Batiks, Part 2

Here are the final pictures of the finished products made by the students. The man who assisted us (with the dreadlocks) is named, believe it or not—Akuna Matada! (Remember from the Lion King? “No worries”?)

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Batiks!

Our French teacher, Kelly Etienne, is from Switzerland, and is an adventurer. She explored the local artisan market, and made arrangements for the 6^th through 11^th grades to go and make batiks, African style. Here you see us drawing the pictures we want, then outlining each part with beeswax. Then we “paint” each section with brilliant natural dyes. After they have dried, we cover all but the frame in a coat of wax, and let that dry. Then we crunch it up and dip it in a dark brown dye, turning the frame and crackled lines dark brown. After it dries, the entire batik is washed in gasoline to remove the wax, and line dried. Voilá!

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Science Fun

Hennie Valkenier is our science teacher from the Netherlands. She is a chemist. Here are a couple of fun shots taken of her sixth grade science class and some crystals they “grew” at Easter time.

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Easter brunch

We just never stop celebrating, I tell you! After our morning services, we all went into the dining room for a viable feast, an Easter brunch. Both the dining room and the café were beautifully decorated! (So were the crew!)

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Easter services

Many of the crew went out on deck 8 for a sunrise service. Then at 8:30 we all dressed up and gathered in the International Lounge to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. The children sang, the teens danced, the adults rang bells, and the chaplains provided an uplifting message. We all tucked a flower into the cross at the front, and then had communion. It was powerfully moving.

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Easter baskets

At five o’clock on Easter morning, a bunch of the teachers gathered the “baskets” they had made, and left them outside the children’s doors for them to discover.

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Godspell aboard the M/V Africa Mercy

We have so many generous, creative people onboard. Would you believe that a number of them got together and put on Godspell for the rest of us? It was delightful! Another Easter blessing on our Mercy ship.

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Maundy Thursday onboard the ship

We have wonderful holiday traditions. During the week before Easter we had special experiences made available to us. One was an “upper room” with the 12 stations of the cross, for people to come in any time over the Easter weekend to pray, think, and consider what Jesus went through on the Friday He was murdered. Here are some pictures of the room and my friend Lesley.

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Work Experience

Each year the students from grades 6-12 take a week to shadow a worker onboard the ship. Here you see a few of them giving their reports to the school, having just completed their work experience. Some worked in the deck department, some in the galley, a couple worked with our photographers and writers, one was in Reception, one with IS working on ship computer systems, one in Ship Shop… It is a great way to learn about careers. Some of the students in the British school in Togo asked if they could come onboard and do this, but I don’t think there will be a chance to do it before the end of the outreach. We have a wonderful Academy!

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Photo Fun

We have professional photographers who work in our communications department here on the ship. They take before and after pictures of patients, as well as PR photos of special events. To support the crew, they set up a photo booth in our “Town Square” on deck 5, and offered to do any photos crew wanted. These were taken by JJ (© Jacques-Jean Tiziou / www.jjtiziou.net). Lots of day workers from Togo got involved, as well as some of our students and teachers. Here are a few of the fun shots of teachers and students...

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Visit from Benin

 

One of the fun things about this mission is building friendships around Africa. Djeneba was a translator who worked with me in Benin some years back. She brought her husband and daughter and another family I have met to visit us here at the ship last weekend. We had such a delightful time!

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