…what? I work on a hospital ship?

So I have had to go to the hospital (which occupies deck 3 of the ship) two times since I have been here… both times were because they needed a blood sample (the crew are the only donors for the patients needing surgery) and I walked as quickly as I could directly to the lab and then scurried myself back upstairs. I know it seems crazy… since I am a part of an organization whose purpose is to provide surgeries and help people with major medical issues… but something about the hospital just totally freaks me out. There are opportunities all week which give crew that have jobs onboard that aren’t associated with the hospital (hmm… example: teachers) time to visit with patients and still, I have never spent any time in the wards. In my heart I know that some people just aren’t cut out for the medical profession and so really I am only telling this story as a celebration of how the Lord helped me take one more step in this journey (and how He sent people to me with LOTS of encouragement… I am so happy that we have a God of details!). BUT bottom line is I went to the hospital!! I played with a few patients… and it wasn’t so bad… I didn’t even cry (which I consider a major success!). My roommate Sarah works in the hospital so she gathered a few of her favorite little patients and we sat in the hallway together so I wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the busyness of the wards. The hospital is organized on both sides of the ship on deck three. On one side are the operating theaters and hospital offices and the other side contains four wards for the patients. Each ward is a big open room with about 16 beds for the patients and then a mattress under hospital bed for a caretaker to have somewhere to stay. There are lots of nurses as well as day workers (from Sierra Leone) that are running all around and doing all sorts of things. Anyways, I feel like it was  a big step… since I am in the comforts and familiarity of being in a school, I like it up here on deck 6 and sometimes when people talk about the hospital, I stop and think… what, I work on a hospital ship? weird.

On another note… the hospitality department on the Africa Mercy has been cleaning carpets on the ship. I think that this is so great because what is better than to know your living space has clean carpet! A notice was placed on our door on Sunday night to inform us that our chosen day was yesterday and that there could be nothing on the floor. Now- at first this seems like it would no big deal- I mean HOW much stuff can even be on the floor anyways because our living space is the SMALLEST. I am here to inform you that it was quite the production the night before to move everything off the floor and it involved stacking things in the hallway and filling the bathroom pretty much from floor to ceiling with… stuff. It also involved movement of a refrigerator from the back little cubby of our room to the front (where the bathroom is) in a hallway that is pretty much the precise width of the appliance- leaving holding it on the sides with a HUGE potential of squished fingers. It was quite the experience. The cleaning has been completed and each item has been returned to its original location successfully and without injury.

So this is where our excess stuff had to be stored. I was walking down the hallway at one point during the day and one of our friends was caught trying to steal it all!!!

The shower is behind/under the fridge, luggage, shoe rack etc. The bathroom was too crammed to even get a pic!

Tori and I walking to the waterfalls last weekend!

Yes… these are my feet on a rickety, bamboo bridge… what do you think of that?

The end result of the falls… At the bottom there are these huge rocks that you can sit on. It was super nice!

46 things to look forward to

In the spirit of being elementary school teachers and having a specific day to look forward to… paper chains are in order for the countdown to Christmas!! Kayleigh and I have been hard at work crafting a chain, one link per day until Christmas complete with one exciting thing to look forward to about home per day. Today marks 46 days until our flight… and thus, 46 things to celebrate!! In an effort to broaden our scope of things to look forward to we are not including friends and family because DUH, we obviously CANNOT wait to be with you all!! PS these are in no particular order!

 

• Ice-skating or building sand castles (some thing must be different merely because we are from different climates!)
  
• Going to the movies
  
• Laying on a couch
  
• Using a normal sized spoon
  
• The cereal aisle at the grocery store
  
• Taking a regular-length shower
  
• Walking around barefoot
  
• Being allowed to wear shorts
  
• And spaghetti straps
  
• American electrical outlets
  
• Driving! (with traffic rules that apply)
  
• New music
• New clothes
  
• Trash cans in public places
  
• Flushing toilets anywhere that you could possibly want to go
  
• Dunkin’ donuts
  
• Chick-Fil-A
  
• Normal temperatures
  
• Regular sized beds that don’t fold up into the wall
  
• New movies
• Windows that open
  
• Not having to wear an ID badge
  
• Fast wifi (we don’t even remember what this is like)
  
• Cell phones!! (We screamed! We want to text each other…. Is that weird?)
  
• Being surrounded by people that like Americans
  
• Measuring cups that are not in grams
  
• Going for a super long walk (aka not 20 times back and forth on the dock)
  
• Sitting around the kitchen table
  
• Weeks without multiple mandatory meetings
  
• Not being forced to used hand sanitizer ever ten steps that we take
  
• Fresh vegetables and fruit
  
• Fire-drill free Thursdays
  
• Sled riding or going to a park
  
• Cold milk
  
• “homey” dishware (it isn’t as weird as it sounds… you just don’t know because you all have your own dishes you use daily!)
  
