Long Weekend.

Every so often (usually every 6 weeks or so), Mercy Ships gives all non-essential crew (so pretty much everyone but the galley and dining room staff, plus the engineers and ward nurses if we are in a field service phase) the day off on a Friday for a 3-day weekend. In the Academy we have a bad habit of working every ship holiday, but I was finally able to enjoy my first one of the year this past Friday. Unfortunately, Samuel was scheduled to work in the galley over the weekend, so we stayed behind in Appelsbosch while we waved goodbye to the 2/3 of our crew that went away.

I have to admit that I was really disappointed that we weren't going anywhere. Appelsbosch isn't the most exciting place, especially when there is no water or internet. Friday morning started off with having no water - again - and I knew I was going to have to just grin and bear it. To top things off, I had come down with a cold extremely suddenly on Thursday night, and as a result was feeling quite drained of energy and generally unwell most of the weekend.

However, it ended up being a very enjoyable weekend. Ben, Miriam, and I convinced Sam to switch around the meal schedule for the weekend, and we all went in Friday afternoon to help prepare an extensive meal for the 30 or so crew that would be around. We had a blast planning the menu and dancing around to the music in the galley. That night we feasted on baked potatoes (complete with homemade bacon bits, compliments of Ben, but none of us will ever complain about the fact we don't get things like that on a regular basis ever again! They took an incredibly long time to make!), fajita chicken, and various fruit and vegetable salads concocted by Miriam and myself.

The reason we did this was so that Samuel could join us for an outing on Saturday! Ben, Miriam, Samuel and I left bright and early Saturday morning to drive about an hour to Albert Falls, a nature reserve and campsite. We spent a few hours driving around their small game reserve. Though we did not manage to track down the giraffes, we got up close and personal with some zebras (that was my highlight!) and various types of deer and antelope, as well as spotting some buffalo and warthogs. While it wasn't the greatest of outings, the company made it more than fun.





Sunday was very relaxed, Samuel was working and I spent the day just recovering my energy and having a very lazy day, which I was very thankful for.

All in all, it was a good time. Now life is returning to normal. I am back to teaching but Samuel had a fun time at the farm yesterday with Sarah and his nephews, I'm sure he will blog about that soon :)

Yes, we are still alive despite our lack of posting. It's just that, well, nothing really exciting ever happens here, so there doesn't seem like much news to post about! Though our friend Murray has finally returned, and Tim comes back tomorrow, so I'm sure we will be having some more exciting adventures soon :)