This morning a most unexpected noise pulled me out of what was otherwise a completely sound sleep: a child’s laugh. Bleary eyed and blinking, I checked my clock, realized I had slept long enough any way, and smiled somewhat. There’s only one port on the current itinerary that would bring children’s cries to the elevator lobby just outside my door.
Welcome to Manila.
Like when we call in Indonesia on other years, our call in Manila means much much more to the crew than it does to the guests. And by crew I don’t mean people like myself, who work comparatively shorter hours and contracts and live – for the most part – on or above the waterline. I mean the real crew, the people you rarely if ever see, the people who work insanely long hours for ten months at a time. For many of them this is the first time seeing their families in nearly a year. The corridors are thronged with people, arrangements for the visitors were made weeks ago – and most of us took a shift in the terminal helping to sign family members in and out. Literally thousands of visitors went up and down the gangway today and more will come tomorrow. Even at dinner most of the crew side of the buffet was taken up with excited (or tired) children and parents and grandparents.
For the past few weeks the energy has been building to a near-bubbling over point, everyone has been so excited. The girl who works behind the coffee counter in my office has been practically counting down the days every morning. That kind of happiness is contagious J
As for the rest of us, we mostly headed out to the nearby mall. We’re almost halfway through the cruise and many of us are running short on supplies, some of which can’t be purchased on board. Like hair clips and nylons (“let’s see, does the ladder in these show below the bottom of my uniform? Can I get away with it? Naaah, better get a new pair”).
After I completed my own shift helping out at the terminal (and that hour flew, even though it was quiet…there is nothing quite like seeing all these families come and go, with big smiles on their faces no matter how tired they are), it was time to go back to my own reality. Since they got rid of the gremlins in the system life in the library has settled back down to its normal pace, and I find I’m once again able to take a genuine pleasure in helping people rather than having to force myself to smile through the strain every day.
Life seems to have right itself, and I for one am certainly pleased about that as I was getting mighty tired of feeling like I was hanging upside down in a cyclone!