s outlook. We are all here to do a job, and you’re never more than 2 flights of stairs away from it. Inevitably that makes the work of the Mercy Ships the primary topic of conversation; just as in a hall of residence, especially at exam time, you are never far from talk about studying. On the plus side that gives a sense of unity and comradeship that is only found in cohesive communities facing external hardship. Support is plentiful, people are only too willing to come up and chat with the new boy, or to invite you to their table at dinner.
The down side of all of this is an intensity that can be difficult to escape. Of course, for me, only being here for two weeks, I can revel in the rapid building of relationships and multiplicity of meetings and sharing times. As a long termer I can see that being all a bit much. This, along with room sharing (up to six people per cabin), makes privacy is a thing of high value. I have been very fortunate to be in a big cabin, with my own bathroom and just one room mate. Someone up there has been good to me!
The other big problem on board is the lack of space. Both on a micro level in your room and a macro level in that for most of the time people do not leave the ship. Again, I have been very fortunate to be driving through Monrovia every day. OK, it’s not the prettiest place in the world but I do get to see the sky and feel real fresh(ish) air. The city is not safe to just head off on your own for a bit of a wander about, and there is very little in the way of places to visit anyway. So I think a lot of people suffer from the very appropriately named Cabin Fever, which traditionally turns small disagreements into big arguments.In reality I haven’t seen much evidence of that. Maybe I’ve not been here long enough, or maybe it’s God’s grace. The walls of the cabins are so thin you I am quite happily listening to the couple next door give their 5 month old baby his tea. He’s watching a Tweenines DVD, I know, I can hear is so clearly I could join in all the songs! So if there were many blazing rows I think I’d know about them. When I consider the contestants in Big Brother and then see the enthusiasm and graciousness the people here display I conclude there a specific extra portion of patience, kindness, self-control and forgiveness from the Holy Spirit to those on board. Of course it’s possible I’ll change my mind after my first row! Let’s hope not.
Last night was the talent show on board led by a pair of very funny Canadians. Yours truly couldn’t resist the lure of a stage so did a 10min slot including a rendition of Go Eve!. So I have now told Bearded Jim to half the world, if you only count the continents, and assume no-one important lives in Antarctica. In fact if you count the continents where I know my stories have been played you can add in Asia and Australasia. Hey just one more to go, maybe I’ll ask Lucia Baggot to help out there.For those of you who would like to see Go Eve! you can download a version I did at Heaton Baptist Church from the Videos and Stories page. Don’t worry, I adapted the ending so it fitted a little better into the middle of a comedy show!
See you tomorrow,
Ali
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Day 4 29thFebruary
Hi again, a bit more on daily life today. I’ll give you an insight into my daily schedule. Below is what might happen on a typical sort of day. Much of it is very similar to life back home, then every now and then a weird thing happens!
6.00am Room mate John gets up to do his surgery thing. I hit snooze
6.08am Hit snooze
6.16am Hit snooze again (but with a tinge of guilt)
6.24am Hit snooze again (I’ve got over the guilt)
6.32am Face the choice of snooze OR breakfast. Breakfast wins
6.35am Breakfast. Help yourself to a repetitive choice of porridge, corn flakes, weetabix or rice crispies. I have crispies. There are lots of freshly baked continental bread (our chef is German), rolls, croissants & a vast selection of spreads from all around the world. It seems that breakfast is a time for national identity bonding. The Brits have their Marmite and marmalade, the Aussies have a pot of Vegemite, the Yanks their syrup, the Germans have Salami & who I haven’t been brave enough to share breakfast with the Koreans!
Drinking coffee at that time of the morning is both necessary and VERY brave. Think of nasty vending machines and make it worse. :-(
7.30 After a shower I get dressed in my surgical scrubs, the loose, one size fits none all the medical staff wear & head off to departmental (just the 6 members of the dental team), staff group (70 ish medical crew) or whole ship “devos”. Devos – short for “devotions” – are an integral part of ship life. For those of you unfamiliar with church life and customs the team meet to read a short bible passage, someone does a 5 minute “thought for the day” slot, people share any worries or good things they want to and we pray for each other. It helps cement the team together in a way no secular “pep talk” I have ever heard can. As Christians we believe that praying together allows God to cement our relationships far more than any other activity. I have to admit I’m not sure why or how. I don’t understand how my saying a prayer either out loud or in my head can make a difference, but I do believe it does. That’s where faith comes in I guess.
