Diver Rescue Training

As most of you know I am one of the lucky people that get to dive underneath the ship and help to clean out and maintain the intake vents for the ships salt water cooling system that keep the generators and air conditioning running.

A few weeks ago we had a drill to practice what would happen in case of an emergency with a diver been injured under the ship and how we could get them out of the water and treated best. The drill went really well and it was a good learning experience for everyone envolved as it was something new to almost all of us. Here are some pictures that show the events of the drill.

Getting ready for the drill

Jumping in

Waiting for the drill to start

Captain briefing everyone on what is going to happen

Brave volunteers jumping in to help out

Me pretending to be unconscious

Getting positioned in the rescue basket

Taking off my dive gear, ready to pull me out

Getting lifted up by the fork lift

Almost out

And safely on land.

Unfortunately not too much more than a week after we had this drill I found myself diving to save the piece of equipment that had saved me during the drill. There was a bit of an accident and our forklift ended up going for a swim. I got to be apart of the rescue effort as 2 of us dove in the murky water to find it on the ocean floor and attached a crane to it so that it could be pulled out. Needless to say its back to the drawing board on what we will do in case of needing to pull a diver out of the water.

(No Persons or animals where hurt in this forklift accident)

Update from Brisbane

Well I guess I have been meaning to write an update to you all pretty much the whole time I have been home, but I am just getting around to it now. First off I want to say thank you so much for the prayers and support my family and I have received over this time, it has really made all the difference in the world.

For those of you that might have missed my last update and were unaware I have been back in Australia over the past 5 weeks after leaving the ship suddenly due to the much unexpected passing of my father. Although coming home for a reason such as this it has still been good to be able to catch up with old friends as well as family members that I haven't seen in a while.

So what have I been doing for the past 5 weeks or so you might ask. Well first of all we were very busy organising the memorial service for my Dad which ended up going very well and a lot of people where able to come and share the day with us. Since then I have been doing my best to try and help my mum out with all the different paperwork and government departments that she had to notify of the death as well as transferring and unsubscribing from all the memberships of different things my Dad had (who knew someone could be a member of so many different things). Also I have been trying to catch up with as many people as possible in my time home and that has been good. I am also going for my motorbike drivers license this week to hopefully make things a bit easier if and when I want to look at getting a bike to get around on next year. One of the bigger things I have been working on while home though is I have actually become a part time travel consultant with a christian travel company called Integrity Travel. The idea behind this is I can work from on the ship when I have spare time and also be there to help my friends and fellow crew members on the ship when they need to travel somewhere. Also it is a chance for me to hopefully earn a little bit of commission and help support my stay on the ship. So if anyone needs any help with travel somewhere or even if you want to book a holiday or something like that let me know and I will do my best to help you out. The website for the company is www.integritytravel.com.au and my email address for travel bookings is timbensontravel@gmail.com

So I will be heading off back to the ship this coming Tuesday the 28th at 6am, which has really come up fast on me I thought 6 weeks at home would be a little while but it has just flown by. I will be flying to Durban in South Africa as the ship sailed just after I left it and is now down there in dry dock getting the main power generators replaced. For those of you that remember I mentioned it before that the ship would be doing this. It will be in South Africa for the rest of the year as it is a big job and a hole has to be cut in the side of the ship to allow the old generators to come out and the new ones to go in. In other news with the ship, I have actually just been offered a new position on board. They have asked me if I would be willing to take on the role of Staff Purser. For those of you that don't know what a purser does on board a ship, he is the person in charge of all supplies coming to and from the ship as well as all customs and immigration for all the crew, also looking after all arrivals and departures from the ship (and for our ship that is alot). Also on our ship the purser oversees the reception area of the ship that takes care of answering the phones and email as well as monitoring the fire panel which is the ships warning system for fires. So needless to say its a big job and involves much more than I have just said here, so I am taking my time to decide. I am leaning towards taking the position after thinking and praying about it as well as talking it over with some friends, but I am not going to make my final decision until I have a chance to chat with the guy I will be taking over from back at the ship.

So yeah that's pretty much me at the moment, just trying to frantically work out what I need to get done in these last few short days before heading off back to my home on the ship.

