Welcome Heather! She's my new bunk mate.  yay!  I'm trying to remember what happened today...and i'm drawing a blank.  I worked...and then skipped community meeting to take a shower.  After community meeting they always serve free ice cream in midships.  So Krissy and I volunteered to be two of the ice cream scoopers. It ended up with us girls at one table and two boys at the other table.  Krissy and I had such a good time cuz we made it a competition between the boys and the girls to see who could 1. serve the most people and 2. work the best together as a team.  We totally beat the boys.
Saddest news of the day is that Stefan left :( It's really quite sad how often people leave.  You become friends and then they leave.  The saddest part is when you look for them at a meal or something and they aren't there.
The other day we had a very large accident on what we call "bad boy lane" It's a road that leads in and out of the shipping yard/port where we are docked.  HUGE trucks drive up and down it all the time transporting things.   Well the other day a truck's brakes went out and it crashed into a cement wall.  The driver passed away immediately.  It was really quite tragic, it's the second accident in a very short period of time.  So please be praying for safety.
I don't really have any words other then goodnight! :)

Again another unexpected day.  I couldn't sleep last night so I was up really late.  I actually got up and went up to deck 7 to just watch the ocean and get away from my room for a bit.  I woke up this morning feeling fine but as the day progressed i started to feel really sick.  After lunch my boss sent me home cuz we didn't have much to do and it would be better for me to rest then to stand around in the galley doing nothing.  I felt so much better after i'd slept and taken some medicine.  I think that my body is reacting to the stress of the last few days by becoming physically ill.  wonderful. I felt a TON better by dinner time and was invited to go out salsa dancing.  It was a BLAST!  There weren't actually that many people there but i had a very good time.  It was so insanely humid i had sweat literally dripping off me by the end of the first dance.  usually that doesn't happen till at least the end of the fifth or sixth dance! Unfortunately my camera died but a friend did get some pictures so hopefully they will be posted soon.  Just as we were leaving the song "dynamite" came on and Stefan and I danced around the whole restaurant.  It was ridiculous! and so much fun.
Tonight I also got more lessons in African culture:
-nose rings and ankle bracelets mean that your a prostitute.
-it's ok for two girls or two guys to hold hands, it means your good friends not gay.
-it is NOT ok for a guy and a girl to hold hands.  To African eyes that is as inappropriate as having sex in public.
So folks there's a little bit of Africa for you.

You know you have an easy life when you think "rats I have to work for the next 2 days!" I spent the entire day just hanging out with friends, watching movies and coloring.  I did make it off the ship to the Hope Center for about half an hour to hand out pictures to the patients that I'd taken about a week ago.  They absolutely love having their picture taken but insist that you bring them back a copy.
Here are some pictures that i've taken over the past couple days and forgotten to put up.

Drum lessons!!!

We had a spiritual retreat this past weekend and I was asked to help with the African fabric bible cover workshop.  It was awesome! 

As you can see...a hard day in the Galley

We bake a LOT! Hannah is making red velvet cupcakes and in the background i'm making  brownies and as a group we made a delicious peanut noodle dinner.

Tonight we made macaroni and cheese. KRAFT! It was delicious. we had a hard time getting a good picture of it though so this is what we ended up with :) Thank you Ben for taking this lovely picture

Today was a good day.  I miss home though.  Happy Birthday Dad!

So...today is my 3 weekaversary here in Africa.  I've been thinking about what i've learned in my short time here and i think God's doing a lot in my life.  For the first time in my life i feel like God is holding me in the palm of his hand.  I feel like He's watching over and protecting me.  From the time I applied with MercyShips God's been faithful to me.  He brought in the finances for me to come, took care of my apartment difficulties, got me safely into Africa and all my bags made it.  Today Paul and I broke up.  And honestly, i feel like God is saying "do you trust me? I haven't let you down yet why would i now?" I feel strangely confident that this is the best thing in my life.  I'm actually surprised i'm not more upset about it.  God has brought some of the most amazing blessings into my life in the form of friends and community here.  I know now more then ever that God wants me here.  I would truly appreciate all your prayers.  Please pray that God would keep my mindset this confident in Him.
I debated whether or not to even post about this but i feel like it's what God's been teaching me so it's worth letting people know about.
Tonight Hannah, Rhoda Matt Kelly and I made dinner.  it was delicious! we had a beef peanut noodle thing.  Pretty darn good.  Unfortunately my phone had died so i couldn't take any pictures but Hannah has some pictures that I will try to get from her and post.  Then we watched Tangled, an absolutely wonderful movie!

