"Christmas At Sea..."

As we are sailing off of the coast of West Africa...now day 6...you may wonder..."What is the crew doing to keep themselves occupied?"  Well, during the day the crew is does a variety of tasks, many to prepare us for our next field service in Togo, from writing new proceudure manuels for the hospital, to preparing craft items for Mercy Ministry's, to cleaning the ship.  We manage to stay quite busy...although after lunch many of us take a nap-the constant rocking of the ship is actually very tiring!

At night though, we celebrate Christmas in a variety of ways.  Friday night  the Norwegian crew treated us to their traditional celebrtion of Santa Lucia.  It was a very beautiful and touching time.  It is a time where many of the Scadanavian countries honor St. Lucy who was martyered for her faith.

(Thanks Sher for the photo!)

Last night (Saturday) we had the Winter Wonderland.  Winter Wonderland is a bake sale/craft sale time.  Fourteen tables were set up and in the midships/Starbuck cafe area, decorations were hung...and the crew was able to fill up on sweet treats (fudge, popcorn balls, cookies, waffle cones with real ice cream), Christmas shopping (jewlery, handmade cards and christmas ornaments, African aprons, pencil bags stockings, wreaths and many other things), apple cider, and a special ballet preformance by our young ballet class.

Everything was decorated wonderfully and had a very special feeling in the air.

The hot apple cider emitted a wonderful fragrance that made it feel and smell like Christmas.

Jorid sold handmade jewlery-earrings and bracelets.  She also had beautifully crafted cards and gift boxes.

Joshua and Alisia sold homemade fudge and popcorn balls.  The fudge sold really fast-however we will be eating popcorn balls for awhile!

(Thanks Olly for the picture)

This is the Africa Mercy ballet troup.  They did a super job performing for the crew last night-even on a rocking ship!  I would have lost my balance several times over!

Today (Sunday) we will be having a cookie exchange and then our 3rd Advent Service tonight.  We are all excited to arrive in Tenerife and continue our Christmas celebrating.