Rainy Season!

When Africa decides to let it rain, boy does it ever rain! But it hardly ever rains for many days, so it is a huge blessing each day that the flood gates let loose! Tonight we are facing some more rain, yet again. Tori and I went up to Deck 7 to try out our umbrella;s ( I finally got to use it mom!! ) We looked over the side of the ship and the rain was just pouring off into the blue ocean!

This past week has literally flown by!

Sunday, I was able to go to the Fisherman village church for their service! It was amazing, mind you i didn't really understand a whole lot, as it was mainly in Aweye, but to see the passion and joy in these peoples faces, made me realize that no matter how much or how little they have, they will always praise Him!

Monday, I was on duty, and Ali, the girl who welcomed me, and was one of my amazing roommates left :( She was only here for two months, but I'm so glad we got to know each other and she said she would come visit me in Canada! After the departures had gone off to the airport, it was time to wait for the new arrivals. They didn't arrive until 11:30pm, but once they got here we did the embarkation process as quick as possible and got them all to bed! One of the new crew, is my new roommate, Brittany, from Texas!

Tuesday and Wednesday were those in between days, where we made alot of guest cabins, and made almost too many cookies... Wednesday evening at bible study, it was Josh's and Penny's last week, before they fly to Texas, to attend Gateway, They will be back in early August though! We did our study, and then did a popcorn prayer of praise and thankfulness to God, for all the things we don' even realize he provides for us! We prayer for Penny and Josh also :)
Thursday, We again made a lot of cookies due to our very busy weekend ahead. I also had the privilege to attend the Academy's end of year presentation, all of the students from nursery to 11th grade, all were awarded with a character trait by their teachers and some classes had prepared a video! towards the end of the presentation, they had made a video yearbook, so we also got to watch that! Thursday evening at our weekly meeting, Don Stephans, the founder of Mercy Ships, spoke about how we got the protocol signed for the CONGO!!!! Which means if all works out, after the ship goes to Guinea for 10 months, it will go to dry dock and then onto the Congo, for about 10 months! This will be there first trip to the Congo for Mercy Ships, very exciting! After the meeting a few of my fellow crew members and I played phase 10! and we only got to phase 7 and we called it a night! I then decided to call home and see if my parents were still alive, might be a smart idea! I ended up talking to my mommy for about 40ish minutes, and got to talk to my brother for about 1 minute, but i loved it!!! :) I also heard my dog bark!!! I miss him!!!!

We also had International borad members arrive last night and today, for the conference held this weekend!

Making cookies the past 3 days has been crazy... Overall we have about 500 cookies, for two luncheons,  and a Long Term Crew reception.
Today, we made rooms, and i attempted to get the red food coloring out of my hand, with the help of paint thinner, which didn't work...

Yesterday i received my extension email! So i am now staying on board until November 3rd! I will be working with the Summer Program starting next week, and then going back into hospitality until i leave! I am very excited about this opportunity, and would also appreciate your thoughts and prayers, and financial support! Thank you and God bless you :)

Tori and I on Deck 7 :)

Smiles :)

I had the rare opportunity to have Thursday off, as Friday was a ship holiday, and I had to work!

So I slept in for a bit, and then ate some lunch and went off to the Hope Center!

Normally there is two weekly trips that take a group of crew members on Monday and Friday, but due to the ship holiday we went on Thursday, and as it turns out i was the only crew member other then the driver and translator. There wasn't that many kids around, but there was one in particular who pretty much attach himself to me. While we were listening to the story, Abell kept trying to understand why my fingernails were so long, and wouldn't break. We then started coloring a picture of the Joseph and his multi colored coat. I ended up getting some help from 2 year old Joseph, himself, he thought he should end some black lines in the background. Once we were done coloring, Abell decided it was BUBBLE TIME! So i got the bubbles out and at first he just chased them around, and i blew them. HE then decided i should chase after the bubbles instead. This grew old quickly so he gave them back to me! He then climbed onto my back and we walked around blowing bubbles at the other patients and little Joseph. Then he wanted to get higher so he climbed onto my shoulders, and could see pretty much everything from there. He also kissed my cheek a bunch of times, and i kissed his leg that is just nicely healing! It was then time to leave, but he wouldn't let me, so i picked him up like he was flying and he squealed with laughter! Then he hugged me very tightly and kissed my cheek once again, and then i got into the land rover and drove off waving into the distance!

