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After One Day

It's been a little more than a day now since I boarded the ship. It's a whole new world, and I'm trying to learn as much as I can, as fast as I can. Highlights of my first day were learning my way back and forth between a few key places. Those were my stateroom, mess hall, and the IT office. I also found the cardio room in the evening where they have some stationary bikes. I also got an e-mail address and found that I can use a computer in the IT office just about anytime, as long as I'm not in anybody else's way. Since I really like e-mail, that's a good thing.

I wasn't sure how'd I'd sleep my first night, but it turned out to be OK. There is a lot of noise by my bunk, sort of a loud airy hum, and that's not too bad. Actually, it helps block the noise that other people in the stateroom might make. I'm sharing a room right now with three other people from Project Hope. In the next few days a couple will go, and a couple will come, so I think we'll be around six people in the room. I've found that you really don't spend all that much time in the room when you are on board.

This morning I went up to the Radio room where the GATR antenna cases had been stored, and picked them up for a little practice. I was with three of the IT/ET guys (Information Technology and Electrical Technician--I'm not yet sure who is what, so I'll generalize for now), and wanted to give them a little instruction on the basic setup of the antenna. At least one of them will be helping me when we get to Ecuador. We set up one of the antennas on the upper deck, aft of the flight deck while they were doing helo ops. That worked out well, and the guys got an idea of what we need to set the antenna up. I think power is going to be a critical issue, as it's not very consistent, and the GATR antenna will require constant power, since there's nothing like a battery for it.

As far as operations go, today was the last day in Peru. All patients that were aboard last night were taken ashore in the hospitality boat. The helicopters flew some people back and forth, and then the last flights brought back tons of gear that had been used at the clinics as well as for the community development projects. A little after 2 PM we were underway for Ecuador. I'm still not sure, but I think we get there sometime in the very early morning hours of Tuesday.

Posted by David at August 13, 2007 05:10 PM