And we're off!

7/27 Monday

sailing across! .. we thought it was pretty neat, to be on a ship like this, and have the opportunity to sail! it was so exciting! .. (Right to left) Erica, Holly, my bunkmate!!! Me, kayla, Lauren, and Val. Everyone on board gathered up on the the top deck as we moved across. kinda fun!

So this past weekend we went for a little sail! The ship has been scheduled to sail across the port to refuel for about 3 weeks now. However, every week, it gets delayed to the next weekend, which has become quite comical. But this week, we were told, was THE week. It would take about 24 hours from the time the gang-way was lifted, to sail, refuel, and return... so the plan was to leave around 8am on saturday, and return early morning on Sunday.

We should have know from previous weeks of failed plans, of our very-African-unorganized port, that this weekend, again would not go as planned. As the weekend approached we were told that we would now be leaving Saturday evening. Then it changed to Sunday morning.

So Sunday morning it was. And it was my duty day.. so this meant I had to be up early to set up coffee, juice, water and cookies on the bridge of the ship for the pilot when he came on board.

And I didn't know this before, but every ship has a captain, and every port has a pilot. When ever a ship comes into a port, the pilot comes on board the ship via his pilot-speed boat out beyond the entry of the port. He then navigates the ship into the port since he knows the depths and what not of his port. Interesting.

So I was up at 7:30 to get everything up to the bridge for the pilot. I was thrilled to be on duty actually, because how often do crew get to go up on the bridge??! .. so as I was up there, hanging out with the captain.. =P .. I was told that I miiight want to bring the coffee back down so it wouldn't get cold. Confused, they pointed out the refueling station, which I could see across the port, with another ship still docked in front of it.. They had learned that the currently docked ship believed it were being charged for more fuel that what it thought it had received blah blah.. It.s Africa. their mentality = We will sit. you will wait. you will change your mind. there is no time issues. this will solve the problem.

6 hours later. They must have worked something out across the way, because we finally sailed at 2 pm on Sunday. I brought up the juice, water coffee and cookies to the bridge multiple times upon false alarms.. became good buddies with all the guys up there. Brought them some coffee and cookies of their own. (since they couldn't touch the pilot's food until he himself had had some) and over all it was a fun experience!

..some pictures!

The tug boats! they guided/pulled and tugged us across the way. and then slamed into us to push up us against the dock. It was veryy interesting.

Our home for the night! Isn't it so pretty! We sailed back early Monday morning. (as I slept soundly through the roar of the engine =) good thing I'm a sound sleeper!)

our dock!

Our dock is a busy place right now. Not only does it provide a berth for the Africa Mercy and parking for 28 Land Rovers and Nissans; also two different pipeline contractors are working simulateously in the same ditch, one making a new pipe for diesel (the red pipe), and one checking and repairing an old pipe for vegetable oil (the grey pipe, below)...




...the dock also provides a berth for a discharging bulk carrier (which are huuge, they dock right behind us, and they're really neat). Fortunately this one isn't unloading dusty cement clinker.. like in the past (or we'd be totally covered in dust by now), but it is discharging some kind of mineral for the cement industry into literally thousands of waiting trucks...and each truck drops just a little bit as it trundles past. The scale of such an operation is quite fascinating - big grabbers capable of carrying 8 cubic meters of mineral are used to unload the ship into big hoppers...

...under which trucks park to be loaded. Vast quantities of the mineral spill onto the dock, so a couple of diggers are constantly on hand to scoop the spills into other trucks.

Amongst the trucks and hoppers and grabbers and dust and noise, a single grain of corn (delivered by the last bulk carrier that discharged on this dock 3 or 4 months ago) has germinated and will one day grow up into a beautiful plant. Kinda cute I think!

.. i miiiiight have just copied this post off another crew's blog. But it was a good one! and it shows the dock, and the environment which surrounds us on a daily basis! It's all very fascinating to see each ship come in, unload it's various cargo, and leave again. Any ship is in the dock for about 1-5 days.

~Lindy

Duty hostess.