• Having a living space that you are unable to touch both walls
  
• Listening to the radio
  
• Fire in a fireplace
• Watching televised sports events (not including cricket or rugby)
  
• Target 🙂
  
• Being able to enjoy Pirates of the Caribbean movies without feeling like it might jinx the place where you live
  
• Being able to have alone time
  
• No laundry wars
• Candles
  
• Charmin toilet paper
  
• Fresh flowers
• No time delay when on the phone or time difference between us and our loved ones

  

  Hard at work… this picture was NOT staged…

  
  

  

  A view of a GREAT beach in Sierra Leone… we are going here with the elementary school for a field trip on Friday!

  
  

  

  Although this picture would lead you to think that I have a white tank-top on, not to worry… it is my tan line from the worst sunburn of my life.

  
  

  

  This was the day Princess Anne came to visit the ship!! Miss Angie, Miss Kayleigh, Miss Kris, and I were curtsying in honor of her! Such an exciting day on the ship!

  
  
  
  

 

A Few Pics

This is what my students make when we have time to work on the whiteboards! Our class does love each other… we just still need to work on spelling a bit 🙂

Anna and Megan love to make me cards all the time… this is the one I got this week. How cute is it?! I think I might have to keep it for my whole life…

Normal view outside of the window at school- aka window washing day. FYI it is creepier when the day workers are at eye level and looking into the classroom.

Please note the location of this hand-sanitizer dispenser. It is RIGHT in front of the door handle and I can barely get my key in the door… and when it dispenses and the kids move their hands (always!) it gets all over the floor, where then they step in it (which is a safety hazard!). Out of ALL the places for it to be put I just still can’t handle that that is where it was placed… it is removed now, not to worry!

Patchwork sail that passed by my classroom this week. It was so neat looking!

Two of my roomies (Sarah and Kayleigh) eating breakfast in our “living room.” Love them!

TIA

TIA is an acronym that gets a lot of use here on the ship. This has affected my immediate thought process greatly because I used to think of Tampa International Airport… which, clearly, nobody is EVER talking about here. TIA is commonly used as a shortened and more convenient version of “this is Africa.” I think the best way to describe how this acronym is used would be to give a few recently/consistently occurring scenarios where the only appropriate response is… TIA.

• The water on the ship has been turned off for an unidentified about of time. 
• When the water is turned back on… it is coming out with a serious brownish tint. 
• The meal at dinner is rice with some sketchy, unnamed sauce. 
• It smells weird. Everywhere.
• There is a HUGE truck stopped in the middle of the road with no plans of moving.
• While walking down the street every African child wants to touch everyone’s’ hand. 
• Everything must be negotiated… even if it only costs 500 leones. (=12 American cents)
• Look! There is a goat tied up on the side of this super busy street. 
• Don’t fall in the open sewer/trash river/outdoor bathroom/home for creatures/ only covered by unattached, non-fitting, cement blocks. 
• There is a fire in the poda-poda and it is causing 18 people (not an exaggeration) to frantically try to climb out.
• Watch out for the rats as you are trying to walk on the dock!(speaking of rats.. on a walk today I totally witnesses a small rat clothesline itself in caution tape. Kayleigh and I were hysterically laughing/way grossed out about it.)

The ship is full of all kinds of unique noises. I don’t really know how to describe it… but people who have been here for a long time are not really phased by any noise at all unless it is a ship alarm or announcement. The evac system (which is the plumbing system onboard) in particular has a complete set of sounds that strictly belongs to it. In my cabin in particular, the bathroom has the weirdest noises coming from it pretty much always!! I keep waiting for the time that Kayleigh and I will get used to it and not make a face at each other when it is sounding so ridiculous- but that day has yet to come and we have discussions about it pretty much every night. The two of us have a nickname system where we like to name things on the ship that we talk about frequently (I have NO idea why we started to do this… but it is super fun and it is like our own little language!) and we then always refer to it by the nickname. The toilet has gotten the name Maximus (pretty clever- based upon the scientific muscle name!! We didn’t even know that at first… it was pure subconscious geniousness!) At nighttime when it is sounding crazy we tell Maximus to calm down and be quiet.

