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December 1999
Since about 3 weeks i know that i am accepted for the next outreach to Gambia as a nurse and one week later i knew that on the 24th November i'll fly to port Elizabeth where the ship should be at this time.
They haven't been really sure if they will get there at time so it still will be a surprise but i'm quite sure that the air condionning will be finished.
Till January 25, i'll be working in housekeeping, before i change to the medical. After Port Elizabeth the ship will stay for one month in the Kap-Stadt. So i have also the chance to sail around the cap of Good Hope. I hope it will not be too strong sea so that i don't lose the good hope ;-)
After our DTS-meeting in Switzerland, i stayed for a few weeks at my parents home before i went for tree weeks to spain. There i worked as a cooking help for a christian travel agencie.
We had quite a lot of work but also fun and time to relax. After this time i had the chance to stay some more days for holidays with the main cook. She is a fulltime and had also to bring back to Switzerland the car we used during our work for shopping.
So we had the possibility to look around where we stayed during the last week.
At the moment, i'm wondering who will be on the ship from our DTS and also from the Guinea outreach. I think in a way i'll know a few people but it still will be a new beginning and may be very different to the last time. I'll see.
God bless you all.
Ursula
April 1999
Hi, Conakry- Team, who's now all over the world !
How was re-entering? I hope you arrived well on your destinations. I had a good trip back to the ship. I felt like coming home and was quite fast re-entered. It was a big help to me that I already knew a lot of people and also the shiplive. It's also nice to be such a big group who went back to the ship from DTS.
I live now in a 6 bed cabin on C1. I have good roommates and we have it god together. Two of them are also from Switzerland. We are also quite a lot of Swiss people on the ward and that made it easier for me to understand the work and when I had questions.
During my first nightshifts we have been 3 Swiss-nurses and so we could speak the hole night our language. It was a little bit like at home only that all our patients had dark skin. The patients are in the two big rooms, down where we started lecture phase. It isn't a problem to have in one bed a women and in the next one a man. I sometimes have only to smile a litle bit when I think about the ship-dresscode and how the patient walk around.
Sometimes we have quite a lot of people on the ward. Admissions who wait for a bed, patiens who can go home, others are coming back from surgery. There are also relatives (one per patient), translators, diciplers and crew here. Even if it's alwayse like in a beehouse I feel the most of the time fine with that. There is always something to do but I havent to run around to get my work done. I think even if some of the operations are quite big ,that the real big ones have already be done.
The baby who was the first patient on the ship, is now a little snug man whit a repared cleftlip.
We have now quite a lot of patient who need there second or third surgerie. We hope that there will be as less infections as posible and that we will not let people behind with such kind of problems.
Since I'm back on the ship I went tree times back to work for the day on the construction site. It changed again quite a lot since we've been there. Now they are doing the last works and on monday the 12th is the opening ceremony, where we from the Conakry-DTS are also invited. It's my departure day and will be a nice end of outreach.
In the orphanage I went twice. Last sunday Andrew and I brought the children back home from church. Kumba end the girls who sow are quite busy because they got a lot of orders from the ship.
This week-end already the new DTS will arrive. The january-DTS went out in two teams. One is in the women's debriefing house for have the outreach. They will go north to John Erikson's village for the rest. The other team went to Ghana. A DTS couple is leading this team.
Time is going so fast and very soon I'm on my way back to Switzerland.
Thank you all again for the time togheter in Nongo it was a
valuable time.
I wish you all the best,
God bless you
Ursula