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 :)

Back to ship life ...

So my 2 weeks are up, and im back on the ship, which means no more 6:30am starts, and thankfully no more fears of the fan cutting out and having to sleep in pure African heat.

So its been a good 2 weeks off the ship, ive been able to spend some good time with my visiting sister and see a little more of Benin.

But its nice to be back at the same time, to join in on my new weekly bible study and to watch west ham, even though they lost was still nice to see the boys in claret and blue!

So its less than 3 months until i will be back in England for Christmas, and that sounds a long time, but it easily go by rather quickly here i can tell you!

So it is my real big hope that i can make this time count, to press in, for what is life is more important? to make our time on earth count? So my hope is that i can press in for what God has for me and for what God wants me to do, to grow closer to him and to know him more ...

Samuel ... or is it Craig???

So ... it just so happened that i was walking along the dock this very Sunday evening and an African gentleman heading in the opposite direction said someting to Amy and myself, which isnt unusual at all, but what he said i can promise you was ...

So the man says "Are you from England?"

So i say "Yes, i am!"

now you may be thinking i was wearing an England shirt or somthing of those sorts ... but no, a totally unmarked shirt,

So here is the totally unbelievable, but totally true next line ...

So the man says "I knew that cause you look like craig david"

i was speakless ... and for those of you that done understand why ...

This is Craig David ...


This is rather strange, my spell check is in spanish! so sorry for any errors!

Africa is Hot!!!

So this may sound like a wierd statement ... that africa is hot, because of course it is, and we all know that, but living on a ship with air con, sometimes, just sometimes you can forget.

So now im not living on an ship with air con, but infact a house with fans! Yes thats right for the next 2 weeks i will infact be living off the ship in a house about 20mins drive from the ship.

So this has all come about because one of the famlies lives in this house, they are in charge of some off ship stuff and incharge of "mercy teams", which are people that come on a short trip to do some sort of project or something! (will try to find out more and tell you all later!) So for the next 2 weeks Mark, the father of the family, is away so they need someone to drive them to the ship and need a guy to stay at the house, which is where i fit in!

Now i will still be working on the ship and will be there most of the time, just some parts of the evenings and nights i will be at the house!

So this is just another African adventure which i am very much looking forward to! I really hope that this can be a time to get back into some routines which i seem to have fallen out of! So lots of blogging is one big hope, and not just for the 2 weeks, but hopefully forever and ever :)

So yes, its hot here, and there is a very girl'y film on the tv, but im happy and im sure my mum will be as well since i now have some time to email her :)

love to you all

life

... life is good ...

... life is busy ...

... life involves working alot ...

... life also involves playing sports alot ...

... life should involve more blogging ...

need to address that last one i feel!

Deck 1!

So the ship that i live on has 8 decks, now on a normal day i would visit between 3 and 5 decks, maybe upto 6 or even 7 if alot was going on, but never 8, in fact until about 2 weeks ago i had never in fact ever been on all of the 8 decks ...

That all changed 2 weeks ago!

But first lets have a little "low down" on the decks so anyone that reads this gets a little more of an idea of where im living!

So ...

Deck 1 - Will come in the story!

Deck 2 - Now there is an old school type gym down on deck 2, but i have to admit i would be more on deck 2 for work purposes, this is where we have 4 huge freezers, 1 hugs fridge and 2 dry storage rooms.

Deck 3 - Would be hospital land! So if i ever have to go down there, for numbers of reasons! also a few friends rooms are on deck 3

Deck 4- Would be where i live! just alot of cabins really!

Deck 5 - Would be the dinning room, the cafe, offices and some more cabins

Deck 6 - Would be where i work, also midships (the place to hang out) and also my sister and her family's cabin

Deck 7 - Is a place for the kids to play outside so end up there with my nephews sometimes, also a few rooms to watch dvd's in

Deck 8 - Is outside! so also a place to take kids to, but also a nice play to get away and get some reading done!

So anyways ... Deck 1 ... so not really sure what exactly is there, but its engine room, and stuff like that, and well your not allowed to go there ...

So being on the emergency medical team skips this rule :) So we got the call that on the fire drill 2 weeks ago there were 2 victims, and we had to go and get one of them, and was showed down some stairs, carrying our stretcher ... and it then hit me, as i saw the sign ... "DECK 1" ... WHOOOO i had finally done it! Deck 1! So it was a nightmare carrying a man on a stretcher from deck 1 to deck 3 up some pretty tight staircases, but very worth it!

This is a little pic of another one of my fire drills from last week ...