Its been a busy time here since Friday and we are still waiting on the crane to be fixed before we can haul all the trash out in bulk instead of run it all up 2 or 3 decks to the empty bins on deck 8.
We have acquired a galley person in the salads section, and a 'loaner' from crew services...and from time to time I can talk my old (she's young) friend Tatyana from Brazil into doing a little galley work if she can get a babysitter! She used to work with me on another ship years ago, but has since become a mother and has more important priorities (no, not her husband, her other child!)
We have come to an end of the pastors conference, and soon to be finished vision trips (although its just temporary till the next one comes)...as the whole crew eats African food for African Night. And later after the dining room is cleaned quickly we refill for another 60 to 75 dinner guests with a church group that came to 'check us out'. They also are have the African Dinner.
What have all these 'African Dinners' consisted of? Besides West African style foods here is a more specific list:
Spicy baked/roasted chicken, with one of the following: peanut sauce, red sauce, palava sauce...
Rice / Jollof Rice
Spicy Black Eye Beans (black eyed peas, red palm oil, local peppers...)
Eggplant (skin, cube, saute with onion, garlic...later add tomato product like sauce, stewed, or past continue to cook)
Fried Plantains
Cassava/Potato Greens
The ward cook had a tasty looking dinner cooked for the patients yesterday made out of diced chicken, pumpkin, and of course a spicy tomato and red palm oil base.
This food is definitely high starch and not low fat...at least by Western standards.
Alison
My friend Alison is leaving tomorrow. I will miss her. We have had many adventures together. We often went to the Royal Hotel for breakfast on our days off. It made me feel like my life was more normal than it really is since I live on a ship in Africa.
Alison has been at the center of fashion at the tailor and has inspired us to have him make us different things. We share a love of Anthropologie and have brought him many torn-out pages of the catalog and have been pleasantly surprised when it turns out exactly like we thought.
We have had many great talks and I will really miss her.
Alison has been at the center of fashion at the tailor and has inspired us to have him make us different things. We share a love of Anthropologie and have brought him many torn-out pages of the catalog and have been pleasantly surprised when it turns out exactly like we thought.
We have had many great talks and I will really miss her.
Seriously?
My friends Becky, Meghan, and I often sing the Switchfoot song "This is your life. Are you who you wanna be?" when some things happen that you just feel are completely ridiculous. On Grey's Anatomy, they say Seriously? Like, no way, this is not happening to me. The last 24 hours have been full of these moments.
Yesterday I helped carried a little 5-year-old girl, her name is Best, to the bathroom so she could use the potty. Well, Best does not have the best aim and my flip-flops (they flip and they flop, they are nothing as the Captain would say) and my toes quickly went from dry to saturated.
Today I went to ward nurse devotions on the dock. The topic was spiritual warfare. Not my favorite topic. I know it is real, but I feel like way too often we blame far too many things on spiritual warfare and do not take responsibility for our own actions and sin. I was only half listening, actually, I was looking up at the sky at some birds. I don't think I have ever seen a bird here in Liberia. As I was watching the birds fly above the 20 nurses out on the dock I thought I betcha that bird is going to ....... oh crap he pooped on me. Maybe I should give spiritual warfare more thought.
When I first came on to my night shift tonight, I went around to visit all my patients. Mary said that her IV site was hurting. As I placed a new IV, the tubing was not clamped blood came spurting out all over the bed and my pants.
There seems to be a theme. Should I walk around with an umbrella to shield away the next bodily fluid that is going to attack me? I am thinking that wearing a garbage bag over my clothes and an emesis basin on my head could be the obvious solution.
I have really been complaining a lot lately. Mostly about other people complaining. Today I spent most of the day really searching out how to find joy even in the irritations of life.
Psalms 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my anxious thoughts
I read this over and over again. What I took from it was that it is about what my thoughts are. I do not need to be concerned about others. It is only creating my own sin to complain about complainers. It sounds so simple as a write this, but it really was a revelation for me.
It is quite funny to me that I feel like God was trying to get my attention through bodily fluids, but it worked.
