Congrats again, Ma Ellen

Today is inauguration day for Her Excellency President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia into her second term, after a violently (and ill-founded) contended election. And can I find mention of it anywhere in the world's press? No. Not even on the BBC. Huh. Olly

Photo below of our Anna presenting Her Excellency with flowers during her visit to the Africa Mercy in 2008.

Monrovia's new old bridge across

It's a cold and frosty morning here in England. I have nowhere to go and nothing to do so my thoughts have turned to a warmer place and busier times, that left a great impression on our hearts: Liberia. When we left at the end of 2008 the old bridge from Monrovia's Waterside to Vai Town looked like this:

BUT it's just been rebuilt by the Chinese (God bless 'em!) and here it is today:

Stunning eh? I really hope it helps to ease the congestion on the Gabriel Tucker bridge. Olly

Catching up

So, we had a lovely Christmas with my brother, his wife Claire, Thomas & Sophie and my parents. Spent Boxing Day and New Year with Sally's parents. Then Jerry, Karen, Jermaine & Shakira from SBC came to stay for one night, and then Claire from Appelsbosch came to stay for 3 nights, and right now the Rothwells from the ship are staying for two nights en route from Australia to Togo. Things not looking good on the job front for me: I thought I had a great job lined up working for a missions agency that sends short-term teams overseas, but they wanted me to be away too much (up to 6 weeks at a time) which Sally and I weren't prepared to endure. So back to the drawing board. I have no jobs up my sleeve, and don't even have any gardening or self employed stuff lined up. Have applied for 4 mundane and unsatisfying jobs in local offices, such is our need to earn money. Come on God. Needing some direction here. Olly

A job for Sally

Today Sally had a job interview at Noah's school - for the position of Teaching Assistant in the English Department. And she got the job! Starts Monday! Yeah! Now I can retire. Olly

And here she at the Lyme Regis Cobb earlier this year.

Here's a cool photo...

...of Liberians hauling a fibre-optic cable ashore in Liberia, which will effectively bring broadband to the country for the first time EVER!

Yeah! Olly

Sherborne

We love Sherborne. A small city with a population of only 10,000, it still feels like a small town from days gone by. It has an abbey over 900 years old, and the one shopping street is made up almost solely of ancient stone buildings. At this time of year, the whole town smells of fallen leaves and woodsmoke from hundreds of wood-burners and open fires. Lovely!

Photo of the abbey, taken by Dr Keith Chapman.

You wanna come stay? We're having our garage converted JUST FOR YOU! Olly

Please pray...

...for Liberia. Elections have been and gone, but the opposition boycotted them and thus won't recognise the fair election results and encouraged demonstrations leading to riots and a couple of deaths. Please pray that peace is restored soon, and that the current president can start her second term well and get on with re-building her country again.

...for the Africa Mercy. Thursday was the last day for surgeries in Sierra Leone; now the pace changes as the hospital is packed away, the Hope Centre is closed down, and the ship is loaded and prepared to sail.

...for Sierra Leone, as the population is left to manage their own health care without help from one of the most effective aid organisations on the planet.

Olly

S'up?

Oh dear, such a lot has happened since I last blogged. We moved into our own house on 10th October - here it is:

We have been very blessed by an awesome God: 5 bedrooms, three bathrooms and a MASSIVE kitchen/dining room, for way less than our three-bedroom ex-council house in Harpenden.

The kids are doing really well in school - in fact they are thriving - and Sally is getting to know the mums at drop-off and pick-up time.

My work at the stone-splitting factory ceased about 6 weeks ago, so I took up gardening and DIY until the weather got wetter and cooler. Last week I got a temp job in the warm and dry office of a local cheese company. It'd be great if the job became permanent and I could stay on after Christmas.

I'm still listening to KLOVE - my daily dose and inspiration!

Now that we are settled and praying about being here, God is leading me to volunteer with Yeovil Street Pastors one or two nights a month - see www.streetpastors.org.uk - they patrol the city centre streets every Friday and Saturday nights, bringing Christ's love to the revellers...

What else? Oh yeah, we've had a steady procession of ship-mates visiting us: Keith, Alison, Jesse, Barry & Cheryl. It has been simply great to catch up with ship news.

Bye for now, gotta go iron some shirts. Olly

Catching up

It's been a while. So I'm catching up. TWO WEEKS AGO the kids started at British schools - and here they are in their new uniforms. It was great to know that people all over the world were praying for them (and we certainly surrounded their first day in prayer): all three had a great time and continue to do so, praise God.

I am still adjusting to life in the UK and am amazed at how long it's taking me to get over being home-sick for the ship and West Africa (anyone else still suffering right now?). My therapy is listening to KLOVE from the States in the evenings (isn't Amanda brilliant?). We are attending a good church in Yeovil that has a few West Africans in it, who all adore Libby, and one of whom has already cooked us rice and chicken and beans (and another has promised Jollof rice!). I am still building stone-splitters, and still asking myself what my new life's all about. Sally is trying to renew her registration as a British speech therapist. Hopefully this week we'll finalise selling our house in Hertfordshire and buying one in the South West, although we won't be able to move in until early October (by which time we will have been living with my parents for 3 whole months, God bless 'em).

Ooh - did I already say that it's the coldest British summer in 20 years? How I long to be hot and sweaty again!

Bye for now, write soon. Olly

Monday 22nd August

Here's a cool photo of Libby (on the right) holding a little patient with Noma, taken in the Mercy Ships' Hope Centre in Freetown, earlier this year (thanks Jodie!). I forget that Libby isn't the smallest kid around any more...

