Jon here - It has been a hard month here on the ship for staff but particuarly for the medical staff. The uncertainty over whether the government would sign our protocol agreement has meant that the hospital has had to close in the last days of August. If we have to sail  in September then we could not leave patients needing hospital recovery. So the decision was made that the hospital needed to close early to allow patients enough time to recover. The current protocol expires Sept 4.  If it is signed then the hospital will reopen and everything will ramp up again. If not signed the Africa Mercy will leave Madagascar late Sept. 

I have started working on the annual budget cycle at work. There is a team in head office dedicated to budgeting and forecasting, so it is quite a formal process at Mercy Ships.

We had a ship holiday in August. We took that opportunity to go north 100kms to a place called Mahambo which is on the sea. We stayed in simple huts near the sea and it was to lovely to have a break from the cabin.

Ruth started the new academic year teaching and has seven students this time. Again the largest class in the Academy. The kids are from across the globe and learning English is a big challenge for some of them.

Below is our pdf newsletter for August.