So much goes on.

This field service in Freetown, Sierra Leone started at the end of February 2011 and it will finish in the beginning of December 2011. (I believe this is the fifth time the ship has docked here.)  For this field service alone, to date:

• 1,051 cataract-related surgeries have been performed
• 168 surgeries related to blindness from Pterygium (non-cancerous growth of the clear, thin tissue (conjunctiva) that lays over the white part of the eye)
• 7,660 eye exams have been conducted
• 625 general surgeries
• 377 maxillo-facial surgeries
• 75 cleft lip/palate repairs
• physical and speech therapy has been provided
• 26,471 dental care infections have been treated
• Agriculture and mental health training to local NGOs/health care organizations have been conducted
• And the list goes on...  

Amazing things happen on this ship.  And yet I feel - apart - from all of that. 

Simultaneously, I feel at peace with exactly where I am serving, in the Academy, teaching children whose parents are working here.  

My job is an auxiliary support role.  Yet these roles are critical for the ship to function.  Volunteers come here from around the globe to clean the public areas of the ship (bathrooms, floors, staircases, etc.) -- for months at a time. There is a hospitality department that makes up beds in a fancy way and bakes welcome cookies, so those who arrive after days of travel feel blessed.  The galley crew make ~425 people breakfast, lunch and dinner around the clock.  The engineering and deck staff keep the engines running and the ship afloat.  And the list goes on...

So much goes on - the flashy news that you can read about on the website and all the behind the scenes stuff.  It blows my mind that at any one time ~425 people have come here to live and work on this ship year round, doing these different jobs, making the work happen relatively smoothly.  And it's even more than ~425 b/c between ~5-30 people come and go each week.  I'm in awe of everything that goes on and that it even goes on at all.