The Africa Mercy's First Christmas

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...Dashing through the snow...Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

Some of the classics that make the holidays special and add tradition to the season. Sadly, this Christmas was definitely lacking tradition but it was special. The Africa Mercy celebrated it's first Christmas and it was a new experience even for the veterans of Mercy Ships.

Let's start with people or the lack there of. During the outreach the ship had approximately 370 people on board. When it ended about 70 people left while we were in Liberia. So we sailed with 300 souls (sailing lingo) and upon arrival to Gran Canaria another 100 crew members left for vacation and about 50 people left to go home. So we celebrated Christmas with 150 crew members, which in a community of almost 400 people is a big difference.

Onto decorations: one of the highlights of the holiday season for me is Christmas decorations. I love seeing the lights and how detailed people will get. But living on a ship creates a small problem when it comes to decorations because you have to adhere to safety regulations. So we could not have lights up in most of the ship, minus the cafe area and inside cabins. And we could only decorate the door of offices and cabins, but not the walls or areas around the door. But the worst part was that most of the decorations from the old Anastasis ship were sent to India with the ship because there was not storage space for them on board the new ship. So we had not Christmas trees, no garland, no nativity scenes, absolutely nothing to decorate the ship with. The funny part is that this really affected the "feel" of the holiday season. It was the day before Christmas Eve when we decorated the Christmas tree and set up the nativity scene - definitely not traditional for anyone.

But this entire experience during the very nontraditional holiday season forced everyone to appreciate each other more and get creative. We decorated with construction paper and played holiday music whenever possible. And we spent more time together - we were each others family since we were all living on a ship, hundreds of miles away from home, and really in need of something familiar.

*see Christmas album for pictures