Arrived in Africa

I am here in Africa.
Traveling was fun. Flying into London made me want to travel there because it's so beautiful. One of my landings (into Ghana) made me think I might just die, and I wasn't sure why God would let that happen before I'd done more stuff for His kingdom, and then the next day sitting in the Ghana airport, my 12:40 plane arrived at like 3 so we left at like 3:30 meaning I arrived at the supposed to be around 3:30 arrival time instead at 6 and then went through lots of customs. Funny thing in Africa (well, not so funny, more of an annoyance), the bags from the airplane take about an hour to get inside because the workers (about half of them) sit around, and they have one truck to bring all of the bags. So, a LONG time after arriving, like 7:15 I finally got my bags. After being told that carts cost money, I carried my bags and went outside. The men were quick to help me find my Mercy Ships people.
...side note...
So I'm flying from Ghana to Liberia. We stopped off in the middle and my seat partners switched. Before the switch, the man beside me asked to borrow my pen. Fine with me. He then wrote down his name, address, phone number, and future American phone number, because he plans to be there by March or so. I guess we'll "meet" up and before "friends"!! I knew from others telling me that the African men would hit on me, but I didn't realize how much. I'm getting smiled at like all of the time, and I've quickly been told that I am never to ever travel alone off the ship, especially at night, and I usually should have a ship guy with me!
So, arriving in Monrovia was fine. Met up with the people, and drove the 1 1/2 hour drive to the ship. Once arriving at the ship, I realized how incredibly HUGE this ship is. I almost said boat there, but I have also learned that this is NOT a boat. It is a ship because it has a main deck or something like that. I don't know. All I know is that I live on a massive ship. It is the largest non-government hospital ship in the world. I think it is probably just about the same size as the cruise ship I went on. I walked up a long set of stairs, was introduced to a hostess and receiptionist, told the emergency procedures, and got my badge. The VERY KIND thing that they do is that once you arrive they take a picture of you. So nice after traveling for two days! Then I took my bags downstairs to my room and saw that while it's a huge ship, it's a TINY room. If you know my old house, you know my sisters old room. Well, that was a big room, this is not! The entire thing is probably as long as her room. You walk in and on the left is a door to the bathroom where showers are to be 2 minutes long! Well, I showered SO fast this morning, and I hope I did alright for time. Then there is a hallway and three little parts in the hallway. I am in the second little compartment. My room is about the size of my old bathroom at my old house. Which means, if you were never at my old house, very very very very small. There's a closet on the right which gives me about the size of your computer screen in width and floor to almost ceiling for my stuff. I managed to fit it all in, which was amazing. Then on the left it a table which underneath is stored all of my bags. Above the table is like a thing on the wall that I can put stuff on, and then to go into bed, I step onto my roomies bed, onto a table right on the corner as so not to break the table and then up into my bed. My bedspread is green apples! It's rather lovely. I didn't particularily sleep last night, but you know, that's kinda to be expected when you're in a new home, country, continent. You also can hear the ships engines running all of the time.
I was told last night that I would have time off today until 6pm when is my tour (which means I'm lost all day) so I worked on a bunch of my paperwork, realized I'm missing a lot of needed paperwork, and that I can't buy anything until my funds come in or I pay with my own money. So you can pray that funds will come in soon. If you happen to be a person who is donating or has donating, please have funds in before the 7th of the month or else I have to pay with my own money. They will hopefully give me grace for this month, but I'm going to have to figure something out!
I don't know if I mentioned this, but it is so extremely crazy sweltering hot here! I had no idea it would be this hot. Even with the ship A/C I am so warm and constantly sweating, even when just sitting.
Oh yea, my new email is
Nadine.Schroeder@mercyships.org
Feel free to send me stuff there or my hotmail schrodine@hotmail.com but just be aware that hotmail is extremely slow here and often not working so you won't get replys any time soon. I just looked out the window and noticed that it is pouring rain like crazy. I had thought I might go for a walk, but I guess not. In this heat I forget the rain, but it pours rain at like really hot heat.
Anyways though, this is longer than I thought it would be. I love you all.


I was thinking as well. I wrote a lot about hard stuff going on. I am completely overwhelmed, exhausted, tired, and just confused about a lot of things, but I truly am doing good. I know within the next few weeks I will get to know all the halls and stairways. (there's 7 decks, and 3 colours of staircases all which lead in different areas, things are everywhere, and I am completely lost). As a hostess I will soon be giving tours though, so I know I'll be fine. But no matter how much I guess I've vented into this blog, I am doing good. I feel confident that God has brought me here. I would truly appriciate comments if you're reading this just so I can know that I'm writing to more than just my siblings.

Oh yea, another thing. To those who wonder what Mercy Ships do. I've semi-mis-informed you. The ship will be at our current port until December. We do not move around. Patients come here for surgury and stay until they are better. I will post more about the other stuff as I know. I do know that I can do work in the prisons, orphanages, homes for the elderly/handicapped, and much more. I'll update as I get involved in things!

I miss you.