Walk a Mile with Me

07:00

The buzzing of my alarm wakes me and I search around my bed to find my phone so I can turn the alarm off before it wake up my cabin mates. Once, I have turned off my phone I check messages and emails from family and friends that I received during the night. 

07:15 

I climb a flight of stairs to the dining room. Usually at this time there is not much of a line, coming at this time doesn't always guarantee that you will get cinnamon bun, pancakes or fresh biscuit. That is the price I pay for taking so long to get out of bed in the morning. My typical breakfast is a couple pieces of bread with meat and cheese, with some fresh fruit. 

07:30 

If I haven't finished answering emails I will work on that util I get have to get ready for work, otherwise I will sleep for 20 more minutes. Depending on what day of the week it is I might have a meeting to go to before work or a team devotion. 

08:00

Typically we start work around this time. We start by going through the vegetables from the day before seeing how much is left and if it is fresh enough to be served. Rianne, is the team leader of the cold side, will write down on the white board what vegetables we need and how many trays need to be prepared.

In just a few weeks, Rianne will be going home and I will be taking her place. We start off the morning with just a few day crew who help us prepare the meals for the day. 

Before we can serve the vegetables and fruit we must wash them in chlorine water, and rinse them off. This ensures that we are eating clean and safe produce. 

09:45 

We will have a break just before the next set of day crew arrives. After our break we prepare the rest of the rest of the food for lunch, if we are done early we start preparing for dinner. The most emotional part of the day is when we cut onions everyone seems to cry, I am lucky because since I wear contacts I don't cry from the onions.

The vegetables that we have at every meal are:

- green peppers

- lettuce

- red onions

- carrots

- cucumbers

- tomatos

11:30-12:00

Typically, when we are finished preparing everything for lunch we go on our break. 

13:00

Back from our lunch break, we put everything from lunch in the fridge and see how much we need to prepare for dinner. If the hot meal that was prepared for lunch was very popular there will be more leftover vegetables, so we will have less to prepare.

15:00

Around this time we take a break. Usually we are nearly done preparing for dinner. When the cold side dinner preparation is finished we clean up the work area. We have a couple day crew doing dishes throughout the day but now a group will tackle the dishes. We sweep the floors, mop them and emptying garbage. I love moping the floor because we just dump a bucket of soapy water on the floor and scrub. If we have finished cleaning up and the hot side is running behind some of the cold side crew will help. 

16:45-17:00

Around this time we take a break for dinner usually about an hour to hour and half. 

18:00-18:30

If it's my night to the dishes I will have to back around this time to finish up for the day. Emptying trolleys putting away leftover food in the cooler. Usually we finish up around 19:00. 

So there you have it a day in the life of a Mercy Ship cold side cook.