Yesterday I was on duty. So I prepared everything that needed to be done for the new arrivals, there were 4 people. 

As the night grew later I waited for the page to come to reception in order to greet the arrivals. Once it rang, I came upstairs and there were only 3 ladies. I proceeded to carry on, instructing them on their forms that needed to be filled out and serving them dinner and cookies =). After I had shown them each to their cabins I came back to reception to inquire about my 4th arrival. Sometimes their luggage has not shown up and their waiting at the airport, or they've missed a connection and will arrive the next night.. 

But this man had a different story. And his story struck me. I was told that he was not going to be arriving tonight because he was sitting out in the ocean beyond the port entrance, on another ship. Odd I thought, why would someone be arriving from a ship?? and not flying? what was going on?

I learned that, Three months ago a Maersk container ship came into the Port of Cotonou. Their 3rd Officer was a young Irishman named Billy, who wandered over to the Africa Mercy whilst his ship was being unloaded, to see what we do. He was sufficiently impressed, and completed an application form then and there before he sailed away again. This week he left his Maersk ship as soon as it came back into port and joined the Africa Mercy as 3rd Officer, with a two month commitment. How cool!  He saw what we were doing, and wanted to be a part of it. So he applied to stay starting the next time his ship came into port. If only more professional seamen joined us this way!

hospitality reflections..

Recently I've been reflecting on my job as a hospitality hostess.

It's some times difficult working on the Ship and not working a job that's involved with the actual hospital. I think you get stuck in the rut of everyday tasks of your job, and you loose sight of why your here. There's the hospital part of the ship, and then there are the other 2/3rds of the crew that are doing jobs to make the hospital aspect run smoothly. 

But I have come to find that the rest of the crew are a ministry with ourselves. We are to love and encourage and  we are responsible to remind each other exactly why we are here. It is difficult to have a job that might be mundane, and you head up to work day after day doing the same thing. But as the crew, it is our job to love one another and encourage each other in our every day tasks. And not to forget that we are all serving the same purpose. We are constantly reminded on the Africa Mercy of the verse in 1 corinthians 12.. "¹²The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body"... and it goes on to say "¹⁸But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. ¹⁹If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰As it is, there are many parts, but one body." 

All are tasks are crucial to the function of this ministry as a whole. And it's very neat to see the community constantly reminded each other of this, and encouraging them in their tasks

 Just as you go about your daily activity you hear people..

Thank ing the galley staff for cutting up all our vegies everyday, 

Complimenting the housekeepers for their wonderful attitudes and never complaining.

Thanking hospitality for being so welcoming to everyone. 

Thanking the dining room servers for all they do.

And its very neat to live in a community like this. Because just on the days you feel in a rut, someone come along to encourage you. And you naturally become more aware of when you can encourage someone else in their job. I just love it. =)

The Stilt Village

 Sunday I went to the Ganvie Village. Also known as the Stilt Village, it is a village on a very large lake, Lake Nokoue. With it's population at around 30,000 people, it is probably the largest lake-village in Africa, and since we're so close, we had to visit! 

The village history is this: More than three hundred years ago, the Fon people had encroached on the area of these peoples, finally pushing them all the way to the Gulf. To escape their enemies, this group of people built their villages over the lagoons of southern Benin, allowing them to escape the aggression of the Fon (Fon religious belief prevented their warriors from venturing onto water).

We arrived at the village, which is more like a small town, with thousands of bamboo huts, with thatch roofs jutting from the murky water, and a light "traffic" of townsfolk in canoes manuevering through the myriad of canals and waterways in the 'city'. We were told many of the people here do not want to be photographed.. but found they were fairly open to it if you show them your camera before hand with a big smile, almost as if asking permission. Drifting through the calm waters, in our very touristy boa

t, Everyone waves at the white people from the the passing women on their way to the floating market or children shyly peering from behind the bamboo walls of their homes. It was an incredible experience, but one that cannot be done justice through words. Boats are filled with baskets of fruit, clothes, and fish. The villages main industry is fishing and fish farming, as well as tourism. And they are complete with a school, hospital, churches, little "restaurants" and even a small hotel type of tourist stilted house. It was a very different world than that of the city of Cotonou. With cars honking and Zemis buzzing past, people rushing all about. It was very calm and pleasant, and quite an incredible village.

blackout!

