the stars sing

One of the joys of being onboard a culturally diverse ship is that you get accustomed to hearing a lot of languages. Today, I had "Happy Birthday" sung to me in English, Welsh, German, Swiss-German, and Xhosa. Beth was on duty today, which means she can't leave the ship. We celebrated the good ol' American way with pizza, ice cream and a movie.

Tomorrow, I'll be learning how to surf in the huge waves of East London. Surfing school for super cheap. Then after spending the night at a backpackers inn venturing on to a Game Reservior that offers safaris for another over night stay. The people of East London have thoroughly welcomed the ship into their home and offered to bless the crew in a multitude of ways. Not only are a lot of the businesses supporting us through discounts, but the people are volunteering as dayworkers onboard too.

I just finished The Great Divorce by Lewis yesterday. It's an amazing book with so many ideas packed into it. It's stirred up a lot of ideas about how our choices everyday will have ramifications not only for now but for all eternity. I continually struggle with the two extremes of thinking that today's choices don't matter at all or feeling like they are the end of the world. There needs to be a balance in realizing the importance of my actions and thoughts but not over-emphasizing it where it controls everything I do with no concern for the future.

the years go by

my roommates collected the paper shreddings from around the ship for the past week... then on my birthday they covered my bed with them. Our room is officially the "boutique" room. About half of the clothing we wear and things we use come from the ship's giveaway room. Free rugs, clothes, towels, etc. Plus, housekeepers run it, thus we get to go through everything first.

the years go by

my roommates collected the paper shreddings from around the ship for the past week... then on my birthday they covered my bed with them. Our room is officially the "boutique" room. About half of the clothing we wear and things we use come from the ship's giveaway room. Free rugs, clothes, towels, etc. Plus, housekeepers run it, thus we get to go through everything first.

The perfect curling waves.... sometimes crash hard

So I realize that I am crap at actually posting. I guess between work and having fun, there's not much time to just sit on the computer. I'm doing well.... tired... slightly sick... but overall doing well. We finally got out of drydock today, so i am no longer living on a construction sight but rather a floating construction site. We have water again onboard, so no more hikes down the dock just to brush the teeth. However, the color of water is a bit off.... kind tea-ish like. hah... guess old pipes are no good after sitting dry for over two weeks.

On Friday, we got off work early and visited a nearby shanti town, Duncan Village. Some of the crew onboard had established relationships with the people there last time the ship was here in '99. Instead of just sweeping floors and cleaning toliets, I saw why we were doing what we were. The joy that the people had was incredible even by our quick visit. The ship is currently not doing any outreach in South Africa, but rather just undergoing shipyard repairs, so it is easy to get caught up in the unfinished projects and crazy ship life and forget why we are here.

Saturday we hit up the Lion's Park. See below for some pics... there's lots more but these are just some of the fun ones.

The beaches here are a surfers heaven... well minus the sharp cliffs and rocks along the coast. With it being winter here, the beach was pretty much empty when we went to it on Sunday, but absolutely gorgeous. I'll post pictures soon, but they aren't on my camera.

Things are a bit hard at work right now with my boss returning and the culture barriers between 5 different nationalities. I gotta run. There'll be more later... hopefully before a week goes by again.

Lions are friends.

So, the whole "rules" thing at zoos in the states sucks compared to the freedom of Africa...

Baby lions are now considered the cutest animals ever.

cuddly, furry, and way fun to play with.

winter in the south lands

Beth and I at the bottom of the drydock. The captain gave us a tour around the bottom of the ship, pretty freakin huge. This is at the bow with the anchor lines on either side of us. oh yes, and we did look rather sexy in the hard hats.

tearing apart to put together anew

The world is smaller than you think, so watch what you do and say. As I've been meeting people onboard and so many have noted how they remember me from such and such a place, I've realized that we never know the impact good or bad that we will have on someone. It's obvious that some people in your life you will remember and they will influence you, but I forget that the people I fun into for maybe only five minutes will also remember me for something. It's giving me a sense of responsibility and accountability for not only what I say but how I act everywhere. Someone today was sharing about her first memories of me from over four years ago and they were completely different from my perspective of the time. With over 30 nationalities onboard, it's hard at times to realize how many views can come out of the same situation.

We started working today in Housekeeping. It's rather an interesting task to accomplish while in drydock. A large portion of the ship is torn apart being redone and the rest is constantly tracked with black and red dust. Also, while in dry dock, there is no water onboard. So, showers and bathrooms are all on the dock. heh.... fun trips at night to do just about anything. I found out today too that the guys don't even have hot water in their bathroom... but fortunatly the girls do.

Much of the work being done right now is welding. Welding creates sparks, which are likely to catch the ship on fire. Thus, for every welder, there must be a fire watcher sitting next to him. So I've also been doing some of the firewatch shifts to help out there too. They cannot continue the work unless they have some one watching the surrrounding areas at the same time. It's boring, but a neccessity. I've enjoyed doing the watches because I get to interact mainly with the dayworker then who are actually from East London. They're very intrigued by the fact that the ship's workers are actually paying to work onboard and offer the services we do. As an added blessing, we also have dayworkers who are volunteering in some of the departments. It's good to see the local community supporting the ship in the areas that it can.

I'm doing surprisingly well. It's weird how invigoriting I've found being back and I'm not sure why. I've almost completely adjusted to the nine hour time difference... I actually woke up to my alarm clock this morning (verses yesterday at 430 am). It's encouraging to see so many people from so many places working together joyfully for a common goal. Everyone appreciates everyone elses work, whether it's dining room staff or engine room manager. I've forgotten how much of this plays together.

Many more thoughts and adventures await.... ohh on Saturday I'm going to the Lion's park. :)

no more planes

we made it.

36 hours. 5 planes. 5 airports. Now a ship.

Olivia and I are gonna try to stay up til 9 pm tonight, but as of right now, I seriously doubt that's gonna happen.

So already I've started to run into people I know onboard, here and there at least. The ship is in kinda a wreck right now considering all the work its undergoing. It's hard to see something that is so beautiful when put together be torn apart everywhere. It'll be amazing to see the transformation over the next month.

Flying away.... again

Here we go again, in some ways it's the same, but then I'm different and I have such a peace now about leaving. I leave for South Africa tomorrow. As usual, there's more questions than anything else running through my head. Besides processing going on to the ship, I'm realizing that this stage of my life is slowly coming to a change. College, as I've known it, is over. I know I've been given so much that I have the responsibility to use my gifts, experiences, failures, to the fullest. I'm not sure what that means, but it's vital that I do not just waste my life doing what I want to do. There's so much more to it.

C.S. Lewis had an amazing grasp on God. My vision, my thoughts of Him have been transformed and vitalized through reading the Chronicles of Narnia. Through a children's novel, I was able to experience and know some of God's attributes like I've never realized before. I'm excited to spend the next month reading his other works to learn even more.

It's not supposed to be hard to say goodbye... but I think it's a deeper sadness maybe. It's not pain or even really sadness, it's more of the knowledge that dearest people close to me are going different directions. It's an excitement, but in the midst of a solemn ending. Three years ago, I know nothing of this life or of these people.... now... they have changed me, pushed me further than I thought I could ever go.

Here we go... each on are own adventures with the Master.

this will not rule my life

these things are addicting, i know from experience. I plan on using this to actually stay in contact with people over the next 5 months as I'm in South Africa and D.C. So yea, we'll see how that goes.

an new page

here. this is my new blog