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!