Safe Travels

A lot has happened in the past few days! I'll start with my traveling. On my flight to London, the personal tv's were not working, so I thought it would be long and boring, but I ended up sleeping quite a lot! I had an 8 hour layover in London Heathrow. It was a bit strange. I was tired and felt gross, but I wandered around looking at the shops, knowing I wouldn't buy anything because I only had 10 GBP to buy myself a meal. I had dinner and watched a movie on my laptop which passed the time. I even found a free shower and had a little rinse, which was refreshing. It was one of those days where you don't talk to pretty much anyone, and your mind turns things over again and again. I finally realized that I wouldn't see family and friends for quite a long time. However, time will pass, and now that I'm here, I know my days will be very full!

With each flight, I began to feel more like a minority. On my flight from Kenya to Liberia, I was one of the only caucasians. I have really never experienced that before. I think it's a good thing to experience. Everyone was very friendly, and pleased that I was coming to work with Mercy Ships. I'm sure the Africa Mercy has done a lot of good in Liberia. 

I knew there would be two other nurses arriving on the same flight, so I tried to keep my eyes open for them, but I had no idea who to look for! I stepped off the plane into a very hot and humid day. A western African airport is quite different than I'm used to. Much smaller, but the same type of things: customs, baggage claim, arrivals, departures. Going through customs was easier than I thought it would be with the thick stack of papers I had to give them, and their familiarity with Mercy Ships. As the baggage started coming around the carousel, I started to become a bit terrified. First of all because it was taking so long to appear, and second because everyone else's luggage was locked tight with a padlock. I berated myself for being so naive! Where did I think I was going? To Calgary? Goodness! I had visions of my luggage being rifled through and anything valuable being taken. In the end, my luggage appeared on the carousel, no worse for wear, and with nothing missing. I'll try to find some baggage locks for my return journey! :)

I went outside and met the driver and another ward nurse, Katelyn. She's from Australia, and I've been very close to where she lives! It's beautiful there. She's a pediatric nurse. We waited a while for the other nurse, Lanita, to arrive, and eventually found out that her luggage was lost. Very sad, but she had a very positive outlook on it, and a trust in God which made me feel a bit guilty for my earlier fears about losing my luggage. Lanita is from the USA and has been a travel nurse. It was very fun to hear about her experiences!

It was an hour and a half journey to the ship from the airport through busy streets, with people walking everywhere. They drive on the right side of the road, so it didn't feel too weird, but it was quite bumpy and the traffic is a bit scarier than at home. We asked our driver so many questions the whole way. He was very insightful and helpful. We passed many buildings that were certainly shacks by our standards, but they looked sturdy enough. I don't know how they fare in the monsoon rains they've had for the past few months though! 

We drove over a bridge in Monrovia where the final stand occurred back in 2003 between the two opposing sides of the civil war. Apparently many people died in that battle. We saw a telephone pole that had not yet been replaced, and it was covered in bullet holes. That filled me with a new sadness and sympathy for these people of Liberia who have lived through so much bloodshed and conflict. Thank the Lord that there is relative peace here now!

Finally we arrived at the ship and drove down onto the dock where the larger than life Africa Mercy was resting in the water. What a sight!