Lindsey Arrived and On The Ship!

"Hey guys,

So we finally arrived in Togo this afternoon with out any more trouble!

There are quite a bit of dirt roads, palm trees, and many many people

selling things on the streets.  We were picked up in a landrover by a Mercy

Ships day worker. The day workers are all natives of Africa and are paid by

Mercy Ships to do various tasks for us, most importantly being translating

French while we take care of our patients. I'm already getting a little

home sick and am feeling a bit sea sick.  I heard it takes about a week to

get used to everything.

So the plan from here on out will be this week orientation and next week we

start screening the patients!  They will then be given a date for surgery,

while others may need care immediately to help prepare them for surgery.

This may include tube feeds to treat their malnutrition.  This process I

heard can get pretty intense seeing that there are many many people who

need and want medical care.  Luckily this organization has been doing this

for quite awhile so hopefully there won't be too many issues.  I'm reeally

really wishing I was fluent in French right about now lol.

Then in the beginning of February we will start doing surgeries.  I'm

assigned to work in the ICU ward.  This unit includes taking care of

patients who need extra monitoring, mostly from maxillofacial surgeries.

These surgeries can provide amazing facial transformations for these

people.  Some patients will stay in our hospital for months since they need

frequent dressing changes and would almost guaranteed get infected if we

just sent them home.

I haven't really met many of the people of Togo yet, but have met many many

crew members from all over the world.  Pretty much everyone has some sort

of accent and it is fun trying to guess where they're from.  I'm usually

wrong though w/ my lack of travel experience.  My roomates are from Canada,

the UK, and Louisiana, USA( my bunkmate).  My bunkmate still hasn't arrived

yet.  She is the one who's flight got really messed up and was originally

supposed to sleep in Dakar so I'm hoping she'll be here soon!

Love,

Lindsey"