Chris - Work Experience in Engineering

I started my Work Experience in March 2008. I worked on Tuesday 11th and Tuesday 18th of March. I worked in the Engineering department on the Africa Mercy. I started my training with my dad, Andy Cole. Later, I was trained by Ebenezer Yeboah and Denis Sokolov. The Engineering department is quite large, so I had many co-workers. I was given the tasks of checking for leaks, temperatures and oil amounts. I performed a viscosity test with new and old oil and commissioned an Air Compressor. I used a machine called a Lathe which is used to work on metal; I also worked on the Dock and helped weld with Denis.

I helped weld more support beams on a metal frame and helped move and weld three metal plates on top of the frame that was very strong. The new platform is now used to help the deck department transport equipment on and off the ship which makes me feel very proud. I was responsible for some of the minor things like getting tools for my Dad and also being kind of the left hand man of the difficult jobs he was doing. The Engineering department supplies electricity, fuel, water, and air conditioning to the ship, which serves everyone onboard. The engineers also help the ship to travel to places like Tenerife.
I arrived on time in the morning and after two breaks’ on both days. I had an attitude to learn and was keen to see the engine rooms for the first time. I stayed positive until I was working in the generator room because it was so hot in there. I tried to listen carefully to instructions, but sometimes I did not get the question or it was too loud to hear. It was embarrassing as I got loads of questions and orders wrong. I was properly dressed, with my bright blue overalls, red ear protectors, and black steel toe-capped boots. The engine rooms are always pretty dirty but for what I could clean up, I did. I was about 60% reliable to do the job correctly first time. By the end I think it was about 70%. I felt that by the end that I was a good beginner Engineer, because I learned many new and interesting things and performed many tasks. So far in my life I am not quite sure whether or not I would become an engineer. I love to work in the engine rooms, it’s really fun, but right now I really don’t know what career I will have when I am older. I have a better picture, which is good so I will now have more options to choose from. As an employee I would work the best of my ability. I would be friendly and social with my work mates. I would bring an attitude to learn and be punctual. I would bring work to a new level.
I really liked the program; I had expectations which were matched. I loved doing practical things with my hands instead of more things to do with the brain. The work was challenging in places, but that made the work a lot better for me as it made me come out of my comfort zone. In particular I think that my favourite thing was the metal work. I liked both the welding and the work with the lathe. I think that next year I am either going to do deck or engineering, I haven’t decided yet, I would love to do both. If I could change something about this experience, I would probably like to have done more metal work, I really enjoyed that. I think a more physical career would suit me best, because I like to use my hands to build and repair things.

BY CHRIS COLE

Emma - Work Experience on the Ward

I woke up bright and early to start my day shift (from 7am-3pm). And for some reason I wasn’t nervous this time, I was ready and prepared for what I was going to do.
Once again, we did handover and received patients from the people on the night shift before us. I was shadowing Caroline Chestnutt and we were going to be nursing four patients. They all turned out to be VVF (Vesico-Vaginal Fistula) patients, which was extremely different from last year as I did not get to work with any VVF ladies last year.
One of our patients was first on the list for surgery, so we didn’t really have to deal with her until she got back. She was called Betty and she was extremely sweet. She wouldn’t stop smiling even after coming back for the second time and two unsuccessful surgeries. I felt so bad.
Today was the due date for changing the patients beds, so I helped put on the new sheets and pillow cases etc. After this we also had to clean our patient’s wounds. All of these VVF women were on ward A. I knew that ward B had a few babies so between times when we didn’t have to do much, I visited ward B and played with the babies there. They were extremely cute.

During my time down on the ward, I took vital signs and tested the women’s blood pressure and temperature frequently. I am used to that now, and remembered what to do from last year.
About 2 hours before my shift was over, Caroline and I went to collect our first patient from the recovery room. And, praise God, the surgery looked a complete success. I had to hold up the IV bag when transporting her to the ward. We gave her some codine and morphine for the pain which she told us she was feeling.
Soon after, the nurses on the next shift, the evening shift from 2-10, came and we handed over. We prayed and some African women sang to us whilst I was chosen randomly to play the drums. It was a great experience and I learnt a lot.

Tuesday 11th March- Day 2

Once more, bright and early I arose to get to my next day shift. Today I worked with Melissa Stromboulis and we had five VVF patients after handover. I helped to begin with by getting all our patients meds ready; the multivitamin, iron and lactulose. Two of the women needed peri-care again, so we had to clean their vaginal wounds and their catheter. I was surprised when Melissa asked if I wanted to actually do the cleaning. I accepted and whilst doing that, I didn’t feel uncomfortable. God is so good to me like that.

