The last few days have been kind of stressful, and kind of funny. I don’t know wether to laugh or cry, a lot of the time. I figured laughing is more socially acceptable, so have tried to stick to that.
I have had my last 2 working days in Deck, and did hardly any work at all, it feels like. The day before yesterday, we were going to be doing some varnishing on the Starboard prom deck, just outside the mess. However, after devotions in the morning, all the lifeboat teams got called to safety training, and so that meant we didn’t do any work for about an hour. STEPPERs are not envolved in lifeboat or safety training.
Then when we got there, we discovered that it had rained on the previous days layer of varnish, which another team had done, and it looked terrible. So as we were not sure if it would rain again on top of whatever we did that day, I suggested putting up some poles and hanging a canvas over it. We could not just hang a canvas without poles, as the deck above stops right above the railing, and the canvas would be hanging on the railing.
So the (acting) team leader told me, “Good idea, you do that and the rest of us will go and get the varnish and other cleaning stuff for the rails.” So off I went. I found some roller extensions, which would work fine, and also got some rope from the foc’s’cle. Then I set to work, perhaps not in the easiest way, but in the most straitforward that I could think of at the time. I fixed all of the poles sticking out horizontally from the ceiling out to about a metre beyond the edge of the railing, and used the rope to keep them all from falling out. Just using simple hitches all the way along.
When I had finished putting up the poles, which took about half an hour, I went to find the others, who were still not there. They were all up on another deck, varnishing that one. I told the leader that I was finished with the poles, and asked where I should get the canvasses from.
He said, “Well… I hate to say this, but I think this whole thing is just taking too much effort, and if it does rain, we’re screwed anyway, because this rail we are working on now will get wet. So, if you could just take down the poles, and instead pray that it doesn’t rain.”
Thanks.
OK. Well, no problem. So I took down the poles. I was just finishing that, when they all trooped down, to get ready for lunch break. As they were walking past, the leader looked at the ceiling, and asked what on earth the splashes of rather messy water were on it. While attaching the rope, I had unfortunately let some of it hang onto the wet deck below, which was still wet from the cleaning team swabbing it. When I pulled the rope through the loops to make the hitchesto hold the poles in place, it had splattered the surrounding locale with droplets of muddy water. Oops.
So he got out the firehose, and sprayed it all down, laughing his head off the whole time. Which I guess is better than being angry.
Anyway. We spend the afternoon in varnishing that railing, and then we painted the same deck’s gunwhales black again.
At 2.15pm, I had read in my email that I was supposed to go for a final STEP evalutation meeting with our STEP-mum in the dining room. So I got permission from the leader, and went off at 2.15. No one was there. So I checked her office, still no-one. Then I phoned the info desk, and found out that she was not even on the ship! Quite a strange feeling. So I went back to work. After we had finished, I cleaned up all the brushes and rollers and things. Still no sign of STEP-mum.
Then yesterday morning, after breakfast it was lifeboat drills, so again, Deck STEPPERs get an extra 45 minutes off. So I went to her office, and found out it was actually 10.15am I should have been there. I do not know WHY or HOW I managed to misread that, but oh well.
<p>
She didn’t mind, and we had the meeting there. Just usual questions “What are some of the challenges you think you have faced during your time on this STEP?” and so on…
</p>
<p>
She then prayed for me, and I went back to my cabin to practice knots and chill out for a while. Most of the team leaders of the Deckies are doing EDH training at the moment, that is like so they can become qualified deck hands, and so they are all off at training all day, which is why it is a bit disorganized at the moment.
</p>
<p>
Anyway, so there are knot books and ropes lying around all over the place, and everyone discussing knots in the mess. There are some really facinating knots about. Amazing things.
</p>
<p>
After drills, our team went and moved down the parts for the quayside stage, as we have a programme on Monday (Doulos’ 91st birthday!) and there will be many things which need a stage.
</p>
<p>
Then after getting that down, we waved and hugged goodbye to another STEPPER, and one of the 2 year people who had just finished, and then we got the brushes and things ready to do some more varnishing, and went further down the prom deck, to where another team had been working the day before, or perhaps before that.
</p>
<p>
It was a mess. Terrible! Varnish far too thick on, so it was running and had formed bubbles and drips, and bits running down the side of the ship! So we got the sanding machine, to sand off some of the worst, but as it was so thick, it was still not fully dried, and it just made a worse mess in the place we tried.