This day was a true blessing and it put back into my head why I am here, not to drastically change these kids lives, but to put a smile on their faces and they easily put one on mine. They are precious gifts of God, and will always have a bit of my heart :)

Day in the life of a Hostess! :)

My Roomies!

 

Friday, May 11^th. This will be my 6^th Friday in Africa! Time is certainly going by way too fast for my liking. This Friday is different though from most, as I am on duty, wearing a pager from 8am till 8am tomorrow morning. With being the Duty Hostess, I welcome new arrivals, give tours to the new crew who arrived the day before and give out birthday cookies and cards, for crew members birthdays.

My day normally starts off around 7am, with breakfast in the dining room. Then I often go back to my room and get ready for work.

At 8am, we all meet in the hospitality office, and look at our lovely board to see what are the tasks for the day. Often this includes cabins, laundry, ironing, cookies, and making boats.

Once we have all taken a task, we all head off in our separate ways to complete our jobs. Today I am off to make a guest cabin, for a lady coming to visit her friend on the ship! First we clean the cabin, and bathroom, then we make up the new beds, and make them look pretty.. following making the beds, I put the clean set of towels in the bathroom, lastly I set up the welcome papers, and boat. Then before leaving the room, I vacuum the floor. Whoever is on duty will come by and put fresh cookie packs next to the papers, on the day of arrival.

After this I went off to make the cookie packs for the new guests and crew arriving today. There is only one crew member, and a few guests. Making the cookie packs, is somewhat exciting, and it can be cool to decide who gets what kind of cookie, haha.

It is now 10am, which translates into break time on the ship. Many people who work 8-5 slowly fill into Mid Ships, which is where the Starbucks cafe is located. On Mondays and Fridays they have crepes and waffles, today is Waffle day!

After our break time is over, we had already finished all our set tasks for the day, when Josh Callow, decided to drop into our office with some of the film festival prizes that he needed wrapped. So we tied bows, and put ribbon on them so they are ready for Saturday night red carpet event!

Once we finished the wrapping fiesta, we headed off for our hour lunch break from 11:30am-12:30pm. I dropped by the reception desk and had a nice chat with Anna, from Nova Scotia! Then continued to lunch, it again was pizzzaaa! Yumm!

When 12:30pm rolls around we all wonder back into the office for our devotions. Right now we are reading the book, call Kisses From Katie. She is a young missionary living in Uganda, and has written this book about her calling and what she is doing there!

Once devotions were over, I got to go get my PACKAGE!!!!!! My mom sent me, candy, shoes, a book, and my university letters!! I am now accepted into UNB, UPEI, Crandall, and have fully applied to Tyndale, all for psychology.

Our afternoons are somewhat less busy, as we already finished all of our work by lunch time. Because I was on duty, I am responsible for taking the new crew who arrived the day before on a ship tour!

Today I had two new crew members on the tour, both nurses, one from the UK and the other from the States. We start our tour in the cafe, and move on to the ship shop, crew bank, post office, and chaplaincy offices. After this we continue to the library, which is open 24/7 and has many varieties of books and DVDs. After the library is the hair salon, with our lovely hair stylist, Jillian, from Canada!

Next up is the prayer room, which is the only quiet place you can find alone time on the ship. Up on Deck 6, we have our Academy, which has about 50 students from all over the world, along as 12 teachers. The crew galley, is a place where people often make cakes or a special meal. The laundry room and internet cafe are also on Deck 6. The international lounge, is where we hold our weekly Monday and Thursday meetings, and our Sunday evening service. It is also home to early morning workouts, and different special events. Up onto Deck 7, we have the Queens Lounge, which actually used to be for Queen Ingrid, when the ship was the train ferry. After this part of the tour, we go up to Deck 8, which is the only fully open deck, it also has the pool. Its a spot where you can see Togo's Navy, two ships and all. Down on deck 3, is there hospital. We have 4 wards, and 6 operating theaters. We also have a CT scanner, and a x ray machine. Near the living part of deck 3, we have the crew clinic and the crew dental clinic. The last part of the tour is down to deck 2, which has the workout room and the boutique.

