That was until he spent seven months volunteering as a tradie on board the world’s largest civilian hospital ship earlier this year.
The New Brighton resident travelled to Guinea, West Africa, to join the Mercy Ships technical crew.
Mr Jansons believes tradies are often hidden heroes, and on the Mercy Ship they fill essential roles that do not often come to mind when people think of hospitalships.
His work as an electronics technician is vital to the Mercy Ship functioning as a floating first-world hospital in the developing nations the charity serves.
Being on the ship benefited Mr Jansons greatly.
“My days were never the same. I had the opportunity to work on variety of systems, machines and equipment, ranging from auto fire detection systems, fuel purifiers, cranes, main distribution switchboards, medical air monitoring systems, many marine electronics, and much more. As a technician at home I would need to work for several different industries to gain that sort of experience,” he said.
Mr Jansons was personally impacted by the faith-based charity’s mission to deliver free essential surgery to West Africa poor, as well as being challenged professionally.
“The broad range of people that I met on board was inspiring. On the technical side, I found more confidence in dealing with machines and systems I’d never handled before, and was able to pass on what I knew to other people.”
