Madahooha? Madagascar!

We have arrived safely in Tamatave, Madagascar and are absolutely THRILLED to be here! But before I talk about Madagascar I must talk about our journey to get here... 

We left Cape Town on the 17th and after 8 days of some of the roughest waters this ship has ever seen, we made it safely! The Cape of Good Hope (where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet) is notorious for big swells but we were just behind a storm as well which made the waves even more interesting. A roll is when the ship rocks from side to side and a pitch is when it rocks from front to back. I use those terms because we got to experience both motions extensively! For the first few days we were heading into the waves and so we bounced on them. The best way I can describe that is to imagine about three days of heavy airplane turbulence. Then Captain Tim had to adjust our course so that the waves were hitting us broadside and for three days we enjoyed 10--20 degree rolls fairly steadily all day and all night. I chose to not write about the sail until it was over in the hopes that I would be able to look back with some sort of fondness but I guess that fondness hasn’t hit yet. All I will say about those three days is a description of trying to shower. Have you ever stood on the fulcrum of a teeter-totter (see-saw) and tried to balance … it was being used? Imagine trying to shower at the same time. Two minutes of shower time was no problem during the sail; I was in and out of there as fast as hygienically possible. 

Land in sight!! 

Jordan and Brandon (fellow carpenter) are on the side party; they let down the gangway whenever we arrive at a new dock space--which has been quite a few times recently.

But now we are here and all is well. Part of the trickiness of the sail was that we had to get here by Saturday, October 25th. Before Mercy Ships even made the decision to come to Madagascar, the government here had decided to name 2015 the Year of the Volunteer as a way to honor and promote volunteer service and the whole year was going to kick off on October 25th and a big part of the show would be the arrival of the Africa Mercy. We were docked up by 9:00 and as soon as immigration cleared the deck hands to go off the ship, they were on the dock cleaning and doing touch-up painting in preparation for the festivities. Inside the ship, my team and I were transforming the ship from looking like a battleground (things tend to not stay put when subjected to a 28 degree roll, which was our highest!) into something fit for a Head of State! Meanwhile there was a party being set up on the dock as well. Two big tents with seating for dignitaries was set up and the red carpet was literally rolled out. While we waited for the president to arrive, we got to watch some really cool street performers do their thing! It was quite the experience and I was overcome with excitement to be in this country and see what God is going to do! It’s so obvious that he has worked out our timing perfectly--albeit in a roundabout way! 

Our entertainment while we waited for Mr. President to arrive. 

Side story here but I just had to share this picture. Our Managing Director, Roland Decorvet, is Swiss and his wife is Malagasy. They have four beautiful daughters. Whenever we arrive at a new country, we have an arrival ceremony and one of the Academy kids presents the welcoming dignitary with the nation’s flag. Whenever a President comes on board, one of the Academy kids presents him with flowers and typically present him with some sort of gift later. Yesterday we we were arriving AND hosting a President so the Decorvet girls got to present the President with the flag, gifts, and flowers with their parents behind them to meet the President. It was so fun to watch and I think the whole ship was smitten. :) 

The Decorvets.

The communications department on board (to whom I owe the marvelous photos in this post!) created what we have begun to call “the hospital experience” while we were in Cape Town and opened the ship up for tours. It takes the tourist through the hospital and allows you to experience the miracles that happen there even when there are no patients to physically see. Nurses tell stories of patients that have overcome incredible odds and you can walk into an OR room that Lucrech received his life-changing surgery in and watch a video of his story (click here to see it). The coolest part though is that you are given a before picture of a patient with their name, age, and condition at the very beginning of the tour. At the end, there is a wall with all the after photos and you have to match your before photo to the after photo. 

The President, Prime Minister, and a party of other dignitaries boarded the ship and were able to experience the hospital experience, thanks to the hospital staff who quickly set it up after the sail. Then he and his party made their way to Midships where they were able to watch the Congo field service overview video (watch it here) and chat with the Managing Director and Dr. Gary Parker while my team and I served them refreshments. Then back to the dock they went went to continue speeches to start off the Year of the Volunteer! 

Roland shaking hands with Hery Rajaonarimampianina, or as I like to call him, the President.

We were so honored to be a part of it and I thoroughly enjoyed the day. I have to say that setting up and serving for a Head of State after being crashed around at sea for 8 days was not something I ever expected to do. As soon as it was over I unpacked my cabin--never to be packed up again for 8 more months, when we sail again! 

And today is our first full day in Madagascar. We actually haven’t been off ship yet as Jordan is on duty and deck department is busy today. I honestly don’t mind yet though, I’m just happy to be sitting still. There will be more to come soon but we just wanted to let you guys know that WE MADE IT and we are EXCITED! There is something in my spirit that I just can’t describe; God is at work and I love being a part of it! 