Yesterday I helped carried a little 5-year-old girl, her name is Best, to the bathroom so she could use the potty. Well, Best does not have the best aim and my flip-flops (they flip and they flop, they are nothing as the Captain would say) and my toes quickly went from dry to saturated.
Today I went to ward nurse devotions on the dock. The topic was spiritual warfare. Not my favorite topic. I know it is real, but I feel like way too often we blame far too many things on spiritual warfare and do not take responsibility for our own actions and sin. I was only half listening, actually, I was looking up at the sky at some birds. I don't think I have ever seen a bird here in Liberia. As I was watching the birds fly above the 20 nurses out on the dock I thought I betcha that bird is going to ....... oh crap he pooped on me. Maybe I should give spiritual warfare more thought.
When I first came on to my night shift tonight, I went around to visit all my patients. Mary said that her IV site was hurting. As I placed a new IV, the tubing was not clamped blood came spurting out all over the bed and my pants.
There seems to be a theme. Should I walk around with an umbrella to shield away the next bodily fluid that is going to attack me? I am thinking that wearing a garbage bag over my clothes and an emesis basin on my head could be the obvious solution.
I have really been complaining a lot lately. Mostly about other people complaining. Today I spent most of the day really searching out how to find joy even in the irritations of life.
Psalms 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my anxious thoughts
I read this over and over again. What I took from it was that it is about what my thoughts are. I do not need to be concerned about others. It is only creating my own sin to complain about complainers. It sounds so simple as a write this, but it really was a revelation for me.
It is quite funny to me that I feel like God was trying to get my attention through bodily fluids, but it worked.
Salmon, a good basic recipe
Its been pretty busy here on the ship. Especially in food services. We are catering a pastors conference on Monday and Tuesday (lunch only) and then an African Dinner (with West African style food, hence the name) on Tuesday night along with doing the African food for the regular crew that night also...and a lot of other little things going on...the founders of the Organization coming, a group from a church that has wanted to get involved, etc...
In the galley we have several holes in the floor past the tile and into the concrete trying to pinpoint a water leak in the floor itself, several food coolers going down at the same time, the crane (which lifts two big size rolling bins out of the ship with our massive trash in it) has broken down, a lull in staffing in food service right now (although said church is helping out tremendously when they can in the galley)...
Oh, thats right, Salmon! This basic brine or marinade is great especially for Salmon, but I have not really tried it with white fish, because I don't think it would look appealing when it changed the color of the white fish...but oh well, you can always try and see.
Only soak the fish in this mixture for 1 hour, and definitely not longer than 2 (for those of you who don't follow instructions good). Fish will take on flavors quick.
1/3 part sugar
2/3 part soy sauce
add fresh garlic as much as you want or powder till taste is strong
add fresh ginger as much as you want or powder till taste is strong
But use equal parts of garlic and ginger.
I don't really use a whole lot of measurements, I like ratios so it can be scaled up or down. The taste is supposed to be strong because the fish will push out some water AND because this taste will get diluted separated between the fish. This works great on baked, grilled, pan seared, and/or fried Salmon Fillets.
A good example of this recipe would be like this:
1 gallon soy sauce
1/2 gallon sugar
1/4 cup powdered ginger (or half cup fresh!)
1/4 cup powdered garlic (or half cup fresh!)
On the ship, the fish sometimes looks terrible baked in mass quantity with congealed Grey blood and such...so a mass quantity trick (or if its hard to bake flat that many pieces of fish like it is for us) is to flash fry or maybe more technically correct par-fry the fish in the deep fryer till they look good, or golden brown and crusty (but not till there done) and then fill up the hotel pans/chafing dishes and cover and finish cooking all the fish in the oven. Comes out wonderful, looks great, great texture and color on the outside, and tender & moist on the inside. That is, if you don't cook it too long and dry it out!
Thats it! Leave a comment if you have further questions on some of my techniques or recipes found here.
In the galley we have several holes in the floor past the tile and into the concrete trying to pinpoint a water leak in the floor itself, several food coolers going down at the same time, the crane (which lifts two big size rolling bins out of the ship with our massive trash in it) has broken down, a lull in staffing in food service right now (although said church is helping out tremendously when they can in the galley)...
