I hope you had the time of your life

Waiting on the gangway. Annemarie, Dorothea, Dinante, Jane

On the beach. Michelle, Dorothea, Kendall, Dinante, Annemarie, Jane

Pretty!

Dinante and me at the lovely hotel

So happy at the hotel, pre foot injury. Dinante, Kendall, Michelle

Broken bedframe

Top of my foot, as of yesterday. The little toe is more bruised now.

Side of my foot as of yesterday.

The darn sty. Look how pale I am too.

And so you know that Africa is quite a beautiful place and not filled with injuries and power outages and pain, here are two of the best pictures I've ever taken. Both were at the really nice hotel. Thanks for your prayers and love this weekend!

It's something unpredictable . . .

A crack rang out just before the bed collapsed. Everyone started laughing. Except for me. I was busy trying to get my foot out from where it had been crushed under the weight of the bed and three twenty-something girls. . .



12 hours earlier:



We all gathered in reception, bags in hand, excited to start our long weekend. Then we looked outside. It looked like we were being blessed with a small hurricane. None of us had seen it rain like this since we arrived. Most of us ran down to get rain gear, and then we waited for our taxi. And waited. And waited. And waited some more. Finally something that looked like it could potentially be a taxi drove up. "Are you Michelle?" Dorothea called down to the driver.

"Yes!" he replied.

So we seven girls gathered our things and made our way down the gangway, getting soaked in the process. As we threw our stuff in the back of his vehicle, it became apparent that this was not our cab and he was not, in fact, Michelle. So we went back up the gangway, getting more soaked by the minute.



two hours later



Michelle, who had been claiming to be on his way, finally admitted that he hadn't left yet. "It's raining!" he said. "I can't walk to my car in the rain!"

A cab driver who claimed to be a friend of Michelle's came up and told us he was Michelle, and that his friends would take us to Possotome. I had driven with this guy the weekend before, so I knew that even though he was not Michelle, he was an okay guy. We loaded our stuff into two rather decrepit cars with leaky windows and cracked windshields, and headed out.

We arrived about two and a half hours later. The whole time our driver was listening to what I can only describe as African PBR. It was very repetitive and very boring. They delivered us to a lovely hotel. It absolutely made up for our extremely late start. Until they said that this was not our hotel and they didn't have room for us. Eventually a fellow showed up to take us to where we were staying, which turned out to be a dirt lot with some huts. Slight dismay. Then the cab fellows told us that we weren't paying enough. They claimed that since we took two cars we should pay twice as much as the agreed upon price. All this took place to the odd sound of a child's hysterical laughter (it was one of the driver's cell phone rings). In the end, we didn't have to pay more, but we were unsure if the guys were coming back to get us the next day.

The huts weren't so bad on the inside. We were feeling good about life as we headed out to relax by the beach. At the beach there were a lot of chickens. One of them decided the beads dangling from Annemarie's swimsuit looked nice. A scream from Annemarie's side of the lounge chairs informed us that she had been pecked. Shortly thereafter, Dinante became the target for some bird poop. The menu's were delivered, and we discovered that the food looked really nasty, and we couldn't figure out where they cooked it. Some older Mercy Shippers came along and had a drink where we were. They said we should probably eat with them at their hotel, so after we bought some Youki's (BEST SODA EVER!) we headed over. Their hotel was a slice of paradise. We took pictures, relaxed, and ordered a tasty meal.

We then learned that the ladies didn't speak French. God bless Dorothea. She translated their extremely complicated dinner order without irritation on her part. As the night fell, we realized that it was way too dark to walk home alone. We hired a guy from the hotel to accompany us.

We arrived back at the huts and went in our separate rooms to change before meeting in the biggest room to eat cookies and peanut butter. Mid-changing session, the power went out. Dinante had her ipod and phone, so we started eating. The other girls joined us shortly thereafter, and Dorothea had a torch (flashlight). We laughed at how hot it was, and how much stuff had gone wrong. We wondered what would happen next.

