but now i SEE.

Last week I was having a discouraging day. Just because you are on an "adventure" on a ship in Africa does not mean you are immune to those days... I call them "Alexander" days-- you may be familiar with this story?

Then, as I was walking down a flight of stairs toward my cabin, I nearly ran into a sweet old woman on the landing between decks 3 and 4. She looked at me with the biggest smile and a light in her eyes like she was beholding an angel, or at least a delicious cookie cake. Reaching out her fingers, she started stroking my face, then she cupped it with her weathered hands. Now remember, I was in a very Alexander sort of state, about as far from angelic as I could be... so I was certain it wasn't for my sake that she was so mesmerized and overjoyed. Coming up the stairs just behind her was one of our eye team crew members, escorting another even older woman. She exclaimed, "She has been blind for almost 20 years, and now she can see!" The woman wondrously staring at me had just had her sight restored to her (via cataract removal) on the ship's first day of eye surgeries after 2 months of screenings. The next thing I knew, we were all bouncing around on that little landing in the stairwell, shouting "Hallelujah!" and clapping. After we squeezed hands tight, she turned to continue her ascent up the stairwell. But hers was far from an ordinary ascent! She was about to walk outside and SEE the beauty of the world again after all those years of darkness! Colors, details, faces, smiles. Waves, coconut trees, mangoes, busy markets. Aboard the Africa Mercy we are all about transformation; in fact, that is the theme this week on my ward ("D ward" or the maxillo-facial unit). What a transformation this woman had! And witnessing it transformed my mindset from an Alexander one to a grateful and joyous one. That's one of the many reasons why I love this place. Just a chance meeting in the stairwell can result in such transformation, such good medicine for the heart. I hope she continues to have the zest for life as I witnessed in her that afternoon. I want to display that zeal too, because after all... I once was blind myself.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me

I once was lost, but now I'm found

Was blind but now I see