Today was so marvelous! I went into town with Krissy Jeff and Greta (a couple who works in the dinning room).  We went to the Crown Bakery for lunch.  The food was delicious! I got to go into the kitchen and meet the chef.  It was very much a western style kitchen and restaurant.  Not your typical African place.

Krissy got a Club sandwich.  So yummy!

Jeff got a fish burger with avocado

Greta got a pizza, i got a pizza as well but it looks pretty much the same as hers so i didn't put up the picture.

We had a wonderful meal.  The power only went out once! It came back on after about a minute.  After lunch we went to the craft market.  I bought a delightful African dress.  It's so lovely! I will put up some pictures when i have the chance.

A picture of the craft market.

We went into this lovely little wine shop, it was very surprising.  They had such nice wines, but right outside was Africa.  The shop, to me, seemed out of place.

This is a view of a place we stopped at after the craft market  to get a cool drink

Oh, the lovely African streets

There are guys pulling/pushing these carts piled very high with different things EVERYWHERE.  I believe this is sacks of rice but i'm not positive.

The restaurant sign where we were sitting

This is a very typical intersection.  Notice the cars that are almost getting into an accident.  I took this picture though to point out the lady carrying the large basket on her head.  Everyone carries things on their head.  This lady was carrying a basket of plastic flowers that she was selling.

I know i've talked about Ocottas.  Well here's a picture of two ocottas!  They are the preferred mode of transportation although I refuse to get on one.   Helmets are not required and there are really no rules of the road.  They are very dangerous.

 On the way back to the ship, in the shipyard, we met this lady who was taking her baby to the infant feeding program (at least thats where we think she was going).  The program is set up to 'fatten' the kids up before they have surgery.  We think this baby was about three months old, but it was about as big as a newborn due to malnutrition.  So sad.  He had a hernia on his *cough cough* (which the mother felt the need to show us).

I think that they are both so beautiful 

All mommy's carry their kids on their back, this little girl was sleeping.   The tie the kids on with strips of cloth.

My bunk mate Heather is leaving on Thursday (cries) so we took a family/cabin picture.

Left to right: Heather, Jenny, Savannah, me, Krissy, Tiffany

Heather I will miss you so much! Rebecca, welcome to the family (she's not in the picture).

Sometimes you make plans and they just get messed up. Krissy, Josh and I planned on going to the craft market today because we all had the day off. We walked all the way to the market (it's only about 2ish miles but took an hour with all the traffic) to find out that it was closed because it is a Muslim holiday. So we walked around to the stores that were open (street booths). I ended up getting some lovely fabric for a skirt. yay!

This is a picture of a rather uncrowded street on our way back from the market

Notice the sign "Center for Junks - dealer in quality junks" HAHAHAHAHAHA

Krissy and I - I love you Krissy!

We had such a good time, just strolling the streets of Africa.  It was a gorgeous day! Was sprinkling a little so it was nice and cool and there weren't as many people on the streets which is always nice.
here are some other random pictures that i was waiting for other people to send to me

This is on the dock - the ship is the right, you just can't see it.

arne't we pretty?

Lovely ladies!!!! Lynette i miss you!

I wrote a really long post yesterday so Im trying to keep it short.  I very much appreciate all the comments.  it's nice to hear that people are actually reading this and i'm not just hoping they are :)

Thank you for the wonderful questions! here are, hopefully, some answers.
"what food do we make for the crew every day?":
For breakfast the baker, Oreta, usually makes pancakes or oatmeal or hard boiled eggs. For lunch we usually have left overs from dinner the night before but made into something else. Like if we had hamburgers the night before we might have chili for lunch the next day. At lunch and dinner there is always fresh made bread and ham(right now we don't have any...only tuna) and cheese slices available for people to make sandwiches (we call them toasties cuz we have grill/toasters). I call them hammy whammies cuz that's what Grandma calls them :) there is also almost always white rice or pasta with lunch. Dinners vary based on what meat we have available. Right now we have ground beef and sausage and that's IT. Im really sick of ground beef and sausage. We are supposed to get a frozen container soon so then we will have more meat. When we have ingredients we've had pizza, lasagna, tacos, curry, hamburgers, ribs, chicken fingers, meatloaf, breakfast for dinner. We eat a LOT of pasta and rice. There is always a fruit with each meal, usually apples or bananas. Also, we generally have a salad bar with lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers (that varies on supply as well).
"What do i do in my free time"
I do a lot of knitting. I'm currently working on 4 different projects. I also read, i've got 3 books i'm working on. I'm on the puppet team so i work on editing scripts and practicing/performing for the hospital and at the hope center. There is always someone to hang out with, we play games, walk around town, go to the hope center. When all else fails, there is a 'Join Us' binder that has sign ups for different trips and activities happening throughout the week.
"What languages are spoken on the ship?"
English is the main language, you have to speak some English to work here. German, Spanish, Dutch, Norwegian, Russian, French, Krio...i'm sure im missing some. I believe our nationality count is around 32 right now.
"How many day workers are there?"
I heard somewhere there are between 100 and 150 day workers. In the Galley we have 8 who rotate days. The day workers do everything from interpreting in the ward to painting the side of the ship.
"Do I go to church?"
Last week i went to an African church, it was quite interesting. We have community meeting/church on the ship every thursday (it's really like a worship service). Sunday evening we have more traditional church on the ship. I usually try to go.

