Welcome to our Cabin!

There it is - the Africa Mercy!  Go up the gangway . . .

Where one of the gurkas will greet you and have you sign in.

Once you're in, you'll be at reception.  Take a left . . .

And go down the stairs.  Take another right . . .

And our cabin's right there in front of you.

Come on it!

We apologize for the quality of some of the pictures.  The camera doesn't always like to go from the air conditioning to outside!

Congratulations, Micah!

I just opened an e-mail from home and found out that while we were sleeping last night, Micah's soccer team won their tournament yesterday!  Congratulations!  Way to go, Micah and team!  

While they were playing soccer last night (here, afternoon there), I had an Australian mum come down and show me what I needed to do in order to prepare for the sail.  Who knew that there was a large hollow space under our loveseat and I could store stuff there?  I also need to find some ticky tac/sticky tac/blue tac and tac things down - our alarm clock, the kleenex box, our hand soap - maybe even our rubbish bin.  Dishes must be moved, food stored differently.  The "locks" - "U" shaped hooks - for our cabinets are missing.  I need to find some of those and then find a way to make sure our fridge door stays shut and take things off the walls.  

After my lesson on "how to secure the cabin", I went up to Deck 6 and provided a lesson on how to straighten hair.  Zodi is 10 and adopted from Ethiopia and she wanted straight hair.  Her mom washed it and dried it and we went to work.  The look on her dad's face when he saw his little girl with straight hair for the first time in his life was unbelievably precious.  I left before Lisa finished the job - she was an easy trainee - and I heard this morning at breakfast that Zodi looks great!   

Off ship!

Matt and I joined two other families today for lunch off ship and then a bit of shopping.  We scored!  Matt's half a chicken came with a large portion of fries and coleslaw and two pieces of bread.  He finished that off and Jodie's fries.  I had a hamburger and I asked that they NOT put the coleslaw on it, but I didn't realize it came with french fries, mayo and ketchup!  Yes, that would be french fries ON the hamburger between the bun and the patty!  We were quite successful at the market.  We bought everything we wanted except for a soccer shirt for Matt.  To celebrate our success, we went out for ice cream.  Only in Africa can you get such exciting flavors as mango, mandarin or smurf!  I tried "cafe" (coffee) and something I thought had chocolate bits in it, but it turned out to be rum raisin!  A lovely day off! 

Wednesday's Dayworker Farewell

This year there were about 200 Togolese Day Workers worked on the ship.  Many of them are students, Pastors, medical persons, seamstresses, cooks, shop keeps and some are unemployed.  Several of them have worked on the Africa Mercy in Benin, Sierra Leone, and now twice in Togo.  What Mercy Ships does is impossible without their partnership.  They help translate many of the local languages in the hospital areas (some of them speaking 5 or 6 languages), clean the ship, do laundry, cook in the galley, work on the decks of the ship painting and chipping paint.  They  explain the culture and customs of West Africa.  They extend copious amounts of grace when crew blunder through some of the customs, culture, and language.  Wednesday we said "Good-bye".  Thank you, Day Workers,  for all you've done!

Rat Watch II

Yup, they're there!  They're under the racks, by the porta-potties, all around the containers.  It's gross!  The darker it gets, the more active they get!  I only spotted six or seven last night in less than five minutes.  Lovely. . . 

British School of Lome

Elsa (Ethiopia) and Andre (Netherlands/Sri Lanka) and the three legged race

Megan (US/Wales) with the sack race

Our staff plus one - can you find Luke?

Jessica (Australia) and Michelle (US) cooling off after the sporting events

We had a lovely day at the British School of Lome!  The best part - we had three of our kids lose teeth over lunch - Jessica (Australia), Emily (US) and Luke (US/Wales)!  Jessica's came out on it's own, Emily and Luke had a bit of help from Zodi (Ethiopia)!

Things to remember when driving in Togo

Three important things to remember when driving in Togo:

1.  Stop signs are optional stops.  You really don't have to stop at them.  

2.  You must stop for stop lights.

3.  You have the right-of-way when you enter the round-a-bout, but not when you leave it.