Karate new belts

Andre performing.

Rick and Andre with Montez, the teacher.

Rick in attention stance..waiting for his turn to perform.

The whole karate class together. They train in 3 different groups 2x per week.
Rick received the brown belt and Andre blue. These colours according to the Africa Mercy colourscheme!

School foto's

Creative Arts Open House

Last Wednesday the Academy (the school onboard) held a Creative Arts Open House. Rick & Andre participated in a presentation for hand bells, recorders and they sang in the choir. After the presentations, the Academy was open for crew members to wander through the classrooms and hallways to look at some of the art work the kids have made throughout the year. Here are some pictures of the art and performances.

Diver Down

I mentioned at the beginning of the outreach that the Engineering team is challenged everyday with issues in the engine room. One of the main struggles that we have been having while in Freetown, is the amount of garbage in the water. It seems the more it rains, the more the garbage flows into the water and surrounds the ship.

We have intakes at the bottom of the ship that take in the ocean water to help cool the generators. These intakes get blocked from the outside and on the inside the filters get clogged up as well. This causes great problems to the A/C and the generators.

Divers go down every day to clear the intakes on the outside and in the Engine room the engine hands clean the filters every 30 - 60 minutes. This is a difficult and hard job for both the divers and engine room team.

This picture shows Olly and Dan diving in the garbage floating next to the ship.

Andre's Pain

This week I broke my leg and got a cast around it. I went to the dentist on Wednesday and he pulled out my tooth (moler) because it was hurting me. He also cut open my gums for my 2 front teeth to grow in.
from Andre.