January
we still lived at applesbosch things were a bit up the air we thought we would move on the ship early in the month and it ended up not being until the end of the month! More and more people arrived everyday, it was nice but strange to see our small community of whom everyones name i knew start including strangers again. I stopped working in the galley and started back with the eye doing some initial planning for sierra leone with woody and robin but mostly doing lots and lots and lots of scanning charts! i also began being involved with the youth group sometime around this and i have really enjoyed getting to know the kids here. while still in Durban we took the kids out for a day of fun at water park It was awesome!! The end of the month finally came and we moved back on board, it was busy day but everyone pitched in and it took much less time then i ever would have expected.
February
We Started off the month living in Durban, and preparing to sail. The hospital was preparing with lots of meetings cleaning , waxing floor and planning. One of my favorite things during this week of prep was when there would be a over head page for everyone to come help with the frozen or refrigerated foods, i know crazy food being involved in something that i loved lol, but really it was so fun there would be so many of us lined from the truck, through the pilots entrance on the starboard side down the OR corridor down the stairs and around the corners to the fridge or freezers and we would pass boxes, bags, and buckets one by one. it was a neat way to see our community work together. Im quite fuzzy on most of the dates since its been awhile, but i think maybe on the 11th is when we left Durban and set sail for Capetown and again im fuzzy i think it was a 3ish day sail full of dolphins and seals it was so awesome to sit on the bow of the ship and watch the dolphins jump and play in front of the ship. i do know we arrived in Capetown on Sunday the 13th and as soon as the ship was cleared by customs and we were allowed of the ship everyone made a made dash to see as much as they could in 24 hours, most of the stuff i saw i had seen when i was there in November but it was cool to ride around on the tour bus and to see it with different people. Sunday night we had a nice dinner with our friend Estelle who is a teacher on board the ship and her friends from capetown since that is where she is from. Sunday Morning started with a few of us looking into to helicopter rides, the guys went first so the girls went to have some breakfast and then on to our helicopter, which was so neat it was a really smooth ride until we went though a lil valley and then it got a bit rough which made us a lil nervous, it was cool to see table mountain, the city and the coast we had drove through the day before on the top of a double decker bus from the helicopter. We than spent the afternoon doing a lil tourist shopping and having lunch at the best burger place in Capetown Cafe Royal.
We left Capetown and started on our 2ish week sail to Sierra Leone full of work and fun and rolling seas which cause our flat bottom ship to roll quite a bit, which made it interesting to try to sleep on the top bunk which is where i was at the time, so for the first few nights i slept with the the bed belt on then i decided the floor was a better place for me to sleep. so we worked normal hours having meetings and preparing for our arrival and after hours we would play games and watch movies, the only time i got sea sick was when i played sardines with the youth group, i had a great hiding place so i went first and laid between the windows and couch and it took about 45 mins before everyone found me and by then i was surrounded and squished by smelly hot teenagers not a good place to be for that long of a time lol. the sail also had some neat events planned such as worship on the bow, movie on Deck 8 thats the top so basically a movie under the stars, sock golf, a pirate dance party and sail Olympics. For sail Olympics my team was the wizard of Oz so we dressed like Dorothy, the lion, the tin man and scarecrow. I was the Lion we teased my hair and made it stand up crazy it was pretty awesome!
We arrived in Free town Sierra leone the end of the month, there was about 60 people waiting for us on the dock when we arrived, a new gateway class, a mercy team or two and the advanced team. it was fun trying to figure out who all was out there waiting for us as we got closer it got more exciting seeing friends i hadn't seen since i had left the ship last june. It was a busy last few days of feb, starting to unpack.
MARCH
Finally started meeting new members as the started arriving and started training and working with day volunteers. we had our first mass screening like the 2nd week we were here and it was not pretty, we had to leave before seeing most of the patients our safety as well as the safety of the patients was being compromised. i never would have imagined doing CPR and suctioning a Pt, that would die on that day or standing at wall trying to prevent people from jumping over to rush inside, it was a traumatic day for most people involved the screening process But the good news is we have since been able to do a second mass screening which went very smoothly and i think we were able to fill alot of the surgery schedule until august or so with that screening. our eye team started screening the week after the first screening it started chaotic and has finally started to settle out i think and pray it has. we screen every monday for eye surgery.we had our first two weeks of surgery with what looks like will be some really positive outcomes some people who would not have been able to see anything at all before can now see :) thats def my fav part of what i do here! seeing people so happy with there restored Sight and knowing that we are all doing this for the Glory of God!
Let's see what else can i tell ya about march i went the beach a few times for a few walks through the busy city...my bunk mate leah left and i got a new roomie angie it was bitter sweet for us to see leah go but she went home and got engaged to her BF and is planning a june wedding! and angie is a great roomie i love her!!
i think that might be it for march
APRIL
So it finally April i think ive caught you all up on the important stuff! this month we havent had any eye surgery we have done some extra screening and are going to go to koidu this week its about 6 hours from freetown where the ship is from what ive been told. Our plans are to do drive on tuesday and then do 300 children's eye exams on wed and another 300 children's eye exams on Thursday and drive back on Friday. im excited for this new adventure for our team, please keep us in prayer for health and safety and that we would be able to see all 300 children each day and that we would be a blessing to the communities we go to serve.
Some more news for April, Our ship is on severe water restriction for some reason our water consumption is up from last year and we are having a hard time getting enough water in for the amount that we are using, i dont know the sources that we get our water from but i do know that it is local water and once it is piped on board that we treat and filter it which is a process that takes 2 or 3 days since the rate that we are getting isnt covering the rate in which we are using, the Laundry has be shut off, no one can shower, our crew galley is closed and we are using plastic silverware and plates to eat.they are even talking of possibly cancelling surgeries b/c the sterilizers use so much water. please pray that situation is cleared up soon that our water consumption problems would stop and that we would have an adequate supply of water to allow for showers and laundry and have to cancel no surgery's!
ive recently posted new pics on Facebook so check them out!!
sorry this was so long! its hard to blog often but i do apologizes i want all of you to feel like you are on this crazy amazing adventure with me!
