Routine

I can honestly say that I feel like life on the Mercy Ships kind of has a routine to me now. I laugh at myself even as I say this because, WHAT! I have a routine to my life on a ship, weird! My alarm goes off at 6:41am on most weekday mornings and I get up to be ready to get to breakfast by 7:30. Each morning, there are big sections of the serving line that are filled with dry cereals and a container with bread that you can toast and put jams on. Most days there is something fresh and hot that the galley has prepared for the crew. Mondays are rolls, donuts on Tuesday, pancake Wednesdays, muffins during break on Thursdays and if we are super lucky one day we might have cinnamon rolls.  School begins with a small staff meeting at 7:45 and the kids arrive for devotions at 8. A school day with the kids lasts from 8am until 3:20pm with a twenty-minute break at 10 (conveniently located at the time the Starbucks café is open!) and a one-hour lunch break at noon. Everyone on the ship has lunch at the same times and the lines get so long sometimes we are stacked up half-way through the whole dining room. When school ends at 3:20 the kids walk home to their cabins and a few days a week the teachers have meetings. If we don’t have meetings, normally I stay in the Academy area until dinner time- and I would like to say I am really productive… but of course most of that time is spend chatting with the other teachers!! The walls of the ship are so thin that Miss Kris (next door) and I have developed a “knocking/banging-on-the-wall” code system when we need things. After school it normally means “lets sit around with Miss Angie and anyone else that walks by.” I think it is spectacular!

Recently I have been loving to sit outside in the evenings. I know it sounds crazy, but it actually has to be a conscious decision to make it outside or else it is like days before you are in natural light. On Deck 8, the top deck, there are wooden chairs that if you pull to the edge of the ship you can prop your feet on the railings and it is a cozy spot to sit and read. Deck 7 has small areas on each side with chairs and tables that views either the ocean or Freetown. If you are on the side that faces town, you overlook the massive storage of containers and can see the slums that border the shoreline. There is always substantial amounts of smoke that are rising from the slums and I don’t understand what it is coming from. Each night there is a sunset and from the ship we have the best view! I love watching them because a small piece of me feels like I am in Florida. Don’t laugh when I tell you that the breeze from the water always makes me chilly and even when I am outside I wear a sweater because I get cold if I don’t- even though we are in Africa… and it might be 90 degrees.

This past weekend Kayleigh and I made cookies with a recipe from a friend. The recipe was missing an ingredient we knew belonged in it, so we just guessed on the amount… and that concluded, of course not so well, in a dough so thick that the Kitchen-Aid mixer could barely handle it (now that really says something huh!). We then were forced to modify the dough, which resulted in a baked good with a consistency that we couldn’t really identify as a cookie or brownie or cake. Even though they were weird… it hasn’t stopped us from eating nearly 100 each throughout the past 3 days and I feel gross about it. The cookie-eating has also been coupled with my complete joy of eating Red Vines thanks to Tori who special ordered them for me. As far as snacks are concerned… this week I have gone completely overboard (which I of course don’t mean literally… being on the ship and all! haha!). 

This week is the last week of September… meaning the Christmas countdown is at 82 days. Things I am most exited about (not counting people… DUH): sitting on a cozy couch, pedicures, orange juice, longer than 2-minute showers, walking around barefoot, slurpees, new movies, and fresh flowers! This is only the beginning of the list of course…

My fav!! Complete with the classic West Africa Madonna sticker… which may be on every poda-poda in the city. Rebecca I miss you each time I eat one of these- AND I wish you were here sharing the calories with me!! 🙂

Sunset from the ship

All of the cookies- complete with the best frosting EVER (purely sugar of course… another thing that my international friends don’t understand why we North Americans eat) and LOTS of sprinkle choices. 🙂

We had a Gateway reunion where we decorated cookies! We took over an entire countertop in the crew galley with all of our cookies!

Christmas in September

So this week was like Christmas on the ship for us Gateway participants! The reason being… is the container arrived! There are 2 different ways that we can receive items once we are on the ship. One is by snail mail, which actually isn’t so snail like funny enough. Out of the two mail choices it is the faster! It arrives about 8 days from the time it gets to the International Operations Center in Texas, which is where all mail is sent, compiled together in a box to help it get through customs, and shipped to the Africa Mercy.The problem with mail that way is that it is super expensive if you are getting anything other than a letter. Packages shipped through the mail are paid for by crew members by ounce (which sometimes it is worth paying for the speed… I maybe would be frozen right now if Mom and Dad hadn’t sent the sweatpants… it was worth the charge!). Shipping option number two is goods by sea on the container. Containers are shipped from the Texas office and the Holland office about once a month and it takes anywhere from 8-12 weeks to get to the ship (I KNOW- craziness!). So needless to say that when the container arrives small dance parties are had all over the ship if your name is on the list of people receiving boxes (we like to call them presents!). Tuesday our container arrived and directly after school I ran up to deck 8 and carried my two big boxes downstairs to unload. After I unpacked everything I was laughing at myself at how excited I was because everything was stuff I had had at home and just repacked because my suitcases were too heavy… not really anything new was in them and so I am not sure presents is such a fitting word. The most exciting thing packed inside was my baskets, things can now come out of ziploc bags and be sorted (praise the LORD!), a set of hangers that all match and are the same size (another thing you totally take for granted at home), and the clothes that I packed in there! I was surprised at how many extra clothes I put in the box! It included 4 long sleeve items- I am so pleased about that- those actually maybe felt a little bit like new clothes… so maybe we could say presents for those.

