Suzanne's Mission Adventures

So I showed the video of what the wards look like.  But I didn't tell you about the beds.  The patient beds are all the same.  Medal frame with a thinner mattress on it.  So all patients under 18 yrs old get a caregiver.  The caregivers can be the mom, dad, aunt, uncle, brother, sister, or friend.  Some of these caregivers are giving up months of their lives to come care for the patient.  If a patient is from up country they are traveling 24 to 48 hrs to get to the ship.  Then they usually stay with family or at the hope center before the surgery.  Then depending on what type of surgery they had, they can spend up to a month or more on the wards.  Then they go back to either the hope center or the families they are staying with in Conakry.  After they are discharged from the ship, the patients have to be discharged from out patients.  And again some of the patients have up to 2 months with out patients.  All the while the ...

So this isn't a fun fact post.   It's a rather sad post.  I have know been here over 2 months, which means it's time for a lot of people to go home.  Most nurses are here for 2 months or a little bit longer.  This past weekend my group of friends shrunk by 9 people.  Come next week it will shrink by 2 more.  And that will include my roommate.  It has been so much fun getting to know people from around the world.  The USA, Canada,  New Zealand,  Australia and Denmark.  The one good thing about good bye are the good bye dinners.  Can't complain about missing ship food.  Some of these lovely people, I probably won't see again and others I will.  At least one of the ladies who left is coming back for the whole field service in Senegal next year.  And another girl who left actually lives 1 hr away from me at home.  Goes to show it really is a small world.  I have actually met at least 5 people so far wh...