The world according to me

I don't know if anyone is interested in that, but I'll post an article I wrote for the Ghanaian Times just to make you aware of the fact that I'm not just here to check beaches and try exotic food. If it will get published like this is an altogether different question. I recently wrote something about pollution in Accra and the need to avoid, collect and recycle basic litter like plastic bags etc. The article was published, but no one had told me how long it should be. Just write it, I was told. Well, it was too long and one of the editors cut out the part about avoiding and recycling. Unfortunately, the German vice ambassador read it and she was puzzled about the article's end. It just didn't make any sense.

Don't get me wrong, I love being at the place. Everything is somehow similar to a newsroom in Germany, but then again completely different.

PS: The pictures to this post show the ship that the article is about and a guy called Samuel, who had received treatment onboard.

The everyday miracle

Among the dock workers entering the Tema port every morning, a special crowd stands out. Men and women of all ages make their way through the labyrinth of containers and cargo trucks. Some are wearing big black sunglasses; others are being led by friends or family members. They come in from all parts of the country and even from neighboring Togo or Ivory Coast. Samuel Kofi, a 71 years old mason from Tema New Town, is among them. Like his fellows he is heading for the M/V Anastasis, a hospital ship docked in Tema for the next seven months.

When Samuel first came on board six weeks ago he had nearly lost his vision. One of his eyes had been blinded by a cataract, a deficiency that is common among the elderly. A one hour operation is all it takes to restore the sight. But with treatment costing close to 1.5 million Cedis, he couldn’t have paid for the surgery. One day a friend told him about the ship. He went to one of the screening procedures conducted in Tema by doctors from the swimming hospital and got picked for an operation – for free.

For Samuel the operation was a dream come true. He is now back for a check-up and his eyesight is nearly completed restored, says Francis Bottay, an ophtemical assistant who also works as a translator between patients and foreign doctors and nurses. “Now he can even go back to work again and supervise his boys on the construction side.”

Until the ship leaves in February 2007 an estimated 2400 visually impaired are meant to receive treatment in one of the ship’s three operation rooms or in one of the mobile dental clinics that operate on the mainland. But the crew, some 325 doctors, nurses, engineers, teachers and other specialists, are not just curing ailments of the eye.

The ship focuses on specific live changing health problems such as operations of the eyes, of cleft lips, plastic surgeries of tumors or VVFs, that is problems like incontinence that occur with some women after they have given birth, explains Amanda West, the ship’s press officer. “We don’t perform too much general surgeries. We figured out over the years that if we were a more generalized hospital ship, we wouldn’t be able to treat as many people.”

One among many to profit from the Mercy Ship’s stay in Ghana is Bawa Tarfo. He was suffering from keloids, scar tissues gone wild and growing into large tumors on his head, face, neck and torso. The tumors weren’t lethal but disfigured his body and turned him into a social outcast. When he got to the Anastasis he had not just lost his wife and his self-esteem, but all hope of ever living in peace from harassments and intolerance again.

Coming in days before the actual screening of potential patients began, he was one of the first to be operated on board. All in all doctors removed 8 pounds of keloid tissue from his body. The plastic surgery had made him a man again, he said after the operation. “I am a new person and very handsome. I am ready to go find my wife; if she accepts me I want her back.”

Helping people like Bawa is the reason why Mercy Ships have been cruising around the world since 1978. It was then that an American couple, Don and Deyon Stephens, bought an outdated passenger liner called Victoria and transformed the 552-foot vessel in what became the world’s biggest non-governmental hospital ship, the Anastasis.

As of today the fleet comprises three ships. The smaller Caribbean Mercy serves Central America, while the Anastasis has focused her attention on Western Africa. The African Mercy is currently being converted into a hospital ship with six operation rooms and a 78-bed ward. When the Anastasis retires in 2007, the African Mercy is poised to take over.

While a lot of money and effort has gone into the ship, the last decades have left their traces. Wandering through the mace of narrow wooden corridors and crammed laboratories one realizes that the ship was never meant to be a hospital.

The Anastasis was built in 1953 as an Italian cruise liner. Still, wooden panels bearing renaissance pictures and etchings of ancient Milan grace the walls. While it seems picturesque to the visitor, the ship’s past is a burden for its crew. “With all the wood in here, fire is maybe our biggest problem”, comments Amanda West. “We had a few incidents, but so far nothing major happened.”

Along the main corridors small doors lead to the crew’s dorms, storerooms and laboratories. Hyojin Ahn, a South Korean Radiology Technician sits next to huge x-ray scanner that fills the entire room. There is virtually no place to walk, but the place fulfills its purpose. And so does the rest of the ship, which somehow seems like a permanent interim solution.

Sharing such a narrowly confined space with hundreds of colleagues for months and years demands a lot of discipline and patience from the crew. And their situation won’t change much on the African Mercy, which is in fact a bit smaller than the Anastasis. It’s the patients who will benefit mostly from the new vessel, which will provide twice as much space for wards and operation rooms than its predecessor.

But no matter their age, the Anastasis and the Caribbean Mercy have been success stories. So far more than 26.000 handicapped or sick people have undergone operations on board. Health and development services provided by Mercy Ships on land and see are worth some 620 million dollars.

This is a huge sum, even for an American NGO with offices in 17 other countries all over the world. That the Mercy Ships have not suffered financial shipwreck is due to donors all over the world and, maybe even more important, the commitment of the crew. Every single person on board is a volunteer. From the captain to the doctors, nurses and machine engineers – no one receives payment. Rather to the inverse, crew members have to pay for donating their time and energy.

Jamie Kiesle came on board for one and a half months. The 27 year old nurse from Texas, USA decided to spend her annual vacations on board. She not only works for free, but pays a crew fee of 500 Dollar per month. Asked what made her invest so much money and energy, she responds without hesitation: “I want to take care of people who couldn’t afford the treatment. For me, it is like serving the lord with the skills I have learned.”

Faith is at the core of the whole enterprise. The Mercy Ships’ mission statement reads that “following the example of Jesus, Mercy Ships brings hope and healing to the poor, mobilizing people and resources worldwide”. Christians from some 30 nations figure among the crew. Reading the bible is part of the treatment administered by them.

Godwin Bzogbeta, one of 13 Ghanaians on board, says he is proud to be part of this mission. “I like it here very much. On the other ships people drink and smoke. Here it is different.” When the Mercy Ship moved from Liberia to Ghana in June this year, a lot of senior crew members left. The 31 year old maritime student from the Volta Region applied as a refrigeration technician and got the job. For the next months he’ll be part of a huge family helping the ones in need and working for his country.