merry Christmas

some photos of our Christmas eve and day.

Christmas eve started off quite lazily. we sat around for several hours before heading into santa cruz to have lunch and do a bit of shopping. then back to the ship in time to get dressed for Christmas eve dinner. the galley and dining room staff outdid themselves on the food and decor and all the crew looked quite nice. sadly i don't have any photos from dinner itself. we had a Christmas eve service followed by desserts and socializing in the midships lounge. then the fun begins ;) miriam, amy and i retired to our cabin to watch "a charlie brown Christmas" and "irving berlin's white Christmas" until the wee hours of the morning of Christmas day. we had a short pause while we wandered around to leave "shoe gifts". (a dutch tradition that we do on the 24th on ship and leave presents outside cabin doors in shoes and on the floor) we did startle a few other "elves" who were trying to leave their shoe gifts as well :) we finally crawled into bed at 3am and then a few short hours later it was time to get up for the start of Christmas day.

Christmas day we started by heading up to the rolland's family cabin and opening shoe gifts together while drinking hot chocolate. (italian style--thick enough to need a spoon and oh so yummy!) then off to brunch also well done by the galley and dining room. after brunch, it was seriously time for a nap given 2 nights of short sleep hours. in the afternoon back up to the rolland's cabin for a holiday movie and then time for dinner. the evening hours were spent chilling but at about 9pm we packed out 10 or so landrovers and drove in a caravan down to the main part of the harbour where the tenerife symphony orchestra performed a concert followed

by some fire works. my new favorite way to end Christmas day.

b/c everyone needs a pirate ship made from candy! our wrapping job and clue, jenny and john's faces and the ship. =)

Christmas on the AFM

by the way, AFM is the way we shorten the ship's name--Africa Mercy.

this Christmas season has been strange. i have found it quite difficult to get into and remain in "the Christmas spirit". part of this is the fact that in early december i was still playing in the water at the beach (and even now when it is decidedly cooler here in tenerife, it is still mid to upper 60s in the daytime and i can see palm trees.) part of it has been the fact that i am not home and don't have "home" coming to me (family visiting) or plans to go home during this season. part of it is the lack of bombardment of holiday stuff from the stores (due to lack of stores) and tv screen (again due to lack of tv viewing). and this one i am actually thankful for. i didn't have to start seeing Christmas decor and sales in the shops beginning before halloween was even over.

but there is a lot to do to "bring" Christmas here on the AFM. the normal community areas of the cafe/midships lounge/dining room are decorated with trees and garland and lights and ornaments. and our activities schedule is actually much more full than normal.

3rd--winter wonderland (craft booths and yummy winter treats to eat/drink)

9th--santa lucia (scandinavian holiday celebration usually on the 13th but we were sailing then.)

holiday movies on the weekends (White Christmas, The Christmas Story, Elf)

14th--cookie baking/decorating (i was a bit seasick then so i baked mine the next day)

15th--kids Christmas craft night. (adults helping kids do Christmas-y crafts and santa pics)

18th--kids Chrismtas play (written and performed by the academy students. they did a great job! it was funny and thoughtful and no mean feat for them to perform while sailing and having to do lines and maintain balance)

24th--Christmas dinner and service along with the dutch tradition of leaving gifts in shoes (although that happens on the 5th in the netherlands i think)

25th--Christmas brunch

31st--new year's eve ball and fireworks put on by the harbor

and we have had beautiful Advent services each sunday where Scriptures are read and Christmas hymns and carols are sung (although most of these are the british and not american english versions). each sunday we have a different special music offering...the first week was a song in portugese from our brazilian family, the second week was a song in the ghanian dialect by several african crew members, the third week was a song in korean and mandarin chinese by some of the asian/korean crew members, the fourth week was by some of our norwegian crew members.

below are some pics of the decor aboard. the first is a tree painted onto a glass door, the second a tree in the midships lounge, the next three are my cabin door and our next door neighbors and we combined our doors into a theme along the lines of elfyourself, the next is the cafe area and the last two are tayler and miriam in the miships stair area. not bad for a ship!

