July 2006 - Akwaaba Ghana
Greetings family and friends,
We have arrived safely in Ghana, the land of milk and honey, and it certainly feels so on our arrival. Ghana is warm and green, peaceful and welcoming. The main roads are in good condition, it is safe to travel, the markets are abundant, people are friendly and vibrant. The land reflects God’s grace to us at this stage, allowing us to rest and be refreshed in preparation to the next season of work here. The build up to this has been slow, necessarily so I feel, as we said goodbye to over 200 people and greeted a large number of new arrivals over the last month. It is strange walking down the same corridors in the ship and not recognizing anyone, after six months of communal life where we almost have rituals of greeting the same people the same way every morning when we come out of our cabin, seeing the same faces at the same corners, sharing the same familiar banter. Suddenly we’re propelled into a strange new world where everything physical looks the same but the occupants have changed. Many families have also left for vacation, so the ship feels emptier in terms of children and teenagers too. Thankfully Etienne seems to have adjusted ‘fine fine’, indeed on the ship he cannot run out of playmates since he just has to step out of the cabin to have someone greet and play with him. He has actually been our catalyst to new friendships, and even as we miss dear friends who have left the ship he pushes us gently along by making new friends first himself in his typical brash and cute toddling manner. A child shall lead the way…
So the first two weeks of our arrival in Ghana has been a time of transition and debriefing from Liberia, followed by two weeks of preparation for the Ghana outreach and especially for the medical screening. On D Day 26 June when the deck department went to the designated area at 3am to organize lines they found a crowd already waiting. By 8am over 2000 people were in line. Throughout the day nurses and doctors examined patients with stigmatizing conditions, many with disfigurements hiding behind scarves and rags. It was the first time for Julien and I to be on board at the beginning of a time of service in a country, our first opportunity to participate in screening. We both found it very hard… yet very rewarding. Kae started at 6am, leaving with the main medical team and helping out in turn at the pharmacy or at escorting patients from the pre-screening booth to the waiting area, staying until 10am as babysitting arrangements allowed. Julien was able to go during lunch break from 1-2pm. It seems like the whole ship was involved, and we later found out that over 150 crew on board volunteered during this crucial time and helped the healthcare services department in various ways, such as crowd control and security, handing out water to people in line, entertaining children with balloons and games, driving patients and samples to and fro the ship for further tests, praying with those whom we cannot help physically. A second screening was held in Takoradi later that week and from these two days 453 patients have been scheduled for eye surgeries and 289 for maxillo-facial or general surgeries. To see a patient’s face lit up, someone who has carried a disfigurement for years and had not been able to afford surgery, the surprise at the welcome he is given, the hope when he is handed an appointment card and scheduled for free surgical care, it is a sight we will never forget.
And now surgery has started again, and work continues. Julien is back to shouldering two jobs as IT manager and system administrator whilst his colleague goes on holiday. We have moved cabins, from B Deck cabin 126 to Upper Deck cabin 36. Upper deck is where the first class cabins used to be when the Anastasis was a cruise liner, and now tends to be known as the Family Deck as this is where many family cabins are located. We love our new cabin and it also means Etienne is nearer to the other children who are still here, and he loves his new room too. He has literarily moved up too, from baby cot to adult lower bunk bed before, and now to adult upper bunk bed with his very own ladder. He is very careful climbing up and down, and has slept well since we moved in. He is also terrorizing the corridors with his ceaseless chattering and gleeful screaming when he chases someone from bow to stern and back again. His current phrases: “Mama, what’ser up?” “Mama, what’ser happening?”
“Papa, draw car (or lorry or tractor or crane) please please”
“Ook, ook (look), mama, a boat!” “Watch out, car is coming!” (this as he zooms a toy car in his hand towards and over your foot/hand/miscellaneous body parts). He has adopted the African way of sucking his lips to make a kissing noise when he wants to catch your attention. So “ook ook mama” can sometimes be “ook (smooch) ook (smooch) mama!!” We also noticed all the toddlers on board adopting the favourite words of each toddler in his or her mother tongue. So they all say “za patos” in Spanish courtesy of Tabea (Mexican mum, German dad, loves shoes), “bateau” in French for boats courtesy of Etienne, and “nei nei” in Dutch courtesy of Norah who is going through the “no no” phase (but she is really very sweet and would kiss Etienne first when Etienne was supposed to say sorry and kiss her for knocking her on the head). Timmy on the other hand at one plus is going through a “yes” phase. Ask him any question, “Will you give me all your money?”, he would happily respond with bright blue eyes and a big sincere smile, “Yeah!”
