Refugee camp outreach!

April 19th and 20th the dental team went to work at the Peace Refugee camp in Lome. The refugees were from The Ivory Coast. About 2,500-3,000 people live in the refugee camp. The first day we had 3 dentists working and 4 assistants. Then the next day we had a dentist from Togo join our team so we had 4 dentists working. In the two days we were there we saw 204 patients and extracted 354 teeth. :) Those were VERY busy days.
God blessed us with very good weather though. Not near as hot as the prison outreach. The building was much bigger as well so it was nice! After working on Thursday we got to walk around and view the refugee camp. It was very large.  They had many tents set up and then some wooden buildings for homes.
I'll post more pictures later. :)

Church outside the ship.

April 7th and 8th I was able to meet up with Leona again! Saturday we went out to Dinner with Dennis Hilman and two local pastors. Then Sunday we went to a church out a ways into the bush.. Or so it felt to me. I had not traveled that far in Lome before. So it was nice to get out in the country a little bit. Dennis was speaking at the church and Leona taught Sunday school for the kids(One of the day workers from the dental clinic came with us and he translated for Leona!). It was real fun to be there and see what our missionaries are doing! In the Sunday school there were about 30 kids. Probably ages 11 and under. Leona started by teaching the kids a song in English then with Mawuli's help, taught the young kids about Jonah. After that she taught us all how to make Origami whales! We enjoyed our time spent together! After church I had lunch with Leona , Dennis, Mawuli and one of the pastors. Then Dennis and Leona left for Ghana so they dropped me off at the ship.
It was wonderful to be with familiar people for a little while. :)

The next week at the Dental clinic was very busy! We had the dentist that was the Chief Dental Officer for Mercy ships working with us(he is no longer long term with MS but comes once a year). He was with the dental team for two weeks and it was great to have him! We were able to see a lot of patients with more critical needs since he was with us. We saw several patients with large swellings that needed to be drained. And we did many interesting surgeries. I won't go into details here. :) But it was all new to me! So yes.. More experiences!

On the 18th I had a wonderful treat! It was my birthday! So I requested the day off to watch some surgeries on board the ship. I started off the day with breakfast with a Birthday buddy. Then went up to the pool on deck 8 to spend some time reading. After that headed down to the hair salon and had my hair cut! After hair cut I sat around in the cafe chatting with some friends.When lunch came  around it was so nice to finally get to eat lunch on the ship! They served a wonderful lunch of Chicken fingers with honey mustard and rice!! Soo. yes! Great start to the day! THEN... I was able to go in to the operating rooms and watch two different surgeries. I had to don the Mercy ships scrubs, OR booties, surgeons cap and goggles to enter the OR. Quite an interesting thing! I will perhaps never have a birthday like this one! 
 After viewing the surgeries I had supper with some friends and  then went up to the crew galley to make a bunny cake! When I came down to the cafe  my friends had set up a little banner saying" Happy Birthday Karen"! It was really sweet! I think through out the whole day I was sung to 4 times! After demolishing the cake my friends and I went to French class! We learned some valuable things that would have been helpful a LONG time ago. But oh well! Now I know..  Best Birthday ever!

Ok.. More stuff happened but I'm needing some sleep and I'll be able to write  more and post more pictures later.

Here are a few action photos and some random photos from the dental clinic:)
Top photo is most of the ladies in my cabin. :) We were given and opportunity to have some photos taken on board. :)

The past few weeks have gone by very quickly! Last week the dental team went to the prison to do dental work. We packed all of our equipment up on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday transported it all to the prison(which is fortunately right next door). The day was extremely hot and we were inside a small building with no air circulating..So yes.. Hottest day of my life right there. I thought it was a few weeks ago when the ac broke at the dental clinic. I was wrong. :) So yes, we were working in the heat and were still able to see 98 patients total on Thursday! All this was done without electricity,air/water, suction.. We were truly roughing it! The patients seemed to be grateful to us.. Sometimes you really wonder though because NO ONE likes to go to the dentist.  

On Friday we were able to see 58 patients. The weather was dramatically different! It RAINED!! For the first time since I've been here. It was crazy rain too! Poured for maybe 1 hour then just drizzled. It was so nice because it cooled everything down. The day was so much more bearable because we were not feeling so worn out from the heat!

The prison was very interesting and not what I expected. When they told me we were going to the prison for the extreme outreach I was a little nervous. Maybe I was thinking of some prison stories from the states where the criminals are creepy and dangerous. The conditions were pretty sad at the prison. Not sure how many men shared a bunk room but I heard is about 18 to each room. Very uncomfortable. Also the prisoners only get one meal a day. So if you don't have any friends or family to bring you your other meals then you go without. There were also rooms with woman and  children. I'm very sure  most of the people in prison were there for petty crimes.

