More from my friend on the Africa Mercy. This is a running post about her work in Africa as a nurse. One more week to go before the repairs are complete, then off to Tenerife for a week and finally, the Congo!
Sun 7/14/2013 2:35 AM
If you missed the segment about Mercy Ships that was
aired last February and you would like to see it, you have another
opportunity. [click here] They plan to rebroadcast
our segment on their program on July 21st--next Sunday evening. The hour-long program begins at 7 p.m.
Eastern & Pacific Time and 6 p.m. Central Time on your local CBS
station.
I personally thought they did a
very nice job of representing us to the world; public reaction has been
positive, with both financial contributions and volunteer applications
increasing immediately after the first showing. Now we get a second exposure--what a blessing, especially
considering that Mercy Ships is currently in the process of trying to finance
the building of a second ship, and will eventually need to staff it with
volunteers.
Meanwhile, the shipyard renovations on this ship
continue, pretty much on schedule. We
still hope to be done with this shipyard a week from now. We will then sail to Tenerife to stay for a
week (I still don't know why...) and then we're off to the Congo. It takes two weeks to get from here to
there--seems slow in this age of air travel, doesn't it? But it'll be a pleasant interlude, a time of getting
things ready for field service, at least as much as possible while everything
is battened down for safety during the sail.
My life is pretty smooth at this point. I still don't have a bunkmate, and I have
been thoroughly enjoying the freedom that that allows, flipping lights on when
I can't sleep, getting up and going to bed whenever I please, etc. I expect I'll get a bunkmate sometime next
week. We anticipate over 150 people
embarking between now and then, more than doubling our current occupancy, with
every bunk occupied before the sail to Congo.
The times, they are a' changin'.
Yesterday was probably my last day of being able to take
some serious time away from the ship. I
am either working or on call as duty nurse every day from now until we
sail. So, to celebrate my freedom, I
walked to the shopping mall at the far end of the boardwalk and back--fourteen
miles. Of course, I was too tired to do
any shopping, and didn't really want anything anyway. I could have taken a taxi, but actually,
walking was the point. It was a glorious
day, just the right temperature, scads of interesting people to watch all along
the boardwalk, occasional music from street musicians or birds, a fellow
creating sand sculptures beside the boardwalk, vendors of curios plying their
trade, etc. I noticed a number of relatively
young adults wheeling older folks along, lots of families out for a day of
adventure, and many older couples strolling along hand in hand. Some were tourists, of course, but most
seemed to be Spanish, and I assume many were locals. Their beach and boardwalk are a treasure, and
they take time to enjoy it.
The shipyard itself is pretty interesting. The "Catalina" from St. John has
been in dry dock next to us for several weeks.
The shipyard men looked so tiny in their perches as they needlegunned
and sanded away the rust and then painted the towering ship. Finally, last Friday, it was ready to
launch. In dry dock, the ship rests on
hundreds of wooden supports mounted on wheeled platforms that run along railroad
tracks.
The Catalina had five rows of these support gadgets
running on ten rails, the equivalent of five lines of railroad flatcars
traveling abreast. To move the ship
toward the water, they lined up five large front loaders to push against the
central platform--it took that much power, I suppose. At the end of the line, they pushed the ship
onto an elevator platform. Once the ship was in position, about fifty huge
motors lowered the platform into the water by unwinding the thick cables,
allowing the ship to float. Alas, the
Catalina listed badly, not seaworthy after all.
I suppose that something must have been wrong with the ballast balancing
system. They had to drag the poor baby
back into dry dock, where it remains today.
There was lots of activity aboard the ship yesterday, though, so I
suppose they'll try again today or tomorrow to launch the ship.
Blessings to you all.
Thank you for walking with me in this Mercy Ship adventure.
--
Marilyn
