April 24

It is exciting to see the dock space being filled with inflatable wards which come packaged in a special containers called "Hospitaners". See assembled above!

Jon - It has been a busy month in Finance. Settling in two new team members. The number of local Malagasy day crew increased from 60 to over 220. Finance pays a fortnightly stipend to these workers into their mobile phone wallet software. So we gather timesheets by email from many departments and summarise these with a lot of cross checking and controls to ensure the process runs smoothly. It is wonderful that so much donated money and volunteer experience can be sowed back into the local economy. We have medical equipment that many locals have heard about but have not used - eg CAT scanner.

I was sick this month. Bronchitis cough became bacterial and needed antibiotics and then on top a cold as well. Still waiting for sense of smell to return and full hearing to return in my left ear.

I passed my Mercy Ships driving test! So I can now book a Mercy Ships four wheel drive if needed (they drive on the right here!).

I was asked to play keyboard for some of the African worship. It was great to worship led by African worship leaders and choir.

Ruth - class is going well. Four students this semester becomes eight students next semester as more families join the ship. I am getting all the marking and processes sorted and we are a close group of teachers.

We had night away this month at a Palarium which was a 4 hour boat trip away down a canal. They had seven types of Lemurs including the feared Aye Aye lemur (it is a very strange noctural animal).