Today is my turn to lead the dental team, so I tell them a story. It’s here if you want it.
7.50 Down two decks to the dental store to pick up today’s supplies of clean water, stock and equipment.
7.55 More supplies to be carried up the stairs and down the gang plank onto the dock.
7.56 Sweat - it’s hot & the stuff’s heavy
7.57 Sweat more
7.58 Drink
8.00 Dental team pile into two 4x4’s & head off
8.01 First UN check point. Man in blue helmet with big gun smiles and waves us on.
8.05 Stop for fuel for the generators. The petrol station has two pumps, but neither are used. We buy about a gallon from the sort of jars fish and chip shops sell pickled onions in. It’s poured into jerry cans through a funnel. US$3.50 (GBP1.75) per gallon. Brits think it’s cheap, Yanks think it’s expensive. Drink.
8.20 Arrive at Redemption Hospital. There is a queue of about 50 people outside. It’s a little difficult to tell who’s in the queue as, with 85% unemployment, a lot of people just hang about all day anyway. Drink.
8.30 Finish unloading the 4x4s and start wiring the generators, compressors, autoclaves, ultrasonic bath, bracket tables etc. Everything has to be taken apart and put back together every day so it can be locked away to prevent theft. This, of course, is very time consuming. In the meantime someone goes down the line looking for the biggest swellings and youngest kids to treat first. Drink.
9.30 First patients begin treatment. There are 5 chairs in the clinic, one for the hygienist and two each for each of the dentists. Numb up the first patient, leave them with a translator to give instructions, swap chairs, numb second patient, swap chairs, take between 1 and 8 teeth out, swap chairs, take another 1 to 8 teeth out, swap chairs....you get the picture.
Actually the team are very slick. We are fortunate at the moment to have two nurses per dentist and two people dedicated to cleaning & sterilizing.
10.23 Generators fail. If you’re not in the middle of taking teeth out when the lights go out and equipment stops then drink. If you are, panic! (and drink).
10.24 Henry the Liberian engineer works magic and the power comes back on.
12.00 Lunch arrives on a ladies head. It’s rice, deep fried plantains (kind of like less sweet banana), evil hot chilli stuff and unidentified green meaty stuff . They tell me the green is potato leaves and I don’t ask about the meat! It’s good. I eat lots and drink lots.
12.30 Start working and drinking again
3.30(ish) Get to the end of the line of patients. Today I saw 20 patients, took 44 teeth out, did 4 fillings and sent two people to the ship for further investigation. One was a little girl with an unexplained boney swelling in her left cheek, the other a lady in her 40s with a huge (tennis ball size) swelling of the floor of the mouth and lower jaw.
4.30 Finish packing the surgery away and reload the 4x4s, this time taking the dodgy generator back to the ship to be looked at properly. Drink.
5.00 Get back to the ship & dump clinical & nonclinical waste bags that have been sitting on my lap into the right containers for disposal. Take generator to engineers who suck air through their teeth and tut tut like they always do! Its cool on board so no drink needed.
5.03 Go to the ward to find the Oral Maxilliofacial surgeon to ask about our referrals. The little girl has an ossifying fibroma, a slow growing benign tumour. Without treatment it would grow over the next five years or so and kill her. It’s scheduled to be removed tomorrow. She’ll be fine. The other lady has, as we feared, a squamous cell carcinoma. This is an aggressive malignant cancer that is now inoperable. The ship does not have palliative care facilities so can do nothing for her. When she woke up this morning she thought she had a tooth abscess. She is not expected to live more than another month. Me, Bob (the other dentist), the MaxFac surgeon and a nurse pray for her and her family. Weep.
5.10 Shower, and put on the clothes Mrs B thought would be good for Africa and Ali said he wouldn’t be seen dead in. She was right.
5.12 Tea. Meat and Potato pie worthy of Greggs, mushy peas worthy of dregs and mixed salads & exotic fruit to die for. Yum. No tropical tummy for me (yet).
6.00 Chat to room mate John about AngloAmerican culture clashes and a couple of his harrowing cases. A boy with a brain abscess (died) and a lady in her early 20’s whose had a VVF for a year. That’s damage caused in childbirth that means she constantly leaks urine. She smells bad so is an outcast lives rough and can only beg for money with the other women like her. Her baby has been taken from her because she cannot look after him. The surgery is successful and she will make a full recovery. The ship will buy her new, clean clothes, and she can return to her family and her child in the next few days. Yay!
