So-long Sarah, come on in Courtney...

A goodbye - with Marije, Naomi, Fred, myself, Sarah, Juan and Chrissy

  December 29th was a momentous day in the Mercy Ship life on Alice.   My bunk-mate Sarah, had been my bunkmate from the beginning.  Coming back to the ship for a second time, she arrived on the same flight as Marije and I and immediately became a mother figure to us (although only 33).  She knew her way around the ship, and she helped integrate us into ship life.  She was always there for the home-sick tears.   But on December 29th, she has to return to her mother country.  So sad.  That was my first real good-bye experience here on the ship, as Sarah was the first close friend to leave.  This is a reality of Mercy Ship life.  People are constantly coming and going, so you constantly form new friendships, and say goodbyes.  Marije is here for the rest of the field service, just like me, but so many friends leave before then.  It's never-ending heartbreak!
  Sarah had not even finished moving all her bags out of the cabin, when hospitality came to make up the bed for Courtney, my new bunkmate who would arrive that same evening.  Such quick turnaround.  I felt like my heart was being ripped out and stomped on.  As it turns out, Courtney is a lovely girl as well.  I feel like we've met before, even though she's from Virginia.  It sounds odd, but I want to say she reminds me of Heather Davies, even though I've only met Heather a handful of times in my life, and I just remember that she liked natural medicine.  Somehow my brain made that connection.
  Anyways, I was traumatised for a few days, walking around like a sulking zombie, feeling like my mother had been taken away.  I also has a cold that progressed from my head to my sinuses to my nose to my throat.  At the time of writing this entry, my cold is all gone, except for a lingering cough that wakes me up for about 30 minutes in the middle of the night.  Last night I somehow kicked all of my blankets off of my bunk onto the floor.  Up floated the comforter, followed by my water bottle to quelch the tickle in my lung.  Courtney can be my new mother!