The Rolland Record: Tenerife, To & Fro and Togo

Well, we're not still sailing now! I realized that our last post was titled "Still Sailing" and much has happened since then! We arrived in Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, in the port of Santa Cruz, where we had docked a year earlier, just before Christmas. The last few days of our sail to Tenerife was very rocky. There was a storm centered over the Azores to the north and we had some large swells to pass through. I would say that the mood on the ship during that period was a bit depressed as most were suffering from some degree or other of motion sickness. We had a bit of rather serious damage and some huge messes in a couple of places on the ship as things got loose and went careening about. The floor of the galley was covered with flour and eggs at one point. We went without hot meals a time or two as well because it was too dangerous to use the ovens with all the rocking. We were just happy to have something to eat to keep our tummies settled. The O.R. was hard hit as one of the large eye microscopes (on wheels) got loose and paraded around the room smashing into things. Before it was discovered it had buckled the double doors so badly that they looked like a giant piece of popcorn. So a few additional things not on the list before the sail also needed to be attended to when we arrived in Tenerife.

We were very happy to arrive in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and our family was in the middle of the pre-Christmas (or pre-Three Kings Day - Jan 6 in Spain) buzz trying to prepare for the 25th. We gathered small gifts and candy for others on the ship and did our more-or-less annual clothes, shoe, and toy shopping for the kids. And I bought enough Greek yogurt (one of those lovely European delights that you can't get or is way too expensive in West Africa) to stuff our small fridge. Christmas came and went. I was able to say hello to Nestor (the guide who had taken the boys and me caving the year before) at the shop where he works. We ate at McDonald's which we all enjoyed maybe more because of the familiarity than anything else.

The week after Christmas, we took the ferry to Gran Canaria, one of the neighboring islands for a little family time away from the ship. We had a friend who had offered us a free place to stay there, and we had wanted to visit a different island, so we accepted the offer and had 5 wonderful days there. Since it was Christmas-time there were no rental cars available, so we got around using the public bus system, which happens to be very good in the Canaries. We played on the beach, ate Korean food (a highlight for me), went grocery shopping for many of our meals (that was really pleasant for us because we have done so little of that for so long), and wandered in and out of shops looking (also something we don't really do in Africa). I got some Russian candy from a Russian food store that, if not amazing, was interesting. We visited the Casa de Colon in Las Palmas, the house where Christopher Columbus stayed on his way to the New World

and we saw the large Christmas sand sculpture nativity scene they do every year by the beach in Las Palmas.

We also visited Aguimes, Puerto de Mogan, and got a camel ride through the sand dunes in Maspalomas. Much fun was had by all.

We arrived back in Tenerife in time for the Three Kings Day parade in Santa Cruz on the evening of January 5th. We went to the parade and watched the three kings arrive in town on camels and assemble to greet the long line of children waiting for them. Somehow Joey, David and I wound up where the soldiers on horseback leading the procession assembled at the end of the parade. One of the horsemen let the boys try out his helmet and play the part. That was a really fun bonus.

Some months earlier I had planned to go on a mountaineering trip with some friends on the ship so some of my time after we arrived in Tenerife was taken up trying to gather last minute items for the trip. A good friend of ours who we met at our introduction to Mercy Ships class (IMS) in Texas in January 2008 had done quite a bit of mountaineering in the past and had become interested in arranging a trip to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. I figured that I would not be able to go so I basically dismissed the idea. Well, she went through with the preparations and had gathered a group to go by September or so and the question came up again. I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to climb with a group of friends like this, I desperately needed to get in shape and a trip like this would provide the incentive, and Jenny was very supportive of the idea, so I decided to go with them during January. I must say that the idea of leaving the beautiful island of Tenerife during this respite to travel back to Africa was not overwhelmingly appealing, but I had wanted to see Kilimanjaro for a number of years and was excited about the opportunity. I didn't think Joey was quite ready for the intensity of Kilimanjaro, but he did a number of great hikes with our team as we prepared in Tenerife. They were really strenuous with incredible views and Joey took every one in stride. He's a great hiker!

Joey and I even went most of the way up Mt. Teide in Tenerife, and the highest mountain in Spain no less :), in a day. We didn't make it quite to the summit, but we both agreed we had had enough.

Since the weather up there wasn't the best and we had to hike back down before sunset we turned around 45 minutes or so from the top.

I left with the others for Tanzania in early January. Climbing Kilimanjaro was very hard, but good. We spent 8 days on the mountain.

Summit day was certainly the most difficult part. We left our tents before midnight and hiked in the dark up from about 15,000 ft. to 19,300 ft. (5,895 m.) or so at the summit. It was cold and windy and the trail never seemed to end. The high altitude caused a lot of physical and mental changes including some confusion, disorientation, apathy, headache, muscle cramping, and momentary loss of coordination. I had never experienced anything like that before, and there was just nothing easy about it!

We arrived at the summit just after 7 am and spent 15 minutes or so at the top. It was very foggy and frost was forming on everything and everyone.

We arrived back down at camp around 10:30 am, collapsed for 1 hour, had lunch, and then hiked 4 more hours down to a lower camp. In addition to summiting, we descended about 9,000 feet in all that day. It was quite a blessing to have done it, but I would be happy not to do it again:) Since we were going to be in Tanzania anyway, we had decided to see some animals too, so we visited the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area and the Serengeti National Park in northern Tanzania.

God's creation is stunning and northern Tanzania is an incredible part of it.

While I was gone for those 2 1/2 weeks, Jenny's parents came to visit for a week in Tenerife and everyone had a great time. Jenny spent a week after that looking after the kids and working on some continuing education coursework needed for her nursing license renewal. My time in Tanzania was great, but for me, I was more excited about coming back to the ship than I had been about going to Tanzania. My time away helped to remind me what a blessing my family is and how much I enjoy doing stuff with them. It was really wonderful coming "home". A few days after I got back to the ship it was time to sail for Togo. But before we left we were able to squeeze in a visit to Monkey Park on Tenerife. That was a blast! Several of the cages there are walk through so you can feed and touch the monkeys.

(The first two lines of that sign are: "Please keep your children under control during your visit." and "Do not leave your children walk alone." So, we made sure to put Bethany in the cage with the monkeys.)

One of the monkeys pulled Jenny's scrunchie out of her hair and ran off with it. Thankfully, he soon had enough of it and we got it back. There was a moment of horror during our visit too! We were watching one of the small brown monkeys up close when he suddenly reached up and grabbed a ball of poo from the rear-end of a nearby mongoose lemur just before it fell to the ground! The monkey returned quickly to face us with his newfound payload. Convinced that it was soon to be hurled in our direction, Jenny and I yelled for the kids to run away and I'm sure I muttered some military lingo or other like "incoming!" It was quite a tense moment, but soon the monkey dropped his handful on the ground and, with that, the panic subsided. Whew!!

Back at the ship we again stocked the fridge with yogurt, got a few ice cream bars for the freezer (very uncommon treat for us in Africa), made sure we had what we needed for the next 6 months and sailed away. The day we sailed was stormy early in the day and cleared later, so we were able to leave, but Tenerife got hit with some bad flooding and storms the following day and over the following weeks. We were fortunate to have sailed when we did, but we were sad for their losses.

So, then we sailed to Togo in early February experiencing even rougher seas during the first 2 or 3 days than during the previous sail! UGH! I don't think much got damaged this time, though, thankfully.

Someone had given a donation specifically for a new pool, so the ship had gotten a new pool mostly installed during the time in Tenerife. It is still in the process of being finished and due to water concerns in Togo, it may be a while before it is operational.