In other news, Sally bought winter dressing gowns for our kids today, and they wore them all afternoon - Libby even wore hers in the shopping centre - despite it being the hottest day since we came home. Periodically they would have to remove them to cool down their dripping bodies. Huh. Olly

Two weeks later...

Making great progress. Managed a whole shop at big supermarket without crying or getting flustered! And have made contact with the local West African community too - we enjoyed chatting about plantains and cassava for a few moments (and of course they LOVE Libby!)...Today a big article on Mercy Ships appeared in the Sunday Times - you can read it online of you are willing to part with £1, go to www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/mercyships. We are mentioned by name, and there is even a photo of Noah (and Anna's right foot) jumping into the ship's pool with other ship kids! Made us proud once again to have been part of such an amazing org for so long, and sad of course that we are no longer on the front line. Still praying about what God has in store for us next - we are willing to GO! but need some UK-time, so need to hear from him about what we can get involved with in our local community...Olly

How the UK has changed

Here's what I've noticed about changes in the UK over the last 5 years:

G4S: the new name for Group 4 Security.

No more Woolworths.

No more Abbey National.

Milk in bags.

Food products "proudly British"

Chocolate products "fair trade"

Beer £3.50 a pint!

Bread £1.30 a loaf!

Trees have grown

Houses have shrunk

More coffee shops

Less slim people

Roads are longer

Traffic jams more common

etc

etc

This is an ill-founded work in progress. Olly

Living the "normal" life

After just over a week back in the UK, we only today ventured into a BIG supermarket for the first time, and were immediately overwhelmed. Quick retreat back to our lodgings. Back to square one. The kids are unable to adjust to the long British summer days - it's lights from 4am to 10pm - and are missing their friends on the ship terribly. And the weather stinks - cold, wet and rainy - typical British summer weather! Slow progress. This is harder than I thought it would be. Olly

Farewell Mercy Ships

From the day one joins Mercy Ships, one thing hangs heavy over you: the day you will have to leave. And that day came on Thursday 30th June, when after nearly 8 years with Mercy Ships we became civilians once again and walked down the gangway for the last time. Thanks Murray for the great photo of us all with Tim (left) and Murray (right) in uniform as we are about the get on the ferry to get to the airport.

We had an incredibly good journey home, making all the connections and arriving at Heathrow on time. Praise God that nothing went wrong. And now back to life; back to reality...Olly

Handover - 2.5 days to go!

Today was a huge day for me: I handed over my keys, my pager and my phone to Transport's new manager, Jeremy (from Deck. You know him?). We only found out on Friday that his transfer had been approved, so it's been a crazy time for him as he tries to learn the whole job in 2 days, but he's done very well. I reckon I must weigh about 90 tons lighter now, with the weight of the workshop and all 28 vehicles and 110 drivers removed from my shoulders. Good luck Jeremy.

Meanwhile, packing and sorting is going well. Sally is delighted that it looks like we probably won't need all of our ten-bag-allowance on the flights home. Most of our clothes are packed, and all the kids toys, but even so our cabin looks like the scene from a war movie, with every surface covered in fallen piles of stuff needing sorting before passing to neighbours and friends.

Meanwhile meanwhile, we welcome back to the ship our very good friends the Zupke family, who have lead Summer Program for the ship kids in 2004 in Europe, 2005 in South Africa, 2007 in Liberia, 2009 in Benin and now 2011 in Sierra Leone. It's great to see them again, and it's only too bad that we won't get to spend much time together before we leave on Thursday. God's timing as usual is perfect: the Zupkes and their team of helpers are keeping our kids amused whilst Sally and I pack and throw out all the precious things they've collected over the last 7 years...

Huh. Bye for now, Olly

My last, and 100th, dive

This afternoon I completed my 100th, and last (I hope) dive under the Africa Mercy. Visibility was amazingly good - the best I have seen yet in Freetown - but floating garbage was the worst I have ever seen - we had to enter and exit the water through a 2 foot thick floating island of trash that contained a dead rat and a dead cat amongst other things:

I leave the Dive Team in Dan's capable and energetic hands. Olly

The saddest time of year again

Yes, it's that time again. School finished last week for the summer, and since then we've waved goodbye to many good friends, as they leave the ship forever, or travel on vacation. Today all our kids teachers left after their 2 year commitment: goodbye Miss Danae, goodbye Miss Orman, and goodbye Miss Estelle.

And this time in two weeks, we will have left too. 2 hours after takeoff from Freetown we'll probably be coming into Banjul en route for Brussels...Olly

Rebuilding Land Rovers...again...for the last time!

With a little over 2 weeks to go before we leave the Africa Mercy, I have begun my last big renovation project - that of replacing the bulkhead and door supports on #482 (a year 2000 model). Here is the original bulkhead which was rusted through in many places and had such big holes in the front footwells that you could see the front wheels going round:

Lamin, my new mechanic, found a good bulkhead on a scrapped police Land Rover, which is already installed in the photos below. To do so the wings had to be removed, the doors, windscreen, steering wheel, dashboard, seats, wiring, roof lining, rear windows...a huge amount of work, done by a gang of young ex-combatants in a local workshop which is little more than a patch of mud surrounded by wrecked cars...all for about $600.

I am confident that before I leave, #482 will be back on the road again as an ambulance ready to face the next 5 years of hard labour in West Africa. Olly

Badly burnt boy...

...died 2 weeks ago in hospital. Olly

Insane photo

This is one of the most insane photos I have ever seen. How many bullets did it take to pulverize this van?

Click on photo to enlarge. Taken in Vai Town, Mon, Lib: 2003. Olly