The markets are so interesting! I love taking in the sights. Markets are the only way to shop. There are no stores besides small grocery stores. 

In Ghana like Senegal they use their heads carry everything and anything! 

Most of the surgeries currently being performed are maxillo-facial surgeries. This is one of the little boys who had a cleft lip repair.
The surgeries are done by Dr. Gary Parker, the chief surgeon, who has served with Mercy Ships for the last 20 years. His kindness and gentleness is evident in all his work.
This is Hettie playing up on the Aft deck of the ship with two of the children who had cleft lip repair. Day's after their surgery they are outside running around and playing! So much different than home.  

Long narrow hall ways with lots of doorways to step through. I have been on the shp for 28 days and I am finding my way around.
This is the dining room. One can see the port holes of the ship.
The food is well balanced fresh fruit and vegetables with each meal. I will send a picture of the acutal food later in the blog for all the moms. 

Volunteers from more than 50 nations give of their time and talent on board the ships and at land. People of all ages and professions serve for weeks, months or years making the work of Mercy Ships possible.

In our small cozy cabin we have four countries represented. Australia, Enland, America and Canada.

"Missionary life draws us into the multicultural richness of the human race. It is a foretaste of heaven, a foretaste of John's vision when he saw 'a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language' (Rev 7:9) (Thomas Hale)."

In 1978 a retired cruise ship liner Victoria was purchased by a group of young people with a dream of bringing help to the poor. Three years later, she set sail as the Anastasis, the world's largest non-governmental hospital.
I arrived in Tema, Ghana, September 2, 2006 8:30 p.m. (Four hours ahead of my Canadian friends and family.) It was dark on the trip from the airport to the Anastasis. When we arrived at the ship my first impression was how large the ship was. The pictures from home did not captivate it.
This is a picture of the ship in harbour from a distance.

Hettie @ Mercy Ships