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!