Night Shift

Night shift, the time when introverts sigh  a sigh of relief

A time for night owls to flourish without guilt 

The beautiful hours from 2300-0700 when one is mostly by themselves

The quiet hum of air conditioning and a sleeping ship

Phone calls to friends and family

Silent tears 

An interrupted time to think and process this wonderfully hard and beautiful life I live. A time for me to silently do my job and keep watch over the ship, while taking care of my heart.  There are so many cool things to do here, so many people to meet and so much to think about that most of the time I find myself not thinking at all and just trying to take in all of it, everything.  But only so much water can be poured into a container.  Night shift lets me stay up, enjoy the silence, and to breathe...and then, I can start thinking and earnestly pray about and work through whatever it is that has been happening around me lately, its those nights like tonight that the promise from Psalm 30:5b comes to life in me.  It's my time to dance with Jesus and feel the healing balm of His love in my heart.

Psalm 30:5 comes to life for me on night shifts.  

"Weeping may last for the night, but joy come in the morning."

Dreams of a Wanna Be Pirate

I used to dream of being a pirate, I mean who wouldn't?  You sail on the open seas, climb the mast, run around barefooted and have a sword!  Something I never really thought about was the fact that I might not be very good at sailing.  I guess when you think about the fun stuff you don't think about storms or how rough those open seas really are. 

So, what does this little glimpse into Tierah's mind have to do with anything? Well, we are sailing again!  And you probably are thinking that I am not enjoying the open seas as much as I thought I would.  Well, you are thinking along the right track, sailing is not my favorite recreational activity, however, I am fairing much better on this sail than the first time I sailed.  Back in June I sailed from the Republic of Congo to the Canary Islands  and I was seasick for about 13 of the 14 days we were out to sea, it was not a very enjoyable time for me.

This time around however, we are sailing from the Canary Islands to South Africa, then on to Madagascar! We are almost to Cape Town, South Africa, where we are planning to spend about 3 weeks then continue on to Madagascar until June 2015 for our field service. 

There is a long story as to why we are headed to Madagascar instead of Benin, and I'm working on  a post about that, but like I said, it's a long story.

Eventually I will have it posted, hopefully before we weigh anchor and head off to Madagascar and the rolling sea, it's actually rather difficult to write a blog post when your room is tipping 20 degrees from side to side.

This is not me holding the camera crooked.  It was moving this much.

Let's adopt them!

When Mercy Ships go to a country to bring hope and healing to the forgotten poor, it's not always about physical healing.
  We don't come only to perform life changing surgeries, we come to provide love and encouragement, and friendship, and someone to play "connect four" with or someone to hug and take "selfies".  And in return, our hearts and lives are touched by some of the most wonderful and precious people we will ever meet.
  For me, those people lived at a Boy's Orphanage...

These young boys (ages 6-17) played Frisbee with me, schooled me in soccer, and were solid competition in tug-o-war. 

One particular evening started out with a game of Tug-o-War! Most of the girls had gone to visit the orphanage, had ended up on the same side of the rope with a few of the older boys.  And after a little bit, well, we lost. 

This did not make those boys very happy, they actually started to complained that they had lost because there were so many girls on their team. 

 Well, imagine their surprise and laughter when Andrea (pink shirt right side of the picture) and I challenged them to a game of two on three!

 It was definitely a struggle, but Andrea and I stuck it out to victory!  They were great sports about the fact that they had been beat by two girls and, the game made the other little ones erupt in laughter.  I was so happy to be the cause of such giggles and joy!  

Here we are showing our muscles!

This little guy stuck with me every day I came to visit.  

This wonderful lady helps take care of the boys.  We were able to give them some board games when we left. 

On the night of our last visit I played A LOT of games of "Connect Four".  It was so much fun!

      We were actually pretty evenly matched. I thought he was gonna cream me!

Rob (striped shirt) is another crew member who came to visit!

Paterne (in the red hat) was our local interpreter.  The boys didn't speak much french and I spoke even less Lingala (one of the few local languages) so Paterne was very helpful and a wonderful friend as well.

Laura and I were enjoying taking "selfies" with the boys.  Although, I am not sure who enjoyed it more, us or them!  

Victoria enjoyed her visit as well!

It was a hard goodbye, but these guys will be in my heart and I will cherish the memories I have of three legged soccer, and random dance parties with lots of push-ups as the favorite dance move.

What's up?

I have not fallen overboard or been lost in the African jungle or eaten by a lion, or attacked by wild hogs.  I am still alive and doing alright.

