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.