A Day in the Life On the Africa Mercy

After completing my second full work week on the Africa Mercy, some routines are starting to develop.  Although every day is unique, there are some habits that help life seem normal.
The alarm goes off at 6:00 AM and I announce that it is "Doxy Time."
Before anything else, we start the day with a doxycycline tablet.

There have been a couple cases of malaria on-board and so far it is people who don't bother taking medication.
Debbie did find some malaria present in a blood sample in the lab and came down to find me so I could take a look under the microscope and see how malaria attacks the red blood cells.
Not wanting to have the malaria experience, we start each day with our doxy!

Living on a ship, one always has to conserve water.  Especially the pure treated water that is safe to drink.
We take "ship showers."  That means get wet, turn off the water, soap and scrub, then turn on the water to rinse off.   There's nothing quite like a 30 second cleansing.

We wait an hour between taking the doxycycline and breakfast.  This gives time to read the Bible, pray and reflect, write and check email.  Email is a little slow later in the day, so early morning is when the usage is low and the speed is reasonable.  Since we are 4 hour ahead of the eastern US, we can get our notes off early.

Breakfast is offered between 6:30 and 7:30.  The food is good.  All the breads are homemade and fresh and the quality is good.

Work starts at 8:00 AM, so there's a little more time to email or just read before work.  Since the commute is less than one minute, I never have to worry about rush hour traffic.

Normal work hours are 8:00 AM -5:00 PM with an hour lunch and a couple breaks. Since I'm on my feet all day, the breaks are nice.  The hour lunch also provides time to relax or get some personal things  taken care of.

Every Monday morning there is 7:45 AM crew meeting which starts with a time of worship, and then information sharing from various departments.  It's also a time to welcome people who have come on the ship in the last week, and to say goodbye to those leaving within the week.  There are 10-20 people coming and going each week.  There are always very creative powerpoint presentations.

Wednesday morning our department usually gets together for a devotional time before work.

Thursday evenings is community night.  It's a time of worship listening to a speaker and encouragement.  It's followed by ice cream in the mid ships cafe.

This is what community looks like!

Evenings are generally free.  We often go up on deck 7 or 8 to watch the sunset.  It is a little cooler by then as we watch the sun go down over the islands a few miles away.

Chuck