The Team

It wouldn't be fair to write this blog without introducing you to the team!

First and foremost the awesome, amazing Dulce! Dulce, our team leader, is from Honduras and credits her driving skills to her training in Honduras (I think Formula 1 is the only driving she hasn't mastered at this point.) She is fearless, smart, great with the locals, an inspiring leader, and most importantly has become a friend to all of us. We would not have had near the experience we have had without her guidance. She keeps us all laughing and Mercy Ships has been fortunate to have her as a part of their team for the last 2 years. She is retiring from Mercy Ships this December and heading home to see her family, her dog, and figure out her next big adventure.

My mom is my partner in crime on this trip. We talked for years about taking a big trip together, which turned into we should do a mission trip together, which led to Mercy Ships. We have been planning this for over a year now and it doesn't seem possible we are almost halfway through our amazing adventure together. This has been a trip of a lifetime for us. (Side note for Mrs. Deinhammer's class - for those of you that would rather lop off your own arm than travel with your mom, you won't always feel that way. I was in your shoes in high school but surprisingly enough, my mom is super cool. Who knew? Mrs. Deinhammer will tell you the same thing about her mom - she totally rocks too and I know she would go to Africa with her mom. So, maybe 10 years from now you guys will do something like this with your mom or dad and I promise you, you won't regret it!) I find myself worrying about her on this trip and making sure she is ok and it is odd that those tables have slightly turned. It's great to have her with me and we are taking good care of each other.

Dr. Stuart is a super cool neurosurgeon. Most surgeons I meet have zero personality but this guy is super witty, super smart, and a super team player being the only man on the team. As you guys have already read, he arranged for the delivery of a high flow shunt for a 9 month old. Today he was in the OR observing the removal of a highly disfiguring facial tumor from a 9 year old. He explained the complexities behind the sphenoid bone, which apparently is the most specialized bone in the body. The temporalis muscle, nerves, carotid arteries, and a whole host of other things (yep, that's the medical terminology) are intertwined in this bone. The tumor was compressing the orbit and would have continued growing if they didn't remove it. The surgery was successful and this child can expect to have a pretty normal life from here on out. Maybe I have just had bad experiences with surgeons in the past (and the ever present 'God complex' most have) so I find myself marveling all the time just how nice and laid back Dr. Stuart is. And funny. And he doesn't talk down to anyone despite the fact that he is crazy smart. I imagine back home in the real world he is a comforting, patient doctor and if I ever need spine surgery, he's my guy. Mrs. Deinhammer's future surgeons - my advice to you - graduating med school may make you a good surgeon and people will respect you just because you are a surgeon; however, be humble about it, donate your time and services, and simply be nice to people on their level and then you will be a rock star surgeon like Dr. Stuart! Sadly, Dr. Stuart's patients need him more than us and he has to return home on Friday.

Morgan is the baby of the team. At 23 the world is her oyster. She always wanted to go on a mission trip and never could get the timing right with college until now. Now that one thing is complete on her bucket list (although by the sound of it, this is the first of many overseas mission trips for Morgan), she has her sights set on PT school next. She is the infectiously funny one and keeps us all laughing. She loves the kids here as much as I do and they clearly love her back. I am amazed at her observation skills - she misses nothing and notices all sorts of cool things in this chaotic world of Sierra Leone (like they use shards of glass glued to the top of their brick walls in lieu of barbed wire). She and Dulce go on and on in their own language with Nacho Libre references. Guess I will finally have to see that movie.

Cathy is Morgan's mom. They are the 'other mother and daughter' (I guess they say the same about us!). Cathy lives in Montana with her postman husband. She is an avid cycler and has a really cool job working for a family that owns a lot of banks and has one of the 5 largest ranches in the US. She is also apparently very popular with the local men as one man was relentless today in pursuing her, despite the fact that she is married. She took it all in good stride and gave us all something to joke about. She and Morgan have a great relationship so again I emphasize, moms can be really cool!

Peggy is a hairdresser in Tyler. She had to lug a bunch of hair products all the way to Africa. I think many times people forget about the unsung heroes like Peggy who perform the necessary services people need when living in an isolated environment for months at a time without any access to modern conveniences. The haircuts are free on Mercy Ships for the staff and they only have one hairdresser, so Peggy is going to give her some much needed relief tomorrow. Peggy was in a terrible car wreck last year and greatly damaged one arm (and much more) and you would never know it. She scraped paint with the best of us and it is hard to believe she suffered so much damage to her arm. I hope I am as strong as Peggy one day! 

Betty is the trooper of the gang and wins the award for best paint scraper. She has a daughter-in-law named Neon who is going to have a baby soon. Her other son is a former marine. Betty is super nice and she and her husband live on and own a true working Texas ranch. However she lives part of the time in Tyler because, "she needs to get back to civilization." Amen sister! :)

Michael the dentist from Germany is our honorary team member. He happened to be arriving and leaving at the same time as us and we hooked up with him in Brussels. He traveled alone so we sorta adopted him. He joins us for most meals and is a fun guy to have around. He has been pulling teeth since he arrived. They have so many people that need extractions, he literally loses count. He pulled over 250 his first day here! We played trivia tonight on the ship and he was on our team, so we named our team 'The Toothless Wonders' in honor of his daily extracting duties. He is a sharp guy but kept saying, "I know the answer in German, just not in English." That worked the first couple of times... (Side note - Jodie you would be ashamed of me - I couldn't remember glucagon! I didn't feel so bad when Dr. Stuart admitted he couldn't remember that one either.)

There you have it - the team! This blog of mine has become quite the topic of conversation amongst us and the team is great about telling me to put certain things in the blog. I know my postings are super long and for those of you that know me, that shouldn't be a great surprise, as we all know how much I love to talk! Thanks for hanging in there with me and reading through it all. I have greatly enjoyed writing it.