Until next time then. :) 

Country Next (Third Time's the Charm)

Hello from the OTHER side of the Atlantic Ocean! Thanks to social media, it is pretty well known that I (Katie) have been in the States for the past two weeks. Waaaay back in February, my best friend Jessica got engaged. I had known for a while that this would happen and also knew that I wouldn't be able to come to the wedding; we're planning on coming home at Christmas and had not budgeted for another ticket. However, Jessica's dad wrote me right when she got engaged and asked if he could fly me back for the wedding--as a surprise!!

Of course there was only one answer to that question: UNEQUIVOCALLY (and with many, many thanks)!! But I have to admit that was a long secret to keep! There were definitely moments when I wondered how I could possibly not give it away but we pulled it off! On August 31, I walked into Jessica's living room and said "Surprise!"

Jessica and I have been friends for 5 years; we met as roommates in college in Arkansas. We've spent 4 years and 11 months of that time living in separate states/continents but we remain best of friends, thanks to unlimited texting. I had so much fun and felt incredibly blessed to be there for her day (and yes, I did cry a lot on the big day). It was a truly fantastic week spent with her preparing for her wedding and I even got to be a bridesmaid--talk about the most laid back bride ever! :) 

Enter: crazy time in Mercy Ships. We've written about some of the delays and changed plans that have been happening. "Country Next" has really been an on-going decision for several weeks/months now! I realize that our news can sometimes sound a little scattered and there's a couple of reasons for that. Mostly, it's because this summer things were changing every day and we barely had time to get information out! Because of that and the heightened media attention that West Africa has been getting because of Ebola, we were asked to not share certain things before the time was right, to ensure that only correct information was being posted. Now that it's been officially announced that we are going to Madagascar, I'd like to give a really basic timeline of what's happened but I promise it won't be too long. :)

The first major change was not going to Guinea and making the decision to go to Benin instead--I think that happened late April (I blogged about it here.) That was a hard decision that had to be made quickly because the Advance team was due to fly for Conakry early May to prepare for the ship's arrival. Even though they weren't in Guinea yet, they had done a lot of work already and had to start over to get ready for Benin. The Advance team left for Benin May 9. 

We arrived in the Canary Islands on June 14th and went into dry dock a few days later. We were supposed to sail for Benin on August 15. At the beginning of August though, a problem with the engine surfaced (you'll have to ask Jordan to write a post on that because I don't understand it!). Right around the same time, the news broke out that Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian-American, had died in Lagos, Nigeria from Ebola (he had just been in Liberia). Even though Lagos is a country away it is less than 100 miles from Cotonou, where we were going to dock in Benin and the traffic between the two cities is very high. It was announced that our sail date was postponed until August 29th because of the engine trouble and this would also give us time to see what would happen in Nigeria.  

Throughout the next couple of weeks, the same thing kept happening. Something else would go wrong that caused a few days delay and we would also hear news about Ebola that made the way forward unclear. Unfortunately, it did become clear that we could not go to Benin. Nigeria is not in as bad a state as Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia are/were, but there are still new cases of Ebola popping up every few days. We just couldn't take the chance of being a magnet with a disease so contagious and dangerous and unintentionally making the situation worse. 

The Africa Mercy was a ship without a country! We didn't know where we were headed next. A few countries were looked at but for one reason or another, were not viable options. But here's a cool part of the story! :) Our new managing director's wife is from Madagascar! So our MD (his name is Roland Decorvet) was able go through the necessary "red tape" incredibly quickly because of relationships that he has sigh officials in Madagascar. How cool is that? So about two weeks ago, we were told that the plan was to go to Madagascar but that nothing was set in stone just yet. It was official a few days later but we were asked to not say anything until everything was in order, which was Monday! 

SO. The Africa Mercy set sail from Las Palmas, Gran Canaria on Saturday, August 13th, with a course set for Cape Town, South Africa--an 18 day sail! I believe it's the longest sail the ship has ever done. It will spend some time in South Africa (we're not sure how much time yet) to refuel and some other things. We will arrive in Madagascar mid to late October. 

That brings me up to where Jordan and I are at now, which is on separate continents. Although it occurs to me that technically Jordan isn't on a continent since he's sailing. When I left the ship (August 30) I wasn't sure which country where we were going to or where the ship was going to be when or even what day I would be returning. And since I was in the States already, I really wanted to get up to Ohio (mostly to meet my niece but also to see the rest of you guys up there ;)). 

So I decided to take a round trip but returning from Dayton instead of Kansas City. I flew to Dayton from Kansas on September 7th (Sunday). On Tuesday, we found out that the ship would be sailing on the 13th (Saturday). I could either fly back in time to join the ship OR fly to Cape Town, South Africa. Two of my friends are there right now preparing for the ship's arrival and working on some different plans for what we'll be doing once the ship arrives. They asked if I would join them to help out but understood that if I wanted to be back on board since I've been away for 2 weeks. I decided to join them for a couple of reasons--I could get more time in Ohio, be of help in Cape Town (I'm not much use when I'm bed-stricken on the high seas) and SKIP THE DREADED SAIL. 

