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!