Amy´s stories....

Hello friends, it is time that I tell you a little bit of the excitements in my life lately....


But before I talk about myself I want to show you a friend of mine whom I met here on the ship. And even though I don´t understand fully all the wonderful and complex things that are being done here on the ship, I think these pictures speak for themselves:

This is Amadou, before he came to us on the ship! He was found in the bush by some people from the ship, and he was close to dying because of this tumor that was slowly suffocating him!


I have to say that I like Amadou a lot better now after the surgery - and you can see in his smile how incredibly thankful and happy he is!


Here you see me and my mommy sitting in front of the entrance to the 6 operating rooms (the British call them "theaters" :-) ) where so many lives have been transformed already. Here on this bench the nurses and doctors offer prayer to every patient coming for surgery - well aware that they can only do their best, but God has to do the rest!


Today is my turn to enter them!!! You want to know why? You don´t see any tumors etc? Well, it was nothing dramatic at all compared to all the African people who usually enter this door:


I had to have 3 fillings in my back teeth, that somehow got damaged and disfigured through a fever when I was small and these teeths were built in my gum.


This friendly man is dentist Dr.Dag from Norway - who was one of the 3 or so dentists here in Liberia - for 3 million people!!! 4 days a week he worked at a clinic outside the ship where many many people lined up daily for help - mostly pulling teeths! But there were also terrible and lifethreatening infections due to not having access to a dentist! We can be so thankful in our countries for having access to medical help!
Dr. Dag is also our crew dentist - and was willing to fill my teeths! But because I am so young he had to do it under full anaesthesia - so I went through the whole procedure of surgery (the hardest was to see David eat breakfast and not being able to have anything! The rest I don´t know for I was put to sleep...)


But everything went well - and in the recovery room was Mommy and Daddy and two nurses.. and....

... Doctor Bear waiting for me to wake up! Thanks to the biggest Doctor of all, my daddy in heaven, who watched over me!

Now I tell you something else that was very exciting when I woke up yesterday and came out of my bed:


The whole cabin was beautifully decorated!


Can you believe it - I am a big girl now! Yesss, i am 3 years old - and I had a wonderful birthday! I want you to see how much fun we had!


For example unwrapping big gifts sent over aaaaall the way from Germany....


.... and turning them into a big princess castle!


And who of you can say that they had a real firedrill practicing for emergency situations on sea (that will hopefully never happen) on their birthday? You would probably have to hire a special-event-company for that and pay lots of money - and I got it for free (smile)


I helped Mommy decorate my birthday cake (and she wondered why I wasn´t very hungry at lunch time anymore... :-)


And in the afternoon I had a fun party with 10 kids and some grownup friends on Deck 7 - with temperatures I will probably never have on my birthdays again (unless I stay in Africa!)

Honoring the time of the year though we had fun "winter" games:


.. like being blindfolded and having to stick a carrot nose on the snowman...

... or trying to fetch a chocolate snowman from a line ...


.... only being allowed to use our mouth and not our hands!
(Thanks for the package from Germany with these special goodies!)


Of course there was more sugar! And even though it is not allowed to light candles on the ship, my mommy got special permission from the captain to light REAL candles for me to blow them out! The wind wanted to help me too much though - so we had to guard the flames for I wanted to do it now I had the special chance!

We had other great games and fun in the sun - so to end my winter-summer-birthday we had a untypical special surprise game untypical for december in Germany:


You want to know what it is? Something really cool.....


.... a waterballoon fight!


Let me tell you - we had LOTS of fun and got really WET!

Well I think I shared enough....


..... I am really tired now!

Thanks for your interest!
Lots of love from your big 3-year-old friend Amy!!!!

African lifestyle

So many things here in Africa are very very different from what we are used to in our home countries - and we want to take you on a little exploring tour to various african lifestyle impressions we saw this last weekend when we had the chance to go to Gbarnga again for the weekend - a town 4 hours drive away from Monrovia (this time in a good car from a friend - thanks Simon for taking us!!!)