A crack rang out just before the bed collapsed. Everyone started laughing. Except for me. I was busy trying to get my foot out from where it had been crushed under the weight of the bed and three twenty-something girls. It was about a minute before anyone realized that something was the matter with me. At this point I was crying and had freed myself, but I wasn't sure what to do next. Dorothea, who is a nurse, and Dinante, who is a med student, took charge of my situation. They had people get towels and wet them because we didn't have ice. They had me lift my foot and wrapped it in the towels. Dorothea happened to have a wrap, so she got that. The girls examined my foot. Then Dorothea suggested that we pray. It was really nice, amidst all that hurt and darkness and weirdness, to pray. Annemarie stayed by my head to pat my hair and give me hugs when I needed it. Everyone was really sweet.

Somewhere after that point the power came back on. We cheered (I think I smiled through tears), and they examined my foot in the light. It was bruising. They wrapped it nicely and gave me ibuprofen. We discussed returning to the ship that night, but ultimately it seemed like it would be too much effort. After making sure I was okay, everyone went to bed.

The next day the men who owned our hotel were horrified to discover what happened to me. They immediately went about arranging a massage for me, which Dorothea (God bless her) stopped. They did take time to poke my foot very hard for several minutes, which was very uncomfortable especially since I didn't know how to tell them to stop. They had their friend give me a ride down to the beach on his motorbike as I couldn't walk well.

I spent the day with Dorothea and Michelle relaxing on the beach. The other four girls went on a fishing expedition with the guy who enjoyed poking my injured foot. A different friend of our hotel owners gave me a ride back. We packed and ate lunch, all the while praying that our cab drivers would actually show up today. One of the drivers did. We found ourselves with no choice but to seat seven girls in a car that would comfortable seat four people besides the driver. There were two of us in the front seat, four in the back, and one in the trunk area. The driver played one tape pretty much the whole time. It was one song too. I'm pretty sure I didn't hear any breaks at all in the tape. Just when we thought it would drive us insane, it finally ended (but how could he tell?) and he put in something at the same extremely high volume, but not quite as annoying.

The ship has never looked more beautiful than it did when we pulled up to it. We were relieved and exhausted that our crazy adventure was over. I had my foot checked out, and the nurse said it was probably just a sprain. I spent some time with my roommates, and ate about half a bag of candied nuts. I went to bed feeling a little sick, but relieved to be done with the crazy part of the weekend.

Somewhere around three in the morning I got up and puked. I ended up throwing up about ten times. I still didn't feel good, so I switched most of my bedding to the bottom bunk as Katie was out of town, and slept next to a trash can. By the next morning, my illness had moved more southerly. I was sick all morning, and I slept a lot. Dinante, as one of my roommates, knew all about my intestinal issues, so it was fitting that she was around when I woke up from a nap with a giant sty under my right eye! I walked out to where she was talking in Dutch on the phone, pointed to my eye, and said, "Seriously? What the heck?" She was so taken aback that she started responding to me in Dutch. She took a second to reorient herself, and then said, "WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?"

The sty was taken care of through benedryl. The stomach issues are subsiding. I can walk well enough. But I'm pretty sure I'm not going to wonder what will happen next. I don't think I want to know!

*I will post pictures of this weekend when I'm able to get to a computer that will allow it.

I wanna rock and roll all night . . .

There are quite a few unforeseen aspects of living in a boat. When I mention them, you may think they should have been obvious to me. But I'm from a landlocked state, so I don't feel too bad about not knowing the intimate details of ship dwelling.

1) Unreliable plumbing: Sometimes the showers don't drain. I discovered this as I overflowed ours. It was DELIGHTFUL. Especially as it was my very first Sunday on the ship. I felt rather stupid about the whole thing at the time, but then it would not drain for anyone. Appropriate parties were called, and a GIANT hairball was removed from the drain. Weird how that happens in a cabin with 10 girls. Anyways, now the shower drains fine, but usually in several explosive sucking episodes, which is how the sinks drain as well.

