a look into the galley

Bonsoir! (My French is slowly but surely coming along...)

I realized that I have hardly talked about my job here on the ship. The galley is on deck six of the ship, right above the dining room, where three meals are served a day and where everyone dines. After a 7:15 breakfast, I head to the Galley and put on my apron, Mercy Ships hat, and non-slip shoe covers.

Everyone on my team is African except for a Canadian, a Dutch girl, and myself. Everyone else comes from all over the coast-- Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. There are five crew members, or those of us that live on the ship. The rest of the team lives in Conakry and come to the ship daily to work. Typically the day workers come from where Mercy Ships was previously docked and followed the ship to Guinea. They get compensated, but they work incredibly hard and deserve every bit of it. The whole team was welcoming and kind-hearted as I entered the picture. The atmosphere is energetic and lively and music is always playing. My team leader is Ghislain, from Benin. He laughs a lot, is always DJ-ing the ipod, and sings his heart out while cooking. For the past four weeks I have been chopping vegetables, slicing deli meat, washing over-sized, greasy dishes, or doing whatever anyone asks of me. I have two days on, two days off, and then I work every other weekend. Another full team works the other days of the week.

I have gone through times of feeling useless and unhelpful in the galley as everyone works fluidly and well together and I'm the young, white girl who is constantly burning herself and dropping dishes. The culture differences also is difficult. Culture is on much deeper and personal level than I realized and trying to decode orders from across the room in strong accents over loud music is far from easy. But I'm not fed up with it, and the friendships I've made on my team keep me going.

On Wednesday I had an evening French lesson run late and was twenty minutes late to cleanup. Ghislain asked me if I was okay as we were finishing up the dishes. I told him that I felt like I was continually disappointing him and was sorry for that. He grabbed my wet hand and said, "You are young, you are my daughter, and you will learn the ropes." Encouraged, and equally impressed with his English expression, I felt enpowered to keep doing my best.

The galley has a lot of similarities to the kitchen at Cono, where I worked in for over five years. Those many prep and clean up crews have paid off! I feel like I can make up for my clueless moments by getting a head start on the next task.

Thank you for all your prayers and support, everyone! I truly can feel the prayers. :) Have a blessed week!