We never felt threatened by anyone. They were very respectful and kind. A few spoke English so it was always nice to be able to speak with them. :) Of course our two pastors were working right alongside us. They do the post op instructions and talk to the patients about Jesus.

This weekend I was very blessed  to have my friend Leona from Canada drop by to visit! We couch surfed together at a woman's house here  in Lome. The woman was kind enough to take us in on a last  minute couch surf request. She was from France and has been living here in Lome teaching French for the past 3 years.

The first day we got a nice tour from two of my friends from the dental clinic. They walked us through the market in Lome and we tried different fruits and street food.. It was TOO yummy! Worried about getting sick for a little bit. But nothing has happened and we ate more! Last night as well.. :) I may be picking up some spices from here to try making some of the food myself once I get home.

 Eating street food:)

 Our tour guides. Mawuli and Sam

The ship!

That night we made our way to meet our host at the French school. Then she took us to a ballet! It was a modern ballet.. Very interesting. Yep! After that we went to a local restaurant for fresh fish!  They brought the fish out on a plate and we were able to choose  which fish we wanted to eat.

Sunday morning we met  up with a friend from the clinic again and we went to his house to make fufu! His cousin had prepared most of it already.  Fufu is pretty much yams, boiled till they are soft and then mashed up into a playdough like consistancy. After we "helped" smoosh the boiled yams. We were served the fufu with a delicious soup with chicken. So good!!  I now don't mind fufu. With the right soup it tastes very good!
After eating lots of fufu, Leona was able to come back to the ship with me for visiting hours.

 I gave her a tour of the ship and we had supper. Then for Palm Sunday there was a special service on board the  ship. We dressed up in our African dresses! Since this week there are 32 nations represented on board the ship they had several people from the different nations say something or sing. :) It was very nice!

Monday, Leona was able to come to the dental clinic with me! I got her some scrubs from the ship and we rode in to work together on motor bikes. :) It was a long day.. But I think she enjoyed it! It was great to have her there!

In the past couple weeks I've gotten to be a part of some fun activities! Last Wednesday evening I was able to join a group going to visit the Children's ward at the local hospital.  We spent about 3 hours there in 3 different rooms. The wards were pretty small. No more than 10 beds in each one. Most of the kids had broken limbs. Arms ,hips or legs. Some were confined to bed. Most of the kids were probably under the age of 12.  One of the parents would stay at the hospital with them. Then there were quite a few siblings running around as well.

In each room we started out by reading a Bible story then giving them some crayons and paper to color. We also gave balloons and blew bubbles and ended by giving cookies. It was very interesting to learn how things are run at the hospital also. If you need to go to the hospital(emergency or whatever) you find out what supplies you need for surgery, go to the pharmacy, buy the supplies, then go back to the hospital for your appointment. The hospital does not have any supplies on hand to do anything I guess.. Also it's very expensive to go to the hospital on top of that. So if you don't have any money... You don't get help. :(
Makes me think about how nice we have it at home in the states.

Then on Thursday I went to the Hope Center(run by Mercy ships) here in Lome. It is where patients live while they are waiting for a surgery or go after surgery to recover. It's a beautiful building! Mercy ships has put a lot of effort into making it nice for the patients. The building was used in 2010 when Mercy ships was here last. When they left in 2010 the people here in Togo used the building as place for women to have their babies. So one of the wings of the building is still being run by people from Lome. We were able to go visit  patients waiting for surgery and see some brand new babies!

Saturday.. I went to visit the Bethany Maison Orphanage. It is an Orphanage run by some nuns. Very nice building. I think about 35 kids live there. Infants to 17 or 18 years old. We read Bible stories and sang lots of songs with the kids(keep in mind this is all in French, so it's being translated). After that we played all kinds of games with the kids and gave out cookies(again). Some of the kids are pretty sneaky and try to pretend we did not give them any cookies and ask for more.. :D I know all about the sneaky when it comes to cookies.. Some were quite dramatic even because they really wanted more cookies. Gotta guard the cookies. :D

The past few Sundays I've been going to the Ward service(church) on the ship! It's very nice that we are able to attend the service with patients in the hospital.The service is translated from English into Ewe(native language here). Maybe about 20 patients attend each Sunday and then some crew members. To go to the service I walk out my room door and down the hall not even a minute and I'm in the hospital. It's very interesting to think I live on a floating hospital. :D

Before I came, I wondered if I would be useful here in Africa. I doubted my skills and wondered why I felt God put the longing in my heart to come. But now that I'm here I feel like I'm needed and I am doing something helpful! God is so good! Please continue to pray for me while I spend my last month and half in Africa!  Time is flying too fast! I am thinking this is something I would love to plan to come again and do.. Maybe longer term?? :D :D

 Dr. Doug, who I have had the pleasure to work with here in Togo, wrote this wonderful piece. He said I could share it. I enjoyed it very much so I hope you do as well! 

