Marvelous Madagascar

God is so good. He blesses us in little ways that I often do not appreciate until later. Last weekend Kalinda, Susanna, and I decided to travel to the National Park between here and Tana. We knew of only one other group from the ship that had gone. It was a wonderful weekend (more on that in this blog).  This weekend was a ship holiday. We have a long weekend about every 6 weeks where just the essential people work. Kalinda and I agreed to both work this weekend. This way no one had to miss out on the whole weekend. We thought we could both work in the morning and then play in the afternoon. Many people were going to the Andasibe National Park this weekend. We were blessed with two quiet weekends. Such a blessing. What better way to spend my last weekend here than to work with patients, go to the market, get passion fruit ice cream, go to the beach for a swim, nap, swing and read in the hammock, walk with friends.

Now for last weekend's adventure. Warning...it involves lemurs. 5:30 AM We leave the ship to meet our transportation at the port gate by 6:00. To our surprise when we arrived at 5:50, the car was already there. We began our journey on time. Because we had all sailed, no of us had experience the windy road between Tamatave and Tana. Curvy is an understatement. It is a true test for sensitivity to car sickness.  The driver was safe and skilled, but he drove very quickly. The scenery was beautiful green hills spotted with roadside villages and people walking. After 31/2 hours we turn off the paved road entering the rain forest. It truly felt like we were entering an enchanted forest. Tall trees, short bushes, wild flowers, moss covered rocks and tree trunks, became thicker and thicker as we drove. All of a sudden we arrive at Vokana Lodge which is a wooden building on a man made lake surrounded by gorgeous flowers and tall trees.

The bungalow was beautiful dark wood floor and spiral stair case to a loft. The widows had screens. The mosquito nets had a weighted trim finish to keep them down and seams closed. The shower was hot water with good pressure. The weather was cool (in the 60's) and not raining.

Our first outing was a canoe ride around man made canals to separate islands of lemurs. Black and White Ruff, Ring tailed, brown lemurs, bamboo lemurs, and my favorite Dancing lemurs (sifaka) all greeted us. The tour finished on the first island where the lemurs are very used to humans. We were treated to brown lemurs and black and white ruff lemurs jumping all over us and staying on us for up to 10 minutes. It was so special.

We then went for a walk in rain forest up and down hills enjoying the greenery and quietness. Off white flowers that reminds me of oversized honeysuckle filled the air with sweet fragrance. Tall vines, elaborate spider webs, and small colorful flowers also lined the trails.

We arrived a crocodile reserve in time to see them being fed. It is times like these that I am reminded of the different safety standards here. All that separated us humans from 20ish hungry (they only are fed once a week) was a wooden fence 3 feet high. The guide threw pieces of raw zebu over the fence while the crocodile climbed over each other to get their piece. The sound their bodies made and the smooth scales of the bellies slid over the spikes on their backs was very unique.  We also had the opportunity, which I personally did not take advantage of, to hold a boa constrictor.

After a restful afternoon, we gathered our rain coat and hiking shoes for the guided night hike. I was once again amazed at the guide's eye sight. He spotted small green chamelons and mouse lemurs (the smallest noctornal lemur) in trees.

We had a wonderful dinner in the main lodge and slept well in the comfortable beds. The next morning the sun greeted us. We enjoyed the longest game of lemur hide and seek in the Andasibe National Park. Here the lemurs are wild (not fed by humans). Although the guides know their territories, the lemurs do not tell the guides where they will be. After walking through the woods both on and off the trails enjoying fungus, birds, spiders, chamelons, Indri lemur calls, we spotted the Indri high in the trees. We also were able to find brown lemurs,sifaka (dancing lemurs) ouli lemurs (nocturnal), and bamboo lemurs. After lunch, we said goodbye to the rain forest and enjoyed to
beautiful scenery back to the ship.

A wonderful gift, a weekend in the woods with lemurs and cooler temperatures!

Walking

I have not been inspired to write in the past couple of weeks. This weekend though, I was. At least this and another blog post on the way.

