Wednesday 18th Febuary

Today our newly recruited local staff came to work. Working for me are Matthieu (a mechanic) from Togo; John and Adrien (translators/drivers/cleaners) from Cotonou, and Mathiew and Thomas (ambulance drivers) from Cotonou. They are all mature men with good references from their churches; I hope they will be easier to manage than some of Liberian guys who worked for me last year. Whilst the new guys spent the day washing cement dust off our vehicles, Moses and I spent the day setting up our dockside workshop, which consists of a 20 foot shipping container that holds our tools and Land Rover parts, and a 20 x 20 foot tent under which we can work to avoid the sun/tropical rain/cement dust from neighbouring ships. We are trying very hard to have everything in a state of semi-readyness to lift back onto the ship in case we have to move berth at a moment's notice, which we will have to do if the port wants our berth for other ships. Olly