….Babysitting, first solo hospital tour & choir rehearsal….
“Stuffies” at a birthday party
So….week 2 has come and gone and while the issue of sleeping past 4 hours is still a major problem, I’m somehow still managing to keep it all together.
It’s been a week of firsts!
Who knew washing machines could cause so much drama! The process is to write your name on a vacant one-hour slot [which covers use of the washing machine and dryer] in the clipboard for one day during the week. Each washing machine [12 in total, with a dryer sitting on top] has their own page for the week. The first hour is for your washing, which you then move to the dryer for the second hour. You have 10 mins grace period past the hour or your washing / drying gets unceremoniously dumped into a washing basket on the floor…even if the machine hasn’t finished! Unfortunately for me something was left behind in the dryer and in less than 24 hours was placed in the boutique [a place where items to be given away are kept] and then rehomed. My please return to owner sign has so far hasn’t been sadly successful.
Monday found me babysitting for the first of 2 families that I have offered to help out. The couple are from the US and have twins, a boy & girl [who turn 10 tomorrow] and another girl who is 8. Apart from being demolished in a video game by all 3, it was a successful start. The boy was very excited to be turning the 10 next day, as it means he can walk around the ship unaccompanied…a huge milestone for a kid onboard!
Tuesday was notable for the “At Sea” drill, this time however, an inspector was onboard. Failure to make our time would mean loss of our permission to sail next week. Everyone was on their best behaviour and all crew made it to their muster stations in 15mins!! We were all pretty chuffed with ourselves and even got a thanks from our captain! Tuesday night concluded with a birthday for the twins. This was held in the crew lounge and included home-made birthday cake! Gifts included a Lego set to build their very own Mercy Ship [I’ve spotted them since in the Ship Shop]. The cutest part was the communal chair assigned for all the stuffies, so they could watch the action…very cute!
Wednesday night the hospital team had the opportunity to leave the ship for dinner at a local restaurant called “The Cow Shed”. The bar next door is called “The Milk shed” [clever right?!] The fillet steak was actually pretty good, it’s amazing the difference in price to eat out here compared to home! Less than half the cost!!
My first solo hospital tour went off mostly without a hitch on Thursday. We had been asked to facilitate a group of 18 doctors and other local [East London] medical professionals, the tour was to last 30 mins with Merryl in charge. Unfortunately, by 14:00 we only had 4 people, so we started the tour. An hour later, I received a call from security to advise that 8 more had showed up and then at 16:30, 2 more appeared at security. As Merryl had a meeting scheduled I took on the tour at 16:30. Whilst only having seen the 15min version of a tour twice before, I managed to struggle through, during which I apologized for the lack of stories, Merryl has years’ worth!
Thursday night also marked my first choir practice with the acapella group onboard ‘Key of sea”. While a number of the group are still to arrive, it was nice to start off with only 10. I’m really enjoying singing again!
Friday night was my second night of babysitting for the week, this time with a family also from the US, who have a girl & boy [8 & 5]. The movie Madagascar was playing in the “international lounge” [popcorn included] so it was a pretty easy night of babysitting.
Securing the ship for sail is still quite a task during the day, so grateful for the team already onboard and their efforts in helping with the really heavy manual tasks.
Observations from week 2:
Shortening people’s names is a very Aussie thing and shouldn’t be attempted in an international community.
Most people on the AFM, at the moment, have either been here before or have been with Mercy ships for a long time, there are a lot of pre-existing relationships.
I’m currently walking 3 – 8 km’s per day [including many flights of stairs] yikes!
Sarcasm and the Australian sense of humour aren’t always understood or appreciated.
I’ve discovered that the ship doesn’t have stabilizers so we could be in for a rocky sail!
The ship doesn’t release the exact date/time of sail to prevent stowaways.