An afternoon in a tree....A good day :)

Today was an absolutely wonderful day.

It was warm, sunny and absolutely gorgeous outside. I slept till I woke up this morning (no alarm clock yay!) and still managed to catch the last minutes of breakfast. Then Christina, Danae and I curled up in my room and watched Leap Year. Definitely one of my top favorite movies now. Absolutely fun, funny, cute and very clean. After that we put on more summery clothes (yay! Its been cold) and went for a walk to enjoy the sunshine. Then I came back and put on a tank top and some ball shorts cause I was still hot even after losing the normal sweatshirts we’ve gotten used to lately. Then I packed a small knapsack with a book, my Bible, journal, and my ipod in my pocket, put on my flip flops and went out to enjoy the day outside.

My first mission was to find food, so I stopped at the tuck shop and got french fries and a sausage roll plus some chocolate cookies J mmmm! Yummy. I ate my food sitting under a tree on the top step of the arena area out back of the gym accompanied by music from my ipod. Then, with my stomach full, I went on a hunt for a good place to set up camp for a while. I found it in a big old tree in an out-of-the-way corner at the front of the campus by the outside wall. So I climbed up and made myself comfy enjoying the breeze and the shade. I proceeded to spend the majority of the rest of my afternoon sitting in a tree J resting, napping, reading, talking to Jesus a little, and enjoying my music, switching every now and then to a new spot in the big tree. It was just wonderful. Absolutely perfect.

After about 2 hours or so I decided to see what else I might do till dinner. I met one of the guards as I was just getting down and we exchanged hellos and started a small conversation, then he pointed out one of the other female guards, Mpume, whom I’d met earlier, was waving and calling to me from the guard house, so we walked down to say hi. I visited there for a little bit and showed them pictures of my family and Joey from my ipod. They enjoyed the pictures and asked some questions about where they were and if I missed them.

After talking a little bit, I said goodbye and walked on, still having no plan, completely content with the beauty and leisure of the day, silently thanking God for the wonder and pleasure of his creation, singing to my ipod as I went. I picked a spot on a step shaded all except my legs and sat there for a few minutes just listening and singing with my music, then got up and wondered around still singing and enjoying the warmth of the sun. I found myself on the walkway leading to the school with big blue pillars on either side. So I picked one off to the side with a view of the hills and sat down on the side with some shade enjoying my music and drifting off for a few seconds here and there. It was a wonderful day. I spent all day outside, in a tree, on a step, singing songs, warmed by the sun. Thank you God for a special day. I loved it. J

Applesbosch! Home sweet land! :)

We are here! Woohoo! And for those of you who think that all of Africa is hot and sunny. I have news for you. It is very cold right now! We are coming out of South Africa's winter. So we've been all pants (trousers for the Brits ;-p *pants mean underwear to them lol) and sweatshirts! But yes it is beautiful! and the campus we are staying on is an absolute blessing. God is so good. He really loves us. So here are some pictures. right now I'm working in the galley until we see what happens with the dental team. enjoy the pictures! I miss all of you my family and friends!

My room on the ship was completely empty after I was done packing up to move to Applesbosch.

Like i said, Hoodies! yay!

This is a sitting area behind the gym, next to the tuck shop (its like a concession stand on steroids! hehe its awesome!)where we can get internet (They are still working out a lot of details for it to be stable and perminant)

Here's the tuck shop. They have all kinds of good stuff. And that is Clare, who helps run it. The staff here running the campus for us is amazing! I'm so thankful for them!

We have a full size gym!!! I've been able to play basketball most evenings. I'm loving it.

That's my dorm building on the left, B block, and that is the dining hall on the right. like i said, beautiful!

The view from my room. That is the gym on the left and you can see just the beginning of the school for the kids on the right

This is my room! I get my own! and it has 3 beds in it, which is really funny. No I don't switch back and forth every third night. I sleep in the pink one.

The bus ride to Applesbosch from the ship. So fun and exciting!

The massive pile of crew luggage before it was all loaded on trucks to be taken to Applesbosch. The first two days were major unpacking, complete with a people chain all the way from the trucks to the gym to get the luggage in as quickly and easily as possible. :)

well thats all I have for now. I hope you are all doing well!

Land! Land! It's South Africa ;-D Yay!

After Sailing for 17 days, we have just arrived in Durban, South Africa!

I’m so excited to be here. J We got in this morning after the pilot boarded our ship by helicopter! Quite exciting. It was so refreshing to see the first sights of the coast line. Land! Yay!Durban looks beautiful. This is the 3^rd largest port in the southern hemisphere. As we came into port it reminded me of a big city in FL. Palm trees, big buildings, it looks just like home. J I can’t wait to be able to run around on land. ;-p I feel like a little kid that’s been cooped up too long. We are just waiting on things to get all finished up with immigration before we are allowed to set foot on land. Please pray that God will pave the way and things will fall into place smoothly and quickly.

Tomorrow we will be loading up trucks and caravanning about 2 hours up to ApplesBosch, the campus we will be living on for the next 6 months. It is an un-used college campus, with open spaces, that I’m sure we will all enjoy after living on a ship for over a year. :-D As soon as we get off the ship, the technical crew remaining, and other workers from the shipyard will begin work in earnest to refit the ship and making all the changes and improvements needed.

I still have some packing to finish up before tomorrow morning, and I’m very excited about all the changes happening. I think I will continue working in crew services (dining room or galley) for then next 2 weeks or so at Applesbosch (or wherever they tell me I’m working ;-p), then we will start work with the dental clinic again and I’ll go back to my job as sterilizer. I’m so excited to see everything unfold here. I know God has a plan and I’m excited to be a part of it. I’ll write more once our internet and phone services get set up in Applesbosch, which could be over a week or so. I hope you are all well! Enjoy a few of the pictures below that I took this morning as we came into port as well as some pictures of the fun we had on the sail.

I enjoyed going up on deck 7 some mornings to enjoy God's creation and spend some time with Him. :)

During the sail we plan some fun activities to keep everyone from going crazy ;-p hehe

This was our team for the game day. Jeff and Megan Howard and their kids Max and Emma. Love this family. They have been such a blessing to me!

We also had a pirate day, where everyone dressed up and they had a treasure hunt and some other stuff for the kids. this is me with Emma and Max again :)

Obviously some sort of throwing game. ;-p I think it was one where you had to throw these little empty cookie boxes as far as you could. More difficult than you'd imagine ;-p lol

This just looks dangerous :-p

We had a carnival with lots of games and other fun things. Hahah so much fun. It's the Murr man!

The carnival also did stick-on tattoos! me and Becca decided to model ours :-p

And we got to make magnetic picture frames!

This is the dock in Durban! The view looking to the front of the ship.

This is the port looking to the back of the ship.

the dock right below our ship! :)

Those people are our advance team, who have been there for months sorting out details and waiting for their big white ship to arrive. This is always a fun reunion :)

Me, Heather, and Becca on deck 8 watching as we came into port! We're here!! WooHoo! Me and Becca took turns bubbling, "I'm so excited!" at random times with little dances of excitement :) hehe

Oh ya! I've already seen a Cheetah! ahahahhaa We were all laughing about this as we came into port.

We also saw our first piece of South African abstract art.... lol hahah we weren't exactly sure what it was, but that sounds nicer than "gigantic pile of junk"

Isn't it beautiful! :)

We're here!

just coming in.

The coastline getting closer! Yay South Africa!

There's the coastline of Durban, South Africa! Land! Woohoo! God is so good. What an adventure! :)