Praise God in Everything

Well at about 4.30pm my time today I got some really bad news. My Dad had collapsed while on a tour in Iceland and had to be rushed to hospital for emergency surgery to remove blood clots from his lungs. He made it through the surgery and is now in the ICU. My mum is with him, but there is no one else there as they had just taken a cruise to Iceland.

After hearing this news I didn’t really know what to think or do. So I spent the next little while getting in contact with my mum and getting an update and then trying to get in contact with as many other family and friends as possible so that they could join in prayer and support. Then I went to dinner and that must have been the quietest I have been at a meal in a long time (apart from breakfast when it’s early). After the meal I went back to get some more updates and try to contact some more people. Then I went to bible study group I have on board with this great group of guys that are just amazing. It started at about 7.30 and they were so supportive and we just shared and prayed till 10pm and it was just what I needed.

You might ask where the title of this post comes in, well you see I went and made myself a cup of tea after the meeting with the boys and I was wondering around the ship and decided to go outside because it was quite cold inside. I went up to the top deck of the ship and as I was climbing the last stairs something came to mind that had been said by our managing director here on the ship not that long ago. He had said something along the lines of “Praise God in everything” and at the time he said it there were a few families that were going through some tuff times and had to leave the ship and it had really hurt the community, but he encouraged us that the best response to this was to praise God. So after remembering this that is exactly what I did I went to the back of the ship and look out over the water and just started singing praises to God. And you know what it was one of the most amazing times I have had with God in my life just standing there with a breeze blowing and a cup of tea in my hand singing my lungs out to God. Then I got to singing “My God is and Awesome God” and that was it I just started crying my eyes out, but it was strange the more I cried the louder I wanted to sing and it was just one of the most amazing feelings ever.

So my Dad definitely isn’t out of the woods yet by any stretch of the imagination, but I just wanted to let you all know this, no mater what praise God in everything good or bad.

It's been a while so here is an update

Hello Everyone,

Well it really has been a while since I last sat down and wrote to you all. I have been incredibly busy over the past period here on the ship as 3 weeks ago I took over a second job on board the ship. So I am now not only the sales manager taking care of the ship shop and café affairs, but I am also filling in as the IS manager for the ship. What is IS you might ask well you are probably more familiar with the term IT which here on the ship covers everything to do with computers, printers, scanners and the phone system. So to say the lest the last few weeks have been a steep learning curve for me as I have been working long hours trying to help out as much as possible in our already short staffed IS department.

How did it happen you may ask that I of all people have ended up been the IS manager when I actually have no official background in IT. Well, why I was chosen I am not completely sure about, but the reason someone was needed to take over the position until a permanent replacement could be found is because the old manager had to go home do to health reasons of her husband who was also serving on board. So if you could keep them in your prayers as they are still waiting on some test results now that they are back home.

One thing that has really kept me busy over the past 2 weeks is we are currently working on upgrading the email server for the whole organisation of Mercy Ships. This is a huge project, but one that is really needed as our old email system is an antique by IT terms. We are fortunately nearing the end of it which I am really excited about as it will mean I can hopefully work a little bit less in IS and do some more of my other job in the sales department.

One thing I am really looking forward to is I am going to get to see my whole family together for the first time since 2008. My Mum, Dad, Brother and Sister will all be coming to visit me on the ship at the end of this month. They will be staying on board for a week and then we will all be travelling to Ghana which is the country next to Togo and going up north to where my grandparents, my Mum’s parents used to live as missionaries. This should be a great time for my family together and a much needed break for me as I am going to be ready for a break by the end of this month.

Looking ahead we still don’t know very much about what is going to happen when the ship goes to South Africa in August, but we do know that we will be going and getting the much needed work done to the ship. There are still a lot of smaller details as well as some big ones that need to be sorted out before the ship leaves to sail down there, so please remember this in your prayers. Also the advance team for the ship that is down in South Africa trying to prepare things for the ship could use some extra prayer as they are having trouble meeting with people, because everyone is so focused on the world cup currently.

Well that’s about it for now, sorry it’s been so long. Please feel free to write to me and tell me how you are doing I would love to hear about your lives as well.

Tim.

