Africa Mercy International Film Festival

Posted by Mercy Ships crew on Aug 30, 2011 at 09:16 am

AFM IFF= Africa Mercy International Film Festival= Life on Tuesday Night

19 Aug
 

 
My sister keeps asking me about what we do here on the ship… and so I feel like it is going to be my new goal to expose you to the variety of activities that we have going on the ship! Tuesday was the Film Festival where crew members are invited to create a short film (which must include an assigned prop and phrase). It is a ship-wide event to dress up (it is shocking what things people have packed to live here- who knew I should have brought a fancy dress!) and attend the film festival. The movies are premiered… complete with a panel of judges, an MC, and an awards ceremony. Of course there is a video of the winning film- which I am not technology savvy enough to figure out how to embed it in here. I will post it another time if I can ever figure out. Bottom line is, it was a super fun time and I am so glad that people on the ship organize things like it.

On deck 5, across from the Starbucks Cafe, there is a table with an African fabric tablecloth where a collection of binders sit. Each binder has a label on the cover to offer crew various things. One of the most popular binders is the “Join Us” sign-up sheets where anyone can organize and/or sign-up for an activity. Most things are off-ship, meaning something fun to do in the surrounding areas. Life at Mercy Ships is a revolving door of new people coming and going ALL the time and I have found out quickly that people are very inclusive. It is almost strangely nice here… if it was your first day ever on the ship, you could go to the “Join Us” binder, sign up for an activity the next day where you know absolutely no one, go, and have a good time. I think that this is something really special about the community of people here. In Sierra Leone the off-ships activities include trips to the market in town, the beach, a picnic at a local waterfall, Aberdeen (a town about an hour an a half away) for dinner out, hikes, and local church visits. All of this talk of the binder… and I must admit I haven’t signed up for anything yet! But there are options… and one day I might go on an adventure. I feel like AT LEAST twice a week someone asks me if I am adventuresome and I always want to respond by saying “I am living on a ship in Africa… this whole thing is the adventure!!” I always manage a nice way to answer the question though… with the point always having to  be… no not really.

Friday nights are a little different because it is ice-cream night. Crew gathers by the ship shop and stand in lines socializing while they wait. Tonight I volunteered to be a scooper- which was fun because ice-cream is a real treat on the ship and everyone that comes through the line is super happy to be getting dessert. It even comes with rainbow sprinkles and other toppings- definite plus. Ice-cream night was followed by a barn-dance, conveniently located in the International Lounge (can it still be called a barn-dance? just wondering), where we learned how to do line dances. Tonight has been finished off with lying around midships… with the option of playing cards and planning tomorrow’s events.

A small group of us are heading into Freetown tomorrow to visit a fabric market (hooray and I miss my sewing machine) and go to Crowne Bakery for lunch… which one of my students told me had the “best pizza in the world.” I am going to attempt to capture the “busyness” of town tomorrow… but whipping out my camera has 2 possible risks…. one: I might get mugged (slim possibility…. but still a possibility) and two: I might get surrounded by LOTS of people wanting me to take their picture (which would freak me out). I will weigh the consequences of photography tomorrow… if I can capture the experience, than pictures to follow! I am so looking forward to the walk there and I am praying for sunshine. Today was the first day of sun after 3 days of straight rain… which makes the ship chillier than normal and makes it near impossible to function without just wanting to be curled up in bed watching movies. Which, by the way, I wouldn’t hate doing!

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