</p>
<p>
So we called the carpenter, and he said “Yuk.” or something along those lines, and we took some deck knives, and also some scrapers, and began to scrape off some of the worst of it. We then left that to dry even more over night, and did some varnishing further along where it was not so bad. </span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >Then it began to rain.</span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >Not a lot, just spitting. We did a bit more work, but the rain meant we did not want to do too much more varnishing, as it really messes it up. Of course, everyone said “Hey, perhaps we should put up some canvases over the top!”. Hehe.</p>
<p>
We then cleaned up, painted some more gunwhale, and stood down. I was just half way through eating dinner, when I heard my name being paged. My goodness. They then told me to phone gangway, so I did, and was told, “Hey Daniel, did you know you are on meal relief today?”
</p>
<p>
No! oops! so I quickly ran to get my security uniform on, and then went on watch again for another half hour while the gangwayman could go and have dinner. Thankfully, she did not mind at all, and spent most of the time by the gangway anyway, eating hotdogs from the stall just across the quay, run by some Christian hotdog salesmen, or something.
</p>
<p>
Then I went back inside again, to find out I had missed 2 e-day meetings, one at 5.30, and the other at 6.00, as I have 2 edays now. Today, and tomorrow. Weird deckie-schedule. Anyway. They said it didn’t really matter, as most people had not turned up anyway, and we would meet today to figure it all out. </span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >So… I went to bed at about 9ish, feeling exhausted. Some days are good, some days not so good. I have 2 e-days now, which should be good, as I think I will be getting to play clarinet, and do some acting and drama and stuff. Then on Monday, I have been asked to be a clown and do some juggling and stuff for the Doulos birthday party! That will be a lot of fun, I think.</p>
<p>
Yesterday we had our last extended deckie devotions, and all the STEPPERs said a short bit about how we had found life on deck, and what we were planning to do after. Then they all prayed for us too.</span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >Oh, speaking of which, the farewell was not too bad, I managed to change the really corny music for something silly, which was not so bad. (The techno-trance version of the Sesame Street Theme… quite funny). I told an obscure joke, which a few people laughed at, and others muttered about for a few seconds, and then laughed at, some muttered at, and a lot just looked blank at.</p>
<p>
“I have learned on Doulos that there are 2 ways to do everything. The Easy Way, and the Hard Way. These are also known, respectively, as the Obvious Way, and the ISM* way…” Oh well. Not so good, as jokes go, but yeah.</span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >We have prayer night tonight, which is to be led by the STEP group. Should be good. I have not been asked to do anything, which may be a good thing, as I think I may be out tonight with the e-day. It is all really confusing for me, just this last week, what with finishing watch, not having done deck day work for 2 weeks now (Sabbath week before), loads of people leaving, all the extra STEP things, trying to get done many of the things which I need to before leaving myself, just general tiredness from having a weird schedule with all my e-days and off-days moved around, and so on.</p>
<p>
All in all, I have really enjoyed working on deck. Even if it does take a long time to learn, and even if I have messed up a few times, and needed to re-do things. Very cool people, and I will miss the daily deck devotions, singing, and all that before work. I’ll just stop now before I get all emotional and soppy.</span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >Oh. Funny thing happened this evening. I got paged again, went to the gangway, and found this English bloke there. He said:</span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >“Daniel? Hi! Christos Andreou said to say, ‘Hi, Keep safe’, and to check up on you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >Pause. Christos Andreou? There’s a name I wasn’t expecting to hear. So I started chatting to the guy, and got steadily more confused. I said that Christos and I had been playing in the same town band in Larnaka, and that his dad was my clarinet teacher. He said “Oh, I thought you had just met when Christos visited the Doulos…” What? Why hadn’t he said hello then? He said Christos was staying with him in S.A, and had been for 3 years. What? Then he asked “You methim just last week while on gangway watch, right?” </span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >Oooooh. The light dawns slowly across the face of Daniel. That Christos. A bloke had come up to me on watch last week, and asked “Hi, I don’t suppose you have any Cypriots on board do you?” So I talked with him a while about Cyprus, he was a Cypriot South African, studying here. I found out his name was Christos, but I didn’t remember the Andreou. Funny.</p>
<p>
So, after this English bloke and I laughed about that for a while, he told me he had been a sparks in the British Navy for a while, and wondered if he could see the radio room… So we went around to the tours desk, and found that the offical tour would go up to the bridge, but not the radio room, so we went on that. Interesting for me to finally go with an offical tour of the Doulos. The guy seemed very happy about all of that, and afterwards said how much he liked being on a “real ship” again, not a floating hotel, like so many of them were these days. Yeah. So, quite a funny end to that day.</span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >I’m off to breakfast.</p>
<p>
<span style="font-style: italic;">*The ISM is the International Shipping Manual. It has a whole lot of rules and so on about </span><span style="font-style: italic;">the correct way to do stuff. Some of it makes sense, and some of it is just plain obscure.</span><br /></span>
</p>
2005
Lots of people are feeling a bit low. But also most people are really excited to be going home. I am too, of course, but they are excited to be leaving the ship. I’m not.