Giving Blood

So just last week on Thursday Naomi who works in the lab on board passed me in the hallway just before lunch time and says “Oh I’ve been looking for you do you have time to pop down the lab and give us a unit of blood” (or at least something like that). You see this might not seem like a very normal thing to ask in a passing hallway conversation or even a very casual way of asking it, but you see it’s just how life here on board is. I know that if it’s been more than 8 weeks since the last time I gave blood, that at pretty much any time they might contact me to come and give a unit of blood. The way it works on board is we don’t actually have a blood bank or anything of the sorts. So what we do is if a patient needs to receive some blood then the lab tech will look through a list of people willing to donate and find a match for that patient and the blood will be taken straight from the crew member and given to the patient just minutes later. Sometimes the blood is for a patient who is just on the ward and might need a transfusion to just help them along a bit, but most of the time it seems that blood is needed for a patient that just currently in the operating room/theatre been operated on. This was the case when I donated last Thursday. The person I was donating to is a 19 year old girl who was having a major plastics type surgery and was loosing a lot of blood. I was the first person to donate to her so that was all the more encouragement to bleed as fast as possible so that they could get the blood into surgery as soon as possible. I am not sure how much blood she ended up needing, but when I had finished donating they were saying that she might need up to 6 people to make donations for her to be able to make it through the surgery.

So as the sales manager on board the ship I don’t get too involved with what goes on down in the hospital as I am busy with my other work, but its good to know I can still be involved in such a crucial way like this and it helps make me feel connected to what is going on downstairs in the hospital.

Election Day

Well today is the day of Togo's national election. So for all of us here on the ship we have spent the day inside without leaving in case things go bad the captain wants to be better safe than sorry. As far as we have heard today there has not been too much to report on the election so I assume that means its all been going well which is good news as we have been praying for this for a while now. One of the main reasons we are been so cautious is that the last national election Togo had didn't go so well and there are still refugees in neighbouring countries from that time. The real test of how things will be is going to be in over the next week as it come up to the date that the results are due to be announced. So please join me in praying that this will be a quiet and peaceful next week especially when the actual result is announced. Don't worry about anyone here on the ship though, we have alot of plans in place and are taking the safest approach to this time possible so if something does come up we should be fine.



Anyway just letting you all know what is happening here in Togo at the moment so please just keep the whole election process in your prayers.

Becoming a Diver

As some of you may remember I have previously talked about wanting to become certified in diving so that I can help out in performing cleaning and maintenance tasks on the bottom of the ship. I have decided that now is the best time for me to do this as 1. There are lots of diving schools here in Tenerife and 2. The dive team is going to be a bit shorter on people this next period while the ship is in Togo, with there been only 3 divers left on board and all 3 of them have other full time jobs as well. I am not yet sure how often divers will be needed to be used in Togo as we will have to wait and see the port and how bad the water and rubbish situation is. While in Benin though divers were needed to be used as much as 2 or even 3 times a week (Togo should be better than this).

I have contacted some local dive schools to see what sort of price they could offer me to get my PADI(Professional Association of Diving Instructors) certified open water diver certificate. This is a lifetime certification and allows me to dive anywhere in the world pretty much. I was shocked at the response I got from one company as they replied to me offering me the course for 183 Euros which is down from their regular price of 395 Euros. I feel like this might be a little hint from God telling me that I am doing the right thing.

I don't normally like asking for money, but this is something that I never planned for in my original budgeting and thus I didn't budget for it (funny how that works). So I was wondering if there was anyone who would like to sponsor me for a part of the cost of my diving course.

For information on how to support me go to http://tiatiminafrica.blogspot.com/2008/12/support-tim.html

Or if you would just like to put money directly into my bank account on the ship go to http://www.mercyships.org/page/outreach/view/crewmates/Timothy

I am planning on doing the course sometime in the next 1.5 weeks before the ship leaves Tenerife. There are a few other guys who also want to do this course and help out with the dive team on the ship, but they are having trouble working out the best time to do it as they have to work around their work schedule to get the 4 days to do the course. So please pray that we can find a way for them to also have time to do the course before the ship leaves.

So What are we doing in Tenerife?

