The Children
Our internet has been very slow and for the last little while, uploading photos was next to impossible. But we seem to have a better connection, so I will share some photos of some of the children we helped while we were in Timor Leste. Being with the children on the ship was delightful. It was a blessing to help them and to see them receive needed surgical treatment. As I mentioned in an earlier post, teams of doctors and nurses went to remote clinics and delivered medical treatments and screened patients for surgery. Then the patients traveled by boat to the ship, had surgery, spent a few days recovering, and then returned to the island. Some of our patients live two hours from any health clinic, and FIVE hours away from the nearest hospital, so it was truly a blessing for them to be able to receive the care!
I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the faces of the patients I love! Disclaimer: We were told early on that we are not bound by HIPAA, so I am taking the liberty to post their pics.
1-Gill received cleft lip & palate surgery.
2-Sonia received an intraocular lens implantation (had congenital cataracts removed when she was an infant, but came to have two new lenses placed). Her Mom speaks English quite well and works for the UN.
Below is acutally a different girl that had cataracts removed and it was so neat to be there when she saw for the first time!!
3-Januario had surgery on his deformed foot. He has a rare disorder called macrodystrophic lipomatosis. The surgeon says that there are only like 20 case reports of this disorder (but strangely enough, TWO patients from the same village had it and both received surgical treatment). I was so happy that he could have surgery, because even though his foot is not perfect, at least now he may be able to wear a shoe.
There were a total of 174 surgeries done on the ship over the course of 11 days, and over 20,000 patients seen ashore (in Timor Leste). It has been awesome to be a part of it!
Today we went to the Santa Dominica orphanage on the island. Some highlights:
-We loaded a truck full of humanitarian hygiene kits prepared by the Church and delivered them to the orphanage. Having assembled kits at various Relief Society activities, it was touching to see them arrive at their final destination.
-The Navy band came along and played some fun tunes, including “When the Saints Go Marching In” and the hokey pokey.
-The kids had prepared a musical program for us. They performed some traditional songs and dances, as well as a few American songs (including “You lift me up” by Josh Groban and “Ice Ice Baby.” So unexpected!)
-I brought a bunch of stickers to give to the kids and they LOVED them. It was so fun to see their excitement.
-I was surprised that quite a few of them spoke English. When I got there, a group of girls came up to me and said, “Hello? What is your name?”
The whole experience—the kids, the music, the interaction—brought me joy!
Also, someone who was on the island the other day wanted to check out a local paper, so they picked one up, only to find that our friend was on the front page! It was an LDS optometrist (Scott Farrell) from our group performing an eye exam. How fortunate that someone randomly decided to pick up the paper…and how fun that he had a moment of fame!
Yesterday I spent the day on the island of Timor-Leste!Things I did not expect…….
1. I did not expect to hear Dixie Chicks playing on the radio in the bus
2. Roosters. There were lots of roosters, chickens, and dogs on the streets.
3. I didn’t know they drove on the opposite side of the road (like Australia).
4. Kangaroo meat. We ate at a restaurant owned by an Aussie and I tried kangaroo for the first time. Not bad! Not particularly good,but not bad!
5. Dollars. Who knew!? They use American currency.
6. A large statue of Christ. I didn’t know until our ship arrived atthe island about this statue- but it is quite remarkable. It a large(maybe 30 foot?) statue of Christ in a very prominent spot on the very tip of the island. (Remember, the island is 99% Roman Catholic). We climbed to the top. The view of the island and the ocean was stunning.
7. An old lady sitting by her fruit stand playing solitaire with a deck of cards. I’m not sure why that surprised me so much, but it did. I guess because there seems to be so much poverty and life seems SO different here that it was odd to see her doing something that I would see back home. Granted, she wasn’t playing it on the computer, but still.
8. Another side note:--We saw lots of beautiful fruit. I spent the day with my friend Stephanie, who works for Utah County Health Department and she does food & restaurant inspections. She is here as an environmental health specialist and she found out at a meeting with the health ministry from Timor-Leste that they like to use formaldehyde to preserve their fruits and vegetables. So, you might want to take it easy on the 5-fruits&veggies-a-day thing here. We also saw fish stands out on the street, keeping company with plenty of flies. Fresh fish, anyone?
Today I was back on the pediatric ward. For those who may be interested in the kinds of patients we are seeing, here are a few ofthe cases we had from today:
A boy with polydactyly (6 toes on his left foot). Not anymore!