Two weeks ago was the end of the first quarter at school and was the first time doing report cards and parent conferences with the Academy. It was a success! The end of the quarter was followed by a Friday ship holiday and Monday teacher work day. A small group of Gateway friends spent the night at a hotel off ship and on the beach. It was a really nice weekend to catch up on sleep! We each got our own queen sized bed, which is like royalty quality since our bunks on the ship are super narrow. I slept diagonal just because I could and it was glorious! We ate dinner out at a restaurant that had a patio right on the beach and we spent our time there just catching up about life on the ship. It was so nice because we just kinda sat at the outside for a long while after we finished eating. This is something I have loved about going out with my European friends because they always embrace the “dining experience” and spend a big portion of evenings out enjoying time in company with one another. This is so different because us North Americans typically leave right after a meal is over. I am never opposed to just sitting around in fellowship for a little extra time! Overall, I have to say, most days life is good here.

**Pictures are refusing to upload… so this weekend I will try again! Who knows what is going on… I guess I am living on a ship, in Africa… slow internet should be expected, right?

Spirit Days Are My Fave

Okay so one of my favorite things about my profession is that some things are acceptable just because I am an elementary school teacher. It is like a trump card to things that people would typically think were maybe… ridiculous. Dressing up with thematic bows in your hair for holidays, using stickers for pretty much anything that you can, coloring for fun on the weekends, watching disney movies consistently by choice… are all things that come with judgement… until you say, “But I am an elementary school teacher,” to which the response inevitably is “Ohhhh, I would have guessed that.” (I am not sure if this is a good or bad thing!) Another one of these activities would be what we like to call Spirit Day in the Academy. We have a school-wide spirit day about every two months where the school is given a theme to dress up to. This past week was 80’s day and it was SUCH a fun time. The days of preparation were stress filled (I mean… of COURSE- who knows how to find costume things on a SHIP) but followed by a completely fun time when all of the staff (who I think enjoyed it more than the students) was decked out in 80’s gear. Please note the picture below. 

There are not very many historical sites near Freetown to visit. I think that it is because the government is consumed with so many other problems that preserving landmarks is not high on the priority list. There is a small island about an hour and a half boat ride from the port called Bunce Island which is, I think, the only recognized landmark near the city. The island was used as the base of the Sierra Leone slave trade and the remains of the English-run fort are still on the premises. Our group of 15 got a very unofficial tour (given by the driver of the African boat/canoe that we took to get there) where we viewed what is left of the fort and holding areas for the slaves and the small cemetery. It was a really eerie experience since the whole island is deserted now (duh! who would want to spend time there??). We traveled to and from the island by an African boat/canoe (I feel forced to call it this because I am not really sure what it was!) which we loaded onto right by the port. We walked from the ship outside the gates and climbed down a small slope of stones to the shore in a small sandy space between the port wall and the slums. The area was completely and indescribably covered in trash of every kind. Against the port wall is an area (I would like to call it a river) where all of the sewage, from what seems like the entire city, dumps into the river. It flows out at such a rapid speed, I am not ever sure that you could walk through it because it has its own current. You can imagine the disgusting things (I will spare you the description) that pours out into the water. I think that the saddest thing about it, in addition to the massive amounts of trash, is that people live right by this water and children were playing all around it. I just don’t think that I can ever get used to seeing things like this… even if I lived my whole life here. I have to get pics of this little trip from a friend (this little boat you all NEED to see) so they will have to come later… 

Kayleigh and me on spirit day at school 🙂

I know our God is a God of details… and partially because I think about wishing I had orange juice and it is delivered to the ship shop the next day!!!

It was the best day ever when I looked to see where the orange juice was from… and it was from Florida! A bit of me felt like I was at home!

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.

Ship Holiday

Last week officially marked one month of being on the ship! It is so weird because in some ways I can’t believe it has flown by and I have been here a month… but then in other ways I know my journey still has a lot of time left. I have been thinking a lot about this because some days I miss home so much my stomach hurts… how is it that an experience can be so good and so hard at the same time? I know that everyone at home thinks that it is so different here and it must be so bizarre to be in Africa… but it is funny how even in a completely new environment people need the same things. Even though everyone on board knows that Mercy Ships is just a season of life… we all still need stability and consistency. This manifests itself in habits of sitting in the same place in the dining room and creating routines… just like I would at home. So really… the elements of life on the Africa Mercy are really different, but the need for authentic conversations and stability day-to-day are still there. 

Because Mercy Ships has such an international population we don’t celebrate any national holidays as a ship. Instead every 6 weeks we get a Friday off, known as a “ship holiday,” which is a generic celebration… and no work! This weekend we had Friday off, which for me was spent lying around on the beach- and it was absolutely glorious! It is rainy season in Sierra Leone, meaning that it rains nearly everyday and sometimes for the whole day- also meaning it was a complete blessing from the Lord that it was sunny and blue skies all day on Friday. It made me feel like I was at home… and double so when I came back to the ship and was totally burned! 