God's sense of humor

sailing (i know i still owe one about my thoughts on africa so far)
so, what does sailing have to do with God's sense of humor? well, let's see...i have motion sickness (planes, trains, cars, boats, ships) and i'm on a ship that is sailing. i also have a mild bit of claustrophobia (it has more to do with the amount of stuff in the space than the size of the space) and i'm on a ship sharing what used to be the size of my room at home with 3 other people--4 beds, 4 closets, a bathroom, a sitting area on a ship, where everything is compacted for space sake. and i have a serious fear of water that i can't see it and i'm on a ship in the middle of the ocean with nothing but water to see wherever i look.
God's sense of humor?
i enjoy the sailing apart from the motion sickness (which i did have a bout of this morning)
i like my cabin and cabin mates and even the compactness of things on the ship
i think the ocean is beautiful. watching the waves roll by, right now with white caps on the waves. the lovely colour of blue of the ocean caused by the reflection of the sky and light of the sun. the way the ship crashes down into the waves makes me smile (and a bit sick) but it is fun.

God is good...all the time. even when we don't understand.

"master and commander" and robert's port

robert's port first

we had a "dark" ship this past weekend as the main engines were off from some maintenance. so, most everyone who didn't have to be on ship went ashore. i went with a group of 10 others to a beach called robert's port. there are canvas tents on wooden platforms with 2-3 double beds in them to camp in. we drove up saturday morning and arrived right around lunch time. after a quick lunch it was down to the beach where we met up with another group of about 10 people from the ship who had camped out on the beach and into the water for a bit followed by some beach volleyball first in just a round robin style then later at the net the "resort" owner set up. this game was a bit challenging in that we had a dog who kept wanting to join and was only lured away by esther throwing the stick over and over and over for him. it was starting to get dark so we headed up for showers before dinner. we had a really nice african dinner at the restaurant there at the resort with some sparkly gear on to celebrate esther's 30th birthday! if you're going to have to be away from home in africa, celebrating on the beach is the way to go. after dinner and some dancing by a few in our group, we headed over to the meet back up with the other group and sit at a bonfire eating cake and smores and playing bonfire games. a moonlit walk on the beach and then bed. up to play again in the water for hours on sunday and then some more volleyball and showers and heading back to the ship. we arrived home tired but relaxed from the weekend. and back to a ship with power....yeah!

pics below are the inside of the tent, esther and i at her birthday dinner, breakfast group--paul/esther/karen/nina, keep away in the water, and me coming towards our tent



master and commander
we are studying the names of God in ward nurse devotionals this week. one of my 7 names to study was Master. and usually i think of this in terms of slave and master and more from the slave's point of view. but being that i am on a ship currently and the captain is also known as the master, i am seeing some new aspects of this. our captain (not sure if this is true of all captains) has made himself responsible and accountable for us. if we miss curfew, it falls on his shoulder's. and i was thinking about this in relation to our Master. He also has made Himself responsible for us and accountable to the Father for us. Cool, huh?!?! He is responsible for our keeping. that is so humbling and amazing.

and then there were none...

a bit of a morbid title i guess.

sorry it has been several weeks. next week (hopefully) will have at least 2 but hoping 3 blogs. but i did want to update you on what is going on right now. and teaser for next 3 blogs...robert's port, my thoughts and experiences on my work so far and sailing.

this last couple of weeks has been spent sending more and more patients home, closing down different parts of the hospital and saying goodbyes to nurses who are leaving and our liberian dayworkers who come in to help in various roles (ward counselors, translators, working in the deck and cleaning departments, etc). so, then there were none...we sent our last patients home and last days of work for our dayworkers on friday. it is a bit bittersweet. i am looking forward to the time "off" and holidays but i will miss my patients and dayworker friends. we will be sailing soon but before that, lots of cleaning and packing yet to do.

i know this isn't a lot of info for having been m.i.a. in the last 3 weeks, but i promise more next week.