A boy with bilateral strabismus (lazy eye)
A girl who had a lesion in her eye- they biopsied it and they thinkit could be malignant.
A girl whose hand had healed incorrectly so they did a scar revision.
We received several other children to the unit who will go forsurgery tomorrow for hernia repairs and repairs of cleft lip & palate.
View of Timor Leste from a porthole by the laundry room
Top Ten Interesting Things About Life on the USNS Mercy
(…in no particular order)
1) Overhead pages when important people come on or off the ship. The
lady in charge of the Pacific Partnership 2010 is Commodore Franchetti
and when she arrives, they bang on a bell and say “Destroyer Squadrant
21 arriving” (they refer to the entity you preside over, and back in
the states she evidently is in command of the Destroyer Squadrant 21).
Now that’s an impressive nickname.
2) Lots of stairs. From our berthing (sleeping area) to the mess deck
(the dining area) we climb 81 stairs. We run up and down the stairs
all day. Also, they have color-coded staircases. The ship is fairly
long and it all looks the same at first. One helpful thing they have
done is painted the handrails in the different staircases. So you can
figure out where you are and where to go by looking at the handrails.
We use the red, blue, and orange staircases most.
3) We separate the trash. Paper. Plastic. Food. Metal. So at
mealtimes, you stand in a line and separate your garbage and then turn
in your tray and dishes to be washed. The paper gets burned, the rest
gets taken off the ship. (And they sort through the trash an extra
time after it has been initially sorted…so it’s in your best interest
to obey the trash rules so you don’t end up on trash-sorting duty).
4) Being on the ocean. I love being out on the deck and seeing the
beautiful ocean. One night they projected a movie out on the flight
deck and it was awesome to be on the sea with the bright stars above.
It seems to good to be true.
5) One stop shop. It’s kind of nice to have everything you need right
on the ship. We have several gyms, a library, a chapel (well, a small
room with an organ), a post-office, a dining hall, a hospital, a
convenience store, a laundry area, etc. Very convenient when work is
up the stairs and down the hall.
6) Bedtime. Lights out at 10pm, lights on again at 6am. Having bedtime
enforced like this does wonders for my early-to-bed-early-to-rise
resolutions! At night they come on over the intercom and say “Tattoo!
Tattoo! Lights off in 5 minutes” (I still don’t know why they say
tattoo). Then Chaplain Morledge comes on and says an evening prayer
(like last night when we were arriving in Timor Leste they prayed for
us to have strength to help the people and to have a glorious day).
7) All hands on deck. Everyone chips in and helps with the
grunt-work. Every Wednesday night our LDS group helps to wash the
dishes (we evidently started that tradition and the other NGO groups
have followed suit). One chore that we help with is cleaning the
floors. Every day at 8am they say on the intercom “Sweepers, sweepers,
man your brooms.” And they clean the floors. I love all of these formal
chore operations.
8) Military on Board. It is a new experience for me to be so
up-close-and-personal with military personnel. I have really enjoyed
it. We have people from the navy (of course), and the army, the air
force, and the marines (and some military from other countries,
including quite a few from the Australian army). I have learned a lot
about the rankings and the insignia and I have really gained an
understanding and appreciation for military life and order. They run
a tight ship. I like it. Side note…An important lesson to learn early
on was that unless you are 15 minutes early, you are late. A good
habit to adopt. I hope it sticks.
9) Berthing. When we arrived, we were assigned to the enlisted
berthing area. In these areas, there are triple bunk beds. It is
quite a task to make the ascent. I was somehow assigned to the lower
bunk, but some of the other sisters who have a few decades of life on
me were assigned to the top—so just imagine. Let me try and describe
the dimensions of the beds themselves. A coffin comes to mind ;).
Several of my friends had hit their heads on their (metal) beds and
warned me. But even trying to be conscious about it, I hit my head.
It’s inevitable. You kind of have to slither into your sleeping
space. You get the idea. Also, we were given one square locker and
one small tall locker. Evidently they teach them in boot camp how to
pack all of your belongings in an itty-bitty space, but we missed that
training. Very hard to keep organized. Anyway, we got upgraded after
a few days to the officer bunking area. I remember hearing a General
Conference talk or two by brethren who had wanted to enter the
military as officers instead of being drafted/enlisted. Now I
understand. Much nicer. Muuuuuuch nicer.
10) Latter-day Saints. It is great to be aboard with a group of
wonderful saints. We are one of a few other NGOs on board (including
Operation Smile and UCSD pre-dental society). We wear light blue
shirts and khakis and it is fun to walk around the ship and see blue
shirts all around. We meet every evening for a devotional and have an
hour of Church on Sundays. I love my friends here.
