Every Friday morning now, we (the eye medical team) do 80-100 YAG lasers at the warehouse/Hospitality Center - a building on shore about 5 minutes from the ship. These lasers are done for all cataract patients 6 weeks after surgery. This prevents them from losing vision again months or years later, due to opacification (clouding) of the capsule behind their new lens after the ship and the lasers are long gone and inaccessible to the patients.
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Each week we go do these lasers, it's an adventure - the atmosphere is so different from the sterile, blue/white, cool operating room on the ship. Instead, there is heat and noise and crowds....and always singing and drums. The singing and African rhythms pounded out on the "tam-tams" are the background ambiance for the quiet "zap-zap-zap" of the laser shots we are performing inside the tent (the tent pictured in the photo above). Last week, Kim (a fellow coworker/friend) beckoned me (Wendy) outside the tent. As I stepped out and peered around the corner where the patients were gathered and singing, I saw 3-4 small frail elderly ladies spontaneously stand up and start dancing, turning, with their arms out, in the middle of the crowd. Just for sheer joy.
The patients also share testimonies with one another about what their experience has been like with the ship. Yesterday, one of the eye nurses translated a testimony from Fon into French for me so I could enjoy it. He said that the woman who spoke came from a village in Togo. She said that there were many people in her family who were blind, "everyone was blind." She herself had been blind for 2 years. She is a believer in Jesus, and during these 2 years, she was constantly praying that God would restore her eyesight. She was certain that He would do this for her. When she heard that Mercy Ships had arrived in Cotonou, Benin, she quickly made plans to come. She signed up and soon received cataract surgery, and the day after surgery when the eye patch was removed, she could see again. She gave glory to God for answering her prayers. The women pictured here are different ladies (I think) - but the same joy.
1 comment:
We had a medsend dinner last week where an ob-gyn doctor who spent 2 years in Zimbabwe spoke. Also I've been talking with students who are trying to decide what field of medicine to go into. And I've been using you as an example God uses our skills whatever they are for His glory. How encouraging that a woman was praying for 2 years and you got to be a part of the Lord answering. Thanks for sharing bits and pieces of your life online! Taryn
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