Pacific Partnership Report

Sorry - Internet service isn't good enough to allow photos at this point, so I'll just have to post text for now . . .

Here's some of my journal thus far:

We arrived in Singapore Saturday July 3 around noon. We were taken to the Mercy, docked at a US Navy base that shares a port with Australia& New Zealand. We were processed in, given berthing assignments, etc. I was told I’d be working in the ICU, which seemed a bit intimidating to me since I’m not an ICU nurse. After we got our gear moved to our rooms Mike and I went out for a couple hours to explore Singapore. What a model metropolitan city; so clean and organized! They drive on the wrong side of the road, like in the UK.

We were very tired and finally made it to bed by 8:30 PM, which was 5:30 AM on our biological clocks. The next morning we rode the light rail to attend church as a group of about 30 LDS Charity civilians and also 3 other LDS individuals that work on the ship. Singapore has a stake with 7 wards. It was fast Sunday. The meetings were wonderful. The greatest experience was seeing Eric and Ann (Magbanua) Solomon, who we’d met in Palawan.

My emotions were close to the surface as we learned about tears of gratitude shed by those who’d received services from the crew on the Mercy. One was a 37 year old man that hadn’t walked for 5 years since he’d had a terrible fracture of his leg . . . it was repaired on the ship. There were people that hadn’t seen for years that had their vision restored through cataract removal. I feel so privileged to be here and hope to be an instrument for good.

This is an interesting mission for the Navy. Not only is it a medical service mission, but it is a great international diplomatic opportunity. There are 14 NGO’s (Non governmental organizations) and multiple nationalities working together to give service. We’ve met Canadians, a young veterinarian from Spain, and we see military members from Australia and New Zealand. In Vietnam and Cambodia there were 418 surgeries performed and 879 people treated on the ship. We were told that another 38,000 were served off ship in the medical and dental clinics. Engineers dug 3 wells, several schools and clinics have been constructed, and $4 million in repairs were made to existing equipment. 1059 animals were treated by the veterinarians. Quite a few of those animals were water buffalo of the farmers that are so vital to their ability to produce food.

We are surprised at the ages of our LDS Charity group volunteers. We are among the oldest. We expected to see more our age, but the majority are young college aged students, with a few middle aged. Nurses are the bulk of the group, (several are nurse practitioners), but the group includes a veterinarian, a dental assistant, an EMT, an Indonesian translator, and a roofing contractor that has been invaluable in the construction projects. We have a nurse practitioner from Guam, a nurse from the UK and one from Canada. Mike is the only MD in our group at this point. Some MD's have been here previously and others may be joining later.

Monday July 5th we left Singapore and began our journey to Indonesia. We also started our orientation. Fortunately my assignment was changed to the ‘casualty receiving’ area, i.e. ‘CASREC.’ Basically this is the entry location of all patients that come to the ship. My days will probably be full and long, but I’m looking forward to it. I expect I’ll have opportunity to go off ship some days to serve in the rural clinics. Mike will be working in Primary care and he too should have opportunity to serve off ship some days.

Today I got a huge knot in my throat and tears trickled down my cheeks as a Japanese Navy ship passed ours. Both nations’ crews lined the decks and saluted each other as they passed. Then the Japanese unloaded a large hovercraft or hydrofoil boat from their carrier and performed some maneuvers for us. They completed the exercise by raising both the United States and Japanese flags side by side. It was so touching to realize that former lethal enemies could be such great allies today. This Japanese naval ship is a participating member of the Pacific Partnership.

Tuesday July 6th – Mike informed me he was awakened last night with a kidney stone. He went to the sick call area where they started an IV on him and gave him a liter of fluids. He said he vomited about 10 times and moaned and groaned for a few hours and then it stopped. He’s never had a kidney stone resolve so quickly before. We’re grateful this one seems to have passed. We spent the day in orientation, including an abandon ship drill. I attended my first ever session of yoga, taught by a nurse in our group. She can bend her body to look like a pretzel. I attended an end of day briefing where they told us there are 967 people on board, with 98 of them NGO members (that includes us) and 58 people from other nations.

Wednesday July 7th – More orientation. We got our very first patients today, but only two. They both need surgeries, but they won’t be performed until about the 13th when the ship is docked. One is an 8 year old girl with cataracts and the other is a 26 year old man with a huge (3 inches square) hairy mole-like growth on his right cheek. The patients came on board the Mercy while she was anchored in waters outside Jakarta to take on supplies. It was fascinating to watch the Indonesian Naval vessel side up to our ship and see the cranes load the palates of supplies.