July 14, 2011

COZUMEL

After karaoke last night I went to the mess hall, hungry for something to eat, though at 0200 there is not much left. As I walked in I saw Amy and Hettie walking out. There was a big party that night that I was unable to go to, up on the Heli Pad, Deck 6, with a battle of the DJ’s for the crew. I couldn’t go since I had to work. As I saw them walk by I said ‘hi’. They hurriedly said hi in return and brushed on by. I could see that Hettie had been crying.

I ate and went to bed. I did not have to get up until 0900 this morning, but I wanted to get to Cozumel and enjoy a day in the sun. I had gangway duty at 1300, but figured I had plenty of time to go out in the morning, see the town, and come back. Well, I slept in. By the time I managed to get up it was close to 1130, so I figured I would eat, shower, clean my room, go to my duty until 1530 and then head out for a couple hours.

Towards the end of my gangway duty I received a call from Hettie. She had VIP duty for the afternoon showing of Kung Fu Panda II, and could I take it for her as she had to go to HR. I asked her what was wrong, and she told me that she had just resigned! Effective immediately, and would be leaving Saturday. So we will lose Lisa, who at least is being replaced, and Hettie, for whom we have no replacement yet…which means that our days just got longer. It’s going to be a hell of a month. I am not sure what happened, or what went down, and frankly it is none of my business, but both girls are nominally leaving because this ship is too much work. In Hettie’s favor she has been on ships straight for 11 months. Anyone would need a break after that.

However, while I was on duty on the gangway a young Serbian man, who had signed on when I did, and whom I had attended my training classes with, walked on by and we stood there for an hour and a half talking. This made the two hours speed by, which was good since there was no one really getting off, or getting back on at that time and it would have been amazingly boring.

Our conversation ranged over many topics, but most importantly I got a real first person account of what it was like during the break up of Yugoslavia and during the Balkan War between Bosnia, and Serbo-Croatia. It was an enthralling account. I had read of the late Tito’s repressive regime, but only from Western sources. His account was much different. He told me about Kosovo, Mostar, and our conversation ranged back even to Ancient History and the Roman Emperor Diocletian. I will call him my Serb friend, N. N lives in Split, within sight of Diocletian’s palace, and he loves history. He is a tall, good looking, dark haired man, who reminds me a bit of a childhood friend named Joel. He has an open, intelligent face that you instantly trust, and dark eyes that betray a deep sadness that somehow does not belie his ready smile. This is his first contract, and it must be tough being so far away from home. He works in IT onboard.

We began by discussing tech issues, since we, as Cruise Staff, are dependent on the functionality of the database servers when we are doing box office for the shows. We have had some problems before with frozen servers…always at the most inopportune time, of course. I found out something very interesting. Headquarters handles everything, and the information and databases, etc, are all sent via satellite. He meets the HQ IT techs only when we are in port in FTL. The thing is, since he is not a US citizen, the moment we dock he is only allowed to observe the functionality of the wireless systems, he is not allowed to touch anything. If, at the security booths outside, he sees an unplugged cable he is not allowed to plug it in. He has to ask someone to do it for him. Were he to touch anything it would be considered working on US soil, and as a foreigner he would be breaking US law. This seems to me to be very inefficient, but that is the way it is.

From there we meandered to where he came from in Serbia, and what his country is like. I am always torn between laughter and being appalled when Europeans find that an American knows their country and region. Laughter, since I like their surprise; being appalled since the stereotype of the ignorant American is so often true and embarrassing. I had a family from Denmark on the Rising Tide the other night that said they were shocked when someone asked where they were from. When they answered the American said, “oh yeah, Denmark…that’s a city in Germany, isn’t it?”

Conversely, N can name all 50 states and place them on a map…which is something that I remember at Washington College, (a small college in Chestertown, MD, whose student body consists primarily of kids from Maryland), a good number of the students were unable to place their own state of Maryland on the map. I remember quite a few had it lingering up around Maine. When I could quote some facts about Tito and ask questions about Tito’s relationship with Stalin, N was very impressed.

I know that the Balkans has always been sort of the European Afghanistan in terms of mountains and difficulty in control. Apparently people are looking back at Tito’s era as a time of peace and prosperity. His strong-arm tactics pulled the region together and maintained a high level of income compared to many portions of Europe. When he died it all fell apart. I asked N about the massacres and the other negative information we had received in the West. Apparently his family is made up of Serbs and Croats. I asked if there had been any bad blood between the two parts of the family. He said there had not, that once you are family, you are family. They seem to be almost tribal in their strong feelings for clan and kin, but they are also hot-tempered and quick to take insult, and quicker to take revenge. He told me some stories, which I won’t go into here, but it really was a fascinating insight into a portion of the world that has been a melting pot and crossroads of Asia and Europe for millennia.

They are very poor now in the region, their wealth eaten up by the civil wars and separation into individual nations. I asked him about his view of the chances of prosperity down the road, reminding him of the disparity between East and West Germany at the time of Reunification. The difference he said is that they have spent the last century rebuilding and destroying their cities over and over again. WWI, WWII, the Balkan Wars. Each time cities have been occupied, leveled and rebuilt. Unlike Germany which has only had to rebuild once since WWII. Even as a professional IT tech, his income would only be equal to about $300 USD a month, whereas before the Wars he could have received up to $1500 USD a month. So what he is earning, I would assume, on the Oasis is four months pay every month, at least, (since he is an officer and I assume gets paid more than I). Good earnings for a young man back home.

This is such an international ship it is amazing to sit down and talk with the crew members.

After gangway duty, which sped by thanks to N, it was time for the Come Fly With Me show. Or should have been. Hettie called me up, she was hosting Karoake and did not trust herself on the mic. It had been an emotional day so far for her, and this call was when she told me she had resigned and would be leaving Saturday. I agreed to exchange duties with her and headed off to Family Karaoke. This meant no Cozumel for me, I’ll have to wait until next month. Eventually I will be able to get off the ship….I think…See the world, they said… I think I fell for the same line when they signed me up for the Marines….

What Bliss….we had uniformly good singers at karaoke tonight. I got a little upset with the audience and asked why they had not come to the contest the evening before. Apparently they had not known about it. I passed this on to Amy…we need to market it better for better singers and tweak the program.

I had a blast with the group, and really that was the whole day, except for the Quest Game Show in the late evening. I’ll talk more about that later.