Need gas? Well, you buy it in gallons, about 3,60 US Dollar for one gallon Diesel (what would be equivalent to 1 Dollar per liter) or half of that for gas. You fill it into the tank by hand - and the colors vary from red to yellow to brown or even green! This was obviously the red before-christmas edition ... (just kidding)


... the smaller the village or area, the smaller the "gas station"!

Next stop: The "God´s gift BEAUTY SALON"!


To be honest, I didn´t check it out.... smile.

Right next to it: the Photo Studio!

Let´s go shopping now:


Pick the toiletries you want! (And don´t forget to bargain!)

You need a new watch? Or sunglasses? Here you have plenty-plenty to chose from (just don´t expect quality and never ask where it comes from....)


Oh, you are looking for clothes? You are lucky:


They might have something for you... but if you look for a dress room to try it on....forget it!

Sorry to hear that you got a headache! I am sure you didn´t drink enough in this heat. But o.k., you can also go to the "Pharmacy" and look for some pain killers:


Or rather drink lots of water - and maybe buy yourself some fruit:


This boy is WAITING to sell some watermelons to you! Just don´t expect them to be like the ones you know in your country - there are more seeds than you can count!


If you like seeds too much stay faithful to the Africa fruit nr.1 and eat the sweetest bananas you can imagine!

Aaaa-right (hey, your liberian English is really improving!) - you regained enough strength to work small small, right?


Collect the trash on the streets then!
(This was the FIRST picture I saw of someone actually DOING it here in Liberia - is there hope for this country?)

The following picture you see alot though - at every river, lake, or even the dirtiest puddle of water you can imagine:


...washing laundry!


And this is the African dryer - free of charge! (but with free-of-charge-mango-lavae that come with it, entering your skin and make terrible painful wounds! ) You would have to iron EACH item that is dried like this, but that is not really happening....

After all these African impressions we get really hungry - and decide to look for ingredients to make something that reminds us of Germany - Käsespätzle (a south German delicacy) and Marmorkuchen (marble cake):


We found flour and sugar at the market...


...and also onions and eggs.

But no butter in Gbarnga, no milk (only milk powder),no cheese, no fresh vegetables (not the season) for a salad!

Luckily we had brought milk and butter, cheese and other ingredients from Monrovia, so our cravings for some homestyle food were put into action:


The best "Kaesespaetzle" ever!!!!


The dream Spaetzle-team!


And for desert....


A wonderful marble cake! (Marmorkuchen)

Our resumè: When you are far away from home, you realize how much you are "different" - and even though we really enjoy to experience the African lifestyle (with all its pros and cons) it is great to have some moments that feel "like home"!
And to have friends like you that stand behind us! We are glad that we can share all of this a little bit with you!

Culinary experiences

I heard you are hungry???!!!

Well, can I invite you to have a culinary delicacy I was offered at the orphanage "God´s childrens home" with me?


These are so-called bamboo worms and are supposedly very delicious once they are fried - and contain lots of protein! So... want to join me in this experience?


So this is the ultimate test for you whether you are able to live in a different culture! Welcome to Africa....

So just imagine opening your mouth, taking one of these little nice delicacies....

.... enjoying the crunchy taste and the adventure ride of your taste buds...


.... and listen to the thankful expression of your stomach for so much precious protein! YUMMY!!

To verify this story a little bit: Because the worms were not fried that time I was there I still "wait" for the day when they invite me to have this culinary experience - I really wasn´t brave enough to chew on the living crawling worm...... smile! Would you have been?

But we had some other interesting culinary experiences lately, and I am happy to share them with you:


In the teenage girls group that I and some others of the ship lead at God´s childrens home orphanage we have valuable social times together, study the bible together, teach them practical things - and sometimes all of that happenes at the same time!

We invested some money to buy baking utensils for the girls and Mama Amelia, the caretaker, taught them (and us) how to bake cookies and shortbread on an open cole fire! Believe me - we learned alot aswell!


