Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

Acts 9:17

I went home on Sunday/Monday. It’s been a really interesting experience rediscovering my new normal day. The things that were normal that now are not, and the things that I’ve since forgotten that I’m rediscovering. I ate food that I wanted, when I wanted, I reunited with my cat Tobi, I snuggled a LOT with Tobi, and I started looking for jobs.

Before I left

I started adjusting to jet lag before I left by staying up with Diana until 2am while she made a quilt basically from start to finish that she wanted me to take back to the US and mail for her (we can’t mail packages from the ship). It was probably one of the most incredible feats of productivity I’ve ever seen in my short few months. All of the distractions and procrastination delayed the beginning of the actual re-work on the quilt for about a day and a half, but then when time really got down to the wire, she managed to redo and finish all of her work in something like six hours of dedicated machining. It’s pretty amazing!!

I got to participate in the Mercy Ships postal service aka carrying mail in my bag back to the US to post for people. It felt wonderful! I felt so responsible in my duties to get everything posted in a timely manner.

I also forgot to mention that a smol photo of Justin Timberlake made it onto our door last week.

I didn’t recognize him at first glance (the photo is only about 1.5″ tall)—I figured he looked like some megachurch preacher or some famous pastor guy that I didn’t know, since y’know, he has an earpiece and hipster glasses and standing on a stage and his arms spread wide (like he got to the part in his sermon where he says something like “God’s plans are so much BIGGER than we could ever fathom!”). Every time I wanted to ask someone who it was, our cabin was empty and then I’d forget later.

Anyway, turns out it’s not some preacher, it’s Justin Timberlake. Apparently last year (or maybe before?) there was a surge in the meme about the NSYNC song, “It’s Gonna Be Me” where JT sings the titular line as “It’s gonna be MAY.” So Mary Gs, our cabin mate, printed a ton of Justin Timberlake photos and put them all over Nicole DeFillipi’s door and alllll the way down the hallway into the hospital at the beginning of May. And then eventually the photos got scattered and some are still floating around to this day…

Christine found one stuffed up into a ceiling tile in who-knows-where and was like, “this is perfect! Mary would love this.” and stuck it to our door, not knowing that Mary was the origin of all the wild JTs scattered about the ship. Mary was quite happy to see him come back.

#twinning

Esther got the same headband as me when we went to Wakilaré last week, and we’ve been wearing them a ton around the ship. The headband is made from local fabric from the forest region, so the fabric color and pattern (deep golden orange with dark brown only print) is very recognizable to people on the ship. Concidentally, we never wore them at the same time for the early part of the week and people who would comment on the headband one day would notice on the other person the next. We just said we were just alternating between who got to wear it each day.

Here’s the secret though: believe it or not, there are two.

We are so cute. I’m not much of a headband person but I think my time on the ship has shown me the utility of having such elastic bands on your head. Perhaps because I used to look super stupid with them because I had bangs which would flip up when I wore them but now that they’ve grown out it looks normal?

Au revoir

Finally it was my turn to say farewell to the ship. People came down to send me off, and it was a good ol’ hugfest. I did alright on the tears until I got to Rach who gave me one of those real good hugs that convey so much love and care and emotion that we both started crying a little. I’ll truly miss everyone I’ve gotten to know on board and the ship culture living and working and playing together.

The First 48

AFM → CKY

After I said my goodbyes on the dock, we drove off to the airport. Originally there were supposed to be four people going to the airport in our car—two guests, Taryn, and myself, but then the guests each got their own car from the people they were visiting so we took 3 cars to the airport for 4 people. Derp. Chelsea was my driver, and Esther hopped along for the ride to the airport also since we had the space. :) Good mate, that Esther.

For people who don’t know, Taryn worked on the dental team and is also from the Triangle area in NC! We flew all the way back together from Conakry, which was amazing. I was super bitter at first before she came to the ship when I found out that I was the only person on my airport run early on in the field service. I dreaded having to go to the airport all by myself and face the international travel alone, especially since it marked a big life change after living so long on the ship and having to go home.

