A Wonderful Wulki Weekend...

This past weekend was a ship's long weekend. The whole crew, with the exception of shift workers (such as some nurses, receptionists, on-call deck hands, Duty Officer, etc.), are given the Friday and the Monday as holidays. Missionaries do need time off from time to time. And I had such a wonderful, much-needed break.

I went to White Sands beach on Friday with good friends Phil, Ali and Rodrigo. It was awesome to swim in the calm waters, play frisbee on the beach, and relax in each other's company.

And then the very next day, Saturday, was undoubtedly the highlight of my weekend. I went to Wulki Farm with eight other Mercy Shippers, including close friends Phil from Canada, Ali of New Jersey, Emily of Georgia, Carmen of Texas, Australian Tim, and my biggest rugby rival on the ship, Maria from New Zealand. Having such lovely, multicultural friends on the Mercy Ship is such a beautiful thing. And being able to spend the day with these people was such a blessing.

We drove out an hour or so from the ship and then entered the gates of Wulki Farm. Within the farm the road snakes up and down a couple of hills before reaching the large swimming pool at the top. At the farm we saw a multitude of animals, including ostriches, crocodiles, guinea fowl, turkeys, pigs, and even a couple of playful monkeys. Whilst for others the highlight of the trip may have been the monkeys and being able to hold them, for me it was the pool. This was added by the fact that the monkeys did not take kindly to the male members of our group. They absolutely loved the girls... But ran circles around us boys. The one even put his arm up my pants. I was close to panicking, but remained calm. He retracted his arm slowly. And much to my relief!

But anyway, enough monkey-business. Let's turn to the pool. The pool is actually two pools which are joined together by a short tunnel. It is easily four metres in depth at the deepest part. So it was the perfect place for Maria and Tim to teach me how to dive. I've never really learnt before, and so it was quite exciting for me. Although I did suffer a couple of belly-flops in the process! But I did get a warm applause after I finally managed to dive successfully.

The rest of the time was spent lazing in the pool, joking around, and having a really fun time together. And then at around 16h30 we slowly made our way back home to the Mercy Ship. It was the perfect day which made for an even better weekend. That's all for now... Until the next time, God bless!