Today we had a 13 hour blackout on the ship.

Basically : the ship is "sailing" next weekend to refuel, but only just across the port. (which will take a day and a night, but  kind of exciting, huh?!) However, the ship has, 1600 some pipes that bring cool water to the generators and engines, but since we are docked, and not moving, these pipes get clogged with marine growth. And although these pipes are still bringing some cool water, its not enough, or quite cool enough to crank up that engine, and keep it cool enough to have the engines running as we "sail" across the port next weekend. SOO they turned off all the generators today, in orders to take apart all this piping and clear them all out, so we would be good to go for next weekend. 

However, these generators provide a lot of things for the ship. =) Including..

-electricity

-air conditioning

-our vacuum system

-water drainage

-ie: tiolets flushing

-showers draining, & sinks  

-internet

So everyone was encouraged to spend the day off the ship! and thats mostly what we did. However we are right in the midst of rainy season in Benin, thus, there was a lot of concern about rain (which commonly goes on all day, and fairly heavily down-pouring) . But when we woke up this morning it was only overcast, and probably ended up being the most perfect day. The Lord tells us not to be anxious about AnYtHiNg. .. not even silly rain when we plan to be outside all day. It was cool, with no rain, so the ship didn't heat up without the AC and it all worked out wonderfully.

I spent the day out and about, a group of us went into the big tourist-y craft market. - It was very calm compared to the markets we have been going to, so it was a nice change. It was a large gated compound with almost free standing house looking shops. The grounds were all sand, with pathways between each shop, and you just sort of casually went from one to the next.  My group took a taxi to the market, we proudly crammed the 7 of us, plus the driver into a 5 person car. 3 girls on 3 girls laps in the back seat, and Chris in the front seat. And then we walked the 40 minutes home. It was a nice day trip. Once we got back on the ship, we all sort of hung around, I took a long and much needed nap, and read a little.. outside in the light.

Also, both Saturdays and Sundays are not permitted for sleeping in. This is due to the fact that lunch is not served on the weekends. So if you don't want to starve during the day, you best be getting yourself out of bed between 7:30 and 9 (no, 9 is still not considered sleeping in =)) in order to make your self a sandwich and grab an apple. =) But since the blackout was today, the power was out earlier.. so we didn't even get our extra hour-weekend-breakfast-times. Instead it was normal week day breakfast from 6:30-8 and then the power went off very shortly after 8. So one less hour of "sleeping in" today =P bummer. but we all survived, and it was an experience. a lot more people were out and about the ship because the cabins were pitch black. The rest of the ship had lighting coming in through windows, and some emergency lights, so people were playing cards and having water gun flights, and playing games up on the top deck. 

So, many filled and smelly toilets later... the power came back on about 13 hours after, at around 9 this evening! What an experience! A day in life.. on a blacked-out ship! =)

~lindy

 

 

days off!

Since I worked the weekend, I had monday and tuesday I off!
I decided not to spend the days sleeping in, and wasting it, even if i'm tired.. because I'm only in Africa once!
Monday I woke up early and went into the market with a friend, Brittni, who wasn't working until 12. We just walked up into the town surrounding our dock and there's sort of a corner where some of the major roads form a crossroad and the egdes of the streets are little huts/shops, and the then if you walk into the middle of the corner, through and behind the surrounding edge/row of shops and stands, it is a hectic and jam packed food market. With baskets and baskets of fruits and produce piled high, and raw meet sitting out everywhere. Men are walking around with larrge raw cow legs, ribs, and any animal parts really (toungue) .. just thrown over their shoulders. It's wild. I wish it was more acceptable to pull out your camera to take a photo so I could capture an environment such as this. But it's often considered offensive. Because this is their way of life, and they don't want to be "on show". Which is understandable. And I've found you often feel just as uncomfortable being the one taking a photo.

