Where is Home?

Where is home? I have been asked this question so many times over the last five years. For me, home is where I have left a piece of my heart. Home is somewhere that generates feelings of wellbeing and familiarity. I guess that means I have lots of homes all over the world. My life is richer and more abundant because I have so many homes but my heart is in a million little pieces scattered all over the globe. I can travel to dozens of countries and can always be met with a friendly face and have somewhere to lay my head.

Home is the United States where we completed our Mercy Ships training in 2006 and visited again in 2009. It is where we have literally dozens of friends. Home is in the tiny village of Villa Ascension in the Dominican Republic. Home is on Bad Boy Lane in Sierra Leone and the white sands and azure waters of River No. 2 Beach. Home is fresh strawberries at Cote Jardin on the beach road in Togo and the funny little Chinese $ store. Home is in Guinea in the embrace of my beautiful friend Grace and lazy Saturday afternoons at the Riviera Hotel. Home is in the United Kingdom at the foot of Stonehenge just down the road from ship friends and just across from Wales where more mates live.

Home is the black volcanic backdrop and colourful gelato bars of the Canary Islands. Home is at the foot of the jungles at the Diosso Gorge in the Congo. Home is in the savannahs of South Africa and the Mugg and Bean at the V&A in Cape Town.  Home is the Dormac (Durban) and Astican (Las Palmas) shipyards. Home is airports. Lots. Of. Airports. Taking us to all our homes.

Home is in the cry of the lemur and chatting with Ivan at the Calypso in Madagascar. Home is a big white hospital ship with friends from 40 nations, where we live in a three room cabin.  Home is my Mum and Dad's house in Tasmania. Home is where our family lives as well as all our "stuff" and our car, our birth country, Australia.

 In June and July we spent some time in Australia, out longest home! Just a few random pics to celebrate our trip!

Our first stop was Launceston, Tasmania, where Andrew and I met and married and our parent's live.


We see all the photos on Facebook  but this time it was out turn to have a Mercy Ships reunion with our newlywed friends, Leah and Idrissa Koroma, who left the ship in December, 2014. It was fantastic to catch up with them and to spend some time filling them in on ship life.

The beautiful Cataract Gorge in the heart of Launceston City, where many peacocks strut and have become an iconic feature of the Gorge.

A panoramic view of the Gorge from the suspension bridge.

A quick trip down to Tasmania's historic capital city, Hobart, where Jodie was born! Historic and very cold!! You see, while the vast majority of the ship's crew were going back home to enjoy summer, we headed back to the coldest winter Australia has had for the past 60 years!! Not long after we left Australia, Hobart received a dumping of snow to sea level!


Unfortunately we missed most of the snow but Jess was pretty excited to find this little patch on the side of Mt. Wellington, which overlooks Hobart.

Another panoramic view. This time from the top of Mt. Wellington at sunset.

It was about 0 degrees Celsius on Mt. Wellington but the wind chill factor was several degrees below zero and positively took your breath away! Us trying to keep warm!!

Mt. Wellington from below.

Salamanca Market at the foot of Mt. Wellington, home of hippies, piping hot cinnamon donuts, great second hand books, fantastic fudge, cool doggy treats and amazing Tasmanian hand crafts.

The main reason for our road trip to Hobart was to catch up with this awesome woman!! My grandmother, 99 years ago and not looking a day over 80! So good to see her again!

This is an odd picture I hear you thinking! We ventured into the controversial MONA (Museum of Old and New Art). This is Jess and my Dad in a special room where you wore sound blocking headphones and lay back in a beach chair and appreciated the view outside. For some reason we found it extremely amusing, fuelled by the fact that we couldn't hear ourselves laughing!

Back to Launnie......we held an informal coffee and dessert evening for our regular, local financial supporters. We wanted to make it a little bit fun with a Madagascar theme. Even Melman and Gloria popped in for a visit!

Just a pic of the Tamar River in Launceston sporting some beautiful autumn colours.

"I've been around the world
A couple of times or maybe more
I've seen the sights, I've had delights
On every foreign shore
But when my mates all ask me
The place that I adore
I tell them right away

Give me a home among the gum trees
With lots of plum trees
A sheep or two, a k-kangaroo
A clothesline out the back
Verandah out the front
And an old rocking chair...."

......the lyrics to a famous Aussie song.

We thought it was high time we re-acquainted Jess with some Aussie wildlife so we took her, Leah and Idrissa (who was also meeting some of our native animals for the first time) to a local wildlife park. Ok, so Shetland ponies are not indigenous to Australia but it is a cute photo of Jess!

Photos of kangaroos and Tasmanian Devils for all our non-Aussie readers to enjoy! :)

The very cheek cockatoo who will talk back to you! "Hello cocky" being it's favourite catchcry!

Jess really enjoyed going out with my Dad on electric scooters!

We had the opportunity to speak at our home church in Launceston, Door of Hope Christian Church. Andrew spoke in the morning service and Jessica spoke at Undone, the youth service. She made quite an impact and made her mamma proud!!

Our next stop was the stunning Cradle Mountain where we stayed for a few nights. No snow in close sight but handfeeding the pademelons and walking the end of the Dove Lake Circuit at sunset made up for it!

All rugged up ready to do some bushwalking!

With Mum and Dad under the setting sun.

Jess and her friend Nikola enjoying a traditional Aussie meat pie! Can't do much better on a cold winter's day, unless you add an iced coffee on the side!

We caught up with many friends while we were back in Australia but one friend that I will always have time for is my dear friend of twenty five years, Ruth.

A few more flights saw us a bit further up the Aussie coastline in Brisbane, Queensland the birthplace of Jessica!. Above, Jess cuddles up with all the young nieces and nephews, including two she had never met before!

A fun family shot!


Whilst we had a great time in Australia we were keen to get back to another of our homes, the Africa Mercy. It is hard to describe the way we feel at home in so many places. As we cruised into the Port of Tamatave, Madagascar last Sunday and saw the familiar palm lined beach of the Indian Ocean, crew and day crew waving us in, I felt a strong sense of home once again. I found this quote below which I think sums it up pretty well!


Where is home for you?