Weekend

So a lot of people ask what I do on the weekend since I work Monday thru Friday in the Operating Room. The weekends I'm on-call are saved for sleeping in and relaxing around the ship. Having an emergency surgery on the weekend is unusual, but has happened when I was charge call.

A couple weeks ago friends and I ventured out to Cotonou. We stopped by my favorite place in the city, the hospitality center, to visit the patients before heading to the craft market. We played with the kids and then went to school with them for awhile. I love being able to interact with the patients outside of the hospital, even if we don't speak the same language, we figure out how to communicate.

The following weekend, the Africa Mercy hosted the Benin Olympic Games 2009. I was on Team Ters along with other OR nurses, in honor of our plastic surgeon, Dr. Tertis. We had a blast playing team-building games as we competed against other crew. We won the Most Team Enthusiastic Award! Woohoo!

Saturday nights are reserved for 24 viewing- a group of us (mainly from my Gateway) have been watching the tv series since the sail in January. We always have a table of snacks to get us through 4 suspenseful episodes watching Jack Bauer get all the bad guys.

Last weekend I spent a day three hours north of Cotonou in Bohicon. This is where a friend of mine and Benin nurse, Guy, lives with his family and runs a health clinic to help the local village. A couple of us from the OR spent the day touring Bohicon, the Dako Clinic with fun neighborhood kids, had a lovely African lunch, and enjoyed the Benin countryside.

So October was a busy month in the Operating Room as well as the weekends, but I must echo Anne of Green Gables sentiments-

"I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn’t it?”

For more pictures from October check out the link underneath the clock.