I am really looking forward to being back in Larnaka, seeing family again, and so on. And I have so many things which I want to do. I want to learn to cook, for instance. If I come back to Doulos, then I want to be able to cook myself some pasta or calzonies or something occasionally. There are pantries which anyone can use scattered about the ship (I think we have 4 or so…).
Part of my feeling depressed though is not to do with leaving, or with missing other people, because generally I’m quite good about that. Because I have been on the Doulos twice before, it’s not a”never see Doulos again” thing, either, which some of the people have (the ones living in the USA) a bit. And as I want to come back again anyway, I hopefully will see quite a lot of the other people again anyway.
I think part of why I am feeling depressed is because I feel like I have not really acomplished anything much. I have had so many wonderful experiences, these last 2 months, and met so many amazing people, and seen such fantastic things (I’m running out of adjectives here), and yet feel as if I have actually contributed very little.
Our STEP-mum says that that is quite normal to feel a bit like that, but not to worry, as (a) she is quite happy with me, and (b) when I come back for 2 years, I will have much more chance to be envolved with the Drama Group, music, and so on, as well as more chance to contribute in other ways too… But yeah.
Rebekah is still recovering from malaria, she is fully better, but is still weak, and she lost a lotof weight, and flying is never the most stressless experiences anyway.
The farewell thing tonight has a program of the following:
20:00 Welcome – STEP-mum
20:02 Thank you – Co-Director
20:20 Certificates – STEP-mum
20:30 Step participation:
Parade of Nations (AV-People) – everyone prepares 30 sec of talk – carrying T.A.N.Z.A.N.I.A. S.T.E.P. letters
Slideshow (raffi) Sing a song (nanana – goodbye)
Thank You & read a verse (Jenny)
21:00 End in prayer- STEP-mum
So, yeah. The “Parade of Nations” is a I-night item, where they put on this extremely annoying repetative dramatic music, and all the people envolved go forward wearing their national dress, and get announced by someone far too enthusiastically and everyone claps.
That is the cynical “I’m still depressed and everyone ought to blooming well know about it” version.
Sorry.
I was on watch when they did the meeting about this, and arranged it all, so I have about as much idea about the rest of it as you do. I shall just turn up and do whatever they ask me to. This totally typifies our group though. Some people not at the planning meeting, a few people will not be at the farewell (they missed work and so are not allowed to miss it again tonight), a few people not even sure what’s happening, and 1 person already left. As they say on board: Wunderbar.
I found some pictures of one of the previous pre-ship training weeks on the scratch network drives today. Very cool. But I think I will learn to swim before I come back to Doulos too… one of the training items envolves having to un-capsize an inflatable life-raft in a swimming pool, and learning to put on a lifejacket while swimming too.
I went out to the town this afternoon with 2 of the others. One STEPPER who “needed” to buy a few more gifts for family, bf and so on, and her friend, the SP of one of the other STEPPERs, and myself. We took a taxi to the beach front, and there went to a whole load of various touristy stalls, selling loads of random ethnic-looking-probably-factory-made-oh-so-African things.
<p>
My goodness. I just read that sentance again. I must be feeling cynical </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >today.</p>
<p>
We walked around for a while, until they ran(d) out of money, (that’s a pun) and so we </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >looked for an ATM machine. We walked until we saw a sign for one, down an alleyway, mostly </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >deserted, heading off into a kind of beach/cafe complex thing.</p>
<p>
Very quiet.
</p>
<p>
Too quiet.
</p>
<p>
One of </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >them was just starting to walk down the alley, but I called her back. I just did not feel happy about that alley. It was too far from anyone else, not a lot of people, only a few 20yo men hanging around. First time I have ever felt distinctly unsafe, and refused to go somewhere. The girls were joking about me being their Body Guard, and yeah.</p>
<p>
So we walked back, and found another more public road which actually led to the cafe with the ATM machine. It didn’t work. Just outside the cafe was a police car, so we went to ask the officer, and he said “Yeah. Well, if you get in the car, I can drive you to a better one. This is not one of the safer areas of town.” So I got to ride in a police car!
</p>
<p>
Anyway. Cool. Very nice guy, he even waited for her at the ATM machine and then drove us back to the seafront. The police here are really good, apparently.