I'm fairly excited about that last point. 

So, I'm in Washington, D.C. right now, about to board my insanely long flight, but I probably won't be able to post this until I get to Cape Town (as in fact, I am. I've been here for two days.) Jordan is somewhere off the west coast of Africa, hopefully making quick time. :) 

Whew. Confused yet?

Couple of prayer points:

• Please pray for the Advance Team. They were pretty much completely prepared for our arrival in Benin, which was 4 months of crazy hard work. Now they are flying to Madagascar to start all over again--for the 3rd time. We are SO proud of them but know that they are mentally and physically tired. Please pray that they will have energy and optimism and that God will open doors quickly for them in a brand new country!
• Pray in general for this next field service. We've never been on the east side of Africa so Mercy Ships is not known very well (if at all). Pray for smooth port/immigration/shipping procedures, good relationships with the partners that we'll be working with, and that we'll be able to help lots of people and leave a positive impact on Madagascar!
• Continue to pray for West Africa--nothing more needs to be said; just that Ebola needs to be stopped and West Africa needs prayer!
• Last (but not least :)) please pray for Jordan and I--we'll be separated for the month of September, so I guess we're real sailors now? Not quite, probably. :) 

Thank you to everyone in Ohio for being such an encouragement while I was there. I had so much fun catching up with you--or just saying hi and seeing you really quickly if that's all that time allowed. I had a fabulous time and know that God was behind all those conversations and activities that I got to be a part of. :) It was so fun to see an engagement ring on Sara's finger, meet the man who put it there, and get to help out with some wedding stuff! Ari is without a doubt the cutest little girl I've ever seen and I definitely fell prey to snapping pictures of her constantly! :) It was a really great week and I'll see you all again at Christmas!!  

The Canaries, Dry Dock, and Ebola

Well hello there and good day to you! I wanted to wait until we were nearly finished with our maintenance period before I posted anything but it turns out that wasn’t so wise; now I can hardly remember what happened at the beginning of the summer! It has been crazy busy with a lot of crazy fun mixed in. So as usual, this is a bit long; feel free to skip over as much as you like. 

I’ve never made a three point speech or anything but it seems like you should write about the points in the same order as the title,  ja? (I’ve been reading Bodie Thoene’s series of pre-WWII Europe and ja seems way funner to say; much like the Spanish hola to our English hello. I like happy sounding words.)  

So, to begin with: the Canaries. I had never heard of the Canaries until we came to Mercy Ships. In case you also don’t know much about them, here’s a picture so you know where we’re at. 

The Canary Islands belong to Spain and are about 100 km off the coast of Morocco (see the bottom right corner of the picture). We sailed straight to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria from the Congo--the round island right in the middle. The shipyard there has done maintenance for the AFM for years, so any work that has to be done by a shipyard (and not ourselves) is done there. 

Then the remainder of the maintenance period is spent in Santa Cruz on the island of Tenerife, which is the big island to the east.  

I’ve now decided that I’d like to retire and live here, if only for the fruit. And the ocean. And the mountains. And the weather. OK all of it. 

Really, it seems a little unfair that we get to work in such a beautiful location but it’s been really refreshing. It’s a good place to stock up on items that are hard to get in Africa--for instance, we were able to purchase new sheets for the ship and some other needed things. And in Africa, it’s unheard of for the sun to go to bed at any time other than 6:00 pm, but here it’s light until 9 or 9:30 so we get plenty of time exploring the island(s) after work is done for the day. It’s been a fantastic mixture of hard work and fun. 

I already posted about going up into dry dock--I’m so glad we got to experience that! It was really neat to see the ship out of the water. Some of you may wonder why all this hard work needs to be done on a ship that sits in port for 10 months out of the year. I heard someone make a great analogy for that--it’s the same thing as getting back into shape after you haven’t exercised in a few months! Your body has to work harder to get into good condition; being still doesn’t just keep it in shape (although I think we all wish that were the case!) 

Here’s some progressive pictures of work being done on the OUTSIDE:

Unfortunately, I don’t have lots of pictures of inside projects being done because I was busy doing my own thing most of the time. But I’ll try to explain a few of the projects here (with some technical lingo help from Jordan): 

One of the projects was fumigating the galley (kitchen) to clean out any critters that had made it their home. A lot of people pitched in to take EVERYTHING possible out of the galley and then wipe all the cupboards, walls, ceilings, down to move everything back in 24 hours later. Because the galley was shut down for a full day, we had food brought to us--I had to laugh when I saw “AFM fumigation pizza party” on the menu! 

