Greetings.

What a whirlwind.

For those of you who follow this blog, I thought I would post a short update. I am home - in terms of the home I grew up in - the frigid cold of Duluth, Minnesota. But as I mentioned in a previous post, I'm not home yet... home being my eternal home in Heaven. There's still too much to do here on earth. :)

Christmas with the family was great and oh so fast. I'm still working on what comes next. But for now, I'm spending time with my family and friends while seeking out my next adventure. So for now, I won't be posting much on this blog.

But I will keep you posted on the next adventure. For now, peace out. Krissy

Well, I'm back in America!

My flight was supposed to be Accra - Washington DC - Chicago - Minneapolis, finally arriving on the 20th around 2 in the afternoon. Well a few hours before I was supposed to leave the ship (was that just yesterday?) we found out the DC flight was cancelled. I got on the phone right away with my travel agent (Raptim Travel - HIGHLY recommended) and she was wonderful, pulling who knows how many strings to get me home before Christmas. The DC flight was delayed about thirteen hours, which was fine for the other to crewmembers who were only going to DC, but that messed up my connections to Minneapolis and with it being so close to Christmas, they didn't think I would be able to get home.... WELL, about twenty minutes later, I got a call back from Raptim saying they can get me home before Christmas but the only option (without buying a whole new ticket on a different airline) would be to leave earlier and go through Germany. Great. Awesome. Sign me up.

So I basically ran to the Pursers office to make sure I could get a shuttle to the airport and then ran to the ever fabulous Davies cabin to see if Shelly could drive me. Then I frantically changed clothes and hauled my stuff up... you see, this was all happening right in the middle of the big wine-and-dine event for all the dignitaries and basically the center half of the ship was shut down to general crew, as well as the gangway (the only way out....) well anyway, we finally got everything worked out and flew down the gangway between the Swiss and the American ambasadors arrivals, got me to the airport in time, and the return began.

This did make for very rushed goodbyes, and several people I never got to say goodbye too - which might have actually been easier as the few I managed to do were pretty emotional. So to all my Mercy friends and family - I love you all and send you hugs from afar! Merry Christmas.

We arrived in Frankfurt (an airport I have never been in and was very impressed with) to a snowstorm, and my flight from Frankfurt to Chicago was several hours delayed in departure, but I was supposed to have 6 hours to kill here in Chicago so wasn't worried about making that flight. Once we finally took off, it was a nearly 10 hour flight and I slept a little, but not great, and had crummy seats... but really, after enduring two and a half years in Africa, I kept telling myself I can handle 10 hours in a plane for crying out loud.

So now I'm in Chicago. I went through customs with no problems, both my bags arrived with me, and now I'm just counting down the minutes until I can hug my family in person. I have a gingerbread latte from Starbucks and some cheesy popcorn to tide me over until then. It's still kind of surreal, but then again, I actually left the ship 28 hours ago and am still not home, haven't slept or ate well, so my emotional state isn't exactly stable.

Okay, now I'm rambling. But I'm back on American soil after two and a half years on African soil. It's a bittersweet homecoming.... thankfully, mostly sweet, thanks to the latte I am sipping. :)

Love to all. Krissy

As I mentioned in a previous post, it's been a CRAZY few days in Ghana! We arrived on Thursday afternoon but weren't cleared by customs to leave the ship until Friday morning. Friday afternoon Emma and I went out to a market and it was JUST like the markets in Benin - I felt so at home, I almost cried. Freetown was just different - so overcrowded. Ghana is beautiful and has real roads, sidewalks, and stop lights. Amazing stuff. Friday night was the Academy (the school on board for the children of the crew) Christmas Play. The students finished their exams last week and this week they have worked on nothing but the play - the first time they saw it was Monday and then they performed it on Friday! Emma, my roommate, was the coreographer and also the fabulous person who took all the pictures below. Emma-Love - I'll miss you! Hugs!

The kids during the show.

Yesterday (Sunday) one of our (Mercy Ships) international board members invited a hundred of us to her church and back to her house for lunch afterwards. I was kind of expecting a small church and big tubs of jollof rice to eat for lunch, but reality was quite different. We went to Action Chapel, which is a huge mega-church in Ghana, and the service was much like some African churches in America I've seen on TV. The service was really loud and 2 1/2 hours, which is actually short for an African service. Once we got back to her house, which was really more like a palace, we had a very fancy full catered meal that was delicious and reminicent of a wedding feast.

Action Chapel, Accra - Photo stolen with permission from Catherine (thanks!) :)

The event ended up taking up most of the day, we got to the ship just before dinner. Last night was the 4th Sunday in Advent service here on the ship and then I played cards with Josh and Emily and Julie until nearly midnight. It was a good last night on board.

It's been a whirlwind of activity since arriving in Ghana! Saturday a large group of us, organized by the ever fabulous Carol T, went to a glass bead making center. Beads are a huge part of the culture here in Ghana and it was an interesting experience. I'm not a huge crafty person but was with people who were REALLY excited. :) Here are some pictures - all photos were taken by the lovely Catherine Schwebel who let me 'steal' them off her blog. :)

They use recycled glass to make the beads, here are some of the colors they use of crushed glass.

(Note: THREE blog posts today! Scroll down for more photos!)

I was sick most of the day and night we were bunkering fuel out in the open ocean, so didn't get any photos. One of our Chaplains (and an awesome friend!) Marty wrote a great blog post with awesome photos of the whole event. I highly suggest you check it out!


http://schwebelfamily.blogspot.com/2011/12/december-14-bunkering-on-open-seas.html

Peace, Krissy

All of these photos were taken by the ever lovely Carol Tanzola - Thanks, Carol!!

Disclaimer: I did not take any of these photos myself. I wish I knew who did so I could give them credit! They are amazing!! This is what we saw on the sail from Freetown, Sierra Leone, to Tema, Ghana.

The guys tying us up.

Sunset somewhere in the Atlantic. I took this one. :)

I'll be home for Christmas!!! Love to all. Krissy

Sailing! Finally. Honestly, it's all we've been talking about and planning for since the hospital closed a few weeks ago. Finally it's here! We had one last fire drill in the morning yesterday to make sure everyone that is on board is supposed to be on board, and then we lifted the gangway and pushed off, with everyone waving goodbye to Sierra Leone.


The crew is about 250 right now, and everyone was on deck 7 or 8 watching our departure.

Okay, one photo that I stole off Emma's blog who says she stole it off someone else's blog... but this is loading the landrovers up on to deck 8!

Peace. K

This photo was taken a few weeks ago at the Hope center. This little kid kept trying to wear my sunglasses... but where the exceptional cuteness (and heartache) is found is that he doesn't have a nose or ears, they were basically eaten away by an awful infection and he was with us to get the infection removed and hopefully have a new nose reconstructed. So anyway, he kept trying to get my glasses to stay on but without ears or a nose they didn't stay well. So cute.

12 days left. I feel very schitzophrenic (sp?) right now. I so very much want to be home with my family and friends but am devastated about leaving here. It's to be expected, but doesn't make it any easier.

Peace. K