6.15 Wander up to the coffee lounge for a nice cup of Starbuck’s coffee. It costs 75 US cents (37p). Yum. Natter to whoever is hanging around about nothing much. I try to explain the terms “Charver”, “Bloke” and “Geordie”, they tell me about Canadian “hosers”. Sort of like rednecks I think, only colder!
7.30 Pick up my email from my laptop in my cabin. Nice to hear from you all. Go on MSN to Teresa, Zoe & Robyn
9.00 Start writing me blog
9.48 Finish writing me blog. Bye.
10.24 Realise I didn't post the sound file for "Tugging on God's Dressing Gown". Post it here.
10.25 Bye, again.
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Day 5 1st March
Today I have been really suffering for my faith, as you can see!
Actually if my skin gets redder not browner over night I will be suffering, but that’s the price you pay sun worship.Oh no that sounds like a one liner for a naff church poster. OK let’s make it a challenge, who can post the best idea for a poster outside a church including the line
“Be a Son Worshiper”
I’ll bring the winner a prize all the way home from Africa. (Don’t get your hopes up, it won’t be a good prize, there’s nothing to buy here except flip flops and they’re broken. More like floped flops.)
Ali
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Day 6 2nd March
Hmmph. Feeling duped today. I realise I have come to Africa under false pretences!
I had intended to come here and be a blessing to people. To bring a little of God’s love in to the lives of the poor and needy. To do my bit for the world. To come as the knight in shining armour with my magic hands of dental healing and my years of western educated Christianity to show the poor Liberians how it’s all done.
Not a bit of it.
Sure, I’ve pulled a few teeth out, prayed with a few people and told a story or two but I cannot say I have help the people of Liberia in any way near as much as they have helped me.I feel like God has been planning a surprise party for me, and, at the risk of sounding blasphemous, spun me a bit of a line so that He didn’t let me in on the secret until I got here. (Theology scholars need not comment!) Being umpteen thousand miles away from home, with no status and no possessions has brought an emotional and spiritual freedom I have not felt in a long time.
Worship is more free, prayer more natural, teaching more applicable and God’s plan more obvious. I have been struck by the amazing breadth and depth of God’s love and compassion. In each of the thousands upon thousands of tin huts in the shanty town where I do my dentistry are people who God loves. People whose lives he knows intimately. People who are scarred by the war, or rejoicing at a new birth; worried by poverty or falling in love. And God loves them all. The scale of need could easily overwhelm me. What’s the point of taking a tooth out of one guy when there are ten thousand I can’t treat? And what’s the point in fixing his tooth if he has no running water? OK, I know the intellectual arguments that one is better than none and if we all do a little bit that adds up, but above that I know that God is in control. It’s all just a big jigsaw and I’m a piece. A little piece. Of course to the jigsaw maker, the size of the piece is unimportant, a five thousand piece jig saw needs five thousand pieces. Some are bigger than others, some are odd shapes, but without them all the jigsaw doesn’t work. I am able to relax in the knowledge that God is doing the jigsaw and I’m just being slotted in. I don’t need to be able to see all of the big picture, I just need to love and care for the pieces he puts me next to. It so happens that the right place for me for these two weeks is in Africa.
Could I try to explain this feeling of peace and well being with my pseudo-scientific understanding of psychology, dissociation and dis- and re-orientation?
Maybe, but it would be, well, bull sh.t.
Can I explain yet how prayer, or worship, or Jesus’ death setting me free work?
No
Am I, for now, trusting God and leaning on Him? Am I revelling in being small fry among a boatful of giants? Does the phrase, “The peace of God that surpasses all understanding” make more sense now than before? Do I feel guilty for feeling this good when I know Teresa and the girls are back home slogging through the day to day? Do I wish you all could come here and feel the same blessing?
Yes
Will this sense of peace last?
Dunno. Doubt it if I’m honest. Once I get back into the nitty gritty of home and work and church life I guess I’ll find it hard to lift my head up and remember the big picture. Therefore by this blog I herby give you all permission to remind me, when I’m stressing about the small stuff, that God is big. So much bigger and more capable than we can ever imagine and that His plan is kinda more important than mine.
Ali
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Day 7 3rd March
Today I can officially say my head is done in! Back to work with a bit of a bump this morning. Maybe if I list all my moans and groans it’ll get them out of my system!