Oh, thats right, Salmon! This basic brine or marinade is great especially for Salmon, but I have not really tried it with white fish, because I don't think it would look appealing when it changed the color of the white fish...but oh well, you can always try and see.
Only soak the fish in this mixture for 1 hour, and definitely not longer than 2 (for those of you who don't follow instructions good). Fish will take on flavors quick.
1/3 part sugar
2/3 part soy sauce
add fresh garlic as much as you want or powder till taste is strong
add fresh ginger as much as you want or powder till taste is strong
But use equal parts of garlic and ginger.
I don't really use a whole lot of measurements, I like ratios so it can be scaled up or down. The taste is supposed to be strong because the fish will push out some water AND because this taste will get diluted separated between the fish. This works great on baked, grilled, pan seared, and/or fried Salmon Fillets.
A good example of this recipe would be like this:
1 gallon soy sauce
1/2 gallon sugar
1/4 cup powdered ginger (or half cup fresh!)
1/4 cup powdered garlic (or half cup fresh!)
On the ship, the fish sometimes looks terrible baked in mass quantity with congealed Grey blood and such...so a mass quantity trick (or if its hard to bake flat that many pieces of fish like it is for us) is to flash fry or maybe more technically correct par-fry the fish in the deep fryer till they look good, or golden brown and crusty (but not till there done) and then fill up the hotel pans/chafing dishes and cover and finish cooking all the fish in the oven. Comes out wonderful, looks great, great texture and color on the outside, and tender & moist on the inside. That is, if you don't cook it too long and dry it out!
Thats it! Leave a comment if you have further questions on some of my techniques or recipes found here.
Alimou
A couple weeks ago a group from the ship went to Guinea to screen people for surgeries. And they hit the mother load. They found a total of 21 patients that all had problems that are the specialties of Mercy Ships. Alimou was one of them.
If you have ever been to the Mercy Ships website you would have seen many pictures of people with very large tumors, Alimou will be added to that list, I am sure. Alimou was flown to the ship with a couple other patients and the man that brought them from Guinea said that the stench from his tumor was so bad that the other passengers were gagging and as soon as the plane landed they ran off the plane.
On Thursday Alimou had his surgery and it was very popular. Everyone wanted to be in the OR as they took his 6.6 pound tumor off. After they completed the surgery they extubated (took out his breathing tube) and Alimou did not tolerate it. They had to emergently re-intubate him. Alimou was taken to the ICU and placed on a ventilator (breathing machine) and sedation drugs and was continuously monitored.
I came in on Friday morning, not really thinking about the fact that I would be with him in the ICU. That was probably a good thing, I don't think I would have slept as well as I did in my ignorant bliss. I walked in received report and started doing the things that make my brain happy: labeling every tube and line, attaching the BMV (bag valve mask) to the oxygen, mixing up more drugs "just in case", re taping my ET tube (endotracheal tube) repositioning Alimou, etc....
Friday was a very long and very short day. It was long because it has been a while since I have had a real ICU patient and short because he was very sick and there was a lot to do.
Saturday morning I went down to see Alimou and he now had a tracheostomy but was still on the ventilator and was starting to wake up, thus he was thrashing all over the bed.
Sunday, my friend Jenn (a NICU nurse) was the chosen one to take care of Alimou. Jenn did a wonderful job despite a very large difference in her patient population that she is used to working with. Alimou was definitly awake and very ticked off/ confused. He did a lot of fighting and everything was much more difficult for Jenn than it needed to be due to the constant moving target. I went in to see if Jenn and Alimou were doing ok. Alimou woke up looked at me and made his first attempt to smile, despite the large dressing on his entire head.
Monday morning Alimou and I were reunited. I spent the whole day shift trying to problem solve. He hates his NG feeding (the tube that is in his nose that we put ensure down so he can have proper nutrition so he can heal). I feel like in nursing it is so easy to just be busy and not really get to know your patient. I have really connected with Alimou, I am not sure if it was the stressful experience we had on the previous Friday or just me actually taking the time to get to know him, even though he only speaks French. But who cares, we don't need words. We play a never ending game of charades.