Later on in the afternoon, a different group of girls had the afternoon off! So I walked in to town again with them. This time we went to the fabric market. Which is a lot further. Probably about a 25 minute walk. All along fairly major roads. Cotonou, the city I'm in, is very industrialized for what you might think of when you imagine Africa. And with all the traffic and Zemijdans its pretty wild! =) Keeps you on your toes. I bought some more fabric, and I will have to put up some pictures of me with my dress I've had made! I've also bought smaller pieces of fabric and just wrap them around myself like a towel.. just like all the African ladies do! its so fun =)
Then on tuesday morning I woke up early as well and walked into town with two girls. But this time we went to the hospitality center. -- This is the pre and post operation site for Mercy ships. Its a warehouse type building about a 10 min walk from the ship. And when you walk inside, there are benches, and tables but also large long rooms lined with hospital beds along either wall. And this is where patients stay before their surgery on the ship, and then also recover after they are in non-critical condition. This allows for more bed space on the ship, as well. And there are mercy ship crew that work here as their job 'for' the ship, and they care for the patients and spend time, and share the gospel with them. -- However, anyone can walk over there anytime and visit and love on these people and children and its really fun. We hold little babies, and play board games with the older ladies.
  SO on Friday a group of us had gone and brought our camera and taken pictures with, and of some of the ladies and their children. They had asked if we would bring them each their picture. So we simply said "sure sure" as we put our cameras away, like everyone probably does with their cameras. But as we left, Brittni and I were talking and decided that we could easily go back to the ship, print of these pictures, get them laminated, take them back to theses ladies, and make it very special. So, that's what we did on Tuesday morning. Printed, laminated, walked, and shared. And they were all very excited to see us! and then when they saw we had the pictures they were ecstatic and they all grabbed their own and then eagerly looked at each others.. as they spoke frantically in their native language. So it was really cool!

And those were my days off!

But I also had a lot of nice quiet time to myself. Reading and and sitting up in the sun on the top deck. As everyone else hustled and bustled all around me doing their days work, I felt like the very little work I had to do over the weekend didn't equate to the amount of work I was skipping out on as I kicked back on this monday and tuesday. But I suppose that is the reward your receive after having to stay on the ship all weekend. And I feel like I took full advantage of my days off, using them wisely and restfully! =) 

much love! lindy 

*picture*  Me with Annisette, and her mom. She has a cleft lip and is getting surgery mid-July on the ship! She's only 3 months old, and is so precious. Her mom sort of slowly pours formula milk into her mouth because its very difficult for her to suck with her cleft lip. Its so sad, but she's going for surgery and how exciting is that?!  =)

hello helloo

This weekend was my first weekend on duty for my job! Which means I'm on call all weekend. So I'm not allowed to leave the ship, and I carry around a pager with me. I'm in charge of all the new crew arrivals, checking them in, and getting them settled in their cabin. Also, I have to check out all the departing crew. This requires checking their rooms and signing their disembarkation forms when they page me to come check their rooms. =) I'm also the birthday cookie deliverer. If there are any birthdays over the weekend .. (there were four) then I make sure these people have a hand made card.. by yours truly.. and a pack of cookies. =) Wrapped with ribbon and delivered to their cabin - Happy birthday- love, hospitality!

.. what else did I do.. I rented some episodes of friends on DVD from the library because I was not aloud to leave the ship, since I could be paged at anytime. Most people are on and off the ship all weekend. So I had some nice time to my self. I also took out a book from the library, written by a critical care nurse. It is a bunch of short stories all about her career, and I'm really enjoying it! It's soo interesing. It's called A Nurse's Story.

Also, Saturday was July 4th! YEA AMERICA! I'm definitely so proud to be an american! and being over here.. surrounded by English, French, South Africans.. and yea .. =P totally kidding. but we are thE best country.