Walking as defined by dictionary.com "to advance or travel on foot at a moderate speed or pace; proceed by steps; move by advancing the feet alternately so that there is always one foot on the ground in bipedal locomotion and two or more feet on the ground in quadrupedal locomotion."

Often, we just mindlessly put one foot in front of the other to transition from one location to another. We do not think about the components involved with one step or stride. Being a physical therapist, I watch people walk daily. We dissect the gait cycle. How is the foot making contact with the ground? How do the hip and knee react? How can we make it more efficient, functional, biomechanically correct? One relatively slight change in mechanics or strength can decrease or increase pain.  Here on Mercy Ships, we attempt to correct gait patterns by changing mechanics through orthopedic or plastic surgeries followed by strengthening and orthotics when needed. A couple of weekends ago, I saw simply how life changing this can be for the patients.

A couple weekends ago, our day crew planned and executed a wonderful day trip to Foul Pointe, a beach about an hour north. It was a wonderful day complete with homemade ice cream, home cooked traditional Malagasy food and fruit juices, swim in the Indian Ocean, visit to a fort built to protect the Malagasy people from being captured as slaves, and great company.

On the way, we stopped by one of their houses to pick up a rehab team shirt. We drove off the paved road into a neighborhood. Turning right, twisting left, turning left, turning right and so on  we navigated our way through the maze of unpaved roads lined with small houses made of bamboo. It was eye opening to see where and how many of our patients live. It is even more amazing that any of them arrive to their appointments on time, much less most of them.

This weekend, on the road between Tamatave and Tana, I was struck again by the number of people walking on the side. Sometimes, it was not clear where they were walking from or to as there was no village in sight. All ages. Some carrying items, some not. They are walking for necessity rather than exercise.

On the initial screening sheets in their files, it is noted how long it takes them to get to the ship. Some say 4 hours yet they live in Tamatave. The follow up question, "Do you walk or take a tuk-tuk or Taxi bus? " is asked. A tuk-tuk ride costs $0.40.

Yes, clubfeet or bowed legs would not be cosmetically pleasing in any culture. In developing cultures where walking is a necessity for obtaining water and food, it is about function. People here will walk for hours and days from one town to the next. Next time I feel like we have been walking for a long ways, I will try to be grateful that I do not have to do it daily. I do it for enjoyment and exercise.

When you live on the Africa Mercy...

This is just a little bit of the nonmedical side of my life here. Sorry no photos this time. I will get some for the next blog.

You ascend and descend hundreds of stairs in a day between going from the hospital on deck 3 to the warehouse on the dock.

You have 10 -12 roommates in 4 months.

You are able to enjoy several different and common tropical fruits...lychee, pineapple, two different types of mangos, jack fruit, passion fruit, corasol/soursup, star fruit, bananas are the ones most recently.

You can have supper with a surgeon, nurse, pharmacist, and engineer

You can sit down for supper around 5:15 at an empty table and not leave until after 6:30 as different "shifts" of people come sit and eat.

You look forward two minute showers at the end of a sweaty day at work or of fun.

You are reminded frequently to pour the toilet juice in the toilet twice a week to help keep the pipes flowing and system working well

You are not surprised to hear of another water pipe bursting somewhere on the ship

You look forward to Mondays and Wednesday nights to go the the "Boutique" This is a thrift store of sorts that crew leave things and other crew get them for free.

You look forward to Thursday nights for the ice cream after community meetings

You enjoy getting a book from the library and reading it in midships.

You have 6 or more people crammed into a little bay in the cabin to watch a movie on the laptop

You learn about different cultures, diets, holidays, words for all the crew

If you forget something in your "house" you can go home to get it in less than a 3 minutes anywhere on the ship.

You plan a weekend getaway on Wednesday for the coming Saturday.

This is just a little bit of the nonmedical side of my life here.

Riding the waves

Kalinda and I had been humming and hawing about going to Prune Island. It is a small island with one inhabitant (lighthouse man) that can been seen from the ship. Several new crew have arrived in the past few weeks. One of them wanted to organize a trip. Six of us agreed to go: two from Canada, one from Holland, one from UK, one from Australia, and one from US.

