Sunday, January 23rd, 2005 – Pacific Ocean

10:25pm- 5:26am Est.(1/24/05)- Still on this ship and heading into another storm this evening which is causing the ship to rock and roll once again. I spoke to our cabin steward (person who comes and cleans the room), Joel today. We got to talking about where he’s from and about his family. He’s from the Philippines, probably in his early 30’s married with a three year old son both back in the Philippines. He works 10 months of the year on the ship and has only 2 months of vacation. His salary would probably be considered low by American standards, but high by Filipino standards. All the money he makes he sends home and he doesn’t go into the ports anymore because “it costs too much money.” He is forced to pay for internet and phone on the ship if he wants to contact home. And even on the ship he no longer is able to hang out with his fellow co workers because this new ship doesn’t have a special room for them to all hang out in.

Now to me these conditions seem a little unreasonable, but I must say that I think Joel is a good man because he enjoys what he does and makes his sacrifices in order to support his family. The man never seems to complain and to tell you the truth he is pretty funny (when our TV broke I asked him if we’d get a new one. He replied “right after Venezuela” (which is right before we end the trip)). What I’m trying to get at is, take a moment to think about all the opportunities that we may have and just remember not to take anything for granted.