After this, we weren’t very busy, so I went over to B ward to see the cute little babies there. Today I felt like I had more to offer. Yesterday at times I felt a little helpless and useless, but today was good.
We did some African worship again at changeover, which made everyone feel happy, including me.

Wednesday 12th March- Day 3

Today was an excellent day for me. I worked the evening shift from 2-10 and this time I was on a totally different ward so I didn’t have VVF patients. I worked with Caroline again which was great, and I felt like we had more to do today than on Monday. One of our patients is set to go home tomorrow, so we only really checked her vitals, but apart from that we did nothing really with her. Another of our patients was sleepy and we didn’t see her awake much. Again we only really checked her vitals and did a mouth exercise with her. The other patient, however, got back from surgery about half an hour after we started and we did a lot with her.

She was on morphine and other medicines, and we had to alter the settings on those a bit. To prevent her from vomiting up the Benadryl which we were going to give her, we actually sucked out all her stomach fluids. I had never seen this before so it was great. It looked a strange blacky-browny colour and it was very liquidy. Also, we had to clean out the tubes that were in her nose. She had two nasal-trumpets in a we had to put a tube down them then suck out the blood or whatever was down her throat up. It looked terribly uncomfortable so I felt sorry for her. Again, I went down to B ward which is where a couple of kids were and hung out with them. I also was told a few days ago that I could start an IV on a nurse if one was willing. Lisa Sullins had told me a few days ago that she would be willing so I did with the help of another nurse named Ali Wilks. She talked me through it step by step and by the end of it they both said that I did a great job and Lisa said it didn’t hurt at all. Later Ali let me start an IV on her and this time with much less help and again, I did it on my first try so they said I did great. I certainly felt happy and satisfied.
Today I really enjoyed it and had lots of fun.

Thursday 13th March- Day 4

So today was "observe a surgery" day. I left the cabin at about 8:30am, and the surgery started at 9:00am. The man who had the tumour, had to get part of his jaw removed with the tumour. This meant he also had a metal plate put into his mouth. The surgery was successful and I didn’t get woozy which was great.
The surgery last 3 hours so I took my lunch break knowing that I had a evening shift to do. This meant I had a two hour break today. The nurses said not to push myself too far, especially since it meant I would be working all day, plus a day shift tomorrow. But, I stayed the whole day anyways.
I worked with Nicole Oosterhalt, and she was really nice and let me do a lot.

Nicole & I

I was working on A ward again, so we had all VVF patients. I took vital signs often, and did al the paperwork that went with it. I also did three pericares today, which I am getting used to doing.
We were pretty busy, it never came to a point where we had nothing to do, but we weren’t overly busy. I actually enjoy working with the VVF women, especially since they are all so nice and have a laugh with you. Today was a tiring, but fun and satisfying day, I enjoyed it a lot.

Friday 14th March- Day 5

Today I worked a day shift again, and with Nicole again. We gave out all our morning meds, then we had to do vitals and some pericare. However, after we had finished doing these things, we weren’t busy at all; I actually got a bit bored.
I was asked just before lunch if I would like to watch the beginning of a surgery. The woman who was getting the surgery couldn’t open her mouth, so they had to put a pipe down her nose. They did this whilst she was awake, and it looked most uncomfortable. I was allowed to look in the doctor’s scope which had a cam showing down the throat. It looked awesome. I had never seen inside and down the throat before. After that, we weren’t busy at all. It was a good day, but it was boring at times. I enjoyed doing the medical things though, and hanging out with the nurses.

Monday 17th March- Day 6

Today I worked down in post-ops with a good friend of mine called Lindsay. Post-ops is when patients who have already had surgery come back for a dressing change or tablets or whatever reason they need to. It got off to a slow start for me, but the day got better as it went on. I was allowed to do most dressing changes and I would help out also by going and fetching information from the printer or calling other patients in to see us. It was certainly different from working on the ward. My hours were from 8am-5pm. Today was a good experience and a good day.

Tuesday 18th March- Day 7

Today was my last day working on the ward. I worked a day shift on B ward and I was working with Nicole again, which I was happy about. Like every morning, we go round and give our patients their morning meds, before doing anything else with the patients. We got six patients to take care of, but within a couple of hours, two patients were discharged. One of our patents went into surgery and two of our others were going into surgery. This meant that we couldn’t really do much with them because they are NPO, so that means no food; so we didn’t even give those patients meds. Our last patient was our only VVF patient, however we did not have to do pericare with her.