The worst thing is that the toilets don't always flush. As you can imagine, sometimes this is more inconvenient than at other times. But it makes for some amusing stories, which are mostly about the panicky search for working toilets. Ahh memories.

2) Rock and roll: We're docked, but man, this ship can MOVE! Today at work I realized that some cupboard doors were sliding. Which delighted me is that I didn't really feel the rocking until I noticed that. It's a good day when you realize that you're not feeling everything the ship does. We are in a very busy port, so ships leave many times a day and night. Also, the wind sometimes blows us, and when it's really choppy, we rock a lot. Even though we can't always feel it, it affects how we walk down the hall, which is funny.

3) BUGS: We had a brief infestation of weevils that we quickly ended by freezing the products they were in or throwing them away. There are cockroaches, but I haven't seen one yet. Flies are a problem, but in the cafe we have an electric fly swatter which makes for some amusing attempts to avoid smacking one's coworkers in the face with an electrically charged tennis racket looking thing.

I know there are more, but I can't think of any off hand. I will probably post more when I think of them. This weekend is a ship holiday so most of us have a three day weekend. Exciting!

Where the streets have no name

Question: What can you carry on the back of a Zemidjan?

Answer: What have you got?




At least it's wicker furniture, right?



Where is the rest of this fridge?



She must have really strong thighs.

This weekend I went to Ouidah with a group of people. I got stuck in the van with the old people, which initially annoyed me, but ended up being fine because the other van crammed 11 people into a 7 person van. I was blissfully not squished. Also, I apparently missed out on an incident involving a cockroach and people jumping out the sunroof to avoid it, which is a bummer because it sounded hilarious, but I saw enough cockroaches in New Orleans to last me pretty much forever. On the way there we saw a man who had gotten hit by a car. There was a large group of people just staring at him. We don't know what happened to him, and it was really sad. I don't know how often this happens here but I'm surprised it I haven't seen it more. If you drive or cross the street here, you're basically taking your life into your hands. There are none of those pesky "traffic laws" that we hold so dear in the states. Basically, if your car/motorbike/zemidjan can make it, you go. Its not so bad to ride in a car. However, I'm not nearly aggressive to drive. I would probably just never get anywhere. Also, I would be very angry!

Ouidah is the port from which a large portion of the slaves left for where they were being shipped to. It's also a hub for a lot of voodoo. I knew all this going in, and didn't learn much new information. All our tours were in French, and a LOT gets lost in the translation. It was such a tragic thing. I just wish we could have understood better what people were saying.

Yesterday my bunkie Katie and I were going to go to church with a day worker, but we were about 25 minutes late and he was gone. So we went to a Pentecostal church, and it was really cool. It ended up being about three hours long, but they changed up the activities enough that it flew by. During the worship time, women (and some men and children) would dance. It was really interesting. In America, people would have considered these dances to be highly inappropriate and NEVER allow anything remotely like them in church. Here, they are an important part of the worship. We had fun trying to copy the dancing later.

I got to try some Liberian foofoo (I don't really know how that is spelled but that's how it sounds) yesterday. Some of the African workers were making some in the Crew Galley. It was the consistency of fatty glue and had no flavor, so they covered it in some kind of gravy. It was . . . weird. And I think it made me sick. So I'm blogging when I should be working because they wouldn't let me work today. I think it's mild food poisoning or something, but in case it's something contagious, they didn't want me to be working with food or people. I'll probably be fine tomorrow.

I've had a hard time feeling like I'm doing good here. I keep having to remind myself that the support roles on the ship enable the doctors and nurses to do what they do. Plus, if people don't get their Diet Coke and crisps, they get a little testy!

It's waiting there for you

"John's disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them, he sent them to the Lord to ask, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?"
When the men came to Jesus, they said, "John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, 'Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?' "
At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. 22So he replied to the messengers, 'Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.'"