· We had a general plastic surgeon come to work in the hospital today, using the chair next to mine. He was doing minor op’s under local, no problem with that except for the amount of kit & staff he brought with him. Then, understandably, everybody and his wife from the dental team wanted to observe. All perfectly reasonable of course, he needs to do his job, but it left little old me a stuck in a bit of a small corner, and I’m not a little chap!
· I forgot to take my Piriton this morning so the gloves that I am using, that I am mildly allergic to, turned my hands into scabby balloons. Fortunately we found some in the clinic drug box within half an hour so they’re getting better now (by 10.00pm), and I’m sure will be fine by tomorrow.
· Had a nightmare with a difficult wisdom tooth & had to get Rob to finish it off for me. Not the end of the world, no harm to the patient, good learning opportunity but not great for the ego.
· Multiple generator breakdowns put the fans out of action and therefore the temperature of the clinic way up. Phew!
· Blown pipe in the bracket table, where the instruments and hand pieces (drills) go when a dentist is working, meant a face full of wet nastiness, an hour of lying down on the wet floor doing running repairs and soggy clothes for the rest of the afternoon.
· Got told off for not paying my crew fees yet – OK that one was my fault, sorry I’ll pay tomorrow – promise.
· Three hour induction / health and safety lectures this evening so no time to MSN the family. Still it’s good to know that even in Africa health and safety is dull and fire officers have a universal ability to make what could be a really fun subject into death by PowerPoint – handy hint guys, light a fire & put it out in lots of different ways. Then we’ll listen!
· No roommate John to chat to. He’s gone home. I should be pleased I have an individual cabin, that’s a very rare thing round here, most people have to share up to 6 in a cabin, and I am pleased, but I did enjoy chewing the fat with him.
There, I do feel better. They say a trouble shared is a trouble halved. Since my visitor counter is at 330 I only have 1/330th of the troubles I had before I blogged away.I’ve also had some great emails from you all, thanks, especially to Trailblazers & Parlour Praise. Keep them coming, I’ve re-read them all tonight to cheer myself up.Oh and as a quick quiz, but for no prize this time, applause and respect will go to the first person who posts to the guestbook telling what new text I have added to the front page of this site.I’ve also added an interesting case to the “Dentistry” page. Pictures are pretty gory, but are a fascinating case for those in the profession.
See you all soon,
Ali
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Day 8 4th March
A few people have asked me for photos so instead of a written blog today I have uploaded some more photos. (sorry about the duplicates - technical gremlins)
Enjoy them.
Ali
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Day 9 5th March
It’s been a good day today. The temperature has dropped a little so the clinic was not quite as hot as usual. All my equipment worked well (for Liberia) and I have been able to spend almost whole day wearing gloves I’m not allergic to!
I have had to go on to sterile gloves, which are usually used in full operating theatres, and are a bit extravagant for dental use but the feeling of putting on a glove that fits and doesn’t itch after 9 days is great. Ahhhh.
One downer is that I only have one box, so despite being as economical as possible with them they’ll run out mid-morning tomorrow. As I type I do not have any more gloves I can wear, though Vicky, my supervisor, is confident she’ll be able to dig some up for me by tomorrow. I hope so or work will cease about 11.00am.
We’ve had another few interesting cases through the clinic, though I’m afraid “interesting” for the dentists usually means “bad and serious” for the patient. For the dentally aware, we took an OPG of a man in his 40’s who had presented with painful mobile lower teeth and TMJ dysfunction (pain on opening his mouth) and a numb lip & tongue. Turns out he has osteomylitis (like the gory pictures in the dental section) that has destroyed the condyl, neck, ramus, coronoid process and about 1/3 of the body of the mandible on the left. In other words his lower jaw bone has, to all intents and purposes, been destroyed and is replaced by scar tissue. Remember the bit in the Harry Potter movie when is broken arm goes all floppy? Only this time it’s real. No wonder he has trouble eating! We’re going to try to remove the initial source of the infection (his teeth) and clean out as much infected tissue as we can. We do not have the resources to put him on the long term antibiotics or reconstructive surgery he needs but maybe we can slow the spread of the infection.
There is quite a bit of a concern here about dental manpower. As you’ll know if you’ve been keeping up with these musings, there are two dentists in Liberia. I am one of them and Bob Russell, from the UK is the other. I have two (or maybe two and a half if can squeeze a clinic in on Monday morning) days left here, Bob has one more week on his own after that. We have just found out the replacement dentist cannot come, and so between now and the end of August, when the next volunteer arrives, there will be no dentists in Liberia. There is a lady called Freda, a Canadian dental therapist, who does what she can and there are five dental nurses and a hygienist, but without dentists they are limited in what they can do. Between us in the last nine days Bob and I have seen five patients who we think would have died from their dental disease had we not intervened. It doesn’t take a genius to work out what will happen to the patient with the life threatening swelling who turns up the day the last dentist leaves. That will happen in just nine days time.