When I did his dressing change, I gave Alimou a mirror and as I unwrapped his many layers of gauze he awaited anxiously for his first glimpse of his new tumor free face. After the last layer of gauze came off his eyes started to fill with tears and he threw his hands up in the air in praise to the Lord. After that experience I put my the thoughts of "why in the world am I living on a ship in Africa?" on a high up shelf. I am sure that they may drift back down to my thoughts but for now Alimou's disproportionate smile is what is filling that void.
The rest of the week as been a roller coaster for Alimou. Sometimes he looks much better and other times he looks like he is spiraling down. He is not making enough urine and is becoming more swollen, but despite all this he has this huge smile that lights up his eyes. He has such a sweet and gentle spirit that is obvious when he reaches out for my hand any time I walk into D ward.
Please be praying for Alimou. Please pray that his kidneys start to work more efficiently and that he regains his strengtha and does not loose his joy in the battle of his recovery.
If you have ever been to the Mercy Ships website you would have seen many pictures of people with very large tumors, Alimou will be added to that list, I am sure. Alimou was flown to the ship with a couple other patients and the man that brought them from Guinea said that the stench from his tumor was so bad that the other passengers were gagging and as soon as the plane landed they ran off the plane.
On Thursday Alimou had his surgery and it was very popular. Everyone wanted to be in the OR as they took his 6.6 pound tumor off. After they completed the surgery they extubated (took out his breathing tube) and Alimou did not tolerate it. They had to emergently re-intubate him. Alimou was taken to the ICU and placed on a ventilator (breathing machine) and sedation drugs and was continuously monitored.
I came in on Friday morning, not really thinking about the fact that I would be with him in the ICU. That was probably a good thing, I don't think I would have slept as well as I did in my ignorant bliss. I walked in received report and started doing the things that make my brain happy: labeling every tube and line, attaching the BMV (bag valve mask) to the oxygen, mixing up more drugs "just in case", re taping my ET tube (endotracheal tube) repositioning Alimou, etc....
Friday was a very long and very short day. It was long because it has been a while since I have had a real ICU patient and short because he was very sick and there was a lot to do.
Saturday morning I went down to see Alimou and he now had a tracheostomy but was still on the ventilator and was starting to wake up, thus he was thrashing all over the bed.
Sunday, my friend Jenn (a NICU nurse) was the chosen one to take care of Alimou. Jenn did a wonderful job despite a very large difference in her patient population that she is used to working with. Alimou was definitly awake and very ticked off/ confused. He did a lot of fighting and everything was much more difficult for Jenn than it needed to be due to the constant moving target. I went in to see if Jenn and Alimou were doing ok. Alimou woke up looked at me and made his first attempt to smile, despite the large dressing on his entire head.
Monday morning Alimou and I were reunited. I spent the whole day shift trying to problem solve. He hates his NG feeding (the tube that is in his nose that we put ensure down so he can have proper nutrition so he can heal). I feel like in nursing it is so easy to just be busy and not really get to know your patient. I have really connected with Alimou, I am not sure if it was the stressful experience we had on the previous Friday or just me actually taking the time to get to know him, even though he only speaks French. But who cares, we don't need words. We play a never ending game of charades.
When I did his dressing change, I gave Alimou a mirror and as I unwrapped his many layers of gauze he awaited anxiously for his first glimpse of his new tumor free face. After the last layer of gauze came off his eyes started to fill with tears and he threw his hands up in the air in praise to the Lord. After that experience I put my the thoughts of "why in the world am I living on a ship in Africa?" on a high up shelf. I am sure that they may drift back down to my thoughts but for now Alimou's disproportionate smile is what is filling that void.
The rest of the week as been a roller coaster for Alimou. Sometimes he looks much better and other times he looks like he is spiraling down. He is not making enough urine and is becoming more swollen, but despite all this he has this huge smile that lights up his eyes. He has such a sweet and gentle spirit that is obvious when he reaches out for my hand any time I walk into D ward.
Please be praying for Alimou. Please pray that his kidneys start to work more efficiently and that he regains his strengtha and does not loose his joy in the battle of his recovery.
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