Celebrations on Ship

So sorry that it’s been awhile since I last posted. Life and time just got away from me. We are back in Madagascar getting the hospital and everything set up for another field service.

There were so many celebrations that happened on the ship over the last few months and I thought that I would share with you what it looks like to celebrate on the ship. We had Christmas, New Year’s, my birthday and just last week was Valentine’s Day. So I hope you enjoy a glimpse into the fun we get up to on the Africa Mercy.

Christmas

Christmas is a massive deal here on the ship. From the start of December there was something every single day of the month from decorating the ship on December 1st through to a Christmas feast on December 25th.

One of the fun parts of Christmas was all the decorations, including the door decorating competition. I had so much fun coming up with an idea and decorating the door of my cabin.

The elementary students from the Academy put on a fun Nativity play where they told and sang the Christmas story. I even got to be in the play as a sheep.

I love getting to experience all the different cultures here on the ship. It was so fun to learn about different traditions that different cultures have to celebrate Christmas.

We got to experience Sinterklaas which is a Dutch tradition and Santa Lucia, a Swedish tradition. Sinterklaas is based on a legendary figure called St. Nicholas, the bishop of Myra (Turkey) and patron saint of children. We had Sinterklaas arrive on the ship bringing presents and pepernoten (small spiced biscuits). We put out our shoes in the hallway overnight and received chocolate from Sinterklaas.

Santa Lucia is a tradition that can be traced back to the 4th century. A Christian feast day, it commemorates the martyr Lucia of Syracuse, who, as legend has it, brought food to Christians hiding in Roman catacombs, lighting her way with a candlelit wreath on her head. We got to celebrate this tradition by listening to a choir singing Swedish carols and eating sweet bread.

We also were able to do a lot of traditional activities like decorating Christmas cookies and competing in a gingerbread house competition (we came 2nd place !!!) There was a Christmas variety show where different crew performed their talents from magic shows, to musical acts and so much more.

I also had the opportunity to help plan a Carols by Candlelight night on the ship. Sadly it was raining the night of the Carols, but we still enjoyed an indoor carols night. (Also, sadly I didn’t get any pictures of the event)

And of course, Christmas culminated in a fun brunch in the cafe followed by a Christmas Day service and then a massive feast. There was so much food we were eating leftovers for days.

New Years

Once Christmas was over things settled down a lot more. We enjoyed our time in South Africa and then it was time for New Year’s Eve.

I really enjoyed New Year’s Eve. There wasn’t a lot of people on the ship, but we all came together for a great night. At 9pm the night started with food in the cafe and games. At 11pm we started a worship service which was great to be a part of. Then at 11:45pm we paused to pray and then were ready to countdown and celebrate 2025 starting.

My Birthday

I celebrated my birthday in January and it was one of the best birthday’s I’ve had in awhile.

On the Saturday before my birthday I went out to dinner with a group of friends. We ate good food and had great conversations. Thank you to one of my friends, Bekah, who led the group in “birthday questions” where I got to share highlights from the past year, hopes for the upcoming year and then everyone else shared memories of me and things they love about me. I felt so loved and appreciated.

On Sunday, my actual birthday, a smaller group of friends and I went out for brunch and then church. It was really nice to spend some time with these amazing ladies. And that night we took our dinner outside to Deck 7 and had dinner and cake together.

Valentine’s Day

And the final celebration we’ve had recently on the ship was Valentine’s Day. This was a fun night where I got to sing with the choir, eat cupcakes, do trivia and laugh a lot as we watched some of the couples on board compete in the Shoe game (where they had to vote which member of the couple was more likely to fit the criteria given, by raising their shoes). It was such a fun night and I love the community we have on board.

Well, we have had a lot of celebrating over the last few months and now we are back in Madagascar getting ready to start surgeries in a few weeks. I’m sure there will be plenty more celebrating happening.