The HOPE Center

Sometimes I forget that I live on a hospital ship.  Working in the Academy means I don't naturally interact with our patients in the course of the day.  It's easy for me to get preoccupied with lesson plans and classes on the ship and forget that I live in Madagascar.  So I've started visiting the HOPE center. 

The HOPE center is an off-site building where patients, who travel from out of town, can stay before and after their surgery. The HOPE center, which can house over 200 people, frees up beds in the hospital, so more people can get surgery. Patients at the HOPE center visit the ship for outpatient follow-up appointments until they are ready to travel home. 

Hanging out at the HOPE center gives me an opportunity to spend time with our patients in a more relaxed setting. The Malagasy people are especially friendly and I enjoy spending time with them even if we don't share the same language.  Whether it's origami, games, or music, I'm figuring out fun ways to interact with the people I meet there. Going to the HOPE center is also a good way for me to get off the ship (it's about a 10 minute bike ride away) and I always feel so happy after an afternoon spent there. 

I think I'll make this a part of my normal weekly routine. 

Teaching kids to play Quirkle. No words needed!

Dancing to the music of a tin whistle is sure to put a smile on everyone's face. 

All About the Academy

There are about 40 children who call the ship home ranging in age from 5 months to 18 years old.  They attend school on ship in the Mercy Ship Academy which is where I teach math to all students in grades 6-12 (ages 11-18).

This is my classroom! I love it (except that there's no windows).

My classroom also doubles as textbook storage.

This year I teach the following classes:

• 6th grade math
• Algebra 1 (7th & 8th grade)
• Geometry (9th & 10th grade)
• Pre-Calculus (12th grade)
• Bible (7th & 8th grade)

Things I love about teaching in the Academy:

• The people I work with
• Challenging my students
• Doing fun projects (not so much pressure to prepare for some big test)
• Knowing all the students in the school, including the elementary kids
• Teaching in a Christian school (I've only every worked in a public school)
• Regular Field Trips
• Interacting with my students outside of school (like at the weekly ship ultimate frisbee game)
• How close-knit the staff and students are; we are like a big family
• Seeing students of all ages interact with each other regularly

This is the "Big Room." It serves as the library, computer lab, science classroom, and teacher meeting area.

Sometimes it can be stressful planning for 5 different classes every day, but I also enjoy the variety of teaching each class only once.  And I like teaching every junior high & high school student. 

The Academy is located on decks 6 & 7 and is fairly isolated from rest of the ship. To preserve the integrity of the school, the Academy is off limits for other crew members.  However, every year, we have an Open House, where not just the parents and families are invited, but the entire crew comes to visit the Academy.  Every teacher has a small activity – a game, a science experiment, etc. –for people to do in their classroom.  In my classroom, I created stations. Each station had a representative math problem from the different math classes I teach.  Some of my students were on hand to help any of the adults who might get stuck and need help!  I wasn't sure if the crew would want to participate or not, but everyone got really in to it! My class was so crowded with people having fun doing math that it was hard to get in the room!

Math is Fun! You can tell I live on a hospital ship - look at all those scrubs!

I was so happy seeing people collaborate on problem solving.

The Academy is definitely an international school where U.S. children are in the minority.  The grading system is quite different; most students are expected to be average and earn C's, while only the very best students should earn A's. It has been a difficult adjustment for me coming from a "high expectations" culture in the U.S. where the goal is for all students to earn A's and B's. Here, if all your students earn A's, it means your class is too easy. One positive outcome of this system is that it takes the pressure off the teacher. A variety of student aptitude levels are expected and the focus is on the student rather than on the teacher. Our students do take a standardized test in the spring, but it's just for the purpose of comparing our students to a wider population.  There are no "high stakes" tests. For me this is a welcome break from the United States where, as a teacher, I am most valued for the test scores I can get out of my students. 

Out and About

We've been in Madagascar for 2 weeks now. I am slowly getting to know my new home.  School keeps me very busy during the week, but on the weekend, I try to get out and explore the city.

For 1000 ariary (approx. 30 cents), you can take a tuk-tuk (a 3 wheeled open air taxi) around town.

View from inside of a tuk-tuk

Last weekend some of us went to explore the local markets, where they sell all kinds of homemade baskets, cards, sandals, purses, frames, paintings, as well as locally grown vanilla and other spices! Unfortunately I only know about 4 words in Malagasy so far (hello, goodbye, thank you, and excuse me), but my trip to the market motivated me to try to learn more.

Here is me and Ivanna at a local ice cream shop

If you get thirsty while you're out, stop for a coconut - it's so refreshing!

One of the main roads through town goes along the ocean

I also borrowed a bicycle last weekend and biked out to the beach.  There is a beach right near the ship, but it is not advisable to swim there.  But a 1/2 hour bike ride got us to a beach where we can swim.  There is also a restaurant, Ocean 501, right there on the beach.  Even at an amazing beach front restaurant, prices are extremely cheap. You can get a meal for a few dollars.

Amazing lunch!

At Ocean 501 with Robert, the science teacher

Enjoying the beach from a hammock in the shade.

In other news, the hospital is now in full swing and we had our Academy Open House this past Wednesday.  I'll tell you more about both in my next blog posts!

Arrival in Mada!

We are finally docked in what will be our new home for the next 10 months: Tamatave, Madagascar. Arrival day was so exciting.  All the crew spent the morning hanging out on decks 7 and 8 where we could watch land slowly get closer and closer.

View of Tamatave coast as we are sailing in.

Celebrating our arrival with excitement and lots of photos!  Bronnie, me, and Myriam.

The port where our ship is docked.

