African wedding pics

 Our beautiful African dresses, the material picked by the bride, made into different styles

                           The choir singing and dancing.  The tiny one on mom's back never woke up!

                                             Ayo and Ramata. It took hours to style Ramata's hair

                                                          Mr and Mrs Ayo Williams

We  (the Mercy Shippers) were seated at the place of honor, behind the bride table at the reception.  Seated beside Ramata is her Godmother.

The wedding was to have started at noon.  At 1:45 pm the music started and was preprogrammed on the keyboard.  We sang along to "Silent Night", "O Tannebaum", "What Child is This", "Jingle Bells", "Joy to the World", "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow", "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desire" and "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" among others.  What a Hoot!  And then the Choir sang for another half hour, traditional African Songs with everyone singing along and dancing.  The bride and groom arrived and the 2 + 1/2 hour service began! There were 8 pastors who took part in the service, reading scriptures, giving messages, reciting the vows, blessing the rings and finally Ramata and Ayo are pronounced husband and wife and Ayo got to kiss his beautiful bride. We only stayed a short time at the reception since we were 6 hours into the celebration by then but there would be dancing and food and more dancing and food, etc.  What a special day!

I am a mariner. . .

   All of us who live on board the Africa Mercy are mariners.   Interesting rules apply to those who live on a ship.  For one thing, we have fire drills every 2 weeks and when the alarm is sounded  while we are in  port every single person must exit the ship and check in at their muster station (except for the hospital patients and staff caring for them).  Once we leave port and have fire drills we will muster on deck 7.  Every fire drill is a simulated situation so we will know how to respond for potential emergencies. There are 400+ crew on board the ship so it is quite impressive to watch the procession down the gangway.
   I love living on board the ship. Since I live on deck 3 which has no portholes I spend some time every evening on deck 7 or 8 which provide a starboard (right) side view of the dock and city activity or a port (left) side view of the ocean and a few islands in the distance. The sun sets around 7:15 pm.  We are beginning the rainy season so it has started to rain at night a few times a week but so far there has not been any rain during the day.  It is humid and in the 90's most days. We are beginning to prepare for the sail as it is called when we leave Guinea and head for the Canary Islands. I am told we might see dolphins as we sail!.
   It's hard to believe this field service is nearing the end.  I have only been here 2+1/2 months of this 10 month field service but the time has flown by. My heart belongs to Africa. I am so blessed to be here.

                                                           Storm clouds gathering. . .

Babies Without Milk

A group of us traveled to visit the site of a ministry called "Babies Without Milk", a ministry that provides formula  for babies whose mothers died either at some point during childbirth or shortly after birth. The program started with 2 babies and has grown to the unbelievable number of 217 babies this month.  Family members become caregivers for the babies, usually an auntie or a grandmother with an occasional foster mom if there is not a relative, but it is a hardshp to be able to feed the baby at a cost of nearly $40 per month. Estel saw the need and thus the "Babies without Milk" minstry started.  The program is entirely funded by donations.  Here are some pictures of our time there.  We were so blessed!