Living on a ship

Sometimes the fact that I live on a ship drives me a little crazy. Dont get me wrong I very much appreciate all the western creature comforts the ship provides like running hot water, flushing toilets, electricity and a starbucks cafe but the fact that I dont live in the 'real' africa sometimes gets to me. But then I wonder to myself could I really survive living out there? I'm sure if I really had to I would be able to but in all reality would I want to? Im not to sure what the answer to that is just yet.

So I live on the 3rd deck and there are 8 decks in total. We have gurkhas that man our gangway, the picture above is of me with Ganesh one of our four friendly gurkhas. The hospital is also on the 3rd deck so its just a short stroll down the corridor and Im at work for the day, no worries about traffic jams or having to get up early to travel to work! There are no windows on the 3rd deck so it must be quite strange for our patients having no natural light sometimes for up to 2 weeks! But if we can we usually take them up to deck 7 every afternoon to give them some fresh air and let them see some real daylight.

One of things I love about the ship is living in a community with 400 or so other people and all being here for the same purpose but then in saying that, it can also be one of the worse things too. Just for the reason that you can never really get away from anyone, there is always someone else around and for a girl who likes to have her own space that can be a little hard!
Sometimes you can really feel the ship swaying and other times you can hardly feel it at all. There is always some kind of noise to be heard whether the noise of the engines or the generators running or some other noise going on.

I know that if I havent been off the ship for a few days I start to feel like I need to get out and get some of that not always so fresh African air in my lungs and some of the dust on my feet just to remind myself that yes I am here in Africa and to remind myself of why I am really here. Thats the thing about being here, I think it gets in under your skin, and I know its going to be pretty hard to leave.

Some thoughts from Africa

Well I am the first to admit that I have been pretty slack at keeping everyone updated while I have been here. I wonder to myself why that is and think its maybe to do with the fact that I just dont know where to start. How do I begin to describe what I am seeing and experiencing when I find it hard to put into words myself? I know that I have changed since I have been here and I wonder how evident it will be to people when I return home.

Its hard to believe that I have been here nearly 3 months already and Im nearly halfway through. Time is flying by and I feel I still have so much I want and need to do. I have met some truely amazing people while I have been here and have made many friendships that I know will last a lifetime.

I have also seen things that have literally broken my heart. On the 31st of July we had a beautiful baby arrive on the ship to become part of our feeding program. He was 9 months old and weighed only 3kg. He had had his cleft lip repaired in April but was awating to have his palate repaired at some stage in November but before we could repair that for him he needed some fattening up. He was doing really well for about 3 weeks, gaining weight and starting to look fat and beautiful when he developed pneumonia and malaria and some other viral illness we were unable to diagnose due to our lack of resources. He ended up in the ICU with a tube to help him breath and a million other tubes coming out of his little body while he was struggling to survive. Finally on a Monday morning at around 10am his Papa said enough suffering, stop all the treatment. Everything was turned off and his Papa held him tight while he passed away in his arms. He was given his last bath put in clean clothes and his Mama put him onto her back and they walked down the gangway with their dead baby. It has to be one of the saddest things I have ever seen. The way his Mama gently put her dead baby on her back is something I will never ever forget.


Despite all the heartache and hardships and ups and downs I have had since being here I am totally content. I am content with the fact that I live in a dark cabin that has no natural light, I live with 5 other females and I sleep on a narrow bunk bed.

I really couldnt imagine being anywhere else right now.

Life in the wards

Life in the wards here is totally different to my life in the ward I was working in back home. After working in a busy acute surgical ward this is a breeze! On a typical shift here we start by praying for our patients and the for the shift ahead of us, after that we recieve hand over of our patients and start our tasks for the day. Quite often this includes health education and teaching our patients about what to expect before and after surgery, monitoring them after surgery, giving out medications, playing games with them and generally spending time chatting with them. Although this can be very hard due to the language barrier! So generally we have to use our translators to be able to actually communicate with them which I found hugely frustrating at first but now find it strange if I actually have a patient that can speak english!!

I very rarely give anything IV (intravenous) other than fluids, I havent done many complex dressings or had many 'really sick' patients. I take a lot of vital signs and hand out an awful lot of pain medications, sometimes I dont even feel like I am a 'real nurse' here but I must admit I still love it and I know its where I am meant to be for now.