Hello to all who might be reading this blog! As a new blogger, I am not sure where to begin or what might be interesting to you.If you’re reading this, you probably already know this…but just for the record, I am participating in a humanitarian project called “Pacific Partnership 2010”, which is a collaboration between The Church and the US Navy and several other NGOs on the USNS Mercy hospital ship. It is a project offering medical, veterinary, and engineering services in Southeast Asia. The ship has been sailing since May and has already provided services to people in Cambodia, Vietnam & Indonesia. Our next stop is East Timor (more on that country later)…
USNS MERCY
Here is a little bit of information about the Mercy ship (Thanks, Wikipedia! :)
“Mercy was built as an oil tanker, SS Worth in 1976. Starting in July 1984, she was renamed and converted to a hospital ship by the same company. Her primary mission is to provide rapid, flexible, and mobile acute medical and surgical services to support Marine Corps Air/Ground Task Forces deployed ashore, Army and Air Force units deployed ashore, and naval amphibious task forces and battle forces afloat. Secondarily, she provides mobile surgical hospital service for use by appropriate US Government agencies in disaster or humanitarian relief or limited humanitarian care incident to these missions or peacetime military operations”
THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT EAST TIMOR...
You might be thinking, “I actually do not know anything about East Timor.”It certainly had never been on my radar. I have learned a few things from some of the info packets that they have given to us.
Name of the Country
Timor comes from the Malay word for “East.”So, literally interpreted, it means “East-East.”The Portuguese name is Timor Leste, again meaning “East-East.”I’m getting the sense that it’s in the East.
Size
-About the size of Connecticut
-About 1.3 million people
Official Languages
Tetum and Portuguese
Religions
90% Roman Catholic
5% Protestant
3% Muslim
Also some Buddhists, Hindus, and animinsts.
(I am not sure yet how established the LDS Church is in the area)
Literacy (percentage of people over the age of 15 who can read and write)
58.6%
Values
Very family- and community- oriented. One info packet I read said: “They look down on people who put their own needs ahead of the group. Wisdom and empathy are highly respected” We could all learn a lesson from them!
Natural Resources
Gold, petroleum, natural gas, manganese, marble
(I see gold, petroleum, and natural gas…hmmm…could this be why so many countries want to own this little area of land?)
Leaders
President/Chief of state-Jose Ramos-Horta
Head of government/Prime Minister- Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao
Poverty
42% of the population is below the poverty line (not sure what their poverty line is…)
Climate
Tropical, warm and humid all year with a wet and dry season.
History Lesson
The people descend from migrants from Asia and Melanesia.
Countries who have occupied/ruled East Timor: Portugal, Holland, Japan, and Indonesia
Exploration: 16th century-Portuguese explorers arrive, followed shortly by the Dutch. They fought for control until a series of treaties finally assigned East Timor to the Portuguese.
Japanese Invasion: Japan invaded the country during World War II, until the Japanese surrendered to the Allies in 1945 and Portugal resumed control of East Timor.
Portugal Withdraws: In the 1970s Portugal’s resources were being drained by independence movements in Angola and Mozambique, so they ended up withdrawing from its East Timor colony.
Independence! November 28, 1975-East Timor finally gains independence from Portugal
Nine days later…Sad story: while the Portuguese had been preparing to withdraw from East Timor in the 70s, Indonesia was clandestinely making plans of their own.NINE DAYS after the officially declared independence from Portugal, Indonesia invades and assumes control.
Unrest: (This is one example of many of turmoil and bloodshed in the country)- In the late 1990s, economic and political turmoil led to an opportunity for a referendum on independence for East Timor. The East Timorese enthusiastically voted for independence.But the Indonesian military responded with violence and killed over a thousand Timorese people, driving out ¾ of the population out as refugees, and essentially wrecking the infrastructure of the country.Independence, again! In 2002 East Timor finally re-gained independence.
Current state: They have since had a few more troubles, but thankfully in the last couple of years they have enjoyed a season of peace and have maintained their independence.
Well, everybody--that's a little overview about the project, the ship, and the country we are headed to. I will try and post other updates as internet access allows! I just feel very blessed to have the opportunity to be a part of this great endeavor. And I am grateful for the Ultimate Example of service, our Savior Jesus Christ, the true Healer of men's souls!
P.S. Can you tell I am a novice blogger? I can't get the font to format correctly! Alas!
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