Are you the dentist who God is telling to come here?
With all these potential problems I could be feeling overwhelmed but Gods grace is, as he promised, sufficient. I am still confident that my being here for my two weeks is the right thing to do, and after that my place will be back at home serving my family, my church and my staff. I cannot say what the big picture is. I cannot say if I’ll be back. I’m just letting the jigsaw maker slot me in where He sees fit. He has a plan. He always does.
On a lighter note I have spent a great evening in, what I am told, is the only Starbucks Cafe in Africa. It’s on the ship. “Cafe” might be too strong a word for it really but there is a proper Starbucks machine that can be manned by a few of the staff. I had a proper frothy hot chocolate (no flake though L ). Bob, the dentist, Georgina, his wife and Christine and Tony from Devon, and I all sat around chin wagging and sharing our stories. Nice.
Talking of stories I have been grabbing stages whenever I can so told the story of The Three Little Christians this morning and will be doing Knit One, Pearl One but Whatever You Do Don’t Dare Drop One and Seven Ducks in a Muddy River tomorrow. Thanks to my special contacts (Ian Wylie) I’ve been in contact with the Newcastle Evening Chronicle who are planning to publish a piece on Thursday 6th March and the local BBC who would like to do a retrospective interview when I get back so keep an eye out for more on that. I’ve also been interviewed for a South African documentary about Mercy Ships – maybe I’ll get an invite the premier in Jo’burg!
I’m looking forward getting a new roommate on Friday night (an American surgeon) and meeting a friend of a friend (a Brit) who is also coming out as a first time this weekend. It’s funny to think of me as the welcome committee when I’ve been here such a short time, but I guess nine days is a whole lot longer than none.
Oh well, better go to bed now or I won’t be energetic when I tell tomorrow morning’s stories – as if!
Ali
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Day 10 6th March
Phew, what a scortcha! Temperature’s way back up today & I didn’t sleep much last night. Woke up with a bad head - I’d been clenching & grinding my teeth all night and had a very strange dream where I was chased very slowly by a taxi!
As you know I was rather worried about the glove shortage yesterday but the organisation has come up trumps and found be four boxes of Biogels (that's them in the pictures below). These are the Rolls Royce of dental gloves! Anyone who comes to see me in the practice knows I wear the beautiful purple ones normally, but only because I can afford Biogels. They have been great. My hands a little dry and scabby but back not sore, itchy or swollen. Yay!
I did my two stories to the medical team, about 70 or so doctors & nurses, how much fun is it getting them all to crawl around the floor! Fair play to them, they all joined in – if only the junior staff back home could have seen the various professors & chief surgeons then. Should have videoed it. He he he.
Anyway we had a good day at the clinic, I even managed a bit of quite nice cosmetic repair work and some simple teaching.
It’s funny how quickly I seem to have dropped into “small” life. I was miffed yesterday when, on our bakers day off, there were no croissants and made sure I was at the front of the queue for tonight’s tea of chicken curry. How mundane it all seems to the extravagance of emotion I’ve felt on other days. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I couldn’t keep up the pace of emotional onslaught for very long. In fact I am supposed to go upstairs in a bit for the whole ship meeting, but am not sure I can be bothered with all the “Hi, nice to see you”s. Please don’t think for one minute that I’m suggesting the people are being less than genuine, or shallow in any way. There is a depth of concern for people on the ship that is rarely found elsewhere. I’m just a bit knackered.
Well, I’d better go to the meeting, I had kinda said I would. Maybe I’ll slip out the back in a bit, maybe it’ll be great.
Maybe I’ll even tell you later!
Ali
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Well I made it through the meeting!
If I’m honest it wasn’t the most inspiring meeting in the world (I snuck in 5 mins late, left bang on the end and sat the back to avoid the smiley people!). Lots of housekeeping type stuff that you need to do in a community of this size – i.e. notices about the new bins etc. but it set me thinking about why churches are so different to other groups of people.
We all have images come to mind when someone says the word “church”. For many of us it’s of an old stone building with a graveyard around it. It’s cold, grey, pointless and old.
