African Arcade......

Today was a ship holiday so we were off and instead of sitting around Richard and I decided to go to a day volunteers Video Arcade Shop. Solomon the co-owner of these two successful shops invited Richard to come check them out I just went along for the ride. 

We were not sure what we were getting ourselves into. We kind of thought it was just going to be a tv and an xbox but you never know. Sure enough we arrived at the first shop which had been opened 4 months and it was a small concrete room with two tvs, two xbox sytems,  a PS2, a few games, a bench, and a room full of kids gaming. Richard sat down and tried out the games, I just spectated and took in my surrounds. after about an hr or so we headed across town to his second shop which has been running for 2 years. It was a little more established...4 tvs, 3 PS2, and more kids. 

I asked him how business was and this is what he reported to me. Good. I charge 100CFA( 20 cents) for 15 mins of  game playing time or if they want to stay an hr 400 CFA( 75cents). I have a manager at each shop I pay them 15,000 CFA a month( 30$), I pay rent and electricity on both shops, and make a profit of 50,000 CFA (100$) which I them split in half between my brother and I. So at the end of the month I take home 25,000 CFA ( 50$) and that is my main source of income. On a good day I make 3,000-4,ooo CFA( 6-8$) 

Solomon is 22 years old married and has 2 kids. 

Just another day here in Africa. 

Richard playing the games with the kids

The equipment..nothing like a video arcade at home. 

Outside the window of the arcade.

Me spectating the gaming

Outside the shop

The second shop.. with more equipment.  

Extreme Dentistry.....

Today and yesterday the dental team played traveling dental clinic. We closed down Avotrou and packed up dental chairs, instruments, medication, water, anesthetic, headlamps, and all the other needed equipment to set up a makeshift clinic at the Psychiatric Home in Cotonou. Our main goal for this outreach.... we like to call it extreme dentistry (sounds more adventurous) is to provide the residence with an opportunity to be able to be seen and treated by a dentist. 

Last year when we did our extreme dentistry outreach at the prison in Liberia we treated almost 200 patients in 2 days. So with that in mind and also with the tid bits I received from the facility we planned on seeing anywhere from 150-200 patients in the two days. When it was all said and done we treated 39. HAHA oh how I love the management style of those who are "IN CHARGE" of things in Africa. 

Even thought the numbers where lower than expected it was still worth it. This morning when I was walking around the parameters of the facility looking for patients I ran into 3 people who made it worth all the hassle and planning that comes into an event like this. Two ladies and one older man who was calling himself Fidel Castro President of Cuba really made me realized that its all for the sake of even just once person. As I passed each of them they all separately said thank you for coming, I was in pain yesterday and now I feel much better. It is not about the numbers, it is about the impact that you make even if it is only on a handful of people.

Below are a few pics I took while we were there:  

Simon, Claudia, and Don extracting a tooth on a resident of the facility. 

A resident who just wanted to come check out what the white people were doing... she did not want to see the dentist though. Think she was scared.
Sieh my new assistant, he was one of our day workers in Liberia now he is here as crew to serve along side us. 
Registration. Joyce and Florent
A sister who thought she would come take advantage of this opportunity
My favorite patient of the 2 days. This is the face he gave me when I asked him to smile. 
Comfort, Roland, and Arnold our disciplers blowing up balloons and make the crazy ballon hats you see on everyone. Roseann and Midokpa sterilzers
More work going on. 
Dell getting patients numb

You know you have lived in Africa for a few days when……….

You are driving down the road and you hear a random African on the back of a zemidjan yell your name. As you glance in their direction you notice them vigorously waving at you. You take a few seconds to see if you recognize the person who is admiring you and you quickly realize it is your old patient.  This happened to me two different times today.

One would think that living and working in a city equipment with nearly 750 thousand people would make it rather difficult to run into old patients on the street, but it happens more often than not. I guess it could be my Yovo colored skin, or the big Mercy Ships Land Rover that I drive, or maybe even the ceil blue colored scrubs I am constantly wearing that draws the attention , but I like to think that it is my unique personality and dashing good looks that has made it so easy for them to remember me and my name.  

New Dental Equipment.

A few weeks ago we closed down the dental clinic for 3 days in order to install almost all new dental equipment. That which was installed: 4 generators, 2 compressors, 4 sterilizers, 6 dental chairs and units, an ultra sonic cleaner, lights, and a new cavitron. The mentioned equipment was either donated by companies or bought with donations. It is wonderful having almost all new equipment. It makes my job A LOT easier. I no longer have to worry if the generators are going to start in the morning, or if the units are going to work. 

Life is good at Avotrou Dental Clinic. 

Below are a few pictures of the new equipment and a few names and number on who donated what. 

THANK YOU! 

Dental team install donated equipment at the Akpakpa clinic

Top: Installing new dental chairs
Bottom left: Tony Royston (UK) AFM med technician and dayworker Florent install the new air compressor
Bottom right: Jessica Campbell displays the new donated generators

Thanks to our donors: ADEC donated dental equipment and chair units worth $72,000, Tech West Inc. gave us a 53.5% discount of $7444.50 on the air compressors, and Cutters Equipment a 40% discount of $3,777.00 on the Honda generators

Cabin 4343.

Yesterday June 10, 2009 marked my 1-year anniversary with Mercy Ships. What a year it has been. In honor of the day I celebrated by taking care of a medical emergency at the clinic-SCARY, taking care of a patient was about to die from a dental infections, pulling teeth, removing part of a ladies mandible-yes I did that…. I actually pulled out the bone that made up her mandible, and said good bye to my LOVELY roommate Emily- very SAD. 

Last Saturday at 3am the the occupants of cabin 4343 and Richard piled into a Nissan car to make the 20 min truck to the airport to see our lovely roommate Naomi off. In the matter of a minute cabin 4343 went from 4 to 3.

Last night I drove and Carmen accompanied me to the airport to drop Emily off . 

 Now there is 2

And in 2 ½ weeks Carmen will jump on a plane and head back to Texas leaving me all alone….. 

Oh wait I have already been blessed with a new roommate who is moving in tomorrow. 

MEET LIZ- I am sure you will be hearing a lot about her in the future: 

Oh how you must be able to adjust to constant change here. After awhile I must admit change gets old.

 

RIP my original Cabin 4343. What a trip it was.  Welcome newcomers what a wonderful cabin it is. 

Produce Anyone?

Look at all the wonderful FRESH produce we get to eat here. It has been so nice seeing fresh lettuce, tomatoes, cucmbers, green peppers, apples, bananas, and papaya on the buffet line daily. What a change from Liberia. In Liberia we received lettuce about once every 3 months and it sure wasn't romaine. The other options were not heard of either. 

The things we take for granted until we no don't have them any longer. 

Oh i forgot one thing.....

So this morning I went to the hospitality center( the huge warehouse about a mile from the ship that we have transformed into a hotel like place for patients to stay before and after surgery so they don't have stay on the ward) to get a dental patient that had been brought to the center over the weekend from up country. 

I went in and told the translator I was here to get the patient and to tell her she will be going home from the dental clinic so she should bring all her belongings with her. The translator disappeared  to retrieve the patient and reappeared a moment later with my patient. 

I said so she has everything and the translator said yes. We started to get ready to load the patient in the car and as we were doing this the patient said oh wait I forgot something. She ran back to get the thing she had forgotten and when she came back to my surprise it was not a thing it was a baby. She was carrying her child. She had FORGOTTEN her baby. 

How does that happen. :)