Not Much

Not a whole lot is going on. Ive been getting up and going to work cleaning toilets, mopping floors and stuff like that. I wish there was more to update on. Saturday Im going back to the market to get fabric, dont laugh (*cough* mrs norton *cough*). Im going to get some hoodies made. Thats pretty much it. Sorry. Til Saturday...Adios!

Sunday 8.3.08

So with 5 days until the Beijing Olympics the Africa Mercy is becoming more and more filled with trash talk. Ranging from track and the fastest man to basketball to gymnastics its heating up. This place is going to be a blast to be when the Olympics finally kick off. I know everyone here is anticipating it like nothing since the Euro Futbol Cup in June (not that long ago...I know). I have the opportunity to experience it for 9 days. I'm stoked. Anyway, today I went to church in Monrovia. The church lasted 3 1/2 hours but it was well worth it. Let me tell you the Africans know how to worship. Every song for them is like your favorite football team scoring a touchdown or baseball player hitting a monster clutch homerun. Seriously, its a huge celebration. Loud music, people dancing and screaming. And its all in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I had the chance to take communion with them. They do it different but its still communion. After church we went to one of the elder's house for lunch. It was so lish. I love African food. Rice, fish and a spicy spread on top. Sooo lish. After that we headed back to the ship and since Ive gotten back all Ive done is been watching the Angel game via Gamecast on ESPN. Chicka yeah! Well ttfn!

Life this Week

This week has been pretty boring unlike in California where the Angels trade for the biggest bat on the market and the Dodgers follow suit with a future Hall of Famer and So Cal being hit by an earthquake. My week was filled with pink eye, a cold and sore throat. As a result most of my time was spent in my room watching countless movies and following the MLB trade deadline. Who wouldve thunk that so many big names wouldve been traded at the deadline this year: Teixeira, Ramirez, Griffey, Bay, and Rodriguez. Geez. Well today I went the UNMIL (United Nation's Missions in Liberia) store. It was quite a treat...haha. It was fun. Tomorrow Im sleeping in til lunch time, saying goodbye to a friend and then possibly going to the market. One thing Ive learned to hate about Mercy Ships is that it brings christians together and makes them family (not bad at all, dont get me wrong, I love this) and then tears them apart. I have to say goodbye to 8 close friends in 10 short days. One left today, one Sat, one Sun, one Mon, 2 Fri and 2 Sun...ugh. Its tough emotionally. So I guess thats my prayer request, that Ill be able to survive with all the goodbyes I have to make in the next week and a half. Thank you all for praying for me so faithfully. I truly appreciate it alot.

Oh one more thing, for all you that have facebook I have put some pictures of my trip up. Im sorry to those who dont but I was unable to get my blog to work so I can put them up. If you want to add me as a friend on facebook just search Wesley Jamison Cummings and youll find me. Thank you so much! God Bless you all!!!

In Memory of Collin Carroll

One year ago today, the Africa Mercy lost one of its crew members Collin Carroll. Collin was with some fellow mercy shippers at the beach. Unfortunately there was an under current that pulled Collin out to sea. He fought against the current and soon tired himself out. As he was fighting the current a set of waves came in too big for him to handle. One wave crashed on him, and then another and another. By this time, some speculators, he was unconscious. One more wave hit him and he had lost all hope to live. His body disappeared for an hour before it washed on shore. Some tried to resuscitate but it was no use. Collin Carroll died July 29, 2007. This morning a service was held on the dock in memory of his life. Some people who were here when it happened and knew him were crying and mourning. Tonight a memorial service will be held at the beach at which he drowned. The hope that comes out of this tragedy is that we all know that we will see him with our Father in heaven someday. God Bless the Carroll Family.

