Hi. We’ve been on the ship two months now and it’s really fun here. I’ve met friends and you know what? Last night we had a Film Festival on our ship and my friends and I made a video for it. There were 15 short movies that crew members made. We all dressed up and went to the International Lounge to watch the films. We had so much fun. This is a picture of me and my friend Anna at the festival.

Yesterday we went to the outdoor market and it was awesome. I got a really cool outfit (picture on right). There is a cafe and store on the ship and it’s really cool. Yesterday we got to make cards for Mother’s Day.

I just love living here on the ship. I love it because we get to have so many adventures everyday. We get to go off the ship and we can swim in the ship pool. There is even a school onboard and it’s almost out for the year. May 25 is our last day.

Each day before school gets out, we get to dress up like an animal or pirate or wear pajamas to class. School is really fun. I have only two other kids in my class. And did you know that there is a hospital ward onboard and I have my own patients I like to visit? Do you want to know all my friend’s names who live in the ward? Tene, Fatima, Gladys, and Darius. Mr. Salime translates our words to the patients from English into French, Ewe, Mina and Kabye.

In the ward, when I visit my patients, we play all sorts of games like jump rope, making bracelets, painting finger nails, hand clapping games and a really famous game in Togo using beans. We also play with balloons and blow bubbles. I hope you like my pictures. Bye. See you next time. 

This is me and my friend Fatima in the ward

I love it here! This is a picture of my class in the Mercy Ships Academy. One of my favorite parts about being in Africa is when we leave the ship and go into town. I like eating African food from street vendors. I love buying pineapples, mangoes and coconuts on the side of the road for 50 cents. I love watching the women cut up the fruit with their machette and hand me the pieces in a small plastic bag to eat with a toothpick. I like buying cold water in a bag for 10 cents and being adventurous by trying new and interesting types of food. I’ve eaten cow stomach and intestines, fish eyeballs, fufu and bush rat.

Eating street food – for our family of four, it only cost us $2.00 for lunch

On May 18, I tried my first bush rat. It tastes a lot better than you’d think.

My family and I like to go down to Deck 3 on the ship which is where the hospital wards are. This is where people recover from their surgeries. We all visit patients before and after their surgeries. Elsa likes to play with a girl named Gladys who had a problem with her eye and a girl named Fatima. My mom visits with a lady named Teni who just got surgery for a problem she has had for more than 20 years. My dad and I have been visiting Darius, a 9 year old boy who got a bad case of chicken pox in December and it got in his eyes and caused blindness. His story is so sad.

He was a normal boy until he lost his sight. Now he can’t go to school or do anything without help. The first day my dad and I went to visit him in the ward, we were sad to hear his story. After that, we went back to the cabin and cried together. Then we started visiting him often. We read story books to him, brought play-doh to play with and my dad shared a Bible story with him. Every night before we left, we held hands with him and his mom and prayed that he would be able to see again.

The doctors on the ship were able to help him to see out of one eye, but not the other. He has to wear these sunglasses to protect his eyes from the light. I wish we could have done more to help him. Not every story has a happy ending.

This is Darius with his mom just before they went home. Please pray for my friend Darius.

The rainy season should be upon us by now, but there’s been no rain. A couple times a week we see the clouds roll in, but they never deliver. We hope the rain will come soon for the farmers, otherwise they’ll lose their crops this season. 60% of the people here are involved in subsistence farming. They grow mainly corn, rice, millet, cassava, and sorghum.  The cash crops grown in Togo are cocoa, coffee and products made from the palm tree. They also rear cattle, goat, sheep, and hogs.

Welcome to our backyard, the Lome Shipyard. This is a picture of us returning from a day at the Grand Marche, the big market in Lome. See pictures below and imagine shopping in this market every week. It’s a bit crowded, but we still love it.

This is the view from a second story fabric shop.

A fruit stand 

A very common sight

This gives you a very accurate picture of what it’s like to be in the market. Just add about 20 motorcycles dodging the crowd and about 10 more cars interspersed throughout.

We bought a dress for a friend from this vendor in the Grand Marche.

The Togolese are known for their leather making skills.

Pictured here is a pair of sandals they made for Lisa.

Here is a display of the sandals these men have made in their shop.

Vendors in the market can be found selling just about anything. Take a look below to see what items you find throughout the market.

There are three main modes of transportation in Lome. Foot, car taxi and motorcycle taxi. A trip from the port gate to the center of town by car or motorbike costs 300 cfa. This is equivalent to about 75 cents.  

It’s a rarity to see a traffic light at an intersection.

Zodi’s birthday on April 1 was celebrated with friends and family onboard. Her presents from Grandma arrived on April 24. Packages can be sent to us via shipping container and it usually takes 2 months to get here from the States, but a friend was flying here from Texas and had room in his carry-on. How exciting it was Tuesday morning when my friend, Brian, stopped by our cabin with a handful of wrapped presents for Zodi.

Zodi and Elsa have a small room in our cabin, just big enough for a pair of bunk beds and a cabinet. Even though our space is limited, we are content in our humble abode. Zodi and Elsa have fun sliding down the square-shaped fireman’s pole from the top bunk.

This picture was taken on Easter morning. Lisa is wearing a traditional West African dress that we had made when we lived in The Gambia 9 years ago.

Edwina from Sierra Leone has become a good friend to us. Before joining the ship as a cook, she worked in her country as a hair dresser. In her spare time  onboard, she braids African hair. Zodi and Elsa recently had her braid their hair. She has taught us many things about West African culture, in particular, the importance of extended greetings and respecting our elders.

This is one of the 15 vehicles Mercy Ships uses. We often pick up patients from deep inside the country and transport them to the ship for surgery. These Land Rovers are so rugged that they can traverse across rivers during the rainy season. When the waters are high they can be almost completely submerged and yet, continue to across to the other side of the river.Henry, Mampho, and Amina Gwani are our good friends from Nigeria and South Africa. We have the privilege of having them as next door neighbors. Henry is one of the chaplains on onboard. We are going to miss him and his family when they leave in June.

We eat breakfast and lunch together in our cabin everyday and dinner in the dining room with the other crew members.

We love our ocean view from our cabin.

Some of Elsa’s friends: Megan, Emily, Anna and Kylie. When there’s not enough floor space to play on, Elsa and her friends play on the top bunk.

Friends who came to visit the Africa Mercy. We served together on the Anastasis in the 1990′s. Emily, on the left, was in second grade when I was a teacher in the school.

We found this man who dyes beautiful batiks. We bought this one from him.

Brian and I were roommates and colleagues back in the 90′s when we both worked on the M/V Anastasis, an earlier Mercy Ship. We were both in each others weddings and have stayed friends over the years. Brian is the chief administrator of the Academy and although he lives in Texas and works at the Mercy Ships headquarters, he comes to the ship every year for a visit.  Great to have you back, Brian!

Our goal is to transform the lives of the world’s poor. One by one. Our hospital ships and land-based teams provide primary medical care, relief aid and community support to the most impoverished people on earth, free of charge. Click on the picture below to witness God at work through Mercy Ships.

Tour the Africa Mercy, watch a surgery, or visit the patients we see each day in West Africa. These 360-degree tours will put you right in the midst of it all!

Click below to see two 360-degree interactive videos:

Tour the Africa Mercy 

Visit a cabin on board the Africa Mercy