Margo and I gathered borrowed snorkel gear from fellow crew on the ship. It is rainy season and cyclone season now. This means you just prepare for rain but go about your normal business. Sunday morning when we awoke, it was pouring outside. We all agreed to proceed with the plans since we were going to get wet snorkeling anyway. We figured that if it needed to be canceled, the travel agent would cancel.

After waiting for the boat driver to arrive and prepare the boat, we were thoroughly drench. We all piled in the wooden boat and gladly donned our life jackets. As we headed toward the island, no land could be seen due to the torrential downpour. We were all very thankful for the life jackets. We prayed and laughed as we rode the 2-3 meter waves. The boat driver was excellent. He was an experience fisherman.

Upon arriving to the island, the rain had stopped. We hung our clothes to dry and went for a snorkel. We had heard from a group that went the day before the current was strong. We wisely decided to use the current for our favor. We walked up the beach a ways prior to getting in the water. The Indian Ocean here is so salty that you float simply by lifting your legs. So by lifting your legs and moving with the current, we were able to enjoy the fish without much physical work. When the current became too strong we would walk to shore. We would walk up the beach again and repeat.

Note half is grey and raining and half the sky is beautiful

After a few snorkeling "runs", we walked to the tallest lighthouse in Africa and second tallest in the world. It was 66 meters. The tallest is in France. Both were built by the French. The attention to detail was amazing. The view from the top was neat as well.

On top.

After a nice picnic lunch, some napped on the beach. Others walked; others snorkeled more.  We gathered our things, donned the life vests and pile back into the boat. We were expecting the ride back to the ship to be choppy as the afternoon waters are often choppy. The rough boat ride in the morning prepared us for the ride in the afternoon. It was choppy, but it was sunny. So being wet from the waves did not bother us. One of the boat drivers actually caught a 4kg fish. It was only then that it was disclosed that they too were nervous about the morning boat trip.

Monday mornings we attend community meetings to hear important information for the coming week on the ship. We heard that a cyclone was off the coast a good ways but was causing higher waves than normal which was causing the ship to rock more. Well, another adventure for the books with a happy ending.

A Challenge...Beauty

This week I was reminded in a presentation by the plastics surgeon Dr. Tertius of why I am here. Growing up in a Presbyterian church, I would quote this part of the Westminster Catechism."What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever." Well, that is nice big words and ideas, but how do we live this practically.  As I was listening to the presentation, I learned one aspect is to recognize beauty, love, and perfection.

God is beauty, love, and perfection. We are made in His image. Although the standards of beauty are cultural, universally, we respond to beauty, love, and perfection.  Whether atheist, agnostic, Christian, or any other religion deep down we respond. Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit created the universe with wholeness.  God said, "It is good." We react with joy, peace, wholeness, praise, wonder.

On the flip side, we react when we see ugly, unloved, broken. Deep down we struggle to look at it. It is not as it should be. It became this way after the fall when sin entered the world.

God is still in the healing, redemptive, loving, restoring business. He cares and longs for creation to be whole. One day it will be. In the meantime, some ways to practically glorify God and enjoy Him is to take the moments to stand in awe of the sunset, sunrise, mountain landscapes, flowers, stars, creation. To take the moments to recognize and tell someone that they look nice, beautiful, pretty when they do. To acknowledge the difficulty to look at broken, ugly, incomplete neighborhoods, people, cities.

Perhaps you are called to smile and wave at them, to sit a chat with them, to pick up trash, to share a meal, to give them a hug. Doing this requires the Holy Spirit working through you. Romans talks alot about living in the Spirit compared to living in the flesh. Our flesh wants to turn away, ignore, shun. God wants us to love the least of these.

Photo Credit: Mercy Ships

Photo Credit: Mercy Ships

Yes, I am currently serving with Mercy Ships, but you too are called to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. I pray this encourages you too to respond to beauty and the ugly, the wholeness and the brokenness right where you are now.

Photo Credit Mercy Ships

Photo Credit Mercy Ships