14 and comfortably roaming the world

14 was a year of constant Alanis Morsette and Cranberries, and my favorite outfits were worn covered with a “flannel”. 14 was my first birthday when we were sailing the whole day. We arrived in Nicaragua and the dock was literally falling apart. A kid actually fell through it into the shark infested water while we were arriving. There was a section of the dock that you had to cross on 2 by 4s over the shark infested water. We were only there for about a week and I only left the ship when I actually had to.

I LOVED living on the ship, but there was crazy emotional stuff that we dealt with traveling as much as we did. One of those things was culture shock especially going from the States to impoverished countries. Let me just say that we never snuck into a port quietly. No. We are talking about a big ship full of foreigners providing free services pulling in and so we ALWAYS drew big crowds and there were always people on the dock next to the ship trying to see in. There was a dining room on the ship that everyone ate their meals in. What I remember distinctly on that arrival to Nicaragua was one of the first meals when the tide had made it so the people on dock could look right into the dining room. I went and got my plate of food and sat down at a table. And I turn and there were all these super skinny kids looking in the window at my plate of food. I full weight of that feeling of how much I am blessed with and take for granted when so many in the world are starving hit me yet again and I ran away crying with no appetite.

After a week, we headed back to the Dominican Republic. I heard that there was a team from PA coming, but Selena & Crissy hadn’t thought that they were going to be able to come. Another thing about living on the ship was that we only got mail occasionally- usually at least a month after it was sent. Well that year, Selena and Crissy sent me a birthday/Christmas box that did not arrive on time, but then I got the great news that Selena had been able to convince her dad to let them come and they were bringing 2 people who were on our WV trip, Rob and Jenny! Their box they had sent a month before arrived when they were onboard. My family had been planning to spend a week up in the mountains, but since it was the same week that Selena & Crissy were onboard they let me stay on the ship. We had SO much fun that week going to the beach, climbing waterfalls, dressing in love skirts and having midnight rendezvous on the dock and talking, talking, talking. When it came time for them to leave, we were alittle OUT OF CONTROL! We bawled and bawled.

In April the ship went into dry dock which meant everyone had to move off. Since the DTS was too large to go to host homes, they had to go live on the base in Lindale and since Mams worked with them, we went along. I LOVED this DTS and had become fun friends with so many of them. On the base we met James, Jon Hauserman, and a Gecamo who was a really hot latino that the ladies all loved. That month was SO much fun hanging out with all of them and then hanging out on the the pool house roof with James and Gecamo til the wee hours and then sneaking up the ladies dorm super squeeky stairs at 3AM every morning.

Martha and Dan had both spent a summer with Teen Missions International previously and when I was 14, I was old enough to take one of their trips. I sat down with my dad and told him I wanted to go and so we worked out a plan. TMI is SUPER strick and you have to wear pants and construction boots all summer. We had such a hard time finding boots that fit the requirements that were a small enough size for me. There is a training for all the teams called Boot Camp where you live in tents, wake up and run an obsticale course everymorning, and then train during the days for the things you will be doing. A few of the teens did “Early Bootcamp” that ran at the same time as the little kid programs and left earlier in the summer. Selena also went that summer and although we were on different teams, it was fun to get to see her. I took my first solo flight and when I arrived in FL, the guy who came to pick us all up from the airport was a guy named Caleb Massey who had come for an evening to visit the ship the year before and hung out with my friends so it was fun that I already knew him. I LOVED bootcamp even though it was SO hard and most people hated it. Then we flew to Ecuador where were built the 2nd story onto the building we were staying in. I have no clue what the building was used for, I don’t remember talking to any of the locals the whole time and we all got super sick. But I still had the time of my life. Being away from home for 2 months really made me grow up and think for myself. We had no running water so we hauled freezing water in buckets to wash our hair occastionally though it would give us a headache because it was so cold, we peed in squata potties, and I remember when we would finally go into a city and wash our hands, they would literally change color when all the dirt came off them. I didn't have a mirror and I remember seeing my reflextion in 1 after about a month of not looking in 1 and thinking, "Oh yes, I had forgotten what I looked like." I loved our team though and the basic way of life and the Andes Mountains are SO beautiful. I got in lots of trouble that summer because I talk constantly, had a relationship with a boy (one of the biggest no nos of the organization) and I would always giggle during quiet times. I loved that summer with all my heart though and only got homesick one night when I was really sick. On the way back to FL, we visited the Ecuator then flew to Panama for a few days where we slept in beds and took real showers for the first time in 2 months. We had a week of “debriefing” in FL which I pretty much cried the entire week because I was so sad to leave my “TMI Family.” When I flew back to the ship, it was in New Orleans and my parents came to pick me up. On the ride home I was telling my mom about how 1 of the girls was going to vacation right after the trip and how I thought it was so sad she wasn’t going home, but to somewhere she had never been before and my mom was like, “You have never been to New Orleans before, how is that different?” But the truth was that the ship was my home and it didn’t matter where we were docked, it would always be going home to me.

When I got back to the ship, Keri Coombs had moved back onboard and her new roommate was also going to be my new teacher- Miss Kelly. Those 2 acted like there was not a 14 year age difference between us and that year was amazing! Luke & Joe had moved off the ship, so our class was just Amy, Annie, and I and Kelly let us decorate our classroom ourselves, and she was an amazing teacher taking us off the ship on all kinds of real life adventures to educate us. Then in the evenings the whole group of us would play sports on the dock, play sardines on the ship (the most popular spot to hide was the walk in fridges), swimming or playing sand volleyball at the local naval base, etc. Since everyone lived in the same place, you didn’t have to call to arrange to meet, you just all hung out every night.

Traveled to: Nicaragua; Dominican Republic; Bahamas; Port Canaveral, FL; Norfolk, VA; Wilmington, NC; Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua; Santo Tomas, Guatemala; Corpus Christi, TX, Lindale, TX; Merrit Island, FL; Riobumba, Ecuador; Panama; Orlando, FL; New Orleans, LA; Tampa, FL; St. Petersburg, FL.