Well this month here in Texas has just flown by I can't believe its over already and yet at the same time its like I have been here for ages and made some really good friends.
Over the last month I have been doing the Mercy Ships course called Gateway. Now to be totally honest I didn't really want to have to come all the way to the US and do this course, I figured it was just a waste of time stopping me from getting back to the ship earlier. To say that my point of view on this has now changed would be an understatement, I now am not only happy that I came and did the course I will highly recommend it to anyone thinking about working with Mercy Ships.
The course was split up into 3 main parts the 3rd been optional which I did not do. The first part was 3 weeks long and I guess you could call it the classroom phase. In these 3 weeks we had a variety of speakers from all over with heaps of different experiences, both people that work with Mercy Ships and others. We had classes on such things as Worldviews, Listening to God, Working with the poor, living in community and different personality types, and many more. My eyes were defiantly opened over this time and I got something out of everyone of the classes, although I was quiet exhausted by the end of it (yes sitting down for 8-9 hours a day can be exhausting). In this 3 weeks there was also time made for us doing the gateway to meet all the leaders of the organisation and sit down and ask any questions we wanted. This was very good as now I have a better understanding of the people leading the organisation and I can better trust any decisions they make.
The second phase would be the BST or Basic Safety Training. This went for 1 week and talk about a packed week. We started off with learning basic firefighting and fire safety with an emphasis on shipboard fires. The first day was all theory and then the next day we went and put what we had learnt into practice. We went down to one of the open fields on the property and they had a large shipping container set up for us to practice with. We all donned full firefighting gear including a SCBA (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus) pack and proceeded to learn how to put out all different sorts of fires including wood, diesel, gas, electrical as well as learning how to rescue a victim from inside the container. After the practical we then had to go back to the classroom and complete an exam on everything we had learnt. The next phase of the BST was CPR and first aid, which was a very full day as we did it all in 1 day and its normally a 2 day course. I found it quiet easy as I was already qualified in CPR and first aid from different organisations one of which was the course we were doing, so even though I may have dosed off once or twice I still managed to pass the test with 100%. The next day we looked at living on a ship and safety and responsibility of living on board. The day after we did a whole day of theory on what to do in emergency situations on a ship and all about the emergence equipment available and how to use it. Then for our last day we went to the local Junior College and used the pool there to put into practice what we had learnt about. We learnt how to use Survival/Immersion suits as well as life jackets and getting in and out of a life raft while in the water and how to flip a life raft back over if its overturned. All in all a very full week where I learnt a lot of neet skills and got to practice them.
The 3rd phase of gateway is the field service in the Dominican Republic. This part is optional and I am not doing it as I am visiting some friends and then going to the Ship.
I am currently sitting in a bus stop somewhere in Texas after already traveling all day I have an overnight section still to go and then I will hopefully make it to my friends place in Montrose Colorado.
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