An honest thought

This post is really to just to keep all of the people who care about me in the loop.

It's mid-field service right now. We are just over halfway done in Sierra Leone, which means daily life is becoming a bit monotonous. I'm feeling pretty run down right now. You can tell by my lack of blog posts that I'm not quite at my best recently. Life on the ship and in Africa has a way of driving a person into the ground. Just like many of you at home, stress is constantly piled on at work and in social arenas. The difference is that the ways a person learns to deal with stress at home don't work here. I can't go home and forget about work because my work is always so close by. I can't drive to the park to read by myself because there isn't a park and even if there was one I would constantly be pestered by someone trying to sell me something. I can't sip a coffee on a quiet Sunday morning because quiet doesn't exist here. You get the picture.

Many of the long term crew have taken vacations in the states or Europe. I've learned that this is an essential piece to living successfully on the ship. For me and others like me, nothing sounds better than escaping this world for a few weeks, but the money simply isn't there. We band together and try to stay positive, but it isn't easy. We've still got 4 months here and then to Ghana for a few weeks, and then a 6 month field service in Togo. It seems like there's no end in sight and I struggle every minute to stay motivated.

I fear as I write this that you'll not want to hear my complaining. My apologies if that is all this post is. Perhaps it will help a bit just to write some of this out. I know that we are here doing good things for the Sierra Leone people. I try to think of that at these times. Please remember me in your prayers. I need an intervention to keep going. Some kind of spiritual adrenaline shot straight into my heart would be nice.