Saturday and Sunday held an overnight trip! I know, I know… shocking- I shocked myself too. I think it might have been partially due to LOTS of encouragement from others (thank you Brian), but I must say that I had a really fun time! Just outside of Freetown there is a chimpanzee sanctuary located in the rainforest with a few waterfalls and dams within hiking distance. The premises also have bungalows that you can rent out for the night that are tucked into the rainforest and are lit with candles. They have small gas stove tops and proper bathrooms (one of my requirements for attending the trip… based on field service experiences) and hammocks! It rained on and off all day on Saturday which was kind of fun as we hiked to see a few waterfalls. It is amazing how desolate areas are so quiet because you are removed from the busyness of people… but nature is so loud! I was amazed at how noisy the rushing water of the waterfall and river was. Four of us from the hiking group stayed the night in a house at the chimpanzee sanctuary and spent the night chatting about all sorts of things and eating lots of snacks, including marshmallows roasted over candles. The rainforest lived up to its name on Sunday when it poured (and I mean POURED rain) all day. This was super fun when we had to make the one mile trek down a giant hill carrying all of our overnight gear (as you can imagine, I was incapable of packing lightly) to meet our taxi.  I will be paying the price of all of my things being wet as that laundry monopolizes my one-load-a-week maximum for the next two weeks. 

Best news EVER (maybe my entire life here on the ship) is that I am getting an UPGRADE to a 4-berth cabin!!! I can hardly wait to appreciate a little more space… and an entire closet (this is a true answer to prayers!!). I will be sure to post pictures so you can rejoice in my new room with me! 

Reunion of IOC roomies… it was just like old time!

Behind us in this picture was a waterfall! a.m.a.z.i.n.g.

I am a hiker!! I think I could use this picture to convince someone I hike on a regular basis… maybe?

The group that stayed overnight in the rainforest… in a house (with plumbing AND a kitchen… I promise we were still in Africa)

Okay… I don’t even really like animals and I have to say that these chimps were SO cute… I was completely shocked at how their hands were so “people” like.

The house we stayed in! On the other side there was a balcony with a hammock 🙂

A shot of the inside of the house. The second floor had 2 bedrooms and a balcony and behind the stairs was a kitchen and a nice bathroom.

Street View

The streets of the market come with a busyness that is almost indescribable.  The civil war in Sierra Leone caused a massive influx of people to Freetown and the city now has a population of nearly 2 million. That there are people everywhere is a complete understatement. The streets are pretty narrow; there is room for 2 lanes of traffic- but barely. If cars are trying to drive in two directions than there is absolutely no extra room on the sides of the street, which is a huge problem because the majority of people walk. The streets are lined with open sewers, which are not only gross, but they are also kind of a hazard because it would be really easy to slip and fall in them (not that I am stressed about that at all when I go for a walk). On the opposite side of the sewers there are buildings that are 2 or 3 stories high and the bottom floor is small shops. By shops I mean tiny cut outs in the building where random things are being sold. Most streets then have multiple stands in front of the buildings where the items being sold are displayed on tables made out of sticks and layers of things spread out all over the ground.

There seems to be absolutely no organization to the chaos of the streets. Sometimes there are so many people you literally can’t even walk. Cars and 2-person motorcycle things zip through the streets so fast and just honk their horns, which cause everyone to move as much as they can to the side of the road. It is not a successful walk if a car, minimum of five times, hasn’t nearly hit you. It is funny how fast you learn to move. At first I always turned around so I could see what was coming, but now I just follow the crowd and squeeze together to the side.  Normally there is not traffic flowing in both directions because the people in the streets cause a barricade so that both cars can’t fit.  It is also common that a huge truck will try to fit down an alley that is too small, get stuck, and then cause a major traffic jam, which undoubtedly will take three hours to clear. I keep waiting for things like this to not be so absurd to me because it is just the way things are here… but if your truck is too big to drive down the street, why would you even try? 

On top of maniac drivers, the people walking are another experience entirely.  There are no sidewalks and most people are walking carrying things. Everyone is amazingly strong! Things that are so heavy I couldn’t push them in a wheelbarrow, the Africans are carrying on their heads.  On Saturday there was a man carrying a queen sized mattress on his head (yes, please envision this…. we, along with hundreds of other people, had to duck when he walked by!) .  

Attempting to take a picture was a failure. I tried to get my phone out really quick to snap one… but it resulted in a picture of just the road and people’s feet… oops. SO I totally stole one from a friend (thanks Heather) so you could catch a glimpse!

Pizza from Crown Bakery! It made me feel like I was at home a little bit… and Annika wanted to share so we split it and I got to try everyone else’s meal too- it was fantastic.

busyness… if only there was a person carrying a mattress in this pic… PS she was safely in a car when this photo was taken…