At 10:30, there was a dress ceremony for four VVF patients who were being discharged. We had so much fun! The four women were in beautiful African outfits and we sang and danced and prayed. It was awesome, you could hear them from the other side of the ship. After that, however, we were not busy at all; I did lots of vital signs though. At about 1:00pm, Rebecca “Red” Rouse took some photos of me in action which my mum had requested for our family blog. There were some cool photos and it was great - check out the Flickr link at the top left hand side of the page for more pics.
Today was my last day, and I feel so privileged to have the opportunity to do what I did in these seven days. I thank Kirstie. Red and Laura, but most of all I thank God.
This week was certainly a week I shall never forget.

I enjoyed making this little one laugh after Cataract surgery

BY EMMA COLE

Andy - Insights from life on the Africa Mercy

I’m off work after completing 7 days on the 06:00 to 14:00 shift.
A new system of watches which I am responsible for that runs Sunday to Saturday with 2 days off either side. (I hope it will simplify the complex work schedules)
I’m still recovering; working in the engine room is no walk in the park. The temperatures range from 38 to 44 C (100-111 F) The humidity is so high and hence huge fluid loss!
On some jobs I have problems seeing as the sweat pours down my forehead and stings my eyes!
(Last year I did n’t arrive in Monrovia until May 23rd and the start of the rainy season-a lot cooler season!)
One problem that has compounded my exhaustion is the temperature in our cabin. During the day, 27 to 30 C with 26 the night time temp. Every day I wake up feeling groggy, like I need more sleep, it’s tough going.
The A/C working at 50% due to a major fault which occurred last year, we need more spares from Europe to fix it, just arrived so hopefully soon? Some areas on the ship are cool, the hospital and O.R.s, basically the new areas on the ship.
In Engineering we have been given added responsibility of running all the hospital services i.e. Oxygen enrichment plant, AGSS, compressed air, vacuum system. Plus HVAC and incineration of medical waste. Last year a team called ‘Projects’ continued post-ship yard, they took on the commissioning of the hospital systems, this year it’s over to us. We have to run 3 generators instead of the big 1 due to the sound-proofing required to allow all O.R. s to function. (Remember the No 1 main engines that were converted to generators?)

Food - I have been on many ships and rigs but this is the first place I have encountered ‘Weevils’ especially in the pasta, the old salty sea dog stories are true, man these things breed fast in the warm climate and get into everything. The dry store is infested with them. Freezing kills them but we have full food freezers so have to live with them for now. We make jokes like ‘The lesser of two weevils’ Fortunately there are some good places to eat off the ship for a much needed change.

Brenda At Work

The picture shows me at work in my office. I have a small lounge area in my office for the many meetings I have with crew as part of my job.

It has been an incredibly busy few months as we ramped up for this new field service. We have had over 150 new crew in the first 6 weeks. We have an average of 50 new crew per month, so the HR department continues to be one of the busiest on board. One of my main areas of responsibility is assigning cabins to all the incoming crew, based on their previous tenure, age, position they are going to be in and how long they will be staying. Each of these criteria give points and housing is assigned on a points system. The higher the points the better cabin you get and less people to share with. If you have never served before and you come short term for example, you will most likely be in a 6, 8 or even 10 berth cabin!! It is like a huge jigsaw puzzle and the picture constantly changes. Housing is assigned during the application process. The reason for this is that we can't approve someone until we have verified that there is a cabin space available for the timeframe they are due to come. Once approved they then go ahead and book their travel arrangements and there is often some small change in their arrival date due to flight availability. The applicant then notifies me and this can impact the cabin assignment depending on the departure date of the person in the bunk before them and also the arrival date of the person going into the bunk after them...It get's tricky at times!

In recent weeks there have been some organisational chart changes which mean that the Staff Development Department now report to HR, increasing my responsibilities.

[Coles Chronicles] We're Back In Africa

Liberia Field Service 2008

On February 5^th 2008 at around 9am we sailed back into the port of Monrovia in Liberia. Already people were gathering on the dock and there were 2 African choirs singing (different songs!) to welcome us back. The atmosphere was one of excitement. It really felt like “coming home”.

The process of arriving, mooring the ship, lowering the gangway etc… always takes some time. It was therefore close to 11am by the time the Welcome Ceremony began.

Our Executive Director – Solfrid Quist who has since left Mercy Ships on 27^th February after completing her 2 year commitment was accompanied down to the dock by the new incoming Managing Director (new title) Ken Berry. Ken is no stranger to the Africa Mercy as he served in the dual role of Technical Superintendent and ED for 4 of our shipyard years in Newcastle.

The last few weeks since arrival have been a time of preparation for the start of the next season of programs within Liberia. The Dock side units have been set up in readiness to receive patients for their Health Care procedures and admissions to the Hospital. Our Construction, Agriculture & Water/Sanitation teams are out in the communities they will be working in, making assessments and preparing for the start of their programs and our Eye & Dental teams have begun their daily clinics in the local communities and hospitals.