Quote of the day "I want coconuts!" Jenny and I decided to paint our nails so we were in midships doing just that when two unsuspecting gentlemen named Juan and Stefan walked up.  We somehow convinced them to let us paint one of their toe nails each (i have no idea how we did that!). I put polka dots on Juan's (he's from the Dominican Republic) and Stefan (Germany) got the words up and said "I want coconuts!" it was hilarious!

A lovely picture of our handiwork

The other wonderful thing that happened today was that the high school girls peformed the dance that I choreographed for them. It was a huge success! Unfortunatly i can't upload the video because it's to large of a file. I will try to figure it out tomorrow.  It's so frustrating because i keep thinking of things throughout the day that i want to tell everyone about but when i sit down to actually blog my mind goes blank! so annoying.  Anyway the biggest announcement of the day is: HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANGELA!!!!

another successful day in the galley! And I finished choreographing the dance for the girls. they have to perform it tomorrow. oh boy! I'll video it and post it tomorrow night.  i seriously don't have much to post on days that i work...my life is pretty boring in the galley and i've been exhausted lately so i haven't been having wild crazy parties after work like i usually do :) nighty night!

We made delicious rice krispi treats today! Not much else to report though...work was boring.  Matt is still sick and i think i might be coming down with something.  Would much appreciate prayers for patience.

you know writing a blog feels like writing in a digital journal or something.  The only difference is that the entire world can see this.  So sometimes, you can't really tell how your day truly was because it's personal...and i'm not sure i want the entire world to know.  Long story short, today wasn't what i expected it to be.  I had set expectations and plans for the day that didn't come true.  Things happened that weren't supposed to and as a result i feel like i'm on an emotional roller coaster.  I would very much appreciate prayer for patience and wisdom.
On a happy note i had a wonderful time hanging out with my roommates today!  Jenny had a scarf on and it ended up wrapped around her head. crazy!

Jenny being silly

recipe for African popcorn: kernels + African peppers +oil = delicious

Isaac, one of the dayworkers

It was a good day overall.  It just made me think a lot about life.  And now it's bed time.

By far the highlight of my day was talking to Mr. Paul Dunsmoor.  We had a ten minutes to talk before he had to go to work.  Not very long but it was enough to brighten my day!
Each department has devotions each morning.  this morning a local lady named Faith shared and it was quite encouraging.  Last night i was talking to my roommates about how difficult it can be to live here.  It's a very unique environment.  You live, eat, sleep, play, work and exercise with the same people every single day.  and it can be hard to get alone time.  So i was really struggling with getting away and having emma time this morning when Faith talked about finding joy in the Lord and rejoicing always.  She talked about how serving God can be difficult but there will be a blessing and end result in your life.  It was quite encouraging.
I got measured by a local tailor who comes to the ship on Tuesday evenings for a skirt tonight! i'm very excited to get an African skirt made!
Sorry i have no pictures tonight, the battery on my phone keeps dying very early in the day.  Isaac, a local day worker in the galley, was upset that my camera is dead.  He really wants to show off his dance moves to the world.  We have dance parties in the dish pit every night to Justin Beiber. oh ya! (is that even how you spell his name?)
Well i think that my laundry is done so i had better go get it and get some sleep.  Love to all of my family

Truly not much to report today.  The days i work are pretty boring and not much exciting happens.  We were out of almost everything today! Rachel asked me to make dessert and i was so excited until i realized we didn't have any eggs, fruit, or oatmeal; three very important dessert ingredients.  So I ended up making sweet biscuits with a vanilla berry sauce.  Got lots of compliments so it must have been pretty good.
The biggest news and excitement is that JAY IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!! He just got back from holiday and its awesome to see him!

