Flexibility

There is a saying around here that must be in the Bible, although I haven't put my finger on the reference:

"Blessed are the flexible, for they shall never be bent out of shape."

We've been practicing flexibility here in South Africa as timelines change due to surprises and delays with the many projects that have been taking place on the Africa Mercy during this shipyard phase. There have been and will be many contingency plans in place so that we will be as prepared as possible to sail away to Sierra Leone and begin our 2011 field service when all the work is completed.

One of the highlights of the past month has been the presence of a very flexible Mercy Team. About 15 people from all over the world (including Margie from Hamptonville, NC:) answered a plea for help and came to work alongside the crew of the M/V Africa Mercy as we tackled the huge task of cleaning the vessel. Five months in shipyard can result in a pretty dirty ship! Deck 3, where the hospital is, happens to be a high traffic zone and needed a lot of scrubbing up! The Team came in and blessed us with their great attitudes and willingness to do whatever it took to get the job done. They joined the Appelsbosch cleaning team that began travelling daily to the ship (a total of 4 hours riding per day!) on 4 January. The last trip was this past Friday, 28th January, for a total of 19 work days times 3 or 4 shuttles full of people each day. It was exhausting, but very rewarding to be a part of the clean-up crew. I did some figuring and discovered that from the 4th to the 27th, I travelled a total of 64 hours to help and direct the efforts of the team. Whew!!

Below are photos of the stripping and waxing of the hospital, courtesy of our Swedish OR nurse, Anneli Persson.

We love being a part of this team that proves that "many hands make light work" as every one has pitched in to help one another! And hats off to all those who lived on board and worked tirelessly, hours on end in the hot temperatures to keep us as close to schedule as possible! What a team!!! We were able to be reunited and all returned to live on the ship on Saturday, 29th January. How happy are we? Very! And although there is still some work to be done to get us on the open ocean and headed to Sierra Leone, we're almost there. We hope to be on our way next week.

With flexibility,

Jenny