5Crawfords

Back on the Africa Mercy! PART I of V Tuesday Sept 11 At the immigration counters in the Conakry airport upon arrival. I was really surprised how nice the Conakry airport was compared to other African airports. The departures lounge was fully air conditioned, which was a major blessing at the end of the trip! Flying out for this trip was very different this time. Leaving out of the UK, the day after all the volunteers left the USA, was very weird, in a good way! I felt like I got a bonus day, and when I arrived in Brussels to meet up with the team, I wasn’t jet-lagged. I can’t tell you what a huge difference it was, physically and mentally. It was also a lot easier to leave Alisha, bizarre enough as that may sound. I couldn’t put my finger on it at first, but then it started to come to me that I kind of felt the same way in Uganda. To contrast, in Colorado, it was always very hard to leave because I was torn completely free of my comfort zone, leaving behind Alisha...

(Note: I didn't get a chance to post this prior to departing. But we have landed here in Guinea and are on board the ship, safe and sound. The team is enthusiastic to dig into the project and that will begin tomorrow. It's great to be back on the ship and being a part of the impressive work Mercy Ships is doing in West Africa.) On Tuesday, I’ll be heading out for my next project trip. I’m leading a team of 9 EMI staff, volunteers and interns to Guinea to work with Mercy Ships at the local government hospitals in the capital city of Conakry. This is my third such hospital assessment trip with Mercy Ships in a row. Since Guinea is a French-speaking country however, there will be an additional element of challenge in gaining an understanding of the situation at the hospitals from the maintenance workers. We’ll once again be staying aboard the ‘Africa Mercy’,the largest non-governmental floating hospital ship in the world. It’s a real treat to get to partner with Mercy ...