A day in the life

So what is an average day like for us here in Croatia?

Well the day starts early for me, Steve, leaving the house soon after 7 to walk the few minutes along to the ship yard and onboard Logos Hope to grab a bite of breakfast. At 7.30 am I meet with the other ship leaders to discuss progress and to pray. Then at 8 am I meet with my team for a few minutes to review the day and pray together.
Meanwhile Heather is getting the kids ready for school and at 8.45 the ship van calls at the house to pick up the kids and take them the 10 mins drive to school.
Heather spends some time doing some housework and then normally comes onto the ship between 9.30 – 10.
I will often spend the first hour of the day catching up on emails and prioritising what needs doing that day. I will often have a couple of meetings in the morning with other leaders or members of my team as we plan for the work we need to do to get the ship ready for the next phase of the project.
Tea break at 10 am is a good time to catch up with people that you need to speak to.
Heather will often get people coming to her with their health complaints. At the moment the clinic is not set up so Heather holds surgery wherever she happens to be.

After tea break I might be running around the ship trying to organise getting another office set up or dealing with problems with the ships vehicles. I could be trying to organise transport for people travelling overland to Germany or taking part in a meeting about our plans for the transition of the IT network from one ship to another.

Lunch is at 12.30. The kids have a packed lunch at school and Heather and I get a few minutes to find out what the other is doing in a busy dining room in between announcements, devotions etc. Before you know it, it’s 1.30 and back to work, catching a few people that you need to talk to before you leave the dining room.
Heather will spend an hour doing emails, paperwork or sorting out drugs before leaving at 2.30 to get home in time for the kids getting dropped off from school.
Heather may take them out to one of the other families home or to play on their bikes for a while.

For me the afternoon will disappear in a blur of meetings, emails, updating financial spreadsheets, taking phone calls and running around the ship organising this and that.
Before I know it, 6 pm has arrived and I really must get off the ship and get back home to see the kids for the first time today. Most week days we only get a very short 2 hours together over tea, a bit of homework and bedtime stories before they are in bed.

Once the kids are settled down Heather and I finally get chance to catch up a bit on the day. Sometimes we might watch a DVD together – we are currently enjoying Alias Series 2 and Cold Feet, or else write emails or postcards. Several evenings a week one of us might go to the ship to use the internet or for me perhaps to catch up on work not finished during the day. It’s soon bed time and we gladly hit the pillow knowing the alarm will soon be going off again.

We all really enjoy our time here in Trogir – but most days it really is no holiday.

Nuclear submarines and other strange questions

"You are having a laugh eh?""No we need you to do a live TV interview tommorow. Away I went in my kilt with ma wee Soltaire flag..I actually loved it! It was like being on the Richard n Judy show with me on the sofa!!! They will surely be calling me when i get ome!! The TV was a local chat show they wanted to advertise a Scottish Dance evening so they asked me what I thought of Croatia, why I was here, Scottish food and places to visit in Edinburgh. When leaving the studio, the pastor who had come to translate said "now to the radio station"! The radio station was unexpected as were the bizarre questions they asked me! Seriously the first thing they asked was "what do i think of the nuclear submarines in the Adriatic"!!! There were quite a few more weird questions to follow! My fellow Scot, Marian, was with me on the radio and they actually tried to sell her to the highest bidder

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Weekly community events take place to help the local church build relationships with the people of Split. The Scottish Dance was good fun with lots of tourists as well as a few locals coming along. The space for dancing was the size of a table tennis table so that was cozy.
So what do i think of nuclear submarines in the Adriatic??Am I in the navy?Ive no idea!!!