In February I saw that the departure schedule updated to include someone named Taryn who was flying to Paris on the flight as me (most people departing were flying to Brussels). Then I saw she was on the dental team and I was honestly a bit sad. The dental team works off ship, so you rarely see them—in fact, a lot of the times the dental team also lives off ship, so you literally never meet them. I wanted to make it a point to meet whoever was flying with me so at least it wouldn’t be super awkward on the flight back just finally introducing ourselves.

I managed to meet Taryn the first day she was on the ship (God knew). She sat at my table at breakfast and I perked up remembering her name from the arrivals/departures board. I quickly and probably very awkwardly introduced myself and told her we were flying back together and the we should be friends (nooooot weird at all, Jasmin good job). Good thing Taryn is very kind and has a great sense of humor and took it all in stride and didn’t think my very FORWARD approach was creepy that I knew she was on my flight and that she was dental and we should hang out when she’s on ship after work and that I miiiiight have checked Facebook to find out that she’s from NC and I’m from NC and maybe we’re flying back all the way together and how awesome would that be and we should also hang out when we get back. Derp (again).

Well, I ended up seeing her more than my cabinmate who was in dental not too long ago, so we got well-acquainted during our six weeks on the ship together. I was quite happy by the end that we were flying together.

CKY

There were a lot of people at the airport, so we waited quite a while to drop off our luggage. Since I was checking a large hiking backpack with a ton of straps hanging loose, the airport was kind enough to provide essentially a large trash bag to put my bag in to protect it. I figured it was also so people wouldn’t go digging through my bag as is customary African airport practices, so some people just do this thing where they saran-wrap their bag in several layers to discourage people from going through it. Anyway, after she tells me to tie the bag around my bag with a big knot, the lady processing my bag proceeded to take a pen to the bag and make an enormous hole so she could tie the luggage sticker. So much for that.

We go through probably what is the most lax airport security I have ever seen. They make us pour out our water, which was expected. We throw our carry-ons into the singular x-ray machines thing, and the security guard is not really even looking at the screen, she’s chatting with another security guard. It seems like a formality. We proceed to the terminal.

The terminal has five gates in one large hall. There’s a few shops and a small snack bar, where Taryn buys a cake and I use her money to buy a 3L bottle of water (I’ve exchanged all of my GNF to USD before leaving). I’m still sick, so my throat is still really sore at this point, so I just feel perpetually thirsty. I drink a lot of water and keep tabs on the time to give myself enough time to pee before boarding.

We meet up with some other Mercy Shippers who were leaving a bit earlier for the Brussels flight. It’s good to see them and we chat until they need to board.

Aside: my brother is an avid Pokémon GO player, and there’s some Pokémon that you can only get in various regions of the world. Africa is the regional home to Tropius, a grass-type flying dinosaur with bananas on its neck.

Justin asked me to play Pokémon GO while I was in Guinea and catch him any Tropius that I found so he could complete his task of owning every Pokémon in the game. I played for four months and didn’t find a single one until the very last week or so before I left, the vernal equinox happened and to celebrate the game increased the spawn rate of rare grass-type Pokémon. I caught five Tropius in a week. He supported my endeavor by sending me Pokéballs which are required to capture Pokémon, since I guess Guinea isn’t a hotspot for Pokémon GO players, so I’d frequently run out of items and not have any Pokéstops or monuments where I could replenish them.

Why am I talking about this? Because at the airport I found the ONLY Pokéstop in all of Guinea, right at the roundabout to the entrance to the airport.

Unfortunately, it was too far to reach. In any case, if anyone wants a Tropius in Pokémon GO, hit me up.

Right before we board, I go pee and THANK GOODNESS FOR VET ROOMMATES because they told me to take some toilet paper because “the airport either has toilet paper and no soap, or soap and no toilet paper…” Anyway, for anyone traveling through Conakry’s airport, there is

NO TOILET PAPER.

