A Tour: Decks 5 & 6

Happy Sunday peeps! 

I thought I would post some pictures of what the ship looks like from the inside! One of Hospitality’s main jobs is to make sure that everyone who has not been on board in the last twelve months receives a tour of the ship. This is maritime law and it’s to ensure that new crew know how to get out and off in case of an emergency. But since the Africa Mercy is really a unique ship, it’s also a cool opportunity for crew to see what all is available to them! 

May I be your tour guide? :) 

{Beware: Lots to follow!} 

Today I’m just going to show you decks 5 and 6 since they have most of the public areas of the ship on them. These decks definitely take the longest on the tour. Obviously you have to get on the ship before you can start the tour--climb up the gangway! 

When you walk up the gangway, the first thing you see is a guard! Our guards are all Gurkas, out of Nepal. You can read about them here; suffice it to say, they are perfectly capable of protecting us! They are the nicest guys you’ll ever meet though and know everyone’s names. They always have a friendly hello and hug to give. This is Tek; he has a family in Nepal--as do the others! They are here for 9 months and then go home for a 3 month vacation; the day they leave, another arrives to take their place. I can’t imagine how hard that must be for them and I’m so grateful that they come to serve! 

Once you walk in the doors, you’ll see reception (which I don’t have a picture of and I’m not sure why). Reception has all the embarkation paperwork for new crew and we work with them to embark new crew. 

Turn to the right and you’ll head straight into the dining room, where we eat all of our meals. The kitchen crew prepares the meals and the dining room crew puts it all out and makes sure the dining room is well stocked and cleaned. I am constantly amazed at how hard both of these teams work--cooking and serving for 450+ people is no easy feat! 

Back to reception. If you had turned left instead of right, you would find yourself at the area known as the cafe. Obviously it’s called that because Starbucks is right there but there is a lot more that goes on than just drinking coffee. On Monday mornings the cafe serves crepes and on Fridays they serve waffles. (This has successfully made Mondays one of my favorite days of the week.) There is also a big open staircase in the cafe which leads up to deck six, known as Midships. That whole section is kind of a big hang out section. Downstairs there is Starbucks and the Ship Shop, where you can buy cooking/baking supplies, phone cards to call home, T-shirts, mugs, toiletries, cleaning supplies, laundry soap, magnets, etc. There’s also a table with lots and lots of binders full of things to sign up for and lots of little round tables to meet a friend at for a coffee date. Upstairs there are three TVs which have come in handy for the winter Olympics! There’s also an internet cafe. 

{Lots of pictures of the Cafe & Midships to follow.}

Bottom is the Cafe; Top is Midships.

Ibrahim making me a double shot hazelnut latte. :) 

The Cafe recently acquired a popcorn maker! What's so fun
about the cafe is that anyone can volunteer to serve in it.
One of these days I am going to learn how to make coffee. In
the background is Mary, from our gateway, and one of the Academy
students volunteering to make popcorn for the night. On Friday night
the whole cafe was run by Academy students! It was so cool!
 Beautiful Serenety is currently pricing my butter for French toast in the morning. :) 

CREPES!

The Ship Shop

The information table--lots of opportunities to sign up: help
out with the dental or eye screenings, be a blood donor, observe
a surgery, befriend a patient on the ward, or serve at any of the Mercy
Ministries (boys' orphanages, deaf school, baby orphanage, etc.}

Olympics time has been fun with so many different nationalities
on board--33 different nations represented this week! 

Watching a movie in Midships. I was pretty
ecstatic that my crochet got here on the container. :)

Internet cafe

Because midships and the cafe are pretty big open spaces, they are home to a lot of events--most notably, Thursday night ice cream. We have a community gathering every Thursday and afterwards, each department takes turn serving ice cream to the crew. Last week it was deck’s turn so most of them showed up in their coveralls. :) 

The library is on deck 5 too! It’s full of books that people have bought in airports or brought from home and left behind. There’s actually quite a few good ones to be found and it’s quite a cozy spot. 

Crew can also volunteer to read to kids every Tuesday at 4:00, which is what my good friend KJ is doing. :) 

Also on deck 5 is the Hospitality office. That will change next year but for this year, it’s where we all meet at during the day. Here’s one side: 

.... and my desk.... 

The other side of the room is used mainly for storage but we do also use it to prepare for events. Here’s Cecily getting napkins ready for a luncheon. :)

{Side note: I’m fairly certain I have the best team on the ship. These women are amazing--each with a servant heart, content to be where they can be of the most use! They make me smile and laugh every day and I love how they affirm and encourage each other. It hit me on Friday that we must all really like each other because technically only two of us were working and the other two had the day off--but they came and hung out in the office with us anyway! :) Almost every evening when Jordan and I compare notes about our days I always have good things to say about my day--and these ladies are most of the reason!} 

And now to finish up deck 6: the laundry room and the crew galley--two pretty important places. :) The crew galley is stocked with pots and pans, two blenders, two Kitchenaids, a panini press, a microwave, toasters, ovens, and lots more. It’s all there for crew to use, provided it’s taken care of. :) The kitchen picture I have is actually one of Jordan!! He learned how to make spicy popcorn with a bunch of other guys. 

And it pays to be in the kitchen while the Gurkhas are cooking Nepalese food or making Chai--they’re bound to offer you some! :) 

The laundry room is last. :) Obviously with so many people on board, the laundry room has to have pretty set rules to make sure that chaos doesn’t ensue (or at least, not too often). Hence, the Laundry Room Bible: 

The Not-So-Holy Land of Laundry: 

It’s really not all that hard. There are ten sets of washers and dryers.. Each washer gets a page in the book for the week--Sunday through Saturday. Each person on board gets one laundry slot per week. You sign up for which hour you want the washer and that automatically gives you the next hour for the dryer. That means there’s a constant cycle of washing going on--the person that signed up before me is drying their clothes while I’m washing mine and the person after me is washing their clothes while I’m drying mine. So timeliness is VERY important. If you are more than ten minutes late, your slot is fair game to anyone who is in the room. If you are late but no one has taken your washer, you have to be careful what cycle you use to make sure that the washer is empty again in time for the next slot. 

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little tour! Other posts about areas on the ship probably won’t be as long but there’s still a lot left! I didn’t even cover everything on these two decks--there’s also a hair salon, prayer room, the Academy (school), and International Lounge (where have our community gatherings)! 

Sorry for the huge long gap in posts. But thank YOU for continuing to write even when we don’t get to it! We still get such encouraging notes with email or Facebook and we’re STILL getting pictures in the mail! It’s truly a joy to hear from you and know that you care! We love you guys--wish we could be giving you a tour in person! :)