For others we see little old ladies in hats, or bumbling vicars talking about jumble sales and leaking roofs. Some will see weak people who need an emotional crutch, some will see a medieval political system designed to keep the poor in servitude. Some will think of abusive priests, rules, oppression, judgement and guilt trips.
The truth is that “Church” for me is family. It’s people, it’s vibrant, it’s relevant, it’s now.
I’m not some uneducated simpleton easily duped by a tele-evangelist’s clever words, nor am I a maniac who preaches hell fire on the streets. I’m just a guy, doing his thing and doing with my brothers and sisters in the church.
The church is the collection of people who follow Jesus. The collection of people whose aim is to love God and love others as themselves. The collection of people who know they have a tendency to act selfishly and wish they didn’t. The collection of people who, whilst not understanding, are willing to accept that Jesus died for them. The collection of people whose pride and self determination is voluntarily given up and replaced by surrender to Jesus.
If the IRA’s motto was “No Surrender” then the Church’s could be “I Surrender All”.
To some of you this may stick in the throat. I know many proud and strong men. They’re great guys. They try to do their bit. They’re willing to give money to charity (some more than I do), they’re kind to their wives, they’re good at their jobs. They don’t steal (much) or cheat (often) or lie (mostly). They’re good men. BUT the idea of surrendering their right to self determination is utterly foreign. And I agree. To surrender ones rights is an anathema in a society that is ruled by a bill of human rights and the “no win no fee” explosion. But that is Jesus’ calling to you. To give up your rights in service to others. “Take up your cross & follow me”
This is no crutch for the week, no pie in the sky when you die, no irrelevant institution. This is a community of people willing to lay down and be trampled for the sake of a leader they have never seen, but love and serve un-compromisingly. The church’s outreach statements should not just read, “Come here for rest and peace”, though that’s true, but “Are you man enough? Dare you take on the challenge of not knowing what God will call you to next? Are you tough enough to give up your comforts in the service of others? Can you hack it or will you quit at the first hurdle?”
Of course individual people in the church fail to live up to their calling all the time. Many times I fail to serve others before myself. Often, I keep back money for me that I know I should have given away. Daily I fail to speak the words I know God has given me for others. But do I just give up? Do I say it’s too hard and quit?
No.
Why?
Because I am a man. A man who God forgives. A man who has decided to be willing to take the humiliation of admitting my short comings in order to reach the heights of forgiveness. A man who is willing to look and feel silly singing and clapping along to songs if there’s a chance that that’s going to make a difference to the world. A father who knows his children’s best interests are served by his own life being spent serving God.
So to those of you who are weary, weak, downtrodden, lonely, afraid or riddled with guilt, come to Jesus and His gentleness will begin to build you back up. To those of you who are proud and strong, big and confident, have got it sussed and know where you are going, come to Jesus and take up his challenge. Serve Him; only Him. Serve Him above yourself. Stop bleating on about it, ‘fess up, step up, and start acting like a man.
I dare you!
Ali
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Wow, another working week has gone by. Very hot and very busy at the clinic today as we were sharing the hospital with the Mercy Ships eye screening team.
The screenings are very like our daily triage, but unlike the dental team, who, when we have dentists, are able to treat pretty much anything dental, the eye team have to turn away a good percentage of the people who come.
The ethos of Mercy Ships is that they do “curative surgeries”. That means if your problem can be fixed by a single operation such as a tooth out or cataract surgery we can do it. If you have an ongoing medical need such as diabetes, glaucoma, or even simple poor vision needing spectacles, we cannot provide the long term care you need.
The upshot was that of the 120 – 150 people who came today asking for help with their sight only about 30 are suitable for treatment with us. Of course that’s 30 people who’s lives will be transformed, but 90-120 people who the eye team have had to say no to today. Some (all) of those people are desperate. They are losing or have lost their sight and in a society with minimal social security that’s an even bigger problem than back home. The screening team find this very hard and even though they do a screening of this size twice a week they all feel the need to talk about the experience to emotionally offload.
As it happens that worked out well, we’d had a pretty hectic morning and it ended, just as the eye team arrived to share our lunch (see pics), with Mr B taking a baby tooth out of a VERY noisy 5 year old boy. Guess who was the butt of lunchtimes “You nasty man” jokes. Of course I know that by now the little boy will be better and able to eat again, but the people the eye team turned away will be a little bit worse this evening. It’s a tough life this kind of service and the long termers have my upmost respect and admiration.