</p>
<p>
Later on we met a homeless couple, who made complex artwork things out of dried palm fronds, and were selling them at 5 Rand each, because they wanted to make an honest living, they said. </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >So we bought a few (extremely good), and then later met another homeless couple, who </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >wanted some money to buy some special milk for their age-2 daughter (who was with them) </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >as she was lactose intolerent, they said.</p>
<p>
We wern’t that naive, and one of the girls said “If we buy you some, and then give it to you, is that OK?” they said sure, so they (perhaps unwisely) found a taxi, and we went off to try and find some. We did, eventually, and came back, and drove up and down the seafront once looking for them but could not, and so, after praying, gave up, and went back.
</p>
<p>
We missed the gate at the port, and ended up driving much further than needed. Still, the taxi fare was about 5 pounds (10 dollars) in total, for all 3 of us, which is not too extravagent, I guess.
</p>
<p>
We are not supposed to leave the port except in cars, as it is not safe. Too many people have been mugged in this area. You have to keep cars locked, even while in them, never open windows more than a few inches while in the city, and so on, because of hijacking being so common.
</p>
<p>
Anyway. We gave the lactose-free milk power to the taxi driver for his niece, who he said was also lactose intolerant. He said he will try to visit the ship sometime before we all leave. Andrew (my cabinmate) finally left later, once we were back. Quite sad.</span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >Oh, last night, as well as the water-gun Fireround, he took 3 or so black-binliner bags full of old scrap paper he had salvaged from the office departments, and then had put through the shredder, and tipped it out all over the floor of the one bathroom in the girls section. A place totally forbidden to guys to enter, but he said that as he didn’t really want to come back anyway, there was nothing they could do to him, and he thought it would be worth it.</p>
<p>
Many of the girls had seen him shredding paper earlier yesterday, and so it was hardly anonymous. Apparently a few years ago practical jokes along these lines, and even worse, were quite common… but the current Captain and Director don’t really appreciate them, and so they are discouraged. (The jokes are discouraged. Not the Captain and Director.)
</p>
<p>
Things like when a new lot of recruits arrived, after their firedrill training, they would get woken up at about 2am, and told by random people dressed in full fire-gear that there was a drill on, and so when they went to their muster-stations, they would get heartily doused with the firehose. Good, typical, harmless expected types of things. But apparently it might cause people to stop believing real fire drills in the future… I can see their point, but in that particular instance, I don’t think it really does. It didn’t harm the previous recruits…
</p>
<p>
Anyway. That kind of thing is up to the Captain and Director, and if they don’t like it, fair enough.</span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >Anyway. Us STEPPERs just got paged to go meet up. I think something to do with this</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >farewell thingy. </span>
</p>
2005
I’m feeling more than slightly depressed. It is expected, I know. Less than ten days until I leave.
We have our Farewell evening tonight. The other STEPPERs have organized it. It sounds cheesy and terrible. I hope it isn’t.
The last of the previous STEP is leaving in an hour. He has been in the same cabin as I the whole time, is completely crazy, English, and a wonderful brother. I am really going to miss him.
Last night was my last watch, and I was able to arrange to get myself doing the first FireRound of the night (11pm), which is the one in which you find most of the curfew breakers. So many people have been ignoring curfew lately that my cabinmate (Andrew) who is leaving decided to do a last “goodbye” to the Doulos, and in his small way, to help to remedy the situation.
He bought a water pistol (Super-soakery type of thing. Huge great jets of water.) a few weeks ago. Fireround last night was really fun. There were about 30 people breaking curfew. They got wet.
<p>
Anyway. I’m pretty depressed.</span>
</p>
2005
Most of the other STEPPERs are leaving on the 21st, My flight is on the 23rd, though. A lot of them are going to fly down to Cape Town, for a weeks holiday or something like that. The STEPPERs with SP are going to stay on until september some time, because their SPs are finishing their commitment on board then, and so they will fly home togeather (and in one case at least, get married! 🙂 ).
[If coming back for a longer stint in future] I know now that 5 pairs of shoes is absurd. I think that I would take 2 or 3 less shirts and shorts, and more trousers and another fleece or hoodie. Oh, and 20kg as an on-ship requirement is not so vital. Only airplane limits really would apply. The limit is (I think) just to discourage people bringing like 80kg or stuff.
I am thinking, if God is calling me back for 2 years, then perhaps it would be better to get a Greenline Buffet clarinet, rather than wood. I will need to try a whole bunch and find a good one, but if I am working on board a ship, and perhaps afterwards going out missionarying, then a wooden clarinet is slightly impractical. I don’t really know.
Anyway.
