Tenerife... Last post :)

We have arrived... After ten days of sailing we finally saw some land again. The sail was definitely a special time. We encountered dolphins (they even jumped for us), a storm, whales and a randomly stranded bird. I was happy to see land again though. The ship is only so big, and there is not a lot of room to move around. When we arrived in Tenerife, everybody was as excited as children to be able to explore this new place. Tenerife is part of Spain, and a popular tourist location. The town atmosphere reminded me of Greece. The West Africans who are new crew on the ship were in for quite the culture shock. The shops, people and nature are very different from what they are used to. These last days in Tenerife really help to make it feel that my time on Mercy Ships is almost over. A lot of people are leaving this weekend, and when I leave on Monday the ship is sailing to the dry dock where it will stay for the next three weeks to do repairs and prepare for Guinea.
I have been very blessed with this opportunity to join Mercy Ships. I did not have a lot of expectations, did not do a lot of planning, but it has definitely been one of the best times of my life. I encourage everybody to do something like my trip! Thank you very much for reading my blog and for all your prayer and for all your encouragement and for all your support!

Tenerife!

Outing to Santa Cruz, Tenerife

Pirate dress up

My lovely friends...

Sailing!

Africa was a colorful arrayment. The ocean is different, only blue, but still I could stare at it for hours. Who knew that the color blue had so many different shades and tints!

We left Togo on June 15, 2012, around 10 o'clock in the morning. Preparations for the sail had occurred for weeks already. The whole hospital had been scrubbed, all the patients discharged, except two who needed to go to the local hospital for further care, all our cabins secured, for the ship rocks a lot during the sail, the land rovers put on the deck, and the tents removed from the dock. Finally the moore lines got losened and off we went. We had a pilot onboard to guide us out of the harbour. When we left the harbour we started feeling the rocking of the ship. It got worse as time went by. Everybody on the ship seems slightly tipsy, the way we are walking. They gave us seasick medicines, but they make you extremely sleepy. Either way everybody sleeps a lot during the sail, I don't know if it is because the sea rocks us so gently to sleep, or the sea air, or just because everybody has the chance to sleep lots. So far, only today the sun dared to come out. Today we were allowed out on the bow, which gives us a view from the front of the boat. Standing there, wind in your hair, sea water splashes in your face, sun light dancing on the waves is one of the most wonderful experiences ever. Occasionally you see a fly fish flying over the water, they are amazing little creatures! I really enjoy this part of my Mercy Ships experience. It gives time to reflex, relax and enjoy each other and nature because life on the ship has slowed down quite a bit. We hope to arrive in Teneriff on June 25, and than only five more days of Mercy Ships for me...

Bible Verses like the following make much more of an impression when you are out on the ocean!

Psalm 98: 6-8

⁶ With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King.

⁷ Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

⁸ Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together

Psalm 95: 4-6

⁴ In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.

⁵ The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.

⁶ O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker.

The landrover lifted unto the deck

The moore lines losened 

Kayla (my work buddy) and I...

The gang way also went flying...

Bye Bye Togo!

Smells, sights, sounds...

