Our On Boarding team of 30 people left the Mercy Ships base in Texas on July 13th, and we all made it to Heathrow together. Our family had somehow ended up with a different Heathrow-Johannesburg flight from the rest of the team, and our flight was grounded and rescheduled for the following morning... with NO available connecting flight to Durban for the next 3 days or more!! We decided that if we were going to be stuck somewhere, my parents' house in Sussex would be preferable to Jo'burg airport. :D
So after a lovely night and huge buffet breakfast in a 5-star hotel courtesy of BA, we spent a lovely 2 days with family, including dog-walks in the English countryside and a serendipitous reunion with my brother's family. Not what we had expected to be doing, but it was really, really lovely and a well-needed rest.
2 flights and a hotel-night in Dubai later and we finally landed in Durban where our team-leader drove us 3 hours to rejoin the team in Winterton, in the Drakensberg mountains of South Africa.
Our focus for the next 10 days was to support some amazing local ministries in the HIV+ and Zulu communities by helping with construction, painting, and general maintenance. The nurses in our team also did some home visits and offered medical help.
Daniel opted to spend his days at the larger site where most of the heavy construction was happening, mixing cement and pulling his weight along with the rest of the team. The other Yangases went to a smaller site where we help build shelves for the storage unit, repaired the play ground and did some painting - Zaden and Ashani made themselves useful by helping out and running errands, and also spent a lot of time playing with local kids.
Our other focus was trying to stay warm. It was beautiful but very cold there at night, and we were housed in an old airforce base:
Our family had the whole of the attic (green roof on the right) which was HUGE and had 52 beds in it - but was not insulated and about the same temperature as outside (just above freezing most nights.) This is how we stayed warm at night:
...and in the evenings and early mornings:
We really enjoyed our time in Winterton, getting to see what some other ministries are doing there, and helping out as we were able. The kids also thoroughly enjoyed feeling like legitimate team-members and interacting with our team-mates.
On Wednesday we made the 3+ hour drive back to Durban, to board the Africa Mercy as long-term crew, for the 4th time (K and R), 2nd time (D and Z) and 1st time (A):
We were (fortunately!) reunited with all the boxes we had sent from Worcester, and thus began the unpacking:
So, this is our new home for the next 3 years. The boys and Ashani have bedrooms each containing a bunkbed and closets and a small amount of floor-space, we have a large living-room with port-holes facing aft (rear of the ship) which also doubles as our bedroom, a handy entrance-area with storage space, sink, fridge and microwave, and a bathroom with a shower. We are mostly all settled in now, and we think it's going to serve us very well.
Our first night on board marked our 18th different bed in 3 months!
The kids are going to be well set up with friends as there are 5 or 6 other boys roughly our boys' ages, and 4 or 5 girls around Ashani's age. The boys have already been making mayhem on board by participating in some very spirited Nerf-gun wars in the corridors! The school year will start in 10 days and we are very excited that the kids will get to attend the Academy on board.
Kevin and I will start 3 weeks of in-service training with the Chaplaincy department tomorrow, and we are looking forward to getting to know our fellow Chaplains (total of 4 full-time and 3 half-time) and having the privilege of serving the international crew in this way.
Thank you for your prayers and support as we have completed the "Unbelievable Intercontinental Adventure"- 23,500 miles.
Kevin: One of my highlights was seeing our kids do so well in difficult situations. I am very proud of them. Ashani has remained out-going and friendly with everyone she has met. During our time in Winterton she was overheard asking her friend,"Why is your skin brown?" Her new friend Grace reported "because I'm from Nigeria" and Grace asked Ashani the same thing so she explained her situation, "well I'm from India". With that settled, they carried on playing.