CABIN UPDATE:
Okay so here is the situation with the 4-berth cabin. It is the best thing EVER! Cabin 4336 is my new home and I am loving it. It is at least 12 times quieter than my other cabin (remember the shared wall with the men’s locker room… seriously, they were loud. Sometimes my Saturday mornings began with their voices singing at 6:45am- that was not my favorite thing. Those voices have seized since my big move). I have slept all the way through the night every day since I moved in, which I actually didn’t know was possible on ship. There is also a window in the cabin so I am delighted when I come in and can tell that there is an outside world and can figure out an approximate time of day. There are a lot of other great things about it including that Tori ismy next door neighbor. It is so fun because we pop into each others’ rooms on a regular basis to tell each other ridiculous things like “I am painting my nails” or “I thought I should let you know I am taking a nap.” I know you think we couldn’t possibly have been that far away before, which would be a true story… but nothing can beat neighbors. We were separated by an entire deck before! Also my new roommates are great! Kayleigh, my bunkmate, is the kindergarten and first grade teacher in the Academy and we have stayed up late at night chatting every night since we have been together. I kinda feel like I am in college again because half of our conversations end up being us just laughing about everything and never sleeping- which is total problem when the alarm rings in the morning. At least we work in the same place and can glare at each other out of pure exhaustion and the other person totally understands. Needless to say that I feel like the Lord has really blessed me in my new living arrangements and it feels more like a little home in there.

Try not to judge me if I tell you I have only been off the ship two times in the past two weeks. AND both times were to go out to dinner (does that say something about me?). Last weekend was me spending lots of time sleeping and reading. An occasional movie was watched… and maybe even a little baking… and coloring. It was practically the best! Who needs to go hiking when you could stay on ship and sleep until noon on Saturday AND Sunday?! Maybe I will try to do something a little more “adventurous” this weekend… ha, but I don’t know! 

Delivery from the container (aka Christmas!)

My new home! Don’t judge the lack of decorations… it is coming, slowly but surely.

This is the small living area at the back of the cabin with a window!! There are two chairs and a small sitting area to the side of me. We live high-class because there is also a small fridge, microwave, and coffee maker!

My big closet- and baskets 🙂

Kayleigh and me at the a fire drill pre-roommate life!

If I had to make a list of things I wish I had known this is what it would be…

It might be a little premature on my Mercy Ships journey to be making this list… I will add to it later when I come to this reflection point again… but for now here are just a few things…

• just because I am in Africa does not mean that I am going to be sweating all of the time. The ship is FREEZING for the most part (according to me… so this may be skewed) and my parents are getting ready to ship me my second order of sweatpants. I carry socks in my bag so whenever I am just sitting somewhere my toes can be warm. 
•  there is a point where fresh vegetables are missed. I thought that since the ship came stocked with a snack bar this would be sufficient… but I really miss having a variety of vegetable choices. For my whole life broccoli has been my favorite, but we have that nearly everyday here and I might soon be cured of that. I neverthought there would be a day where I could say that I would choose fresh green beans over chocolate… but the day has come and it is today. If only I had a choice.
• it is possible to survive and adjust to not having wireless internet everywhere. I actually thought that I would die without wifi everywhere on the ship (ok, this might be a little dramatic but seriously… what if only certain rooms in your house had internet?) but I am used to it… even if it took 5 weeks. AND I can confidently say that when I think about there being fast wifi everywhere when I go home… I kinda can’t imagine it and think it is a little bit weird. 
• all nations do not eat rice krispies treats. Isn’t this horrible?? There are some of my Gateway friends, who I learned just this week (how it was concealed for this long I have NO IDEA), had never experienced a rice krispies treat and didn’t even know what it was. Someone’s job should be to expose the globe to them… it would make the world a happier place I am pretty sure.
• closets are a luxury. Do you remember the picture of my six-berth cabin? Enough said. I am just saying that you should all go look in your closet and feel blessed that you have one. 
• it is okay that sometimes I just want to be by myself. I have lived with roommates since college and I really value the fun that comes with having lots of roommates and friends BUT having time by yourself is essential and being on the ship where this is an actual challenge has for sure made me realize this in a new way.
• there is always a part of me that wants to be at home.  I have to say I totally hate this about myself- and I knew it would be really hard for me to be far away sometimes. But I think before I came I thought because it would be such a great experience here it would make me not miss home… but it isn’t true and I wish I had known that. I sometimes feel like I am living a split life because even on my best days when I absolutely love being here, I still miss home, and it isn’t  that I don’t want to be here. I think that the Lord is really trying to teach me that it is okay that I feel like that- but sometimes I feel like a really weak person because of it.
• missions is hard. super hard. Maybe I knew this… I am not quite sure. The needs in Sierra Leone are so big and every time I look out past the end of the our ship into town I get an overwhelming sense of  smallness (is that a word?). I am so glad that we serve a God who is big… but I am really challenged sometimes because I just think about how big He really must be to be working here and in all of the other parts of the world. 

I am ending this weekend by spending my first night in my new 4-berth cabin. I piled all of my things into 4 laundry baskets (plus a few loose ends) and unloaded them into my double closet- things fit much better and I am so happy about it! Tomorrow starts our fifth week of school and I can hardly believe it. One of the other teachers had her Facebook status yesterday that it “kinda feels like life is moving in hyper-speed yet also in slow motion…” This is pretty much just what it feels like. 

Wednesday night was Open House for the crew. It was fun because normally the Academy is off-limits to everyone, so it was a chance to show what fun we have 🙂

Saturday morning was spent baking! And by that I mean that Jillian baked and I sat there and watched. It was a nice lazy morning… sometimes you just need those.