So some of you may ask the question why in fact is our ship in Tenerife of all places at the moment. Well that is a good question as it is quiet the tourist destination for Europeans. Well one of the main reasons is Maritime law. The ship is required to go through various inspections, obtain various certificates, etc and this is the closest place a ship of our size can go for these services. Without the required certificates, we would not be permitted to sail. Currently on board we are working on Cleaning out all our tanks to get them surveyed. This is a big job as there are alot of tanks to be cleaned so alot of the work is been done by crew volunteering from other departments to go help out the engineers and deck hands. Everyone from receptionists to nurses are down there getting their hands dirty, its great to see people willing to help out in a role they are not used to. Mercy Ships has also had a long term relationship with the island and our agent and vendors here which helps in our dealings with them. There are also many ship repairs that need to be done when the hospital is not in use and when the number of crew members on board is lower. Many short term crew leave at this time to go home as well as many long term crew take vacation with the advantage of cheap flights been available to Europe from the island. So even though its a great change of scenery and a holiday culture there on the island we are still getting alot of work done as well as getting a bit of rest ready for the next outreach.

Visiting my Brother

So the day after the ship docked in Tenerife I set off to go and see my brother for Christmas. I flew to Istanbul via London and Rob met me in Istanbul. Unfortunately I had flown into the airport that was on the opposite side of the city to where Rob was staying with a friend so we proceeded to take about 1.5 hours and various forms of public transport to get to the house we would stay at for my first 2 nights visiting. So we spent 2 nights in Istanbul and Rob showed me around as he used to live there for a while. I really enjoyed seeing the city as it has such a rich and long history that there is lots to see, we even went to the archeology museum there and saw some artifacts that were from Babylon from the time of King Nebuchadnezzar who is in the Bible. We traveled by bus to Haskovo, Bulgaria on the 23rd which is where my brother is currently living. We had a fairly relaxed time together and on Christmas day met up with an Australian family that lives there and went to a park behind the world’s second largest statue of Mary holding baby Jesus and we played a game of cricket :). Then in the evening of Christmas day my brother took me to a local Church he has been going to and said the service should go for about 1.5 hours and we left about 5 hours later, so I defiantly got a good dose of culture there. For the rest of my time there we just hung out and relaxed and I got to see a bit of how Rob lives there and the work he is doing so that was really good.

So we traveled back to Istanbul on the 30th and I caught a plane back to England on the 31st. Where I spent the next 7 days meeting up with friends mostly from Mercy Ships past and present, which was really good. I was due to travel back to the Ship on the 7th of Jan, but the night before I looked to find that my flight had been canceled due to snow and cold conditions that England has been experiencing. So I got my flight rescheduled for 2 days later and in the afternoon which was nice, because my original flight was in the morning at 7am which would have made it harder to get to the airport. So I went to the airport 2 hours before my flight on the 9th only to find that it had been delayed, but wasn't shown as so on the website so I proceeded to sit around for about 5 hours and finally after much waiting I was on the plane and then after a bit more waiting to be deiced we were on our way.

So now I am back on the ship, but I am no longer working in accounting. I am working back in the sales department as acting sales manager while the real one is away for a break, so I am in charge of the shop and cafe on the ship. I will be doing this for at lest as long as the sales manager is away and then I am not sure where I will be working, but I am unsure if I will be staying in this department or going to work somewhere else, so please pray that I get used in the best position where I can be most effective.

Sailing

Sailing, Sailing to Tenerife. with Christ in the vessel we can smile at the storm, smile at the storm as we go sailing to Tenerife.

Sorry for my poor effort at rewording a song to make it fit my current situation, but it really does. We have been having a fantastic time at sea, with clam waters and great weather and even got to smile at a storm as we passed by it a few days ago when we were able to see a water spout (tornado at sea) just a few hundred meters from the ship.

We left the port of Cotonou, Benin on time at around 10.30am on the 8th and set sail for our next destination of Tenerife. This was no mean feat as in the days leading up to our departure there had been alot of last minute things going wrong and needing to be fixed, there was work that needed to be done on the engines and even our radar system was waiting for a part to come the night before we sail it was flown in. So thank you to everyone who has been praying for us, because if everything hadn't fallen into place just right then we could still be stuck in Cotonou waiting to leave.

