Hiking

One thing that I have missed living in West Africa is a good weekend hike. In Germany, I loved catching the bus to the edge of town and then spending the day by myself hiking through God's creation. There are probably some trails somewhere in West Africa, but finding them, concerns about safety, heat and finding people to go with makes it more work than it is worth. Tenerife on the other hand, has trails around every corner. I had received a Tenerife trail book a few years ago, but never really had time to use it because we always were away over the Christmas holidays. This year though, there were lots of open weekends to explore.

The first hike we chose was probably the hardest of all we did, but also the most fun. There was about six of us hiking together, we all went about the same pace (which always makes things more fun) and we all wanted a bit of a challenge. The trail started up on the north end of the island in a little village called Chamorga, which was really little more than a small bar/restaurant, a church and a few houses in a group. You start by going up a mountain and then over to the ocean side. The hike down the other side brought you through little hillside farms and gardens as we got closer to the seaside village of El Draguillo. There were some great dragon trees on the way down and I finally realized (possibly) why dragon tree have their name - when the long palms fall off the trees, the one end becomes yellow-orange and looks a little like the split tounge of a snake - I had never been close enough before to see.

Once we reached the coast we spent several hours coming around the point to a lighthouse. We passed by a couple houses connected in no way to the outside world save by the trails we were following - but what views they woke up to every morning - wow. At the lighthouse, we realized that it was getting later and at a sign we decided to take the trail which said 3.0 km back to Chamorga instead of the 3.3. Looking back, I think maybe we should have taken the extra .3 km as the trail we picked ended up going straight up and over the mountain instead of skirting around the side. We certainly felt as though we accomplished something by the end, but after five hours of hiking, an elevation gain of 400 meters in about an hour was not what we were looking for. Unfortunitally, at this point, my camera battery died and I think everyone else was too focused on getting one foot in front of the next to take photos :)

We did make it up and over in good time and got back to the car before dusk came, which is what we were hoping for. As we came around the last turn and could see the little steeple on the church in Chamorga, we knew we had finally made it. We came home tired, but glad for the exercise, nature and amazing views.
((More photos of our different hikes can be found on Marcel's facebook page.))

Christmas

And I'm back! :)
All my good intentions about writing seemed to fly away again as we arrived in Tenerife and got busy with all the things there are to do here. I've been keeping a list in my head of all the things I need to tell about and it was getting so long, I knew it was time to write again. I guess the one month anniversary works . . .

Anyhow, we had a great, relaxing Christmas here on the ship. I would say that there were less than 200 people on the ship (when in Africa we average about 350-400 people) so that made for a great atmosphere of community and family. I had spent the week before Christmas madly making about 15 dozen cookies to give as Christmas presents and Marcel and I spent Christmas Eve afternoon putting everything into bags with pretty labels and bows. I have discovered baking again here in Tenerife and between Chex-Mix (thank you Mom for the ingredients) and cookies, I have been spending many hours in the Crew Galley. The Christmas Eve service was early this year to give people a chance to go out and do other things in the evening and after the service we had an amazing dinner. I love the holiday meals here on the ship - Easter, Christmas - the Galley and Dining Room staff do an amazing job making things taste good and look amazing.

(our new stockings from Benin and our foot tall Christmas tree)

Tradition on Mercy Ships is to leave presents outside other people's door sometime in the night of Christmas Eve. I have to say, it was a lot of fun to run around with Marcel at midnight leaving cookies outside doors and to watch the little piles outside doors grow larger. We slept in Christmas morning and then went up to brunch around 10.00 - again, the food there was amazing. Not only was there every kind of breakfast food, there was a whole table of fresh fruit beautifully set up -- and for people who have been eating green oranges, pineapple and mango for the last 10 months, grapes, strawberries, pears, apples, kiwis and mandarins are a very special treat. I took some later and made a great fruit salad that lasted us for about 2 days.
Presents were opened when we got back down to the cabin and the rest of the day was spent relaxing and watching movies. That evening most of the ship went down the road in the port to a special Christmas concert that Santa Cruz has every year -- I guess it is televised all over Spain. It was great to sit and listen to the classical music - it was been awhile since I have been to a classical concert - it sort of reminded me of sitting on the lawn at Blossom in the summers. Fireworks at the end of the show and a nice walk back to the ship made for a end to a nice day.

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

There are many traditions on a ship with 35 different countries represented . . . and then there are the traditions that are uniquely Mercy Ships. Every year around this time, the door decorating contest begins. The last few years it seems to have begun just before we sailed and then the judging occurs sometime during the sail, usually just before we get to the Canary Islands. The rules are simple - have the best decorated door (in categories of both office and personal cabins) using what you have around you, decoration can only be as big as the door, all materials can only be stuck up with sticky tack or magnets and cannot come more than 4 inches into the passage (I think this is new one - must have been some interesting decorating last year to make this necessary). I went around tonight to get some pictures.
Everyone gets involved: traditional, non-traditional, crazy creative, simple . . .

some multi-berth cabins (3, 4, 6 people):

family and couples cabins:

departments:

hostpital

HR and Ship Sales

Finance and Laundry Room

Even the Acadmey got involved!

High School and Office

Grade 2 and Grade 3

Grade 1 and Preschool