Aberdeen Women’s Center, Birthday and Work

We have been on the Global Mercy for over five weeks! It is hard to believe as the time has flown by. Work is becoming more routine and easier. The ship sails to Las Palmas, Canary Islands for maintenance in mid June. The last surgeries are this week and the hospital closes next week. Many of the galley and dining room workers are locals from Sierra Leone (day crew) and they will not sail with us, so our workload will increase! I guess we need to know what we are doing soon! It is an honor to be here and serve the nurses, doctors and all the staff bringing help and healing to the people here in Sierra Leone. The focus is always serving and giving God the glory.

Going back a few days to Kathy’s birthday, May 13, we spent the morning touring the Aberdeen Women’s Hospital. This hospital was started by Mercy Ships and is now run by the Freedom From Fistula Foundation of the UK. It opened in 2004 after the civil war in Sierra Leone. It provides obstetric fistula repair, maternity care and an out patient clinic. They have two surgery theaters. They also provide care for pregnant teens for delivery and ante and post natal care. The services are all provided free to the needy. We were impressed with the care given to the patients. There is also a program called Dream Girls for the teen mothers. They meet weekly for education and to learn skills like sewing and gara (tie-dying) and batik. We were not allowed to take photos.

Our friends, Augustine and Samuel, picked us up at 5:00 and took us to a restaurant called Bread Heaven. We were greeted in the parking lot by Hawa, Alimatu and her mother, Safiatu. The biggest surprise were three young men with a trumpet and drums playing Happy Birthday. i really felt honored.