The sail has been going great and I have been shocked with how calm it is and how little the ship is rocking compared to my past experience on board while sailing. We have been blessed to see all sorts of Gods wonder in nature, I feel like he is throwing something new at us almost every day. From the water spout I mentioned earlier, to dolphins, to whales, to flying fish, to a meteor shower and to top it off some of the most amazing sunsets you will ever see. I can truly say my God is an awesome God.

The sail has been a time where I have felt relaxed and rested but also it has still been a time of work as I have been finishing up and closing out some things from our time in Benin for accounting and as I prepare to hand over the job for when I go on holidays to visit my brother in just 4 days.

here are some pics of what I have seen on the sail, enjoy.

Water Spout

Dolphin playing
Flying Fish
(these are my favourite and yes the actually fly the don't just jump really far like I thought)
Hammer Head Shark
Amazing Sunset
Another Amazing sunset
This one looks like it has a face

If you couldn't tell just by looking at them none of these photos where taken by me, its good to have really talented friends.

Just a "quick" trip to Togo

On Tuesday I had the opportunity to join a convoy of some of 9 of the Mercy Ships owned vehicles that would be driving to Togo to leave the vehicles there for when we arrive in Togo in February. Of course not having been to Togo yet and wanting to see where the ship would be next year I jumped at the chance to go. So we had everything ready to go we had 9 drivers who all had the right paperwork and visas to get across the boarder and back. We even had 2 mechanics and a bunch of spare parts just in case.

You may ask why would we drive these cars to Togo and just leave them there for a few months when we could fit them on the top of the ship and take them with us to Tenerife. Well you see the thing is the cars that we took at the oldest ones in the Mercy Ships fleet and are at the point of after been battered around in West Africa for long enough that there is no way we could get them to pass any inspection to be able to drive them in Tenerife so if we took them with us it would just be taking some extra weight.

So now that you know the condition of the vehicles we were driving is not the best, you can imagine the inevitable happened. about 1.5 hours into our trip we had our first break down. The Land Rover we call the Ambulance suddenly started making a high pitched squealing noise out of the front left wheel and we knew that the wheel bearing was gone. So the whole convoy pulled over as we didn't want to leave anyone behind along the way. So the Mechanics and a couple of others set about replacing the wheel bearing (luckily we had 4 spare with us). This took about 30-40 mins and then we were back on the road again. Not much more than 15 mins later though it happened again, same car, same wheel. We weren't really sure what happened to make it break so fast, but all we new was that what was a brand new wheel bearing 15mins earlier was now nothing but a small pile of scraps of metal been pulled out. So this time the mechanics set about pulling apart the entire wheel section of the Land Rover and cleaning it out and rebuilding it piece by piece. There were a couple of resourceful local guys to came to watch to helped us out by getting us a hammer and chisel we needed as well as a few small metal rods and some wire to replace the parts we didn't have (a real good African fix). I would say about another 45 mins we spent doing this and then we were back on the road again and all the cars were driving well.

We finally made it to the boarder much later than we had intended and proceeded to spend a bit over an hour there getting our passports stamped and the vehicles approved to go across. After getting through the boarder we were on the final stretch to Lome the capital of Togo. We arrived finally at 4.30 in the afternoon after leaving at 10am and made our way past the port and stopped in at a restaurant to grab some food as we had planned to be there for lunch we were all quiet hungry. While we were eating the advance team from the ship who have been living in Togo getting things ready for when we come, met up with us. They then took us about another 30 mins away to a AOG compound where we left the vehicles to be stored until the ship arrives. We then went to the hotel where the advance team is staying and picked up a Land Rover to drive home in and we keep one of the ones we took across. We had a good bit of fun on the way back as we had a radio in both cars and were about to talk to each other and keep ourselves entertained for a while.

The trip back was much less eventful as everything went smoothly even the boarder crossing. We made good time all the way and got back to the ship a bit after 11pm. So all in all it was a good fun day, but a long day.

Remember, Remember the 5th of November

For those of you who don't understand what I am talking about in my title please click on this link Guy Fawkes Night.

Last Thursday the 5th of November after work myself and a friend of mine Sarah set out on a mission in town to see if we could find some sparklers or fireworks or anything to do with fire and is pretty to look at really. So we set out on my vespa and stopped in at several small shops that looked like they might have some sparklers or at lest a party section. And then there they were in this one shop actually not that far from the ship they had both sparklers as well as these small flare type fireworks as well.

