GUAM

Check out this article on the Navy's website where I'm quoted as the volunteer Intensive Care nurse for Project Hope!

Things are going to start getting crazier! We just left Guam and are sooo close to our first mission location. The logistics and operations of Indonesia are interesting. The ship is going to continually be on the move. It will drop teams off at different medical, surgical, dental, vision, and veterinarian sites starting on the main northern tip of Indonesia and then continuing on towards the small islands. I agreed to camp and sleep with mosquito nets and limited showers, which opened up a spot for a 6 day MEDCAP. Medical Civic Action Program where medical screenings and interventions will occur. I will have an amazing nurse and corpsman team with me. Mom the guys have cumulatively served 87 months in Afghanistan and said they’ll watch out for me! So bring on the baby wipe baths and humidity!

I am finally not the sole Project Hope team member aboard the Mercy! I have about 15 other teammates with a wide variety of experiences. We have Doctors, nurses, and Midwifes along with a few pharmacy students! It’s nice to see someone in the same uniform as me.

So what’s been going on…

Like before LOTS of set up and planning. I never did appreciate the guys that would restock our supply room, but I will forever be grateful for their work! The ICU team grew from 6 to 25! While in Guam, but the original 6 had to find all our supplies and equipment on this HUGE ship and then make a supply room from scratch! Who knew that would be sooo difficult?!? I am glad that’s done. Tomorrow night they are planning on having a movie on the flight deck. They’ll project it on to the Helicopter Hanger and hopefully it won’t rain! From the 22-25^th we were in Guam and I had liberty issued. We had a great time! My liberty buddies were amazing and had the same mindset… let’s see and do as much as we can and sleep when we get back on the ship! So I would say we slept 12 hours in three nights out! Shore Patrol, the duty officers assigned to make sure everyone was back in their hotel rooms at night usually found us around town at 1am and drove us back to our hotel! We went on two tours. One was a river boatadventure and we cruised up a river and saw all the local habitat and culture. They made awesome baskets, fans, fish, flowers out of palm leaf and we got to take it home. We tried fruit right off the trees and the mango was delicious! 

The other tour we took was a dolphin watching adventure! We arrived and we were the only ones picked up at the hotel for this tour! So the four of us went on a private tour on the south tip of Guam. We followed the dolphins and then they took us to a cove and anchored. We got out and snorkeled!!! The staff threw in fish food and all the fish started coming up from the coral and surrounded us while we swam! That was a site to be seen. We played at the beach, pool hopped as we saw shipmates at different hotels on the beach! 

I was invited to a Chamber of Commerce meeting/reception with the Captain of the nursing department. The Commodore was there and the other department heads!  The girls I spent my time with (my liberty buddies) were Helle my Danish vet friend, Kaelin my roommate a biochemist, and Arlinda my other roommate and nurse. 

Kaelin and I have decided we are going to start and informal bible study and start digging into the Word. Kaelin has been a real blessing and encourager on this mission. I think we both build each other up and it has been a mutually beneficial friendship.  

Keep all my shipmates in your prayers. I may make it out to sound like a ton of fun and there are fun times, but most of the day is hard work and it’s a new working environment for everyone. It’s like starting a new hospital with new staff and making up the rules and regulations as you go! I am thankful for all the patience you all have had waiting on me to update this blog. Like I always say… internet is sooo slow, sometimes it’s just not worth the time to come down to the internet room and get on. Your e-mail can take 5 minutes to load, 2 minutes while you wait for your response page to open, and then another 5 minutes to send!!!

San Diego to Hawaii

Check out this YouTube on Pacific Partnership Helicopter Department as it fly's over Wake Island!

You do not appreciate technology until you are unable to access Internet, call home, call someone to meet you NOW, or plan  the next day’s adventures....I am writing this May 12th and we'll see when I get access to the Internet. Our satellite went down shortly after leaving San Diego and everyone waited until Hawaii for the replacement. Now that the Internet is up, the military staff is happy and reconnected. The NGO's (non-governmental organizations) are still waiting and it's complicated letting us into a secure governmental network, so they are arranging for wireless. Sometimes I miss it, but not really, because its soooo slow! It can take 5 minutes for a picture on Facebook to load! So that is not an important situation. 

What is ship life like???

Interesting! I did not get sick and I took my mescaline to prevent such torture! It is weird to work out on a moving ship. If you are on the treadmill you feel like you are running rolling hills! Until you acclimate you walk in a zig zag fashion on the P-ways (halls) and you occasionally walk into a bulkhead (wall) :) 

The Beautiful Sunset

This is not just a job it's your home, so there is an interesting bond between co-workers. Everyone has a real interest in each other’s well-being. I know there is a hierarchy in healthcare and military, but this is your family out here on the Pacific Ocean too! 

The food is good, but I often laugh because they feed us like we feed our patients in the hospital... 6, 11, and 1630! It leaves room to work out in the evening. I have been going to Insanity at 0530 the last few mornings and then hurrying through a shower and chow before muster at 0730. It's hard, but I am motivated by those around me. 

I am going to Church on Sundays. It has been really nice. It's been nice to go and connect with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. It's hard being in the Navy atmosphere. It's very 'loud' in your face, are you tough enough for this kind of environment. So meeting fellow Christians gives you a place to take a deep breath and refresh. 

My experiences...I love meeting new people, so I try to sit with someone new at chow (meals). The benefit... Going places on the ship you have to be invited to!!

- I have gone to the 'bridge' where the ship is navigated. I learned about the tracking and mapping of this vessel. 

- I went to the steam room. This ship is massive and we have a steam engine! Hence why we move at 20mph!

- Was invited with a group to tour and lodge in Hawaii without having to plan anything.

