Week One! April 11-19
WOW! What an amazing (almost) first week on board! I am continually blown away by the Lord's hand in this adventure already. Below you can read about my journey to the ship, first impressions of ship life, the first three days in the OR, and a weekend away!
Travel:
Heather and I left for the airport around 3:00pm on Friday, April 11th. We flew overnight from Raleigh to Paris (~8 hours), had a ~2 hour layover, and then flew ~11 hours to Antananarivo (Tana), Madagascar. We were not originally seated together for either flight, but thanks to two kind passengers, we were able to sit next to each other! I got extra lucky and had an empty seat next to me for the 11 hour flight 🙌. Overall, the flights were not too bad. I watched a couple movies, napped, and enjoyed the meals provided by Air France.
When we arrived to Tana around 10:00pm local time, we were greeted by a Mercy Ships representative who helped us through customs and filling out the appropriate forms. There were a few other Mercy Ships volunteers on the flight from Paris too, which was fun! The Mercy Ships van took us to the hotel San Cristobal where we enjoyed a lovely, air conditioned, restful sleep. The following morning after breakfast, we walked around Tana and then played games at the hotel before catching our evening flight to the port city, Toamasina. While waiting in the tiny domestic Madagascar Airlines airport gate, we were informed that the plane was having technical issues. After an additional two hours waiting, we finally boarded and were off to Toamasina!!
Another Mercy Ships volunteer picked us up from the airport and drove us the 15 minutes to the ship. Seeing the ship for the first time was surreal!! Even though I was exhausted after hours of travel over the past two days, I was so excited to finally be HERE! We had a brief info meeting, got our badges, and were shown to our cabins. At this point it was close to midnight, so I quickly (& quietly) tried to get ready for bed as to not disturb my other 5 roommates... but of course my cabinet shelf was broken and came crashing down when I set my bag on it. What a way to make an entrance!! 😀 Not going to lie, the first night was tough and I maybe slept 2 hours... BUT I quickly learned that sleeping with earplugs is a MUST and the nights since have greatly improved!
Ship Life:
On Mondays, there is an all-ship meeting at 7:45am where announcements are made and highlights are shared. After starting the day with the meeting, the rest of the day was packed with New Crew Orientation, tours of the operating room, and attempting to familiarize myself with the ship! It was a jam-packed day with lots of information and instructions... I definitely experienced some "syllabus shock" type feelings!
Learning where things are on the ship is a slow learning process, but I think I'm starting to get it! I am assigned to a 6-person cabin and on the top bunk of the middle "room." The "rooms" are separated with walls and a curtain and each cabin has a small shared bathroom with a toilet, sink, and shower. Four of my cabin mates are leaving in the next 1-3 weeks, so I'm curious how things will change around! We are allowed to switch bunks, as long as we stay in the same cabin, so I am hoping to claim a bottom bunk at some point soon. My cabin is on deck 3 and only steps away from the ship hospital and the operating room, so my commute to work is approximately 45 seconds!
Surgery On Board
There are 5 operating rooms on the ship, but only 2-3 are typically in use at a time due to both surgeon and nursing staffing availability. The surgical specialties happening change based on which surgeon is there at that time. This week, the cases were either Maxillofacial "MaxFax," Plastics, or Pediatric General. I was assigned to the MaxFax service, so I worked there Tuesday-Thursday. There are obviously a few differences between the OR nursing I'm used to and what the norm on the ship is, but everyone has been so kind and eager to help you succeed. There are three OR nurses assigned to each room, all of whom can scrub, so it can be a fairly self-sufficient system. One nurse gets the patient from the nursing ward while the other two scrub and/or open the sterile supplies & tray. We always bring one of the amazing Malagasy "Day Crew" with us to translate and help prepare the patient for surgery.
I had the honor to work with Dr. Mark Shrime for the three days in MaxFax. The cases we performed included a partial thyroidectomy, goiter removals, and various mass excisions on the head and neck. It is humbling to work in an environment where only the basics are used and supplies wasted are kept to a minimum. It inspires me to work toward having less waste and being resourceful when I return to the US, especially in an OR setting.
It is "funky scrub Friday" in the OR on Fridays! Because Friday was Good Friday and recognized as a ship holiday, we wore our funky scrubs on Thursday (provided by the ship!).
Hotel Palmarium
Since Friday was considered a ship holiday and no surgeries were scheduled, there was a trip planned to a small remote resort called Palmarium! A Malagasy day crew had assisted in organizing the trip and booking accommodation, so all we had to do was reserve a spot and pay. I originally was supposed to be on OR nurse call on Friday, but my lovely OR educator took the call so I could enjoy the trip with my new friends. If you can't tell by now, we are very well taken care of by people on the ship 💛.
Palmarium was accessible only by boat, so on Friday morning we boarded the boat and got comfortable for the 3 hour ride to the island! We were accompanied by another Malagasy day crew on the boat, who taught us about the culture and different areas of the country. When we arrived to the Palmarium, we were greeted with a complimentary juice and later shown to our bungalows. I stayed in a 4 person bungalow with Heather and my new friends Jenelle and Imogen who are PACU nurses from Australia. The Palmarium is known for their population of lemurs and other wildlife, and a peaceful beach. It was so fun seeing the lemurs everywhere and taking a night time boat ride to see the rare aye aye animal. Seeing the aye aye was cool, but the AMAZING night sky was my favorite part of the tour. All the food was delicious and it was wonderful to see a different part of Madagascar with new friends from around the world!
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