Photos- day in Brussels

Our flight from Brussels to Guinea on Wednesday was cancelled and scheduled again for Thursday, so our travel agency put us in hotel and we had 24 hours to explore.

I had a 1 euro waffle and it was wonderful!

We arrived safely here in Guinea last night, more blog posts to come.

 

 

my gateway family!

The video I put together as my final project for the gateway program:

The best gateway ever... from Nicole Pugh on Vimeo.

 

LEAVING FOR AFRICA IN THE MORNING!!!!

 

Screening Day in 2 minutes video

 

Thank you to the Mercy Ships videographer who put this together

 

only photos...

 

I was a firefighter for a day!

Yesterday was fire fighting day of Basic Safety Training week! We learned how to fight different types of fires, put on our equipment in under a minute, and breathe with the masks in a smoke filled container.

Learning to put on the masks:

We set up our pants and boots to put them on quickly...

All ready:

We rescued "Buck" the practice dummy.....he was really hard to move.

Snack break! (Romina and I are in the middle of eating one of Shirly's delicious scones)

It was a good day! I don't feel that I have a new calling to be a career firefighter, but I liked the exercises. :)

 

The gateway fun run!

It started out as the Gateway Half Marathon...

Then it quickly became the Gateway 5K...

And yesterday we held the "Gateway Fun Run"! The run took place at Tyler State Park, and was one lap around the lake (about 2 miles). I was the photographer for this event, here are a few images from the day:

Romina getting excited for the run...

The runners before the race...

We even had official t-shirts, thanks to an afternoon of tie-dying last weekend and Nicole and Dangyra's hard work. We really didn't see much of them on Saturday...they were in the laundry room spraying on all the Africa patterns.

All the runners returning...

Maryke- jumping for joy at the finish :)

We swam in the lake after the race. Dave tried to teach Maryke and me how to backflip off the dock. I got pretty close, but need more practice. I stood there backwards at the edge, my heels hanging off, and it took so much effort to make my head go backwards behind me. But, I had such an encouraging audience cheering me on I had to at least try! Even the couple who was running the snack shop came out onto their porch for the entertainment.

This week is Basic Safety Training- and early tomorrow we get to practice fire fighting! Today we learned how to put on our gear and use the oxygen masks. Photos will follow soon. Leaving for Guinea next Tuesday!