Luke 7:18-23

I seek to cure what's deep inside

Highlights of working here so far:

1) Many many MANY accents. It's like a miniature UN, but not evil and bent on world domination.

2) All my roommates being awesome.

3) The smiles of the children on the street as they call me "Yovo!" That must be the first word they learn here, as many of the children who have called me that look to be about one.

4) The knowledge that if I go anywhere in the world, I will probably have someone to stay with.

5) The hilarious moments of trying to explain an English word to someone who is speaking English as a second language.

6) Being a part of something so much bigger than myself.

7) Serving those who serve others.

Sorry if the last two were sappy. They are still true though.

*Thanks again to PJ for the picture.

Here I am again, singing the same old tune . . .

Yesterday I went to the stilt village with my roommate Lisa. It is a village built entirely in water. People moved there to escape war in the 1700s, and it is going strong today. It was probably the most boring hour or so long boat ride to get there, and mostly we went to souvenir shops, but it was really cool! There are TONS of people there, much more than you would think would live on the river. They travel everywhere in boats. It's sort of like Venice, in Africa. Meaning it probably smelled worse and was far less classy, even though it is the same general idea. The art was heavily voodoo inspired, which I didn't like. Voodoo is rather obscene. I pointed out a disturbing carving to Lisa, and of course the store proprietor tried to get me to buy it. Fortunately, I don't have need for a wooden torso of a woman covered in snakes, so I was able to get away quickly. Lisa and I had a lot of fun taking crazy pictures with some of the statues. I hope to post these at some point, but the Internet is rather slow so I don't know when that will be.

Today we went to the artisan market. Basically it's a fancy name for a craft show (yay!). I bought some bracelets. We saw a large group of Muslims praying, which was really interesting. Unfortunately we are loud Americans, so I felt disrespectful, even though we tried really hard to keep our distance and not yell while they prayed. It was hard though because one of the guys we went with went off on his own and we were trying to find him because we were done shopping. On our way home, we bought some Fancocktails.

Fan produces are basically liquid in a bag that they freeze. Sort of ice cream, as most of the products are milk based, but the ones we got were fruit juice. Africans like eating out of a bag. It is a wonderful thing.

Last night there was an 80s dance party. I choose to watch Pride and Prejudice before going, but the party ended up being really fun. I don't know how these people found such amazing 80s attire in Africa, but they did, and it was great.

*Special thanks to Katie Herzig for the title and some guy named PJ for the picture.

If today was your last day . . .

This morning I was settling down to read My Utmost for His Highest when I realized the date. It is a little weird because to over half the people on this ship, the date means very little.

I thought it might be interesting to read about a day in my life. I thought this partly because of my incredibly conceited nature, and partly because if you're reading this blog, you probably care at least a little about me and what I'm doing (and I care for you too!!!). :)

Each day is different, so I will give you a general outline. Breakfast stops serving at 7:30, so I usually get up and eat around 7. Having seven other roommates (soon to be eight), affords me the opportunity to eat with at least someone. Most days, I return to my room to shower before I go to whatever meeting is that morning. Monday and Wednesday it is departmental devotions. Tuesday it is ship wide devotions. Friday there is a meeting to talk about programs that the ship is doing. Thursday there is nothing, which is awesome.

I report for work at 8:30. I have to say it's really nice that I live about thirty seconds from where I work. We spend the next hour getting ready to open. If I am on coffee, I will get out milk, restock milk and soy if it's needed, sweep around and straighten the chairs, wipe down the counters outside the cafe, and do anything else necessary. If I'm in the snack bar, I will restock beverages, restock candy and chips, charge the people who came through the night before, and open shop. Both the snack bar and the cafe open at 9:30 and close at 11. After they close, if I'm in the snack bar I count money, restock, and go to lunch. If I am making coffee I do dishes, clean, restock, and go to lunch. If I'm in the ship shop, I will write down what products we need, take a "trolley" (cart) in the freaky, unreliable elevator down two floors, wheel it through the hospital, and park it. Then I will go down another floor, get all that we need from the storage rooms, carry it all upstairs, load the trolley, wheel it back to the elevator, take it back up and restock the store. Once that is done, I will clean or label things or fold shirts until lunch. The shop is open every day from 12:30-2. After that, I count money, get it all situated, help the people in the shop or the cafe, and go.