We returned triumphantly to the ship and made plans for all the British as well as some commonwealth countries to meet on the dock at 9pm to celebrate. We had quite a gathering out on the dock with plenty of people wanting to come celebrate so we barely had enough sparklers to go round. We ran into a small problem though when it came to lighting the sparklers. We held them over the open flame of a cigarette lighter but because the humidity was so high it just would not light any of them. So we turned out focus to the 3 small fireworks we had bought and not really knowing what they would do as we could not read the packet we all stood back as one of them was lit to see what it would do. It shot a bright flame about 4 inches in the air and burned for about 30 seconds before running out of fuel. So after this test we knew what they would do so I went up and lit the next one and then stood close enough to light my sparkler off of it. It worked and then it was a mad dash from everyone to get theirs lit from mine and we all had fun as we were taken back to our childhoods withe fun and the bright lights of the sparklers. We then finished off the short evening with the last firework which suitably burned higher and longer than the first 2.

Some people had more imagination than others (note the scarf)

Me lighting the second firework

There it goes

Everyone enjoying their sparklers.

Why I work for Mercy Ships

A friend of mine sent me these questions so she could use my responses in a talk she is doing and seeing the questions made me think of answers I thought I would post them here.

How and when did you first hear of Mercy Ships?
A friend of mine Kat Stout was a nurse on the Anastasis for 5 months and she told me all about it.
Why did you decide to join the crew?
I have always had an interest in Medical things, but never wanted to go into it as a field and recently before hearing of Mercy Ships I had been feeling an urge to go on a ship and had been looking at OM ships, but then Mercy Ships just fit me better
What did you plan on doing on the ship? What are you doing now?
I originally planned on been an assistant cook on board working in the ships Galley. However not too long after arriving I found myself been stretched as I learnt alot taking on the role of cooking team leader in the Galley. I did that for a year before leaving as my time serving was up, but later decided to return and since returning I have worked in the sales department helping to provide the essentials as well as a few extra luxuries for the crew, working in the ship shop and helping run the cafe. Most recently though I have been thrown (willingly) into a whole nother role entirely. I have taken on the role as one of the accountants onboard the ship for the rest of the year. I have no formal training for this but have a head for numbers so I am feeling stretched but learning alot. I take care of all the business transactions of the ship and transfers between US$ and the local currency as well as looking after the payroll for some of our locally employed staff such as translators.
How long have you been on the ship? How long do you plan on staying?
I have been onboard the ship for a total of 19 months over a time period of just over 2 years and at the moment do not know when I will be leaving, so I will keep working till that day comes.
What is your favorite part of Mercy Ship/ being a part of the crew?
I would have to say the community, it isn't the best point for everyone but I just love it. The fact that I am living on a ship with 400 other people from over 30 different nationalities and cultures and yet it somehow works. I like that there is always a friend around when you need one or someone to support you when you are down. And the crazy fun stuff you can get up to in you time off.
If there was one thing you'd like people to understand/know about Mercy Ships what would it be?
The fact that although Mercy Ships is a great organisation that’s main focus is Medical work with surgery there are opportunities for people with a whole range of talents and skills to come and get involved and play a role in helping support the doctors and nurses get there work done. The fact that without the non-medical staff there is no way that Mercy Ships would work at all.
What are a few of the lessons (if any) you have learned on/about Mercy Ships/mission work?
I have learnt to be aware of cultural differences even more than I was before and that to make any lasting change you need to work at the base of the problem and not just focus on the end result. Not only that, but changing the smallest thing in someone’s life such as a simple corrective surgery can drastically impact someone’s life here for the better.

80's Party

This Saturday just gone by some of my friends here on the ship decided that it would be a good idea to throw an 80’s dance party just because we could. A fair bit of work went into the planning and advertising of the party mainly by my friend Meg. There was an emphasis in the advertising put on the fact that everyone coming needed to try and dress up as “80s” as possible. Now been in a West African country this is not as hard as you might think with there been loads on cheap cloths in the second hand market in town (a lot of which probably are from the 80s) and also there is a boutique on the ship full of people old unwanted cloths free for the taking.