This evening the dental team went out to Monrovia’s best hotel (The Palm Beach) to celebrate my looming departure. Actually it was really good, well, for Liberia! About the level of your average Pizzaria, similar menu but with Lebanese starters and Chinese restaurant decor. The prices are similar to the UK, about £7.00 for a pizza, £10 for a bottle of wine, but when you remember the average daily wage is £1.00 the armed guards on the door make more sense. There are always ethical questions about the rights and wrongs of spending so much and eating so well in a city so full of people with nothing, but at least it brings foreign money into the economy. What Liberia needs is trade, and if off duty NGO’s can bring in some tourist dollars, that’s probably a good thing.
Once again the debates about language across the Atlantic rage. The Brits trying to explain the difference between a chap and bloke and a fellow, and the Americans that to call someone “buff” is to comment that they are looking muscular. As for words to answering the call of nature we seemed to have lots more than they did. Lovely!As I writing this blog I’m waiting for my new roommate to arrive from the airport. Reception have just told me that they’re all safely on the ground but running a little late. Well nothing new there then!
I hope to go out and experience a bit more of Africa over the weekend. During the day I’m planning to go to a market which I am told does not just sell flip flops. I think I can get fake Rolex’s too. Just what I’ve always wanted!
In the evening, if the plan hatches, I’m heading out into the jungle to a village church who want people from Mercy Ships to support them at an outreach meeting they are holding. I really don’t know what to expect. I’ve got Johnny Weismuller Tarzan movies in my mind, but I suspect I’m more likely to find Faye Dunnaway as Jane sitting next to me in the church than for that to be a realistic depiction!
I’ll let you know tomorrow.
Ali
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I had a day off today so I went “shopping”. Monrovia is now categorically the smelliest city I have been to. I walked with a few of the others from the dental team to “water street market”, it should be called Water Closet street market! Oh well after a while we found a nicer part of town and some African crafty things.
Monrovia itself was a very prosperous town before the war. In it’s hey day in the 50’s & 60’s it had wide boulevards and five star hotels. It’s got great beaches and perfect weather for much of the year, so the remnant of that former glory is still everywhere to be seen. Abandoned government, business or hotel buildings stand proudly of the corner of each block in the centre of town, their missing roves and bullet hole ridden walls a constant reminder of how far the country has fallen.
My new roommate Roger arrived late last night along with fellow Geordie Max. Both seem like nice guys though Roger, from California, is suffering rather from the dreaded jet lag.
This evening we went to show the “Jesus” film to a local community. About 200 people turned up to our free open air screening on a local football field. At the end of the film the pastor in charge asked those who wanted to “love Jesus and ask him into their hearts” to come forward. Just about everybody did.
I don’t want to rule out the power of God to intervene in that way, and many people can give testimony about coming to faith via big rallies, but it always sits a little uncomfortable with me. Maybe I’m just being an cynic, or maybe, and more likely, I’m trying to place my cultural values on a people who don’t share them. Anyway time will tell who was really changed by the experience. We are best judged by the fruit our lives bear and if the people of Doe Town, Liberia, increase in their peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self control etc. then I will have been privileged to see God at work tonight.
After we got back to the ship I taught a few my fellow shipmates some of my favourite party games. No Del Muti though – we just couldn’t muster up enough decks of cards. L
Anyway, just a short blog tonight, because it’s late.
See ya soon
Ali
Ps for those of you wondering about Johnny Weismuller, Doe Town was not in the jungle it was about a mile from the ship. Doh!
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Well, I have at last been to the jungle, and Johnny Weismuller would be proud of me. I’ve uploaded some pictures of the church we went to this morning and it’s surroundings. It took us about half an hour up progressively bumpier and dustier roads to reach “Pillar of Fire” Church.
The church is pretty much at the end of the road and around it are a few houses made either of breeze block or wattle & daub (sticks & mud) or both. The church had about 50 Liberians of all ages and about 10 of us from Mercy Ships, mostly visitors but a few of the long termers have made this their home church.
The church has just completed it’s building project. The whole build took one day!The ground had already been cleared so the first step was to erect the thirty or so upright poles onto which the roof frame was raised. I spent much of the morning with a man who was very proud to tell me he had then nailed the new aluminium roof into place. This was the only part of the church that needed materials not found around them and cost £200. That’s just about a years wages for one man here.
