Wow! I think that about sums it up in one word. I am on board the USNS Mercy, and there aint no getting off! We are at sea right now with no land in sight. The sun is wicked hot in the day with the heat index was 113 today, just a little muggy... and the stars and moon are phenomenoal on the flight deck at night. We were refueled and resupplied this morning (which is an AMAZING sight) by the Tippicanoe Naval Ship 199 at full speed. It took about 5 hours throughout the morning and our black hawk helo flew back and forth picking up palates with crates full of food, supplies and equipment. I never thought in a million years that my volunteer mission would include any of these types of experiences!!
This morning I found out my my "assignment" for Vietnam. We are docking at 0900 Thursday 1.5 miles from shore. Since there are a lot political issues there may not be a lot of land based mission work over the 10 days. The plans are changing every day and so far I am slotted to provide education at two hospitals on the 20th and the 27th. I will be speaking at 2 large hospitals about several different topics with other ICU/ER nurses. Otherwise right now it looks like I am helping to staff the ICU which is also the tele/isolation/pedi ICU/family escort care center. One of the nurses in charge of the ICU was the naval nurse for the white house for President Clinton for 2 1/2 years - he is extremely intelligent, very personable and wonderful to work with! His stories are incredible and we are going to be teaching together at our shore missions.
We had cultural training on Vietnamese customs today - very interesting and things that you would naturally do as a nurse they were smart to tell us ahead of time to be careful of. Don't touch the face or the shoulders - that's the window to the soul....don't touch the men, give things to others with both hands...don't cross your arms...don't point your toes outwards.
By the way, the picture above is obviously me in our helo. No, I didn't go flying around, but I did get to sit in the cockpit and hold the joystick! The flight crew was pretty amazing and hopefully they will take me up for a ride in East Timor... no flights in Vietnam...for pretty obvious reasons. Chat with you soon...I will try to call in the am! Love you all!
2 comments:
So are you going to join the Marines now and fly around in helicopters? It sounds like you are adapting well to life on a boat, I mean ship, I mean vessel. I miss ya tons and hope all is well!
Picture looks great!
Hey if you get a chance will you say hello to Maverick. I haven’t seen much of him since Top Gun. I heard he's married with a kid or something, I don’t know we don’t get much news here…
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