Sunday 10th March

Well, originally we should have been getting home this morning, but in true Africa style they changed the flight by 24 hours from Saturday night to Sunday night! That did mean that we got an extra 24 hours with the Tretheways which was a bonus.

In the morning we decided to go down to the ward service. This is where a group of people made up of crew and day workers put on an hour long service in the wards on the ship which the patients can go to. It was packed full, with all the chairs taken and people sitting on the beds. They started with some very lively singing, dancing and drumming (which they certainly know how to do well!). Then there was a short talk which was interpreted into 2 other languages. It ended with more singing, dancing and drumming. There was a great atmosphere and it was good to see the patients enjoying it and joining in. We couldn't take photos because of the patients being there. I would have loved to have taken a video of the singing and music as it sounded amazing.

After lunch we went and took some more last minute photos and Tim took us inside the ships funnels and right to the highest point on the ship where we took some more photos.

 

 

We had been trying to check in for our flight online since yesterday but it kept saying that there was no such flight! Slight panic having had it changed already! It did let us check in for our second flight from Brussels to Bristol, although we weren't sure if we would get that far!

We went and did our last few bits of packing and made our way to reception to meet up with the others who would be leaving on our flight. We said goodbye to the people who had come to see us off and got in the land rovers ready to drive to the airport. Tim was asked to lead the convoy. As we got closer to the airport we noticed there were alot of armed guards around (the ones with real bullets!). We weren't sure whether this was because of the recent riots or whether something else was going on. The road started to get more congested and as we reached the airport we discovered that the road leading to the airport had been closed with men with AK47's (proper big guns!) standing guard to make sure no-one got through. So we decided not to argue with them! Tim thought we could go round the roundabout and go in the other way but we soon discovered that that road had been closed too. We were then stuck in traffic which wasn't going anywhere. Tim radioed the other vehicles in our convoy to see if anyone spoke French enough to get out and ask a guard or police man what was going on and how we could get to the airport. Thankfully one of the men could speak enough French and managed to find out that the president was either leaving or arriving at the airport so had shut it and we found out later that all the flights had been cancelled! We had no idea how long it was going to be closed for. We parked up next to the exit of the airport to try and make a plan. Our man went and spoke to the guard on the exit gate, using the magic password "Mercy Ships" which seems to get you out of all sorts of trouble here!! He said they would let us in the exit on foot, so we got all our luggage out of the vehicles and made our way to the gate. He checked our passports and said that only the people travelling could go in and quickly tried ushering us through the gate. I had managed a quick hug with Sharon and Tim but I hadn't had chance to say goodbye to Nathanael and was being pushed through the gate. Dave was shouting for me to hurry up before we lost the others but I fought my way back saying "I haven't said goodbye to Nathanael" so managed a really quick, tearful goodbye, but I don't think he really knew what was going on. It was all a bit of a mad panic and a really horrible way to say goodbye. We eventually managed to get into the airport and check in straight away as there wasn't anyone else in the airport! It wasn't for about another hour that other people started to get in so we figured they must have re-opened the airport.

When Sharon and Tim managed to get back to the ship they checked the internet to try and find out what was happening and found out that the flight had been cancelled, so were half expecting to have to come and pick us up again. They phoned the airport and discovered that it was ok after all.

We watched our plane come in and all the activity of getting it ready for the return flight, unloading and re-loading of luggage, food, etc, cleaning, re-fuelling, etc.

 

Eventually we boarded the plane and began our long journey home. As the security in Africa isn't always the best, the airline staff checked our hand luggage again as we were about to board the plane! We left Guinea about 8.30pm with a handful of passengers and flew to Dakar in Senegal to pick up what seemed like a million people!! We were there for about an hour and a half and soon had a very full and noisy plane. We were supplied with food, drinks, earphones, blankets and pillows. There were individual screens in the back of every seat with on demand films, TV programmes, music, games and flight follower. This was an overnight flight and by about 1am I was getting tired and couldn't keep my eyes open enough to watch any more films but couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep. I was getting restless and didn't know what to do with myself - it was horrible. Then there was a bit of action which kept me awake for a bit - a lady had collapsed in one of the toilets (I think she had just fainted, so wasn't serious). Now, if you've ever been on a plane you'll know that the toilets aren't very big, so watching the stewardesses trying to sort her out was quite amusing (well, it doesn't take much to amuse me and I was tired!).