It has been very busy here on the Africa Mercy as we are gearing up to sail for the Canary Islands. It is a 14+/- day sail from Pointe-Noire, Congo - Brazzaville, to Las Palmas, Canary Islands(Spain). We leave in a few days, and since we have been docked for 10 months, there is a lot to be done in order for us to sail.  Don't worry though, we have a crack team of engineers, deck hands, and able seamen to get us underway!

We will be in the Islands for roughly 2 months for maintenance and repairs.

So, what does this have to do with Tierah?  Well, I am glad you asked.  I have been promoted to Head Receptionist(Department head), and I have a team of 6 people under my guidance and leadership (they are a pretty great team actually).   However, my time as Head Receptionist will be a relativity short assignment in comparison to how long I have already served with Mercy Ships.

Now that you know what is going on right now, I want to let you know what will be to come, Lord willing. I have been asked to stay on with Mercy Ships for another year, and I said yes.  However, before you start to fret and before your heart breaks, this does mean that I will be home early...as in July...for the family reunion...and Edisto.

My job for next year is Hospital Project Assistant.  Which means I will be helping the local hospitals with their education programs.  What that will actually look like, we aren't sure yet, but we are excited and have ideas and are ready to help!

April Fools!

I've never really been one to pull pranks on people; I try and then I usually feel bad afterwards or I plan them and I chicken out and it all results in a poorly executed prank, or not one at all.  This year however, I thought, "Hey, I'm on a ship, nothing too bad can happen, I kinda want to pull an April fools joke on someone."  Well, one of my friends gave me the perfect opportunity when he walked up to me, and our friend Emilie, and asked "Which one of you wants to pose as my girlfriend on facebook? I want to really get my friends back home."  Well, being Tierah and wanting to prank somebody, I jumped at the chance!

Jonathan and I took a picture together and he had to go back to work so he gave me his facebook info and I made it "facebook official" that we were in a relationship.  We told people he had asked me when we went camping a few weeks before, and I hadn't said yes right then because I wanted to make sure my heart was in the right place and I wasn't saying yes just to say yes.

Not only did people on facebook react, but our friends on the ship came up to both Jonathan and myself and asked us about it offering up congratulations and hugs. It was playing out even better than I expected, it also helped our cause that I couldn't stop smiling!  I was so excited about this prank that I literally could not stop smiling and giggling.

However, like every good prank, it must come to an end.  Ours ended when my "ship dad" Matt sat down next to Jonathan and asked why he hadn't come and talked to him about dating me.  Matt had approached me earlier in the day offering up his congratulations but was disappointed that I hadn't told him about it and that he had to find out on facebook, of all places.  I apologized and told him he should talk to Jonathan about it.

Matt told Jonathan that he approved and was happy for us, he just wished that Jonathan had come and talked to him about it first.

Jonathan: "Well, Matt, I would have but, do you know what day it is?"
Matt: "April 1st."
Jonathan: "Yeah Matt, it's April 1st..."

If looks could kill, I'm pretty sure we would have melted on the spot with the look Matt was directing at us.

Thankfully both Jonathan and I are alive, although no longer together.  He dumped me on facebook later on that evening.  We are still on talking terms and great friends, actually I am now friends with most of his family and one of his close friends from back home.

I ended up hiding the original facebook post of being in a relationship because people were still "liking" the post a day later, and although I appreciate the love I didn't want people to misunderstand and  I guess they didn't see the breakup post.

When I was talking to Mama about it later on that day we both just laughed about the whole thing and how well it had played out.  We talked about the love peopled showed and how happy they were for us, and how if I was actually in a relationship I would have told a majority of those people in person before putting it on facebook, but it was still good for a laugh, even if I gave a few of my sisters a heart attack.



P.S. Matt may have declared war when he had chaplaincy email Jonathan about a meeting that all new couples are required to have with the entire chaplaincy team....  

Matters of the Heart

If I thought I could leave home and move across the world and it not effect my heart, I was wrong.  My heart has been many things since I've been here.  Full, broken, sad, hurting, overflowing, happy, joyful, scared, healed, and more things that I don't have words for.  With all these going on, what feels like everyday all the time, I haven't had the heart to tell people what is happening here or how I'm doing.  There are somethings I just don't know how to say, or if I do say it, I can't convey how much it means to me.

I am going to try though...so, my hope and goal is to express what amazing things I have seen here, what Jesus is doing in my life, and what it's like for this little princess on this big white boat in Africa.

Mermaid Off the Port Bow!

Well, nothing to much to report here, I mean I only wanted to jump overboard twice in the last week or so.  Just kidding, I don't ever really want to jump overboard, although I did tell the captain that if he ever wanted to do a "man overboard" drill that I would volunteer to "fall" overboard.

