B is for Baby
One of the weird things (there are many) on the ship is that even on your time off you hear about the new patients, the emergencies, and the funny things that are going on in the ward. When you live literally 200 feet from the ward it is easy to go down on my time off to see what is going on. Earlier in the day I heard we got 2 more babies on the ward. Actually, it is the mom who is having surgery, but the 2-week old twins are with her. I walked down to B ward and was taken back when I opened the door and heard 3 babies crying. It was music to my ear, mostly because I knew that I would be able to hold one of them. I picked up Anthony who is 10 days old and he instantly calmed down and nestled into my chest. He was brought to the ship when he was 6 days old with a condition in which his spinal cord was exposed in a little sack and was becoming infected. Now, little itty bitty Anthony is on the ward. after his surgery a couple of days ago, getting antibiotics and spoiled by all the nurses that crave baby time like I. Stephanie
Cooking Teams
The team setups for cooking are a bit unusual but they work. I'll explain. The baker kind of has his own hours that usually start way early in the morning and finishes up around midday...nothing really unusual there. Right now the baker takes Wednesday and Sunday off. Before the baker used to take the weekend off but made sure and had enough backup bread in the freezer to last thru the weekend.
Then we have 2 or 3 people on salad team which usually runs 8-5 Mon-Fri. But our cooking teams, of which we have two, work 2 on-2 off- 3 on- 2 off- 2 on- 3 off...confused? It looks like this. Team one works Monday and Tuesday, then Friday, Saturday, Sunday, then Wednesday and Thursday of the following week...that's a two week schedule. Team two works the alternating days. Their schedule on each team starts at 8 in the morning and ends about 7 at night. Oh its not that bad if you think about it...two fifteen minute breaks one at 10am and another at 3pm(approximately) then usually an hour for lunch and an hour for dinner.
We also have devotions (devo's for short) or some kind of meetings every morning Mon-Fri so that is another half hour deducted from actual physical working time...and they do work hard! But if you subtract the breaks, lunch and dinner break, and devo's you eliminate 3 hours from the 11 hour shift which brings it nicely back to an actual 8 hours physical work time. The stress and heat of it can can make it feel like 12 hours straight sometimes.
In addition to that at least one person is dedicated to being ward cook on each team (cook for local patients on the ward) because if the locals ate our food it would probably give them some extra grief adjusting to a new diet so we have a local person cook local food for the locals, sounds like it makes sense doesn't it? (at least locally right?). Also a dedicated dishwasher (this usually takes two sometimes) and two storeman because a crew and local workers of this number/multitude eat a lot of food and we don't have the privilege of ordering food every week from a local supplier who can meet our demand. So most of our stores are in months supplies stored in the bowels of the ship. Including 4 walk in freezers and a walk in cooler/fridge/reefer as well as a few upstairs (mini versions).
Back to the teams...
Instead of calling them team one and team two, lets change the name so in case they read this post/blog they won't start teasing each other about who's number one and number two.
Right now we are actually staffed right in the galley, dining room needs more workers.
Team Fried Chicken consists of the following nationalities: Ghana x2, Guinea x1, Canada x1, Australia x1, Liberia x2
Team Water Melon consists of the following nationalities: Australia x1, US x1, Ghana x1, Guinea x1, Hong Kong/Canada x1, Liberia x2
Salad Team consists of the following nationalities: US x1, England x1, Liberia x1
Storeman consists of the following nationalities: Ghana x1, Canada x1
Baker consists of: Germany x1
So you see its a very diverse group of teams I work with daily, and its constantly changing.
I'll get more into my role later on...don't want to put you to sleep all at one time.
Then we have 2 or 3 people on salad team which usually runs 8-5 Mon-Fri. But our cooking teams, of which we have two, work 2 on-2 off- 3 on- 2 off- 2 on- 3 off...confused? It looks like this. Team one works Monday and Tuesday, then Friday, Saturday, Sunday, then Wednesday and Thursday of the following week...that's a two week schedule. Team two works the alternating days. Their schedule on each team starts at 8 in the morning and ends about 7 at night. Oh its not that bad if you think about it...two fifteen minute breaks one at 10am and another at 3pm(approximately) then usually an hour for lunch and an hour for dinner.
We also have devotions (devo's for short) or some kind of meetings every morning Mon-Fri so that is another half hour deducted from actual physical working time...and they do work hard! But if you subtract the breaks, lunch and dinner break, and devo's you eliminate 3 hours from the 11 hour shift which brings it nicely back to an actual 8 hours physical work time. The stress and heat of it can can make it feel like 12 hours straight sometimes.
