Academy Blog

Many of the countries we work in have unique historical & cultural stories to tell. Benin was a port for the brutal slave trade, run largely by the Portuguese.

In early December I said goodbye to the Africa Mercy Academy, my home of over 2 years to embark on a new journey to the Global Mercy Academy. I had seen many images of the new academy, the classrooms, and workspaces but I was extremely excited to see it in...

One year we had a new teacher in the fourth and fifth grade classroom. She didn’t bring any Christmas decorations with her when she came to the ship. (Not a big surprise, eh?) However, that didn’t stop her, even in a country with no shops for teacher arts. She...

This is my first year working as a social studies teacher on the Africa Mercy.  One of the things that I love about teaching onboard a hospital ship is the amazing field trips that my students can take.  When my 6th grade class was learning about geography and I...

Sometimes when we come into Gran Canaria for the ship’s refit, the Academy is still in session. Gran Canaria. This is a volcanic island, part of the Grand Canary Islands. It is about 100 km west of Morocco, though it belongs to Spain. The Spanish came in the late...

On alternating years, the Academy has been holding a senior project for eleventh and twelfth grade students which richly challenged them. In lieu of their normal English curriculum, they took a quarter to develop a personal project about something they wanted to...

In January, 2016, the M/V Logos Hope came into port in Madagascar and moored at the pier next to where the Africa Mercy was stationed amidst much cheering and delight. The two ships looked like twins, as both were commissioned from retired ferries. Here you see the...

Hello! My name is Trina Ramirez and I will be the Preschool teacher on the Africa Mercy in January! Let me tell you about myself and how I got here to work in the Academy. I grew up in Guatemala as a missionary kid and moved to the states when I was 15. So that...

As a teacher, I like having a plan. I like feeling confident and prepared. But on Friday afternoons, when we walk out of our classroom and into the noise, heat, and chaos of deck seven, all of that is thrown out the window. I am no longer certain of the rules, the...