Sailing

The ship was ready to leave Sierra Leone, the only thing left to do was the last drill before sailing and lifting the gangway! We all expected the drill so when the alarm sounded we were ready for it. The first alarm goes, this is for the emergency teams to get together, for me it's to get my bag ready and put trainers on. The second alarm goes, you hear the Captain speaking "this is a drill, this is a drill, this is a drill...". It's time to face the sun, I climb the steps to deck 7 where my muster station is. Lifejackets are handed out, I get one, go towards muster station H where my friends are. Fortunately they already had gone to the only shady area of our muster but it doesn't take long and I feel the heat! Our names are called out from the check list. The drill goes well and it doesn't take long, which was good as it's toooo hot with the lifejackets on.

I go down to my cabin and get ready to go back to deck 7 to see Sierra Leone off. When I get back to deck 7 the gangway is getting ready to be lifted up to the top of deck 8 (were it gets stored while we sail). We saw that we were moving off the dock very slowly but we were moving!!!! The people on the dock started shouting goodbye, thank you.... It was a strange feeling seeing Sierra Leone disappear in the distance. It was sad to see it go as it's a beautiful place and the people are so nice, but also there was a feeling of new beginnings as we go to a new country.
As we get into the Atlantic Ocean we praise God for the calm waters. It was very smooth out on the ocean but inside the ship we still rocked from side to side -  this is due to the way the ship was built, it was not built for the ocean but for the sea and rivers. The first few days were not bad, the only time was at night as I kept thinking I was going to fall off the top bunk bed! Lets say I did not get much sleep that night! During the day some of the crew who had sailed before gave me some good advice; put some cushions on the side! This was very good advice as I slept soundly the other nights. We change direction on day 3 - we rocked more on the ship, walking got very funny as we tried to keep on a straight path. Cleaning toilets and corridors was hard work when the ship rocked that much, but we managed it!
While we were sailing we had to stop to get fuel on the ship. Our ship met another ship and bunkered to another ship. There was a lot of prayer and work involved as this was never done before in this ship. Even with the tanker turning up late and the fuelling had to be done at night everything went well!! We had our fuel and we could carry on with our journey to Ghana. I never thought I would be on a ship getting fuel in the middle of the ocean!!! All new experiences which I will remember for life!
One of the joys of sailing is that we were allowed to go onto the bow of the ship (which is at the front). Here we saw many dolphins, which would swim along with us for a while. We also got to see whales, turtles, jelly fish and flying fish. Every time a whale or dolphin was in view the captain would announce it over the loudspeaker so everyone got a chance to see them!! Some of the pictures taken were amazing!
Anyway after 5 days of sailing we arrived in Tema, Ghana. We were welcomed by the small advance group; they had been here for 2 months to get things ready for the ship to arrive. It was a welcome sight to see land, I would never had thought I would be so grateful to see it! That evening we were allowed to go off ship but only to the dock as the visas had not been done yet. Walking on the dock it felt great to be walking on land! :-)

Calling Housekeeping!

I am on the Africa Mercy housekeeping! You wonder what this entitles? Let me tell you.
My day starts at 7:15, I wake up to get to breakfast as it finishes at 7:30. Then at 8:00 I go to the laundry room to meet my fellow housekeeper's! There we have a time of prayer and then we are allocated our work for the day. I am on deck 7. I start with cleaning toilets; that's the first job of the day! There are 8 toilets to clean on deck 7 - not too bad, could be way worse! There are 2 of us cleaning so we chat as we go along...
After toilets it's time to sweep the floors. While we go around we get to meet the crew who live on deck 7 or have an office there - it's like a different world on deck 7! The great thing is I found a crew member who speaks Spanish, so I get my daily recap of Spanish! Que Bien!

We collect the rubbish or as they say here "trash". One of the places we actually go to collect the rubbish and clean is the Bridge (this is the place the Captain of the ship navigates from when sailing). There are good views from there - it's one of my highlights for the day!
We have a break and then get on with cleaning offices and public rooms, we also do checks on the toilet, better not forget them!!! We clean the windows of doorways and vacuum the rugs infront of them. Lunch break comes, yippeee.
After lunch we have a devotional time with the team. After this we carry on with checking the toilets... again! The stairways are our next job, we sweep them and then mop them. Oh and another thing is disinfecting the hand rails with spray! To finish off the day we check the toilets!!!!!
That is roughly my routine as a housekeeper. I will be doing this till the middle of January when the hospital re-opens!

As I am writing this we have left Freetown, Sierra Leone and are sailing towards Ghana. Please pray for safe sailing to Ghana!

Bye Bye Sierra Leone

worship time and cleaning!

This week has been cleaning and packing in the hospital. The day starts with all the nurses meeting in one of the wards, and for about the next 30 mins we have a time of worship and devotion. There is no better way than starting the day than worshiping God. I found it so good and set me out for the day.
Then everyone got assigned to do cleaning or packing, my job for the week was the hospital laundry room.

This involved doing the laundry from when the hospital closed, the scrubs and rags the nurses were still using. This meant an ongoing stream of putting washing on and then putting them in the drier. It got very very hot in that room with the driers on!. After we had to fold the laundry and store them so we could pack the shelves up. It has been a learning week for me on how to clean a hospital (double bleach everything) and then the floors being stripped and then tripple waxed. Also  learning how to pack things to make it sail proof.
As the week went we lost a lot of our nurses as they go home after being here for the field service, it's sad to see them go but some will return for Togo next year!

In the last week I have moved to a 4 berth cabin, yippeeee!!!! This is a lot better as I have more room to store my things and also there is a little room at the back were we can sit and relax, but one of the bonus points is the window!!! As I write this blog I am currently sitting in my lovely cabin and looking out of the window. I am so thankful for this!
This is all for now, hopefully I will write another blog before we leave Sierra Leone, we not sure of date we are going but it will be soon.

The sunsets over Freetown, view from deck 8.

One of the many beaches in Sierra Leone, they are so beautiful.