The youth thing last night was OK. Not really very approp, though, I think. It was a quite large (300+ seater) pentecostal church (Tabernacle), with wooden pews, a raised procenium type stage, and so on. There were about 40 youth, maximum, from 4 or so different congregations.
We arrived at the end of the church’s music group practice, and they were staying on to do some music for us, a “time of worship”. So we all sat down, and they launched into a whole load of very upbeat loud songs I’d never heard before (no lyric sheets), during which time I noticed that (a) what a terrible P.A. system they had. I could barely understand a word said, or spoken, (b) the worship leader was speaking in Christianese, and seemed to be having a hard time connecting with the assembled teens, (c) having an eight piece worship band singing and playing with their eyes closed, waving their hands around, etc, doesn’t really feel very helpful to connecting.
Even the worship leader had her eyes closed, and I saw her at one point waving furiously for the band to make it louder, and bigger, and she asked questions, during the quiet bits between songs, asking why we all were not really joyful, and things.
Anyway. Not really terribly useful, IMHO. Then for our bit. We certainly demonstrated to the youth that not all Christians are up on a stage, off on some other planet.
It was very disorganised.
The STEPPER who was M.C.ing our bit, introduced each item something like “Um, and thankyou for that, and, yes, next we have, um, Daniel, and he will do a, a drama.”
Yeah, preach it, brother! Woo!
About my drama… well, they had put this pulpit/lecturn thingy out in the middle of the floor in front of the stage, and that was where I wanted to act. So I, dressed in my nice black acting shirt, and white Doulos mime-gloves, walked out accross the stage, picked up the lecturn, and walked it off stage, until I heard a crash, and looking down, discovered that it had had a rather nice glass of water in it, which I had just dropped, and smashed to shards, all over the floor.
Great.
What a way to begin. So, appologising profusely, I began to pick up the shards, and they helped, and then I got a chair, and did the drama. They laughed occasionly, which was nice, and I think all in all it went quite well, but I still had the smashed glass in my mind the whole time. Man.
After the whole thing, we had some cake and tea and buscuits and all. I burned my tongue on the tea (Doulos tea is never that hot!) Then we came back home.
We may all be going out to do more ministry things on Monday, and perhaps other days too. Last week will be busy, I think.
So, yeah. I’m going to go and get some food and stuff before my watch again this evening. Oh, I think I may be catching a Doulos/SouthAfrican Accent. Kind of worrying.
And we got yahoo messenger support now on Doulos! Woo! I could only remember Tim’s user and password, so logged on with that. Cool. I am now chatting with JJ. Fun.
2005
I’m very tired.
Found out yesterday that tonight us STEPPERs are going on a ministry trip to visit a youthgroup, and tell them how great missions are, and encourage them to do them, or something like that. Anyway, John, who is in charge of it (the one who got mugged) told me that I am going to be doing a drama. The “offering drama”. I’d never seen this, or ever even heard of it.
He said “well go find out from the creative ministries people”. Ok. So I did, they told me in about 2 minutes. It’s a 1 person drama/mime. Very cool story, actually. They gave me a pair of white gloves too. I wish I had brought my black tousers with me.
Oh well. Maybe I’ll do it at some point in Larnaka.
So I had then to find a way to get out of being on watch tonight. I SHOULD have been given time off already. About a month ago our STEP-mum sent an email (she said) to each of the deparment heads saying that STEPPERs need to be given time off on Friday nights, and other STEP times.
But last Friday was Sabbath Week, and so no STEP ministry time. The Friday before that, we were on overnight, and so no STEP ministry. And the Friday before that, we were voyaging, I believe. Or if not voyaging, then something else happened, or else I wasn’t on watch, or something. I don’t remember.
Anyway, so this is the FIRST time that the situation has acutally arisen, and so they had forgotten about this, and so I had to personally this afternoon find another deckie, and them willing, to swap watches with me for next week. Happily, I could find someone, and so that’s OK. But it will mean that now I have to do an extra watch next week for one day. 🙁
Oh well.
Met more home-educators today. 8-til-12 really lets you meet more people.
I’m thinking about renaming my blog “oh well”. What do you think? heh…
One of the previous STEPPERs, the one who left, lost his badge. Yesterday, while we were cleaning up our cabin to allow the other new STEPPERs to move in, we found it. Then one of the other cabin mates took the badge, and pinned it on the notice board with this note:
“Attention Ship’s Ladies!
Want a piece of the hunk that is
(name) ? His name-badge is going on
auction with a starting bid of 10 Rand,
please contact cabin (number).”
