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!