London

Well London Is the last stop on my round about way to Africa. After having a few problems with phones I met up with my friend Colin who I had just met at Gateway and we headed back to his place where I was staying. He lives in probably one of the nicest parts of London, in Wimbledon with a nice big part near by and almost like a smaller town sort of vibe. On Saturday we headed into town to Hide Park where we met up with some other friends of mine I had met on the ship, Grace, Hannah and Natalie. We had a picnic lunch together and then just hung out and walked through the park and stopped for a cup of tea (so British). We eventually headed our separate ways and Colin proceeded to take me on a quick tour of all the touristy sites. We went past Buckingham Palace, Big Ben (Colin's favorite), Parliament building, Trafalgar square, the London eye and a few others. We then walked down the south side to Waterloo, to this little hole in the wall cafe that Colin knew about where they were having an open mic night and had some really good musicians and singers there. The thing that surprised both Colin and I was the amount of Christians in this place, it seemed like almost everyone we met and talked to in there was a Christian. So we had a great night listening to good music and having some great conversations.

The next day we had a bit of a lie in and then went to see Colin's parents as it was mother's day in England, we then just hung out for the afternoon before going to church. Then on Monday Colin had to go to a course for his work all day, so I decided to head over to Gerrards Cross to a place called Bulstrode Manor which is where the office for the mission organisation called WEC my parents work for and also where some friends of mine used to live is. It was a bit wet out that way but it was good to be able to see the beautiful old building and the surrounding grounds again, the last time I was there was when I was 5 so I didn't remember too much.

On Tuesday I decided to go and visit my friend Jon up north in Preston and stay the night up there (Yes yet another last minute travel arrangement change). So I caught the bus up there it was a bout a 6 hour trip and then met up with Jon and just hung out for the afternoon/evening it was great to catch up a bit. That night we went to one of his friends houses who is a Film student and had access to some movie that wasn't even out in the Cinemas yet so we watched that. Its called Geneva and is a bit of a strange movie because as far as I could see it didn't really have any story line and no real ending, but you can't complain when its free I guess. The next day Jon roped me into helping him out with handing out some fliers at his university for an upcoming event the Christian university group was putting on. It actually turned out to be good fun once I got the hang of what to say to get people to take the flier, but defiantly a new experience for me. Then in the afternoon we met up with a bunch of Jon's friends and went to the local Chinese buffet and stuffed ourselves. It was pretty good food although I must say only in England with you find a Chinese buffet that does fish and chips.

I then caught my bus back to London and hung out with him for the evening. then this morning we said our goodbyes as he went his course and I stayed to start packing before catching a train to the airport, which is where I am now writing this so the next time you will hear from me I will be in Benin (well hopefully at lest).

Philadelphia

Well guess what I had yet another last minute change to my travel schedule and decided to go down to Philadelphia for the day after I realised how close it was to New York. I caught the train down and was picked up at the station by my friend Megan and she then set about giving me the Philly tour. Our first port of call was to a little local restaurant to get a real “Philly” cheese steak, which was actually the first one I have ever had and I must say it was very greasy but quiet nice. We then headed off and picked up a large soft pretzel (I could start to see a trend appearing involving me eating a lot of food) and some drinks before heading on into down town. We found ourselves a park and proceeded to walk around the old part of the city looking at some of the old buildings. We then found ourselves at the Liberty Bell, which for those of you that don't know is a big old bell that was rung when America gained its independence among other things. Once we had finished walking around the old part of the city we jumped back into the car and headed over the University area where we stopped at a small cafe type place and had some bubble tea which is cold flavored tea with these little bubble balls in the bottom. We then headed over to China town for dinner at this great Malaysian restaurant called Penang which I loved having lived in Malaysia before it was great to have some food of that style and I must say it was good food. After dinner we drove back to the train station and said our goodbyes, all in all it was a great day hanging out with a friend. :)

