Wednesday 30 May - Arrival in Indonesia

Happy birthday! (to me).  Woke up at 3:30 and then went back to sleep till 5:20. Decided to try and do my hair but it is what it is. Jen, who is in X-ray with me, found out yesterday that her brother's friend was killed in a plane crash in St. George. Sad for her.  

Called home and talked to Maddie and got Mont at work. Tried Colette and Danielle but they didn't answer. The caller ID says 5000 so everyone things it is a wrong number and doesn't answer. Left them all voice messages. 

Had people wishing me happy birthday all day today. In the department, Danielle Taysom gave Jen and I pens and key chains from Guam for our birthdays. Jen's was just before we left on the trip. Then the x-ray staff went to the ship store and bought me and Chief Cantorna chocolate Hostess donuts and jelly cookies and put a candle on each. His birthday was yesterday. They sang and Jen gave me a cold bottle of  Ocean Spray cran-grape juice. Tastes so much better than the watered down juice in the dining. 

Cleaned bathrooms as usual. We will only muster in our departments in port, as there are too many going ashore and with assignments. We had Madison Burr come to our department and go over the phrases we will need to say to the patients who come in for the chest x-rays. He served over here on his mission about 4 years ago. 

The first port Manado is one of the areas he served in, so he is hoping to get off ship to maybe see someone he knows. He is going to translate to the media for Commodore Hickman who is like the second in command on the ship. Pretty big stuff for him. Jen and I recorded him pronouncing the phrases so we can listen if needed. He then spelled out the phrase and I typed them up and we now have them printed out and put up in the rooms so we can see them or point to them so the patients know what we want them to do. The language is pretty much phonics as you read the word. You pronounce every letter. The "R" is rolled and a is ah and e is I. The verbs switch around like French and Spanish so I might be able to fake it. 

We will be doing the second stage TB chest screening. If they have any symptoms we x-ray them and if they have TB they can't come on the ship. We are the double check after the questions are answered on the papers to come aboard. They figure we will see about 50 - 100 people per day. Jen is going to help at the hospital on shore to screen any patients not yet x-rayed. They have pre x-rayed a lot of the scheduled patients so our doctors are going to review and say yes or no if they have TB. 

We started passing some of the islands so I took a picture of a small one. Very green!! It was fun to see something other than water.  I helped in the food services for dinner. I was signed up to help wash the dishes but we had too many so I served on he food line. May job was he veggies and with the gravy. I was on the officers line. I had so many people say thank you for helping out. It really was a blast and the 1 1/2 hours went really fast. There was only me and a coleman doing our line. He was a nice guy from Texas. 

We were supposed to have a meeting in the department but looks like no one is coming. Things are really laid back and get cancelled or changed a lot. Sometimes I am not sure what the schedule is. The ladies have planned a movie night for the last night before we start the work and my birthday. I really need a shower so my hair will be dry enough in the morning and I don't have to get up at 4:30 to dry it all out. I am going to open the letter for the family as my birthday gift from them. Has been a great birthday even though I was far from home and family. We drop anchor about 4:30 am so the project is about to get into full swing!!!