Our Internet Server Is Going Down...

... thank God it's not the ship...lol

We won't be having Internet access for the next little while! NO email, no blog and no phones, so be patient kay, and I'll be back as soon as I can with more news about the RSA and Mercy Ships.

Until next time...mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance! Jude 1:2

God be with you!

"Serenity, Peace & Beauty"

I do LOVE the sea, I mean ocean; actually, I mean water - I love water! Here are just a few of the reasons why!



Thanks for all the great photos Shelly! :)

Twice Today!

I wrote earlier that I was blessed by being able to enjoy "whale watching"! Well, the crew and I were blessed during a prayer time as well...Many of us went out to the bow at 1800 hrs to worship and pray for the "Memorandum of Understanding" that has still not been signed giving our advance team quite a challenge and a fair amount of grief since we're in the 11th hour! Well, during a prayer time where we were specifically praying for some conclusion with the government the Captain came on the overhead and announced that he had just gotten word that one part had been signed and our advance team were feeling positive that we would have the entire memorandum taken care of soon. We were jubilant and went into worship with praise and thanksgiving! Would you too pray for this important aspect of our presence in the Republic of South Africa (RSA) to be finalized asap? Did I mention that worshipping on the bow, hearing the splash of the waves and looking at the stars in the sky is an awesome way to spend time with fellow crew and God! A sail just doesn't get much better than that!

P.S. I actually even had a third recognized blessing today, Wow! - The Gurkhas got up at 4 a.m. this morning and made us curried potatoes, garbanzo beans and chapatis. Yum! I never thought I would like curry for breakfast (although my mom loves it anytime of day), but I loved it so much, I ate it for lunch too! :)

It Was Especially For Me - I'm Sure Of It!

I saw one today at lunch on the bow. Yes, a sea creature! A big beautiful whale and he put on a show for us for over a period of half an hour with a gran finale of waving his tale many times in one bout and then a huge splash! Oh, how wondrous it is to see ocean life close-up! It always leaves me in awe of the amazing creatures God created! I was blessed today and I know it! :) Thank you God!








Pictures by Rutger Z. and Shelly D.
"Thank God from whom all blessing flow...!"

What's New at Sea?

Well let me tell you:
- We are sailing in the Indian Ocean now and not the Atlantic!
- We are sailing towards our final destination of Durban.
- We have changed time zones twice and are in the UCT+2 hrs time zone, or 9 hours ahead of "home" (for those of you that are slightly sensitive to my reference of home...lol
- We are in warmer waters so have seen more sea life these past few days i.e. fish, birds, whales - I'm still waiting to see these creatures myself, but being that we are going into winter who knows...:(
- We have travelled approx. 2500 nautical miles
- The ship is rolling gently - Thank you God!

My roommate Gabriela (aka Gabby) and I standing on the bow (looking like a couple of seals).

Again, Gabby and I happy to be on the bow (it is closed during rough seas).

The Indian Ocean during a calm sail. I do love being sailing!

Me enjoying a calm sail...

Why do they call it a sail when we don't use sails?

It's Carnival Time Onboard the M/V Africa Mercy!

What does a crew of many do during a long sail? They have very talented people who organize shipwide activities! This one was coordinated and organized by the Academy's very own Creative Arts Director, Shelly D. She is unbelievably talented and creative and I am constantly in awe of her imagination & creative abilities! There were games designed and created by the students and teachers, cookie decorating, craft circle, face/arm painting (I had cherries painted on my arm), tattoo artist (I had a butterfly on my cheek :)), bobbing for apples, pin the ball on the Dolphins nose, prizes for the scored games, and it all ended with a rainbow pinata (made by Shelly) for all the kids. I manned bobbing for apples, aka, Bosching (unknown word to me) and spitting in the water was kept to a minimum - thanks Olly! It was great fun! :)





There are 10 more pictures I've been trying to load on and off all day, but they just won't load...I don't why??? So keep scrolling back because chances are they could just show up another day...:)
Blessings to you all!
Love and hugs,
Moi xx

"Under/Over The Sea"

Once a month in the Academy we have "Spirit Day." We the staff, decide at the start of the school year what the theme for "Spirit Day" will be and it is always a ton of fun. Our first one was held on Friday, and as the title indicates we had quite a few sea creatures. There was seaweed, sea cucumber, jelly fish, ships, sailors, fisherman, icebergs, mermaids, octopuses, swimmers, the entire cast of Spongebob, pirates, sunsets and many more delightful sea wonders! I was Nemo and there were 3 of us - can you tell which Nemo I am? :)





Okay, in my defense, I may not be the cutest AND I may have my stripes on backwards and I may look like a white whale and not a fish, but I am the only one with a tail and the saying on my back "Just Keep Swimming!" :)



Here are some of the other ocean ideas:



















"JUST KEEP SWIMMING!" :)

I Feel Much Better...

...and enjoyed this beautiful sunset as we entered the coast of South Africa!

Rutger Z. took beautiful sunset! Thanks for sharing Rutger!

I Feel "Green!"

