Photos part 1

I have lots of pictures to post... but here are just a few of my pictures from traveling, first arriving at the ship, and my walk into the city the day after arriving...

Leaving Little Rock... just me and my luggage

 Did you know in Brussels, you can get Belgian waffles from the vending machine???

Flying over the desert in Northern Africa...

Our transportation from the airport to the dock... this was about 11:30pm on Saturday

The Ship =) 

The gangplank enters the ship onto deck 5... My cabin and the hospital are on deck 3

Me =)

A common sight off the port side of the ship... large cargo ships coming in 

from the ocean to the dock space next to us.

Can you spot the local fisherman in the little canoe?

View of the city from the starboard side of the ship...

Our walk into town was quite an experience... there are open sewers running along both sides of the road, 'homes' made out of sticks, rusty sheet metal, and whatever they can find. The smell of burning garbage and plastic mingles with the smell of the locals cooking food and selling it to people walking by. The local women walk by with water jars or baskets of food balanced on their head. I even saw one woman walking by carrying a live chicken in a basket on her head... it was quite comical.

There are children everywhere! 50% of the population in the city is under the age of 16. They are very friendly and wave and yell 'hi, hi, hi' at the top of their lungs when you walk by. The Sierra Leonians are very sensitive to their picture being taken, so I didn't get pictures on our walk, except for one when we were almost back to the ship... we rounded a curve on the road back to the dock, and the landscape was absolutely gorgeous... such stark contrast to all the dirt, garbage, poverty, and hardship observed in town. 

So, anyways... I think that's enough pictures for one post. I have the day off today because I have to work from 6pm-2am tonight stripping wax off the hospital floors and re-waxing them before the first patients arrive. 

There are several dozen little bow-legged kids from the northern provinces of Sierra Leone that are traveling to the ship on Sunday for surgeries on Monday. Pray for safe travels for them, and that God would calm their fears about 'floating on a piece of metal on the water, and getting their legs fixed.'

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea...Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. "  Ps. 46:1-2,10