The Strength of This Community

It takes a whole village...down in the wards, everyone becomes
family - our nurses, local translators and patients.

There are some weeks onboard the ship that feel like an eternity, and this was one of them. As I was listing all the noteworthy stories that I wanted to share, I couldn’t believe that all these things happened in 7 days! I think part of it has to do with engaging more with the community and investing in people and not being a hermit. But I think this week I also was reminded of the beauty and strength of this community and why I love each and every person so much. On Monday, we had a community of Faith party, where all the long termers come together to celebrate the newest group of onboarders who have arrived. That’s right, we’re no longer the new kids! Our senior chaplain talked about the triangle part of this community – the hierarchical, job side of our community – sometimes being at odds with the circle part of our community – the faith based, loving, equal side of our community. It was good to hear that acknowledged, because sometimes I am really torn between Renée, the person and community member, and Renée, the media liaison, and that was especially true this week. After the meeting, I decided to go for a swim and several of the other girls from onboarding arrived as well (unplanned) and we had a riot, laughing and telling stories.

Our nurses learn some new skills while
they take care of the patients!

That was one of my big takeaways from being in Grand Popo – that sunshine and water bring me great joy. So I made a big effort this week to go for a swim every day or so, even if it was a night swim, and to start the day with a run outside, to make sure I got a good dose of fresh air, instead of waking up and heading straight into my office. On Saturday, after walking to go get pizza, a group of us found ourselves in the pool once again and we had an impromptu pool ‘olympics’, just being generally loud and ridiculous. Although lots of spontaneous fun happens, there is quite a bit of planned madness as well! On both Saturday and Sunday, the kids (and some adults) had a nerf gun fight on the dock. This was serious business, with pallets stacked and put together as barriers, and plenty of obstacles. There was even someone timing the ‘dead’ people to let them know when they could get back in. It was great fun to watch from the top deck of the ship.

This week, I also finally received my first package on the container from my family! It was a bit delayed because of Hurricane Matthew, but it was well worth the wait. My sister sent me a minion that she made at a build-a-bear workshop, complete with his birth certificate. There was Tim Hortons French Vanilla mix (a delicious taste of home!) and all the ingredients to make magic cookie bars, which led to a fun baking session and then walking around sharing the goodness.

Minion Bob, lovingly made by
Jessica.

This week I got to participate in my first fire drill as part of the fire team and boy, was it intense! I feel very confident that if there was a real fire, our teams could handle it. During the drill, they turned the power off in the middle of the ship and used a smoke machine that spread smoke to several decks (so that the teams had to figure out where the fire was). They had one girl play ‘dead’ or at least unconscious, where they had to carry her out, and they had several ‘actors’ who refused to leave their cabins and gave the fire teams a hard time, to see how they would handle it. They did an amazing job. Thankfully my job is pretty simple – keep track of how much air they have left and let the team leader know when they are at the 10 minute warning. However I did mess up one thing! It’s my job to call in and say that Fire Team 1 is all accounted for and I didn’t do that, so now I know for next time. I guess that’s kind of important eh?

I also had an interesting rehab experience this week… not sure what else to call it! A young boy from the orphanage that we visit up north had broken his leg a few week ago (jumping off a swing) and it was time for his cast change. His caregiver wasn’t feeling great so they asked me to take him down to the tent for his appointment. He was fine until we entered the tent, but once we did, he started screaming and crying (I’m pretty sure he knew what was about to happen), and he didn’t stop for about an hour. I was walking around with him and everyone was looking at me like, what are you doing to that poor child?! When they were cutting his cast off and putting a new one on, I had to lean over him and hold him down. The therapist asked me how long he had the other cast on and I was like…..no idea…I’m just the messenger! The whole time I had to remind myself, you can’t just love them when their cute, you have to love them all the time. Kind of how God loves us all the time, even when we’re screaming or crying or pulling away or being ridiculous. It’s definitely a unique and special type of love to love someone when they are driving you crazy. Anyway, it was quite the experience. I have so much more respect for the physios who deal with lots of scared and screaming children, and also for moms, who do this all the time!

Crazy things go on down in the rehab tent...anything to distract
the kids.

Friday, a whole group of us went to an actual field (well it was mostly sand, but it had some grass!) and had an awesome game of rugby, 7 on 7. It was so much fun. The captain of the ship is basically our rugby coach – he’s so good and patient and really helps us work on making plays instead of just running around. On Sunday, a group of us spent a few hours taking apart pallets (carefully) and sanding them down, to bring to the orphanage, because they use them to make art and sell it to make money. We figured we could get a lot more done here and bring far more if it was taken apart. This means that when we go on Friday, we can spend more time focused on the kids :)

This has mostly been a disjointed set of stories, but I want to share one more that really touched my heart. One of the members of our onboarding team had to go home to deal with a family medical emergency and our senior chaplain called her up front on Thursday night so that we could pray for her. He asked if anyone who was close to her would come and up and lay hands on her and pray with him. I tell you, he hadn’t even finished his sentence and almost every member of our onboarding team was standing up and crowding around her. It was beautiful to see the level of love and support poured out. It made me realize how incredibly grateful I am for our onboarding family. Even though we have all spread out quite a bit, making our own paths and our own friends, we still share that deep connection and bond of having done something very special together. We will always pull back together to support a team member in need. I can’t help but marvel at how quickly they all became an integral part of the community. Everywhere I look, some of them are leading worship, teaching kids Sunday school, getting promoted into leadership positions, serving the crew and the patients. It’s remarkable. I’m so thankful that God brought me to the ship with each of these compassionate, loving people. 

Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. ~ Genesis 2:7