A little surreal, a little exciting, a little scary and yes a little seasick as we near South Africa...The last thing I wanted to be this time around is sick, ever! However, I am horribly seasick(does that count as sick??). I love being at sea and don't usually experience seasickness;however, I, for the first time know what it is to feel "green" for more than 2 days now - Yuck! I regularly share my meals with the toilet(so I've stopped eating), have a painful headache (so stopped talking - no comments please :)) and most muscles(even ones I didn't know I had like the bottoms of my feet) on my body hurt. Oh yeah, did I mention my belly and the skin around my upper arms have found their own way to move around - I think that alone should allow this to be called an exercise class and not only will I lose weight from not eating - how about getting fit for the extra moves the extra weight on my body makes??? hahaha! So if you would be kind enough to pray for me to be in good health during my time serving Him; I would be most grateful!

We are on day 10 of being at sea. The seas are quite rough; the waves lift us 5-7.5 meters high with a wind factor of 8, both of which are considered quite rough. We have experienced force 9 conditions(force 12 is hurricane conditions). The seas are expecting to become smooth again sometime late today until we reach the horn near The Cape of Good Hope (also known as Cape Town). We will probably have another rough time going around the horn because of the shape of the ship(it was originally a ferry vessel, not built for sea).

We are on our way to Durban and expect to arrive there sometime around the beginning of September. We are taking the entire Academy off the ship and staying on land at a place called Appelsbosch(an abandoned College Campus approx. an hour and a half from Durban - see map on the sidebar) until December when they hope to have our new generators installed and other necessary repairs done. Out of our approx. 450 crew only 120ish will be living at Appelsbosch of which approx. 80 are school related - interesting aye? There will be approx. 80 techs working and living on the ship (Dad's are often part of the technical crew and will come to Appelsbosch on the weekends to be with their families as children cannot live on the ship when we're in dry-dock). With only one deck and a few selected areas getting ventilation and electricity they have had to move everything that's staying and moldable to deck 4. My cabin is going to be used as storage for hospitality so I was lucky that I could leave what I don't need for 5 months in my room packed up and secured. This whole experience is new for Mercy Ships and is a lot of extra work for the crew to help get everything ready to be stored without air and temperature control for the next four and half months or so.
In addition to the packing that has to be done because of moving to land and moving cabins; we're sailing, so have also had to secure everything. I'm sure you can imagine with waves that are as high as 7.5 meters why we need to secure everything. :) It's been a big job getting myself organized to pack my stuff to another cabin (which I love by the way; I have a large porthole for the whole 2 weeks of the sail :)), secure both cabins and pack and secure my office and the storage room for the academy. All in a day's work...:)

It will be interesting and I'm sure rewarding to see the differences at being able to utilize all of our operating rooms. I'm thrilled that we (you, I and MS) will be able to help so many more during and outreach and look forward to it with anticipation!

God bless you!

Enjoy the pics...talk to you soon!

Pictures above and below taken by Rosemary W. The spray from the water creates a rainbow effect.

The rainbow created by the spray is easier to see in this one.

Picture above by Shelly D.

"Pirate Day"

I wasn't there, but I thought my great nephew and nieces would enjoy these fun photos from Pirate Day! :)








And these are the kinds of things the M/V Africa Mercy crew during a unusually long sail - Ships ahoy matey!

As We Prepare To Sail...

...Mercy Ships CEO Sam Smith Sends Us Off With A Note Of Encouragement...Thank you Sam! :)

Subject Line:
Godspeed and Thank YOU!

Africa Mercy Crew,

The past 6+ months in Togo have now come to an end. It is a time of sadness, yet celebration, for all that we have been able to accomplish in God’s name. Lives have been saved and the futures of so many Togolese people are brighter because of your efforts. The final statistics are being computed and analyzed and we will be providing this data to you when it is finished. Please know, preliminary information shows this to have been a very successful Field Service and you should be commended for overcoming all the challenges thrown your way to make this Field Service a success! Well done, everyone!

We are now at sea and that gives us some time to begin preparations for our South Africa visit. There have been many people working hard behind the scenes to make our initiatives come off with minimal impact on our Crew. That being said, you should be prepared for some challenges as we enter Durban and began to transition Crew ashore. We would ask that you be prepared and ready to provide some grace to our team as they will have many unforeseen challenges arise during this time. Hopefully, we can all stay focused on how great life will be once the ship has new generators, master control unit, new air conditioning ☺ (YES!), etc. Our National Offices and IOC Resource Development teams are still hard at work trying to pay for all of this and we do ask you to continue to pray for funding to come forth to keep us from incurring additional debt. We are so close to retiring the debt on the original note for the Africa Mercy and we know that God continues to shine light on the efforts to secure this funding. We must stay focused and do our part in this effort, reassured by the fact that HE will provide the rest. We serve an awesome, God!

On behalf of the Mercy Ships organization world wide, God Bless and Thank YOU for your service to the poor! Smooth sailing!

- Sam

I've Been Getting A Lot Of "Undeliverable" Email Returned???

