C++ byte array (struct) interpreted by Python

I am trying to pass a C++ struct from my arduino to my raspberry pi. I have a struct that looks like this:

struct node_status
{
  char *node_type = "incubator";
  char *sub_type;          // set the type of incubator
  int sub_type_id;
  bool sleep = false;         // set to sleep
  int check_in_time = 1000;   // set check in time
  bool LOCK = false;      // set if admin control is true/false
} nodeStatus;

I tried using the python module named struct

from struct import *

                print("Rcvd Node Status msg from 0{:o}".format(header.from_node))
                print("node_type: {}".format(unpack("10s",payload[0]))) #node_type
                node_type = unpack("10s",payload[0])
                print("sub_type: {}".format(unpack("10s",payload[1]), header.from_node))    #sub_type
                sub_type = unpack("10s",payload[1])
                print("sub_type_id: {}".format(unpack("b",payload[2])))
                sub_type_id = unpack("b",payload[2])
                print("sleep: {}".format(unpack("?",payload)[3]))   #sleep
                sleep = unpack("?",payload[3])
                print("check_in_time: {}".format(unpack("l",payload[4])))   #check_in_time
                check_in_time = unpack("l",payload[4])
                print("Lock: {}".format(unpack("?",payload[5])))    #LOCK
                Lock = unpack("?",payload[5])

but I am not having much luck. I was even looking at just using ctypes module but seem to not be going anywhere..

from ctypes import *

class interpret_nodes_status(Structure):
    _fields_ = [('node_type',c_char_p),
                ('sub_type',c_char_p),
                ('sub_type_id',c_int),
                ('sleep',c_bool),
                (check_in_time',c_int),
                ('LOCK',c_bool)]

nodestatus = translate_nodes_status(payload)

but that just gives me an error

TypeError: bytes or integer address expected instead of bytearray instance

What can I do? WHERE am I going wrong with this?

EDIT:

I am using the RF24Mesh Library from

https://github.com/nRF24/RF24Mesh

The way I send the message is this?

  RF24NetworkHeader header();

  if (!mesh.write(&nodeStatus, /*type*/ 126, sizeof(nodeStatus), /*to node*/ 000))
  { // Send the data
    if ( !mesh.checkConnection() )
    {
      Serial.println("Renewing Address");
      mesh.renewAddress();

    }
  }
  else
  {
    Serial.println("node status msg Sent");
    return;
  }

}

from C++ byte array (struct) interpreted by Python