Traveling to the Africa Mercy

     Greetings from the Africa Mercy! What a journey it has been so far. For those of you who did not know, my flights were crazy. I flew from O'hare to New York Tuesday night and had a twelve hour layover. Being as I did not want to sleep in the terminal, I booked a hotel affiliated with JFK airport. When I woke up the following day, I caught a late morning flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. That flight was the longest flight I had ever been on. We flew for about 15 hours. I was stir-crazy by the end of it all. By the time we arrived, I had watch two movies, the Golden Globes, an episode of Modern Family, completed a few Sudoku puzzles, and read through a small chunk of one of my books. I sat near some people from Brooklyn who made quite the scene when we boarded. They had a few drinks and were liberal with their words and volume. Needless to say, every hierarchy of security on board came to talk to these people including the captain himself.
     Once we landed in Johannesburg, I had a few minutes to make it across the entire airport to get to my flight. It turned out I had more time than I thought which made things a little easier. I had the most unique departure experience. The terminal did not have your traditional gates for departure. There was one wall with dozens of glass doors. In front of every couple of doors were desks where passengers' tickets were checked before leaving. They then would file into large buses and they would taxi them to their flight. Fun fact: People in South Africa drive on the left side of the road. My flight was three or so hours. At this point I have had little sleep and my eyes were exhausted. We landed in the middle the pouring rain. Welcome to Pointe Noire.
     I discovered that there were two others on my flight that were being picked up by Mercy Ships. We piled into the official Mercy Ships jeep and headed to the ship. The city was wet and muddy from the rain. People were walking on the side of the road as drivers recklessly made their way through the city. We entered the port and were nearly to our destination. We then turned a corner and there it was. The Africa Mercy. It was so surreal. This was the ship I had been dreaming of for months and there it was; right in front of me. The security guards were very particular, but the power of the words "Mercy Ships" carry a lot of power in this community. We entered in through the gates soon after. The rain had let up some, but we still walked out in the rain. I carried my bags up the gangway and into the ship. I had arrived.
     My experience began soon after. I was photographed for my ID, escorted to my bunk, and given my welcome paperwork. My room. Wow. It was nice and small. There are a total of four people living in the room, but it is partitioned into to separate "rooms" with a bunk bed in each. As I unpacked, my bunkmate came in and we exchanged greetings. It turns out, he is from South Africa. As time went on, I soon became accustomed to meeting people from all parts of the world. I would have never imagined how many people there really are on the ship and how many more places they are all from. I ate a very nice dinner and finished up the night at a weekly community meeting. After the meeting there was ice cream in the cafe. This was a fun social opportunity for me to meet new people. I did meet a group of British girls who worked in the ward. After a very exhausting day of travel and ship life, I climbed into bed and fell asleep.