For reasons unknown I might add - most frustrating!! As a result, I Decided To Post The "Undeliverable Email" For Those Of You Whose Email Was Returned To Me.

Dear all,

Thank you all for making my trip home a very memorable visit. I have seen many of you and have had a great time catching-up! For those of you I haven’t had a chance to see and/or phone; I am truly sorry and really feel the void of not catching up with you. Please don’t take this lack of personal contact personally as I just could not get out to see everybody in the short time I’ve been home and I miss the fact that I didn’t get a chance to see or talk to you; terribly! All in all, this was an unexpected trip, so I feel very blessed for the entire visit home and for my calling to work on the ship and be away from you all, but supported in more ways than one by all of you, in fact, I am in awe of that fact and how God has placed me here “for such a time as this.” Does it get any better?? It doesn’t have too! If I didn’t get a chance to see or talk to you this visit you are first on my list my next visit!!!! And if I have seen you, but haven’t had time to visit with you – I’m sorry! :(

I would like to take this time to give you my new email address carol.tanzola@gmail.com and of course you can still reach me at carol.tanzola@mercyships.org, so anytime you would like to drop me a line and say hellllo, please do.. I have been working on a blog carolsinafrica.blogspot.com and invite you to take a look at it and follow along as Mercy Ships, you and I continue to give hope in West Africa. On the right sidebar there will be information on how to sign-up and receive my blog automatically in your email…I. will be finished creating this blog by Sept. 1st so you may want to wait until then to check it out…

Thank you all for being a part of my life and supporting me in such a way that I can go and serve all the while knowing that I am loved, supported and encouraged by my friends, family, church and sponsors; it makes the difference!

Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance! vs Jude 1:2

Love and hugs,

♥ Carol xox :)

P.S. I’ve been home now approx. 3 weeks and have just gotten my computer back #@!*&!!!?? Anyway, I am home safe and sound although I did have a trying time of it - left Friday morning and got to Togo Tuesday night!! It was challenging, but like I said I’m back on the ship safe and sound now!

P.S.S. We left Togo on Sunday morning (on our way to South Africa to get our generators replaced and other work done) and crossed the equator this morning at 2.45am. So far the sail has been pretty smooth, but they're expecting it to get rough in 3 or 4 days and then much rougher going around the horn. I'll let you know. Guess what, I'm in a 2 berth for the sail and Gabby (one of my previous roommates who I get on really well with) and I are sharing again. We both feel sooooo blessed to be in a 2 berth and we have a very large porthole - we're both very happy. It's great! I feel like the sail in general is God saying to the crew "well done good and faithful servants...." Anyway, I will keep you posted – watch for updates on my blog! Ta, ta

For Those Of You Who Asked Me To Post The Benin Statistics

The following is a summary of a small part of what we did in Benin during the 2009 outreach. These statistics alone cannot convey what happened while we were in Benin. These statistics don’t tell of the friendships built and the hope shared, they don’t show the many local people who (called day workers) worked on the ship and spent time with us. They don’t tell you how many orphans were played with, or about the prisoners who finally had someone to talk to, or churches who invited us in to have fellowship with them. These figures are only a small part of what is achieved through Mercy ships, but hopefully they give a small idea of the scale of what you and I are doing here:
996 reconstructive and plastic surgeries;
185 cleft lip and palate repairs;
1161 general surgeries;
2 local surgeons trained;
3,521 cataracts removed;
570 other eye surgeries (pterygia and stabismus);
2 local eye surgeons trained;
33,851 eye evaluations and other treatments;
7,083 pairs of sunglasses distributed;
5,689 pairs of reading glasses distributed;
18 community eye field workers trained;
154 obstetric fistulas repaired;
4 local surgeons trained in fistula repair;
231 orthopedic operations;
10,175 dental patients seen;
794 dental hygiene patients;
13,174 oral health education;
25 oral health teachers trained;
2 dental assistants trained;
28 patients received palliative home care;
6 Burkitt's Lymphoma patients received palliative support;
19 families trained in wound care;
10 agricultural staff trained;
23 local agricultural trainees;
1 hostel constructed for agricultural college;
19 mental health workers trained;
119 church & community leaders trained in mental health;
50 prison officers and workers trained in mental health;
2 church leaders conferences attended by 602 attendants;
and 12,000 people watched the Jesus Film and many made a commitment to Christ.

Wow! That's a whole lot of people. Even though it’s NOT all about the numbers nearly 80,000 people have been directly exposed to hope and healing brought by the medical facilities of the M/V Africa Mercy. A great many made a personal commitment to Christ as a result of the love and care they were shown whilst receiving medical attention onboard, or at one our mobile clinics. So thank you for commissioning me to serve our Lord in this very humbling way. Thank you for all your prayers, encouragement and support! I could not be here if I didn’t know I was being lifted up by all of you!

We have said goodbye (for now) to Benin and as of February 2010 have been docked in Lomé, Togo, West Africa with the same goal in mind - to help the poor and needy as we can while here and all the while glorifying God by being Love in Action.