New York

New York, New York oh New York, its defiantly a place you hear a lot about see a lot of in movies but would it live up to its name? Well I arrived after my flight from Seattle and after waiting a little while was greeted by my friend Jay from the ship. We went back to his place and I got my first taste of New York food as we ordered a large pizza, and it was good. The next day we went on our tourist sight seeing tour around the City. We first headed out to go and see the Statue of Liberty which Jay had actually never been to before. It was cool to look around and see it up close and find out more about how it was made. After that we continued on the ferry and went to Elis island, which is were they used to process all immigrants before they came into the US. And that was also cool to see and find out about that whole process, even though I am not from the US its was cool to found out some of the history of the country. Also while we were there it was St Patricks day and they had a group of Irish dancers that did a show there so that was cool to see as well. After that we went to see the museum of natural history, which was really cool but unfortunately we only had a short period of time there before it was closing time so we were only about to see a small amount of the large 4 level museum. We headed back to Jay's place and had dinner and then decided to stay in after originally planning to go back out, but we were both really tired after a lot of walking all day. Then on Thursday we planned on getting up and going early but ended up sleeping in late, which for those of you that know me and/or Jay wouldn't find that hard to believe. Then after our late start Jay had to go to School for a few hours so I headed back into town by myself and went back to finish off the Museum. Its a great museum and I highly recommend seeing it to anyone that goes to New York, I did have to pay for entry this time because this time I was there while they were fully open and busy unlike the other time we went when they were close to closing. I managed to complete the whole museum before Jay came to meet up with me at 4pm, so then we headed off to see the Empire State Building. Another well known site that people say you need to see while in New York, although I would say if you are tight on time you can skip this one. The building is very nice and looks great on the inside, but it costs $15 just to take the lift up to the top and I wasn't going to pay that much just for an elevator ride. After that we headed for the ferry to Statin island where we met up with 2 friends of Jay's and we headed to this group that Jay found through his Church which helps Liberians learn to read and write. I thought it was amazing that Jay had found a group like this after all the time we had both spent in Liberia so when he mentioned it I jumped at the chance to go and help out. We were there for about 2 hours and were just helping out 2 people each with going through workbooks they had to learn to read and write. The 2 that I was working were an older man named Morris and he was from Grand Bassa county in Liberia, which I have actually been to and it was funny because he did not believe me that I had been there until I started talking about the area and the surrounding counties. The other person I was working with was a woman from Serra Leon named Alice and even though she wasn't from Liberia I could relate a little bit because I had made friends from Serra Leon while on the ship. It was a great experience and brought back some good memories hearing them speak in Liberian English. After that was finished we caught the train into the famous Times Square were we stood and looked at all the pretty lights for a bit and just hung out in some of the cool shops they have there like ESPN sportszone and the M&M shop.

The next day was an early start with me having to leave at 6am to go to the airport, but it was good to sit in the airport and reflect a bit on my time in the US and the fact that I was actually a bit sad to be leaving. It was quiet funny as I sat there and heard on the TV that it was officially the first day of spring and I looked outside and it started snowing, after all the good weather they had while I was there.

Vancouver

Well I had a great time in Vancouver staying with my friends Tom and Cindy and also hanging out with some other friends Niki and Chris. It was good to just hang out for a few days with Tom and I went with him to work one day(he is a truck driver) and did deliveries around Vancouver which was a really good way to see the city and it was also good to hang out with Tom. Then on the Friday Tom and I meet up with Chris and we went snow shoeing which was actually a first for all of us. It was a great day out and heaps of fun exploring one of the local ski hills. After snow shoeing Niki came and picked up both me and Chris and then they took me to a Hockey game! It was loads of fun I love sports of all kind and it was my first hockey game I had been to. It was a game in the WHL (Western Hockey League) and it was between Vancouver and Everett. Not that it really affects me either way but Vancouver ended up losing 5-3. Then on Saturday Niki and Chris picked me up again we went out for breakfast with Niki's parents and then went off to play paintball. It wasn't the best day for it because it was raining and the paintball fields were all muddy, but it was still heaps of fun. We were there all afternoon and had a great time and there was surprisingly a lot of people there playing as well. After paintball we headed back to Tom and Cindy's place where we got together and had dinner which was nice to then just sit around and chat. Then on Sunday Niki picked me up and and took me to her church where I got to see her parents again (they are great fun ) and then after that we went out for lunch and went bowling. After that we picked up Chris and went to see a movie, we saw “Watchmen” which I would have to say I am disappointed with.

Anyway well that pretty much sums up my time in Vancouver after that I caught a bus to Seattle and then a flight to New

My Time in Revelstoke

My time in Revelstoke was very good and relaxing which is just what I needed as I was coming down with a cold but with some good rest was able to get over it very fast. After Nathan returned we set about seeing some more of the local area. We went to the flats, which believe it or not is a large flat area that is occasionally covered with water due to a dam further along the river. It was beautiful out and we even managed to get really close to a young deer without it running away. Unfortunately we have no photos because it was so cold that Nathan's camera would not work and as usual I had forgotten mine. Due to the cold we couldn't go as far as originally planned so we headed back to the local Damn to have a little look see, but because of the large amount of snow on the side of the road you could not see very much from the lookout.

