Work Mates :)

So finally ... this is a pic of some of the people i work with in the kitchen :)

Will edit it with some info about them when less tired :)

Fun on the sound desk ...

When you live on a ship sometimes you have to try your very hardest to find things to do so you don't find yourself in a rut or just doing the same thing over and over ...

So on the ship there is kinda a running slide show thing where it shows notices on a loop, and well it seems like they were short on running the sound desk and looking for help ... so offered i did :)

So what this means is i am now on a schedule for the various meetings in a week and have to do various jobs on the sound desk ...

Tuesday morning ... Each Tuesday morning on the ship at the very horrible hour of 7:45 we have a meeting in the large "international lounge" This is a place where we welcome all the new people, they announce all the people that are departing, they give any notices for the week and there is a short devotion.

Thursday evening ... Each Thursday evening we have a community meeting, kinda like a church service ... the is somebody is who "MC'ing" the event, there is some worship and somebody who gives a message :) (then there is fellowship in mid ships and ICE CREAM!!!)

Sunday evening ... Sunday evening's be a church service.

Special events ... Explains itself

(international lounge is a big room that holds about 300 and is used for big meetings on the ship)
(mid ships is the middle of the ship, it is where there is a cafe, ship shop, Internet cafe type place, tv's and lots of places to sit)

So that's what each one is and well there are 3 roles on the sound desk ...

Sound man - controls all the sound!
Computer man - sorts out all the lyrics, PowerPoint's and such
Camera man - so all of the meeting go out over the tv system, this allows people in their cabins to watch the meeting as well as people working in the hospital to watch so they have a camera :)

So far as yet ive had a little go at both the computer and the camera ... the sound one is the real tricky one and i shall be happy avoiding that for a while :)

Blackout day

So once in a while it seems (this is the first since ive been here) we have something called a blackout day, this is where they have to do something to the ship that means all the power (well most of it, generators still work) has to be turned off.

Well im not exactly sure what they had to do, but whatever it is, we had a day on the ship with pretty much no power and darkness! This meant such fun things like at dinner time there was no cooked food, cause of no power so they sandwiches that were out were nice, but you could hardly see what the options to have on them were cause it was so dim in the dinning room!

This of course also inspired silly games and such! Water fighting was a big part of this :) For my birthday i was sent a couple of water guns, and Tommy has one also which i was able to borrow, so me and a couple of Aussies had a little amusement with them :) We found a perfect spot on one of the top decks that you could squirt people that were coming back to the ship from!

Not really sure how it was connected to darkness but just before the lights came back on we found ourselves lying on the floor playing some game where our arms were entwined!

It was impressive how inventive people, there were groups of people all around the ship huddled around security lights playing cards and such!

So we were enjoying ourselves so much in the dark (and the prospect of it being really really dark later) we actually booed when the lights and power came back on!

AFM F.C

So my new work schedule has meant that ive been finishing at 5pm every day, and well every Monday and Wednesday the AFM (Africa Mercy) Football team train. So ive been going the past couple of weeks, and well it seems like i started going at the right time because last Saturday the team had a match against a local team, and well i was asked to play!

So here are some photos of the day ...

This be the AFM Football team ... ok yes for those of you that look closely, we for some unknown reason play in a Chelsea replica kit :(


A little Pre game huddle ...


Some last min instructions from the coach ...



Pre game handshake ...



Ok so this picture might not look that special, but that is me and a young lady named Katie Radchuck ... Ok so that might not mean much to you ... check this out ...

http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/statisticsandrecords/players/player=199952/index.html

What a start 3 mins ... AFM F.C 1 - Hevie 0 ... guess who scored :) Yup ... twas me!!! Here is even a pic that proves it ...

The crowd began to build ...

Half time score AFM F.C 2 - Hevie 1 .... this is a picture of the half time team talk ... and to be honest i didn't catch a word! it was all in languages that i sure didn't understand :)

A few of the locals ...

So the person that was taking the photos switched cameras here :( so i have no more pics of the 2nd half or end yet, but hopefully i will be able to get my hands on them soon!

So for those of you that wanna know ... i managed to play the whole 90 mins in African heat and the final score was .... AFM F.C 4 - Hevie 3 ... was a very enjoyable game and was very nice to get myself on the score sheet :D

Birthday Fun

So you can see what happened in the evening of my birthday ... (its the last post i made)

So in the day i took a group of about 40 people to a place called Babs Dock. For people that work as hard as most of the people do on the ship i can promise you they deserve some time off ... and well Babs dock is about the perfect place to go!

Its set on a lagoon, which you can only get to via a 5 min boat ride, and its just a place to chill out, relax, play some water volleyball, bowls, hammock relaxation, just chill out or really whatever you want!

So here are some pics ...

The boat ride ...



Our Chief Engineer having a few quiet moments ...


A Little mischief on the dock ...


The place to gain fuel and liquid ...

The Dock complete with canoes and Joshua ...

An action packed water volleyball game ...

Playing in the hammock ...

"Nanny" trying to avoid the water ...

A little bowls action ...

The Farrells and the Slennetts (well the ones that are in Africa) ...

Sock Golf

So there had been talk of a "Sock Golf" tournament for a while, but nothing seemed to be a happening ... but a little word with the guy who organized it last time and it was set ... to be played on my birthday!

So we had a spot on 50 players for "Sock Golf 2009"

So for those of you wondering, you play sock golf by rolling up a pair of socks and then throwing them all over the ship over a 18 hole golf course ... So i really do mean all over the ship, the course took us on decks, 3,4,5,6 and 7! Now there were no actual holes as such, but bits of paper which you had to hit ... As wonderfully shown by my sister ...

So you had to play your shots from where ever your socks landed ... as you can see it made for some interesting shots ...

So as well as there being an overall individual tournament there was all a team competition for teams of 4 ... Here be my wonderful team (L to R, Back Me, Ryan, Front Lindy, Katie)

With some wonderful team work, and alot of fun we managed to come 3rd out of the 12 teams :)

So the individual competition was a close affair with a four way tie for 2nd place with a score of 70 (the par for the course was 70) but the Sock Golf Champion for 2009, with a 2 under par score of 68 ... was ... well ...

Ah yes ... it was me :D