The snack bar and cafe are open in the afternoons as well from 2:30-4. We usually get back to work around 1 to do anything extra that needs doing. There is plenty of extra, and it's usually hot and involves lots of stairs. That is why I don't jog in the mornings. I basically have the StairMaster as a job.

At night, there are many options of activities. I will do a quiet time, blog, go play football or Ultimate Frisbee, walk on the dock, watch movies, or whatever comes up. There is usually something interesting going on.

Well, hopefully my blog was something interesting going on for you all.

*A special thanks to the band Nickleback and their song "If Today Was Your Last Day" for the title of the blog.

He turned to me as if to say

I wasn't going to post anything today, but it's 09/09/09, and the fact that it doesn't matter for the first time here whether I put the day or the month first, I thought it worthy of a posting.

Today, like a real sailor, I swabbed the deck (me hearties!). Before you ask, it was not, in fact, the poop deck. However, it is the deck where I clean the eggs, which might merit a name change, but I covered the whys of that yesterday.

My roommate Katie and I went to play football (soccer) with a bunch of guys from the ship tonight. It was really fun, and there are few times where I have felt more out of place. For one, we were the only girls. For two, there were only four white people in the group of 12 or so. For three, we went to a somewhat sketchy area. This cute little boy who was about eight or so kept calling me "white person" in French (Julie, help me out. What do they say?). Then he would laugh and laugh! I would make faces at him and take off my sunglasses and he would laugh! We ended up playing a bunch of guys who were congregating at the field, which was really intimidating. I only touched the ball a couple of times, but I did well both times, so I felt happy about that. We ended up having to walk back to the ship as we apparently only arranged for a ride OUT to the field, and I got to walk with a deckhand named Greg from Liberia. He was a cool guy, and walking with him made me feel better about walking at night. Plus, I had a bunch of dirt in my eyes, so I was practically crying all the way home and had to wear my sunglasses most of the way. And Africa, well they just don't have street lights. But about halfway there I got my eye issues worked out and it ended up being okay. All the guys we played with wanted us to come out with them and play on Monday, but I don't know if I will.

Cheep cheep cheep cheep flap flap flap flap wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle clap clap clap clap

If you are wondering what I do in sales besides, of course, making delicious coffee beverages for the people, the answer, of course, is cleaning poop off eggs! Naturally. There is much stair climbing (woo hoo, exercise!) and stocking, some computer stuff, some going into restricted areas to unlock locked doors (intrigue) and of course, the poop thing. People don't want to buy dirty eggs, and farm fresh is how we get them. Apparently eggs last longer uncleaned, but you know we Americans and Europeans would just avoid them like the plague if they were dirty.

It's an experience!

*For the first time, my blog name is not a line from the song "Africa." It's the moves from the chicken dance. I think you know why.

The wild dogs cry out in the night

I have had a request to talk more about the people I've met here. So I will try. I have eight other roommates in a ten-berth cabin. Two are Dutch, one is German, one is Russian, one is Swiss (I think), and four of us are American, although one girl is going home today. My current bunk mate, Annemarie (the nice girl! Hi Annemarie if you're reading this!) is an OR nurse. Very cool. The other Dutch girl, Dinah (it's not her real name, but as we all butcher her real name, it's what she asked us to call her) is in medical school and is working in the dining room. The German girl, Sonya, is in medical school as well, and she works in housekeeping. I don't really know the Russian and the Swiss girl all that well, but the Russian is Irena and the Swiss girl is Priska and they work in the galley and the dining room, respectively. They are pretty funny. Lauren, the girl that is leaving, worked in housekeeping and is a student. Katie, who I will be bunking with after Lauren leaves, just graduated nursing school and is in hospitality. She might move to Denver when she goes back to America, and I fully intend to encourage this. Lisa is fixing to go to medical school in the States, and she sterilizes surgical equipment. They are all wonderful girls, and I feel lucky since I got the giant cabin and such awesome roommates. I will try to write more about these ladies in the future.