Anyway I left on Tuesday at 04.30am on yet another greyhound bus(and I thought I was done with them) and I am now back in Vancouver.

Hanging out with Nathans Mum

Well I had a small change of plans from what originally had been planing to do here in Canada. You see unfortunately my friend Nathan found out that one of his friends back in his home town had died and he needed to go back for the funeral. So we left the island on Thursday and I was able to get in contact with some friends I have in Vancouver and we stayed the night there. My plan from there was to just stay on in Vancouver and just spend the rest of my time in Canada there, but my friends told me that if I was here I needed to come out to Revelstoke because if nothing else the drive here is just so Beautiful that I had to see it. So I left some of my stuff in Vancouver and we jumped back in Nathans beloved Land Cruiser and headed of on our drive. Now Revelstoke is about 7-8 hours from Vancouver, but we took the scenic route and it took us about 10 hours or so with a few small stops. I have to say that we had the most amazing weather for the drive just a clear day with blue skies the whole way, just driving through some of the most picturesque mountains you can find. Just so I could say I have been there Nathan took me on a little extra detour to the hottest place in British Columbia, I guess kind of the Canadian desert(which sounds kind of weird because I always picture Canada as really cold).

So we got here Friday night and Nathan's mum was here to greet us and had already prepared a meal for us. Then on Saturday we just went into the town for a bit and just walked around and went to a few shops and in the afternoon Nathan left for the funeral which is a further 4 hours away so he was going to spend the night and be ready for it the next day. So since then I have just been here in his house hanging out with Nathan's mum.

A Manly Time on the Island

After spending a day and a bit in Seattle Josh and I packed up our stuff and headed out on a road trip. We went north and crossed the boarded into Canada and met up with another friend of ours from the ship Nathan. Then we took a ferry across to Vancouver Island, where we met up with a friend of Nathan's named Chris who we were going to stay with and he was going to act as tour guide for us.

The first evening we were there we just hung out and watched a movie because we had all done alot of driving that day. Then on Sunday which was the next day we went along to Chris' church for both the morning and in the evening and in the afternoon we drove down south a little way on the island to meet up with some more of Nathans friends.

Our Manly adventures really kicked off when we decided to go and do some caving. Now this is a sport normally reserved for more summer type weather so we could be pretty well assured that we were the only crazy people going out to these caves. We drove a few hours to a place called Gold River where we stopped on the side of the road because the road to where we were going had not yet been plowed so we had to walk the rest of the way. We were walking through several feet of snow and it was also pouring with rain so it took a bit longer to get to the caves than it otherwise would have. Once we got to the general area it was hard to find the caves because of all the snow so we spent quiet a while walking around until we finally found a good entrance that was safe enough to go into. We managed to find our way through the cave even though we weren't quiet as fully equiped as we could have been although we did have a 3 headlamps between the 4 of us. We went through some smaller areas and eventually came out at a nice waterfall and then climbed up a little bit higher and found a small cave where we got comfortable as you can see in the picture of Josh below. After that we climbed out and headed off to go see a small little town of 300 people called Tahsis and find some food.

After our time in Tahsis we decided to try and head up the local mountain near where Chris lives in Comox. We got there at about 11pm and then we had to take a snow mobile ride about another 15 mins further up the mountain, but because it was dark and the snow was deep we had too many problems trying to get up so we gave up at about midnight and decided to come back another time. The next day we were pretty tired so we just rested and drove around a little bit and didn't do anything too crazy.

The day after that after doing a few things around town we decided to head up the mountain while it was still day light. So we packed up our stuff and got some great manly food to our night like steak and more steak. We got up there and although it was still hard riding with 2 people at a time plus backpacks on a one person sled we managed to get all our things up to the cabin where we were going to stay. I was the last one up there so by the time I got there Nathan had already got a fire going and it was nice a warm in the cabin. By the time we had everyone and all the stuff up at the cabin it was dark so we couldn't do anything outside so we played some cards then I cooked us dinner of steak and fried eggs. Then the next morning we had steak with scrambled eggs for breakfast so we were having a good balanced diet. After breakfast we decided to go explore up the top of the mountain which was called Forbidden Plato and is an old abandoned ski resort. So we had good fun snow mobiling around and then we met up with another few guys up the top one of which had a snow mobile as well and was snow boarding and he got Nathan to ride his snow mobile down and then tow him back up and then me and Chris took turns on his machine, which was heaps of fun.

