My Thanksgiving.

I know Thanksgiving is one of those holidays were most people have plenty of traditions to uphold and follow. However this weekend I have been thinking about what Thanksgiving actually means and I am almost positive that eating lots of food until you are about to burst then laying around watching tv while you flip through the ads for Black Friday is not the only way to celebrate. Enjoyable to most but not the only way. This Thanksgiving I celebrated in a new way and it was such a wonderful day.

It started out by not having to work thanks to all the hard work the dental team did 3 days prior. It was not planned to take the day off however it worked out that way. 

I woke up without an alarm which is one of my most favorite things to do. After waking up I talked on the phone to a dear friend living in Norway then I had lunch. After lunch I thought to myself oh my!  my first day finished with the clinic and I am all ready bored. Then I remembered I needed to actually make a trip out to the clinic to check on one thing. So I got a car and set out for the dental clinic one last time.

On my way I remembered I also needed to stop and see Joyce and Jugo one last time. You might be asking yourself who are Joyce and Jugo? I blogged about them back on September 12. Here is the short version on them. Joyce the mom and Jugo the daughter came to the dental clinic on the first day back in February. Jugo needed a cleft palate operation and we did that for her back in September. From February until now I have developed a lovely relationship with this family. I have been to Joyce's store several time for visits and she would randomly stop by the clinic just to say hi and see how things were going. Over the months I have really grown attached to them.

So I thought Thursday would be the perfect day to stop by and say hello/goodbye. First I stopped at Joyce's shop where she has a small business. After visiting for a while we decided to go pick Jugo and her sister up from school. That was a treat in its self. They were so surprised to see me and not only to see me but to see me at their school. After picking them up we drove to their house. The ride was so fun. The girls had never been in a car and they loved it. Every little bump and pot hole that most people complain about they laughed about. On the way to their house we made a small detour at the tailor shop to pick up the dress they had made for me. It was so cute.. I love it. Once we got to the house they showed me around which took about 2 min. The house was 3 rooms one room had a bed on the floor, and one room was the kitchen/ toilet all in one. The girls changed clothed and then I took them back to the shop. I asked Joyce how late will she work tonight and she told me 9pm. She then said in Africa you must work hard so your children can have a little. By the time we arrived back at the shop it was time for me to go.  We prayed together, said our good byes, and even cried all of us including Jugo. 

You might think to yourself this seems like an awful way to celebrate Thanksgiving... but it was so wonderful. I was able to just for a few hours step into the normal every day life of a little girl who's life has been changed by what we done here on the ship. I was able to see the grace God has given them and myself. I was able to see that the people we are here serving are just that people with normal lives. People like you and I that are just trying to get by. While we were praying before I left Joyce said one line that I will never forget She said "Father Thank you for using Jessica to stop my tears. Thank you for guiding us to her, and using her to guide us to the ship. My tears are gone now and I thank her but PRAISE YOU for who YOU ARE. 

This has been the best Thanksgiving ever and it was not because I had a nice spread of Turkey, potatoes, dressing, and pumpkin pie.....which I did have in case you were wondering. It was because I was able to see at the end of the day all politics and branding put aside, peoples lives are being touched and in most cases it turns out that not just the patients lives are being changed it is also ours. The crew members who are here to help but in the end are helped more than we/ I could ever imagined. 

I hope you enjoyed your families and friends over the Holiday, I know I missed mine but none the less I had a day full of things to be Thankful for. 

Joyce outside her small shop. 


Surprise pick up at school. The girls loved it. 
Jugo at home jumping on the bed. Typical kid. 
Outside the house just before we said good bye. 

Packed Up Cleaned Up Wrapped Up Day 3

Day 3 and the dental clinic is now packed into a container sitting on Deck 8. It only took us 3 days to tear it down, clean it up, and bring it back. All our hard work payed off and now we get tomorrow OFF... which means it will be just like home(well not just like but as close as it is going to get) tomorrow on Thanksgiving Day.  Sleep, spending time with good friends, and a Thanksgiving Day meal. I have so much to be Thankful for, and have had an Amazing year. Time for whatever is NEXT. 

First trip from the clinic to the ship

Second trip from the clinic to the ship. Packed true African Style. Stuff  stuffed everywhere.

Neighborhood boys waving goodbye to us the last time we pulled out of the clinic. 
3rd and final trip from the clinic to the ship. We had to stop and retie down the tables on the top of my Land Rover. We almost lost them. 
Me bringing in the LAST thing to be packed into the container. WOO HOO it is finished.
The container with all the dental stuff.
and there it goes from the dock to deck 8. 

That my friends is how you tear down, pack up, and move a dental clinic from land to sea.

Cleaned Up. Day 2.

DAY 2. Cleaning- Finished! Only thing left to do is bring it all back to the ship tomorrow. :) 

Day 2 
empty sterilization room 

Empty Dental Clinic

loading up the generators and compressors. That was a big job! Thanks Karl for the help.