Last night I went for a walk with my roommate Lisa, and while she ran I got to watch ships come and go from the harbor. It was really cool! I felt like a kid! Of course, the kids who live on the ship just ignore such stuff, which is so interesting to me. Most children around the world would be stoked to see ships and tugboats and all that a harbor has to offer. But these kids have seen it all.

Tonight I had to take the safety training/HR introduction. It was . . . very fun? And by fun I mean my roommate Annemarie taught me the Dutch phrase "Dit is saai" which means "this is boring" and I made good use of it. So Annemarie made it fun. (Bedankt!)

Also, I need to mention, in case anyone thought different, but my blog represents my own personal observations, feelings, and experiences, and not those of Mercy Ships. So THERE!

Hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies

WTA. Welcome to Africa. It can be said when we see someone urinating on the street. When we can't move in traffic because the zemidjans (motorbike taxis, pronounced "zimmy johns") are in cutting in front of us. When we sit in church at the hospitality center and women we haven't met hand us their infants. WTA. It's similar to saying TIA (This is Africa), but more fun.

This morning I went to church at the hospitality center. It's a building where recovering patients can stay, or patients who aren't strong enough to receive surgery yet. We were immediately adopted by the braver of the children. There was a young girl who went around hugging everyone and holding our hands. She would laugh and tease us. It looked like she had some scar tissue on her neck that made movement difficult. There was a little boy who had a huge facial tumor on the right side of his head. It looked like someone had possibly put acid on that area, as it appeared burned. He liked to sit on laps and give us all high fives. There was an eight month old baby girl who looked and weighed about as much as a newborn. Her cleft lip/cleft pallet is so severe she cannot create suction, and therefore she cannot eat. She is at the center until she can gain enough weight for surgery.

Church was very different. A man asked me to be quiet, because we were in the presence of the Lord. I felt annoyed at him initially, because church hadn't started yet, but I tried to be respectful, and as I did so, I thought about how reverent he is. I don't treat the house of God with as much respect as I should. After all, it is holy ground. The service started off with a young man preaching in French. A woman enthusiastically, if not very intelligibly, translated for him. Next there was worship. That was the time to be loud! The man who had talked to me earlier tried to get me to be more demonstrative. They sang, clapped, shouted, and danced with abandon. I clapped, danced a little, and unsuccessfully tried to hold back tears. It was amazing to see the passion of these people as they worshiped God! Finally, a dignified older man gave a sermon in English with translations into French. It ended up not being very long, only about an hour, and after we played with the children more. I am looking forward to going to visit again.

*I put some pictures on Facebook. I will not be putting too many pictures on here, as this is an open blog. Facebook has privacy settings. If you don't have Facebook, email me at earllgirl@hotmail.com with your email address and I will try to send you the pictures.

I stopped an old man along the way

There is a lot of anticipation for our upcoming sail here on the ship. All the long term people who have sailed before simply glow as they talking about sailing. Partially it's because we have been here coming up on ten months. When your home is mobile, it ideally should be moving. Also, there are far fewer crew members during the sail, so everyone gets very close. Because of that, I'm looking forward to it too. Most of the friends I've made so far are leaving right before we set sail. This makes me a little sad. But the few that are staying are really cool, so I think it should be a wonderful time.

Yesterday I made a drink for a nurse who had spent all day assisting in a surgery. A local boy had his lower jaw removed over a year ago because he had cancer. However, they never put in anything to replace it. This kid had been walking around for a year with no lower jaw. Yesterday he got a new one. He will be able to eat properly, smile, walk down the street without shame, and so many other things that we all take for granted.