I learned today that you WILL get burned in the African sun no matter how much sunscreen you put on! We took a poda poda, a van that is supposed to sit 12 but the African's cram up to 20 people in to Waterloo.  From there we took a taxi, a five seater that fit 7 people in.  It was crazy! i was like sitting on top of two people in the back. And the window didn't roll down so it was rediculously hot.  We were all ready to get in the water!  The people we went with knew a family that had a house on the beach so we were able to leave our stuff safely there.  The porch was also a nice place to get out from the sun for awhile.  Matt and Sam were in the shade most of the day but ended up the most burned of all of us! poor guys.  The beach was absolutly gorgeous! We were in the water most of the day just body surfing the waves and hanging out.  When we were driving back we were starving so we got the African version of fast food. you have to drive slowly through town becuase of all the people.  Most of them want to sell you something so when they ran up to our car we bought two shishkabob things.  Yes we ate street meat...no idea what it was. but we all ate it so if one gets sick we all get sick i guess.  In Waterloo on the way back there was some kind of weird celebration going on.  No one really knew what it was except that there were people dancing around in masks and grass skirts that covered their whole body.  Some of them were on stilts.  It was really strange and a little spooky.  

Matt (left) and Ben sunscreening up for a day at the beach

Matt walking to the beach

It was an awesome day! when we got home we had unfortunatly missed dinner.  So i went into the galley and got some things and we made our own dinner in the crew galley (a kitchen specifically for the crew).  It was the best meal i've had since i got here.  and now i'm exhausted.  Goodnight :)

Today Jenny and I went to the hope center for about an hour to visit with the patients.  Some girls from the ship were already there and they had brought nail polish.  So we helped paint nails.  One little boy really wanted his nails painted but his mom wouldn't let him.  

Yay for painted nails!

All the little kids beg you to take pictures with them :) it's really cute

Jenny and the boy who wasn't allowed to get his nails painted.  Isn't he adorable!?!?

This little girl was very shy at first.  She didn't speak english so it was a bit hard to communicate.  But by the time we had to leave she was hanging all over me :)

Well tomorrow we're going to the beach so I've got to get some sleep.

Well today was full of excitement! but then...everyday here is filled with adventure.  Last night was the first night i slept really well. I think my body is finally adjusting to living with 5 people on a ship.  Matt Alex and i went to the craft market again.  It was a whole new experience then last time.  We met a local missionary named Philip who showed us around Freetown.  At first we were quite wary of him because you just don't know who you can trust.  I was pretty sure he was ligit when he pulled me out of the way of a car that was about to run over me.  He told us about his life growing up in a Muslim  family and culture.  When we got to the market he specifically asked us to let him bargain prices for what we wanted to buy because the dealers would respect him because of his skin color and give him a fair price.  He ended up getting me an awesome deal on some adorable fabric that i'm going to have a dress made out of.  He was such a sweet person i truly felt like God had put him in our lives to give us a better understanding and open our eyes more to their culture.  I'm really starting to have a love for these people.
I spent the evening watching movies (Penelope with the nurses, and High Crimes with the boys) and hanging out with friends.  I found out that Matt sucks at ping pong (he swears they don't have it in Canada but i'm pretty sure thats just an excuse). I also found out that my ping ponging skills are not up to par either.  At one point i got the ball stuck in the roof...not quite sure how that happened.
Tip of the day : How to take a 2 minute shower
1. put on a 3 minute song (3 minutes to include the time when the shower isn't on)
2. turn on water and wet down
3. turn off water and shampoo/soap up
4. rinse off and immediatley turn off water
If your three minute song is up you have successfully taken a 2 minute shower.
Sorry i have no new pictures to put up today :(

I totally forgot to upload this video the other day when i was talking about going to the market! Lynette (she's from Ireland!!!) and i could resist dancing in the wonderful African rain.  Note James and Matt just standing in the background refusing to participate in our dance and song making. Silly boys.

Emma Wolfe is completely exhausted but here are some highlights of the day: Sadly we didn't get a shipment of produce so we had a very lazy day in the galley.  cleaning produce takes up a solid 3/4 of the day and since we didn't have anything to clean food wise we did a lot of standing around and talking.  Matt and I worked on cleaning out the walk in and also scrubbing down the walls in the dish pit though.  At one point we were so bored that we "borrowed" a bowl of berry crisp topping with some of the berries (Josh was making berry crisp for dessert and just left his ingredients out!) and had a wonderful little snack break in the walk in we were supposed to be cleaning.
Every Thursday there is a community meeting.  it's sorta like Wednesday night youth group.  We all get together and worship and have a little message.  It's nice.
After that I worked with the high school girls on a dance routine for a spiritual weekend that is coming up.  I'm really excited to be able to use my dancing to help these girls put together an awesome routine.
The rest of the evening was spent in the wonderful company of Ben, Matt and Mourad. We played egyptian cutthroat uno.  Egyptian because Mourad kept throwing in rules we had never heard of before so we said it was an Egyptian way to play.
Last but absolutly not least, i have a new cabinmate! Her name is Jenny and she's very sweet.
Today is my Friday and i'm headed into a three day weekend! yay!
Goodnight world and may your dreams be as vivid as mine are on Mefliquin