But the topic of baking was also a perfect illustration for the message we wanted to share with the girls:


What is the only way to receive yummy cookies? Eating all the ingredients separately and hoping that they would mingle in the stomach and form cookies? I think eating the bamboo worms can not be much more disgusting than eating a raw egg and dry flour powder...
The only way is to mix it together and expose it to great heat, and the outcome is delicious!


So the question now: What is the only way to be reconciled with God? Is it leaving out our individualism as much or even as good as we can? That will not take us anywhere but just to ourselves, with all our faults that separate us from God.
The only way to be forgiven and to be reconciled with our creator that loves us sooo much is to accept his gift - that he paid the prize for sin himself through his son Jesus - who died as the only one without sin - and freed the way for us to be accepted by God as his child! This outcome is sooo much more amazing than what happens to eggs and flour when you bake it - it is a transformation of our inadequate own self into an accepted child of god!


The girls were touched when they understood the meaning of what we find in John 10:9 when Jesus says: "I am the gate. whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture."

And then we all enjoyed wonderful fresh shortbread together, baked on open fire!

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To end this entry about "culinary experiences":


We went out as a family once, looking for a place where we can have a meal together. These times are rare, for Wolfgang is often working on the weekends and it is hard for me and the kids to leave the ship - Monrovia is NOT like Munich where you just go for a walk....

So we prayed that it would be a special time for us as a family - and it was!
The kids were thrilled - for we found a Libanese Restaurant that served.... CHOCOLATE PIZZA!
Show me the kid (and grown up) that would not enjoy that?
Here are two examples of kids that absolutely LOVED it... Pizza with Mozzarella and Nutella!


Yummy!!!!! (Better than Bamboo worms... smile!)



It definitely was a great treat for us - and a fun memory for David and Amy!

meet little Arthur

Hi from me, Wolfgang!

Hi from me, Wolfgang! I want you to meet one of the many patients I see every day when I admit them for surgery and make sure that they are healthy enough to have the life-changing operation on the ship.

This is little Arthur, about 6 months old, and what changes the whole appearance of this cute boy is a huge benign tumor! That means on one hand that people in his village avoid him and his family because they believe there is a curse on them or some terrible sin that the parents committed - but it also means that as this tumor grows - without help - it can suffocate Arthur to death!


But little Arthur was suitable for surgery - a long and difficult procedure. It is always amazing to see the specialists as maxillo-facial surgeons or anaesthesia providers that come from ALL over the world and are able to perform such specialized medicine in a country that is so far from being able to provide surgeries like this - in our countries we just take it for granted....


The staff is very skilled and professional, and our equipment is good (thanks to many companies that donate really good things) but often we experience that all our human "excellency" is limited - and are front-line observers of how God intervenes and does miracles! You might have heard this saying : "We do our best - and God takes care of the rest!" We are witnesses of that almost every day - and even when the anaesthesia machine stopped working, God intervened and saved Arthurs life! Or on the ward - when you have done everything humanly possible for other patients and all you can do is pray - and you see a miracle take place before your very eyes!


One of the greatest miracles is to see the patients literally transformed! Not only their outward appearance, but the change you see in their eyes, their personality!
Imagine being Arthurs mother, living in a country that is in a terrible post-war condition, being too poor to even consider medical counsel - and even if there would be help, never being able to afford it. Imagine you are the mother of a child that is considered cursed, and being abandoned by your family and neighbours for you must have sinned or attracted a curse on you!
Imagine being this poor mother fearing for your son´s life, fearing to see him getting slowly suffocated to death!


And then... being the mother of little Arthur, looking completely different, being free of fear of suffocation, and having experienced God´s love for all people not regarding their status put into action in their lives!
We pray for our patients that this God will not be some distant God for them, but that they will be able to leave the ship and KNOW that this God wants to be their loving heavently father, caring for them not only for their physical needs, but also meet their inward need for reconciliation with him.
And that is our prayer for each and everyone of you! Blessings!
Andrea and Wolfgang with David and Amy