hospital closing

 Last weekend was a really relaxing weekend. With a group of divers from the ship we went to a nice beach and had a small dive trip. We went to the beach with full tanks and all the equipment we needed. First we had lunch and after that we put all our gear in a small boat and spent an hour and a half under water.

Later that evening we did a night dive, which was really cool too. There wasn’t a whole lot to see except some lobsters, crabs and small fish that were attracted to the bright lights, so it became a short dive, but still fun. The stars were even more amazing, because out in the ocean, there’s not a lot of light pollution :-D

The next day we went in again and it was even more relaxed since we knew our way around a bit better. My buddy Cassidy liked to look closely at things too, instead of rushing around, that was really nice. We had another hour and a half to look under every rock and between parts of the wreck.

The spot where we went diving was around a rock formation where a small ship had sunk. There was no place to really get inside the wreck, but there was a big diversity of sea life on the wreck and on the rocks around it. Corals, big and small fishes, starfish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers and snails from bright yellow, to orange, red, blue, purple, pink, brown, and combinations of all colors of the rainbow. It was amazing again to see how much life is under the water surface and how God loves to create beauty.

We slept in a tent, had a great outdoors shower and had hammocks and a beautiful beach to relax on after the dives.

 

We also had a big farewell party at the end of last week had. The theme was "Tell Papa God Tenki" which we hear regularly on the wards. It was a good time for all patients, day volunteers, nurses and doctors to thank God for all the good things that have happened during this outreach. Several patients shared stories about how their lives had changed. It was really a good time with the necessary dance : D

By the way, yesterday and today Ramatu had a very special dressing change. She is the girl that was in my ‘boot camp’. Normally she needs a lot of drugs to get her through the dressing change, the last two days she did not need drugs and she did not even cry. There has been a lot of prayer for her, so we are very thankful that she is able to tolerate the dressing changes a lot better now. We are very proud of her.

Yesterday my ward was emptied out. The few patients that were left, were transferred to other wards and they will be leaving Thursday or Friday. After that, the hospital is officially closed and there won’t be any patient care. It’s always a weird time, saying goodbye to patients and on Friday we’ll have to say goodbye to our day workers and in between there are a lot of nurses leaving, which means even more goodbyes.

Also news from the home front. It’s Saskia's birthday today! Congratulations sister!
Unfortunately, I learned that my grandmother was admitted in a hospital. Suddenly the distance between Sierra Leone and The Netherlands is very large.

Many thanks for your encouragements and comments!

Big hugs &
Blessings
Maaike