Cranes, forklifts and Presidents, apparently.

This post by Matthew Little was originally published at Diary of a Deckie: My experience volunteering on a hospital ship.

Another month has gone by, so now I must update my blog. No-body told me doing a blog would be such a chore.*

So what has happened since I left off? Quite a bit, and I shall start from where I left off. Don Stephens, the founder of Mercy Ships, visited the Africa Mercy, and during the same week, Guinean President Alpha Conde also visited the ship. During this visit, I had my first experience of being a security guard….. Thankfully, nothing happened, but it was a good opportunity to practice my stern ‘You are not allowed in here’ face and posture. However, I don’t know whether to hold my hands in a ‘attention’ position around my back or at my front. But I will have other opportunities to do this ‘special job’ during other VIP visits to the ship, to get more practice of this.

After that (not immediately. It might have been the weekend after, I can’t remember), I went on a day’s excursion to the beautiful and picturesque Kassa island, one the three islands in the ‘Iles de Los’ island group off Conakry. Both the two boat rides across the harbour to the island were just as good and pretty as the island itself, but it was just so good to escape the scenery of both the ship and the city of Conakry, which is dusty, dirty and smelly, and just outside the port gate, on a very busy roundabout, it can get very chaotic with the sudden appearance of cars and motorbikes. Seriously, you could be crossing the road, and out of nowhere- BEEEEEEEEEEEEP! a few feet from you.. Quite the contrast across the water. and it was a relaxing Saturday.

Beach on Kassa

Jungle

View of one of the other islands

Another view of the beach

Boats between the island and the mainland

The ship moored next to us that day.

An interesting sight that constantly amazes me whilst working on Deck is the constant move of ships in Conakry’s port. One day, I could be working around the Bridge (which I spent the whole day on the 14th doing. A few days before I started this blog. That was a relaxing day), looking at the ship next to us, and the next day, it’s a new ship. And they all follow a similar colour scheme to the one on the picture on the left. Its’s like “What could they be loading/unloading today- Oh, that wasn’t there yesterday”. Meanwhile, there is this stationary white ship.

Bow of the Africa Mercy

Work has also been great. On my first weekend on-call duty (which meant that I was confined to the ship for two days), I got up to some pretty impressive things, that I never thought I would do on a Saturday morning, such as operating the stores crane and driving one of the ship’s forklifts. What exciting purpose was that for, I hear you ask? Emptying the trash. Probably better to start with a trash bin than a very heavy pallet of cooking oil, tbh. I also learned to drive one of the ship’s rescue boats during a practice for Sinterklaas. Because Mercy Ships has a crew made up of different cultures, the Christmas period allows for the crew to experience a bunch of different Christmas festivals. A few weeks ago, the crew celebrated the Dutch tradition of Sinterklaas, where children leave a shoe out for Sinterklass to fill with yummy goodies the night before! Sinterklaas arrived via one of the ship’s rescue boats, to wave to the masses (The ship kids and Dutch crew, mainly. Maybe, I didn’t actually see the spectacle. I did watch as Sinterklass gave the Ship kids Christmas presents in Midships, above the Starbucks. (Fun fact: the only Starbucks in Africa. Sorry, Okoye.**) Just to be clear, I didn’t drive Sinterklaas on the day, I was just given a lesson the Saturday. Also, my shoe went missing that morning. I say missing, some ‘practical jokers’ moved it further up the corridor. Almost forgot! I have received my training book, which means that I can now begin my training to become a Deck Rating, maybe even Able Seafarer, later down the line. I’ll be a Captain in no time! I still don’t know what I want to do, actually, but I have really enjoyed my first month of being a deck hand. I have been transfered to a different fire team on the first, I was on hose and gear, which meant being a support role and getting the hoses and things for the SCBA guys. in this new one, I am on SCBA. which means that I have to wear all the bunker gear, and am meant to be right in the action during the event of a fire

The community here is wonderful. A few of us have even started a Dungeons and Dragons group (my character is a Dwarf Paladin). Found out that watching Lord of the Rings is all the more entertaining commentating on it in D&D references. I have also joined the group on the ship that plays Super Smash Brothers, This was the first time playing Super Smash Brothers (suprisingly) and I have getting good at it. As long as I am not against a pro. Did beat the ship’s ‘Smash Master’ once, though. . And a group that plays Dominion. And other board games. I have even started playing Minecraft again.

The amazing Communications department /team here on the Africa Mercy work hard to produce materials to promote the amazing work that the hospital down on Deck Three does, including this piece below. This patient’s story has really inspired me from when I first read it.

Well, that’s all I have to say for this month. I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and pray for good fortunes to come in 2019.

But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:31

*Just kidding, I enjoy writing this blog.
** Avengers: Infinity War reference

P.S. If the patient’s story doesn’t show the first time, please let me know in the comments. My parents’ had an issue with that on their own blog. Please check that out, too! It’s called A Little Odyssey, the link is in the side bar.