So, the American embassy here in Benin invited all the Americans on the ship to a dinner at the embassy for the 4th of July. Which was very neat, except I was on duty, so I didn't get to go =( I celebrated the 4th of July on the ship with anyone but an a american as we watched the wimbledon on tv. kiiiiiinda as exciting as fireworks? maybe? NO.. NOT QUITE. =)

And then Erica arrived on sunday evening!! For those of you who do not know, I applied to come on the Mercy Ship with a friend from highschool, Erica. However, her date of arrival was a month after mine. And then we will leave on the same date. But, she arrived last night!! and I happened to be on duty, so I was the hostess to check her onto the ship! Kinda fun =) So that has been something I've beein looking forward to, and I was very excited to see her, and introduce her to everything and everyone here!

They made her start work bright and early this morning. But she's doing well so far.

So since I worked the weekend, this means I have off Monday and Tuesday! .. So more to come on what I've done today .. and will do tomorrow!

Zemidjans

Pronounced like Zimmie-Johns with a soft J  =P...

In Cotonou alone, there are approximately 80,000 zemidjans. They are basically motorcycles for hire, much like taxis. The whole economy depends upon zemis ("zimmies") -and people rely on them for everything from the day they are born until the day they die. You pay something like 30 cents for a quick 10 min travel. Or something rediculously cheep. And they are evERYWHERE! They don't stop for you. They don't stop for cars. They actually pull out in front of cars and people. Its quite insane. You could be walking a long the road and they will zip righT next to you as if you are not there. So it is up to YOU to dodge the zemis.  

Here are the Zimmies! They're crazy. This is a very main road. So this is an larger scale example. All the drivers that are registered with the official taxi company where the yellow shirt. And below, the next three photos, another crew member managed to take some photos of zemis on the streets of Cotonou, and what they can carry.. other than 2, 3 or sometimes 4 people.

.

And lastly I took this one on the way out of the town last weekend. (below) If you look closely you can see the man in the back directly to the left of the man in the red shirt. And on his head, he is carrying/holding about 12 foot long metal tubing/piping. Running horizontally with the truck up to the very front of the truck.  It was stop and go traffic. Raining. And other zemis were buzzing in and around his. It was wild. and it is Africa baby.

Fun facts / picture diary.

I love this picture because of this little boy. All babies are carried by their mothers like this. Sort of just a trasnfer of the weight from the belly to the back. And you'll see newborns-toddlers cuddled in fabric across their mom's back. It's so cute. And they bounce all around. This was taken at the closest fabric market. As you can see each 'shop' has stacks and stacks of fabrics and colors. Its very fun! .. and then there's seamstress' that come on board that make things for us =)
Here is a lizard. And yes. this is real! they just run around everywhere. This is probably the bigger and crazier of them all. But also the coolest, because its orange. But they are all over! .. and it's a little shocking when you are sitting eating somewhere outside and they just run past the wall right next to your arm!! eek

Here is a fun note we received in hospitality from Sam, who works in the galley. It reads.."Cookie request form: Chocolate Chip." Our cookies are wanted by all. =P


The ship has Gurkha guards in control of the gangway.  They check everyone in and out and are on duty around the clock. There's about 6 of them and they live on the ship with us. If you mention a gurkha over here that would be the equivalent of a marine in the states. So mercy ships likes to spread the word around town that we have gurkha's guarding our ship and gangway so no one messes with us ;)  So this is Ganesh. And he's very sweet! He learns a lot of people names but learned mine quickly from going running in the mornings. and he always says hello to me around the ship. He loves that I have a matching uniform to his on the days that I'm on duty, so he wanted to take a picture. He also provides me with all kinds of his native foods whenever he's cooking his dinners in the galley and i'm baking for hospitality. which is quite a lot. so there we are!   
Here is one of my favorites. This is not necessarily typical.. but possibly necessary.. and more fun. =) I don't really know what's converting what to what.. but it works!
I think this is just so neat. I don't understand how these women (and men) carry crazy amounts of things on their heads. And you see it everywhere, and it's quite smart because a lot of time it is something they might struggle to carry if it wasn't on their heads! But it's just incredible to watch. And they walk, and then turn their heads to look at something, all with such ease.

