The following day we had our breakfast in the hotel where then spitted in groups. One group had to meet with the government to make sure everything works out well while the other group was making sure that we had enough snacks and make sure we had dinner ordered for 7pm. Meanwhile myself and some other stayed back to meet with the local and missionaries help to explain to them what the ship is all about and the type of patients we were looking for and how to communicate patients information back to us because every information is important.
When all the other group returned, we all drove to the pre-screening site to see it and also to make sure that all is set for the next day. The name of the pre-screening site was called Maison de jeunes de Mamou. It was very big with much space. We had a briefing with local help again telling the they we have to be on site at 5:30am the next day. Then we drove back to the hotel where were logging and had dinner.
After dinner as a team we had a briefing of how we wanted things organised and our plans and goals for the trip. Our goal was to schedule 92 patients out of the 1000 patients we had to pre-screen in Mamou. I guess you will probably be asking why only 92 patients out of 1000 patients right? The reason is because according to our screening statistics and experience, out of 10 patients most often 2 out of 10 patients will be a YES while the remaining will always be NO’s. But you never know what God’s plans are so a lot of things usually don’t happen the way we always plan it.
Our plan was also to finish pre-screening and evaluating the patients on the same Tuesday/16/Oct/2018 then drive to Boke but as i said God’s plans always prevails all the time. Also, on that same night before the pre-screening event, we had part of our team who left for night shift making sure that patients who have already traveled from far distances are safe and also in line to be screened.
I felt it important to share this because i saw great level of humility in all the people who made it to this trip because most of the people who serve on the ship being it as a cook, housekeeper or whatever come from very wealthy backgrounds and had great jobs back at home but most of them left it just to come and volunteer to help in Africa so as to give another person a reason to smile. It is something so unique about the ship. And so one of the people who was on night shift in Mamou was the hospital director of the Mercy ships.
Bellow is a picture of the entire team before the pre-screening day!!
christel's ship journey 