Down (or rather up) in the galley

OH my. Work is… exhausting. Fun, but I’m thinking that it’s fun right now because of its newness and the novelty of the whole situation—I’m sure it’ll get routine and tiring very quickly. I do really like the people I’m working with though; they (and the music that gets played in the galley) make the time go by a lot faster.

So, as I so jokingly predicted, I did peel carrots on my first day here! If only all my predictions came true. There are two "sides" to the galley— the cold side and the hot side.

Cold side / Hot side (with Stephen and Lorinda)

I’ve only worked in the cold side so far: we prepare all the fixings for the salad and sandwich line, so we have to sort out/wash/cut all the vegetables/cheeses/cold-cuts/dressings, etc.

Here's a quick picture of a delivery of fresh produce sitting in the reception area. Looks deceptively pretty, doesn't it?
I think someone quoted me that the galley churns out approximately 1,000 meals per day for the crew and all the day volunteers (locals who volunteer during the day only), so you can only imagine how much work goes into even something that seems as simple as a salad bar. For example, I spent my first three hours in the galley with the tomatoes. Just tomatoes. Sounds stupid right? Who spends three hours on cutting tomatoes? But you have to realize that the vegetables here are so organic that they’re not the pretty plump vegetables that you see at home: you get a bucket of tomatoes where only half are good, and even the good ones go bad really quickly. You have to methodically work your way through the bucket, figuring out which tomatoes you can actually eat raw, which are to be used as cooking tomatoes, and which get tossed. And don’t even get me started on the lettuce. I swear, the lettuce here has some kind of vendetta against me.

Anyway, our schedule differs slightly on each day, especially seeing as how I worked a weekend, but basically: the day starts with 15-30 min devotions at 8 AM (or "devos," as they're called on the ship), work until 12 PM, break for lunch, come back at 1 PM to start dinner, break for dinner from 5-6 PM, and then come back after dinner to clean-up/wash all the dishes/trays/pots/cooking utensils that were used in the galley for that day. At the end of the work day, you feel like you’ve been drenched in grossness and you smell like old water and leftovers and sardines (awesome). Sometimes I really feel like I’m cooking potluck for church every single day, especially because we use the same metal trays here as we do back at my home church (which I was really excited about when I first saw the trays, but now I'm not so excited).

I know it sounds pretty monotonous and gross, and it sometimes is (OK, most of the time), but I know that it’s necessary and I’m so glad that I’m here. I knew what I was getting myself into, which is good in the sense that I prepared myself to serve as a “missionary” in a very non-traditional way—that is, I don’t spend the majority of my time with the people of West Africa. The people working in our department are isolated for a good part of the day in the galley, and I’ve been warned that it can get monotonous after awhile. But even though the crew services department isn't as publicized or as celebrated as the medically related departments are, this mission wouldn’t be possible without it's existence. This really is an environment where everyone can serve Christ with the talents they were given—even if that talent is sweeping the floors, or answering telephones, or cutting tomatoes.

And for now, I’ve come to see what Mercy Ships is all about so that I can maybe serve for long-term after I get my dental degree—and so far, I love what I see. And I won’t be working in the galley the entire time: they do a nice job on ship of allowing non-medical personnel be a part of the outreach as well, so I have a surgery observation, a patients screening, and a day at the dental clinic lined up during my off days for the next two weeks. Exciting.