Taryn was so relieved that I had some too. We fill our bottles with the remaining water and toss the bottle before boarding.

Then, we go through the *real* security. After we go through the gate, they stop everyone and search our bags, telling us that water is not allowed on the plane. Whaaaaat. The security officer hand Taryn her full 1L bottle of water and tell her to drink it. She’s like, “uhm, I can’t, it’s so much…” so then he proceeds to open it and dump the water into a bin next to him. RIP. I forfeit my water as well.

Taryn got to pick her seat upon check in (I didn’t), but luckily the seat behind me was open so she picked that one and we got to sit together, which was nice.

CKY → NKC → CDG

Our flight to Paris had a stopover in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania. (I had not heard of this country until I flew there on my way in to Conakry.) The initial flight to NKC was fine; the seat next to me was empty, but then it was filled when we reached Nouakchott, by a larger, slightly smelly man who decided I was small and didn’t need all that space anyway. :( I already had a small space, but then he spread his legs and elbows into my space. Needless to say, it was cramped, even for a small girl like me. I somehow managed to curl up and drift in and out of sleep for the next 8 hours. Also, I’m dying of thirst because my throat is literally sticking to itself and I had to pour out all my water and I wasn’t awake enough to catch them when they did drink service.

CDG

Taryn and I had six and a half hours to kill in Charles de Gualle. Tired from our cramped flight (Taryn said whoever was behind her kept rattling her seat so she didn’t get a lot of rest either), we just lounged in the terminal for pretty much the entire time. It didn’t feel that long, honestly. I played on my computer and she watched a movie on her phone. I was going to use my Priority Pass to get us into a nice bougie airport lounge, but it was in another wing and we’d have to leave and go through security again. Possibly worth, but not really worth in our eyes. After living on a ship in close quarters for a long time and then spending 8 hours on a super cramped flight, we were relieved enough to be in an open area with a squishy couch to lie on and croissants from the airport bakery to munch on. It was already luxurious enough.

There were a lot of Pokéstops and in the Paris airport. I did not find a Mr. Mime, however, which is a European exclusive.

CDG → RDU

Last leg! About a 9.5 hour flight over the Atlantic, I stayed awake the whole flight to help me adjust to jet lag. I got sat next to a nice Nigerian lady named Agnes.

I talk about Agnes because we had some very nice interactions, but also because I became her personal paparazzi and started using her phone to take photos and videos for her of the flight or of her standing in the cabin.

Then I must have not done a good job because she started taking more of the same thing.

I THOUGHT I WAS BEING SNEAKY WHEN I TOOK THE PHOTO OF HER BUT I JUST REALIZED WHEN POSTING THIS THAT SHE’S GOT THE PHONE ON SELFIE MODE AND HER VIDEO IS RECORDING ME SITTING AT THE WINDOW SEAT TAKING A PHOTO OF HER AHWOI;HEGAIOWHEIGPAIWHEPIHAKD

— R.I.P. me —

Anyways, the plane ride was significantly more pleasant than the previous one. I watched four movies on my way to RDU to pass time and stay awake: Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet, The Martian, Ramen Heads (documentary about ramen), and Wonder Woman. I’m probably super behind on the times but here’s what I thought about all the movies!

I’m no movie critic, but Wreck-It Ralph was pretty good! I liked it. It pays good homage to the world of the internet and does a good job depicting the internet in a visual form (such as traffic, spam, pop-ups, and even the DDOS attack). Lots of good memes and references throughout, I think it was well done. And even when things were not explicitly stated, you can see what references are to what, especially with the games (like Slaughterhouse Race prooooobably being a homage to GTA V). I also never noticed that the gaming hub is the power strip with each game being the outlet, an that the little blue guy with the lightbulb is Surge (aka surge protector because he’s a cop). So many cool references. :) The nerd in me appreciates. 10/10 if you like the internet and spend a lot of time on it, 8/10 if you like animated movies, 4/10 if it’s not your genre and you don’t know anything about the internet.