I've had the opportunity to work with our engineering department a little bit in the last month.  I'm learning about the vacuum system that powers the water drainage system on the ship.  It's pretty amusing for me when people walk by and see one of the receptionists fixing the toilets, the look on their face is priceless.  Especially when I am in coveralls and steal toe boots.  Hehe

Childhood dream....shattered.

   I like going to the dentist, I'm pretty sure I always have.  Okay, there was that one time when I was 5 and I went to the dentist and Dr. DeMercy walked in and I screamed, but hey, he's like 6' 10", can you blame me? Anyway I like my dentist and the hygienist team, they are wonderful. Actually, Dr. DeMercy is the reason I wanted to be a dentist growing up.  His daughter,  Amanda, now works with him and she is great! 

   Anyway, all this to say, I love my dentist and for as long as I can remember I wanted to be a dentist.  Now I know my path has not gone in that direction yet, but deep down I was still hoping a little bit that I might one day be Tierah Ellard DDS.  Well, I went to our dental clinic here today to help with the sterilizing and observe some procedures.
 
  I was SO excited!  So I dressed in dental team scrubs and headed off to the dental clinic at the Hope Center.  I get there and Roses, the lady I will be working with shows me the sterilizing room and I help her set everything up and get ready for the day.  After about an hour of sterilizing the dental instruments and learning about all the tools that are used for pulling teeth and doing exams and cleaning and all the wonderful going ons of dentistry Roses tells me I can go observe in the procedure room. 
 
  I think I might have squealed!  :) I was excited.  Anyway, I go in and my friend McCall is helping one of the dentist with a little boy, and they are numbing his gums(nothing to exciting), but my friend Nadine is helping another dentist pull teeth!  So I go over there and watch as the dentist is pulling the teeth of a lady who is probably about 60 - 65 years old...my stomach lurched a little bit (its a good thing it was several hours after breakfast).  This lady is obviously in some pain because her teeth are so rotten and her gums are swollen and it is not a pretty sight.
 
  So I grab her hand and just hold it while Glyn(the dentist) continues to pull her teeth.  The more teeth he pulls the more nauseous and light headed I feel.  Finally they are done pulling teeth, so I patted the lady's hand and walked out of the room to be met by Roses, who had a concerned look on her face and asked me if I was okay;  to which I responded "I think I'm going to throw up." As I'm rushing outside to get some fresh air! 
 
  Well, I didn't throw up, or pass out, but my face was as white as a sheet and I scared Roses a little bit.  And I can say with certainty that I no longer want to be a dentist!  I went home to the ship a few minutes later with one of the dentist(the color had still not returned to my face) but all was okay and I don't think I'm going to visit the dental clinic again anytime soon.

  I also have so much more respect for our doctors and dentists in the world today, they must have stomachs of iron!  But, I did have fun, and it was a good lesson learned, don't watch other people pull teeth, and I got to wear scrubs(I still am wearing the pants hehe). 

These pictures were taken after I came back from the clinic.  So I have color in my face again. 

Ca-va?

  "Ca-va?" "Ca-va." (this is a typical greeting in French here. "You good?" "Yeah, I'm good.")

 Well, the holidays are over and the ship has gone back to normal mostly.  People are still walking around saying happy new year, but other than that the Africa Mercy has rung in the new year and we are on our way in 2014.
   I said my first really hard goodbye this week.  My boss and his family headed back to the States Wednesday, that was a tough day.  His children were some of the coolest kids ever!  But I'm excited for their journey to begin back home.
   That's the neat thing about being on the ship, when people leave you miss them, but you know Jesus has some amazing plans for them wherever they are going and that helps the goodbyes hurt less; not to much but its helps me to smile through the heartache.
   I'm about to have an entire switch over of roommates in the next few weeks.  By the end of January there will only be one girl left in my cabin that has been here as long as me.  She actually got here a few days after I did, but its basically we've been here the same amount of time.  And right now she will be here for three more months, maybe longer!
  Today is Ultimate Frisbee day...one of my favorite days of the week.  Frisbee Friday and Football/soccer Wednesdays!  We play with the locals on Wednesday, and this past Wednesday....I scored!!!! The first time in my adult life that I have scored a goal in soccer! I don't think I ever scored in my non-adult life either actually...
  I went to the beach on New Year's Eve with some friends, it was beautiful.  I mean, when I think of the beach I think beautiful, but the beach that is right next to the ship has trash and glass all over it so its more like a landfill than a beach.  But this place had clean sand!
  

Anyway, the red clay and the clean sand, and the warm water with waves that don't make you feel like you are in a washing making on the spin cycle, were all apart of making my New Year's Eve wonderful.