On the Africa Mercy!!

We've been official crew of the MV Africa Mercy for about 24 hours now. . . the process getting here was a challenge!!

Because of strife within the city of Conakry, we had to change our service project to a location nearer to the ship.  We painted at a school for the deaf. The school was located within a block of the presidential palace (Guinea's equivalent of the White House) so we saw several police and military escorts.  We have a couple of very artistic people in our group who designed and painted murals on many of the walls.  Then in the second week tensions eased and we were able to move farther north in the city.  This allowed us to work at a Christian school, telling stories, doing crafts and playing with the children.  It's amazing how the children showed such joy in the face of what Westerners would describe as severe poverty. . .



On Friday we made our way to the ship.  There are pictures below of the whole ship and then one of the gangway.  When you look at the gangway picture, our cabin window is the one you see on the top of the "S" right next to the gangway net.  When we heard where our cabin was, we were worried that it would be noisy, but it is quite the opposite.  There is a fire wall on one side of us so we hear nothing from the cabin on that side and it seems the cabin on the other side is not currently occupied.  There is good sound insulation from the gangway so it was pretty quiet!!!

We are now reachable by phone.  The number to the ship is 954-538-6110.  This is a US number that works via satellite to the ship so the charges are only as if you were calling the US.  Our cabin number is 4433.  Quiet time is from 10 pm to 7 am here, so we aren't supposed to chat on our phone then (the normal sound carries a great deal!).  We are 5 hours ahead of Central time (our 10 pm is your 5 pm). 

We tried to upload more pictures from our field service but the internet connection is SO slow right now that they won't come up.  Maybe late in the evening it will be better and we can share!

Blessings,

Matt and Denise