The Martian was a surprisingly good movie choice. It was a little amusing to see so many aspects of ship life play out on Mars. Things like knowing your next container shipment won’t come for four months (or four years! Imagine that.) and being stuck eating the same foods over and over. At least we had an 8 week rotating menu; I can only image that Astronaut Watney would be sick of potatoes after eating it every day for a year… Other things like being far from home and the people we love with limited communication abilities. And of course, the strength of human fortitude when there is the slightest sliver of hope for rescue or resolution. A good watch! 10/10 recommend to all. I can’t believe that it took me so long to watch it! Actually, knowing me, I can believe it.

Ramen Heads is a documentary about ramen master chefs in Japan. Some people may be familiar with the popular sushi documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi (it’s on Netflix). This documentary was quite similar but perhaps a little rougher on the edges in terms of budget and artistry on the cinematography. It talks about the history of ramen and how it birthed the differences in types of ramen and introduces many of the ramen masters who specialize in that one single type of ramen in Japan. The documentary mostly follows Osamu Tomita, a legendary ramen maker.

It was pretty good! It was also a huge mistake to watch it on the airplane with so many hours left to go. And also because I knew there wasn’t a ramen place that would be able to produce a bowl that looked as good as the ones in the documentary. I was super super super hungry at the end. But still a good watch.

Wonder Woman was selected kind of by chance, because Gal Gadot voices Shank, one of the main characters in Wreck-It Ralph 2 (loved her character, and her accent mm). Also, it was the perfect length of movie to get me to the end of the flight. I’ll have to say the reviews are all pretty accurate. It’s quite average. I really do like movies where characters are moved to a new world and are learning all the strange quirks of a new place. It reminds me of the Strange Planet comics by Nathan Pyle.

It was pretty cheesy though. And it did, in fact, end with, “I BELIEVE IN LOVE!” As someone had mentioned as one of the cheesy points so I’ll give it that. Some of the movie was a little confusing but it also could be because I was interrupted by Agnes a few times to take videos of the clouds or a photo of her or to help her with her immigration paperwork.

Our pre-arrival meal was an ICE CREAM BAR AND AN OFF-BRAND HOT POCKET. It was the best plane meal I’ve ever had. Honestly sometimes with plane food I think they try to make it a little too fancy but if they just gave everyone hot pockets I think everyone would be so happy all the time. I also got a tiny tiny tiny tiny Toblerone bar afterwards. So good. Also because I was starving for hours after watching that ramen documentary.

RDU

After landing, going through border control was a breeze because I have Global Entry. After we got our bags, Taryn and I parted ways because I got stuck at customs. I brought some body parts back into the US (as you do) and had to declare them and 2 of the 5 officers working with border control and customs were out sick that day so we had to wait for them to process all the flights before one of them was free enough to come downstairs to the customs part of the airport to process people declaring stuff.

As a part of my duties as a mail carrier for Mercy Ships Postal Service, I brought back some tumor samples for us to get examined by a histology lab we have a partnership with in the United States. They help us by determining if a tumor is cancerous or not, and it allows us to then adjust treatment or follow up for the patients afterwards if it wasn’t clear during surgery and imaging studies at the ship if the tumor might have some signs of malignancy. I had all the paperwork and everything sorted so it was a breeze getting through, but it was a matter of waiting for customs to even have someone to come look at it and clear me to leave the airport and drop it in the mail. There were a lot of people who were trying to catch connecting flights who were also caught by customs and had to wait. I told the officers I was happy to wait so that they could catch their flights but they ended up calling me first out of a group of probably ten people in the waiting area. Speculation as to whether it was because I was a US citizen with Global Entry or if it was because my paperwork was already in order and all, not sure (most others held foreign passports). In the end, I didn’t leave until two hours after I landed.

When I finally got to the arrival hall, I was greeted by my mom and a lot of the ladies from PSALT, our adult fellowship group! My friend JasminE brought one of her cats Lulu to the airport to greet me because she knew I wouldn’t get to see Tobi right away since he was in another city about an hour and a half away. Jasmine adopted Lulu while I was on the ship and hadn’t gotten to meet the sweetie pie that she is.