it was a great day in the galley.  I actually felt like they needed me! we made chicken potpie for dinner but instead of the traditional way, we served the filling separate from the crust. So my job was to make pie crust for 500 people! It was pretty cool because i had to figure out how to effectively do that in an oven that only worked with hotel pans.  We ended up tearing parchment paper in half and rolling out portions of dough on that and then sliding it into a 2" hotel pan, baking it, cutting it, sliding it out of the pan to cool and then transferring the pieces to another pan for service.  It was quite an interesting experience.

Rolling out dough...it took forever

A nice pat on the back for a job well done :)

Yesterday I went up to the pool (yes we have a pool) and hung out with Matt and Ben.  I didn't actually go swimming though...my activities consisted of knitting and trying to not get physically forced into the pool.  It's quite an interesting pool though.  Because the ship rocks back and forth the pool basically turns into a wave pool.

a view from deck 9 of deck 8 (decks 9 is really only like a platform with the pool and a sitting area

Freetown from Deck 9

Anyway it's been a long day and i'm very tired.  Goodnight world

I wanted to say thank you to all the people who read this blog :) It's really awesome to know that someone is reading about my adventures.
Tonight i went to deck 8 to be alone for a bit, however i quickly discovered that many couples hang out on deck 8.  so i wandered around and found a wonderful little secluded spot to be alone.  it was really nice to just be alone with my journal and the wind and God.  It's truly hard to believe i'm in Africa. most people develope an insane love for this continent.  My prayer tonight was that God would show me my mission here.  It's easy to say "i'm here to serve with MercyShips" but how does that play out? what does that look like in the everday things?  I know that if i don't find my mission here i will be miserable for the next 7 months.  This is not the ideal place to live or work.  It's not a place to further my career or expand my knoweldge of my industry.  in all respects to my career, it's a waste of 7 months...or at least thats how most people see it.  BUT God put me here for a purpose.  He specifically chose these 7 months of my life.  why? i have no idea. But if i can find that purpose these 7 months could be the most meaningful/purposeful of my life.  I want to get past what my brain is thinking and think and see how God sees.  This is gonna be a CRAZY 7 months!

Jessie Zimmerman looking lovely with her umbrella

Walking down the to the dock, Jessie James and Matt

Andreas a nurse from Norway and me.  

It was raining really hard! By the end of our trip into town we were all soaked through even with  rain coats

Today was wonderful! Sadly i didnt' get to sleep in but thats ok. i went to the market(about a 45 minute walk) with some friends and we had a BLAST! it was pouring down rain and i definitly wore the wrong clothing. a khaki skirt will be see through if it gets soaked. lol. but there was nothing i could do about it so i didn't worry and still had a good time. The markets are so very different here! you have to keep your hands in your pockets if you have valueable items in them cuz the kids will all pickpocket you. In the shops you can't just LOOK at an item.  The owner won't leave you alone to just look, they want to sell you something! you don't even want to point at anything because the owner will think you want it and will try to sell you it or anything that looks like it. it's rediculous! and the other owners in the same vacinity will catch on to what you are looking for and then when you come to their shop they will already have things pulled out and set up just for you. it was a little overwhelming. I did get a really cute leather bag for $8 though.
mourad (the pharmacist) is from egypt and is hysterical! tonight he was telling us about some of the perceptions people have of egypt and questions he's been asked here on the ship about his home country. Apparently one girl asked him if they have washers and dryers and he said "no we use rocks to clean our clothes in the stream. We have one stream for colors and one for whites." and another girl asked "do you own any camels" and he said "yes i have three very cute camels i keep downstairs".