Then this morning, someone stole the badge from the board! This shocking problem caused my cabin mate to put a new notice on the board:
“Lost! One name badge belonging to (name).
Could whoever has stolen it please return
it to cabin (number). I know he is handsome,
but stealing is wrong!”
Then this afternoon, I saw his badge up on another cabin’s door. I told my friend, and he went and got the badge. Now he is going to put a new notice on the board, saying something like
“Due to high demand, the badge belonging to (name)
will no longer be on display, and for security purposes
will be kept safely in cabin (number). Bidding will resume,
at (price), please contact us!”.
We have the strangest notice board.
Anyway. I must be off. I am reading “The Practice of the Presence of God”, which I found in the Library. Interesting. And I also want to run through this drama/mime thing, and also do some replying to other emails and things.
2005
Still deck work to do, but not for watch keepers. I get the whole afternoon free, which is very cool. I hope to go out tomorrow. I bought some more at the book-ex today. A study bible (slightly ‘damaged’, it got wet or something while sailing), NIV, basically the same as my old one, for aprox. 2 CYP (equiv.), a new bible-cover, and a book of knots and rope work. I am wondering if I perhaps will run out of space to take things, or luggage allowance. I was under when I came out, right? And I will be leaving some shoes behind. So…
Strange life. Random happenings, on watch. A man walked through the gates, wandered around the quay for a while, went to our book-ex packing equipment, and started pulling a loading-trolley, and heading back towards the gate again. Not a port worker, just a random person. So I went up to him and told him “Please don’t take our trolleys”, took it from him, and put it back. He wandered around a bit more, and then left.
I met a family of home-schoolers today. They arrived an hour early of opening time, and so I chatted to them for a while. Christians. Very nice people. We talked about schooling, and from there into evolution vs. creationism, and from there into end-times, and he then told me that, by the way, the AntiChrist is alive and well, is English (sorry), 51, grey-haired, and just got married recently (again).
When I looked puzzled, he then told me the name of the AntiChrist, which adds up to 666 when the letters are counted, or something like that, in both English and in Hebrew. He is decended from royalty, and one day will be King of England, if his mother leaves the post. Hmm. I hadn’t concidered him before… hmm.
Oh well. I have a hard time taking seriously all this eschatology stuff, I’m afraid. It’s a major failing, I know, but… well… what happens happens, and I don’t think we can know exactly who will do (or be) what, and when it will happen. One day, perhaps, I will learn to take it seriously. Perhaps. Maybe I will end up knowing who the AntiChrist (if there is _one_) will be. Perhaps I will write books and hold seminars decrying the evil hidden deeds of whoever I know for certain the evil incarnate is… Perhaps not.
Anyway.
This guy also gave me a CDROM of some pastor doing some teaching about evolution, I think. I also met a teacher of an A.C.E school here, which is being forced by the government to switch to using it’s curriculum, which she is upset about because it is so secular humanist, evolution and all, but she says is OK, because they will screen all the stuff before they teach it.
The volunteers all speak English here, which is cool, and are all quite sociable, so I have got to know some of them, and talk about stuff with them. Also SO many South Africans on board have family coming to visit and stay, and I got to chat with one family, so friendly, and talk about much.
Anyway. I’m off to do some clarinet, again, and then get ready for watch tonight.
2005
Doulos opened in Durban today. I am on gangway watch 8 til 12, so any time in the afternoon I am available to give tours. Today was the official opening in the morning, and then we opened to the public at 2pm. It is now 2.30, and I will go and see what’s happening once I’ve finished the email.
One of the STEPPERs is leaving in half an hour, to go home. He is finishing early to go to back to seminary, he arranged this from before, so apparently STEP dates are really not so set in stone. It feels very odd to see him leaving.
Today just as I was finishing up my watch, at mid-day, a group of 3 people came and wanted to see the ship. We were not yet open, and so I phoned the tour people, and line-up, and others, but no-one was free, because of the offical opening.
So once my relief came, I took them on a tour, showing them the ship, and then when we went up to the book-ex, found it was open, a group of pastors had arranged a special trip, and the book-ex staff allowed my tour to go and buy a load of CDs and books and things.
My tourists (ha) were very happy, and impressed (I think), and said they will try to come back sometime, but live quite a way away. They were Christians, I think, they bought some worship CDs, anyway. “The 20 Worst of ’90s Worship: 100% pure cheese” or something like that (that was a bit harsh, though)… there is SO much Christian pop-worship on this ship, it is unbelievable.
Sarah, who works in the kiosk was listening to some classical the other day, Beethoven, I think, and it was such a nice change to hear! If I come back to the ship, I think I will remember to bring a CD player, or something, so I can listen to all kinds of music.
