Hello again from Monrovia! All is well here on the ship. Many big decisions are being made as the ship we are currently on is being transitioned over to the Africa Mercy. Currently, the Anastasis (the one I'm on now) is the largest hospital ship in the world. Originally, the Anastasis was going to be decommissioned in July and the Africa Mercy was going to take over and begin the next outreach in Ghana. Now, that has been delayed until October and the Anastasis will be used in place of the other until it is ready. Due to the fact that the Anastasis is smaller and can't fit the same amount of crew aboard, the surgery schedule had to be significantly altered. There will no longer be plastic and orthopedic surgeries done in July, which means that my services were no longer a priority and I was cancelled from the second ship. I will now be coming home in late June. I must admit that I'm a little disappointed, but I'm also looking forward to being back in my house again!
Last Friday, we had Red Nose Day, which was a day for fund-raising originally started by comic relief groups in England. There were all sorts of fund raisers that each department came up with to raise money for crew transition fees. They sold red noses and some people wore them around all day, although I found breathing difficult after about 45 seconds. One department sold their crew as slaves for 4 hours and the person who bid on each and won them got to ask them to do whatever odd or un-fun chore they had been avoiding. The high school kids tried to get people to pay them to not speak for the entire day. Others sold brownies and sweets and 4 girls tied themselves together in the hallways and wouldn't let you pass unless you paid them a coin. It was pretty fun and raised several thousand dollars to pay for some of the long-term crew members to get home.

Here's a picture of me and my roomates- Sutton, Bethany (both from North Carolina) and Pamela from South Africa.