Medical Screening Day

On 18^th February we held our Medical Screening in the big Samuel K. Doe stadium in Elwa after much advertising done by our Advance Team and also radio and television broadcasts. We set off early in the morning (6am), for the 30 minute drive and arrived at the stadium while it was still dark. Already, even at that time, there were several hundred people in lines waiting to be seen. I would estimate around 1500 – 1800 people came throughout the day. Of course we cannot possibly see so many people in one day, therefore we have a pre-screening team of medical professionals that walk the lines and pull out those that appear to be those we can help. Those we cannot help are then not left standing in the heat of the sun unnecessarily for long hours.

It was great for Emma and 3 other high-schoolers to be able to come along this year and help. Emma spent her time escorting patients from one area to another as they went through the different stations.

Mercy Ships screening days run like a well oiled machine. They are so well planned and organised. The patients first stop is at the Registration desk were basic details are taken (as last year, Brenda was at this station) from there they see nurses who take BP, Pulse etc and note medical history, then on to a consultation with the Surgeon who makes a determination whether we can intervene with surgery or other procedure. From there they go and have blood taken, then onto the Pharmacy for any vitamin supplements or other medications determined necessary to help in preparing the patient for surgery. Last stop they go and receive their appointment card.

If the Surgeon decides that we are unable to help then the patient is escorted to the prayer station. It is often times heartbreaking. For so many people who come to screening, Mercy Ships is seen as their only hope and to be told that we cannot help can be devastating. We pray that whatever the outcome, every person who comes along receives the Love & Compassion of our Heavenly Father through those of us they meet.

For Andy this was his first ever experience of screening and he was part of the security team managing the large crowds of people. It was a physically and emotionally exhausting day, very long hours out in the sun, temperatures around 40 degrees.

Don & Deyon Stephens (President & Founders of Mercy Ships) were staying on board at the time of the screening and came along and chatted with many of those waiting in line.

Family Update

Andy – Engineering have faced their fair share of challenges during our ship maintenance time in the Canaries however, the sail back to Africa went very smoothly and was technically without incident. He will be flying back to England mid April to study and take the final papers for his Chief’s License. Please pray for a time of focused study and success. His previous attempts have been difficult because of the demands of either family or ship duties. This time he will have neither of these distractions.

Brenda – Human Resources is surfacing from a challenging time due to staff shortages. Thankfully, February saw some improvements; however these challenges have been at our busiest time, with the ramp up for a new field service and a huge percentage of new short term crew arriving. In addition, we hired around 130 local day workers to work in many of our Departments on board, but particularly in our Hospital. They work as Translators, Hospital Cleaners and Hospital Launderers etc.

Matt – He enjoyed his time with the family over Christmas and New Year. He continues to work and focuses much of his spare time on his band. He is in the process of applying for an Electrical Engineering apprenticeship to start in September.

Steve – Left Australia after 5 weeks with Heather & Dave and family. They were wonderful to him and he so enjoyed his time with them all, as well as with granddad, who was also out there visiting, and not to mention Bruno the dog! From Aus he went to New Zealand visiting Andy’s family there and friends from his DTS. He did some exploring of the North Island and has some amazing tales to tell. One of the highlights for him was visiting “The Shire” & “Hobbiton” where scenes from Lord of the Rings were filmed. He is now in L.A. and flies to Toronto this week.

Both Matt & Steve will be joining us on the ship in the summer for a few months which is exciting.

Emma, Chris & Josh – Just before we left Tenerife Emma & Chris enjoyed a school retreat with the rest of the High School & Junior High to Barcelona for 4 days which was a lot of fun.

Since arrival to Liberia they have settled back into school routines. Our dear friends – the Walls family, left the Africa Mercy at the beginning of February to go back to New Zealand and lead the Mercy Ships New Zealand Office. This family arrived in Newcastle in 2000, one week before us and each of our children were best friends with each of theirs. It has been a difficult time for our children.

Despite the challenges we face and the friends and family we miss and have left behind, we know God’s faithfulness on a daily basis. We see His provision not only financially but in so many ways, in the people and the support He brings into our lives. We thank you for continuing to support us and particularly for your prayers. We assure your that we pray for you regularly, we thank God for you continually and we would ask that you please us know how we can improve in our communication to you and if there are specific things that we can lift before God on your behalf as we partner together.

I finish this latest communication with a picture that makes me smile. Chris & Josh both made the huge decision this week that it was about time they had their hair cut. (Hallelujah’s all round from Mum & Dad!!)

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