deel twee

This is the second part, but I can't get it in the right order... but that doesn't really matter..
Dit is het tweede deel, maar ik kan het niet andersom plaatsen, maar dat maakt niet zoveel uit.

part one / deel een van de reis (niet voor vegatariers of kinderen!!)

I hope you had a great Christmas time. Before Christmas I had the privilege to travel around with three lovely ladies, two of them left early to spend Christmas back home in the States.
It has been a very eventful, beautiful trip with many blessed meetings in Ghana.
Below the photo's to tell a bit of the story.

BE AWARE..... following images may be shocking and not suitable for children!

LET OP... de volgende beelden kunnen schokkend zijn en niet gepast voor kinderen!

I killed a chicken... / Ik heb een kip vermoord

after the beheading, we had to pluck the chicken / na het onthoofden ook plukken

there it is... / daar is tie dan

washing my feet after the bloody scene / even de voeten wassen na de bloederige scenes

next day ready to be eaten / volgende dag klaar om gegeten te worden

Tema

First of all I want to take this opportunity to wish you all a blessed Christmas and an amazing 2012!

Secondly, I can let you know that we arrived safely in Ghana yesterday. Thank you so much for all comments, prayers and the way you guys are involved. Sometimes it seems like I'm repeating myself by saying that, but I really mean it! It's really encouraging to see that the stories are read, and that there are people about 5000 km away, are still very involved. Thank you so much!

Before sailing to Ghana, we had to do the necessary things to prepare the ship. After my job in the hospital was done, I started to work as a deck hand again. Below are some pictures that show how the land rovers are brought on deck.

On December 5 we had a short visit of Sinterklaas.

We were able to donate 64 bags of blood to one of the local hospitals. During the outreach we built good relationships with various hospitals in Sierra Leone and this hospital had just gotten a special fridge for blood. So whoever wanted could donate a bag of blood and bless the people of Sierra Leone.

Finally we were ready ...  you could hear the engines at full speed, the mooring lines were pulled in, the ship began to move slowly and we lost sight of the city of Freetown

Halfway the sail there was a sort of fuel stop. The captain wasn’t very comfortable with the set up and saw all sorts of potential dangers, but fortunately everything went well. A large tanker was lying next to our Africa Mercy. It was about 70 miles off the coast of Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Two large ships moving around in the ocean ... it took quite a while to get everything ready and then fuelling went on all night. At night there were people standing watch to see if the tension on the lines was ok. I stood watch from 4 am to 8 am.

Working on the bridge was fun again. One of the main tasks is to be looking out to see if there are other ships in the area. But in the meantime there is the marine life that can be admired. Soooo cool! It continues to amazing me, so beautiful! This sail we saw a couple of large groups of dolphins, some whales, lots of flying fish and a sea turtle.

I still had a good amount of hours to take time off, so next week I’m going to travel with a Dutch girl and two Americans. We will be back on board for Christmas, so we can celebrate with our ship family.

So again, I wish you a great Christmas time! I hope you will enjoy family, friends and people around you and the miracle of the coming of Jesus on earth.

Big Hugs &
Blessings
Maaike

Saying goodbyes...

It really has been an intense time of saying goodbye. Thank you all so much for all the encouragement and sweet comments!

One of the girls had come up with a little practical joke. She invited a bunch of nurses to come to the dock at 22:00. No further notice of what was to come .... After a couple of things she shared with us, she suddenly started a water balloon fight! You can imagine that it wasn’t very quiet that evening :-D

At the end we were wet, but we still loved each other and there was a big group hug.

 As the photos make clear... many goodbyes. A very large group of nurses has gone now and there will be more leaving next week. It will take about another week before we sail. Once we’re sailing, I will notify you as soon as possible.

We also had to say goodbye to the day volunteers. All these men and women that have worked with us throughout the year were invited to a thank-you party. This year I worked with the same team of day volunteers every day, so we had build up relationship during that time. I am really proud of those who worked in my ward. Great people! With some tears and hugs it was with a heavy heart, we said goodbye.

The big hospital cleanup has begun and it really starts to look like we are getting ready to sail. Everything needs to be packed and secured, floors are scrubbed, wax is removed from the floors and a nice new coat of wax is applied. It is a lot of work, but it makes a big difference!
 

Today is a very special day for my friend Christina. She is getting married today (and unfortunately I can not be there :-( … but I am there in thoughts ...)

 
On board we had another wedding last weekend. It was a fifty-fifty Western-African wedding. It was very nice to be there and to see two lovely people committing to each other.

To my delight I finally finished my end term report last week. It was a tough job next to the pack up, but I hope that some improvement will come from it and that it will eventually benefit the patients.
Since that task is behind me, I can finally start working on deck this Monday.








Big hugs &
Blessings
Maaike