Hydro Plant

I havent done a whole lot since visiting the HIV hospice. On Thursday I went out with the HIV team to Coffee Farm Church about 20 minutes from the ship. What we did was we put on a HIV Workshop for local pastors. We taught them how they can educate their communities on how HIV spreads, how it can be managed and how to handle situations of stigma. We showed them ways that people need to change their behavior in order to slow down the spread of HIV and the beliefs people have that cause HIV to spread. All in all it was a 9 hour day. Yesterday nothing happened. I worked all morning cleaning bathrooms and mopping floors. In the afternoon Sales needed help unloading a huge shipment they got of soda, candy and snacks. You would think that would be easy but it took us 3 hours to unload. We filled up a 12x12 ft refridgerator with soda and loaded about 100 boxes of snacks into food storage 4 decks below where it was unloaded. That made for a long day. Today was a ton of fun though. I went on an expedition through the jungle. We left this morning about 8am and then made a 2 hour drive out to a hydroplant. We explored the plant for a bit and then we grabbed our stuff and hiked another 2 hours up the river. I never believed in the myth of fire ants but I do now thats for sure. They feasted on me all day. Their tiny little bites kill! Anyway, the hike was intense. Some parts of the hike could only be crossed by wading through chest high water. That was probably my favorite part. It took us 30 minutes to get 15 people across. From there we hiked past all the rapids. In the river there were these massive rapids and currents. If you found yourself stuck in the currents you might as well pray for God's mercy and hold on cause it was going to be bumpy. We took a little break at one of the rapids. Everyone went down to the rapid to get under the waterfall that was right there as well and rest. Me and my friend Bates from South Africa we down a little further to where the water was pretty still to swim. We let the currents take us around and around. We were extremely careful not to get sucked into the currents. After our little pool party we headed back. Once we were back at the hydroplant we ate lunch and then piled back in the cars to make the drive back. When I got back I took a 2 hour nap and then got up took a shower and went to dinner. Im not sure what I am doing tomorrow. I might go to the Beach Church or Obijai. I dont know. Or I might stay on shio. Ill let you know either way.

Sajj

So today was a full day. I got up at 7:00am and had breakfast. Then I went to Missionaries for Charity, Sisters of Mother Theresa. It is a hospice for HIV patients. They range from infants to the elderly. Some of the kids though have Tuberculosis or are malnourished. It was not easy on the eyes. It was tough at first. I didnt hold back though. The kids dont really get a whole lot of one-on-one time at all so they were practically killing each other for our attention. It was so tough to see that. I cant really explain what I felt. Basically what we did for 2 hours was love on them, cuddle with them and play with them. It was alot of fun and eye opening. On the way back to the ship I saw a boy about my younger sisters age that had down syndrome but not that bad. Just a minor case but you could still see it was there. Anyway, he was out in the pouring rain trying to clean car windows with the biggest smile on his face you've ever seen. And I knew is was 100% genuine. He was just smiling about life, about being alive and I dont know what else he was smiling about. It was hard to see him trudge through the rain trying to make a living. That really opened my eyes. I just wanted to get out of the car to tell him that God loves him and so do I. Well, enough of that...haha. The rest of the day was filled with cleaning, movies (Big Fish - really disappointing, didnt like it at all) and going out to dinner. Me and two other people went to Sajj Restaurant, its about 30 minutes from the ship. We took two bike taxis. We had dinner and dessert and got back about 30 minutes ago. It was a blast. Well that was my day. Ill update again tomorrow because I will be going to the HIV Clinic and registering Africans for treatment or testing. Fun day tomorrow. Well, adios!

Grand Bassa & ANDP

This is place is amazing. The more time I spend here the more I enjoy myself. On Saturday I went to an orphanage in Grand Bassa, about 2 1/2 hours from the ship. We didnt do much there except love on the kids and villagers. We played games with them, swam with them, sang with them, basically lived life with them for a day. My friend from the Dominican Republic (Juan) and I were the fun guys. We were the ones who made the kids laugh and let them use us as a jungle gym. We skipped down to the river with them, did stadium chants and taught them fun games. It didnt take long for us to get worn out so we had to turn it over to the girls. They gave them pictures to color, sang bible school songs and taugh them bible stories. We stayed probably about 5 hours with them. Oh yeah, on the way to the village we passed the Firestone Headquaters. We were able to see how they get the rubber to make the tires. It was cool. Well that was Saturday.
Sunday I went to a church called Obijei (O-bee-jay). It was the coolest church service Id ever been a part of. They ''wing it''. Haha. The church service is structured but you still never know what they might ask us white people to do. Yesterday, they asked one of us to introduce each person from Mercy Ships. There were about 9 of us. After we had been introduce we then lead the church in two songs of worship. It was so funny. You have to be super flexible when you go to the churches in Liberia. Sometimes they will ask us to give the sermon...no joke. I was originally supposed to go a Liberian Civil War Refugee Camp and gop to church there. But it fell through and we werent able to go. Hopefully next Sunday. Well thats basically what happened this weekend. Oh I had to say goodbye to a friend today, but not really. She'll be back in two weeks. And oh, Im not the only 18 year old anymore. Two more just came on board so Im stoked for that! Well ttfn