2005
(Again on the computer with the weird spacebar).
Today is the last day of SabbathWeek, man, has it been tiring. Every morning doing the kids work. There are about 30 or so kids, ranging from ages of about 1 to 14, which is quite a large range. It means though that the range is too great for doing more formal games, I tried doing a few of the more basic drama games, but they just collapsed, as some kids just wandered off, others joined in enthusiastically, and then tried to help some of the younger ones, but then by helping the younger ones, got distracted from what they were doing. Oh well.
Today all of us were so tried, (I meant to type tired, but the typo seems to fit as well) that Jordan just didn’t bother with a speaky bit (we are “doing” the fruit of the Spirit, LoveJoyPeacePatienceKindnessEtc), but just put on the tv, with some cartoons. Rubbish.
Absolute garbage.
I think it was roadrunner, or something like that, where one random overly cheerful character blows up, maims, and generally smashes another random overly cheerful character for 15 minutes, and then the whole thing starts all over again. Thankyou, mum, for keeping me away from too much TV when younger. Blah.
Anyway, as predictable, the kids started getting irritable, crying, “I can’t see, you’re in my way, I can’t see” and so on, and so we took them outside for a while longer to just play on the fundeck (one of the lower decks (the poop deck officially) which is separate from the rest ofthe ship, and netted all around and has rubber floor, toys, swings, and so on).
We have been doing loads of crafts with them, Rachel has been in charge of the 5/6 years old group, and me helping for crafts. Anyway, it’s over now, the kids seemed to enjoy it, and the parents are happy, so thats good. I have 8-til-12 watch next week, so I can relax. *phew*.
I had watch 2 times this week too. The information desk is closed after 5 during sabbath week, so that means all international calls come through to the gangwayman. SO many. My goodness. About 1 every 5 minutes. Then as the gangwayman has no way of paging the ship for the person to forward the call to, you have to do a complex redialing procedure to route the call through to their cabin, or if they are not answering there, then to dining room, or other places they might be.
One funny story, after my watch 3 days ago (4-til-8), one of my fellow STEPPERs was also on watch. He is from South Korea, and his English is good, but basic. The phone is dead hard to understand anything on any way (international lines), and the re-directing system on the ship is quite complex too. Anyway. So I handed over to him. Yesterday, I was on watch, and one of the other sisters on board came and said she was expecting a call. Her mum had phoned 2 days ago in the evening (the day I was on watch, but later, during this other guy’s watch), and had been told this:
“Too bad, I don’t know how this phone works, try again tomorrow, goodbye.”
Funny. Very funny. She wrote quite a concerned email to her daughter saying “And I thought you were all christians!” or something along those lines. heh.
Also, I was answering a call, and looking up in the book trying to find a name to direct to, managed it, looked up to find 3 guys in smart suits right up at the gangway. It was one of the government ministers, popped in to see how it was going! Totally out of the blue! So I called the Duty Officer, and he told me to phone someone else, and quickly the line-up people came, and conducted an impromptu V.I.P. tour. Wonderful.
I love being here.
Yesterday was a big fun-night for the end of sabbath week, many people doing cool dramas, funny songs, and so on. The puppet-people have been putting together a very cool puppet show, mixing live puppets with a whole puppet-film they have been filming last week. I have been able to occasionally help a few times with them, which has been really cool. Being a puppeteer, so they could watch and direct the filming, holding strings during a mission-impossible type stunt scene with a flying puppet dropping from a rooftop, and so on. Really good fun.
Anyway, yesterday, I was not able to go to the funnight, as I was on watch, but was able to help the creative ministry staff with setting up the room, moving chairs, hanging set, moving drumkits, and all that kind of thing. I just enjoy being able to do theatre work again. If I come back for 2 years, then I would be able to get envolved more, and perhaps in the second year be able to transfer to doing creative ministry (drama, puppets, etc) full time…
Anyway.
Only 2 weeks or so left… very strange feeling. Like I have only just arrived, and like I have been here forever.
We have been doing Purpose Driven Life in one of the small groups on board. It seems, well… It basically is a 40 day course which covers (or touches on) most of the basic aspects of Typical American Evangelical Low-Key-Charismatic (not penticostal) Christianity. It is very organized, and too pushy for me. It doesn’t really say anything new, but brings a whole lot of stuff together, and presents it well, and in an easy-to-get way.
