The blind will see...

For patients from out of town awaiting surgery or post op patients needing dressing changes Mercy Ships has a 'Hospitality Center'. This is also where our eye clinic is located.

It's great to visit the hospitality center to see discharged patients again and hang out with them and the kids. Last week we had a great game of volleyball with the day workers & a few patients. I love seeing the patients come alive and having fun.

Our day volunteers and patients/caregivers cook their own traditional African food for everyone staying at the center.

The eye team runs their clinics out of the center - preop screening and postop appointments.

Our eye surgeons do approximately 35 cataract surgeries per day under local anesthetic. Patients having other eye surgeries done under general anesthetic are admitted to the ward postop for one night. The following day after their surgery their eye patchs are removed and they can see!

The outpatient eye ward on the ship is just a few doors down from my cabin. When working evening shifts at 8am I am wakened to hearing the eye patients singing and clapping as they are preparing for surgery. You can't get annoyed at that...it's much better then an alarm clock :)

Throughout the day it's a common site to see post op eye patients with patch's over their eye being escorted down the gangway to the admissions tent.

Each Friday a 'Celebration of Sight' praise ceremony for eye patients with music, drumming, singing, and testimonies is held at the center, which I got to see last week. It was really neat hearing the testimonies of a few patients. Over and over you hear of people hiding their sickness or disabilities from their family and community to not be laughed at, ridiculed, or accused of this being a punishment for them. One woman talked of how she tried to hide her condition from her family and was so happy when she heard the ship was coming and offering free surgeries. She was so happy to remove her eye patch's and see her families faces clearly, and the colors of their bright dress material.

Mercy Ships strives to follow the example of Jesus Christ working through us -
"The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor." Matthew 11:5