Captain's Blog 4-19-2016
If you only knew two words in a foreign language, what would they be?
In Spanish, I've really only known cerveza and baño, because to me they pair together crucially. One day recently, two boys on the beach on the island of Olo‘ua gave Karen and I some greater perspective on language.
The medical team was ashore at a village clinic when Karen and I spotted
the boys playing near hammocks hanging in the palm trees. The hammocks looked inviting, so off we went toward the trees. When we got to shore we engaged with the boys,
played, and took a few pictures of them before they took off toward an old
shack nearby. We said "bye!" and waved
big. About halfway to the shack they
turned and yelled back,“Love You”, and nothing more.
Turns out they were going back home to get
two worn out children’s books written in English. When they returned with the books, we sat on the hammock and read to
them, and quickly realized that they did not know English at all. We both were a bit taken aback, realizing
those were the only two words they knew in our language. Nice!
We tried the phrase out ourselves the day after when we were back in the town of
Neiafu, where there is always a group of young kids swimming off the dock at
dusk. As we passed by in the dingy we
greeted them with a loud “love you”! We
heard a whole chorus of young voices yell back the same. Not the worst choice of words if you only are
going to learn a couple. They won't get you a beer, but no doubt the true yield is far greater.
Rotation 1, in the Va’vau group of Tonga was absolutely
splendid. Despite being pinned down in
the harbor of Neiafu for the first three days due to three low pressure
systems (one of which formed into a cyclone), we managed to operate clinics in
every remote village in the group. The
team we had was absolutely fantastic, dedicated, and worked tirelessly. We had a couple from the UK- Hanna, a medical
student, and her fiancé James, in aviation logistics; Ika the Medical Officer
from the Ministry of Health; Alyani, a Nurse Practitioner from the Ministry of
Health; Brian and Sandy, two NZ doctors, married, who not only shared service in
their local clinic, but also came with us to all of the villages we visited.
It was an awesome team! We saw over 200 villagers, and left no one
behind who desired to be seen. I
realized the value of how the team functioned together when I was trying to
keep us on a daylight transit schedule. It was late afternoon and all the team was aboard, except for Ika. I returned and waited on the village dock as
Ika dressed and bandaged a very badly infected finger. “Malo aupito”, (thank you very much) the
injured man said as we departed. I wish
I had the courage to say what the children had taught me, that underneath those
two words are two others worth learning, worth saying… “Love You”! Because this is why we help.
Karen and I are off now for the Haap’ai group of islands to
the south. We have two rotations
scheduled there before heading off for Fiji.
For more information on our cause, visit www.seamercy.org. The Catamaran has now traveled from Carolina Beach, NC, to Tonga- to become a FHCC (Floating Health Care Clinic) for Sea Mercy - and we've completed our first three rotations. Sea Mercy's vision is to be the most effective preventive, curative, promotional and rehabilitative floating health care provider and service delivery mechanism to support the remote citizens of the island nations. Their mission is therefore to ensure that the community sector has the practical tools and talent available to accomplish those visionary ends. To accomplish this in the short term they will provide floating health clinics to needy populations. To effect long term community improvement, they work to increase awareness of the health issues facing these vulnerable populations.
Please consider getting involved or donating to Sea Mercy, or simply share our cause with your friends and family. Thank you for being with us on this journey!