The other duty hostess job, is welcoming new arrivals, with a bit of information and food! Today I will only have one crew member arriving, the chief Engineer. He is from the states, and arrived on the Air France flight, once he was welcomed and fed he is free to roam around the ship and hopefully not get lost! He has been here before though!

Because I have the pager, I'm not supposed to leave the ship, but once all my work was done for today, I gave it to Elise, as she didn’t have any plans, and I went out to an Indian restaurant with a group of friends! We fit 6 people in a taxi, and Chris went on a zimmy john behind us! It was a fun evening!

That’s a work day in my life on Mercy Ships!

Photos to come later~  :)

VVF Ladies

For the entire month of April we had our amazing and faithful VVF surgeon on board. She was from the States, and left her own work to come volunteer on the Africa Mercy. She saw and helped many beautiful ladies throughout the month!

VVF is an abnormal fistulous tract that comes through labor gone wrong. It can happen to anyone but because West Africa is below the normal developed country it is a popular yet tragic occurrence. These ladies are often cast out of their communities because they are "cursed". Many of them are ashamed and do not want to be seen in public, so they don't go out at all!

With the surgeon we had on board, she screened many African ladies, and then performed the surgeries. Once we have a group of ladies ready to go back into their communities, we as a crew, hold what we call a Dress Ceremony. Many crew members, not just nurses and doctors, can attend. We all crowd into a ward and celebrate with these women.

A little over a week ago, I had the chance to attend one! I have never been so happy and shocked at the joy in the ladies faces. They all received a new dress, bible, and a few other things that were new! To signify that they are starting a new chapter of their lives. The dresses were BEAUTIFUL. Along with the dresses, but their smiles, says it all. They are free, alive, and ready to face the world again! They are beyond thankful, for what we would classify as such a simple surgery. They gain their life back again.

To be able to attend this ceremony was amazing! To just watch and celebrate with them was a memory I shall never forget.

The joy says it alll :)

Ship Life, One day at a time! :)

This past week has flown by! Day 38 in Africa was today! Crazyness, haha.

Sitting in the 10 berth, with a couple of my roommates right now, listening to music. Today wasn't a busy work day, pretty steady though. Making up guest cabins, color coding keys, sending emails and such

This past weekend, I slept over 32 hours, which was both good and bad, because im still quite tired, but im also finally caught up on all the missed sleep!
My day off last week, I headed off ship with Tori, and Elsa, we went first to the horse back riding place,  where we went along the beach agian! It is beyond pretty, and relaxing. Then we headed off to the chinese supermarket, in Africa... then off to the Artisan Market, where I bought 3 handmade bags! two of them are purple... Then we ventured on home, aka the ship :)

I am off to the Canadian Consolate tomorrow morning to apply for my new passport, with the ship's purser, Tim. Which shall be an experience in itself. We also have the Founder of Mercy Ships, Don Stephans, arriving next monday!!!!

Last Wednesday was my fellow canadian's birthday, Anna! So we planned a FLASH MOB at midnight....but TIA (This Is Africa) so it happened at about 12:03 am... she was working night shift at reception, and so we started the music and all came running in and totally caught her by surprise, she loved it! And then we all went to sleep...

Life on the Ship is pretty great so far, the people Ive met are amazing, and so different, which also gives me a reason to travel around the world! Some people are starting to leave, but we have formed relationships to last a long time :)




Flash mob, with birthday girl :)



dancers for flash mob!

Heidi, fellow canadian! :)



Barn Dance on the Dock with Tori!



Salsa Dancing with Nick :)

My favorite Minnesota girl! <3