My department has a fairly good-sized pantry off the end of the galley and it got fumigated as well. All of our dishes were moved out into the International Lounge for the evening--it looked like a massive kitchen goods garage sale! 

          

Some other big projects that were done:

• New flooring in the OR section of the hospital
• Lots of new water piping
• New flooring for some family cabins 
• Old vents cleaned 
• Prop shafts removed and serviced (pictured below) 
• Bow thrusters removed and serviced
• Freshwater tanks sandblasted and repainted 

Out to be serviced … 

And back in! 

There were lots of other smaller projects done as well. I absolutely loved seeing all of the work being done and the camaraderie of the crew throughout the whole 6 weeks. We were down to a much smaller crew--from 400ish to 120ish. So when there was something that needed to be done, anyone that was available pitched in to help. 

There are also people that come every year just for this part of the field service--when there’s no air conditioning and the water gets cut off and we have to go down 3 flights of stairs and up the street to shower or use the bathroom. It’s amazing to me to see all sorts of professional people who selflessly use their talents to serve the God they love! 

My department got to know Ikea very well. We were tasked with beginning a life-cycle replacement for some tables & chairs for family cabins along with some other things. Our first order came out in a few more boxes than we expected. 

But we managed to fit it all in to the car and make it back to the ship. From there it all had to be loaded on to the ship via crane because our gangway was taken out and replaced with a scaffolding stairway. I think we made 5 or 6 total trips and were loaded to the hilt every time.

We also went shopping for a hundred sets of sheets and towels and I decided as we were in the check out line for the second time in a half hour with three completely full carts that I would never ever again give anyone’s purchase a weird look. 

Jordan’s big highlight of the summer was going to dive school for a week with his buddy Derek. All of the coolant water for the air conditioning coils and the generators comes in through intakes on the bottom of the ship. Because of that suction, they also suck up dirt and bags and trash in the Arican ports. Usually that would all get washed off by sailing but since we sit in Port for so long the divers have to go down periodically and clean all the trash away. Also, because we sit in port so long, stuff starts to grow on the bow thruster blades and the main propellers and sometimes those have to be scraped off and cleaned. 

Jordan and Derek were sent to dive school by Mercy Ships so that they can be divers for the ship during our next field service. They both really enjoyed it and actually got to dive under the ship last Saturday to help with some testing on the main propellers.  Because the ship owns the diving equipment, they’ve also been able to go out and do some diving for fun around the Island.

         

Last but not least: Ebola. 

I have many jumbled up thoughts about that word lately so I hope the following paragraphs make sense. The news is such a wonderful and terrible thing, isn’t it? On the ship, we hear about Ebola much differently than I imagine you might. Or do you? It has affected the Africa Mercy and it’s crew so deeply that it’s hard to imagine not talking about it daily. But is it making headlines where you are? 

First of all, Don Stephens, founder and president of Mercy Ships, released this public statement about the Ebola situation:

As its hospital ship, the Africa Mercy, prepares to leave for its ten-month mission to perform life-changing surgeries and train local healthcare professionals in Benin, West Africa, Mercy Ships continues to be acutely aware of the Ebola situation in the region. The organization is taking appropriate steps to protect its volunteers and staff. In April, Mercy Ships redirected its upcoming mission from Guinea to Benin out of caution for the safety of its crew. Benin has no reported cases of Ebola. 

The Africa Mercy is the world's largest civilian hospital ship, designed to operate as a surgical specialty hospital. It is not configured to provide the type of treatment required by Ebola patients.  In addition to having changed its itinerary, Mercy Ships has also implemented strict travel restrictions to the affected areas and will continue to monitor the situation closely, making programmatic adjustments as needed.

Founder Don Stephens commented, “The well-being of our patients and dedicated crew is our greatest priority. It is fundamental to our continued service to the forgotten poor in Africa. Our prayers go out for the countries impacted by Ebola. These are places and people we know well because we have served them in multiple visits over more than two decades.”

Ebola is a terrible way to die. Can you imagine being contaminated and knowing that you had to spend your last few days absolutely alone or your loved ones would die in the same painful way you are going to? 

Yes, it is awful. But Ebola in any 1st world country would be blotted out almost as soon as it was discovered. In countries where there is health care training and adequate resources it would not even be an issue. West Africa, however, is another story. Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone are three of the poorest countries in the world. Mercy Ships has spent a good deal of time in all of those countries for precisely that reason. 

Ebola is yet another disease that affects the poor the most. Mercy Ships’ mission statement is: “We follows the 2000-year-old model of Jesus, bringing hope and healing to the world’s forgotten poor.” It’s hard to watch suffering and want to do something--anything--and know that there is physically nothing we can do. However, this is ultimately why we do what we do: in addition to providing surgeries, we are actively providing more and more health care education so that we can leave behind trained professionals in the countries we serve. We hope and pray for a day when Ebola will be just as quickly snuffed out in West Africa as it would in Europe or North America. 