All the equipment packed and ready to be driven back to the ship to be placed in our container tomorrow. 

Pack it Up. Day 1

Last Friday a clinic full of patients. Today messy rooms with people everywhere packing up.

DAY 1

Friday's Patient Pick.. The First and The Last

Today was the last day of treating patient at the Dental Clinic and it was bitter sweet. We had so many patient waiting outside the gate of our clinic that as we drove away for the ship at 5:00pm many were still standing there begging us to help them some of them even had tears running down their faces. That is hard to take anytime and as I sit here and type this I am emotionally and physically drained. However as I have said many times, God knows when you have had enough and he knows just the way to ease your mind. Which brings me to my LAST Friday patient pick Mousaha. 

Mousaha has a rather long history with us. His chart reads patient number 52. He came to see us for the first time on November 27 our first day of clinic. He presented with a rather severe mandible fracture. He is the same man I talked about in a story on my blog back in April. The patient featured on the short dental video the ship put out many months ago. The same man I have spotted several times around town while I was out and about..every time resulted in him greeting me with a smile and a hand shake. 

Well today when he walked though the gate, I was greeted with a hug in addition to his huge smile.  He came in today for his final check and Praise God he is healed completely, including his new denture that replaced 7 teeth that needed to be removed for the surgery, and oh man is he happy with the results. 

As we did our last hugs and smiles to one another and he turned his back to walk out the gate for the last time, a part of me felt so complete. Not only is he my Friday patient pick... He is my Favorite patient ever pick.

His first appointment was our first day of clinic and his last appointment was our last day of clinic. 10 months of treatment and finally his chart reads DISCHARGED.

His charts full of clinical notes from all of his appointments.

10,000th.....

Introducing our 10,000th Patient.......

The dental team treated it's 10,000 patient today. It was rather exciting for me especially because this is the goal I personally set for us before the outreach even began and now we have actually achieved it. I think this is a testimony to how HARD we have been working these past 10 months.

When I think of the many volunteer crew and patients that have passed through the gates at the Dental Clinic this outreach it amazes me. Meeting this goal represents the hard work of many people of all ages and nationalities treating and caring for one patient at a time one day at a time. 

WAY TO GO DENTAL TEAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Friday's Patient Pick! Prison Edition.

Yesterday and Today the Dental Team went to the Cotonou Prison to work. We treated 310 patients in 2 days and had a blast doing it. More photos to come tomorrow or Sunday. This brings me to my patient pick. The gentleman below was one of the first ones in line to receive treatment. After his tooth was extracted he decided to show off a pit for the camera. He also decided he liked me and thought it was necessary to present me with a nice pair of sandals (picture below).  At the end of today we had a little sing and dance time and a few of the prisoners joined us in our celebration.... one of them being FRIDAY PATIENT PICK- prison Edition. :)  

Please do not bypass the hugeness of this mans muscles. 
Being a poser
My lovely small sandals, which I love and will keep forever.

Do you know what this means.....?

What I hold in my hand is very important. It is the hand over manual for the NEXT dental coordinator. Which means I am ALMOST done.............. can you believe it. 

I spent all day trying to explain my job for the next God selected coordinator and the entire time I couldn't stop thinking how fast my appointed time has flew by...my mom might beg to differ. :) 

I am:

8 clinic days

5 clean up days

7 days of wrapping up

10 days of sailing

5 days in Tenerife,

1 1/2 days in the air 

## and a few other odd days

          AWAY FROM BEING HOME!!!!

 

Freely He Gives...

There are moments in life that seem to be the worst thing possible but turns out to the best thing possible. And there are also moments in life that mean the world to you that only you and God often fully understand the depth and width of that moment regardless of how you try to explain it and share it with others. 

I must say living on a ship docked in West Africa working amongst the poorest of the poor is the perfect setting for these types of moments to occur. Every minute of every day could be one of these potential ”moments," however they only come along and hit you with such impact in times of great need. 

God freely gives them at times when you are so tired and weary that you don’t think you can carry on another day. Times where you are questioning your reasoning for being here. Times when you just need to hear from Him and know He is there. Times when you are missing family, friends and life at home so bad that you are willing to take the next flight back to America. And to be totally honest times when you just don’t give a crap what happens....

 These moments are so great for the soul and so great for the body that I wouldn’t trade them for anything. I had one of these moments Friday night and I think it might just be enough fuel for my heart to get me through these next 6 weeks.  At the end of the day God is still God, and freely He gives these moments in times of true need, you can always count on that. 

14I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.  Ecclesiastes 3:14

Friday's Patient Pick for November 6 2009.

Todays patient pick was not exactly a patient. It was a patients son. I just thought he was to cute to pass up. Hope you are all enjoying the patient picks the last few week. I just thought it would be fun for you to be able to see a few of the faces that have been passing through the dental chairs recently. Only 2 weeks left of clinic which mean only 2 more patient pick Fridays. Next Thursday and Friday we are going to work at the prison  which will be a really good way to finish this outreach. Stay tuned.