30 Days of Africa - #22

Mangosteens! A friend bargained for these along the road and introduced us to this fruit. The outside looks strange and hard but the inside is soft, juicey and sweet :) 

30 Days of Africa - #21

Sunset at the break wall...the other side of Africa Mercy's dock is a break wall to the Atlantic Ocean with beautiful views and soaking wave sprays:

Africa Mercy's end of the port dock

 

Break wall made of huge rocks

 

Soaked by a random gigantic wave...

 

...but the sunset was totally worth the effort

 

Did I ever mention how much I love the beauty of Africa?

30 Days of Africa - #20

Introducing the newest member of the Mercy Ships dental team! One of the Congolese day crew from the dental clinic is off for maternity leave and she recently brought her newborn baby to the clinic for all of us to finally meet him. The baby is super cute so I have to give you the opportunity to meet him too...I haven't mastered the technique of tying a baby on my back yet, if I find a willing mother and not screaming child who is a little older I might give it a try and definitely post some photos.

 

30 Days of Africa - #19

Just a short but useful lesson today - how to correctly sit on a folding dental chair:

Start by sitting on the middle part of the chair...

 

... then put your feet on the foot rest like this

 

Never sit on the foot rest...

...or this will happen to you!

 

Believe it or not, the above scenario is actually a serious problem at the dental clinic...and signs with these pictures were posted by each chair today for intensive patient education purposes, an aspect I definitely didn't learn in dental hygiene school :)

 

30 Days of Africa - #18

Denis Sassou Nguesso, the President of the Republic of Congo visited the Africa Mercy yesterday for the first time! The entire event turned out to be a big deal and actually quite the show. First of all, the event was moved up from Tuesday to Sunday, sending the preparation teams into chaos. Then the entire port area had a face lift with side walks being finished, walls newly painted, huge shipping containers moved out of the way. The day of the actual event, the whole port area was closed 2 hours before the president arrived until after he left, mid afternoon to evening. As crew on the ship we could watch his arrival from the dining room or upper outside decks and then listen to the program speeches from the dinning room tv screens...unless you were lucky enough to get one of a few seats in the international room where the president was speaking. After the program, there was a short tour through the hospital area, then down the gangway and President Nguesso was gone. It was a short visit considering all the preparation involved, but the Mercy Ship crew and the city/port of Pointe Noire did a great job to make the whole experience very memorable. I have a few pictures to share, but we were restricted in coming and going from the ship, where we were allowed on the ship, what we could wear, and most of all where to take or not to take pictures...pretty much no photos allowed. So enjoy :)

Watching from the "safe zone" through the dining room windows

 

Crowds wearing President Denis Sassou Nguesso tee shirts with his face on them...

and a live band with entertainment

 

Presidential motorcade arriving

 

Congo president greeting Mercy Ships founder Don Stephens

 

Watching the president's speech on one of the dining room screens...

30 Days in Africa - #17

Camping on the beach this weekend! Returned to my favorite place this weekend - the gorge beach, but this time for camping overnight. The camping trip started with pouring rain and we actually left the camping area to return to the ship. After eating our packed lunches at a local restaurant, the rain started to let up and we decided to go camping after all. Everything was soaking wet and the dark clouds were threatening for the rest of the day, but camping on the beach was so worth braving the wet sand and mud. The beach was completely deserted and we could chose to set up camp anywhere. The tent was completely built from market materials and our fire-starters had amazing skills to convince wet wood to actually burn as a great campfire. The sunset was beautiful, crashing waves on the beach were soothing all night long, and when the stars came out I think we even found the Southern Cross constellation. And of course, the campfire food was epic... chocolate bananas directly from Switzerland, crabs caught from the hundreds carpeting the beach at night, and freshly caught fish cooked in foil for breakfast. Also the standard Mercy Ship fare of peanut butter sandwiches, hardboiled eggs, and apples... not quite so epic. All 6 of the campers survived the African night creepy crawlers and morning brought the sun back again. Definitely one of my favorite camping trips and a highlight of my time in Congo. Unfortunately, pictures don't show all the natural beauty of the area, but maybe they will give you a good idea :)

Pity party about the rain...that did stop eventually

Choosing the perfect camp site

 

                                                     Campfire cooking with Mitch...

The 6 African camping survivors!

30 Days of Africa - #16

Ok, so the last few days have been very busy around here and I've missed a few posts... to catch up I'm just going to do a short post with the Congo flag. The port area where Africa Mercy is docked has been worked on all week long in anticipation of the Congo president's arrival today. So there are Congo flags along the streets, the roads are repaired, walls are newly painted and ugly stuff is generally gone. There are even tee-shirts made for the occasion and passed out to all by-standers to show unanimous support for the president or something like that...