For our rest of the time on the island we didn't do anything too crazy or manly we just kind of drove around and did some sight seeing which was good. We did try to drive to a really cool place called the cable cookhouse which is a building made entirely out of cables from thick logging cables to even thicker sea cables, but it was closed.

Meeting Friends I have never met

Well for those of you that don't know I am a little bit of a nerd at times and like to play some computer games. There was one computer game that I used to play a little bit too much, but from playing that game online I made a few friends and it was good because I was able to visit these friends. Two of the guys I know from the game own a pub in Everett in Washington, which is about an hour or so from where my friend Josh lives. So he was kind enough to drive me up to met these guys I was friends with but had never actually met. We had a bit of trouble but finally we found the elusive O'Finnigan's Pub, where it was good to finally put some faces to the names I knew. We had a good time just hanging out and chatting and playing a bit of pool and it was all in all a good evening.

Snowboarding in Seattle

Well this happened just over a week ago now, but I have been traveling and just have time to try and catch up on my writing.

Well I arrived on time in Seattle where I was greeted by my friend from Mercy Ships Josh. It was good to see him again, he took me back to his place which is a nice little house right on the water front with a great view that he rents for cheap off someone. I had arrived late so pretty well as soon as we got back and settled in we went to bed.

We awoke the next day with the goal of teaching me how to snowboard. Well I was looking forward to it I had only ever been skiing once and only seen snow about 5 times in my life so I was up for the challenge. Lucky for me Josh had decided he needed a new snowboard so this meant he now had a spare which I could use and he had boots that fit me as well. So we headed out and stopped to pick up Josh's friend Sarah and she had some snow gear for me to borrow which was good and then we all headed up the local mountain. Once we got there Josh gave me a quick lesson on how to strap into the board then we went up the ski lift and at the top he gave me a few more instructions on how to lean on the board and then off we went. I spent pretty much the whole first half of the course we were doing falling my way down the hill, but after a few more words of wisdom from Josh I found myself on my feet actually snow boarding most of the rest of the way down without falling too much. After that Josh took me to try and teach me to turn and be able to go down backwards which u need to do in snowboarding, but that didn't go so well I could turn one way but not the other so for the rest of the day I just went down the different slopes facing the one way but it was heaps of fun.

After all was said and done I thought my first attempt at snow boarding went ok and after now having tried both snowboarding and skiing once each I would have to say that I liked skiing a little bit more because I picked it up a bit easier. Although that been said ski boots are incredibly uncomfortable and snowboard boots are the oposite and are really comfortable.

Here is a couple of videos of the recent screening day that was held by the ship in Benin. So if you want to get a taste of what it is like to screen thousands of patients in one day to fill surgery spots for the next 10 months. Enjoy.

Screening Day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prJxp346a6U

February update
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmcKmdHenq0

My time in Iowa

Well my time has come to an end here in Iowa. Sorry that I haven't really written anything but I guess I just haven't done anything all that blog worthy. Not that I haven't had a great time here I have enjoyed every day, but for the most I have just been hanging out with my friend Vandi not doing too much special just having fun.

One thing I am really grateful for is the way Vandi's family really just welcomed me in for the few days I was here. They took me along the second day to a Birthday party for her uncle out at a restaurant and I got to meet both her grandparents while here and even hang out and play some soccer with her brothers and sister.

One special thing we did get to do is because Vandi is a student in culinary school at the moment is her Chef was holding a special wine tasting evening and 3 course dinner and he let Vandi and I come along for free. The wine tasting was first and all the wines came from a local Vineyard that was still fairly new. There were a few wines that I liked but I am not a big wine drinker. They let us try 9 different wines before dinner then another 2 desert wines after dinner. The dinner was a seafood and pancakes theme because it was international pancake day. Each course had 3 options to choose from and for the starter I had a seafood pancake, which was a crepe filled with 3 different sorts of fish and shellfish. For the main course I had a nice piece of salmon on a bed of open lasagna with asparagus and green beans. Then for desert there was a choice of 3 different filled crepes and I chose the one with raspberry and lemon and whipped cream. All in all it was a great evening and excellent food and I got to meet some of Vandi's class mates as well as her Chef.

Now I am just sitting here in the Des Moines airport waiting to be able to board my plane. The weather today is not that good its very over cast and has been raining a lot, but is much better than the predicted ice rain and possible snow, which if it had come I possible would not have been able to fly out. I am heading to Seattle next so when I post this I will be there.