Happy New Year!

Just a quick update to say Happy New Year to our friends and family!

Suzanne about to head to work in the OR,
 and Nick heading off to a meeting at a local hospital

We're with the ship in Senegal!  After our 5 months in N'zao, Guinea at the beginning of 2019, we went back to living on board the ship in August and sailed in to Dakar, where the ship will be docked until June 2020.


Nick is busily up to doing what he does best - treating clubfoot kiddos, building relationships, and working together with a really great team of people.  The Mercy Ships team is working together with a team of four pediatric surgeons from a big public children's hospital in Dakar.

Clubfoot team photo after running an advanced clubfoot course in September

They currently have 12 kids in treatment, and will start again with another group of kids in January.  The Dakar team has been really encouraged by the results they are getting together, and has really seen what the Ponseti method can achieve, even in kids who are older (they are treating several kids around the age of 10 years) 

Team ice cream outing

Presenting Certificates at the end of the course

I have continued working in our operating rooms, which has included being a team leader two surgical specialties - plastics reconstructive and orthopedics.  Our OR team is constantly changing, with many nurses, surgeons and anesthesia providers coming for 2-3 weeks.  Every Monday, our team is slightly different.  

OR 1 has been my home for the last several months, both plastics and ortho surgeries happen here

Team leading means coordinating many aspects of the patient care (seeing each patient before they come to the OR, making sure that we have the correct supplies available for each case, etc), and also doing a lot of communication to keep the team on the same page.  Our teams are normally a mix of crew have visited the ship in the past, and people who have come for the first time, and we usually have people from 4-5 different countries working together in each room.  It's a very special hospital, and I love being a part of it!

Here's a couple team selfies from the past months...there are many more faces than this (this is just what I had on my phone at the moment)...thank you to everyone who I've had the joy to work with since surgeries started in August!

We've really begun to fall in love with Senegal, and we're looking forward to the second half of our visit and the months ahead.  At the moment, we are enjoying a few days off ship at the beach- a nice break after some busy months and before we jump into January.

Happy New Year, friends!  Thank you for your prayers and encouragement!