 

“ROOTS"
 Some people come to Africa on big game hunting safaris and keep the taxidermists employed.  I came to Africa to keep the tooth fairy employed.  An even dozen cleaned themselves up to show the world their peculiarities.          
ROW ONE. PICTURED LEFT TO RIGHT:  Mildred Molar.   She came out in one piece.  Barry Bicuspid.  A first bicuspid, upper right side, tooth #14.  Huge internal cavity. Wouldn’t budge with the pry bar.  Applied vise grip......snap right at bone level.  Roto rooter time.  Even with  a lot of roots exposed, still wouldn’t budge....more cold steel and sunshine....pry bar finally cracked it in half and revealed it’s unbudgeability.....two roots,  one headed east and the other west.    Whew, very very stubborn tooth.
        Winnie Wisdomless.  This fine specimen could be a candidate for Guinness Book.   It’s the only 4 rooted upper wisdom tooth I’ve ever seen.  Calvin Clingon. This is what’s left of a upper cuspid that just would not give up.  Like extricating a fist that got in a bucket of cement.  The Swiss roto rooter put in some overtime on this one.  Had to put the drill bit half way out of the chuck to get enough length to get deep enough to finally get to the bulge creating a big enough opening to tease it out.
        Harry Humpback.  This obstinate fellow was the front root of a lower first molar.       Chair six front row:  Almost called in the x-ray team for this guy.  Both front and back roots of this lower third molar kept breaking of when the pry bar was applied.  Check out the hook on the back root.   MAMA MIA
        ROW TWO:   Chair one-  Samuel Supernumerary.  This  is a lower bicuspid that was a twin of it’s neighbor.  Instead of having the normal two lower left bicuspids, she had four. With the extra two in a row by the tongue. Samuel had a slight bump on the end of his root.  Molly Molar came out in one piece, amazingly.  Tenacious Theodore.  You’ve seen this dude before.  Reattached his legs with super glue.   Marlboro Man.  Second Row chair 4.  This was another first for me.  A lower second bicuspid.   Big cavity into Mr. Nerve.  Another non budge-er.  Crown snapped off.  As I was roto rooting the root, the root anatomy was non-typical, not round as normal, but fatter front to back.  Going deeper into the bone, two roots showed up.   Wow, another tooth entry for Guinness.
        Mary Marvelette.  This curvy lady didn’t want anything to do with the Swiss Dude, she was stubborn, but finally succumbed.  All three of her roots, had they snapped off, would have been another challenge.  And last but not least:  Lucy Not Loosie.  The checkside roots of this lovely lady snapped off.  Fortunately they were fused together and did check out with a little coaxing. Super Glue to the rescue.
        SO....now you know why I refer to this work:  “Life is like a box of chocolates:   You NEVER know what you are gonna get.”

Written by Dr. Doug 

A few weekends ago, a group of us from the ship were able to help out a YWAM group in Togo. We went to a large field and had a play day for a bunch of the neighborhood kids. Maybe about 150 were there.

 The kids are so cute! They really look after the little ones too. The picture below. The little boy fell asleep on the ground and the kids around found a blanket and tucked him in it.:)

 One of the drama's for the kids.:)

We had music, dramas, Bible stories,  soccer, jump ropes, a parachute, and lots of other misc. games going on. Then the kids recited Bible verses they had memorized from the previous outreach. Loads of fun and we all went home to the ship filthy dirty.

So now the 3 dentists I've been working with are all gone! But we have new ones to replace them. Such an amazing group of people we have here. I'm so blessed to be able to work with these people. I've learned so much from them.

 Picture of some of my friends at the clinic.

 For our last weekend together we went to Lake Togo and stayed the night in some bungalows. Super fun weekend! We hung out by the lake and visited some of the local area. One place we went was an old slave house. Thousands of slaves were held in the basement of this house for about 2 weeks before being exported to South America.. Sometimes to North America. We were able to go down into the basement where we could not stand at all. Very cramped and dark. Pretty awful and sobering to view.

                                          Our Bungalows that we rented for the night on the lake.

 House where slaves were kept in basement. We went down the trap door you see on the floor..

We drove through a flooded street.. It was pretty crazy! I'm sure my car would have died if I took it through this.