Please do not quit praying for West Africa--for help, for resources, for understanding, and most of all, for God to be glorified no matter what! Please also pray for us--Mercy Ships has a long history with those three nations in particular and we have many friends in them! We also work alongside West African crew members, of which a majority come from Liberia and Sierra Leone. 

My (Katie’s) family has deep roots in West Africa--my great-grandparents were missionaries there and each generation since (on both sides of the family) has spent years and years there. Hope Clinic, where Jordan and I have many dear friends, was just last week brought directly into the news with their first Ebola case. Our hearts are grieving with our friends and their countries. 

The bottom line is that we are perfectly safe--Mercy Ships first priority in this situation is the care and safety of its crew. We have a team of medical professionals who are constantly reviewing the situation and we get updates very regularly. We changed field service locations from Guinea to Benin in order to take no risks at all for the crew. There have been travel restrictions to those countries as well. We are in no danger but there are three (now, four) very special countries that are and we ask that you join us in prayer! 

Dry Dock

We have just completed our first week in dry dock. It has been an incredibly different, busy week and I do believe I’ve loved every minute of it. 

One of the reasons I'm glad to finally be here is so that I can figure out what all the fuss is about--it's been a bit confusing at times to just hear "oh we'll do that in dry dock". Why do we do dry dock? Here is video that was produced by our communications team to show you what goes on. It will probably help the rest of this post make sense. :) It's just a couple of minutes long; I hope you enjoy it!

(I am definitely taking advantage of our "fast" internet here--up from 2.4MB to 8!!!)

We are down from around 380 to 80 crew. Part of that is lots and lots of goodbyes--this year quite a few long-term families left; either to move on to other things or to continue working for Mercy Ships in Texas. There were also a lot of nurses who served in the Congo but their 10-month commitment is up now and they’re heading home. But there’s quite a few people who are just taking their vacation time during the summer so it’s nice to know that we’ll some familiar faces come August. :) AND, anyone under 18 is not allowed on board while the ship is in dry dock so all of the families are staying elsewhere on the island until the middle of July. 

I didn’t know this until we’d been on board for a couple of months, but the ship does not go into dry dock every year; only every other year or so. The process itself was pretty fun and took alllllll day. The power was shut off which meant no one had access to computers and every cabin was dark so pretty much everyone was up on deck watching all day. 

[Disclaimer: the following order of events were written solely by Katie and any false information is completely accidental because I didn’t know any better. Also, anytime I refer to an ambiguous “they” it’s because I am not a sailor and I don’t know who did what. :)] 

The process started around 8:00 Wednesday morning with the pilot coming on board. Every port has a pilot(s) that guides each ship in and out. The pilot maneuvered us out of the space that we had been docked in since last Friday. Our power was cut and two big black balls went up on the mast to signal to other ships that we unable to control our movement so that they would stay out of the way. A couple of tugboats helped this whole process. 

The lifeboats had to come down because they are too heavy. So they took the opportunity to test them out and went zooming around the harbor for a while. 

Very cool but I hope that’s the last time I see those things in the water. 

We eventually made it over to the “parking place”. I couldn’t get a good spot for this picture but you can see where we are headed into. Can you make out the edge of the platform just underneath the water? 

Our ship was hooked up to essentially a huge pulley system and we were cranked into place. This tug boat held his nose against us to make sure we stayed straight. 

Once we were in place, divers went underneath the ship to make sure everything was good to go and then the platform was slowly raised up. 

SLOWLY. 

So slow that most people went inside (myself included) for lunch and when we came back out--WHOA! We’re not in the water anymore! 

We were pulled backwards into the parking spot--I suppose so that when it’s time to leave we can just head out. Here you can see where we came from and the platform. 

When I moved to Ohio, two things about midwestern culture absolutely baffled me: hunting for mushrooms and tractor pulls. About the former, I honestly thought Jordan was joking when he mentioned it once and then was shocked when, come spring time, we actually hunted mushrooms. (I couldn’t resist a Hobbit reference once I’d figured out he was serious.) 

About the latter, I remember thinking, “Aaaannd... we just watch tractors?” 

Well I now know that mushrooms are delicious (although anything wrapped in flour and fried in butter stands a good chance of being edible) and I think I can understand the fascination with tractor pulls. It was hard to not be impressed with this one: 

There’s another big tractor behind the three “little” ones that you can’t see in this picture. These guys pulled us out of the parking area completely and then they switched configurations to pull us to our permanent parking spot. The ship is in on train rails; that’s how the tractors are pulling us. There was some problem so it took us a while to get going but once we did it was pretty sweet--felt like we were driving an enormous vehicle at a snail’s pace.