The party kicked off at about 7.30 and we had it up on deck 8 of the ship which is the top deck out in the open so we wouldn’t disturb too many people. There weren’t many people there to start with but once the music was going and some people started making idiots of them selves on the dance floor, people started showing up and really getting into it. The costumes that people (mainly girls to be honest) came up with were amazing and you could really see the people that enjoyed dressing up.

All up it was a great evening and people had loads of fun and we will defiantly have to do something similar again.

Football Match

Last Sunday was quiet an experience for some of us from the ship. A group of what ended up been about 45 of us decided we would go to cheer on the country of our current residency Benin as they played in a world cup qualifier game against Mali. I would have to say the Mali with a few more well known players than Benin would have to be the favourites in my book, but it was a do or die situation with both teams needing a win so it made for an exciting game.

The day started with us going to get tickets for everyone in the morning to make sure we got in before they sold out. There were 3 options in tickets a 1000CFA, 2000CFA and 5000CFA(460CFA = $1), we were told by a local driver who was taking us to pick up the tickets that the 1000 and 2000CFA tickets were the same the only difference was that one cost more and then the 5000CFA ticket got you a nicer seat in a sheltered area. So we bought a bunch of both tickets with some people wanting to the cheaper option and some wanting the nicer seats.

We went back to the ship and handed out the tickets and went about our days before gathering together at 1pm to head to the game. We hired a few local mini buses to take us to the stadium and made sure we left early knowing that the traffic would be bad and the line to get into the stadium would also be bad. After getting in we sat and waited for the match to start as the stadium rapidly filled up. We were easy to spot in the crowd a bunch of Yovos (white people) all sitting in a row in Benin supporter shirts.

For most of the match it wasn’t very exciting football although the atmosphere in the crowd was great. With about 10 mins to go though Mali scored a goal and then things got a bit exciting. Benin was doing all they could to try and get the scores back level but to no avail. Until just before the game finished Benin managed to get the goal and the stadium erupted with cheers from the crowd. The game ended in a draw 1-1 and now you would think this would be the best fair outcome, but what it means is now both Benin and Mali have no chance to qualify for the world cup.

Fire Drill Training

Well First off I am going to make an apology for my lack of blogging well that is if there is anyone still checking this almost dormant blog I am apologising to you.

Thursday last week we had a fire drill here on the ship. Now that is not at all an uncommon thing as we generally have a drill every fortnight (or 2 weeks for those who don't know what that means). This drill however was different because A. it was in the morning and most of our drills are in the afternoon, and B. we didn't simulate a fire instead those of us on the fire teams got to have a go at using some of our special equipment that we have heard and talked about but never used.

Some of the equipment we tested includes the foam dispensing nozzle and the container penetrating nozzle, as seen below. The foam nozzle is very good for laying down a blanket over the fire and suffocating it out and the container penetrating nozzle as the name suggests is great for penetrating through the side of a shipping container or even a thin wall in the ship and putting out the fire without having to open the door to the space. After we had tested and learnt how to use both the nozzles we did a test that no one was sure would work we tried pumping foam liquid through the container penetrating nozzle to see if it would be a possibility in a real situation with great success.

Foam dispensing nozzle
Container penetrating nozzleShooting the foam dispensing nozzle

Using a sledge hammer to poke the nozzle through a practice wall
How the nozzle works once its gone through the wall
Testing if the penetrating nozzle works with foam (success!)
Shooting foam over the side of the ship into the wind.

Generators

One thing I would like to bring up that is needed here on the ship is the fact that we are in need of some new generators to replace the ones we currently have, which we are constantly having problems with. The way things are set up in the engine room on the ship is there are 2 large generators which we call the harbour generators and then there are 4 smaller generators called the Fricks generators (spelling probably wrong). In order to have enough power to run everything on the ship we have to run 3 out of the 4 Fricks generators or the 2 harbour generators or a combination of both. Now we don't have any major problems with the harbour generators, but the Fricks have been giving us lots of problems. So why not just run the harbour generators you may ask well you see the problem is that the harbour generators while running cause alot of noise and vibration through some of the hospital wards and even some of the operating theaters. So therefore we try and run the fricks generators as much as possible so that none of the hospital needs to be shut down. Except when we have problems with the fricks we need to run the harbours and thus the hospital is not going at its full potential. So the plan you see is that we are hopefully going to get 4 new generators to replace the fricks, about the same size but slightly more powerful so that it only takes 2 of them running to power the ship and then the other 2 can be on standby and maintenance. The plan was to hopefully do the change at the end of this year, but due to lack of funding it has been postponed until hopefully the end of next year, because it is quiet a process as a hole needs to be cut in the side of the ship to get the generators in and out. So I would ask that you pray for this, That the money would come in over the next year so that this generator switch is possible and also pray that the generators last for another year without giving us too many problems and don't hinder the running of the hospital at all.

