My journey

I have only 4 1/2 months left here with Mercy Ships and have reached a time where I need to start thinking about my next steps. I had purposely not thought about what I would do after Mercy Ships because I wanted to enjoy where I am without thinking about the future. But now, it's time to start some planning.

As a single person with few things to constrain me I have thousands of choices available to me about what I want to do with my life after Mercy Ships. It would be easier if I could get it down to two choices but when I have a thousand choices, I'm afraid I won't be able to decide.

So for fun, I set up this little quiz to get your input on the next journey of my life. I've listed some of the things I've thought about that are interesting to me and I would possibly like to do. So now you can vote on what you would like me to do. Just a disclaimer, this is just for fun and I'm not necessarily going to do what random strangers vote for - we'll see how it goes. Of if you have other ideas I haven't listed, you can post them in the comments.

The quiz is on the right hand side. Good luck, my entire future balances on the outcome of this! (not:)

Back to Liberia

We made it safely back to Liberia after a six day smooth sail. There was an hour and a half ceremony on the dock welcoming us back. We had to stay on the ship to watch since we weren't cleared by immigration yet but our two Executive Directors plus our media team particated dockside.

Not much has changed. It's very hot and humid, just like when we left. It's also been pretty hazy as you can tell from the pictures.

Here are a couple of photos from our arrival:

People awaiting our arrival










One of the two singing groups that performed for us.

This ship will be our neighbor for awhile. Notice all the UN soldiers aboard. It was seized by the government because of the large amount of cocaine found on board.

Sailing

We left Santa Cruz de Tenerife on Wednesday and are now heading to Liberia. We are three days into a six day sail and I'm not sure where we are other than off the coast of West Africa somewhere. The sail seems to be much smoother than the last and I have only been sick off and on. Last sail I spent almost the entire time in bed.

The pace on a sail is much slower than usual (except for those who are actually making the ship sail - officers, engineers, etc.). We've had some briefings on Liberia (not much has changed since we left but crime continues to increase), watched a few movies, eaten some great food thanks to our new chef Tyrone and his kitchen crew, and we've had fire/piracy drills.

Here are some miscellaneous photos of Tenerife and of us leaving.

Back on the ship

Canary Islands
I made it back to ship safe and sound and with only two different 7 hour layovers, one in Chicago and one in Madrid. We are currently in port in Tenerife de Santa Cruz, Canary Islands. We are scheduled to leave here to return to Liberia on Wednesday, January 30th.

There isn't much to report right now. I've been working on developing a workshop to teach churches how to take care of the terminally ill. I've also been working some in crew services, helping clean the ship, working in the library, helping unload containers and supplies and I watched a welder for a couple of hours to make sure he didn't catch himself or the ship on fire (called Fire Watch).

Liberia
On a completely separate note, I've been thinking a lot about our return to Liberia and trying to prepare for it. If you follow global news at all, you have seen articles recently on Liberia. The trial of former president Charles Taylor is ongoing in The Hague and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia (http://www.trcofliberia.org/) has been holding hearings and some horrible atrocities are coming to the global light.

When we return, I don't know if the people will be different now that these hearings are going on...do they care? Does it just reopen old wounds? Will it trigger more violence? Will it bring reconciliation? These are just some questions I'm thinking about and areas to pray about.

The following is a link to a recent Yahoo article on one of the hearings...parts of it are very graphic and so unbelievable the suffering humans inflict upon other humans.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080121/ap_on_re_af/liberia_general_returns;_ylt=AmuAkGfoKXfR4vCO.RvurEpI2ocA
I also finally watched Blood Diamond last night. I wouldn't recommend this movie for general entertainment but more as an education about what the people of Sierra Leone and, similarly, Liberia, have inflicted upon themselves as well as what innocent people have endured.

Baby Joanna update
So many of you emailed me about and prayed for baby Joanna last year. She was a six month old baby for whom we performed a cleft lip surgery - she then went into cardiac arrest and was put on a ventilator for 3 days. She survived and was sent home and we visited her a few times at the end of the year. I received an email last week forwarded from my translator that baby Joanna passed away in December. I don't know any details other than that. We knew she had brain stem abnormalities and too low of a heart rate so I'm not completely surprised, just sad.

Peace,
Michele

Coming home

I'm leaving Thursday morning for vacation. I arrive in Des Moines Friday night and will return to the Canary Islands on Jan. 17th. During my vacation, I won't be posting so check back after January 17th.

Merry Christmas!
Michele

Dry dock

Today our ship (along with the crew) went into dry dock. That means we moved from our nice dock across the street from the mall and all the action over to an ugly shipyard where lots of construction is taking place. The ship was lifted up out of the water (with us on board) so that maintenance can be done on the underneath of the ship. It was a very fascinating experience and I have the photos to show what happens.

This opening is where we are starting out. The ship goes in backwards so these photos are all from the back side of the ship.
Once we got lined up these two little tugboats came over and our line handlers tossed out two of the lines. The tugboats attached these lines to their boats and they pulled us in.
I'm not sure how these little boats can pull our huge ship but they did.
Once they got us closer to the little canal, the tugboats took our lines and attached them to the side on some kind of machine and then the boats got out of our way. Then these machines pulled us all the way in.

After we were in properly, some divers hooked up things to the bottom of the ship and then the floor was raised up so we were out of the water. Then these bulldozer machines pulled us into our berth. Sorry for the non-technical description...I have no idea what they did to make all this happen.

These are the three ships we are next to so you can see what it looks like when they are out of the water.
This is the view from the front side of the ship...this is where we came from.

Here are the stairs we use to get off the ship.

We will be in dry dock around one week. During this time, we fortunately have running water (toilets and showers) but minimal power. No a/c so it's really hot in our cabins and no laundry facilities but we have our computers and lights. We are about a 2 mile walk to town which I made tonight for a pizza dinner.

I'll be home in three days!

Peace,

Michele

Las Palmas

We arrived in Las Palmas (the city name) on the island of Gran Canaria on Thursday afternoon. After some problems getting a berth, we ended up at a dock that is directly across from the start of town and a mall. Between work and being on call, I've only been able to get out twice so far.

It feels good to be back in a country that isn't chaotic. Streets are paved and driveable, there isn't any honking, people are walking on sidewalks and cross at the crosswalks, there aren't any animals being shepherded down the street, no one is yelling at us or asking us for money, there are malls and grocery stores and restaurants, and I can go out by myself. In other words, it feels normal again.

The weather is cool here compared to West Africa, seems like it's in the low 70s. It's been mostly overcast but the cooler temps are so great.

Here are some photos of Gran Canaria:

Here's where we are docked until Monday.

This is our dock.

Here's the mall that is directly across the street.