More later :)

Another day in the galley is done! It was a good day starting very early at 6 AM to cook a hot breakfast for our fellow crew.  It was a good day in the sense that we got a lot done and were able to take a lot of breaks because we worked quickly/efficiently.  One of my coworkers, Matt, and I were cleaning lettuce and i looked over and saw one of the day workers carrying a bowl on her head around the kitchen.  It was hysterical! To bad this isn't a video because when i asked her if i could take the picture she said she could also dance with it on her head.  She's wonderful.

it was also a frustrating day because my stomach is NOT adjusting very well to the food here.  Even back home my stomach doesn't always like all the preservatives and hormones put into our food, but here there's really no option but to eat what they give us and it's full of preservatives.  Tomorrow is a day off though! we are planning a trip to the market to buy fabric and possibly some African yarn.
Life on the ship outside of work consists of hanging out in the "midships" area and talking and playing games. Last night we played Taboo which was quite interesting with an international group.  We spent most of the time laughing at some of the things the ESL people said in order to avoid the taboo words.  Most people like to get off the ship on the weekends or whenever they can but i haven't reached that point yet.  I'm perfectly content to stay on the ship.  it's a big scary world out there!
Anyway goodnight to you all :)

working working all day long :)

Well...working was an experience.  We get lettuce from local farmers and i spent about 5 hours cleaning it.  The cool part was that I got to work with a German lady and she taught me some German!

So at the end of my first day i'd say "whew! i'm tired".

Thursday

I learned that i am on a "ship" not a "boat".  A ship has a main deck while a boat does not.  I also watched some guys painting the side of the ship.  I was out on deck 6 reading my book and the guys were harnessing up and going over the side to stand/sit on a board that was attached to two ropes that they manually pulled to move up or down.  it was crazy!

IMPORTANT!!!!!

ATTENTION! if you want to send me or anyone else on the ship a christmas gift it MUST be at the IOC (international operations center) by September 16th! The address is on the right hand side under "snail mail address"

End of day 2

My body decided this morning that it wasn't going to sleep past 4:45 AM.  So i got up early...something i don't normally do. I was glad I got to go out and read on the deck in the early day because it started pouring around lunch time.

 At dinner i was talked into going to a medical lecture about the tumor removal.  It's something that MS does a lot of.  I learned about the different tumors. A surgery was performed today to remove an ameloblastoma (oh ya i learned that word!!) basically a tumor that takes over the mandible and can eventually cause slow suffocation because the tumor grows and grows and takes over the airway.  It's a two step process to 1) remove the tumor and place a titanium bar thing and three months later 2) do a bone graft to give them back a jaw.  It was really interesting to hear that this is NOT a process a doctor was taught and then brought over here to MS.  Instead, over the years the surgeons have created and perfected this technique. Not only did we get to hear this awesome lecture but we got to TOUCH A TUMOR THAT WAS REMOVED TODAY!!! How cool is that!?!?!?

Me and Hannah at the tumor lecture

After the lecture we went to a bible study on 1 Samuel.  It was awesome to get to meet more people! we read a chapter and it was insanely cool because every person who read had a different accent.  

I must say one of the neatest thing is to just sit in midships (the hang out place) and just listen to conversations, all the accents are awesome!

Deck 7 at sunset

What you can't see in this picture is all the kids riding bikes, rollerblading and enjoying life on the ship.

Part of Freetown

 If this picture could scan to the left you would see the dock, our vehicles and the rest of Freetown

Hummus at the Atlantic restaurant

The hummus came with pita bread and was quite delicious.  It cost about $3. I absolutely loved the presentation of it!

Just getting here!

Hello all :) I arrived safely in Sierra Leone.  It was a very long journey but i'm here! I met up with some people headed to MS in Brussles.  It was very calming to have other people there.  The trip itself was wonderful.  I made all of my connections, there wern't any screaming children on the flights, no one was sick, on two of the legs i didn't have anyone next to me so i was able to stretch out and get some sleep.  I realized that the last time i flew for more then an hour was when i was probably 14.  I definitly remembered planes having more leg room!

Once we landed in SL we went through customs which consisted of a sign that said "customs" and you walked through a hallway.  It was that simple.  traveling from the airport to the ferry to take us to the Africa Mercy was exciting as well.  There's a lot of people walking in the streets, a lot of cars passing each other in on coming traffic lanes etc.  On the ferry everyone was trying to sell you something.  At one point there were two guys who did a dance routine thing for money.  It was quite entertaining.  The music consisted of oldies covers done in an african style.  Very unique. 

Once we got on the ship we had a very brief meeting where they gave us keys and badges and sent us to our rooms for the night.  I have 5 roomates and have met 4 of them.  Everyone is so nice and helpful!

More later :)