In addition to the cat, I was greeted with a kilogram of chocolate, a box of fresh(!!!) strawberries, lovely homegrown fragrant flowers from the Sun family garden, and a nice card. I got to hold Lulu all the way back to the car before we all went our separate ways.

Home

My mom drove me and my bags home and we went to Cary’s new PUBLIX!!! I didn’t know we got a Publix (it’s a grocery store). My mom claims it’s been there for over a year now but I’ve never known that we have it right by the house. ANYWAY I was super surprised and overwhelmed by ALL THE FRESH PRODUCE and SUCH SELECTION FOR ALL THINGS. I got some yogurt, granola, WHOLE MILK to go with my Lucky Charms.

Everyone wanted to know what the first thing I would eat was when I got home. Well, here it is:

“That doesn’t count waaaah.” Okay, here’s the first meal I ate:

I quickly realized how much I missed short-grain white rice during my time in Guinea. The rice we ate there was long grain, and it’s typically drier and harder than short-grain rice, which is sticker. So I picked something I love eating all the time at home that has plenty of tasty rice. It was tasty.

Deafening silence

The first thing I noticed when I entered the house for the first time and sat down all my bags was complete silence. Silence so quiet it almost hurt my ears because they were physically straining to hear something, anything. I was so taken aback by it that I just sat on the carpet with my bags on the floor and soaked it in. It was the first time in months that I had not been surrounded by the white noise of a ship engine, car engine, honking horns, shouting people, motorcycles revving, jet engine, industrial air conditioning, massive crowds, and the like.

I’m not sure how long I sat there. It probably wasn’t very long. A bird chirped from a tree in my backyard to remind me that I’m not deaf. My mom walked in shortly after and life went on.

Catching up

The next day, I had lunch at Guasaca with my work friend Eileen after a morning of unpacking/laundry (breakfast was said yogurt and granola and fresh strawberries previously mentioned—no bread today). Guasaca is a Venezuelan place by Duke the hospital I used to work at, and they specialize in these corn tortilla things called arepas. They’re super tasty. I usually get a bowl without the arepa—arepas are super good but the bowl is better value because I can get two meals out of it.

Well, I used to before I went to the ship and started having to eat bigger meals because snack time was so non-existent. I finished the bowl without noticing until the very end to the slow clap of work-Eileen who knew my habits to split the bowl in half for saving.

Kathy told me, “I think everyone who lives on the ship long enough walks away with some sort of eating disorder.” I don’t know what to think I feel so strange having finished the entire bowl in one sitting. Oh how ship life has changed me.

TOooOoOoOOoobi!!!!!!!!

I drove to Greenville with Jasmine to visit my friend Bonchi and pick up mah furrbaby Tobi. It was an anticlimactic reunion, possibly even traumatic because Tobi didn’t know what was going on and we grabbed him and stuffed him in a box.

After picking up Tobi, we visited our friend Toni in Greenville who’s studying at ECU for medical school. It was a cold rainy day. It was good to see her and say hi (she was moving between things she had to go to), but man it was so cold. She is one of my fierce African friends from home who greatly approved of my African dance video the first week I was on the ship.

A long car ride home (due to rain and traffic) and a quick stop at the Asian supermarket meant Tobi was released into his new home (for now)! He’s been at my parent’s place so at least he’s familiar with it. He immediately ran and hid under my bed for a little bit.

Over time he’s warmed up quite a bit and has gotten very very snuggly. I’m very happy to be with him as he is with me. :) He keeps me good company while I’m at home alone. He’ll often come sit with me in my chair when I’m working, such as right now when I’m writing this update!

In the mornings when I wake up he jumps onto my bed and lies across my belly for pets and snuggles.

And sometimes he falls asleep. This particular morning when this photo was taken I didn’t get up until lunch.

It’s good to have him back again. He’s settling in great and back to his curious self.

