All Saints Church Childwall

Hi Folks

This is my first attempt at a general e-mail to keep you up to date with me and the Africa Mercy.  I hope you will find it of interest.

I joined the Ship on the 15th October in Cotonou Benin – West Africa – almost six weeks ago now.  One of my cases joined a couple of days later – but that is another story. This time I have ‘signed on’ as a second engineer.  There are also two other seconds at present, which is good as it eases the work load.  My main responsibilities cover engineering outside of the engineroom but we are working as a team and I spend a lot of my time ‘down below in the engines spaces’.  My initial commitment is until the end of February but there is a strong chance I may stay longer as some staff are due to take leave and I may need to cover.

The Ship is coming to an end of a ten month outreach here in Benin. It has been very successful  with literally thousands of people having had life changing operations.  There was a Presidential Dinner the other evening were all the crew were invited to the Palace for a celebration to mark the end of our time here.  I actually did not make it as I was Duty Engineer and needed to stay on board.  It was apparently a big success and there was food sent for those who were on duty.

We are now two weeks away from sailing and preparations are now under way to prepare the Ship for sea.  The last operations were carried out yesterday in the Hospital and the last patients will leave the Ship next weekend.  At the end of that time we will close down Hospital systems and begin to secure them for sea.  Our work in the engine rooms is still continuing and we have work on which will last until we sail.

In the midst of that we are also involved in the preparations of main engines and cooler systems for the sail.  Our air conditioning systems continue to be a challenge and a lot of time and effort is going into keeping the Ship cool.  This is always a challenge as we are coming to end of the wet season here and things are beginning to ‘warm up’ – from hot to ‘very hot’.

I have been ashore a few times here – once for a Chinese meal, African style, which was ‘interesting’. I was invited to a baptism service at a local church last Sunday with a group from the Ship.  The day started with a long drive into the country to a lake where the ceremony took place.  The Chief Executive of the Ship was asked to help – fortunately he had had the foresight to take a change of clothes, as he had to wade in and help with the ‘total immersion’ – not for the faint hearted.

This was followed by a service back at the Church building which was a covered area with chairs laid out. The choir of young people led the ‘really energetic’ worship with the help of the music section on drums.  The service was mostly in French but there was also some translation for me and others who’s French was not up to it.After the Service we were treated to savoury cakes and cold drinks. By that time most people had exhausted their own water bottles, so were very grateful for the drink.

At present there are over four hundred crew on board but that will deminish as a lot of  staff will leave after the Hospital is shut down.  Some of the ‘long term’ Hospital staff stay on to do other jobs for the sail and time in Tenerife.  Our sail there will take about ten days and we are due there just before Christmas.  We have already organised ‘sea watches’ and I am due to take the ’4 to 8′ engine room watch for the first part of the sail.  Our time in Tenerife will be taken up with maintenance and safety surveys and some project work.  We have a project team arriving after Christmas to help with the work but our time is always busy there.  It will be  nice to be in ‘Santa Cruz’ again and I will start ‘running’ again there also – some of the crew run here but I find it just too hot.

We had an Engineering Department photo take last week – which I have included.

best wishes

Dave