In addition to that at least one person is dedicated to being ward cook on each team (cook for local patients on the ward) because if the locals ate our food it would probably give them some extra grief adjusting to a new diet so we have a local person cook local food for the locals, sounds like it makes sense doesn't it? (at least locally right?). Also a dedicated dishwasher (this usually takes two sometimes) and two storeman because a crew and local workers of this number/multitude eat a lot of food and we don't have the privilege of ordering food every week from a local supplier who can meet our demand. So most of our stores are in months supplies stored in the bowels of the ship. Including 4 walk in freezers and a walk in cooler/fridge/reefer as well as a few upstairs (mini versions).
Back to the teams...
Instead of calling them team one and team two, lets change the name so in case they read this post/blog they won't start teasing each other about who's number one and number two.
Right now we are actually staffed right in the galley, dining room needs more workers.
Team Fried Chicken consists of the following nationalities: Ghana x2, Guinea x1, Canada x1, Australia x1, Liberia x2
Team Water Melon consists of the following nationalities: Australia x1, US x1, Ghana x1, Guinea x1, Hong Kong/Canada x1, Liberia x2
Salad Team consists of the following nationalities: US x1, England x1, Liberia x1
Storeman consists of the following nationalities: Ghana x1, Canada x1
Baker consists of: Germany x1
So you see its a very diverse group of teams I work with daily, and its constantly changing.
I'll get more into my role later on...don't want to put you to sleep all at one time.
For all the coffee lovers...
Coffee Art
There is a restaurant in Vancouver ..actually three
where they dress up the lattes.
You get to watch them create the pictures.
(thanks Carol for passing this one along!)
Welcome to the Ward
Here are some pictures of the ward patients. The little boy is Adolpho. He had a mass removed from his ear. He is a very rambunctious child. He played with a truck constantly, supporting the theory "boys will be boys" even in Liberia. The little girl is Godgive (yes that is her real name). The rest are of the ward nurses getting "handover" and of various other patients. We are not allowed to take pics on the ward due to patient privacy, these are the communication departments' pics, hence the watermark.
Henry
Henry is a 21 year old guy that was brought to the ship from a dental clinic about 8 days ago after he pulled out his own infected tooth.When he was brought to the ship he was in bad shape. His heart rate was in the 150's, his blood pressure was low and he was really struggling to breath. The infection had taken over his mouth, jaw and right chest. He was brought to surgery emergently and they cleaned out the horrible smelling stuff that was killing him.
I received Henry from the recovery room and he had 14 penrose drains (drains that allow the exudate to leave the body to get rid of the infection) in his mouth and chest. Over the next couple of days I spent countless hours with Henry, changing his dressing, starting IVs, giving him meds, and just trying to keep him comfortable.
On Sunday and Monday they took Henry back to the OR to clean him out again. As of Sunday morning Henry was not looking good, I was starting to think maybe we would loose him too. All of this time Henry was quiet and very stoic. But on Tuesday I came in to take care of him, I almost started to cry. Henry was sitting up in a chair, the drains in his mouth were gone. I think I actually screamed in excitement and Henry started to laugh. Woohoo!! That to me was pure joy, to see a boy that was so miserable and incredibly sick, laugh. Henry still has a long way to go. His wounds are very open and really need to heal. Please pray that Henry will have no more infection and that he will recover quickly so he can go home!!!!
I received Henry from the recovery room and he had 14 penrose drains (drains that allow the exudate to leave the body to get rid of the infection) in his mouth and chest. Over the next couple of days I spent countless hours with Henry, changing his dressing, starting IVs, giving him meds, and just trying to keep him comfortable.
On Sunday and Monday they took Henry back to the OR to clean him out again. As of Sunday morning Henry was not looking good, I was starting to think maybe we would loose him too. All of this time Henry was quiet and very stoic. But on Tuesday I came in to take care of him, I almost started to cry. Henry was sitting up in a chair, the drains in his mouth were gone. I think I actually screamed in excitement and Henry started to laugh. Woohoo!! That to me was pure joy, to see a boy that was so miserable and incredibly sick, laugh. Henry still has a long way to go. His wounds are very open and really need to heal. Please pray that Henry will have no more infection and that he will recover quickly so he can go home!!!!
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