good challenge, days 1 and 2 and 3

It has been a crazy past few days, but I'm finally getting the chance to post about a new project I'm working on.

But first...potatoes.

As I've mentioned before, this blog serves not only as a way of telling you all about my time here on the Africa Mercy, but also as a record of memories that I want to look back on one day.  That being said, today was one of those days that was crazy, hectic, frustrating, exhausting, all of the above.  I felt like the energy had been zapped out of me--I just came back to room and fell asleep on the floor for a few minutes.  After showering, I headed up to dinner to find barbeque ribs and what appeared to be scalloped potatoes (I dislike scalloped potatoes).  Much to my surprise, the sliced potatoes were thoroughly cooked and fork tender and had a delicious cream sauce on them.  Topped with a little bbq sauce, I devoured two bowls of them.  They were soooooo good.  It was the gustatory equivalent of a pulling warm clothes out of the dryer.  These darn potatoes just made my crazy day melt away.  Seriously, they were magic potatoes.

Now that I've written out my love affair with these potatoes, on to more interesting/relevant stuff.

There is a website called GOOD.is (link) that has a monthly challenge and this month it is Document Your Life.  I signed up for it and each day they email me with a daily "Document..." challenge.  I'm excited to have this as away to record my last full month in Salone.  I hope to post these daily photos more frequently, but this is what I've got so far:

DAY 1: Document Street Style
For this assignment, I documented both my "street" and the style you would find on it.

Canadian OR Nurse extraordinaire Tilly sporting her gown, gloves, mask, and scrub cap.

My "street": The Africa Mercy OR corridor.  Six operating rooms and one "surprised" Glenys.

DAY 2: Document a Pet

This assignment was definitely a challenging one, given that having a pet on board goes against organizational policy and probably also breaks some obscure maritime law.  So I had to make do with what I have:

Harriet a.k.a. Beans, pawing at the camera.

Other pets include Jay (monkey), Jeff (sea monkey), and Christoph (squirrel?).

DAY 3: Document Happiness

Mohamed and Tamba Alie, Jr.  These two have been visiting the OR office the past few days and the absolutely love Billy the Bass.  Donning their souvenir scrub caps, I can't help but to crack up when they come running into the office multiple times a day like a tornado of pure energy.

Everyday is a surprise as to what the assignment will be.  Look for more GOOD challenge photos to be coming soon!