This is a video I took of us on the last stretch. It took nearly ten minutes but I sped up the playback by 8x. If I do say so myself, it’s kind of fun to watch. :) 

Once we were in place, it took about an hour to set up the gangway--no longer one staircase. Our temporary gangway is actually scaffolding that drops off at the hospital since we are higher up now. It’s a little scary being three stories up with very little between you and the ground but I’m slowly getting used to it. Here you can just barely see the scaffolding being set up. 

Aren’t the blues incredible?? I just can’t get enough of the sky and water!! 

These guys work for the shipyard and couldn’t be bothered to wait for the scaffolding to be put up so they hopped off in the man box.

The ship does look pretty cool out of the water and it will be fun to see the various projects getting done--the drive shaft (are there two? I dunno) are coming out to be inspected, the barnacles will be cleaned off, and I think it will be repainted.

We couldn't resist some photo opportunities. :) These are my good friends Hannah and Tegan that I work with--I am so grateful for the chance to meet them! They are wonderful women of God and we get along so well; we can make any day fun. :) 

Dry dock has been different inside the ship too. We are running on less power so not as many lights are on and the background hum of the engines is gone. It’s actually kind of eery. Less power also means no air conditioning. Thankfully every door that can be opened up to let the outside air in has been and some of it filters it’s way down to our cabins (where we have a window that doesn’t open--helpful at sea but not at the moment!). Outside though is beautiful; Gran Canaria is a small island (only 31 miles across) so the temperature is fabulous with all the ocean breezes. It kind of feels like a sunny late September. 

Lots of projects in the hospital! 

The Canary Islands are Spanish islands but are autonomous. They are just 100 miles off the coast of Morocco. They were the last outpost for Spanish ships before sailing west and south; in fact, Christopher Columbus stayed here in 1492 before he (unintentionally) found North America. The islands are now a big tourist attraction; kind of like the Cancun resort  destination for Europe. As a result there are people everywhere. I enjoy it since I don’t know who’s a native and who’s a tourist and it’s just fun to see people walking out and about. The city is made for outdoor activity--there are huge boulevards to walk down, tiny streets with shops, a boardwalk facing the sunset and beach with mountains in the distance, biking trails, and parks. It’s really beautiful and we are enjoying the late summer evenings--it’s wonderful to get a full day’s work in and still have time to take a walk before dark and see the sun set! In Africa the sun only ever goes down at 6:00 so once the work day is done, that’s all she wrote. 

The flowers and trees have been a welcome surprise! So much beauty. 

And that’s about it! Jordan and I are both really busy. There is a lot of work being done in cabins--including LOTS of flooring and furniture improvements/repairs. As Crew and Guest Services Manager, I’m in charge of furniture in the cabins and guess who’s in charge of fixing cabinets in the cabins?? The carpenter! So we have both been quite busy. 

It’s a lot of fun though and the difference in work has been good--sometimes it’s just nice to switch things up a bit. :) 

I don’t usually do this but here are some prayer points:

Pray for safety for everyone involved--safety for the crews at work, for the families away, and for the people traveling for the summer. Pray we get our projects done in good time--changing field service locations from Guinea to Benin at the last minute has put us into a bit of a time crunch. Pray for west Africa as we heard this week that the Ebola situation is getting worse--it has now spread from Guinea to Sierra Leone and Liberia which makes an end seem nowhere near in sight. Pray for energy for the crew; this is not a vacation, no matter how beautiful the beaches are and there is a lot of hard work to be done. 

Thanks for sticking with me here. :) 

Sailing

We are about halfway through our sail from Pointe Noire, Congo to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. Let me tell you, it is one of the weirdest and disconcerting things I’ve ever done. Nothing has changed in our cabin--except that everything is off the shelves and glass items are packed away carefully so it looks like we’re in the middle of moving. My office is still 30 seconds away and there is still work to do but my route to get there is a little comical; everybody I meet is ricocheting off the walls and walking down stairs is a little bit dangerous if you’re not careful! Inside this big metal box that we’ve come to call home is exactly the same but outside there is absolutely zero to see except deep, blue sea. It’s truly beautiful and also scary; you realize just how big this wide world is and how much of it is purely under God’s will--namely, all of it. 

I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before but the  Africa Mercy used to be the Dronning Ingrid, which means “Queen Ingrid” in Danish. It is one of a set of triplet ships that ferried passenger trains across channels in Denmark. Because it wasn’t built primarily for the open seas, its bottom is flat, as a that makes it much more stable wehn docked, which was the majority of the time in its former and present lives. That’s not to say that it won’t do fine in the open seas, it just makes for a bit rougher of a ride than a v-shaped hull would make. A flat-bottomed boat rides on top of the waves where as a v-shaped boat rides through the waves. Jordan says to just picture a shoebox floating on on waves and you’ve pretty much got an idea of what it does. Every wave around us has an impact. 

