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.