Ciatta went home....

Let's be honest, not many patients that come back from the OR on a ventilator, on the ship, have happy endings to their story. Ciatta came into the ship very sick, but yesterday she went home with her family and she looks wonderful. I had the privilege to get to know her and her 4 children and husband over the past week, and they really are lovely people. Today she came back to the ship to have her dressing changed and her wound looked at (which is fine-o) and she brought me an African dress, skirt, shirt, and head wrap. When she told me she wanted to buy me a suit I cried and she wiped my tears and told me she loved me. When she introduces me to people she says I am her white daughter. When she took my "measurements" she told me to stand up and turn around and told her husband to buy a dress and my size is "plenty, plenty". Which apparently is very large. Pretty much it just made me laugh.

Put your hands on your hips....

Today I was on D ward and it was a great day. The ward is filling up with the cutest kids in the world. Oh my they are just precious and they love to be loved on. After the shift we took them up to deck 7 and 2 of the girls were trying to teach me how to dance African style. They said "Put your hands on hips and shake your hips". It was so fun to see Fatu (12 that had cleft palate surgery) and Baby (15 jaw reconstruction due to Noma) dance, laugh, blow bubbles, and really enjoy life. The VVF women were learning how to crochet and the young boys Abraham and Emmett blew bubbles, pretty much it was great.

Multi-purpose tubs

I stole a few pictures from Michelle Zeller (her blog is mzellerafrica.blogspot.com she does palliative care).  Just because the pictures were so cute.  (yes, this is still Tyrone talking).

   

We have several of these tubs that we use in the galley, colored just like the one you see here...we use them for defrosting meats, marinating meats, making salads in bulk (coleslaw, macaroni, tuna... those kinds of salads), and a myriad of other things.  Here in Liberia, well as you can plainly see it works as a good bathtub for babies!

I am sure this is what I would have looked like as a child if I was west African and grew up in Liberia~ (pssst, I still eat like that)

This is baby George eating his rice.  How cute is that?

The Liberian Handshake

An example of the Liberian handshake. This is used whenever greeting or meeting people. Mostly a simple handshake and the snapping of fingers is what I use.

1 - grasp the hand of your counterpart:
2 - slide into a thumb-to-thumb grip:

 

 

 

 

3 - pull back to clutch the finger tips of your counterpart:
4 - release with a loud snap of the middle fingers:
Note that the handshake can be abbreviated by jumping straight from the quick hand shake to the snap.

 

Reminds me of a couple of handshakes in my old neighborhood...

Pictures of Henry

Henry is still here on the ward. His wounds (from a severe dental infection that almost took his life) are healing and he looks so much better than the first day I received him in the ICU almost 3 weeks ago.

Henry spends most of the day just sitting around waiting for the day to pass, but during the week he goes up to deck seven and plays football (soccer) as his Occupational Therapy. I went up the other day and we were teammates and pretty much won by a lot.