[FYI, I got all that from Jordan and the next best thing: Wikipedia. *gasp*] 

Needless to say, I have been dreading the sail. I can’t even swing on swing set without feeling a little queasy so I figured I would be in trouble once we got out of the harbor and I was right. :( I spent the first 5 days of the sail in bed and on Thursday I finally got an injection that took away the nausea and that combined with several other medicines has gotten me back to normal. Now I’m not minding the sail too much but I will be very grateful to see some land.

Jordan has been loving the sail as it’s given him the chance to do some new things. Just before we left, a huge storm came in and sent some pretty massive waves crashing along the coast--so badly that even in the harbor the water got really rough and several of our mooring lines snapped. The entire deck department was out on the mooring decks all Friday afternoon and it was pretty stressful for them but thankfully it all got under control. 

It’s weird to have everything around you stay the same but look outside the window and it’s different. Since we’re sailing north, the weather is changing too--below the equator, where we were, the rainy season was pretty much over. Now we’re above the equator and we’re getting a lot of rainy/cloudy days. It’s also staying light longer into the evenings. 

Anyways, that’s about it but I thought I would post some pictures. :)

See the tail lights poking out from that container? All of the cars got loaded up to deck 8 for the sail. 

Last but not least: the gangway was loaded up (that's Jordan in the blue).

Every port has pilots that guides each ship in and out of the harbor. When it's time
for them to leave, they hop from one boat to the other!

Goodbye to our dock space--look at that lovely water!

The bow is only open during the sail but it gets plenty of use when it is!


This sail introduced me to flying fish--so cool! They've got little wings
and will pop out to fly for a few seconds before they go under the water again.


Today we finally saw dolphins--just a few and not for very long but it was
long enough for me to see why they are a favorite animal for many people. They were beautiful!!

And the water is that blue all the time too--breathtaking.

The Good, the Bad--But Hopefully Nothing Ugly

Well, here we are again. :) 

First of all, I have to say a big THANK YOU to Vineyard Fellowship for sending us that video of greetings. You will never know how much that meant to us! Branton, thanks for acting on an idea and doing it so professionally! We get these moments of “OK we know we’re supposed to be here” and watching that video was definitely one of those moments. 

This post will be a little bit all over the place--some pieces of news and some updates on Mercy Ships life and our own lives. It’s been trickier than I thought it would be to write a well-balanced view of life--not all rosy, but definitely not all bad: just real. I hope that this post reflects real life to you. That’s the reason for the title: The Good and the Bad, but hopefully you don’t find it ugly. :) 

We just finished our time with Brian, Sandy [Mom and Dad:)], Luke, and Sara. I don’t think we realized ahead of time just how much that visit would mean to us. It was incredibly surreal to see them walking around the ship! There were lots of highlights but I think the coolest thing for all of us was them getting to see our life with their own eyes. I am ever so grateful for internet and phone lines but there is just nothing quite like seeing something for yourself, is there? It was fun to introduce them to our friends and people really opened up to get to know them--the friendliness of crew who say hellos and goodbyes daily will never cease to amaze me! I felt like they got a good mix of what life is like--they helped us around the ship (Jordan more than me as my department is a bit slow this month with lots of people leaving), visited one of the Mercy Ministries (handicapped tailors), observed surgeries, participated in a fire drill, went to the beach one day, attended a community meeting, watched ships come in and out of the port, and sat in the dining room chatting waaaay after dinner was done each evening. Oh, and I should probably mention: sweated buckets! 

The flip side (hearing about their lives) was just as important. A lot has happened in eight months and it’s way easier to relay news when you have 9 days to do so. :) As fun as it is to get to know people of different cultures and backgrounds, it was refreshing to be in familiar company. We laughed a lot. :) 

Even more than that, it was a huge encouragement on a personal level to have them here. Another facet of real life: we have days where we don’t feel good enough and we compare ourselves to those around us. This still doesn’t quite make sense to me, but for some reason having them around helped me to put things in perspective--why we’re here and why we do what we do. Sorry if that sounds ambiguous because I know it does, but it was just really cool to have people that we respect and whose opinions we value affirm us. 

