Blog change

Im giving blogging another go, and this time im not alone ... check it out

http://theslennetts.blogspot.com/

light at the end of the tunnel

So, i have a new job on the ship this year. I still have to do my old job, but along side it i have a new one. Which at the moment is completely taking up about 99% of my working time!

So i still have to make sure all the salads and stuff are going well but not end up pealing many carrots right now.

So i have been put in charge of the stores on the ship. My official title for this is food services storeman.

So the stores were a complete mess when i took over and if this wasn't enough we had about 5 containers worth of stuff come in the last week we were in Tenerife. Then of course we had rough sailing and thing moved everywhere, milk was the main mover, and what a mess that made!

So since we docked in Togo, i have been trying to get things in order and this week has been the first time ive seen some progress, the phrase "sometimes things have to get worse to get better" comes to mind! So little by little ive be able to get little areas nice and clean, stuff out of the way of fire escape routes, clean up mess from the sail and start to work out where on earth the new stuff that we are due any day now is going to go.

So there is light at the end of the tunnel for sure, and i can start to see it, but there is lots of hard work to do before everything is sorted and with the prospect of there being containers in this week it might take a little longer than i would like, but as long as i get there in the end it will be ok :)

Today

Today Togo ... Tomorrow well ... still Togo actually!

Yes its true, in under an hour we should be docked in Togo!

Which of course is very exciting because it means land, and i might be able to get off the ship soon! im sure that we wont get clear through immigration in a hurry so not getting my hopes up just yet, but still am excited about the new adventure ahead and really want to hit the ground running and make this an even better year than the last :)

Sailing once more

So im back on the ship, and it seems so quick once more than we are on the open waters and headed back to Africa.

So being home was a great thing, and being back on the ship is nice also, and i really feel like the next 4 months i really need to get myself into top gear quickly!

I certainly have done that at work, within about 2 mins of stepping back inside the galley last Monday my apron was off and i was setting about the huge task of sorting out the stores!

So im now still in charge of the salads etc, but also have to deal with the stores, which in the past 2 weeks has been a full time job, the place was a mess, and pretty much still is. I think we hit 5 containers of stuff in the past 2 weeks, which is just madness, stocking up big time. I mean a rough count we have maybe 20,000 cartoons of milk! (thats alot!)

So other things i really wanna get going on is keeping in contact with people all over the world.

So this is part one, ive even started a new letter type thing :) should hopefully get this done in a day or two and will get a copy on here.

So for now i need rest, and hopefully not much rocking :)

Lots going on

So lots really is going on here on the Africa Mercy, So this week i have had to say goodbye to some very good friends, we have made some guys from Benin working with us in the galley for the past 10 months, and Friday was there last day. Even though some of there English wasn't the best i consider them good and true friends. There are so many good times i can think of that just make me smile now. Thankfully i will get to see them all once more this Saturday before we sail on Tuesday.

What what what, yes another point there (its gonna be a bit jumpy this post, sorry) so Tuesday, instead of going for my weekly volleyball match we will in fact be setting sail to head to tenerife, where the ship will be until the end of January, when it will then set sail back to west Africa (Togo most likely 99%) for another field service.

So for those of you in England i can confirm that i will be returning home on the 21st of December, and will be there for Christmas, new years and a good time after :)

well until Jan 17th, when i will be returning to the ship :)

and how long will i be back on the ship you may ask, no idea i may well answer!

The main reason for that is my recent rather exciting (when i say rather, i mean very very) that im getting married! Yup this summer (Provisionally July 1oth) I will be marrying Miss Amy Handy in Chicago :)

So i will remain on the ship till late may/early June time, then come home for a short time before hitting up America for a good friends wedding, and then my own!

What after that, i can honestly say i don't know, its something Amy and me are trying to sort out! Please do join us in praying that we do whatever the Lord wants for us, whatever that may be, and however scary it may be for one or both of us!

Football match in pictures

So last weekend was the "big" football match of the year ... The crew of the ship verses the day volunteers.

So i shall try and tell the story of the game with pictures, with a few words thrown in for good measure.

So since it was "the big one" i had to finally tell them of my goal keeping talents, which meant i sure needed a little warming up due to being a little rusty ...

No Football match would be complete without a good crowd ...

A tense tight game it turned out to be ...

Every kick seemed to be important ...

But no goal was found ... Crew 0 Day Volunteers 0

Onto Penalties it went ...

Save i did ...

And not just the once ...

Turns out the saving Pens can make you a hero ...

Final Score Crew 0 Day Volunteers 0 (Crew win 4-1 on Penalties) ...

Ah ha

So the blogger website is still working then .. yup that is my strange way of saying sorry for the lack of African news from my end! I could give you various excuses, however im sure i really have had enough time to blog along the way, so i really am sorry and do feel bad about my lack of blogging, and i really do hope i can be more motivated!

So where to start is the real question ...

So for those of you English readers you may or may not know but i recently returned home to England for 12 days. This was only 2 weeks ago, but even now seems so far ago. I had to return under sad circumstances, my Grandad had suddenly passed away so my sister, her two boys and myselftravelled back via goodness knows where to return home for a short time.

And when i say goodness knows where that really was the case, the plane was actually going in the wrong direction for about an hour! It was some sort of airbus and we had to travel to where we think was Cameroon to pick up some more passengers before heading north to England.

Funerals are always a sad time, they are a time to look back, take stock even. Families are strange things, everyone has one in some form or another. But they are all different, and well without trying to sound too boastful i feel so happy and incredibly blessed to have mine.

So yeah ... now im back on the ship and life is busy as ever, and well im gonna try and share some more about it with you this week

sounds like a good deal to me :)