 

Eight hours after leaving Guinea we arrived in Brussels about 4.30am. We walked to immigration and waited in the huge queue. On the other side we said goodbye to the other Mercy Ships people we had been travelling with who were going on home to Cananda, America and Switzerland. We had a look in the shops in the airport and then went for a drink to try and stay awake! We then decided to get through security (yet again!) while it was quiet. We did a little experiment on those silly moving floors you find in airports to see if they actually are any good! It seemed pointless to me that you go on a moving floor but still walk - what's the point? So Dave walked at the side and I walked on the moving floor to see how much quicker it was (please remember I am easily amused and was very tired by this point!). I think I made about 2 metres, so not really worth it in my opinion!

 



I phoned work to let them know we wouldn't make it in to work because of the changes to our flight and we didn't know what time we would be home.

We eventually found our flight and made our way to the departure gate to wait and watched the snow falling! The temperature here was a bit different than what we had left in Guinea and was a bit of a shock to the system! When we got on the bus to take us to the plane we had to wait for ages in the cold.

 

When we got to the plane we had to wait for the de-icer vehicle to come and de-ice the plane. We took off just over an hour and a half late but at least we were on our way home. We were given more food and drink and arrived back at Bristol airport about 12 noon on Monday. Having collected our luggage, which had managed to make it back with us, we made our way to the bus to take us back to the car park where we picked up the car and piled on the warm coats we had left in it! It was snowing in Bristol too. 

At last, we were on our way home. Or so we thought...

Just as we were approaching junction 22 to join the M5 there was a horrible noise from the car. We pulled into a layby, checked the car and discovered a large piece of metal stuck in one of the tyres. 

We would have been on our way in no time if we could have changed the wheel but, of course, my car doesn't come with a spare wheel! Aaarrrggghh!

So, we had to phone the breakdown service and explain where we were to someone who didn't know the area. She said they would try and find a garage nearby who had a tyre and get us there. After several phone calls backwards and forwards she got back to us to say she couldn't find one the right size anywhere. She then phoned back to say she had found one locally. But her idea of locally was not the same as ours! She had found one about 50 miles away in the other direction. Not terribly helpful. We explained that we had been travelling all night, hadn't slept for 30 hours and just wanted to get home. We told her that we were only about 60 miles away from home so instead of taking us 50 miles in the wrong direction couldn't they just take us home. So, thankfully they agreed to do that. After an hour the flat bed truck arrived, put the car on the back, we got in the lovely warm cab of the truck and were driven home. Saved us driving home and the fuel money - bargain!

 We arrived home about 4pm, phoned Sharon and Tim and my parents to let them know we had got home safely, unpacked, ate and went to bed for a well earned 12 hour sleep.

Life changing adventure complete! 

 

We hope you have enjoyed reading our blog and have managed to get a sense of the amazing work Mercy Ships are doing. Please keep following this blog for more stories of Mercy Ships work in Africa. I will update when I receive more stories and information.

 

 

 

 

 

  

Saturday 9th March

Unfortunately we couldn't go to the orphanage this morning because of the trouble as we weren't allowed up that far to the area it is in. It was really disappointing but at least we had managed to meet the couple who run it and some of the children at the church the first week we were here.

This is the blog which my sister set up for the orphanage. Take a look at what they do and meet the children.
http://www.godisloveorphanage.blogspot.co.uk/

So we had a chilled out morning instead.

After lunch we got ready to go on half of the planned cultural tour. This is put on to help people understand more of the country's history, culture, religions, etc. So we met at 1.30pm to do the part of the tour we were able to do - a trip to the mosque. We were given a brief history of Guinea and its traditions, tribes, languages, politics, religions, etc. It was explained what we would be doing and given instructions on what we could and couldn't do. We were taught how to greet the people at the mosque and told that we could take photos in the mosque but not of the people unless they gave their permission. It was checked that we had socks, scarves for the ladies, cameras and water. We drove to the Grand Mosque in one of the Land rovers with an interpreter. When we arrived at the mosque we were let in the gates and we put on our socks and scarves. The ladies had to wear long skirts or dresses and shoulders and heads had to be covered. The men had to have long trousers.

I soon discovered that I hadn't really thought the whole socks and sandals thing through properly!! Looking good!!