- Had a meeting with the Commodore (the head of the ship)

- Represented the NGO's at an executive board meeting where I sat between the ships master (head of the movement of this large vessel) and the commodore!

- Watched a flight OPS. We always have to stay clear of the flight decks when the helicopters or 'birds' are practicing. I met a girl who works on the flight deck securing the bird and attaching cargo while the bird hovers 2 feet above her head!!! She invited me to watch and I had to put on a cool vest and helmet.

- On the way in and out if port we 'man the rails' and it is a tradition to pay respect to the ports we are going in and out of. On the way into Pearl Harbor as everyone manned the rails in their dress whiles it respective uniform we passed the USS Missouri and the memorial of USS Arizona. The soldiers saluted as we passed and it was a cool experience.

- When we loaded on more people in Hawaii I gave a tour to the new nurse NGOs and Partner nation (Canada) 

Steel Beach Party

I am a part of DNS: Department of Nursing in the Division of ICU (Intensive Care Unit). My lead is great and very personable. My director is the only Nurse on this ship who is a captain. Which I have learned is extremely hard to achieve. She's funny and can host stand-up comedy! So far I am one of 3 nurses in the ICU and we have 6 core men (enlisted technicians) they are awesome and I am sure I can learn from all their experience in the field. My core men are all men in the ICU. We will be bringing on more staff in Guam. 

They call me Ms. Kelly haha that is going to have to stop as many of them are older than me! Kelly is fine! We are getting all our departments up and running. We have a TON of equipment!!!! It's all old, and has been in since the last mission on the 'elect two years ago. So imagine sorting and sorting and cleaning. Yes! That's what we are doing! And putting together training manuals. I found out my first MedCAP is 6 days off the ship in Indonesia. I am going to Talaud Island! Can you say bug spray!!! 

There is a girl nicknamed the Fun Boss. She runs the MWR morale welfare and recreation department. Today for the 104th Nurse Corp Birthday the ship held a Steal Beach Party!!! We had so much fun! It was a massive barbecue on the flight deck with the Navy band playing some rocking music lots of dancing! Games; catch, basketball, beanbag toss and lawn ball? Two golf balls on a string and you throw them to get then to wrap around a post. Super soaker Water fight. I got my first 'deck' burn and will reapply sunblock next time.

Refueling in the middle of the ocean take 4 hours

I am currently sitting out in the weather deck where the life boats and rafts are typing this into a 'note' on my phone while laundry is going! 

Ohhh... For now I got moved into a new room! A state room of officer berthing. Not sure if I'll be here the whole time as more people come on ship. But I did not ask and actually turned down the move when they first offered it to me. They offered one more time saying since I volunteered from the beginning they wanted to move me into a bigger space. I have 4 other roommates at this time and a whole lot more storage... Coming from enlisted berthing I don't even fill my drawers. I will probably be the last one in tonight. We go to bed early but everyone in my rooms is up for insanity workout at 0500!!!

Check out this word press blog from Pacific Partnership

Link to Pacific Partnership 2012

Hey everyone! Check out this site for more information on this journey: Pacific Partnership

Tug boats are here

Early morning!!!
Muster (accountability meeting making sure everyone is still on the boat) was at 0515!!! Now it's 0645 and we are once again manning the rails! The gangplank is pulled and the anchors are up once again!!! Hopefully we are leaving in an hour...

He was just doing his job! :)

My first meltdown... 2030May 2,2012 
I came through the pier gate to get BACK on the Mercy. One more rule I have yet to been instructed on since according to everyone, 'you are a civilian do what you want!' 
Apparently you have to be escorted through the gate. I have been coming and going for 4 days... This was the first time I was stopped. Then this E-4 called the base chief police officer.   Yes tears started coming down my face as 20 crew members came through the gate as I stood there next to the police. Then I had to figure out the number to the ship and call the person at the check-in to come down with the roster to prove I could be here. Please let's depart tomorrow so I can get my military ID card issued! 
I bet this is the only excitement this young man had for the whole evening considering this is an unarmed humanitarian vessel.

Navy Time!

Ok so we planned on setting sail yesterday 0930 we began mannin the rails. Basically everyone was in uniform and as a formality they stand along the rail as the ship pulls out. Well we stood there until 1100 and then the captain called over the loud speaker that we were on a delay because they could not get the forward propoltion of the ship going. The engineering team found the problem and said it could take 24-48 hours to fix! So the captain gave everyone liberty until 0630 today.
I stayed on base and went to dinner at the pub and then went to a free movie! Played some pool and got to know some of the navy and army crew! Today at "muster" 0630 the time we check-in to our departments the captain came on overhead again and said that once the coast guard clears us we will be underway at 1600. So... Today so far I have had mustered, had breakfast, a meeting, gone to the gym and its only 0935!!! :) my next meeting is at 1230 after lunch. Hopefully today when the tug boats arrive we'll actually be leaving.
Once the ship pulls out we have to land the helicopters on deck and then meet up with a fueling vessel. Then we'll really be underway.
So far the captain said with this delay we may not stay in Hawaii and it might just be a place to pickup more crew. 500 more people to be exact.

Living spaces are tight. Showers are Nasty! But have warm water! And I realized today that I put my stuff in the wrong shower locker! But that bed must be empty because no one has said anything!! I am on the bottom rack and my bunk mate is really nice she is an MA3 so basically a military police higher rank in the enlisted. She said no one wants to talk to her in the racks because she's the police!!! Sakarya is her name!

I am spending my time with everyone! Surprise Surprise! But I met another NGO (Non governmental organization) her name is Helle and she is a Vet from Denmark! She did a comparable mission last year and when I get frustrated about the disorganization so far she reminds me that last year was way worse!
Ok hopefully I'll get to update you that we are underway!!