Basically. This is the delicious bread we get to enjoy every single day. (above is the deep crew galley) This is Eddie on the right, and he is the baker.. and this is the "bakery" part of the galley. (that he is in) and he loves making bread. so he makes every kind. Raisin, cinnamon, oat etc. mmm! it's delicious!

This photo shows a glimpse of the landscape and terrain I've been surrounded by as I've ventured away from the ship these past two weekends. The land is so lush and it's absolutely beautiful. In the midst of the poverty, you see this wonderful world the Lord has created and you can't help but reflect on the glory of the Lord and all He has made. From all ends of the earth. Every bit is so unique and its so beautiful.

Alot of little children are scared when they see white people since they have never seen them before. So when we were in this small village. This little boy's face flooded with fear at the sight of us and he turned and took of running. =P It was almost cute. 

Little babies everywhere!

  How cute is he !!!

Sunday I also went to an orphanage! There's a young photo journalist, April, on board the ship that was on the Anistasis Mercy Ship back when it was in Benin last time. And supposedly Mercy Ships was very involved with this orphanage we visited back then, and helped build their standing facility, but now Mercy ships is mainly focussed on an other orphanage. However, April still feels very attached to these orphans, and is doing all she can to help them. So she snagged me up on Sunday morning to come along with her and her team of guys consisting of a carpenter on board to take measurements to build beds for these kids. Because they all sleep on the concrete floor! So heres some pictures. =)

This is the road we traveled on.. which was actually a VERY nice road.

 An entrance to a small housing area/village I suppose could call it..

Another house I managed to snap a picture of. It is considered rude to take pictures of people without their permission. So it's difficult to come a across a house of some sort with no one near by .. all while your zooming past.. to capture their lifeslyle.

And we arrived at the orphanage! We played soccer and ring around the rosy type games, dancing games and played "take picture after picture and show it to them!!" .. their favorite of them all! and they were all absolutely adorable. 

Here I am with a little girl, her name was deborah. "Like in the bible", she told me. =)

The orphanage has about 40 children and it is run by a pastor and his wife. They have a few helpers but not many. Most of the children are under the age of 5 and some up through 7. Most are not potty trained. Their building facility is nice. Thanks to mercy ships organization. But other than the building they had absolutely nothing. No bed, furniture, tables, anything. It was heartbreaking. This is one of the three "bedrooms". (above) There is only string across the room with mosquito netting, which they drape across a bundle of children as they sleep on the floor =( So that was April's mission for our vision. The carpenter went to scope out the building and took measurement of the few old bunk beds that have but need mattresses for. 

                                            As we went to leave all the children piled in our land rover and were SO EXCITED to be in a white mans car! it was very cute. So here they are. All piled in!! with our sun glasses on =)

Going to this orphanage was so difficult for me, because these children have nothing. literally. not just things. but they don't have family either. And I started feeling so guilty. Here we are staying on this almost luxurious ship eating tons of food.. only helping SOME people. but there are tons and tons that need help too. And being with these kids almost killed me as I had to leave them... still with nothing. But as I was spending time reading and reflecting on the experience I came across 1 Corinthians 13. Which is right on the money. It says, you could do all these things in your life time.. speak many languages, have all this knowledge, have great amounts of faith, or give everything to the poor.. but with out love you are nothing. And I realized that even though I can't walk into this orphanage and buy them all beds and mattresses and things that I  might consider necessary. This is not what is truly necessary. There is a greater and necessary and everlasting task at hand. And that is demonstrating the love of Christ to these children, if that all I have to give to them.. even if it's only for one afternoon. Verse 13 says: "Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love" And that is what I have been learning the past couple of days.

One last picture! These were little twins at the orphanage that I LOVED!

Church down in the ward!

Sunday morning I went to the ward service. Which is simply the service held down in the ship hospital for any of the ward patients and their caregivers that would like to attend chuch. Its in one of the recovery wards, actually the VVF ladies room. Its a hospital room with about 7 beds on either side, no curtains, and they set chairs in the middle isle for any of  the crew who come down. So by the time the service started the room was PACKED with people. There was a VVF recovery patient on each bed plus about 6 more people sitting on the bed around them. Including children on alot of the ladies laps. A lot of the ladies were moms of children having surgeries, so they would have their child on their lap, or baby in their arms. There were chairs also in the hallway and the wards double doors were propped open, so patients were sitting lining the hallway listening as well. 

