Saturday 11 October

I really don't believe what happened this morning. At 5.55am there was an announcement over the ship's tannoy for the medical emergency team (MET) to report to ward B. Whilst not part of the MET OR staff are strongly advised to show up as there may be a need to take the patient into OR. Duly attending it was decided that the patient did not require to go to the OR.

So I collected my mug and went to the dining room for tea. A couple of mugs later, the shower was the next stop followed by a trip to the laundry room where I had booked a washing machine. Before I had time to sort my washing, a second call came over the tannoy for the MET to attend B ward. I shot past one of the other OR staff who had walked into the laundry 5 seconds before the annoucement.

We ended taking the patient to the OR as we thought we may need to put in a tracheostomy tube. After due examination under general anaesthetic it was decided that wasn't required but that the patient would be ventilated and spend 48 hours in ICU waiting for the sweeling to go down. After helping with arterial lines and transfering the patient, I went to the dining room for coffee.

By the time I went to the laundry room my washing had been done by the colleague from OR whom I had shot by earlier and was in the drier even separating the whites out. That act of kindness is very typical on the ship.

Having sat and read for a short time to soak up the rays I went out with Christian (from Benin) and Ria (from Holland). We went to call on friends of theirs and then to the YWAM centre. It was great just to be off the boat and seeing a little more of Monrovia and experiencing some of the potholes.

We were back in good time for dinner, after which I was sought out to help with singing down on one of the wards. One of the guys who came with us explained very simply about becoming a Christian by sharing his testimony. we sang songs and prayed with them. all in all about an hour with the patients.

As we sat round sharing popcorn and Starbucks (please note coffeemate!!) we shared some of our funny stories. One of the girls is a real good storyteller and had us in stitches with her nursing home jokes.

By the way, I had an early wake up call on a Saturday when I was here in June for exactly the same reason..MMmmmmmmm