Upcountry Guinea

A couple of months ago, Dan had the opportunity of traveling upcountry in Guinea to help with the screening of patients.  As logic concurs, those that live farther from the capital, from infrastructure, hospitals, and pharmacies have a greater chance of suffering from medical conditions that could otherwise have been treated early on.

So, Mercy Ships has determined it is important to try to reach some of these remote areas and bring the screening to them. A doctor who has worked with Mercy Ships for several years did some initial screening in these uppermost regions several months prior and had scheduled appointments for these patients to be further evaluated by our screening team to deem if we could help them with surgery.  Dan was fortunate enough to be chosen to be a part of this team of nurses, navigators, survival specialists, and French speakers.

I won't bore this post with many words, but let the many pictures do the talking.  Guinea is made up of four regions:  Coastal Guinea (where we live), Middle Guinea, High Guinea, and Forest Guinea.  You get a little glimpse into each of these areas on this journey that covered more than 2000 kilometers and many, MANY days of driving.

trying to catch a better glimpse of the views

African signal flares to indicate a broken down vehicle

what's a roadtrip without a bit of car trouble?

Can you find Tracy, trying to get some privacy in nature's outhouse?

The team stopped at six different locations to screen patients during their two-week journey.

one of the screening sites where patients (and other curious onlookers) were waiting to be seen

Mama Hasanatu, whom had not been pre-screened before, but came out to the screening and we were able to watch transformed on the ship this past month!

Arriving at the Hope Clinic, missionary Jon Ericson's home base in N'Zao, N'Zerekore

the pharmacy at the Hope Clinic

the charges for the medical services at the Hope Clinic
7,100 fg = 1.00 dollar

the vehicle picked up a little bit of the road along the way

Ryan the Chicken Rangler

dinner to go

Fresh dinner, coming up

lots of interesting neighbors with loads on the road

 

Next post will be of the beautiful people that need surgeries that they were able to identify during this trip.