The Journey to the Ship.

After a long 20 hours of flying from Los Angeles to Paris to Antananarivo we finally arrived at our hotel San Cristobal Hotel in the heart of the capital city! Right off the bat I am getting accustomed to the lack of privacy :) I shared a room with two ladies (who later become two of my best friends here on the ship!) In the morning I had a private driver “David” pick me up from the hotel and take me on our hour drive through the city to the outskirts in a more rural village that has a lemur conservation park. I was educated on the different types of lemurs and how to distinguish them from one another. David gave me many history and cultural lessons while he navigated through the craziness of the “streets”. Back at the hotel we ate a large lunch made from “zebu” or their local type of cow that has a large hump in the middle of their backs. I relaxed by the pool before we got back on a plane for an hour to Toamasina, the city where our ship “Africa Mercy” is docked. I was greeted by my 5 other roommates and immediately began to adapt to the ship life!

Being the Newbie

0700 wake up call for breakfast (served from 0630-0800, not a minute before, not a minute after). 0745 new crew meeting where I met the captain, chaplains, security officers (gurkha from Nepal), and some hospital administrators. Took myself on a tour of the ship (didn’t take very long). The “Africa Mercy” was originally built to ferry train parts in Denmark and the Queen of Denmark actually stayed onboard for a period of time, we have a “Queen’s Lounge” where we play movies but still has her vanity mirror! I checked out the gym, a bit archaic but it’ll get the job done. There is one on the 2nd floor near the “jails” (apparently there needs to be a jail onboard according to maritime law). There is also a very basic rack of weights on the dock which I don’t mind using to get me off the ship at times and get fresh air. It’s definitely a bit of an adjustment to get used to being on the ship. There is absolutely nowhere for privacy or a place to take private phone calls. If you are sitting alone, within 2 minutes there will be 5 people sitting with you and starting to chat. Sometimes it is nice, sometimes I want to scream LEAVE ME ALONE I JUST WANT SOME PEACE AND QUIET! hahaha but then you look like a loner :) So, it’s taking some getting used to, to say the least! I set up money in my crew bank which is super convenient, I give them USD then I can withdraw at a better rate cash in ariary (4000 ariary = 1 USD). Then I went to the crew clinic to verify my vaccinations, have my vitals done, weight taken (probably to see how much I gain during my 2 months here!) In the evening I went to town with Jami (Italy), Marjolein (Holland), Gro (Norway), and Poh (Australia); we got ice cream and rode the famous man powered ferris wheel at the outdoor festival market!

First Day on the Wards

The wards. There are five of them: A (adult general surgery - lipoma removal, hernia repairs); B (orthopedic surgery - bow legs, club foot); C (pediatric general surgery - hernia repair, hydrocele repair); D (pediatric maxillofacial surgeries - tumor removals, club lip/palate repairs); E (isolation for patients who get influenza, covid, scabies, etc while inpatient on the ship). There is also a 2 bed ICU which has not been used and hopefully will not need to be used since these are all standard and elective surgeries/treatments. I work in Ward A and have floated to Wards D and E so far. I am unofficially a pediatric nurse now! Ha!

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