Moving Onboard!!

It has been quite awhile since my last post and for that I do apologize. I'm sure you've all been waiting with bated breath right??... haha, or not. Actually the reason for my absence stems from the other week when lightning struck some important internet connection somewhere at Appelsbosch, downing the system... since that day a lot has changed. The biggest change has been moving onboard the Africa Mercy. A huge process that came to an end in one big finale yesterday as we drove away for one last time from Appelsbosch. I am very happy to be onboard finally and looking forward to the hope of leaving port soon. But honestly, in some respects I'll miss the peace, spaciousness and all the intriguing nature that was found at Appelsbosch too. Here's a bit of what our moving day looked like...

The days leading up to leaving Appelsbosch were filled with lots of eating. We were very busy in the galley diving into the food storage and cooking it up. A vitally tasty and important task as we needed to use up the fresh food -- much of the fresh stuff wouldn't make the hot, long drive back down through the mountains.

When I heard that a truck was taking the luggage I did not have this in mind, as it turned out though, by the time everything was loaded the truck was full!! We have a lot of stuff!! 

The landrovers were driven back the ship by the families while the rest of us rode in two buses.  

Much excitement filled the buses as everyone was really happy to be moving back onboard. By the time we arrived at the shipyard our excitement had wilted somewhat -- the afternoon sun flooded through the windows as the bus desperately climbed over and down the hills. Even though the landrovers left almost an hour after us many of them caught up and passed us.    

Almost "home" ;)

Absolutely everything had to be lugged up this gangway!!! Certainly brought a bit of meaning to the saying "Many hands make light work" ... but even so... yeah, it was still heavy!!

The view outside has changed quite drastically from that at Appelsbosch.

And now to find my white duvet amongst all the other white duvets... this took awhile. 

The cafe area was jam packed with our stuff. Amazing how quickly a tidy location can become such a disaster. But within a few hours it was back to normal, surprisingly. 

So, this is it -- my home sweet home, the one and only ten-berth cabin, I'll be here for the remainder of my stay. It's actually quite nice and has two portholes to see out of, whereas many cabins have none... so I'm really happy!




...But that was all yesterday. Today is Sunday and I've just spent the whole afternoon acquainting myself with the ship's galley and trying to make myself useful in the process -- probably appearing quite bewildered and lost looking to be honest. The galley here is quite different actually than the one we just left. Though drastically smaller it is very functional. A long, hot, low-ceilinged room filled to the brim all sorts of kitchen stuff. It's going to take some time to get used to the layout, but I'm sure the time to do so will be found in abundance.