The simple things of life

The inner harbour on a very quiet evening.

One of the things I find most rewarding in this job is meeting some of the seafarers from "less developed" countries. Last week we had a group from Papua Guinea come in. These men sign up for a nine or twelve month contract; away from family for the whole time. This particular ship was very small by comparison with most ships we see. It was a mere 4000 tons compared to the usual 80-90000 tons that come into the harbour. A total crew of 17, 15 New Guineans with a Fillipino captain and First Officer. They were loading steel pipes to take about 350kms up the Fly River in Papua; a total trip of 12 days from Port Kembla. Their stay in Port Kembla was a little above the average time; they were in Port for some seven days.

The first evening that they arrived at the Mission, they came in with smiles as wide as a cat that has just had the cream. The first thing they did was go straight to the second hand clothes rack. This is a rack of very good, clothes that one of our volunteer ladies keeps well stocked. She gets them from one of the Op Shops where they give her first pick! We sell these for $2 an item. This particular evening, these seamen bought thirty items, and a good proportion of it was being worn straight away! They played a little bit of table tennis and pool; they browsed through the second hand books and they had a couple of beers. They were a very relaxed group. At the end of the evening, they asked if myself and one of the volunteers would like to come to the ship next day and have lunch. We drove them back to the ship; they left as a very happy and contented group. It made me think a bit. They had enjoyed a very simple evening; they were simply glad to get off the ship for a few hours. We hadn't offered them anything "exiting " and I wondered how many of us would has been satisfied with this level of simplicity. They don't have much money, they are away from family for extended periods and the work can be dangerous, and yet often they come to us, a far more relaxed people than ourselves with all our high tech trappings. Don't get me wrong; I am not a romantic; we see our share of family problems, crewing problems and so on, but when you see a group like these Papuans it gives you a sense of hope.

As a final note. We had our meal on board; fish and chips, really nicely done. This was prepared by the cook, a 68 year old veteran who had been to sea all his life. He had seen every port in the Pacific and I reckon he intended to die at sea. A really interesting man.