Faces and Names, Not Numbers

It's both easy and hard to explain what I do here at Mercy Ships. I work in Rehab doing physical therapy with around 55 kids with bowed legs and knock-knees. Bam. Done. But that explanation takes away humanity. One of the reasons I got into physical therapy in the first place was to really get to know my patients and their stories. It not just kid #1, #2 and #3. They have names, histories, struggles, goals, and futures. 

Here are some faces, names and stories to help you understand my world here in a new way:

This is Emmanuel. He is a FIRECRACKER! He turned 4 this month and is one of our youngest patients. He is from an orphanage, not too far away, so his caregiver here is not his mom/dad/grandparent like most patients, but a worker from the orphanage. Not long ago he put a crayon down his cast so we had to change the cast before more of a wound formed under there. He's a classic little boy who likes rough play and wants to be hung upside-down by his ankles and be ticked until he falls over. 

This is Momo. He came to Mercy Ships with his granny. He has skeletal dysplasia (think dwarfism). He was very shy in the beginning but now has the sweetest biggest smile when he walks into the rehab gym. His granny always shakes my hand and smiles, not knowing any English but I can tell trying to convey appreciation. 

This is Mariama. She is missing her two front teeth which is the cutest thing ever! She used to hide behind her mom when she came into Rehab. And when we asked her to do much of anything she would scream not in pain but of fear. She has come to trust us and will now play any "game" (aka exercise disguised!) we want her to. 

This is Isha. She is 10, but emotions of a pre-teen for sure! Isha is sensitive as they come... devastated by criticism but proud as can be at compliments. As soon as anything gets hard, the tears come. She has learned a lot about perseverance and grit since her operation.  Isha is very creative and artistic and would like to color pictures and come up with little stories about animals more than anything else. 

No list of patients could ever be complete without my guy Alimamy. We normally pass patients around quite a bit between PT's, but this guy has been mine every step of the way. I did he pre-surgery assessment, saw him stand for the first time, and taught him every exercise he knows. Alimamy came to us scared of his own shadow... I wish I knew more of his story before coming to us, but also can make some guesses. He only knew fear of adults and would cower to any raised voice. He did not want to walk or stand in the beginning and would let the whole deck know with his screams when he saw me coming. He slowly, and I mean SLOWLY, learned to trust me. I had to be super consistent to get to where we are at now, which is big smiles and high fives in the hallway. His mom has learned to parent without threats and hitting, giving him love and encouragement instead. Not just straight legs, but his life has truly changed because of coming to Mercy Ships. 

To end, here are more cute faces to make your day. Please know each one has a story I have had the privilege to know and love: 

This are my BABIES! My heart has grown by 55 each year of being here, and hopefully you see all their beautiful faces and understand that in a whole new way. 

"This will make a great story someday"

A few months ago our family signed up for a race in a town called Makeni. 

This is about 3 hours away from Freetown (where the ship is docked and Sierra Leones capital). A group of about 50 people from Mercy Ships signed up to do this race together. We had done a similar race in October in a different town and really enjoyed it in support of the nonprofit Street Child. Jackie and the kids would do a 5k and Jeff a 21k. Our group would take Mercy Ships Land Cruisers on Friday afternoon, spend a night in a hotel, and wake up early Saturday morning to run then return Saturday afternoon. No big deal, right?

Before it even started, on Wednesday night Jeff began to feel a little bit sick from the smoke so he went to bed early and then woke up Thursday still feeling a bit sick. So he took tons of vitamins because he didn’t want to be sick for the race. So, again, he went to bed early Thursday night got up Friday. Felt a little OK but still pretty fatigued. Then at 1pm we drove to Makeni and got there in good time, even sitting in the 37°C heat! We got checked in and brought our things to our room on the 3rd floor. All looked good... very basic but fine (we had a sink with running water, a bed, and a toilet seat!). We decided to eat dinner at the hotel and let the kids swim for a bit with friends.  Jeff had the keys to the car, and another family decided they wanted to get food from somewhere else, so he left to drive the dad to get some food. While at the pool a big wind/dust storm blew in. This is fairly common in this area this time of year so they kids and adults around all ran into the hotel dining room to wait out the storm for maybe 10 minutes.

   The windstorm was beautiful!

After the wind had died down I (Jaclyn) realized I could turn on the AC in our room, so I went upstairs to turn it on. I couldn't even open the door because there was planks all over the floor and our ceiling had fallen down! 

The boards that fell in our room and the open ceiling!

Completely in shock and just thankful I was not in the room at the time of the storm, I went down to reception to let them know. Apologizing profusely, they found the one available room for us to stay in. It was right next to the reception desk in the welcome area but we would take it. They needed to quick clean it, but they said it would be ready in 10 minutes (it took 40).  My friend Ruth and I got our things out of the room and waiting for the room to be clean. Finally Jeff came back from getting food for our friends and he was able to see the damage in our previous room. Our dinner was ready, so I went back out to the pool area to eat with the kids and Jeff would move our things in to the room when it was ready in 5 minutes. Perfect. All would be good now. :) 

After dinner of Shawarma, chicken, and fries (yum!) I was ready to take a shower and get to bed early before the race. I let Jeff know I'm going back to the room and he assures me he will be there soon. Great. I open the door to our room and there is 2-3 inches of water on the ground and I can hear the water still running! Oh. My. Gosh. Since we are right next to reception I let them know and get the water turned off. Once again, apologizing profusely, the hotel manager and staff are taking buckets of water out of our room. Thankfully our bags were on top of the bed, but Jeff's running shoes for the next morning were wet. About 45 minutes later (it's now 9:45pm) all water is out and towels soaked up the rest, They had to turn off the water to our room so no sink, shower, toilet. Fine. Let's finally get to sleep!! 

This being the mop water, it honestly wasn't so bad.

One of many buckets of water from our room!

"We're sorry, but we will need to come back in 30 minutes to make sure it doesn't flood again."

So we want about 20 minutes, I (Jeff) pop out and let them know it's not leaking and that we're going to bed. I need to be up at 5 and it's 10:15pm. My shoes are drying, there is no running water in the sink, toilet, or shower. So we use our bottled water to brush teeth, carefully make sure nothing is on the ground in case it floods again, and go to sleep.

At 2am, I hear the football game (Americans call it soccer) from the TV right outside our room. I get up, put on my flip flops and don't hear any swishing water, give thanks, unlock the door, and loudly whisper "we're trying to sleep! Turn it down" to which the four or five night crew sitting in reception were shocked, surprised, and confused. Eventually they figured out that they woke up the people who are having such great luck. I get back in bed, thankful again that I hear the AC is still running and the water is not. I fall asleep. About 4am the AC goes off but it's at least cool enough. 

5am I wake up to both my alarm clock and the local mosque's call to prayer. Good reminder. 

We're all so happy at 5:45am

The race goes well. Jeff ends up feeling fine! We had a great time and even had some personal bests in our run times. But this is a trip we won't soon forget!

Sunrises are gorgeous

The beauty of creation. Running 21k with these sights made it so much more enjoyable!

A must have at the halfway point: the obligatory coconut

We finished after all. Whew.

Sunday night, as we recap the trip with some friends, we ask, "How was your weekend?" They respond: "Oh, nothing like your weekend. Our whole family just got lice."