A Night Out...

My quiet moment today was in preparation for a treat tonight: going out to dinner with husband E on the Doulos. We went and heard about this ship's work in many countries, met the crew, toured the ship and had many, many, many of my questions (I do ask a lot...) answered.
We saw the ship's engine; one room powering the whole ship. It is quite an old ship, built in 1914. With new International Shipping Standards coming into effect in 2010, this ship will not be able to remain on the seas. This is her last visit to Australia. The ship is open for daily tours whilst in Darling Harbour.
The ship has 330 crew members, some of which are young families. It seems that the highest percentage of crew members are often from South Africa.
We heard of the ship's work in Sri Lanka, building houses after storms, medical help and the fact that sometimes, the ship is the only area in a country where the people are free to browse through Christian books.

Continuing the laundry theme from earlier in the day-the laundry room on the Doulos is ship shape. There was a lady on duty as we were there, much of the laundry is done at night. There were huge bins for sorting colours, huge washing machines, a spinner and two tumble dryers. After the washing is done, the clean, dry laundry is folded and placed in a pidgeon hole, ready for the owner to collect. If it is not labelled with the owner's name, it will get lost!

Back at home, my mother kindly stayed here late to look after our brood, give them dinner and put them to bed. It was so good knowing that all was well at home. A mid week point of interest....seeing and thinking of things that are worlds apart from my usual frame of reference.