Blogs from Liberia, Africa - page 5

Screening day... the busiest day so far. It is a day where hundreds and thousands of people come to a soccer stadium in hopes of free surgery. As soon as something free comes up, automatically people will come with whatever ailments they have just to see if they will be helped and get something for free in a country where nothing is free. It is a day where people will wait in line for hours on end in an anticipating hope that someone will be able to treat their sickness they have for so long carried with them. Most people by now know Mercy Ships and our ministry as it is the third time that we have been here to Liberia. We have asked the Monrovia police and the UNMIL police to help us out ... read more

Again, I am reminded this day how lucky I am to be here serving in this way. Every sunday morning there is a worship service on the ward of the ship because of the patient's are unable to leave the ship to attend a church service. Many parents and caregivers stay with the younger patients as it is required that those who are under 15 must have a caregiver with them to help take care of them. We have many children here who we help. Many of the children are here for a longer period of time because of the nature of their injuries. Some have been burned and have contractures that need releases or areas of skin that need grafting. Many of them have cleft lips and palates that keep them from getting proper ... read more

Hello All. I hope this entry finds you all well! I must say... I have been having some pretty cool experiences here making friends and meeting new people. Everywhere I go, everyone here in Monrovia knows that Mercy Ships is here... so people yell out and call to us... Hey You, you from Mercy Ships? And then we stop and say yes... then they proceed to tell us their problem, so we can tell them about the next screening and the clinics that are set up at the hospitals for them to be screened. One such neighbor who did that was Doyen... he is an older gentleman who works on the tug boat that docks near our ship. It is the only tugboat that is working in Freeport harbour. The other one sank and the ... read more

From Swaziland we searched again, fully and futilely for a non-flight transport mode to get to west Africa… We found a pleasure boat ride that could take us from Cape Town as far as Angola and drop us off, and we heard that from Accra you can take a motorboat to Monrovia, but the journey takes about three days and sometimes the boat capsizes. Walking and hitching was seen and recommended as a certain death sentence. Even as we drove in a rental car from Mbabane, Swaziland’s capital, to Johannesburg airport we were advised to never pick up hitchhikers. We broke this rule a few times for an elderly lady first, and a young woman second, who was on her way to the town to do some shopping and appeared by the side of the ... read more