I went to play ultimate frisbee last night. The first field we went to got taken over by a group of rather pushy men right after we got there. We then drove to a different field. There was an accident or something, so we ended up getting stuck in traffic for a half hour or more. One of the Mercy Ship guys even got out and started directing traffic. We made use of our traffic time to study people. I got waved to a couple times by women with their left hands. Apparently this is very rude in this culture, but both of them were smiling and using their right hands to hold things. So either I basically got flipped off by smiling, happy women, or they were being friendly, using their "clean" hand to hold their bundle of stuff. Hard to say. I think I'm going to go with the latter. We eventually got to the field. It was basically a dirt lot. There were three cars worth of people so I didn't really get to play much, but I was more in it for the experience than the game. We got quite a crowd of people watching our game. A water bottle got stolen, so we ended up sticking all the rest of ours in the car. I was just glad it wasn't mine.

Today most people have off, so we're using the time to recreate. I'm going to a pool at a hotel. The rule at these pools is that men have to wear Speedos. This particular pool is owned by a French lady, which half explains it, but also I think they want to discourage men from coming in off the street and jumping in with their shorts on. So although my eyes will be assaulted, it is a good rule overall.

Theres nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do

I got to make coffee for people yesterday! I was so happy to be doing something I am good at. But MAN! It's very different from Starbucks.

See, Starbucks has extremely high standards (or is it analness?). Here, we have different standards. For instance, at Starbucks, we calibrate shots at least twice a day, but are supposed to do it every hour. This means we adjust how coarsely the shots are ground so that the shots take between 15-19 seconds to pull. Here, we just don't calibrate shots. Doing so takes a lot of beans, which we don't have ready access to. I can taste the difference in the coffee, but I don't think most people would. Second, at Starbucks we NEVER steam milk more than once. Also, we keep close eye on the temperature, and throw it away as soon as it goes under 150 degrees Fahrenheit. To save on milk, we have measuring lines on the sides of the steaming pitchers for each cup size. Here, we don't have official cups. So we can't measure milk for each drink. Plus, we can't just throw away milk, as we don't have milk deliveries every night. Milk comes in a box here. This boxed milk doesn't have to be stored in the fridge (ahhh!). Anyways, it's a big mental adjustment for me to not be super picky about stuff. But it's kind of nice. Very different.

Tonight I am hopefully going to get to go play ultimate frisbee. I am not the best player, mostly because I avoided it in college due to the overwhelming competitiveness of my male friends. This weekend I have off so I'm going to try to get off the ship and see some of this amazing country!

Last night we had ship wide devotions. It was really cool to be standing next to my Dutch roommates, singing English songs, lead by a woman with an accent I couldn't identify. The man who spoke was Scottish, and some of his forefathers were born in South Africa.

In the future I am going to adopt patients so I can visit them. I know that amazing things are happening on this ship, so I'm excited to get to see them. The other day there were 42 cataract surgeries performed by ONE surgeon. What a gift for these people. Imagine if you haven't been able to see for years, or maybe ever! Then you get a surgery at no cost to yourself, and you can see. A simple surgery that apparently doesn't take long. What a blessing!

I hear the drums echoing tonight . . .

In spite of the half Ambien I took, I still woke up at around 3 am. I slept fitfully after that. A side effect of all the lack of rest is that I have no idea if things that happened last night were real. I think I might have made noise as I lay in bed, like talked or moaned or something. I don't know though. I feel a little bad for the nice Dutch girl that has the bunk below me. I am a little embarrassed if I did anything, but I'm afraid to ask. (Courtney, you know I do all sorts of stuff in my sleep!) Besides, she is far to nice to tell me. It is now around noon local time, and I sure as heck want to take a nap. I gave in yesterday and took two. Part of the problem was that I didn't have to work so I was a little bored. But as I nodded off while reading I felt that a nap was necessary.