The bed I happened to sit on was RIGHT next to the speaker.. so as they began to use the mic.. they motioned to me to turn it on, then it was squealing.. and suddenly I became the sound adjuster.. (!!!) ie.. fiddling with random knobs hoping it would affect the sound coming out of the mic =P it was oh so thrilling. Who knew I would come home will all these new skills!

So as the leader began to sing..  it quickly grew very lively. And what we might call worship at home.. is NOTHING compared to these women truly worshiping and singing and dancing and praising the Lord. They are twirling, clapping, using hand motions, and truly exalting the Lord, the most high God in the fullest way and it was absolutely amazinngg to see. You can't help but be moved by their expression of reverence for the Lord. It was very neat. And then we listened to a pastor, from a local church, that came to speak. It was translated from english into french, and then into the local language of fon.  And this is common to have these 3 translations at a service. Most people speak both french and fon, However the less educated people or people from more rural areas might not speak the french. 

So it was very cool to experience. And it was also interesting to sit there.. b/c its obvious that some of these ladies have solid relationships and love for the Lord yet others have their Bible and sit their straight backed, very reserved. So its a testimony in itself from one african lady to the next. Simply by showing their  fervor  for the Lord, it could ignite passion in someone else's heart. And a lot of these ladies are in the VVF ward, recovering.. and they don't have a choice but to sit there since church is in their room! =) they're trapped.. so its one more way they experience the gospel on the mercy ships (not necessarily the most comfortable of ways! but it might be the way that touches them the most!!) =P

And that was church this sunday! I loved it. 

Sock Golf!

What do you do on a ship for 3 months you ask? .. people invent games like sock golf.. Saturday night we played sock golf! .. It was similar to frisbee golf. We were told to come wearing our best golf attire, and to bring a wadded up pair of socks.. as our ball. A young couple on the ship set up the game up, and there were 18 holes, and we played in groups of four. There was a tee off point for each hole, and a  "hole" paper posted on the wall somewhere near by. There was a par for each a hole, each player counted their throws, and each team had a score card just like in frisbee or mini golf. It was a blast!  The holes were everywhere..up and around staircases, through hospital hallways, across the "town square". (a two story opened up cafe area) Sock were flying all over the place. It was really fun, and everyone's very grateful when people put fun stuff like this together for a bunch of us to do in the evenings!Here's my team! as we took the pedestal for coming in third in the total team scoring! out of about 20 teams! Me, Sam, Ryan, and Katie. (above) 

<  Katie and I posing with Paul in our golfing attire.

And scoping out the next hole, Katie and Sam, prepare for an up and over a staircase throw..   (below)

It was very fun. And everyone who didn't play had just as much fun watching everyone make fools of themselves and run all over the ship throwing socks! =) Families had their cabin doors propped open, so as teams came through the nearest hole they would all pop their heads out and watch us accidently throw our sock DOWN a stair-wall instead of over a railing. =) (that might have a personal experience)

And these last two posts were only for Saturdays events! Monday's will be about Sunday's eventful and touching church service down in the ward, and visiting an orphanage! .. get excited! =)

love, lindy

Bab's Dock!

On Saturday it was a guy's birthday on the ship, so about 30 of us ventured out in about 3 land rovers for a 45 minutes VERY bumpy ride to a lagoon. We followed the ocean along a sand "road" or path passing many huts and little villages, boys playing ball in the road, and women carrying hUGE baskets on their heads. They all yell "yovo" as we ride past which sort of means white man, or foreigner in their native language, fon. Their way of shouting this is almost an awarness shout like, they here! but not in an excited tone. It's interesting, and hard to put your finger on it. But then as you wave to them through the open window their faces light up with a smile and they wave back very excitedly. 