Another view of the beach as we are pulling into port.

Mercy Ship friends on the dock to greet us.

This weekend I finally found time to start exploring my new city. More on that in my next blog post!

Sailing!

We're sailing! We left Durban, South Africa over a week ago now. If all goes well, we should arrive in Madagascar tomorrow!

It's windy out on the deck!

Due to some unforeseen delays, we sat at anchorage off the coast of Durban for several days. Those first few days were the roughest. Before our ship was the Africa Mercy, she was the Dronning Ingrid, a Dutch rail ferry, designed for short ferry runs.  Needless to say, she was not designed for long voyages in the high seas. Hence, even when we are anchored in one place, the ship gently rolls from side to side ALL the time! The moments when you forget you are on a ship are few and far between and happen almost exclusively while I am asleep. Surprisingly the pitching back and forth  started to diminish when we pulled up the anchor and were on our way.


Now that my body has had some time to adjust, I am happy to report I have found my sea legs and am actually enjoying the sail.  The view out the window is always beautiful and I have grown to like falling asleep in a rocking bed.

View from deck 7 port side

Last night I enjoyed the special privilege of going to visit the bridge. We got to see the navigation computers and maps, the sections of glass floor and the amazing view!

View from outside the bridge

It's been easy to keep busy while sailing.  In addition to teaching (which can be interesting when the ship is rocking), there have been a lot of crew activities: sock golf, talent show, piano concert, lots of communal jigsaw puzzles, and even whale watching!  It's whale migration season in this area, so I've had several math lessons interrupted by whales or dolphins (but I'm not complaining!).  I wish I had pictures to show you, but I'm not fast enough with a camera.  With a whale, you're lucky if you just see it's tail coming out of the water, but the dolphins will jump completely out of the water. It's amazing!

Tomorrow we will spend the majority of the day getting the ship docked in port and clearing immigration.  I'm not sure when we'll get to get off the boat, but I can't wait!

Home Sweet Ship!

I've finally arrived at my new home! After a couple of years of dreaming, thinking, planning, and praying, I shrieked with delight when I first saw sight of the ship. Currently we are still in dry dock in Durban, South Africa, while the repairs to the ship's propulsion are finished. Being in dry dock means several things:

• You can't go outside without a hard hat on.
• You can't walk anywhere outside. You have to take a taxi out of the port.
• You have to wear closed toe shoes ALL the time. 
• The air conditioning only works some of the time and only in certain parts of the ship, the crew cabins being one of the areas where it never works.

Needless to say, we are all counting the days til we get out of dry dock and finally start our sail to Madagascar.  

Making posters to decorate my classroom!

Once I arrived on the ship, I set straight to work decorating my classroom.  We had a week of teacher orientation and then school started last Tuesday! I teach the following classes: 6th grade Math, Algebra 1, Geometry, Pre-Calculus, and Bible. I love it so far. My biggest class has 5 students!  But the time I save in grading, I spend in planning for all those classes! Whew! It is keeping me busy!

Teacher Activity during Orientation Week

Kids poking their heads in on the first day of school. Come on in!

I have managed to get off ship a couple times: once to the Lion Park and twice to the beach (first time in the Indian Ocean)! The water was freezing; it's winter here in the southern hemisphere, but my roommate Tam and I went swimming anyway.  Petting the elephants at the Lion Park was the highlight of my summer! It was amazing!

More about daily life on the ship in my next blog post!

South Africa

I can't believe I've been in Africa an entire month! After surviving 2 nights in a row on an airplane, we arrived in the port city of Durban, South Africa.  A 4 hour bus ride took us to Winterton and to the YWAM base near the Drakensberg Mountains where we finished the final two weeks of our training. These two weeks were an amazing opportunity to meet local Zulu people as well as learn more about the culture here.  We also had time to continue team building within our group and experience life together as we lived in close quarters and completed several work projects.

The view outside our house. South Africa is beautiful!

The local school had 70 kids in a classroom, so we cleaned and painted 2 extra rooms to help alleviate the crowding.

Another school where we did some cement work and painting to fix the preschool building.

In addition to several work projects, we had the privilege to join in with 2 organizations who provide home healthcare  to people in the townships and villages.  A large percentage of the population is HIV positive and has TB. Local women walk miles a day to visit people who may not be able to come to town to visit a clinic.

The pictures below shows one of the villages we visited and Sindy, the caregiver who let us come along with her on her visits.

Sindy, Bethany, and me walking through the village

We worked with Tandi to make packages of food to be delivered to clinic patients. HIV patients need food to take their medicine with, so the clinic provides rice, beans, salt, sugar, soup mix, and tea. 

One of the highlights for me was the day we ran into some kids after school who needed help with their math homework.  Of course I was delighted to help! The next day even more kids showed up so I had an impromptu math class.

Photo credit: Katie Keegan

Another highlight for me was all the animals!  Although there were fences, you were just as likely to see cows, goats, chickens, horses, and sheep outside the fences as inside.  I especially enjoyed playing with the sheep!

And there were several dogs who lived at the YWAM base.  Of course they were not as cute as Sophie, but they were just a cuddly!

Here are some beautiful pictures from a short hike we took one evening. I am lucky to have some friends who are amazing photographers!

Photo Credit: Katie Keegan 

My roommates in Winterton were Rachel from the UK and Bronnie from New Zealand. They taught me fabulous new words like "gobsmacked," which means to be astonished or overwhelmed. They kept me laughing even when I couldn't sleep because of jet lag or when it was freezing cold because there was no heat!

After spending almost 2 months together, our team was incredibly close. I thank the Lord for each person and how He used them in my life this summer!