Cabin Fever

I've been getting lots of requests for pictures of my cabin. I meant to add it to the ship tour I posted a few months ago but never got around to it, oops! So here's the long awaited Cabin Tour of 3431. Please excuse the mess (although it's relatively clean right now) and the poor photo quality (the lighting in the cabin is horrible). Ok? Thanks!

First up is the view from the doorway coming in. Our cabin is a 'six-berth' (meaning six beds), which is what most nurses live in. There's a huge variety of cabin types on the ship ranging from singles for management positions all the way to 10 berths, which are usually for galley, hospitality and housekeeping crew. The layout of each cabin can also be different depending on what part of the ship it is in.

 As soon as you walk into our cabin, you reach the bathroom on the left side. It's lovely to have our own bathroom in the cabin (not true for everyone), but it's teeny tiny and shared by six girls so you can imagine what a busy place it is ;) You can see here the toilet, sink, mirror shelf and shower. With the curtain closed on the shower there's just barely enough room to turn around without running into a wall! Let's see, other fun facts about the bathrooms on the Africa Mercy: 

• 2 minute showers (I think I've mentioned this one before- water on, rinse, water off, soap/shampoo, water on, rinse, done).

• We have surprisingly great water pressure and super hot water available pretty much all the time - which makes the 2 minute showers a little more acceptable.

• The ship's waste is run by a Vacuum system (imagine like on an airplane) where all water is sucked into our treatment system on Deck 2. It can make flushing the toilet at 2am very noisy!

• We share a 'Vac' system with the cabin next door so our whole room can hear every time they flush or take a shower, haha!

• Occasionally we get an overhead announcement something like this: "Deck 6 Vac System down until further notice". (AKA- you can't flush the toilet until we tell you...that's always fun to hear...)

• Twice a week, we are required to put Toilet Juice in the toilet to keep the Vac system clear. Kind of like Drano, I guess?

• We have a retractable clothesline that goes across the bathroom...but if it's open, you can't close the shower curtain. And the cabins are constantly damp so everything takes forever to dry anyway.

From this view, you can see into each of the 3 bunk spaces. There is a curtain that closes each section off to help keep out light and noise and for privacy. Each section has basically the same thing, 2 bunks, one wardrobe with a side for each person, a bookshelf and a fold down desk with a chair. I live in the back section straight down this hall.

Here's my section looking in from the opening to the hall. Our cabin is actually right next to a stairwell so it's slightly shorter than the others. Normally the beds are up against the left wall with open space and a desk, but instead our bunks face the other way and we don't have a desk. I've had two bunkmates - one was here for 2 months and worked in the dining room; and the other has been here for 5 months and is a nurse as well. 3 of the 6 girls in my cabin are here for 10 months like me and about 6 others have come and gone. It's pretty common in the six berths to get a new cabin mate every few weeks because crew come and go so often. The atmosphere of the cabin changes every time someone leaves so that has been an adjustment, but overall our cabin group has been very good with no major issues!

Here is my mess of a wardrobe. Besides our small bookshelf and a little bit of room under the bed, this is the only storage in the cabin. It must hold clothes, shoes, beach stuff/towel, office supplies, plus whatever other randomness I can shove in. I like to call it organized chaos because it looks like a mess but I know exactly where everything is! (Thanks to a tip from a Mercy Ships pro, I threw in that hanging shoe rack you see on the front of the door at the last minute and it has been a lifesaver for holding all kinds of small things!)

And finally, here's my cozy little corner of the world. I upgraded to the bottom bunk back in October which was a huge blessing! The mattress isn't very comfy and it was hard to adjust back to a Twin bed, but when I'm exhausted and my head hits that pillow, I consider how it could be so much worse. I love filling my walls with lots of pictures, inspirational quotes and Bible verses so I can look at them every time I get in bed. If you'd like to bless me with some new ones for variety, send away!

Well, that's all I can think of for now! When I come back in July, I will have a new cabin and will try to put up some pictures in less than 6 months ;) Hope you enjoyed seeing my little home away from home.

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Now a question for you: What else would you like to read about on this blog? I have a few ideas left to write about, but I'm curious what the readers want to know! I have just a few weeks left in Madagascar and then this blog will probably take a break during my time back in the States so this is your chance to find out all you ever wondered about. Do you have some burning question about the ship? Would you like more Madagascar info? Patient stories? Or just something random? Ask away in the comments or email me and maybe your question will get featured in a coming post!