What a real man can do with a set of keys and first-aid scissors!!

(August 18-21)

Joe is my hero.  Right now, he is also Tanya's hero.  Possibly Justine's as well.

Last Monday night (August 18), we went into town in order to get some supplies.  We were supposed to stock up on some foodstuffs for when we are in Africa - pastas and sauces, granola bars, crackers, etc. - things that keep well for many months.

Just a side note on the Mercy Ship vehicles - all the Land Cruisers and Land Rovers are equipped with VHF radios.  All radios are set to channel 5.  Reception has a radio as well.  So, if something happens, one can communicate to the ship's reception via radio, although the range is maybe 10 miles (that is a very uneducated guess).

Anyway, we visited an art store first.  No big deal, I bought a few supplies.  However, once we (Joe, Tanya, Justine, and I) got back into the car, we pulled out of our parking space, and the car died!!  Joe would turn the key, the car would start, but once he released the key, the car would die.  Apparently the fault lies with the ignition switch.  (Obviously, it was Joe who knew this, not me!)

Unfortunately, with the power off, the radio was not working…we had no way to contact the ship.  Looking in the car, we found a well-stocked first aid kit, a pen, and gum, in addition to the car keys Joe had.  Joe managed to pry open a panel above the gas pedal with just a key!

After twenty minutes of fiddling, he found nothing wrong there.  At this point, Tanya and I decided to venture out to find a very elusive beast: a public pay phone.  Tanya is fluent in Spanish, so I figured, how hard could this be??  Apparently, very hard.  A kind man directed us to a pay phone, only 1 block uphill…

Yet, we could not figure out how to work it!  Yes, I admit to being unable to work a pay phone!  The ship has a Spanish phone number as well as its American satellite phone number.  There were clear instructions written in Spanish. Unfortunately, the directions, when followed precisely, did not work.  Pressing #04 is supposed to provide further instructions - but, again, the directions were not helpful.  Eventually we figured out how to call internationally using the American phone number.  Yes, we were in Spain, had a Spanish phone number and still had to dial an international number even though the ship was 2 miles away (by line of sight)!  (To actually get to the ship, though, you have to drive farther in order to enter the marina and then backtrack all the way to the end of the marina to the ship.)

We asked Reception to page Joe's boss so that he could bring us tools.

Tanya and I walked back to the car and saw Joe taking off another panel directly beneath the steering column with his key.  He was very resourceful.  After some work, he was able to figure out which wire was not working right.  But how to fix it??

Aha!  Let's use the first aid scissors!  In a very MacGyver moment, Joe fixed the wire with the scissors! If you look closely, you can see the first panel Joe pried off is not completely put back together, and you can also see the exposed wires that Joe MacGyver-ed!!

We were able to limp back home before Joe's boss ever left the ship.


Tuesday we sailed back to Las Palmas in order to begin work on the propeller.  Joe and I both took the sea-sickness medication this time.  Although I was working in the galley again, I did not feel the effects of the sea as drastically this time, so I think I plan on taking the medication on the long voyage to Africa.

Wednesday and Thursday were my days off.  I had tea with a friend and attended the community meeting Thursday night - normal ship life stuff.  At the meeting, Dr. Parker talked about Ebola in more detail.  I will be sharing some of those facts and graphs with you in the next week, I hope.   The good doctor stated he planned to send out the most updated information later this week.

I also did some housekeeping - let me just say how very little time it takes to clean the bathroom!  Well, all of the rooms, really.  But especially the bathroom.  I barely begin before I am nearly finished!