Well, I'm at the end of my first day here on Africa Mercy! I'm pretty tired though, so I'm just going to cover the trip here right now and fill in the rest later.
So, everything began around 7:30a.m. when I got up and placed an emergency call to the local computer repair shop to try to get my internet up and running by 9:30a.m. Fortunately, it was an easy fix and my netbook was ready in plenty of time. Ran into a little bit of trouble waiting for the Fedex truck to arrive with the shunt kit, and that adventure ended with us calling the company and managing to track down the courier so he could meet us in town with the package. We got off just in the nick of time to make it to D.C. on schedule. Once there, we got the Dulles Int'nl Airport, checked my baggage, and I said good bye to my family. (Mom did very well, not crying until the last minute. Hehe...)
All the flights went incredibly smoothly. I met up with one other volunteer in Dulles, and the other five or six were all on the flight from Brussels. We had a quick stop in Banjul, Gambia--giving me my first glimpse of Africa up close--to let off most of the passengers, and then the rest of us went on to Lungi International Airport. Once there, we met with the Mercy Ships drivers who loaded all of our luggage and us into two cars. Fortunately I was somewhat expecting the road and driving conditions over here, but it was still incredible to experience just how chaotic it really is; people walking in the road, cars swerving around eachother, and motorcycles weaving in and out of it all. And I thought Paris was bad! Funny thing was though, our driver was surprised a little bit when one of our group asked him if he'd ever hit anyone.
We made it to the ferry and enjoyed the sunset from out on deck. The ride was a long one, but it was relaxing after long, cramped airline flights to feel the breeze and walk around. The pictures, lower, were taken from the ferry. The first one looks towards the ship, which you can barely see, and the second is looking back at where we'd just driven through. Once we reached the other side we took our gear to the waiting Mercy Ships Land Rovers. More chaos ensued as waiting vehicles were trying to leave with their newly arrived passengers, and the vehicles on the ferry were unloading and trying to get out of the small parking area themselves. One large dumptruck came a few inches from squishing me against the Land Rover, but fortunately stopped in time. Somehow these drivers manage to always come inches from disaster and yet avoid it! All of this was going on after dark, of course, and there were a group of men all sitting in plastic lawn chairs who I swear were just there to watch the excitement. The trip through Freetown to the ship went very well. The streets were crowded and all, but we didn't get caught in traffic once, so we made it to the docks in record time.
Once we got on the ship we began the process of getting our paperwork and badges taken care of. Almost immediately the nurse who had called me to ask if I could bring the shunt found me and she went and got the doctor to recieve the packages. I passed them on to him, and he said that three days was record time and the he had discovered the equivalent to FedEx over here was a man on a bicycle with a basket behind him to carry the packages. About halfway through getting a meal and finishing the paperwork, a photographer came up and asked if I would pose for some pictures with the doctor, so I went and reenacted the transfer again.
One of my roomates met me when I arrived, and when I got down to my quarters, I wanted nothing more than to collapse on my bed. After doing the math, I'd figured out that I'd been about forty hours without sleep since I am terrible at sleeping during travel. However, once I got my bag opened, I discovered that a plastic Ziploc bag had gotten crushed during transit, and the top layer of my clothes smelled like Bath & Body Works' Paris Amour and Proactive revitalizing toner. Fortunately the former was fine as well as some of the other liquids in there. It meant, though, that I had to unpack everything before going to bed and sort out the soiled clothes.
All and all though, it was a great trip!
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