I think everybody should experience Africa once, because it is impossible to really convey what it is like in words or pictures. But I realize that not everybody will get a chance to, so I will try to describe what it is like just coming back from one of the pools here.
I'm standing outside the pool, the sun shinging brightly, but since it is the rainy season the heat is endurable. Trucks line the road, waiting to enter the port. The port is the main economy booster of Togo, so a lot of activity happens around it. I'm waiting for the shuttle of Mercyships to take me back to the ship. The librarian of the ship is also waiting for the shuttle so we chat for awhile. My mind is already thinking about writing this blog, so I look around at all the bizar sights. I mention to the librarian how many interesting sights there are to see, after which he thanks me for pointing it out, because after being here for awhile the African experience has become so common to him. Behind us, some cars are parked in the shade, with an African sleeping on top of one. You can spot them taking naps in the weirdest places. But the positive thing about sleeping outside in Africa is that they won't get cold. Taxis, in diverse shapes and sizes and colors, with varying number of people drive by. Women, wearing colorful African dresses, or jeans, walk past carrying strange concortions on their heads. I have seen several ladies on the market carrying a plate with eggs on their head. My balancing skills are severly poor compared to that. Motorbikes, called zimmy johns here, zigzag in between the cars. Occasionally a car or motorbike honks at us, wondering if we need a ride, but we wave them away. Honking is serious business here in Africa, everybody does it all the time, creating a concert. Finally we see the Mercyships landrover coming towards us. In we get, and off we go. The most creative trafic rules situations I have noticed are a traffic light before the round-a-bout and having to yield to traffic coming into the round-a-bout. Comic situations are when you stop in front of the traffic lights, so the only way you know if it is green is when the person behind you starts honking. Or, when you are not in a hurry, and it is busy on the road, you drive over the walkway because all other possible ways seem absolutely stuck, till you encounter a car coming from the other way also over the walkway, which results in utmost stuckness. Trying to get anywhere on time is not entirely a possibility here, because you would suffer from some major stress symptoms. Anyway, I kind of went off track. We had just gotten into the car, and drove to one other shuttle station, after which we headed back to the port. On the round-a-bout, a policemen is busy whistling to direct traffic, hopelessly. In the port itself, there are the usual amount of people standing around, talking, minding everybodies business, napping, trying to look important, or actually working. The ship comes in view, and once again, we made it safely back "home" :)

Ps. Apparently, the traffic here is childs play compared to the traffic in Sierra Leone.

Kpalime Trip

So this weekend was a little bit different than the other ones. From Friday to Saturday I stayed overnight in a city more north. It was an awesome experience. To much happened during the entire trip to tell everything about it, but I will try to pick out some of the most interesting adventures.
We left the ship early Friday morning. A day worker who used to live in Kpalime came along for the trip, so we had our own tourguide. First business to complete was find a taxi. There were 6 of us, and legally a taxi with 5 seats is allowed to take 5 passengers along, but we were with 6. No problem with the driver, till we got pulled over. Yelling match with cop ensued because the cop asked for $4 bribe so no trouble would be made, but the driver did not feel inclined to give $4. In the end the driver ended up paying and we continued on driving. The taxi did not get us all the way to Kpalime, we had to go on another taxi. There was fierce competition over who got to drive us, and we finally settled on one taxi. We had all climbed in, ready to go, but somebody was blocking our way because he did not agree with which taxi we had picked. Driver went out to argue. While the driver was talking, another guy slyly slid into the driver's seat and asked us innocently, Kpalime? When the owner of the car returned he was quite surprised to see someone else sitting in his seat ready to take off with his car. After another yelling match the intruder exited the car and we were finally on our way. But we definitely did not go straight there. The guys who were offended that we had not picked their taxi to chauffeur us around had called to Kpalime that the taxi-numberboard had more than the legal amount of people and was coming that way. So we switched over to another taxi, and that taxi stuck around for the rest of the day, touring us everywhere.
Kpalime is in a more mountainous area. It is absolutely beautiful out there, with all the green tropical forests. We hiked to two different waterfalls, hidden between a huge variety of trees and plants and insects.
Another experience which I really enjoyed during the trip was our visit to the dayworkers mother's village. We were invited to a fou-fou party. Fou-fou is made of cassada, tasted and looked similar to mashed potatoes, and accompanied by fish. We drove to the village on the back of a motorbike, three on each motorbike. As we entered the village the children crowded around us already, all wanting to hold our hands and touch and talk to us. They are so incredibly cute, I want to take some of them home! They do have bigger bellies, and the nurses were saying it is probably worms or malnourishment. We were led to an open space underneath some trees, and there we were served with our meal. It was a good meal, although my tastebuds probably don't appreciate it as much as the Africans do. After our meal we got a tour of the village. The village really reminded me of how some museums look back home. Everybody was the dayworkers family, he mysteriously had many brothers, although when I asked him before he only had one sibling. Chickens scurried around, some old people were sitting in their huts, two boys were making palm oil, an old man was weaving a mat. It is so hard to relay the experience, it didn't even feel real to me.
We had many more adventures, but it is too much to write about.

Tropical rainforest!

The hidden waterfall...

Candy time!! :)

Marie and David. Marie was our cook

Fou-Fou, our lunch

The local village

Our mode of transportation

Aren't they adorable??!!