Thank you for your interest in our lives and our experiences here in Benin, and through your friendship and support you really are part of it!
A lot has happened since we arrived here in Cotonou not too long ago - I will concentrate on some of the events .... and you can look forward to the next update in a week!
We heard that some of you experienced carneval in one way or the other - but I bet none of you saw anything like this! You can be sure - this is no masquerade, this is the sad reality of many in Westafrica! And one of the reasons why we are here....
On the 19th and 20th of February we had the so-called SCREENING DAYS in a big stadium - with approx. 5000 people from near and far coming, hoping for help for problems that could either not be treated here or even if, being absolutely unaffordable for them.
People stood in line for hours and hours, waiting for the doors to open and holding on to the hope for help. The Advance team has made this screening known for many months - through newspapers, media, churches, governmental means and personal relationships.
Even though we were warned to expect unrest and chaos, we experienced an amazingly peaceful and controlled crowd - we know that many prayed for these critical and very intense days... thanks!!!
We also felt the support through prayer - for it is an undescribable task to listen to all these (often so tragic) stories and find the people suitable for surgery on the ship and also having to say no to the ones we cannot help.... here some of the many many impressions we got:
Most of the people shown above received an appointment card for surgery on board of the Africa Mercy and will receive help free of charge.
Wolfgang saw many of the accepted patients for surgery for the medical check - seeing if a surgery can be performed healthwise.
Even though he had a translator he started to enjoy practicing his french... But often people spoke only their tribal language - the most common one is Fon - and you can learn one word here that you hear on the street so much that even Amy and David know it: YOVO! (White person!)
Once again the donated portable ultrasoundmachine was a huge help and blessing for diagnostics.
One of the many many patients Wolfgang saw was little 3 year old FALILA - in a very bad state with big (malign) tumor disfiguring her cute little face. Soon the diagnosis was made that this was a Burkitt´s lymphoma - a very fast growing lymphoma that is doubling the cells in 2 days. This is the only malign (in German: bösartiger) tumor that the ship can get involved with for it is very receptive to special chemotherapy.
Wolfgang and another doctor organized it for this girl to be taken to a local hospital and the ship provided the chemotherapy. When we accompanied Wolfgang 4 days later to look after her at this hospital she was looking completey different! The disfiguring tumor....
.... was almost gone! She still has a long road to go with some more cycles of chemotherapy needed after some weeks - but there is actually hope for complete cure! Without chemo and medical treatment this girl would have died within the coming days...
Back to Screening!
I helped with the orthopedic screening and it was always a joyful moment when we were able to tell someone that yes, we can help on the ship.
For example this guy had a broken metal plate sticking out of his leg - an infected wound creating excrutiating pain - but he doesn´t have the money to afford going to a hospital!
This is a man who was hiding his left hand under his shirt - and soon we found out why! These two enormous fingers caused the people of his village to believe that he is cursed by an evil spirit and they were avoiding him - he was an outcast with no hope. He will now get these two fingers amputated and can still fully use the other three - and no one will cast him out because they think he is cursed!
But there were the hard moments also of having to say no to people - one of the toughest things I ever experienced. This little baby boy was born with a missing lower leg on the right - the foot was coming out of the shortened upper leg, and there is nothing we can do. The mother started crying and we all suffered with her pain. I felt prompted to tell her that nevertheless her child is very valuable and special and that she should teach him that. I told her of Nick, the about 21 year old from NZL who came to the ship in Liberia last year - he was born without limps, no arms or legs! (www.lifewithoutlimbs.org) He was so miserable about it that he committed suicide as a child -but finally embraced the message that his parents had passed on to him: that he is loved and very valuable in God´s eyes! Now he travels around the world with a powerful message about the only real and deep acceptance we can find - and that is in God!
Every person who had to be sent home without being accepted for surgery got offered prayer. Many people are muslims here or are involved in Woodoo or other tribal religions, so even though prayer was just an offer and not part of the screening routines, we were surprised how thankful people accepted the offer and allowed us to pray for them or even with them. And God is the one who can heal the person from inside - no surgery can do that!
It was amazing to see at least two third of the about 380 crew members be involved with the screening in all kinds of ways but still supporting the same thing (just like the work on the ship functions!- medical people of course, but also non-medical in security (like Wolfgang´s brother Klaus), escorting, handing out water, communications, driving, prayer/counselling.....
.....and playing with the kids that had to wait for hours!
They loved the attention and care and the fun! They loved balls...
.... even though some still have to learn how to kick one!
Last year the main screening day was on the 18th of February, directly on Wolfgang´s birthday! On exact that day he was so sick with a flu and temperature - but he was so much needed at Screening that he had to drag himself there and survive one of the toughest birthdays of his life.
This year it was different:
We had time to congratulate him - David wrote his first selfwritten birthday card,....
....... and Klaus taught me how to bake real German "Zopf" for Wolfgang (and how to improvise a little bit with the ingredients....)
And who would appreciate this delicacy more than the Germanspeaking crew on board? So we invited the Germanspeaking people (Swiss / German / Austrian) to us into our new cabin....
.... and celebrated Wolfgang´s birthday with over 20 people in our cabin! Just good that not all the Germanspeaking crew was able to come - otherwise we would have had to sit on top of each other!
David and Amy were not able to join the fun for it was time for bed...
... but don´t worry, they have alot of fun, too!
Let me show you our two cute "energy-balls! All dressed up, but also not for carneval...
.... but for the International dress up day from the School! All students were asked to come dressed up with something typical for their country - and with us here on the ship representing about 39 nations the kids alone showed a pretty colorful picture!
This is David´s class - just 4 students in his grade of so-called Kindergarten (equals first grade in Germany) and just these 4 kids represent 5 different nations: USA, Canada, Denmark/Sweden and Germany! (Be glad this picture of David exists - he actually hated his "Lederhosen"!)
So much for now - be blessed and till next week!
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