It was wonderful and went way too quickly but to be fair, we knew it would. :) 

Next: I assume that most of you have heard that we are no longer going to Guinea for the 2014-2015 field service. I’m sorry for not posting anything about that on my own but that announcement touched very close to home and I didn’t want to just say anything without thinking it through. In March, we received news of an Ebola outbreak in the southern region of Guinea--very close to Hope Clinic. We followed the situation, assuming it would clear up soon but also aware of the fact that even though the ship itself wouldn’t arrive in Conakry until August, there were other preparations that had to be considered--probably the two most important being that containers carrying supplies needed to be sent ahead and also the Advance team of about 10 people that would be living in Conakry from May to August to prepare for the ship’s arrival--arranging for visa waivers, negotiating with government and port authorities, finding a screening site for the first mass screening day, setting up the Hope Center, as well as finding sites for the dental and eye clinics, among lots more. There is more to this mission than just a floating hospital and I am constantly becoming more and more aware of that. The time came closer and closer for the Advance team to fly out and there was no word that the situation was completely contained. Finally about a month ago, the Managing Director for Mercy Ships sent out out the following email:

The Mercy Ships International Management Team has closely followed the Ebola outbreak in Guinea and Liberia since it came to light in March. The IMT has consulted with a broad range of outside experts and internal stakeholders. While the international response to the outbreak has been strong and decisive, and we believe it will be effectively extinguished in due course, the uncertainty it poses at this time compromises our ability to plan and execute the anticipated Guinea field service. Our operational requirements to function include supply and personnel logistics that do not give us the ability to further wait on prospective outcomes of the Ebola situation over the coming weeks and months. As such, we have chosen to postpone going to Guinea and will instead return to Cotonou, Benin, where the Africa Mercy last served in 2009. We remain committed to a long term relationship with the nation of Guinea, and look forward to a successful field service to the people of Benin. 

I want to preface this next part by saying that I do not in any way want this to come across as selfish. And I also realize that in the grand scheme of things, it is really not a big deal.  But needless to say, that email hit like a blow. I am honestly excited about going to Benin but to think that we would be going to Guinea when we didn’t expect to go there in the first place (since the ship just completed a field service in Guinea) seemed like a cruel trick. I hadn’t even realized all of the little things that I was excited for in Guinea until I found out we wouldn’t be going. Going to Guinea just seemed perfect on so many levels, both personally and professionally. I kept saying that it was such a God thing, especially since Mom, Dad, and Hannah would be living in Conakry for the first time and that’s where the ship would be docked! I haven’t lived in the same city as my parents for more than two months since I was 15. My new job will involve working with local day crew and it just seemed perfect that I could work with a culture and languages that I grew up in. Trust me, I was excited and it seemed like God’s plan was a pretty perfect one. :) 

Picking up the phone to tell my parents and sister was not fun at all. The first words that both my parents told me were: “We have to trust that God has a plan in this.” I thought about that for several days and sort of came to two conclusions (neither of which are very deep but hey, they’re still conclusions):

First of all, I don’t think I have ever been more grateful for parents that live out the faith they teach. I’ve gained more respect for the hard things my parents have done while we’ve been on this journey: saying goodbye to their own parents and siblings and convenience (not very spiritual but still true), being away for the hard stuff (Pat Kaufman’s death and funeral), and good stuff (not being around for Ari’s introduction into the family). To already have all of that rolling around in my mind and then to give them news that I didn’t have any control over but would hurt regardless and hear them trust first and hurt later really meant the world to me. 

[And let’s not forget that they’ve put up with slow internet for a really long time. Insert funny story here: I have a kindle and that thing is truly wonderful, especially for long trips and having access to the Troy public library all the way out here. But last night it took me 45 minutes to download a book. 45 minutes. I found it ironic that I didn’t even want to use the internet to “face chat” or “snap flap” as Jordan refers to social media--I JUST WANTED TO READ A BOOK!!] 

Back to seriousness. Second of all, it forced me to come to the conclusion that just because the first plan seemed perfect, the plan to go to Benin must be even more perfect, despite it not lining up with my ideal. I have to trust that God has a reason for this, and to take that even further, He even has a reason for letting me think we’d be going to Guinea. 

And I guess I’ll wrap up with what’s going on right now on the ship. We are getting ready to leave Pointe Noire--it’s so strange to think that the field service is nearly over. We weren’t here for the whole thing but it still feels like a long time! I think Pointe Noire will always be a special place for us, since it’s where we started with Mercy Ships. It’s bizarre to think that we’ll be living in the exact same place and a totally different place at the same time. 

From here we sail to Las Palmas, which is in the Canary Islands, and the ship will go into a maintenance period until mid August. We’ve heard that the islands are beautiful so we’re looking forward to doing some exploring there. We’ll both be working hard too--Jordan is involved in a lot of the maintenance and I will be busy getting ready for the new field service in my new position, which will involve a lot of changing procedures (maybe more on that another time). 

It will be fun to have a change of scenery and also to SAIL! We’ll be sailing through 0’0’ (the intersection of the Prime Meridian and the Equator) which I think is pretty cool! Apparently when any sailor sails through the 0’0’ intersection they become known as an emerald shellback. We’re not sure what advantage becoming emerald shellbacks is going to be for us but I guess we’ll find out.

Time to bring this post to a close. I don’t think there is a better group of supporters anywhere--you guys are fantastic! We receive emails, letters and packages, pictures, etc so often from you and each one is so special! We will definitely be watching that video of greetings over and over again as well. :)