Wanted to get on here today
to give you a brief update and share a little bit of what's happening on the
ship even though I'm not there physically. I've been somewhat busy lately,
nothing major to put on here, just a little bit here and there.
To get fundraising
going a little bit more I have started selling some photo note cards with photos
I took at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis and last night I ordered some
with pictures from Sierra Leone. There page to see them is at the top right of this page where it says Photo Note Cards. On Sunday April 22nd there will be a
dinner at my church to help as a fundraiser. I will be cooking a meal, and all
donations will go towards my crew fees, airfare and expenses while with Mercy
Ships. I hope to share some information with the people that haven't seen my
presentation since coming back from Sierra Leone.
Things at work are starting to wind down
already. It has been good to help teach the students the basics of the Culinary
world, but everyday I am reminded how much I long to be back on the ship. The
students will be doing a dinner for their families next week and it will be
good for them to get some experience cooking for people other than those in
class.
This past Saturday I had a bonfire. I have had bonfire on Easter weekend before, this year I wanted to make sure and do it again. It was good to be able to hang out with some of my friends. I will be leaving them in less than two months! It will be sad to leave them, but it is great to know that I will be working and living with so many great people on the ship.
The next few weeks I will be doing a couple more catering jobs. It's great to know people want to help me get back to the ship. Helping me with support in any way that they can. I have to purchase my ticket to fly to the ship soon, each donation makes it easier for me to book that flight.
On the ship they have reached thier half way mark in Togo. I have kept in contact with several friends on the ship and several people that have left the ship. It is great to be able to know what's going on in each of their lives. I have an excerpt of something Jenny, a friend of mine posted. She's from Sydney, Australia, married and has three children my age and older. Yesterday she worked at the VVF screening. VVF stands for fistuals that form in women that aren't able to have C-section births. Here's a link if you want to understand it better.
So hard to find words to describe what I
experienced yesterday..... screening day for the VVF (obstetric fistula)
ladies. It was my job to take histories from the ladies, so I got to hear in
detail their tragic stories of obstructed labors ending in still birth, lives
of ridicule and ostracism due to the fact that they constantly leak urine from
the resulting fistulas, childlessness, and being left by husbands who could not live with a woman with such a
problem. I looked into their eyes and saw right into their souls - saw the pain
of loss, a plea for help to return to a normal life - a life that should never
have been taken from them in the first place. All this heartache and despair
for want of good, basic obstetric care - surely not too much to ask, surely the
right of all women everywhere. And as I listened, I couldn't help but think -
"that could have been me" - if I had not had access to a well
equipped maternity ward and trained midwives and doctors, if I had been giving
birth in a developing country back then in 1988 - what would have become of my
strong, healthy 24 yr old son who refused to be born in the conventional way,
and what would have become of me?? A life of grief and loneliness, spent
outcast, childless and poor, deserted by family and friends and unemployable?? Yes,
this may sound overdramatic, but it is the reality for these women and girls (some
as young as 14, and some in their 60's) . It is why we can't ignore issues of
poverty and injustice; it is why we cannot let our governments decrease foreign
aid budgets....... it is why we need to love and to care!! Praise God that
there is hope for these brave and beautiful women, that there are nurses,
midwives and doctors willing to go into these places and serve, that there are
now organizations like the Worldwide Fistula Fund, and for the pioneering work
in this field of people like Katherine Hamlin. But also pray for more - for
more hope and more healing, for better care and better education of young girls
and women, for their rights to live freely with access to all that we take for
granted.
