Imagine my surprise when an old classmate from my lower school contacts me about Mercy Ships asking to write a piece about me - well here it is straight from my local newspaper!
Tuesday 26 October 2010
August - October: Togo - UK - South Africa!
Saturday sees me returning to the Africa Mercy, well nearly, but I will explain that later in the post. First I will update you on what I have been doing over the last few months. I went on vacation from Mercy Ships in August followed by a Leave of Absence to allow me to do some engineering training. Whilst at home I was privileged to be able to witness three weddings, two as chief bridesmaid. I've also managed to spend time with my parents and sister, including a mini-adventure to Brussels to celebrate her 21st, and then I have been able to spend time feeding back to some of my sponsors and showing them some pictures from my first year with Mercy Ships. Alongside this I have also done some training with The Royal Academy of Engineering. All in all it has been a wonderful time to spend with some of the people who have made my time with Mercy Ships possible, and to also have some necessary time to recover from working a little too hard before I left!
Back when I left the ship it was still in Togo, however, soon after they cast off and sailed away... to South Africa. South Africa is not a normal destination for the Africa Mercy who concentrates on serving the people of West Africa, but then we are not there in our normal capacity. In fact things are very different to 'normal'. Like the crew normally don't live on land on the whole, however, when I go back I will start off living at Appelsbosch in the Kwazulu-Natal region (a 90 minute drive from the ship), along with around 150 other crew who are still around. (I will blog about Appelsbosch once I am there.) So why are we living in the middle of nowhere away from the ship? Well the main reason is to do with the big hole the ship currently has in its side at the moment. You might think that is not a good thing for a ship, and if the ship is in water you are right, it does tend to make them fill with water and sink I mean look at Titanic. But fear not, all is ok because they took the ship out of the water before cutting this big hole, in fact she is currently sitting on blocks in a dry dock in Durban. But why do you decide to cut a big hole in the side of a ship when big holes cause them to sink? Well because broken generators don't provide consistent power, and faulty air-conditioning ducts leak, and neither are conducive to successful operations or calm surgeons! So we have a big hole in our side to remove the old generators, which not only don't work well but are also really noisy, and to replace them with some nice new quiet ones. It's all quite exciting really. It's a major upgrade to the ship that will hopefully enable us to serve many more nations and will relieve some of the ever increasing difficulties we have had in the last few years, and particularly whilst we were in Togo.
But what are the non-ship crew doing if the ship is in dry dock and there are no operations? (The deckies and engineers who keep the ship running are helping get it all fixed back up.) Well the school is still running so the teachers are still teaching, and we still need feeding so we still have people cooking and HR still needs to plan for the next outreach just like normal, but the hospital staff aren't in the hospital. Some are taking the opportunity to do some further training to develop their skills and the others are helping with policies and procedures because we are starting to work towards getting the hospital accredited. Now I'm not exactly sure what the accreditation will mean - maybe just to prove we reach a certain standard and to encourage continued work towards excellence... but either way I think the time not running as a hospital, but hopefully assessing and developing our infrastructure, will help us to be more efficient and effective in how we deliver our services ultimately meaning we will be able to reach more people. Now that can't be bad!
So on Saturday I head back to Africa... and the next stage of my journey begins!
Please come back and share the ride with me :-)
Back when I left the ship it was still in Togo, however, soon after they cast off and sailed away... to South Africa. South Africa is not a normal destination for the Africa Mercy who concentrates on serving the people of West Africa, but then we are not there in our normal capacity. In fact things are very different to 'normal'. Like the crew normally don't live on land on the whole, however, when I go back I will start off living at Appelsbosch in the Kwazulu-Natal region (a 90 minute drive from the ship), along with around 150 other crew who are still around. (I will blog about Appelsbosch once I am there.) So why are we living in the middle of nowhere away from the ship? Well the main reason is to do with the big hole the ship currently has in its side at the moment. You might think that is not a good thing for a ship, and if the ship is in water you are right, it does tend to make them fill with water and sink I mean look at Titanic. But fear not, all is ok because they took the ship out of the water before cutting this big hole, in fact she is currently sitting on blocks in a dry dock in Durban. But why do you decide to cut a big hole in the side of a ship when big holes cause them to sink? Well because broken generators don't provide consistent power, and faulty air-conditioning ducts leak, and neither are conducive to successful operations or calm surgeons! So we have a big hole in our side to remove the old generators, which not only don't work well but are also really noisy, and to replace them with some nice new quiet ones. It's all quite exciting really. It's a major upgrade to the ship that will hopefully enable us to serve many more nations and will relieve some of the ever increasing difficulties we have had in the last few years, and particularly whilst we were in Togo.
But what are the non-ship crew doing if the ship is in dry dock and there are no operations? (The deckies and engineers who keep the ship running are helping get it all fixed back up.) Well the school is still running so the teachers are still teaching, and we still need feeding so we still have people cooking and HR still needs to plan for the next outreach just like normal, but the hospital staff aren't in the hospital. Some are taking the opportunity to do some further training to develop their skills and the others are helping with policies and procedures because we are starting to work towards getting the hospital accredited. Now I'm not exactly sure what the accreditation will mean - maybe just to prove we reach a certain standard and to encourage continued work towards excellence... but either way I think the time not running as a hospital, but hopefully assessing and developing our infrastructure, will help us to be more efficient and effective in how we deliver our services ultimately meaning we will be able to reach more people. Now that can't be bad!
So on Saturday I head back to Africa... and the next stage of my journey begins!
Please come back and share the ride with me :-)
Finally some pictures from my time at home - just in case you are interested!
Neal and Jacqui Kennedy's wedding (7th August - 3 days after I arrived back in the country!)
Center Parcs with my family
Brussels with my sister
Jonny and Katrina Lee (28th August)
Disclaimer: There are many more special memories which don't have pictures to document them these just cover a few things in August. A big thank you to everyone who made my time in the UK wonderful!