The End of an Era!

Above-Boutique regular Emmanuel.

The start of June was the end of managing the Boutique for me. This job was one of highs and lows. From the moment the door of the Boutique was opened for me in South Africa and I saw the mountains of stuff to be sorted out, I knew I was going to have my work cut out! It took me a week to sort everything into boxes on the floor to prepare for sail. I was given a spare cabin to help sort/store things in that I thought I had use of until March. However, two days before we sailed I was told that I had to get everything out of the cabin! So with the help of about five people from crew services we lifted everything from the cabin into the Boutique, creating chaos. I was pretty proud of myself that nothing shifted during the sail.

Once we arived in Sierra Leone the hard work continued. I had a week to get that place up and running! With donations continually coming in, I desperately sorted, stacked, folded, hung, cleaned, labelled, lugged and lifted. The doors opened to a flood of people and the Boutique continued to thrive. The record stood at 55 people in two hours one Monday evening! Sometimes this job was lonely, boring, repetitive and always hot. But the rewards were great. After arriving with only one bag of 23kg each it was nice to be able to pick up some things to make our life a bit easier and to transform our house into a home. I got to know so many of the crew and it was such a joy to bless them and other departments around the ship. I was also able to get a large amount of clothing and several baby items out into the community. Thank you to Gina and Lawrence, James and Alice. Thanks also to Clementine for delivering all the clothing to the ladies on the wards.

Regular -Gideon

Regular-Jane

Regular-Clementine

Regular-Tiffany

My favoutie regular-James. You always put a smile on my face!



The last night.





The day before the grand opening-where it all began! Farewell Boutique!



Thank you to all the wondeful people who wrote anonymous notes on my whiteboard and those who bought me things. Thanks Dara for the iced coffees, Jess for the frappe, Megan for coffee, Ganesh for the fabulous dahl and curries, James for your wonderful singing and everyone who gave me lots of hugs! You made it worth while!

My sweetest note......