It is aimed at pop-Christian-culture, and it fits very well. Basically, it gives the major Purposes of a Christian life, ie, getting to know God better, growing in Him, ministry in the church, and mission to tell the world about Him. It is all presented in such a way that I am sure it has helped many people, but it is so broad, and so sweeping in places, and so pop, (and American), that I think it has probably also annoyed a lot of people and perhaps even pushed some away too.
For me it is kind of take-it-or-leave it, or would be, except for how annoyingly enthusiastic some people are about it. I guess that is partly why it does agravate some people so much.
2005
More photos! Dan sent this selection saying there will be higher-quality pictures when he returns. Also he can move them to the relevant blog posts.
This one is back from the first ‘e-day’, when he was helping to dig a reservoir hole for a family of missionaries.
Another group photo, I presume of the church he stayed with last weekend. This time Dan’s in the front row, wearing a blue hoodie.
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<a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://blog.madprof.net/wp-content/uploads/2005/08/withpastor.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://blog.madprof.net/wp-content/uploads/2005/08/withpastor-300x207.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />
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Apparently this is the pastor with Dan.</p>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: center; font-style: italic;">
<a href="http://blog.madprof.net/wp-content/uploads/2005/08/uponthefunnel.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://blog.madprof.net/wp-content/uploads/2005/08/uponthefunnel-228x300.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Dan is in the light-blue coveralls, the other guy is sitting on the ‘bosun’s chair’. They’re doing repairs or maintenance to the funnel. I’m glad I didn’t know about this until after the event! </p>
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<div style="text-align: center; font-style: italic;">
<a href="http://blog.madprof.net/wp-content/uploads/2005/08/funnel2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://blog.madprof.net/wp-content/uploads/2005/08/funnel2-124x300.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Another view of the funnel.
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2005
Saturday 6th August
This week is “Sabbath Week”. This happens once a year, and is a week of (comparative) rest and restoration and all of those sorts of things. Just good fortune for us STEPPERs to be here for it this time!
The book-ex is closed totally, and all workers from there are spread out about the ship, and all duties of all departments are cut down, so this means that (say in the deck department), we only have to do 8 hours each in the whole week, plus one day of being on duty (hardly any work, but cannot leave the ship for 24 hours), and one day of doing the garbage for 1 hour in the afternoon, and then done. So pretty light duties.
Every morning there are devotions/teaching/whatever from a special speaker, who this time turned out to be Dale Rhoton (one of the co-founders of O.M). Very cool. The STEPPERs, though, are running the childrens programme every morning, so we have not actually been to any of the devotions. Very good kids, all of them younger than 12, and seem to be very happy with the programme, organized by Jordan.
Yesterday was the ship outing to a waterpark and ocean-world, which I decided not to go on, as I had not had an off-day in 12 days, and my next off-day is on the 15th! So I needed an introvert day, and so stayed on board. There were only about 25 people on board, in all, which is about minimum to keep the ship going, plus a few extras (like me). Good day.
One of the STEPPERs from another of the overnight teams has malaria… she started getting ill during the overnight, so I guess must have picked it up a few weeks ago. She had to be brought back to the ship, and yesterday was taken to the hospital. Apparently she is doing much better though, now. My Big Brother bounced back from malaria after about a week, in total, before being back at work. But he is like that. Rebekah is not so hardy. It would be nice if folk could pray for her, as it is most difficult for her, only being here a few months, and yet getting malaria!
Also the day before yesterday some of the people went out to the city, one group was John (a Malaysian STEPPER) and a group of 5 girls. They were stopped on the road somewhere in the city by a whole group of men, who grabbed John, put a knife to his throat, and forced him to give them his camera, they also tried to get at his wallet, and sliced up his trowsers.
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We are all very thankful that they did not hurt him at all physically, although of course he is rather shaken emotionlly. There really was nothing he could do, other than give them what he had. Apparently, from what the South Africans have told us, this is quite a rough area of Durban, and there is quite a lot of crime, and John being the only man in a group of girls was also more likely to get picked on.
</p>
<p>
Also, he looks ***very*** innocent. He is a very very lovely trusting guy, and doesn’t look like he would hurt a fly. And he looks Asian, and there are </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">quite a lot of Japanese seamen here, who are all rich, and totally un-streetaware, as also, John is, and the muggers apparently can’t tell the difference between Asian-Malaysian, and Asian-Japanese. None of the group knew even the first thing about watching people around them, keeping distances, eye-contact, and so on, either, so in a way it was not really something totally unexpected, but it is very sad, anyway.</span>
</p>
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<span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">Anyway, I’m off to try and get some coffee, and perhaps read a bit, or play clarinet, or drums, or something. I’m on duty and so cannot leave the ship for 24 hours.</span>
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2005
