Blog 5: 3 February – English
Ga naar de pagina van Natascha BakkerGood evening!
Already time for a fifth blog 😊 The most important news is that we leave for Senegal a week later (February 10) than planned. There are still some technical issues that are best dealt with here in Tenerife. This change in planning gives some complications and challenges on the ship, but also in Senegal. Prayer for this is appreciated.
Thinking of Senegal: we also had a meeting where Don Stevens, the founder of Mercy Ships, spoke to us. He pointed out the importance of our expectations. What can we expect in Senegal? What do you expect? Joy? Excitement to do what you feel called to? Work (bring Jesus to Senegal by cooking, cleaning, maintenance work)? He said: Expect to see Jesus, experience miracles. May the Senegalese see the peace of God in you, in your actions and words.
I thought it was good to start thinking about what I actually expect in Senegal!
You are never too old to learn!
I discovered last weekend that you shouldn’t eat ice cream on a cone when the wind blows hard. The ice cream dripped, the drops flew everywhere as well as my hair 😉 For the rest it was a delicious ice cream (brownie with coconut). I also now know that my hair goes straight up with a strong wind!
We celebrated Australia Day on board with a special dance. It was a kind of line dance, very nice to do with a lot of people. I did get tangled up though, when it’s actually simple. It’s called Natbush dance and here’s a link: Koala Nutbush – Line Dance – YouTube
We also had a Firedrill, where we had to practice what to do if we had to leave the ship. This time we simulated the situation in case we had to abandon ship at sea. I immediately made a mistake, by going to the wrong assembly point. We also practiced putting on the life jacket. It works best if someone else helps you, as I experienced. Folding and cleaning up that life jacket was also an art, luckily there were many experienced experts.
Pancake evening
Last time I wrote that I was going to bake pancakes and it was a great success. I did some shopping on my day off and baked over 25 pancakes in the evening. I wanted to introduce a few of my foreign friends to the Dutch pancakes. Bacon with cheese, cheese, apple and raisins and pouring syrup. They thought it was delicious!
I also cooked with Fred last Sunday. He is from Ghana and we made a delicious peanut soup. It was very nice and fun to do. And several Ghanaians were involved. We ate it with fufu, and it was delicious!
Communication
All day you meet people and ask “how are you?” and I myself answer many times the question how I am doing. Last week I met someone who said, “Excellent, it’s a great day!” And I was impressed, I never say that!
Speaking of communication, how do we get all the messages on the ship about activities and things we need to know? We use the program Teams for this. Very handy! There is also the captain’s board with all kinds of important things such as when your cabin is being inspected, or when an exercise is taking place.
In the past 2 weeks I have followed three training courses. Intercultural communication is interesting! I also had a presentation about the hospital. In the next blog I’ll write about the hospital. People are now busy disinfecting all equipment, rooms and tools. That’s a tough job! A lot of water is used for this, so today we run out of water. But we have a desalination machine on board, and we got a chance to use it. We have water again.
Work week
Although the basis of my work does not change (making beds, cleaning the bathroom, giving tours), there is some variety. Last week, for example, we picked up bedding from the African Mercy (we had lent it to them) and I spent a day sorting it out and giving everything a place in the linen cabins again. That was a big job! And then it turned out that they had given us one wrong box and we had to go looking for the bedding that I had divided over 4 different decks and needed to be returned. Furthermore, we are gradually starting to prepare some spaces for the trip to Senegal (reorganizing and clearing up is the biggest job!).
Covid is traveling around the ship. Unavoidable in a community where people hug each other and where we live close together. In recent weeks, several people have been walking around wearing a mask, a few crew members have been in isolation. Fortunately, the worst seems to be over. From hospitality, we are responsible for preparing isolation cabins and cleaning them. Last week we received a request to replenish toilet paper and some extra groceries. Then I learned something. You can give a thumbs up in a teams message. For hospitality, this means that whoever gives the thumbs up picks up the request and does it. I didn’t put the thumbs up, so the manager had also started working on it. When she brought the things, she was told that I had already been there. So the next day I got some explanation about giving thumbs up 😉
Trips!
Saturday I took the bus to Santa Cruz, together with Dorcas, Deborah and Laura. It was not as summery as other days (cool without sun and the occasional rain shower). We explored a large part of the city center and picked up several friends of Dorcas and Deborah along the way. Visited a super beautiful old city park, we got lost in a large shopping center and took a lot of selfies. Dorcas can do that very well 😉
Until next time!
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Hoi Natascha,
Ontzettend leuk je verhalen te volgen. Je pannekoeken hebben me geinspireerd en vanavond aten wij ook pannekoeken met honing. Ik wens je een goede vaart naar Senegal. Wat een belevenis om terug te gaan naar WEst Afrika. Ga je nog meer landen aandoen? We bidden jullie Gods zegen toe.
Dag Hanneke, leuk om van je te horen! Mooi dat je geïnspireerd was. Hopelijk waren jouw pannenkoeken ook lekker! Ik ga niet meerdere landen aandoen, daarvoor ben ik te kort aan boord. Groetjes, Natascha