I got to skip new crew training this morning and go to work. I was a little sad to miss it, as it sounds boring so it would have been good to get over with, plus several of my roommates were going. However, it feels so nice to have a job, because that equals a place. Plus, I can do the training next month. I ran the snack bar this morning. It was pretty easy, and nice to meet people, although I will have to ask their names again tomorrow.

The keyboard that all the computers here uses have the @ symbol swapped with the ". Meaning control 2 gets you a quotation mark. It is really weird and hard to get used to.

I have met some fun people. I want to follow their blogs but two of them are in Dutch and one is in Korean, so I really can't at all. It's weird. There are a lot of Dutch people here. At least the language is close to German, so I can make out something of a meaning in the words.

I haven't had much of an appetite since I arrived. I'm guessing it is due to the ever-present nausea. Hopefully as I get used to the movement of the ship, I can start to eat more.

Well, I don't have much new to report. I just figured that I should blog when I get the chance, as who knows how busy I will get in the future. I was thinking that eventually I'm going to run out of "Africa" lyrics, especially if I keep getting to blog most days, so I was wondering if anyone has a suggestion for the next song I use.

P.S. Apparently I have to pay for any packages sent to me, as it's pretty expensive to ship stuff from Texas. So if you want to send me something, keep it small and light! Plus, my closet is TINY!

The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation

Well I made it! Traveling was actually a lot easier than I anticipated. Possibly the hardest part was saying goodbye to my parents. Having taught preschool, I know that it's best just to make the parents leave. The kid might be crying and carrying on, but once the parents go, they will be fine. This is a lot easier when you're dealing with four year olds whining than myself going on a six month journey. But once we did say goodbye, and I fought back tears while going through security, things were okay.

During my flight from Denver to Washington DC I had a nice chat with a man who worked at Nestle. Apparently they are coming out with a Vanilla Honey Coffeemate right about the time I get back, so that's cool and I fully intend to enjoy that upon my return.

During my flight to London, I sat next to a girl who never got up. Not once, in the six or so hours. I was a little impressed, as my knees would get all crampy so I had to walk a lot. I tried to sleep but some Scottish girls sitting (and at one point, standing with bottom in my face) next to me talked for a large portion of the evening so I didn't get much rest.

The London/Heathrow airport is what I imagine hell to be like. I have never had to walk down more hallways with seemingly no purpose multiple times. Whoever designed that airport was probably insane, just a jerk, or didn't have much of a concept of making use of space wisely. As I tried to check in for my flight, the beautiful French representative of Air France made me feel stupid, in that way only French people can. She was abrupt and rude, but sounded so classy doing it that I had to fight the urge to apologize for being a bumbling American who didn't know anything about anything. I felt a little resentful of Air France and the French in general until my flight, on which was the most adorable flight attendant. I wanted to be her friend, so she could teach me how to be adorable and French and wear ascots with pizazz.

I rode on a little van in the airport in Paris (another place designed to be the least comfortable in the world) with a man who is the most expensive footballer in England. He was evidently on his way home to Lome. If I was English, I probably would have cared more. As it was, it was still pretty cool.

I didn't anticipate how long the flight from Paris to Cotonou would be. I watched several movies, slept, ate some weird plane food (although offering croissants and hot chocolate is keeping it classy, Air France!) and wondered where the heck I was over Africa.

My first impression of Africa was hot, sweaty, and stinky. We all crammed off the plane, pushing and generally making things much more difficult than they needed to be. Customs wasn't really bad though, and I got through rather quickly all things considered. I had no problem finding the gal who was there to pick us up. She just so happened to be my supervisor, Cathy. I liked her right away. There were five of us on the flight, and we all looked exhausted and overwhelmed as we tried to take everything in on our way to the ship.

I have nine roommates, but we have two bathrooms and two windows, so that's pretty great. Everyone here is really friendly, so though I feel lonely and like a fish out of water (hey-o!) I don't think these feelings will last for long. Thanks for your prayers everyone!