Since my last post we have moved 150 people and all of there belongings off the ship. As well as all departments including the Academy which had 210 boxes all on its own. It was amazing how much everyone pitched in and help each other. It all started on Wednesday when we got into port in Durban. When ships go into ports the ports have a pilot who is familiar with the port and how to steer the ship, and he comes aboard. This is normal procedure but this time the pilot came aboard via helicopter. The Africa Mercy has never taken a pilot on via helicopter before. It all went very smothly, the helicopter did not land on the ship but lowered the pilot down in a harness. We got into port around lunch time but where not able to get off the ship until latter that night. We had not cleared customs yet so latter that night we were allowed off the ship on to the dock but not beyond the dock fence.
Thursday morning we all moved our personal belongings into the mid ship area of the ship. It was a huge pile of stuff at that point I think we all believed we all had way to much stuff and probably did not need it all. We then took a break and then moved all the offices with all the people helping it only took us 20 minuets to move all the Academy boxes. We had so may people helping out it was amazing to see what can happen when people pitch in and help one another out. We then broke for lunch and packed up the moving vans. It was a lot of walking and steps because we had to walk down two decks and then back up two decks to get more stuff to do it all over again. We had the trucks all loaded in about an hour. We had to take brakes to let the moving company catch up with all the stuff we had already brought down.
At about 1:30 we all packed into the two buses and 24 land rovers to move to Appelbosh which is an hour and half outside of the countryside. We drove though the port and it took so long to get out. They had asked that we stay as a caravan and not split up. That means that if four cars don't make it through the stop light that the rest would pull over and wait. Luckily the busses where just allowed to go on because they would take so long anyway. As we drove we got lots of curious stares but also lots of friendly waves. We made our way through the winding twisting road of the African countryside. There are amazing valleys with houses built clinging to the side. There where large homes on the top of a hill with shacks towns occupying the rest of the hill. We thought we had lost the rovers but when we would take some sharp turns we could see the convoy of all the land rovers. It was a really cool site to see all theses rovers driving threw the mist and rain.
When we arrived we walked around and took in our new home. It was more then we could hope for. It was a teachers college that had been abandoned for 6 years. It is a little run down but it is going to be great and the team working on it is doing really well to make it all we want it to be. We unloaded the moving vans of all boxes and personal bags. We had chains going one for heavy boxes and one for light boxes. We were not sure if it was faster but it was less walking for sure. I do have to say that my Servpro life did aid well in this move. I new how to pack a box, do inventory (for customs) and how to do a pack out and pack back.
On friday we moved all the boxes to their offices and started to set up our classrooms. But first they needs lots of cleaning. Again Servpro days came in handy. I kept thinking to myself if the ladies were here how would they clean this and would they think this is clean enough. Well finally when my class room looked clean enough I started to unpack, but when you only have one student there is not much to unpack. Once that was done I tried to think of lots of ways to decorate the classroom to give it some much needed color. Friday night after dinner we played basketball. Although it has been a long time since I played it was fun. All those lay up drills definitely paid off beacuse that is my only shot but I make it 99 % of the time. On Saturday we went to the mall, it is the largest mall in the Southern Hemisphere. It was nice to eat fast food but the shops where a little less then what I was hoping for. I was hoping for a H & M but there is not one. We spent the day walking around and having the chance to shop a bit.
On Sunday we went to a church service in the local church, I know I have not been to church in a while but this was definitely different then I remember. It was nice and they made us feel very welcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment