in love...

Trying not to bring too much confusion, I will just let you know I'm officially dating Kyle Hickey. I tried not to, tried to stop it and surely didn't plan for it, but I've fallen in love. He is honest, trustworthy, funny, crazy, respectful, open and I feel very at ease with him and I can be myself.

In early June I came back on board and a few days later Kyle arrived on board the Africa Mercy as a second mate. He will stay until the end of this month and will have a brief stopover in the Netherlands and then go back to the States to work on a ship.

It's really been a little gift from God that I was asked to stay on board for an extra week to help with the sail back from Gran Canaria to Tenrife. It was cool to do that, but it also gave a great opportunity for us to get to know each other a bit better.

During the last weekend we hit the road together in a rental car and we enjoyed the island, driving around surrounded by beautiful landscapes, deciding to take the smallest dirtroads and chatting and getting to know each other better.

All technical work in dry dock was completed and the ship looked very nice. We sailed back to Tenerife on Thursday and I returned home on Saturday morning

As far as future plans go, this relationship hasn't been very helpful to sort out my life, but I am very happy anyways
This week I just hope to go back to work at the hospital in Dordrecht and we'll take each day as it comes. I'm looking forward to Kyle's stop over in the Netherlands.

It is strange to share my love life so public, but I know that there are many who truly empathize and follow my life's adventures, so I want to share this exciting news with you.

Thanks for being involved and tahnks for all your prayers.

Big hugs &
Blessings
Maaike



some roadtrip pics Gran Canaria

dry-dock

Hi all!

So finally another update. I’m sorry it’s been a long time.

Currently the ship is in dry dock in Gran Canaria. That does sound like a horrible place to be, I know, but I’m managing ;-)

We sailed early in the morning of the 2^nd of July and arrived before noon around the port of Gran Canaria. From there on we were pushed in and pulled in onto the dock by the shipyard crew. During the time of biking the Camino in Spain with Christina I picked up a little bit of Spanish, which really comes in handy now. Besides that I’ve had loads of practice doing charades with patients in Africa J

During this shipyard period the deck department has done a lot of maintenance work and also the shipyard has been working hard on the maintenance of the ship’s hull. But the main reason for this dry dock has been the replacement of the air condition systems, as you can see on the photo’s being put in through the side of the ship.

On board it’s about 28 degrees Celsius, since the air condition doesn’t work. On the island itself it is nice and cool, because of the wind. During my days off I’ve been biking around and been to the beach.

The plan for me was to leave the ship this Friday the 13^th, but we will be sailing back to Tenerife soon. The Chief Mate asked me to stay for that voyage, so I decided to stay until the 20^th of July.

Other interesting news is that I met a very nice, fun & sweet guy, who likes me too…

It’s nice to have an extra week to spend time together and get to know each other better.

Big hug

& Blessings

Maaike