Some observations from life aboard the Africa Mercy thus far

..Weird things..

1. Milch. I am a milk snob, and somehow I will have to get used to milch with my cereal. At least I have cereal!
2. The water system here is some kind of vacuum system--- it sounds like a monster living in our bathroom (think the Goonies 'monster')
3. 0700 at-sea musters. We are required by maritime law to run a series of emergency drills. Lately we have been practicing as if “at sea” in preparation for our long sail to Congo. This entails all crew reporting to our specified area on the top deck, donning life jackets, and assembling into a formation to simulate boarding the life boats, as we would in an actual emergency. There are also drills for "man-overboard!" and for emergencies when in port. None of these things are expected, of course (family, this is your cue to NOT freak out :]), but if we have learned anything from the boy scouts, it is to always be prepared.
4. Slooooow internet- i.e. not able to be up to speed (literally) with the latest youtube viral videos. Supposedly, it only gets worse as more people arrive on board. On the positive side, it is really nice to be 'unplugged'.
5. Lack of music- I neglected to transfer my iTunes library to my new laptop before I left. Combine that with losing my iPhone, as well as the inability to use Spotify here, and things suddenly seem very quiet. I am painstakingly downloading 3-4 songs/ day from my iCloud, as the internet allows. If you want to be my best friend, mail me a thumb drive with some music on it! Or dropbox it to me!
6. Internationally, NC (as in the entire state, not just UNC) is known for one thing and one thing only: Michael Jordan. I have learned this several times in my short stay here already. Also, one day I became overly excited when I saw a guy from Sierra Leone wearing a hat with the UNC logo, only to find out he had no idea what a Tar Heel was. Sad day.
7. There is a line of questioning that seems to be present in every introduction conversation here on the ship. It goes a little something like this:
   A: Hi, I'm ______. I don't think we've met yet...
   B: I'm ______. Nice to meet you. Where are you from?
   A: Oh cool, I know somewhere from that area... (and, though the odds may be 1 million:1) Do you know _______?
   OR (if you are speaking with someone who has very little knowledge of the US geography) I've never heard of that, is it near New York City? (To which I usually reply 'yes' to make things easier, plus relatively speaking NC IS much nearer to NYC than Africa. This is also where I've started to insert the “It's where Michael Jordan grew up and went to school” line.
   And then after B's response, A continues with: How long are you here? and Where are you working on the ship?
   To which B responds and the inquires the same about A.
   I can only imagine how tiring the conversation must become for those who have been here for 2+ years. I'm already tired of it, and I haven't even been aboard for two full weeks yet! I've been thinking of other random questions to throw into the conversation, just to spice things up and to keep people (and myself) from turning into a full-on broken record... With the help of some of my crew mates, these are some in the running: What's your favorite time zone? What are your feelings toward mayonnaise? Would you let a blind hairdresser cut your hair? 

..Great things..

1. My current work commute is approximately 30 seconds (down a short hall and up 2 flights of stairs). Thank goodness that my commute time will be cut in half when the hospital opens! A 15 second commute is much more reasonable!. ;)
2. When you have 2 minute showers, no phone, zero work commute, and sketchy internet service, you suddenly find so much more time in the day! Although concurrently, time seems to pass so much more quickly here. It's a strange phenomenon.
3. Exploring 500-year-old aboriginal caves in Gran Canaria and a volcano (El Teide) in Tenerife
4. Improving my Spanish with my first roommate from Barcelona (sadly she has since returned home) and here in the Canary Islands (owned by Spain)
5. Turquoise blue water at Tenerife's beaches
6. Finding new running routes
7. Sailing (so far). This may be a little premature as I have only sailed for approximately 4 hours from island to island. I may have to move this to another category after the 2-week sail to the Republic of Congo
8.  Making friends from all over the world. Just last night at dinner we were representing U.S., Canada, and Denmark-- and there were only 5 of us!
9. So far we have had nutella and peanut butter available every day! Not sure how long that will last but it has been awesome for now.
10. Ice cream nights on Thursdays after the weekly community meeting. Nothing fancy but it is still ice cream!
11. The ship uses some kind of satellite phone system, so when calling any ship phone it is actually like calling Florida--- which means free calls for the fam and friends!
12. The hammock village on deck 7!

..Hard things..

1. Mopping and washing dishes... My current role in the dining room has been humbling and a wonderful reminder of how much I enjoy being a nurse! I am incredibly excited to get back into that role once we reach Congo. I also have a new respect for the work our Environmental Services staff do every day at Duke hospital (and every other hospital) back home!
2. No Trader Joe's. Please eat a lot of Greek yogurt guacamole, red pepper & eggplant spread, pretzel twists, veggie chips, and sea salt/chocolate covered nuts in my honor!
3. Missing family and friends. This whole no video chat due to limited bandwidth (whatever that means) is quite unfortunate. And, having my phone stolen has further limited my means of communication via iMessage.
4. Being new, figuring out your “place”, and trying to make a ship a home.
5. People leaving. Many of the friends I have met and enjoyed starting to get to know a little better will be leaving within the next 6 weeks! Some even left this past week! Apparently, that is the status quo for life on the ship. One of the crew here said, “The only thing constant on the ship is change.” I am certainly starting to see the truth in that.