A new means of Transport

Well I have done it what mum probably never really wanted me to do even in Australia because its too dangerous, I have bought a motorbike. Well not a motorbike exactly more of a scooter or moped really, in fact its a Italian made 1982 Vespa 150cc. You may ask why this rather strange choice of bike. Well there are a few reasons the main one been the person who owns the other half of the bike only wanted to get a vespa and nothing else, and then there is the fact that they are very well built and reliable I mean there are lots of 1960s vespas on the streets here. The only other real choice unless u want to spend alot of money is to get a cheap Chinese made bike that are everywhere but are known for breaking down. We got the bike for US$600 so my half was $300 and I am quiet happy with it at the moment. I got the bike mainly to help with getting around town as there are not taxis everywhere like Liberia and I am unable to drive the ships vehicles due to been underage for the insurance.


On this Saturday just gone by I got to give the bike a good test out as I went on a bit of spontaneous bike cruise. I was sitting in the dinning room just eating some lunch and one of the other guys that owns a bike came up to me and asked me if I was interested in going for a ride to Porto Novo which is the capital of Benin. I said sure why not I didn't have any other plans. So at 1 o'clock we gathered together 4 bikes in all and set out on our road trip adventure. It was great fun riding up the highway to Porto Novo and really getting to test out the vespa fully and I must say I was impressed with her. I was able to keep up with the other 3 bikes without too much effort at all and it was great just feeling the wind in my face cruising along the highway (although next time some sun screen for my face would be good as I forgot this time and regretted it a little). Once we got to Porto Novo we took a short break and then proceeded to drive around the streets all over the city just looking around. It was a lot of fun and we got a lot of strange looks and shouts our group of Yovo's (white people) on bikes just riding around. We had a great day and ended up been out for about 5 hours which is the longest I have ever spent on a bike, but the vespa was surprisingly comfortable for such a long ride.

meeting Ambrose

First of all I would like to say sorry for my period of silence. I don't have a good excuse for not writing so I won't give one.
I have been well, as you may remember I gave blood not long ago, well I thought I would follow up with the rest of the story.
You may recall that I had struggled a bit with giving blood as I was less than sufficiently hydrated. You also may remember that I was videoed a bit for a documentary, but it seems that I missed out the fact that there was also a photographer there taking pics for the ships communication department (they write stories about the crew and patients on board). Well this photographer came up to me at work about a week later and asked if I would be willing to come down to the ward and have my pic taken with Ambrose who was the one who received my blood. I was one of eight people to had donated blood to Ambrose so he had lost alot in surgery and it was good to see the end result that all the cysts had been removed and he could now use his right arm again. I posed for a photo with him and then sat and talked with him for a while through a translator, it was good to just get to see and meet the person that I had given some of my own blood too.

A Short Sail

Well this Saturday just gone by we packed up the ship and decided to go on a short pleasure sail......

Well not exactly, what really happened was we needed to get some fuel for the ship so we can run the engines and generators and power everything on the ship. The good news is that compared to Liberia there is actually a ship refueling station here in the Cotonou port, but the bad news is that we have to move to get the fuel where as in Liberia a tanker ship would come to us.

So it couldn't really be called a sail because we went such a short distance and most of the way we were been pulled by tug boats. But I would have to say that it defiantly benefited alot of people. We spent the night there and came back the next days so all the technical crew could put it down as sea time for their log books. Then also there are all the short term crew that otherwise would never get to experience sailing on this ship because we sail so rarely, and especially there are some crew such as doctors that come really regularly to the ship and have done for years but may have never gotten to sail with it get to experience it as well.