Saturday February 7

Goodness, where has the week gone? Sorry to those of you who are following my blog. We are still sailing but are now passing the border of Cote d'Ivorie and Ghana. I've had to put my clock forward one hour as we've gone 7 degrees 30minutes over from 0 degrees longitude. Consequently it's not dark until 7.30pm which makes a nice change. it gives chance to enjoy a post dinner coffee while watching the glorious sunsets. A couple of evenings ago not only was the sunset beautiful but in the background one of the surgeons was practising his classical guitar playing up on the deck. It was truly wonderful.

We have continued with the orientation program for new staff in the department and I even undertook a little teaching on Friday as Esther, Paul and I covered some of the anaesthetic side of the work. All 3 of us spent considerable amounts of time preparing for the session and it was well worth it.

As the days have passed I have seen dolphins, flying fish and today the piece de resistance was to see killer whales. They were incredibly graceful. The sighting of such animals is helped by the bridge officers who let us know by tannoy if they sight anything. There then follows a rush to the appropriate side of the ship. On a couple of accasions the dolphins have been "riding the bow" which is such fun to watch as they dive underneath the bow and follow the ship.

In accordance with maritime requirements we have had several drills while at sea. Todays exercise was for a "man overboard". It certainly added interest to the day. Tomorrow should be the last full day of sailing as the plan is to arrive in Benin on Monday. With the sea as calm as it is that should be acheived. There will be a special ceremony at the dockside to welcome us. It's the fourth time that the ship will have been to Benin so we are known there. I shall be returning to deck 2 on Monday but will only be in my cabin for one night as I am then going up country to help with screening.

This is a small team that is traveling north to 2 different towns, Parakou and Natitingou. We shall be away for 5 nights 3 days traveling and 3 days screening. I am very excited about the trip although a little nrevous as I shall be helping to schedule patients for surgey. It's a wonderful opportunity to see the country so soon after we arrive. I suspect that my guiding experience will be widely used again including beating Heath Robinson at putting up a mosquito net. Sadly there will undoubtable be patients that we will not be able to help and I hope the sense of helplessness will not overwhelm me. To see patients come with so much hope and to see those hopes devastated will be hard. There is no easy way to tell a person that you can not help them. But there will be many that we can help.

I'm reminded of the story that Don Stephens relates in his book about the history of Mercyships. A small girl on the ward of the Anastasis was telling a nurse how she loved to put starfish back in the sea when they were on the beach When the futility of the activity was pointed out since there were so many starfish on the beach, the little girl commented that to the starfish she threw back in the sea it made a difference. I believe that this is how we must view our work. Looking at the difference we can make. More importantly for me is the difference I can make because God has put me here to complete the work.