Blogs from Lome, Togo, Africa - page 2

Today, I went to an African fishing village for church worship and a prayer walk around the village. It was awesome! What a wonderful opportunity this was and it probably will be one of the highlights of this trip. One of the chaplains from Africa Mercy went also and three ranger rovers full of crew members. We arrived to the sound of music and singing. A generator pumped the sound system. Mostly there were drums. Some young ladies did percussion with gourds covered with a loose net with beads. The women and men sat on different sides of the church. The children were outside under a canvas tarp having their Sunday school. There were about 50 adults and as many children. Church is at least a three hour service. There is also the social time that ... read more

This is my first long weekend on duty. Let me tell you about the dining room duty. It seems like a boring read to me, but you may be interested. Friday has a regular meal schedule. The Saturday and Sunday morning and evening shifts are longer, but we have one long break of several hours in between. The dining room is on deck five. When boarding ship we climb up the gangway to deck five. We take turns washing dishes now, no more paper plates and cups. Lome was working on the streets which caused a loss of water for a while. However, we still need to conserve. The major change is washing dishes and being able to do a load of laundry a week. In the dinning room there are two small “back rooms” for ... read more

There is still a water problem. We get updates from the Captain at meal times. We were told yesterday that we could do one load of laundry a week and to continue to take two minute showers. Those two minutes are wonderful. I haven't always been able to get one in my travels. We are using paper products in the dinning room - which means no washing dishes. So we are finishing a little early each meal. Broccoli is the most popular vegetable with the crew. They eat five pans to every two of other kinds except the mash potatoes which also are popular. There is a chapel service for everyone not on duty at 1930 every Thursday. Last night's message was on "strength". After chapel last evening, the firemen on board served us ice cream ... read more

Monday 26th July Togo is the country immediately to the east of Ghana, and the nearest one to Accra, so we decided it would be worth trying to visit it. Togo was originally a German colony but was divided between Britain and France as part of the war reparations in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The British part became part of Ghana but the French part remains the separate independant country of Togo. While the official language of Ghana in English (though for most Ghanians it is their second language), the Togolese speak French (which caused us a few problems!). Before describing our visit, it might be worth mentioning the currencies in Ghana and Togo. The main unit of currency in Ghana is the Ghana Cedi which is divided into 100 pesewas. When we changed ... read more