If there ever was such a thing as easing into Mercy Ships, this is it. Appelsbosch is an old teacher’s college. Originally built for black teachers during apartheid it was closed down during their re-integration and has stood unused since.

It’s been great so far, if not a weird way to start with Mercy Ships. The only people here are the non-technical crew (regarding the ship) and everyone is long-term staff. What’s perfect about the setup is that I’m getting to meet all of the people who will be working with Mercy Ships for at least a year right now.

Had I arrived with the influx of short term staff with the opening of the field service it would have been much harder to figure out who was sticking around for longer. More importantly I would have blended in and had a harder time meeting people.

Work has been interesting, getting on top of a mix of lots of things as best I can. It’s not terribly busy yet, but it sounds like I’ll be thoroughly swamped when I get to the ship. As for the ship, I’ve been once and failed to get a picture with her, so you’ll have to wait on that. I don’t know when I’ll be moving down to Durban to live on the ship, but at the latest I’ll end up going with everyone half-way through January.

And of course, it wouldn’t be complete with a Christmas Pageant: the Fear not Factor. Kathleen, I hope this was sufficient for you =) To the rest of my Gateway family, leave any questions in the comments below.

Filed under: News & Updates by Jay