We were welcomed by some men but the women weren't allowed to shake their hand unless they held their hand out to us. We were then taken around the outside of the mosque and told a bit about it.

It is the 4th largest mosque in Africa and the largest in West Africa. It was built in 1982 as a payback from King Fahd of Saudi Arabia under Ahmed Sekou Toure for an idea someone had about planting trees to provide shelter and shade for people.
We were taken to a building where most of the former presidents and heroes of the country are buried.

It is called the Camayanne Mausoleum and contains the tombs of national hero Samori Ture, Sekou Toure and Alfa Yaya.

The building is kept locked and looked after by a lady they call mother, who is a widow. Hung up around the inside of the building are also passages from the Qur'an on rugs.

We were shown a sign on the wall with the African colours on, an elephant, a bird and the motto underneath which means 'Work, Justice and Solidarity'.

The Africa colours have significance. The red signifies the blood of their anti-colonialist martyrs and their struggle for freedom. The yellow stands for the countrys gold and the sun - energy, generosity and equality for all men under the African sun. And green represents the vegetation and crops grown by the farmers of the country. This is their prosperity and the crops provide a wealth from the soil. With the crops to provide for them, they can stand alone. Approximately 85% of the country's population are farmers. The elephant (Sili) is a symbol of the party and its leader Ahmed Sekou Toure. The elephant is seen as big and strong and this is how he was seen. Crowds often used to chant Sili, Sili when they saw the president.  
The bird was the next presidents favourite animal.

We were then shown the place where the Muslims wash themselves before going in to the mosque to pray. This is called an ablution - a form of ritual washing.

They don't wash because they are dirty, but because they are going to pray. They wash their bodies as a sign that they are also cleaning their minds of all their everyday thoughts so they can concentrate on praying to Allah. This is how it is performed:
They wash their hands 3 times. Then their mouth 3 times, their nose/nostrils 3 times, face 3 times, fore arms 3 times, head and hair, ears 3 times (ear holes and behind the ears), then their feet. They are then ready to pray.

We then went in to the mosque having taken off our shoes. It was massive inside. It can hold up to 10,000 men on the ground floor and 2,500 places on the upper level for the women. Also outside can accommodate 12,500 worshippers.

It is very ornate inside with lots of decoration, big light fittings, writing from the Koran, carpets, shoe racks and a lot of green! Green was Muhammad's favourite colour apparently!

We were shown and it was explained how they pray. They do the Salah 5 times a day.

We were shown some prayer beads and how they are used. There are 99 beads, for the 99 names of Allah, in 3 sections of 33 beads so it is easier to remember. They answered our questions and said that most white Americans and Europeans just come to have a look but they loved that we were interested in what they do, what they believe etc and wanted to ask questions. One of the men mentioned that we didn't need to be afraid of Muslims as they don't all fight like we hear on the news etc and it also came across that their opinion/stereotype of white people was beginning to change as a result of these visits too, which is good.
They asked if they could pray for us and then Steve asked if he could pray for them. This was a bit of a breakthrough and had never happened before so Steve was very excited!

We were shown the Minbar, a raised platform from which the leader of prayer (the Imam) stands to address the congregation

and the Mihrab which is like a semicircular alcove in the wall and points in the direction of Mecca (the direction Muslims should face when praying).


One of the men wanted me to take a photo of him, so I did and then everyone started wanting photos taken in groups, especially with our group leader who has been building relationships with these guys since the ship arrived here.

The leader of our group and his interpreter have been working with Muslims and using story telling. The interpreter, who is a day worker on the ship, is a very good story teller and also speaks 3 of the most common indeginous languages, Fula, Susu and Maninka, as well as French so he is very useful!

They have been telling stories from the Bible in chronological order. Because they started from the Old Testament and worked through to Jesus' life it has been received a lot better by the Muslims because they know many of the stories and characters in the Old Testament. They said that if they had gone straight in with stories of Jesus they don't think it would have been received the same way. They are really starting to connect with them. Guinea is a predominantly Islamic country with Muslims representing about 85% of the population.

The second half of the tour where you go and spend the evening with an African family, preparing food, cooking and eating with them and spending time with them, had to be cancelled because of the riots etc going on as it was in a risky area. So that was a shame. Here are some photos that someone else took on a previous tour to give you an idea of what it is like.