More information on the water crisis...

All right,  we are now allowed to have cold ship showers of 2 minutes or less - the Captain has a 41 second record of which he challenged us. :)

- We are still not allowed to do laundry
- We still do not have hot water
- And it's been asked to keep the following ryhme in mind when flushing:
           If it's yellow, let it mellow
           If it's brown flush it down

There's more though, our water consumption has been up around 80 tonnes a day compared to the 60ish we normally use???? When the Captain only took away the use of water to do laundry, asked the hospital (sterilizers and such), galley and a few other places to cut back we went down to 65 tonnes a day. However, when the hot water was shut-off, and we were not allowed to shower at all it went all the way down to 18 tonnes. I'd say some people aren't following the 2 minute ship shower rule...:) Furthermore, when we have to use paper products in the dining room it costs Mercy Ships upwards of $2000 USD over a couple of days. Money of course that could be much better spent, not to mention the environment...

Speaking of water, and on a different note; while you are praying about the above information would you pray also for our dive team. Currently, they can only dive during high or low tide as the current here is as strong as 8 knots and actually pulls them out to sea and is very dangerous. There is a lot of plastic that floats around here and our intake valves suck up the debris blocking the valves. We need the water to cool our systems for the engines, air conditioning, fire hoses and sprinklers. It is not a fun job - it is polluted, stinky and here in Sierra Leone - dangerous.   

Plastic and garbage that needs to be cleared from the intake valves

  


This is what the dive teams needs to clean of the bottom of the ship

 


More bags blocking the intake valves

 

Olly Peet (team leader of our diving team) in Benin

Tenki (Krio for thank you), for your prayers.

Lots of love,

Carol xx