Random things happen on the LH, whether they are planned or not!

So life on the Logos Hope is fun, as random things can happen whether they are planned or not.

During the weekend just gone, we felt the earth move as the Philippines was hit by an earthquake. Thankfully all the ship crew are fine and nobody got physically injured. But there have been many varied experiences shared, as friends were in different places when it happened. I was on the ship and so didn't feel all that much at all! The ship did move. But for me, it felt a like mixture between the engines being tested and sailing! I am happy that I didn't see walls and floors move. That would have probably freaked me out :-) So that was an unplanned random activity!

Today I experienced and helped with a planned random activity! I say random as 'normal' people don't do things like this! Today was the day when the new recruits who are just joining the ship for their two year commitment (I was tempted to write 'sentence' then ;-)) got to carry out their Basic Safety water training. They have to learn many skills such as: how to enter a life raft, how to flip a life raft, how to make your trousers into a life jacket, how to enter the water safely from a great height while wearing a life jacket and how to keep warm in the water. These are skills we need to know when living on a ship.

Above is a photograph of people learning how to flip a raft over. It's really hard!!

And this is what a life raft looks like the right way around. 

The children thought it looked like a tent boat!

Today, I got to show some of the new children who are just joining the ship, how to wear their life jackets and move around in the water etc.

We did have lot's of fun :-) but I do pray that we never need to use these skills for a real emergency!

Ship Children and Bonfire night!

The nursery children I teach are just awesome and bring so many smiles to people on the ship. This morning we wandered down to the dinning room for our morning snack and for the first time ever they decided to sing as we went along. They got so many smiles and hellos as we passed crew working in offices and around the ship. Some of the crew also joined in the songs with us! I think it brighten up their morning....it sure did mine :-)
This afternoon we took the rest of the school for a swimming lesson to a local hotel pool!
You have got to realise that this is a big deal. The ship kids don't often get opportunities to swim.....even though they live on the sea! It's for many reasons, hotels are expensive, the beaches/seas where we are are dirty...or rough, we may not be in a port long enough to find a good pool. But anyhow, the advanced preparation team (who go before the ship to organise everything before we arrive) managed to get us two FREE sessions in a local hotel pool where we could take some lessons.
We had a great afternoon and the children really seemed to enjoy their time.
We also managed to bring back all the children and without any damages to them...BONUS! :-)

I must admit though, the strong chlorine smell brought back fond memories of the day's when I was coaching children in my swimming club at home. I was reminded how privileged I was to grow up in a swimming club. I know I took it for granted and occasionally didn't want to train the two, sometimes three, sessions each week (for 15 years!), but they were some of the best days in my childhood. I got a real love for swimming which continues even now. I am looking forward to next weeks session now :-)

Tonight I had the unique experience of celebrating bonfire night in Malaysia! Someone had managed to get hold of some sparklers! So I stood outside, with my fellow Brits, we lit our sparklers and ate treacle toffee......while the local people waiting to visit the ship looked on! The only other difference was....it's not cold here, it's hot, so you can't wear your hat, scarf and gloves! And I also kind of missed seeing people in pitted wellies on their way back from a bonfire in a muddy field! We still wished each other a happy 5th of November. :-)