My new friend told me that they could not afford enough aluminium to cover the whole structure so the far end of the building still had a banana leaf roof but that they were still hoping and praying to get the rest of the roof on before the rainy season in July & August. The walls of the previous church, which were basically raffia fence panels, were then untied from the old building and re-tied onto the new one. You’ll see from the pictures that the walls only come up about ¾ of the way to the roof. I don’t know if this was lack of funds or design but at least it let the breeze in! Come the rains I don’t see how any amount of aluminium roof will keep the water out when the walls don’t reach the ceiling, but then when there’s no floor either it should drain well enough!
We were seated in the places of honour at the front facing the congregation and began the service by introducing ourselves and what we do on the ship, to a heartfelt round of applause by everyone. Good job I didn’t snooze off during the sermon then!
The worship was lively, long and impossible to follow. I did pick up that one song had the line “Able God, Papa God there is none like you” but the African rhythms were just too difficult for me to clap, dance and sing to like the Liberians did. Mrs B would have loved analysing the music and Zoe & Robyn would have picked it up I’m sure but we have sent the unmusical member of our family Africa this time!
The whole service was actually only about an hour, which I was relieved at, as five to six hour services are common here. A young pastor spoke about the need for us to go where ever God sends us, be that to our families, the next town or half way round the world. Very apt for me and my mercy ship colleagues, and it was great to hear Liberians talking about what they can give to the rest of the world. The offering of money to “the poor” was an amazing affair. None of our British reserve here! It was the loudest and most joyful part of the whole service as people danced, in what I think were family groups, to put what few Liberian dollars they had into the collection bin. (yes, it really was an old plastic dustbin, desk size, not household size). The idea of these people giving to “the poor” was kind of strange as by any western standard they are poorer than we can imagine. I put my US dollars in, and although it was probably more than the rest of the Liberians had between them, I gave out of the abundance I have, and they from their poverty. I know which offering God will be more pleased with; and it isn’t mine.
This evening I have hung out with Bob, Liberia’s only dentist after tomorrow morning & Georgina his wife, who has been my on board Mummy for two weeks, Alice the assistant dental team leader, who has given a greater proportion of her life to serving people in Africa than I could possibly do unless I live to be very old and never go home, and Christine & Tony from Devon, who helped me explain cream teas to the Americans were kind enough to not mind when, Elisha’s Assistant told Naaman to “Put your clothes back on!”*
I leave for home tomorrow so I’m sat here surrounded by half packed suitcases and evaluation sheets to fill in, I’ll try to give you a quick blog tomorrow before I put the trusty laptop away but if not you’ll have to wait for the retrospective that I’ll write from home.
Thanks for reading this far down, don’t give up now there’s not much more...
Ali
*click here for details
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All packed up and ready to leave.
I did manage to squeeze one final morning of work in, and it turned out to be a very surgical one. Lots of bits of infected bone to remove as well as teeth – the sort of thing surgeons love, so a great way to finish my dental work on a high.
I need to spend the next hour or so running round the ship getting umpteen people to sign off on my disembarkation papers, the bank, human resources, IT etc. but after that there’s a round of goodbyes and then into the jeep at 5.00pm.
I’m going to miss this place when I’m gone. Of course I’m glad to be going home. I’m looking forward to seeing Teresa, Zoe & Robyn, I want to know what my new surgery looks like, I can’t wait to catch up on everybody’s news and have a chat to my friend Sammy in Ponteland. If someone tries to tell me now that I can’t go home today they’ll not find my most gracious accepting side, but there’s a spirit of life here that is often sadly lacking in other places I have worked. My firm belief is that that spirit is indeed the Spirit of Life, Life in All it’s Fullness, that it’s the Holy Spirit, that it’s God himself.
Of course that doesn’t mean people don’t tread on each other’s toes, that we don’t feel like taking a sickie once in a while or that there are some people who just rub us up the wrong way. It doesn’t mean that people never fall out or that we are spared the tragedies life brings. A young man who, like me, had come thousands of miles from his home to serve the people of Liberia, died not so long back after getting caught by the current when relaxing with his fellow ship mates on the beach. The difference is the way we deal with those setbacks. A spirit of forgiveness not grudge holding, a sense of togetherness not us and them, a hope in a loving God not a blind pointlessness or fatalism rules here. And I love it.
So what will be the next step after I get home? Where will God lead me next? Will it be back into the practices for the next twenty years? Will I return to do another stint who knows when? Will I find myself returning year after year? Are YOU the next piece the jigsaw maker wants to place here?
Well, I can’t tell you that yet, because, that is another story.
Ali