“Are you going to be a good boy?” “Yeah!”
“Is Australia going to win the World Cup?” “Yeah!”
We read him a book during nursery last week, where each sentence asked with a questioning tone would elicit an enthusiastic “Yeah!” Great entertainment, highly recommended, who needs TV?
Ahh… but we do have TV on board and it’s vital during World Cup 2006, when the whole ship got caught with football fever! Everyone was really happy Ghana got in and when they won the first few matches we could hear the cheers from the whole dock and folks in town were happily swept up in spontaneous celebrations. All the results were posted in the Med Lounge, the matches were shown in the International Lounge, crew spotted football t-shirts and colours, players and referees were analysed to death, and everyone would go around to comfort the Ghanaians, the Aussies, the Swiss, the South Koreans, the British, the Germans etc as it progressed. When France lost at the finals there was a sense of solidarity, since there were no Italians on board at the time we were all in a very real sense in the same boat :). Etienne learnt to say “Goal!” with both fists raised, and to ask “Papa watcher football?”, and Timmy would say “Yeah!”
In our next newsletter perhaps I will try to describe what a typical day may be like for a young mother with a toddler on board, but before this, holidays!! We are looking forward to be home in France for three weeks’ break from 30 July to 22 August. Which means we leave next week! So we need to go and pack and get ready to disembark the ship, so till the next, blessings and hugs and see you soon in France! Bises,
Kae, Julien and Etienne,
with the M/V Anastasis currently docked in Tema, Ghana
Photos: Accra (Ghana's capital) Arts Centre, drum workshop
Etienne playing with some school children
Arrival at Tema port in the night at the end of the sail
We have arrived safely in Ghana, the land of milk and honey, and it certainly feels so on our arrival. Ghana is warm and green, peaceful and welcoming. The main roads are in good condition, it is safe to travel, the markets are abundant, people are friendly and vibrant. The land reflects God’s grace to us at this stage, allowing us to rest and be refreshed in preparation to the next season of work here. The build up to this has been slow, necessarily so I feel, as we said goodbye to over 200 people and greeted a large number of new arrivals over the last month. It is strange walking down the same corridors in the ship and not recognizing anyone, after six months of communal life where we almost have rituals of greeting the same people the same way every morning when we come out of our cabin, seeing the same faces at the same corners, sharing the same familiar banter. Suddenly we’re propelled into a strange new world where everything physical looks the same but the occupants have changed. Many families have also left for vacation, so the ship feels emptier in terms of children and teenagers too. Thankfully Etienne seems to have adjusted ‘fine fine’, indeed on the ship he cannot run out of playmates since he just has to step out of the cabin to have someone greet and play with him. He has actually been our catalyst to new friendships, and even as we miss dear friends who have left the ship he pushes us gently along by making new friends first himself in his typical brash and cute toddling manner. A child shall lead the way…
So the first two weeks of our arrival in Ghana has been a time of transition and debriefing from Liberia, followed by two weeks of preparation for the Ghana outreach and especially for the medical screening. On D Day 26 June when the deck department went to the designated area at 3am to organize lines they found a crowd already waiting. By 8am over 2000 people were in line. Throughout the day nurses and doctors examined patients with stigmatizing conditions, many with disfigurements hiding behind scarves and rags. It was the first time for Julien and I to be on board at the beginning of a time of service in a country, our first opportunity to participate in screening. We both found it very hard… yet very rewarding. Kae started at 6am, leaving with the main medical team and helping out in turn at the pharmacy or at escorting patients from the pre-screening booth to the waiting area, staying until 10am as babysitting arrangements allowed. Julien was able to go during lunch break from 1-2pm. It seems like the whole ship was involved, and we later found out that over 150 crew on board volunteered during this crucial time and helped the healthcare services department in various ways, such as crowd control and security, handing out water to people in line, entertaining children with balloons and games, driving patients and samples to and fro the ship for further tests, praying with those whom we cannot help physically. A second screening was held in Takoradi later that week and from these two days 453 patients have been scheduled for eye surgeries and 289 for maxillo-facial or general surgeries. To see a patient’s face lit up, someone who has carried a disfigurement for years and had not been able to afford surgery, the surprise at the welcome he is given, the hope when he is handed an appointment card and scheduled for free surgical care, it is a sight we will never forget.