So we turned off the road right in the middle of all these village

areas and parked our cars. All of us who had never been to

 Bab's dock before were told we would park, then take a boat ride across the lagoon to the dock where we would spend the day for Sam's birthday.. But  of course we didn't really know what to expect.                                                      So we parked... and we saw this.. ^  ^   ^ .. where we were to meet the boat, for our "boat ride" It definitely wasn't what I expected but I was like okay this is a little amazon-ish .. I'm in africa..? =) roll with it.. are they going

to take us into a swamp and kill us? The boat they picked us up in was very nice and that alone was some type of assurance we were fine. We rode through this crazy marsh/swampy place.. again, a little sketchy and scary..      But  here's the dock once we crossed the lagoon! it was absolutely lovely! It was an buautiful day and we were so thankful it didn't rain. the dock is actually a french ladies house. She built a dock, and charges 4 dollars for the boat ride across the lagoon and hires out 4 local girls to cook and serve food, and then excepts all visitors to buy lunch. But other than that its just come and hangout. There's canoes, kayaks, a small sailboat, hammocks, a water volley ball net, donkeys, and a monkey!!

It was an buautiful day and we were so thankful it didn't rain. the dock is actually a french ladies house. She built a dock, and charges 4 dollars for the boat ride across the lagoon and hires out 4 local girls to cook and serve food, and then excepts all visitors to buy lunch. But other than that its just come and hangout. There's canoes, kayaks, a small sailboat, hammocks, a water volley ball net, donkeys, and a monkey!!

 We had some intense 5 game volleyball games. Country pride.. Brits against 'foreigners' And if you started one game.. they would NOT let you leave until the end of the 5th game.. because then it would be "unfair" .b.r.u.t.al. =P

Here's some of the girls I hang out with Sarah, Katie, Me, Roxy, and Britni! Katie and I are in the cabin, and the other 3 girls live in the cabin next door.

and here I am with the monkey! grabbing my face, it was so cute! it would press its body against the cage so we would scratch and pet him. And it would put both his hands through the bars and grab your hands. How fun!

So we had a Great time! It was very fun to relax and hangout with everyone like this.

More to come late on the rest of this weekends events!

And Happy Fathers Day DADDY! =)

Baking baking and more baking!

On the days that we bake.. we usually spend the whole afternoon doing so. And recently this has been a lot more often than usual. - or so I've been told - and this is because we have so many more short term crew coming and going during the summer months, and a lot of vision trips during the summer. Each of these means.. new crew meetings, teas, chaplain meet and greets, vision trip meetings.. all where our cooking and baked goods are served! .. so we bake and bake. =) which is still fun.. but I'm wondering how quickly the fun of making two tripled batches of cookies will fade.. =(

sO for some pictures.. 

Explanation: we work in the hospitality galley.. which is a tiny galley off one corner of the crew galley. The crew galley is open 24/7 and available for any crew use. There's everythiinng in there. about 5 of most big things such as mixers, microwaves, stove tops, ovens, blenders. Then there's loads and loads of any type of pan, tray, spoon, spatula, knife peelers..etc. its pretty cool.

^^ Here I am! looking at recipes.. about to make two types of cooks.. hence the TWO mixers! how tricky ..  on the right we have two mixers^^  going and lots of cracked egg shells! Only one person fits comfortably in the hospitality galley so I'm in the 

main galley, and I normally work at  this station right outside the door of hospitality galley, while Roxy works inside there. The door is to my right in this picture of me.

 And here is Roxy! .. she's taught me everything about everything in the past 10 days and is absolutely a blast!.. she's taking a year off before college, has been here since march, and is from South Africa. So she has a fun accent. As does almost everyone on the ship. =) But she and are the only two young girls on the hospitality team, so we have a lot of fun! 

Today we made peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate chocolate chip cookies, and these cheesecake bar/square things. So here we still in the process... and a guy walked in (who actually spoke for the sunday service) and was like "Lets take some actions shots! make some memories!!!" and grabbed my camer off the table, tunred it on.. and took pictures of us baking..basically everyone on the ship just like that.. very fun and outgoing and just a joy to be around. =) Its great.

and last one!!