Video from church today

"Yovo, yovo bonsoir (bone-swa) sava bien merci" is sung to us as we walk down the street by children all over town... this means "white lady, white lady, hello, I'm doing fine, thank you!" These are all the french words that are popular and they think we might know all in one cute little jingle!

The children at the village church we went to today were so cute and they stole our hearts quickly. Picture a 5 year old carrying her little sister tied to her back with a cloth and caring for her throughout the sermon. The children all sit together and although some are a little mischievous, they can endure a 2 and a half hour service as well as we did!

We have had a nice weekend, though I'm sure the temperatures reached at least 95 with

excessive humidity.

A group of us took a road trip yesterday to a town about an hour away where there was a slave memorial called Ouidah (weeda) or "The door of no return" which

is the site of where slaves were captured and forced onto boats to travel to the New World for nearly four centuries. There is an interesting story on the NPR website if you are interested in learning more about it. We visited a local hotel after this, where there is a swimming pool and restaurant ... and many, many Mercy Ships

crew! There are no beaches here that are safe to hang out at for the day like when we were in Liberia. It is a not a safe area due to theft, but primarily we aren't permitted to go into the ocean at this site due to rip currents. There was a crew member who died last year while body surfing in the ocean last year and there have been at least 4 I think over the years. We went to the beach yesterday on our drive and walked around for a few minutes, just dipping our toes in the water.... ooooh, we wanted to get in

so badly. But, of course, we also want to live to see our friends and family again too!

This week was not nearly as busy

as last week. We began the pediatric orthopedic cases and everything went relatively smoothly. I am the Rehab Team Coordinator and currently have one PT working with me and one OT will be coming in a few weeks. We work along with the Orthopedic Care Coordinator to see any patient who comes to the dock, before surgery, or after surgery. Although we had those 3 screening days, in which most of the patients were selected, everyday, new people show up on the dock with problems. We have 8 weeks of pediatric surgery and 10 weeks of adult orthopedics. We don't have anymore spots for children,but will be able to screen another 60-75 adults and hopefully will fill every spot by the time the orthopedic surgeries finish on June 27th.

Many people have asked about food on the ship and if I'm starving or not... if you know me well, you will know that I am a total creature of habit. For the past 7 or 8 years, I have pretty

much eaten the same thing for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I eat oatmeal for breakfast with peanut butter and brown sugar, salad for lunch, and an omelette for dinner. Peanut butter and bananas on a tortilla for a snack after a workout is a must too. Well, here, those traditions have had to be modified a little. We do have 3 buffet meals a day, so you really have to have a little self control if you aren't picky. Since I am, it has actually been hard to get full on some days. There are always plenty of vegetables, mainly cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, and green peppers, which we have everyday for both lunch and dinner. I slather them with balsamic vinegar and salt. We have some meat that is edible, like chicken once a week, but the pork is really fatty and hard and I don't eat red meat, so getting protein is a challenge. We do have a snack bar, that is fortunately stocked most of the time with chocolates and candies from the states. There are some people who cook most of their meals, actually going to the market and getting the food themselves and cooking it our shared kitchen. A group of friends and I did this the other night, the night Benin' president came for dinner! We had already had a long day and didn't feel like being in formal attire, which was required if you wanted to eat in the same room he ate in, so we made fajitas.... or as close as we could get. They have great avocados in the market, so we were able to make

guacamole, we found pita bread at the grocery, we got tortilla chips and salsa here in the Ship's shop, and we saved chicken and peppers from a meal earlier in the week. It turned out really wonderfully and we have decided to make it an every week event!

Thanks for reading and have a great week!