Sunday 8th June

Just in case any of you are unsure what Mercy Ships is all about let me explain briefly. Its a christian organisation that has a large ship which is basically a floating hospital. It serves the needy of the world by offering surgery that they would not be able to have otherwise. It covers quite a range of surgery and includes eye surgery (cataracts etc) some orthopaedics like correctin of club foot and recontructive suergery for things like hare lip/cleft palate and removing tumours etc. So quite a range. there are 6 theatres although only 5 in use at present. Most of the staff are volunteers but some have been here for 2 years others like me come for just a short time.
I start in the department tomorrow morning at 8am. I've already had a tour of the department tonight so am looking forward to starting tomorrow morning.

So today, I went to a local church and worshipped african style - loud and with just drums no other instruments, then having returned to the ship and eaten lunch went for a walk with another volunteer who also arrived on Friday night. It was, as you would probably expect, very hot and the phrase "only mad dogs and englishmen go out in the midday sun" sprang to mind. We were out for about and hour but it was long enough. Starbucks is open tonight and I can hear the coffee machine calling me for a cappucino!!