The Africa Mercy
on Shona in Sierra Leone (Sierra Leone), 27/Mar/2011 09:51, 34 days ago
I had the privilege of visiting the Mercy Ship this week (payment in kind for helping out at the conference last week). The Mercy Ship is a large floating hospital and community; it is docked at government wharf, about half a mile away from the hospital. It is staying in Sierra Leone for nine months and they are carrying out a large number of operations including, orthopaedics, ophthalmology, plastics, cleft lip and palate operations and other max-fax (maxillo-facial) operations.After a great dinner of Mexican nachos (Red Meat mmmmmm) I was shown around by my host, Matt (an anaesthetist) and got to see the hospital as well as the living areas on the ship. I was a bit google-eyed at all the equipment in the hospital– its probably better equipped than most UK hospitals I’ve worked in! It was nice seeing some well pre-op patients, obviously very grateful for the work the ship is carrying out. It was also interesting seeing the living areas for this large floating community of 400 people, including Starbucks!Very excitingly I got treated to a hot chocolate! Thanks Matt for your hospitality!PS You will all be pleased to hear that we now have running water at home again, after 3 weeks without, I will try very hard never to take it for granted again!