Wanna get dirrty

This last weekend we Mercy Shippers had the opportunity to go to Loro Park for a discounted park. Loro park is like Sea World but on a smaller scale and with more land creatures. It was a lovely time, and my favorite show was the Sea Lions.


This is my favorite sea lion. It clapped a lot and seemed a little sneaky.


While we are in port, the engineering department has given the crew the opportunity to volunteer to help them. This is because other departments, like the hospital, are not doing much, while the engineering and deck department has more work than staff. We Sales staffers were signed up, but I had to miss one of my days, so Kendall gave me one of her days, which was yesterday (thanks Kendall! I love you!)


Me and Laura, who is typically a nurse. We are looking all hot.

In the morning, I got to help clean the tops of tanks. They were all crusted over with oil and rust, so I scraped them with my friend Johan. It was not too hard, but we did get dirty.


Our righteous acts. Isaiah 64:6


In the afternoon, I had the opportunity to help clean a fuel tank. It was really messy, but a very cool experience.


The entrance


The inside. Notice all the fumes.



The ladder in



The ventilation fan


Me working. Do you see the smear on my forehead? The guy bending over is Abraham.

Time after time

I'm so sorry that I've been MIA for a while. Tenerife is so beautiful and fun, and I've been trying to see and experience much of it while I'm here. Plus, having lost so much crew has made those of us who were here for the sail and before it much closer, so it has been wonderful to spend time with people.


I figure the easiest way to do this is to give the highlights of the past few weeks. I've done so much, mostly because it's so easy to go out here. In Africa it was so exhausting to make an expedition out of the ship. Even just walking in town was an ordeal of avoiding traffic, pushy sales people, and the stares of locals. The heat was intense, and the smell could be less than bearable. Tenerife is cool, clean, and nice. It's so different, and I am fully enjoying the time here, although I strangely miss Benin.





I have taken a couple of nice bus trips with friends to places in Tenerife. The public transportation is really good here and reasonably priced. This expedition was with my friends Aimee, Kendall, and Chelsea, (pictured above) and we got off the bus in a random town. It was fun to explore, and quite pretty as you can see from the picture below:





However, we had to walk a lot:





New Year's was a lot of fun, as my last post talked about. Here are some pictures. First, me with my friend Danae, who I am cabin sitting with:





Here are my friends celebrating with our lovely party favors:


They are, from left to right: Carmen, Bethany, Rachael, Lyndsay, Chelsea, and Kendall.


Chelsea's family came to see her and took us out for dinner. They were great, and we all had so much fun. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures, but if you want to see some, her blog is Leander's Meander, which has a link on the side of my blog.

We discovered a layered coffee that has truly captured my heart. It's called a barraquito, and it's a speciality of the Canary Islands. It has sweetened condensed milk, espresso, and milk froth. It's great, and quite attractive (I know, I know. It's the coffee equivalent of me):




We have also tried some Spanish food, such as Jamon Serrano, which is a kind of Spanish dry cured ham. It was very tasty, but the texture was odd, like raw bacon. Anyways, it was a good experience, and I hope that my brother-in-law Matt is proud of me! Matt, I did it for you!





We are docked next to many cruise ships. It is sad to see how boxy and small our ship looks compared to the sleek, pretty ships. However, it makes me proud, because our ship provides us with a place and means to help people. Here I am next to the aft of one of the biggest cruise ships I've seen so far:



Three King's Day is a HUGE deal here. It is when they give each other presents. There is a parade through town, which we went to, but didn't see much of because we decided to stand in what turned out to be a really bad location. However, Kendall and I ate the most amazing chocolate-covered, cream-filled churros:




Here is one of the herds of goats that got to be in the parade:





Kendall's sister Alyssa is visiting for a week. Yesterday the three of us attempted to hike Mount Teide, which is the highest elevation in Spain. While we didn't make it (we started too far away), we still hiked about 20 kilometers total during the day, which isn't too shabby. Plus, the views were phenomenal. We started off with cafe con leche, which is always amazing.




Mount Teide, from our starting point.


The landscape sort of looked like Mars in places:



There was a bank of clouds that was so amazing. I loved it and I loved being above it:



One of many "accretion eggs."


After the fact, with Teide in the background:

Me, Kendall, and Alyssa

My beautiful and amazing sister Emily has campaigned family and friends to send me cards. I have received many cards (I haven't counted, but it was a LOT), and then some gifts from friends. Thanks to everyone who encouraged me! It's been so nice!

Toothpaste for dinner shirt! Thanks Courtney, Cori, and whoever all contributed to it!

Socks from my old bunkmate Katie!

Cards cards cards! Thanks so much everyone! (There are a TON here but I had to overlap them so they would actually fit in the picture.):

Well, that sort of sums up my past few weeks during the non-work hours! It's been wonderful so far.

Let's hope it's a good one . . .

Happy Happy New Year! I have lived through many celebrations, some better than others, but none more exciting than last night!

We got all dressed up and headed into town around 9:30 pm. Nothing was open, because the party doesn't start until later. So we talked to fellow Mercy Shippers, took pictures (which I will post later), and sat at a cafe. Eventually we followed music to a HUGE outdoor concert. There were party bags being given out. They had a party hat (the pointy kind), a mask, noise makers, streamers, balloons, and a lea. We put on our stuff and joined the dancing throng.

Soon enough it was the countdown. The tradition is to eat a grape a second for the last 12 seconds of the year. Unfortunately, we forgot grapes, and I was a little jealous of the people participating in this interesting tradition. We all yelled and blew our noisemakers and hugged 2010 in. Then we got to watch the most amazing fireworks show I have ever seen. (Emily, you would have LOVED it!) After that, the party really got started.

We danced in a group towards the stage area. At one point, I put my purse on the ground in the middle of our group because it was annoying. Shortly thereafter, Chelsea stuck her hoodie on my purse. As more Mercy Shippers arrived and joined our group, more stuff was added to the pile until it was a huge traffic hazard that we were all dancing around. I did some Benin dancing (it's NEVER a bad time to Benin dance), I "caught" Chelsea (like I was fishing), she and I threw dice, Ram did crazy yet totally awesome dancing, people started dances that everyone else started doing, including some of the band members, Bowie danced like an Irish fellow (he's from Norway), I salsa danced (sans partner), and everyone had a wonderful time.

Around 2 am we decided to head back. It is about a 15 minute walk from where we were to the dock, at which point I realized that they were checking badges to get on to the dock and I had been carrying the badge of one of my roommates who was still dancing. After a moment of indecision, I headed back to search for her with my friend Chris.

Chris and I returned and searched for about 45 minutes before we talked to someone who said that she left. We headed back to the dock, and talked to the guard who said he had let her pass. I was greatly relieved. She was sitting with some people a ways down the dock and waiting for me. We got back and went to bed.

It was so much fun and such a nice way to celebrate the new year! Happy 2010 everyone!