Blowing bubbles for a baby after he had his feet casted due to club feet. African kids love the bubbles just as much as my pumpkins at home.....

Wow- trying to wrap up what has happened in the last few weeks will take some thought.... we have been so busy, I haven't had time to make an entry and now several weeks have flown by. That's how time is here- I wake up at 6am to run, as there is a nice cool breeze and no sun..... after breakfast, its seems like I blink a few times, inhale, exhale, then its 7 pm.

I work on the Orthopedic team and for the last 2 weeks, we have been running two operating rooms- one for adult patients and one for pediatric. We have treated many kids with bowed legs and club feet, as we usually do, but have also had a fair number of unhealed fractures that have required surgery.

Due to the riot at the first screening, our surgery schedule isn't filled up for the rest of the outreach as it normally is by this time, but that will likely change tomorrow- this is the day they have re-scheduled the major screening, but hopefully this time things will go much more smoothly.

Last week a big group of kids and parents arrived from the north, a 5 hour bus ride from Freetown. They had been screened previously by our advance team and had been booked for surgery based on their assessments. It was so fun to see the group arrive and to see the excited, but nervous faces of all of the little ones. Now, 10 days have gone by since their arrival and they are as comfortable on the ship as I am. And most of them can manipulate any nurse or therapist on the ward with a tilt of the head and their sweet little smiles!

Here are some pictures of my last few weeks here....

The tiniest splint I've ever made for a 3 week old baby with arthrogryposis

Olly Peet and I diving to clean the debris from the water intakes so that the ship's air conditioning system can function efficiently....

Families from the north arrive to the ship for the first time

They all look a bit scared- they are all SO different now!

Walking up the gangway with crooked legs, to trade them in for some straight ones!

One of our cutest, but not necessarily most angelic patients...... Sheika

Ibrahim

Mariam

Christian

John- these are the most severely deformed legs we have done so far

Me working on week 1 of Ponseti casting on 4 month old Yasif

Talking baby talk- its sounds the same no matter the language!

Dr. Peter Stevens, designer of the Eight plates that are used here to treat the bowed and knocked knee deformities, and Anna Vines, the rehab coordinator

It has been fantastic to hook up with these two- Olivia on the left of the picture, was my partner- in- crime last time on the ship. She's a physician's assistant and my roommate. Estelle Pretorius is very famous around here for her first grade teaching skills and even more for her South African accent and sayings.

Needless to say, I'm enjoying myself and trying to make the most of everyday! If you are keeping up with my blog and you are a prayerful person, I will ask you to pray for 2 things. One-that the screening tomorrow goes perfectly- without a hitch- that all of the people who will benefit from surgery the most will get scheduled and that the ones who are told "no" are comforted. Secondly, I found out this week that my wonderful friend and previous co-worker, Dee Helm, was involved in a motorcycle accident on Sunday and has been in the ICU and required multiple surgeries to repair her back and ankle. Thank God she and her husband survived! Please pray for healing for her! I love you Dee!!