"TIA...This is Africa"

We got word on Friday afternoon that the ship was going to be moved late Friday to see if that part of our dock area needed to be dredged. Needless to say we were all excited about the possibility of "sailing". (The simple things in life now are exciting.) Well...TIA..."This is Africa"...later Friday we got word the move would not happen until Saturday morning. So, we made plans to go to the local fabric market to occupy some time.This is one of the shops at the fabric market. Literally floor to ceiling is fabric. You can only buy fabric in two precut sizes...6 meters or 12 meters...no other size. And the average price is about $1-$2 a meter. Although, when they see us coming, the "Yovo" (Fon for white person) or the "Americanos" the price is at least doubled and you have to barter back to the original price. So we purchased our fabric and headed back to the ship. Only to find out the moving of the ship was to be delayed until 2pm. So, at 2pm we all headed out to watch the happenings. The above picture is the dredge. We have been watching it dredge out the channel for the last 3 weeks, it works 24/7.

Saturday afternoon-The aft (back of the ship) gangway was brought up onto the 8th deck. And we waited in anticipation...TIA (This is Africa)...only to find out that, once again, the moving of the ship would be delayed until Sunday morning. Sunday morning-(8 am) we watch the forward gangway be hoisted up onto Deck 8. And we wait...and wait...and wait...finally we notice we are moving...
(9:30 am) this little tug is pulling us away from the dock and we are on our way...

With great excitment we are finally moving...people are lined up on decks 7 and 8...to watch us head 200m to the end of the dock.The whole process takes about 2 hours...nothing happens quickly.
So, finally we are tied up at the end of the dock. They sounded (tested the depth by depth finder) our berthing space only to find out it does not need to be dredged. At 3 pm or so (I took a nap...too much excitment for me) we were then moved back to our original spot. Just another day in the life of Mercy Ships.