I love how he readjusts his pose to even straighter to get a better look outside.

Tobi is actually quite hard to photograph/video because he sees phones as hands and then walks up to them for pets all the time (unless he’s distracted or caught by surprise).

Also, he’s been so distracted or maybe I’m just really bad at getting it to work, but he hasn’t shown me his cool tricks. Maybe he just knows the difference between me and Bonchi so I’ll have to ask her how to get Tobi to FOCUS and show me his cool tricks…

Chapel Hill for a moment

After getting Tobi home to settle, I actually spent the night at Jasmine’s in Chapel Hill, where I used to live before going to the ship. I got to meet up again with Enze, another friend from church who’s spending an interim time at Jasmine’s house, and Meowmi, her beautiful (but old and grumpy and territorial) Siamese cat. We got to catch up and talk about missions and transition during our drives to and from Greenville and to Chapel Hill. It’s really nice to have someone back at home who has been through a similar longer-term missions trip overseas in another country to chat with and give me things to think about in smaller bites than big questions like, “What’d you learn while you were there?” or “Any good stories?” or the fated, “How was Africa?” (lol).

I was pretty jet lagged though, (Guinea is four hours ahead) so I basically fell asleep as soon as I got to her house and said my pleasantries.

The next morning, I went to visit my old roommate Eileen, not to be confused with work-friend Eileen with whom I had Guasaca with. Roommate Eileen has cats also; when I lived with her she only had one, also named TobY (See how there are a lot of doubles in my life?) who is a dark gray tabby and much chunkier. She’s since adopted a tuxedo cat named Chiko, who is apparently a handful. Loud, doesn’t understand social cues, and even worse at stealing food than Toby. She moved apartments since and her apartment is quite nice and large. We sat on her couch and chatted for a bit about cats, video games, and some plans to meet up with some friends to see the new Avengers movie when it comes out. Afterwards I went home to Cary and ate real tasty Asian brand instant ramen for lunch spiced up with some egg and green onion. And some snacks later. Because i love me a good s n a c c.

Nerd alert

SUUUUUUUPER SMAAAAAAAAASH

My brother borrowed my Nintendo Switch when I was away and mailed it back since I’m home now (he’s in Texas), and included a copy of a game I was really wanting to get but it released the week after I left for the ship, SUPER SMASH BROS. ULTIMATE!!!!!

I had read so much about it and was really excited to get started on it. I figured I’d get started playing it to see what it was like but the adventure mode really sucked me in and there went my entire afternoon. I like it because its difficulty level is considerably harder than the adventure mode in Brawl, the previous installment of the game. Each of the matches requires you to think and adapt to various challenges and hazards that make the opponent difficult to defeat. This game also has a lot more characters with various moves that you can unlock so it’s been really fun getting used to it and learning all the different characters that they’ve included. I can see myself sinking a lot of hours into it as I try to unlock more characters. I don’t think it’ll take up as much time as the latest Zelda game, Breath of the Wild, because it requires a lot of skill I don’t have to complete so some parts I just get stuck and have to get better at later, ahahaha.

The Guild Master is back

So I’m the master of a guild in a game called Guild Wars 2. A guild is basically a group of friends who like to do stuff together. That’s actually how I met Bonchi, who took care of Tobi, and Axxrael, who helped me build this website so I wouldn’t have weird ads! My guild is quite excited that I’m back because it means I can play with them more because when they’re playing it’s not 2am for me. A lot of them also followed my blog and would keep my spirits up and chat with me when I was on the ship. They’re all such lovely people.

It was nice to be able to play with them on the ship a little bit to have some familiarity of the community back home, but our African satellite internet made it really difficult to game with them and do some of the more fun things together because my connection was really slow. They’re all so happy that I’m back on regular internet and I’m definitely excited to be back playing on a desktop that can handle it (with nice graphics!) and my laptop won’t be working super hard to try and cool itself. whrrrrrrrrrrrr

I also made this cool Raven spirit staff (aka birb stik) during my time in Guinea. It’s kind of like my in-game souvenir of all the times I ran off cliffs and/or got people killed in the game because my ping was 5,000ms.

