My time on Mercy Ships is coming to an end! It's with mixed emotions that I leave tomorrow- I will miss the friends I've made on the ship and having someone cook/do the dishes for me, but am excited to be back in the US and see family and friends and start my new job in Boston!

This week has been full of discharging patients after their multi-week stay on the ship. It's been really exciting to see the changes as their post-op dressings get smaller and smaller and their wounds heal. I'm glad the timing of my services allowed me to be here most of their admission- allowing me to see before and after! While the nursing work wasn't always the most challenging/exciting, I really have enjoyed getting to know the kids, their caregivers and the other staff. This week I was on night shift, which are particularly slow. Myself and the two other nurses working spent a good chunk of the shift sitting out in the hall playing cards and chatting with the night housekeeping crew. They are Senegalese and we were telling them how much we enjoy the communal nature of the wards. They could not believe that hospital patients in the US have their own rooms and don't talk with the other patients. They were shocked that you could go to the hospital and not meet other people!! It's definitely gonna be different when I go back!

Some final pictures from my time on the AFM:

The little fishing boats around the port

This is Goree Island, we can see it from the ship. We took the ferry out, it used to have all the slave houses where they would wait until they were sent over

George Floyd's portrait is on Goree Island