Peanut Butter and Nautical Puns

Rodeos are a real thing. Who knew, right??

The plane dipped below the clouds, revealing the unfamiliar landscape below. Peering out the window, I expected to see a desert. But I was surprised to see green as far as the eye could see. When the plane landed, I noticed that the terminal was big enough for only two small air crafts at a time.

15 minutes later, as I hauled my bags off of the conveyor belt and wheeled them out of the nearly empty airport, the air outside gave me what could only be described as a sloppy wet kiss. I began sweating, immediately. What is this place?

But then my dad's reassuring words came back to me, "You may have some difficulty with the strange culture, but once you get out of Texas, everything will be fine." So I took a deep breath--*gulp*--and walked out of the Tyler airport.

The locals here have warmly welcomed us. They are friendly and hospitable, and are even teaching us to speak their mother tongue--essential phrases like, "I'm fixin' to head to Walmart. Are y'all coming?" and "The rodeo's in town!!" have been life-savers. Most importantly, they provide us with gallons and gallons of peanut butter.

Yeah, we haven't left the States yet, but in some ways Texas feels like its own country.

Discovering the wildlife of Texas

We've been at the International Support Center (ISC) for five weeks already. There are around 40 of us in our training group, and each week has focused on a different topic--a brief history and foundations of Mercy Ships, God and his character, personal and interpersonal development, and Mercy Ships' world view and approach to intercultural missions.

Early on they gave us a tour of the ISC and all of the departments that keep this whole shebang "afloat", and there are so many interesting things to learn about the organizational side of Mercy Ships, including:

• Mercy Ships staff might be in a country for up to two years before the ship actually arrives, working with the hosting government to tailor each field service to that country's needs.
• This team talks to the local health ministry to find our what parts of the country's health care system are working well, so that the ship can offer appropriate programs without stepping on the toes of local practitioners. During the Madagascar field service two years back, the ship even put a stop to its own eye program (it stopped offering cataract surgeries) when it was found that they were creating competition for a Malagasi eye doctor who was able to provide the same services.
• Because the AFM provides training for local specialists, when it leaves it will purposefully refer its patients to its former trainees for follow-up care. This helps to encourage trust in local health care providers and avoid dependency.
• The AFM has been to many countries along the West African coast, but this will be the first time a Mercy Ship goes to Cameroon, which is very exciting!
• A person's status and seniority on a team is decided in part by the quality and frequency of  his or her nautical puns. I'm still practicing.

On Monday evenings, ISC staff get together to play indoor soccer, and they invited On-Boarding participants to play, too. The main area of the gym is not air conditioned, so an hour of soccer has the same effect as sitting in a sauna fully clothed, but who cares, we're having fun!

Sounds like basketball, plays like soccer, at the speed of hockey

We head to the Canary Islands (via Madrid, via Chicago) on Wednesday! I'm hoping to post once more before then. There is one more story that I heard at On-Boarding that I want to share.

In the meantime, this video made us all laugh out loud when we watched it in class. Enjoy!