—end of nerd alert—

The next steps

Well, the next question is what’s next. Right now, I’m looking for jobs in the NC area and a few other jobs at bigger organizations like the CDC. I asked my old manager for her office number for job apps and she said, “you can certainly come back if you like 🤞”, hahaha. I won’t rule it out as an option, but I think God is calling me to go another direction. I feel like I’ve neglected the design aspect of my gifts for a long while, and I’d like to get a little bit more of that in somewhere. I really love science and medicine, so options are not abundant where the two cross. We’ll see where it goes. Any opportunities are welcome, whether local or not. I already know Colleen is gonna read this and say I should just go back and work for the ship some more. XD I’ve found some interesting opportunities I’ve already started applying for (updating the résumé and writing cover letters mergh).

I’m trying to figure out how to manage my time when everything is so unstructured. I have a list of big to-dos and they are all important but not very urgent or really standard in how I can go about it. I’m also trying to not be too hard on myself with trying to keep busy when it’s not necessary. Taking the time to breathe, rest, and gather myself again. To meet up, reintegrate, and catch up with people I’ve not seen in months. It’s a little strange to know that some people have spent these months reading all my updates and know what I’ve been up to, but I don’t know anything that they’re up to. How do you start a conversation to fill in all those gaps? Friends have gotten engaged, married, moved, started new jobs, have additions to their families. I feel like I’ve got to play catch up and be up to date, not just on events, but on “real world living” or I’ll be unprepared for what’s next.

What else

I took a shower it for 10 whole minutes and the water was running the whole time. Things to note: ship water pressure is actually a m a z i n g and the water is always hot immediately, none of that waiting for things to heat.

I can eat whatever I want whenever I want. I can drive to a grocery store super close (Publix!!!!) and know exactly what I want to eat. If I want croissants I can get them. If I want fresh fruit I can get them. I know where to get all the things I would ever want to eat or cook or bake. No longer do I have to resort to creative concoctions using the limited ingredients in the dining room line. I’m boycotting toasties, peanut butter, and tomato sauce on rice for a while, I think.

My bed is still the best place in the world to sleep. It has an electric blanket and a weighted blanket (best investment ever it’s like sleeping under a hug). I have three big floofy pillows and a stuffed animal on my bed. I don’t have to climb up into a ladder to sleep. I can sit up in bed (I still don’t, though, but I COULD). It’s light when I wake up in the morning. My phone charger reaches the bed.

All my clothes are still packed from my apartment move, so I’m actually still wearing mostly the clothes I brought to Guinea because I don’t really know what else to wear and I’m not seeing people every day anyway. So usually I spend my life in pajamas if I’m staying at home or put together another typical Mercy Ships outfit to go out. I’ll probably crack open the suitcases from my move at some point when I need some more clothes. I lived on my current set of clothes for four months, right? Whats a few more?

I’m back to the life of my Audio-Technica headphones and the sound and comfort is amazing. I also have my super clicky mechanical keyboard and the feedback is greaaaat although I have no complaints about my laptop keyboard which has its own nice little aesthetic. ALSO DOUBLE 4K MONITOR LIFE it’s so luxurious and extra and I love it.

Community living is different from home living, and I’m getting used to it again. The alone time I was absolutely craving on the ship, I suddenly have an abundance of it. Most of my friends and community from the last 7 years are at least a half-hour drive away, and ship crew is a lot of the times a day or two’s worth of flights away (once everyone goes home).

So how am I doing?

I think overall I’m doing okay. There are definitely things I miss, especially the people. It’s hard to be away from loved ones always, but I’m also glad to be home and reconnecting with people I’ve been away with. I appreciate all the love and support everyone’s been giving me—close and far. Technology is great, please keep in touch if you’re far and ever want to chat. I’m home now, so if you want to meet up, please let me know too. It helps to have reasons to get out of the empty house during the day.

—Jasmin