And now surgery has started again, and work continues. Julien is back to shouldering two jobs as IT manager and system administrator whilst his colleague goes on holiday. We have moved cabins, from B Deck cabin 126 to Upper Deck cabin 36. Upper deck is where the first class cabins used to be when the Anastasis was a cruise liner, and now tends to be known as the Family Deck as this is where many family cabins are located. We love our new cabin and it also means Etienne is nearer to the other children who are still here, and he loves his new room too. He has literarily moved up too, from baby cot to adult lower bunk bed before, and now to adult upper bunk bed with his very own ladder. He is very careful climbing up and down, and has slept well since we moved in. He is also terrorizing the corridors with his ceaseless chattering and gleeful screaming when he chases someone from bow to stern and back again. His current phrases: “Mama, what’ser up?” “Mama, what’ser happening?”
“Papa, draw car (or lorry or tractor or crane) please please”
“Ook, ook (look), mama, a boat!” “Watch out, car is coming!” (this as he zooms a toy car in his hand towards and over your foot/hand/miscellaneous body parts). He has adopted the African way of sucking his lips to make a kissing noise when he wants to catch your attention. So “ook ook mama” can sometimes be “ook (smooch) ook (smooch) mama!!” We also noticed all the toddlers on board adopting the favourite words of each toddler in his or her mother tongue. So they all say “za patos” in Spanish courtesy of Tabea (Mexican mum, German dad, loves shoes), “bateau” in French for boats courtesy of Etienne, and “nei nei” in Dutch courtesy of Norah who is going through the “no no” phase (but she is really very sweet and would kiss Etienne first when Etienne was supposed to say sorry and kiss her for knocking her on the head). Timmy on the other hand at one plus is going through a “yes” phase. Ask him any question, “Will you give me all your money?”, he would happily respond with bright blue eyes and a big sincere smile, “Yeah!”
“Are you going to be a good boy?” “Yeah!”
“Is Australia going to win the World Cup?” “Yeah!”
We read him a book during nursery last week, where each sentence asked with a questioning tone would elicit an enthusiastic “Yeah!” Great entertainment, highly recommended, who needs TV?
Ahh… but we do have TV on board and it’s vital during World Cup 2006, when the whole ship got caught with football fever! Everyone was really happy Ghana got in and when they won the first few matches we could hear the cheers from the whole dock and folks in town were happily swept up in spontaneous celebrations. All the results were posted in the Med Lounge, the matches were shown in the International Lounge, crew spotted football t-shirts and colours, players and referees were analysed to death, and everyone would go around to comfort the Ghanaians, the Aussies, the Swiss, the South Koreans, the British, the Germans etc as it progressed. When France lost at the finals there was a sense of solidarity, since there were no Italians on board at the time we were all in a very real sense in the same boat :). Etienne learnt to say “Goal!” with both fists raised, and to ask “Papa watcher football?”, and Timmy would say “Yeah!”
In our next newsletter perhaps I will try to describe what a typical day may be like for a young mother with a toddler on board, but before this, holidays!! We are looking forward to be home in France for three weeks’ break from 30 July to 22 August. Which means we leave next week! So we need to go and pack and get ready to disembark the ship, so till the next, blessings and hugs and see you soon in France! Bises,
Kae, Julien and Etienne,
with the M/V Anastasis currently docked in Tema, Ghana
Photos: Accra (Ghana's capital) Arts Centre, drum workshop
Etienne playing with some school children
Arrival at Tema port in the night at the end of the sail
posted by everydaymercy at 10:33 pm
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