Hope thats not to much information. Loved the questions! Keep them coming!!!

The other day at the market I bought some African yarn.  Here is a picture of what i'm doing with it.  it will eventually be a neckerchief type scarf. No idea what to do with it since i don't wear scarfs but i thought the pattern was really pretty.

In other news, I'm having some more health issues and will be going to the doctor on Monday (hopefully).

Tonight we barbecued sausages on the dock.  I took pictures but unfortunately i don't know how to get them off my camera and onto the internet.  So once i figure that out I will put up some pictures.  It was really fun, but a lot of work.  

So my question for the day is: What do you guys want to know? about life on the ship, Africa, working in the galley....let me know what you are interested in knowing :)

Thursday night is community meeting night.  It's usually like an hour of worship and praise.  Tonight was slightly different though.  It really reminded me of home at New Community.  It reminded me of a service at New Comm where instead of just studying prayer we spent the church service actually praying.  The particular service i'm thinking of happened to be the Sunday before Jay Swanson was leaving for MercyShips.  Tonight we studied the Lords prayer and broke into groups to pray.  The first part of the Lord's prayer is declaring who God is. Mae asked us "who is God to you?" The word that kept coming to my mind was Healer.  looking back on my short 20 years i can see how God has been the Healer in my life.  Through breakups, fights and emotional stress there has been one verse that always comes to mind: Jeremiah 30:17 "'For I will restore you to health and I will heal you of your wounds,' declares the Lord".  He is the Healer of our wounds, the One who restores us to health physically and emotionally.  That verse also ties in with the church service we had last Sunday.  He talked about having a 'life verse'.  Not that you have to have one, but often times you can look back in your life and find a verse that has been instrumental in your life during difficult circumstances.  It was a very thought provoking evening.

Here is a link to a wonderful documentary about Dr. Tertius, one of the plastic surgeons on the ship.  It's really an amazing story and I would highly recommend watching it.

http://www.journeyman.tv/62177/documentaries/the-dawn-of-a-new-day.html

Hope you enjoy!

Sometimes you have those days that are just wonderful.  Today was definitely one of those days.  I would like to say thank you so much to everyone who signed and wrote me such wonderful notes in the cards that Drew sent to me.  Also, thank you so much to Meaghan and my mom for helping to make that happen.  Lastly, thank you so so so so so SSSOOO much Drew for orchestrating sending me the cards.  It was so wonderful to hear from everyone back home.  I smiled the rest of the day.  It is the highlight of my week.
Matt talked me into going into town with him earlier and im so glad i did! I ended up buying some yarn (finally) and started making a really cute scarf thing.  I will put up some pictures when i'm done with it.  On the way back from the market Matt decided to take a detour and we ended up walking right by the water.  If you look closely at the pics you can just see the stack of the Africa Mercy with the mercyships logo on it.

Taken once we had walked down the embankment

This one was taken from the top of the embankment, before we had walked down through a set of houses (you can see the roofs of the houses)

When we got back to the ship i went to the ship shop and had a shock.  The shelves were like exploding with new inventory! We are getting 5 containers in 7 days (an insane number!) and in one of those containers was a shipment for the ship shop.  When i walked into the shop and saw all of the things that we had been out of for a while i was so freaking excited! it was then that i realized how accustomed i've become to making do with what we have.  I thought to myself how weird it's going to be going home and being able to get whatever i want from any store.
Anyways...i don't want to make this to lengthy and boring so i will close with: I am so blessed to have the friends that I have.  Thank you so much to everyone who contributed to those cards.