My New Home Has Arrived to Sierra Leone

On a glorious morning my new home has sailed into Freetown! :))) Enjoy the video!

Arrived to Sierra Leone

Hi All,
just a super short note to let everybody know that we arrived safely on 9th late at night after traveling for 24 or so hours...
THIS IS AFRICA!!! :)))))

To get very slow internet we need to travel across town, so no more updates before the ship arrives and we can get on board, that is in early March. :) We have long hours of power outs each day, so lots of challenges. The temperature is around 100F (40C) and we do heavy labour every day :) Fun stuff!!!

Our team has 30 members. We are working in 2 locations at the moment, an orphanage and on the hospitality center (this will be for the patients who travel from far away) When we arrived there was only a big empty building, I have been painting since day one. Now we have walls up too and cables and power - really cool. Next week I will be working on framing the windows and putting up mosquito nets.

Pictures will come soon (well, whenever I can get on board, unpack, hook up to the network) so don't expect it before mid March. I am writing blog entries and taking tons of pictures so there is hope hahaha.

LOve you all! Take care!

Our latest video on the coming Field Service in Sierra Leone

I believe the video speaks for itself! 

We are flying in 2 days!!!

Survival At Sea - Pool day training

When I joined Doulos in 2005 I had to complete my BST (basic safety training) that included a fire fighting day and a pool day. That means I didn't have to sit with the others in class, but could still accompany them for the water practical. :) Yes, just because we are going to Africa we still have to comply with international maritime regulations and Survival at Sea is one of them.

For the most part I was out of the water taking pictures of everybody. Here are some fun shots that can give you an idea what it takes to join a ship...

The "water train" exercise was extremely entertaining to watch! :)










Among the many "gumby dressed" people I almost look naked in my proper bading suit... :)

(keeping the injured member warm and inside the circle)

Climbing in and out of a life raft can be quite a challenge if you have to wear a life jacket!

Sometimes the life raft inflates upside down and we have to know how to flip it back. It's really easy in theory: you swim to the raft, grab the strings, pull yourself out of the water on top of the raft, grab some more ropes, lean back and use your own body weight to turn it back. As I said, it's easy... :)

At the end of the day the instructors allowed me to join for this exercise. I was thrilled! :) I quickly passed my camera to a girl and jumped into the water. Good thing I remembered some old tricks, but still I had some interesting moments. Since I was the last one most of the people were standing around the pool cheering...

The good news is that all of us passed! The even better news is that we are flying in 2 days!!!! :)

More fun in Texas

This week some of the team was assigned to do BST (basic safety training). Apparently mine is still valid so instead of practicing CPR again I was sitting on meetings from Monday 7.45am literally all day, every day. There are no fun pictures of that...
Then it snowed and some meetings got canceled... :)
I was there waiting and waiting and waiting and nobody showed up...

Finally we have some fun!!! :)

Some of these kids don't see snow too often. Can't you tell??? :)

 (after the photo I got stuck to the anchor. Ups...)

 (I was trying to make a snow angel, but now
I agree with Liz: I look like a fallen angel who bumped into the tree haha) :)

And while I played in the snow, they were in a class. But a DAY BEFORE the rest of the team played with fire. I think I am jealous!!! See...?

Only here can I imagine this quick change of weather... It's crazy!!!

4 days till we fly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Greetings from Texas???