Home Sweet Home

As the Africa Mercy is preparing to leave the Port of Tenerife, I thought it would be a good time to share with you where I am living.

Here is the Africa Mercy in it's luxurious berth in Tenerife. This port has been such a blessing, I love being able to walk along the dock into town.

Here is a closer shot the Africa Mercy with the crain in action!






This is my bedroom! I am living in the 10 berth cabin, so there are 5 sets of bunks. There are 3 little cubies like this one, and then 2 sets of bunks along the wall. It sounds overwhelming, but I am so thankful to be in the cabin I am. We have a little sitting area and 2 windows, which is a luxury on the ship.


Right now I have this little room to myself, but I will be sharing very soon!






Here is my office on the ship. My desk is on the left, and is really more of a table than a desk. Everything is ready to sail, which is why there is a board in front of my filing cabinets, so the drawers don't come open during the sail.



We are leaving Tenerife this morning and sailing for 10 days to Benin in West Africa. As we sail, I'll post more photos of the ship so you can get a better feel for what life is like here.

Week 2!

What an incredible, exhausting weekend! After a week spent mostly on the ship (it rained most of the week) it was such a treat to get out for the weekend. A wonderful person made a donation to Mercy Ships with the specific request that it be used to treat the crew to something special, and indeed they did. The entire crew was treated to a day at Loro Parque, a cross between the San Diego Zoo and Seaworld. It is in Puerto de la Cruz, almost right next to where I went last weekend. There were a bunch of shows to watch and animals to see. We watched Sea Lions, Dolphins and Orcas, one of which was born in San Diego. Unlike parks in the states, there were no food lines, no lines at all! I was amazed.

The dolphin show! Meet Jorge, Pablo, Carlos, and the gang.
Do you thing they understand Spanish?

The Sea Lions were amazing! Look at that balance!

Here are some photos from a hike I went on after church on Sunday.

Beautiful coastline. Inland isn't very pretty, since it's a volcanic island.

Self Portrait sesh!

The last few days I have been able to get into a routine and get to know my job a lot better. At last, I feel like I am contributing to this wonderful mission! I am working the standard 8-5, but unlike at home, mealtime is sacred. We get an hour for lunch and stop working at 5 to go to dinner. Sometimes it feels like all we do it eat. It doesn't help that we have a visiting baker from Germany who specializes in things that are delicious and make you chubby. My nights have been filled with walks around the ports, to Santa Cruz for ice cream, and Killer Uno. Killer Uno is a variation on the traditional Uno, chances are I have tried to teach you at some point, but there are far too many rules for anyone to stay interested. It is fun to play with a large group, everyone gets rowdy.

2 of my roommates left already this week. Corina and Janene had both been here for six months and were so ready to go home. They will be touring around Ireland and Scotland for a week or so before heading home to the states. I will miss them, but am excited for news of their adventure!

Four out of five roommates!

Cindy, Janene, Me, and Sarah

HR-ing

So, what does an HR Generalist do exactly? Well, for the last 2 days, scanned lots and lots of documents! Since only one person has been manning my department, there were loads of paperwork that needed to be taken care of. It took 2 whole days, but it's done! As an HR Generalist, I will be updating the crew's paperwork and keeping everything in order, which is actually pretty demanding, when you consider there are hundreds of people onboard and crew leaving and arriving every day. It felt so good to finally get to work. I am really enjoying my coworkers and the 10:00AM coffee break. The Starbucks on board ship makes a mean latte for only a buck! Unfortunately, my office is only about 10 steps away from the coffee shop ...
I've gotten to meet a lot more of the crew this week, everyone here is so friendly and interesting! I have met people from all over the world, New Zealand, Germany, Holland, South Korea, Canada, San Luis Obispo...that's right, I met someone from SLO :) Cal Poly shirts do not go unnoticed!
Here are some photos I've taken in the last week. Tenerife is seriously beautiful!

This is a government building not far from the port. There are palm trees and flowers everywhere!
















Below is a photo I took in a town on the north side of the island, called Tocoronte. A couple other crew members and I took a bus there on the way to a beach resort town. The town is built on a steep hill, but it is gorgeous!















Below is Puerto de la Cruz, the beach resort town we were trying to get to, it is black sand and tropical plants. On the way there we got a little lost and ended up walking up a huge hill and then taking a taxi back to Tocoronte...but we eventually made it. And it was all the sweeter for it.

Finally Here!

After months of planning and preparation, it seems so surreal to finally be on board the Africa Mercy. I flew out of San Francisco on Monday afternoon, connected in Frankfurt, and landed in Tenerife on Tuesday afternoon. My travel companion, Sarah, missed the connection in Frankfurt, was re-routed and got in 12 hours later at 4AM. Poor girl. I was shown to my cabin (#4418 for those who wish to send me presents and love notes) and assigned a bunk. I am in a 10 berth cabin, which means there are 10 beds. This sounds overwhelming, but there are only 5 of us here currently. Sarah, Corinne, Jeanine, Cindy and me. Sarah will be doing hair , she is by far the most popular girl aboard ship, at least 4 people come up to her every meal and ask when she is starting. Corinne works in the kitchen, Jeanine works in the Ship Shop and Cindy works in accounting. They are all wonderful and I am already sad that they are all leaving before the end of January.
My first day was a mess. I overslept and missed my tour of this ship (I blame it on jet lag!) and felt terrible the whole day. 2 naps, some fresh air and lots of water later, I was feeling much better in time to watch fireworks! The city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife puts on a magnificent fireworks show that we watched from the ship. We could see at least 5 more fireworks shows going on up the hills in town. What a way to ring in 2009!
Both New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are 'Ship's Holidays' so everything was closed and most people weren't working. So Sarah and I walked into town to explore. It is about a 20 minute walk to get out of the port where the ship is docked, and it being a holiday in Spain, nothing was open! With my rusty Spanish, we asked around and determined that McDonalds was perhps the only restaurant open in Spain. A 30 minute walk later, we found McDonalds, and a small bar/cafe that was open nearby with delicious sandwhiches. It was most definelty worth the walk!
Last night was 'Open Cabin' night, where cabins can sign up to have an open house. My cabin mates baked all kinds of cookies and cupcakes in preparation, but we didn't have nearly as many guests as planned. It was a great opportunity to get to know more people on board ship.
I start work next Monday, and I'm sure I will have plenty to share, once I figure out exactly what I will be doing. Please pray for this mission!