Packing FUN

Our dock



OR 6 is packed wall to wall

I’ve joined the ship at a weird time, at the end of a 10 month outreach.  People are leaving & we are packing things up to move on soon.  Surgeries ended last week & the hospital is supposed to be closed the end of this week.  As each OR finished, we started packing things up.  The OR beds are bolted & strapped to the floors.  The OR furniture & equipment has been packed tightly, wall to wall, in one OR.  Everything has to be secured, because if something gets loose during the sail, it could cause major damage to other things or even put holes in the walls.





Glenys demonstrates how to properly tie down the OR bed



Tying down the equipment room

One of our long time crew members in the OR left this week.  A sad, sad time.  She was also the go to person for all OR packing needs.  She spent the last 2 weeks trying to pass on her knowledge to me, which is a scary thought- now I am the packing princess.  We will hopefully have everything done up by the end of the week.



My bed

My wardrobe

When I came on board, I was in an open 4 berth cabin with 3 girls from my Gateway group.  It was nice, but lacked privacy & was for short term.  Last week, I was given the opportunity to move into a typical 4 berth cabin.  A 4 berth has its own bathroom, followed by 2 cubicles with 2 beds each & a nice living room in the back with a window.

Life on ship keeps me pretty busy.  One Saturday, I walked to the craft market, experiencing what life is like in busy Freetown.  The streets are very crowded, with people selling things on the sides of the road & car traffic & foot traffic negotiating between it all. Often times, the safest & easiest place to walk is down the middle of the street between the cars & trucks.  You can find almost anything on the streets, food, toiletry items, clothes, fabric, hardware, anything.  Everything is on a barter system, & as a white person, we often pay a lot more for our items, but even then it’s still pretty decent.  I bought some African fabric for 10000 Leones a yard, which is roughly $2.25.  I plan on getting a skirt & some OR hats made.

The upper building brick work is complete

Last Friday was a ship’s holiday, meaning that it was a 3 day weekend!  I got the opportunity to go back to Yams Farm & see the progress on the school.  The walls were complete & we helped them prep for putting the roof on.  Once the roof goes on, the floors can be poured & the retaining wall, that will allow the area between the school buildings & the church to be level.  Hopefully, things will be finished before we leave Sierra Leone.

Life is going well here.  Things are winding down & in a couple weeks we will be leaving Sierra Leone & heading for Ghana.  Thank you so much for all your support & prayers.

Blessings