What it's like to live on the African Mercy

I was very apprehensive coming onto the ship because I have never lived in such close proximity with so many people. Before I came I heard that we would be placed in a birth (room) with between 6 and 10 people. Hearing that had me worried as all of those people would be women.

So I was placed in a 6 berth cabin which is about the size of my bedroom. This means that I live in VERY close contact to those around me. We sleep in bunk beds and are lucky to have cubicles with curtains on each one so that we have a little bit of privacy. I had such lovely welcome words on my door when I arrived. I sleep on the top bunk which can be quite interesting when you have to use the bathroom at night as there have been certain stories of people falling down the ladders. My roommate is such a sweetie. She is an older lady from Switzerland who doesn't speak much English but tries her hardest to always make sure that I am comfortable and ok. At night when I need the bathroom she will turn the light on if she hears me getting up.

My cupboard is a lot bigger than what I thought. I could of easily brought more clothes but they wouldn't be needed as I am in scrubs all week long. We also have shelves to put our books and other things on. Our cabin has its own bathroom with a shower and toilet. We even have space in our cabin for a shoe rack which saves alot of space.

Living with so many people definately has its pros and cons

Pros:

• Always someone to talk to at any time of the night
• Fashion consultant instead of a mirror
• New experiences e.g. people eating weird things
• Learning new languages
• Infinite possibilties of meeting new people because there are always people arriving and departing 

Cons:

• Hard to get alone time unless you leave the ship
• Sharing a bathroom with 5 other people does cause some challenges when you need to pee
• Misunderstandings that arise from living with people with different cultural backgrounds
• Everything is new and it takes a while to settle in

My beautiful room (top bunk)

P.S Since I started writing this blog I have moved into the cubicle next door (still in the same cabin). I have a really awesome bunk buddy whom provides me with CRAZY amounts of humor haha. 

Salama

Salama Friends and Family

I finally have a chance to sit down and write about the adventures I have had thus far. I thought that it would be hard to find things to write and talk about but so much has already happened in the few days that I have been here.

It was so special to spend my last day in SA with my cousin Lauren and her family in Pretoria. There is something about hanging out with family that is so relaxing and supportive. They really blessed me with love and quality time. The best part though was hanging out with little Zoom Zoom (Zoe) who is just a bundle of joy and fun.

The whole international flight thing really scared me as I had never travelled internationally alone before and I was scared that something would go wrong. Luckily everything went smoothly and I made it through in good time. When I arrived at the gate I got the greatest surprise of a girl wearing a Mercy Ships hat. I sat for awhile and wondered if it would be weird to go and introduce myself but then decided to just bite the bullet. I am so glad I did because through it I made my first 3 friends.

Marie-Claire was the one wearing the Mercy Ships hat. She is from Australia but originally from Puerto-Rico. Her role on the ships is an OR Nurse.

Marie-Claire

Next was Krista who is from Canada. She will be working as a PACU Nurse. I was extremely excited to hear that she was also staying for 3 months and was keen to go on adventures too.

Krista with her first taste of litchi

Lastly was Jan who had served before on Mercy Ships. She is a real hoot and you are sure to never have a dull moment with her around.

Jan 

Meeting these ladies defintely put my mind at ease because if this is what the rest of the Mercy Ships crew was like then I would be fine.

Safely arrived in Madagascar

I was luckily enough to have 3 seats to myself on the plane flight so I invited Claire (Marie-Claire) to come sit next to me. The next 3 hours flew by with us talking the whole way there. Upon arrival we were quite overwhelmed with the paperwork we were required to fill out but luckily we were met by Cathy who helped us through the process.


I thought I would be prepared for poverty because I have experienced it first hand in South Africa but it still hit me like a ton of bricks. The houses are all on top of each other with people flooding the streets. All the houses had a french influence to them but were so run down it was barely noticable. We were taken through small roads and eventually came to our guest house. The people in Madagascar are lovely and so hospitable.

The capital, Antananarivo

My room where I was sleeping reminded me of the place we went to in Pennington with our youth group (as you can see in the pictures).  Me and Krista were roomies. I spent most of the time outside watching the storm go crazy and then watching the most incredible sunset which I felt was a warm welcome to all of us.

Toilets 

The trip the next day to Tamatave was an experience to say the least. Two near head on collisions, toilets in the ground, roller-coaster type roads etc. You catch my drift.

Our bus for the 9 hour trip to Tamatave

Finally arriving at the ship was a flood of emotions. The excitement build up from the last few months and the long journey to get to it just made the waterworks flow (I was doing so well before that).

View upon arrival 

My welcome balloons from Michelle :)

So the ship is pretty huge. Took 2 tours and a few walks around to kind of know my way around it. I work on the dock which is nice because at least I still see sunlight. My team that I work with are amazing and it is just so incredible having God the centre of it all. We start every morning with a devotional time and then can pray for patients when we feel like we need to.

Mhairi

I have made an awesome scottish friend when I arrived. Her name is Mhairi. She had been travelling around Madagascar for the last month. Her job on the ship is a dentist. She is so much fun and has a love for adventure and is kind of like a local now.

Katy with the cast I made 

I have also been learning so much. I have an incredible co-worker Katy who has been teaching me so much. She is such a sweetheart and has so much experience behind her so I am really enjoying learning. She is a pro at casting so I made my first cast and this morning (2/12) I did my first cast on a patient. Was such a cool feeling :)

Another amazing thing about the ship is they employ day workers who are local people that are assigned a department to work with. They function as translators but have been learning how to do some of our treatments. We have an amazing guy called Marco that works with us. He is so talented and is so much fun to have around. He is also teaching me Malagasy which is going pretty well.

Marco with his drawing 

I am so sorry it has taken so long to post this (I have been doing a little bit every day since Monday). There are so many other things that have happened but there isn't enough time to tell all of them. Please feel free to contact me and we can chat about my time here :)

I am still looking for donations for my trip. If you would like to donate my banking details are:

I got litchis from the locals 

FNB

Account Holder Name: K H Wills

Account No.: 62445765045

Branch No.: 220426

Type of Account: Cheque Account

Please put reference: *MERCY SHIPS* 

Valema

Kaylee