After traveling via plane a little over 24hrs, an hour ferry ride with live native music on the top floor and another hour via range rover through the city of Freetown I arrived at my new home around 9pm my time, which is 4 hrs ahead of everyone at home (east coast time). Sleep deprived and feeling a bit overwhelmed I met my new cabin mates, there are currently 5 of us and we are due to get another person in our cabin. Earlier this week I really was struggling with the transition process. I have been very grateful for the people, now friends I met during my layover in Brussels; an older Australian couple, a nurse from the US and another one from Sweden. It has been awesome to see how God works in even the little things like providing friends and encouragement. After a half day of orientation, which was day 2 of ship life, I arrived to my cabin door to find a card taped to the door with some verses of encouragement (Ephesians 3:14-19 & Philippians 4:13) from a girl who was reaching out to me and later I asked, who I thought was a random girl a question only to find out that she was trying to find me cause she knew a friend who was just on MS (thanks Ann!). Its great to see when you ask God and He provides in His time. He is continuing to provide and I am adjusting to ship life. I made it through my first 2 Nursing shifts and am working on learning parts of the language, with the help of translators!! Please continue to pray for the adjustment, that I am able to get involved where God wants me and that God will guide the surgeons hands through all the surgeries they perform!
Sierra Leone 2011
Friday, June 3, 2011
Home on the Coast of Africa
After traveling via plane a little over 24hrs, an hour ferry ride with live native music on the top floor and another hour via range rover through the city of Freetown I arrived at my new home around 9pm my time, which is 4 hrs ahead of everyone at home (east coast time). Sleep deprived and feeling a bit overwhelmed I met my new cabin mates, there are currently 5 of us and we are due to get another person in our cabin. Earlier this week I really was struggling with the transition process. I have been very grateful for the people, now friends I met during my layover in Brussels; an older Australian couple, a nurse from the US and another one from Sweden. It has been awesome to see how God works in even the little things like providing friends and encouragement. After a half day of orientation, which was day 2 of ship life, I arrived to my cabin door to find a card taped to the door with some verses of encouragement (Ephesians 3:14-19 & Philippians 4:13) from a girl who was reaching out to me and later I asked, who I thought was a random girl a question only to find out that she was trying to find me cause she knew a friend who was just on MS (thanks Ann!). Its great to see when you ask God and He provides in His time. He is continuing to provide and I am adjusting to ship life. I made it through my first 2 Nursing shifts and am working on learning parts of the language, with the help of translators!! Please continue to pray for the adjustment, that I am able to get involved where God wants me and that God will guide the surgeons hands through all the surgeries they perform!
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Best wishes Nicole! I'll be praying for you!
ReplyDeleteThanks for bringing us up to date. Glad your trip was safe albeit long, but an experience for sure. I hope some time in the future you will be able to add some pictures. I'd love to see some of what you trip entails.
ReplyDeletethe picture of the coast, is this what you see from the ship? Is this where the patients come from?
ReplyDeletePaul-what you see in the picture is what I see from the top of the boat, it is Freetown and the people do come from there as well as from other provinces in Sierra Leone.
ReplyDelete