Living In The Fast Lane

Wow! Where the heck did this week go? I’d say that its very possible that after a week full of night shifts, fire drills and hospital supply craziness, that it would make sense to say that I feel like I’m living in the fast lane.

Night shifts are probably my most favorite in reception. Yes, they’re a bit quieter but greater is the authority and responsibility you have over anything that happens during the night. I love the dark and stillness at night but, not on a huge ship like this. The thought of me being the only one up creeps me out. 

The main thing on night shift is making sure that everyone is back on board by 23:30 (curfew) and those who were staying out over night somewhere remembered to sign the over night book. Also, most every evening we have people both arriving or departing which keeps the paper work busy. Lastly, during the night it is our job to watch the fire panel and the cameras located around the ship.

I would just love to share my most eventful night shift yet. Well, it began with the arrivals not arriving till 2:15am. HA those poor old ladies. You see, since this is Africa we have to have water taxis bring you to this side of Freetown and their water taxi had broken down. 

Next, around 23:45 when I was accounting for each crew member I realized that a couple was missing. They were scanned out (ashore) and not listed in the over night book. My next action was to call their cabin. No answer. Awesome. So then, after breaking into their cabin, no where to be found. Next, I have to wake up the SSO (Ships Security Officer). He gets suited up and is off. I decide to call one of the missing couple’s friends and ask her if she had any idea of where they might be and sure enough, they left for the weekend but forgot to sign the over night book. I have to say though it was pretty cool to be part of that scene, even though it was a let down..glad they were safe. 

Just to top it off, around 5:15am the emergency 911 phone rings. Scared me half to death as I was just sitting there reading. I answer,”911 what is your emergency?” One of the nurses answers frantically, “Claire, I need you to make a call for the emergency medical team.” Click. After she hangs up I remember just standing there thinking to myself, “What the heck do I do? Oh my word, I have to do something quick.” So, I do what I knew was right. I make an overhead page saying “The Emergency Medical Team needs to report to ICU at this time.” As I said this over the intercom I could not help but think of the poor people sleeping who I had just woken up. I got some dirty looks later that day. Ha.

Obviously, not every night shift is like that. I was just lucky. Usually, I have people from home call me because the time back in Charlotte is perfect. I also read and on occasion will watch a movie with a friend. Although I can not leave the desk, I can have a couple friends back behind the desk with me after 23:30.

Every other Thursday we have fire drills. I dread these days. It’s very stressful as a receptionist because we are in charge of making sure that every day volunteer and crew member are accounted for. So in total that's about 500+ people. Yes, chaos. But this past Thursday I am proud to say that everyone was accounted for in 18 minutes. We are required by maritime law to complete fire drills within 30 minutes. Yea, killed it :)

This post is long enough so as far as hospital supply goes, I’m loving it! Today was great and I was offered to take the position full time but that would require me to extend my time here with Mercy Ships and we all know that I cannot survive any longer without some of my Mom’s delicious food, Chickfila, or Flying Biscuit :)