First "Day Off" and into town!

Ward Orientation: ✅

 Ships Orientation: ✅

Paperwork: ✅

Still getting lost: ✅

But here we are! First day "off" with no responsibilities and decided to venture off ship to see the local port and town. To everyone who said "DON'T GET OFF THE SHIP!!"...

I. AM. SORRY.

But did you reallllllly think I would just stay on board?!? You all should know me better than that 🙈

Anywaysssss, to get off the ship, you have to badge out so they can keep track of the crew mates. We then walked up the port, passed 3 security gates, and onto the streets of Freetown. I went with two other girls who had gone out the day before, and one other "newbie". We just walked around and ended up veering right down a street and found ourselves CRAMMED in the middle of a local market. There were food vendors everywhere, fish splayed out on the street, locals carrying buckets on their heads, slammed elbow to elbow just pushing down the street. And once you were in, there was no way out! It was hectic, but kind of amazing. There was a car who was attempting to drive down the street (how it got in there in the first place is BEYOND me!!) and everyone was hitting the windows and walking past. There were these two cute little local boys and the car started backing up and we grabbed them to make sure they didn't get hit! It's a miracle no one did...at least that we saw...people had to move their baskets and what not to have the car pass through. Anyways, we were trying to get OFF the street, and just out of the craziness and this sweet little boy kept popping up out of no where and would motion for us which way to go 😂 Everytime we thought lets go right, the little boy would come out of NO WHERE and tap me or my friends on the hand and motion to us "No" and point another direction. We ended up following him for 10+ minutes and he got us out of the chaos and back into a wide street. It was hilarious, because these streets were PACKED, and I wouldn't see the boy anywhere and assumed he went back off on his route/duties, but he would always show up again and guide us out of the craziness. Our little angel! 

After that hot, sweaty, claustrophobic, 2 hour experience, I went back to shower and have dinner. I then went down to the engine room and decided to have a tour! Why not?! They showed us all the engines/equipment, how the water works, trash works, electricity works, and safety measures they adhere to. I wish I could retain all that information, because it was so fascinating! But what I really remember is:

-The ship has 4 engines, but we are currently only using 1 in port.

-They use the ocean water to cool all the equipment to keep it from overheating.

-They have "double" of all equipment (or more) for the front of the ship and the back. That way, incase of flooding they have doors to shut and can still run the ship.

-The importance of why we separate our food, water/liquids, glass, aluminum and burnable waste for ship sustainability. 

-And that we spend approx. 1 million dollars every 3 months on fuel just to run the ship! 

-And that wearing a sweat suit down into a hot engine room was a terrible idea...see the sweaty proof below!