I'm a menace!
Posted by at 4:59 PM,
June 17, 2004
Right before I came on this trip I was given a few words of advice by the seasoned veterans at Greenpeace: (1) Help out around the ship; (2) Be good to the Radio Operator- he's very busy and you will need him; (3) Something else extremely important that I can't remember. Well, in the course of a few days, I have managed to make exactly one person's life exceedingly miserable.
Hello everyone,
I was awakened this morning at about 6:30 by Helena. The ship was moving past some beautiful Scottish coastline and did I want to check it out. Definitely! She was right - the scenery was excellent, all day long in fact. It was near the Inlet of Dismay I think. Up on the bridge, we took a bunch of pictures and drank some hot tea. Maybe it was the Sound of Hooray.
That reminds me of another cool thing about being on the ship. Most people, in addition to me, have their cameras out pretty regularly. It's an exciting trip for everyone, even those who have done a lot of travelling with Greenpeace. The same was true when we launched the African Queen this morning. A big group of us went to check out a castle and to take some photos of the Esperanza. I got a particularly nice shot of everyone else taking pictures.
Right before I came on this trip I was given a few words of advice by the seasoned veterans at Greenpeace: (1) Help out around the ship; (2) Be good to the Radio Operator- he's very busy and you will need him; (3) Something else extremely important that I can't remember. Well, in the course of a few days, I have managed to make exactly one person's life exceedingly miserable. If you said Gianluca, the gentleman Radio Operator from Italy, then you know me pretty well.
So far I have shown up without the proper equipment to recharge my camera battery or download photos to the computer (Please call Air France at 0800.30.60.90 to lodge a formal complaint). I have asked him for help when he is clearly enjoying a moment of well-deserved downtime. I have sent improperly sized files via e- mail (expensive and time-consuming). I've asked him irrelevant questions. And I've posted too many photographs to the public file on board. I'm a menace! Bear in mind, Gianluca is a serious person with A LOT of responsibilities on the ship, and he does an outstanding job. He's exceptionally conscientious and treats everyone with respect. He's always nice to me, despite my many missteps.
The food in the mess hall is good. You grab a clean plate, choose what you like, sit down with your mates to eat (quickly) and to chat (briefly), rinse your dishes, and stack them in the dishwasher tray. At meal time there is a variety of tasty vegetarian and non- vegetarian dishes, salad, and fresh bread. And there is always a decent snack of bread, cheese, meat, olives, and fruit to be found.
Everywhere on the ship are proper waste receptacles. Almost nothing goes without recycling. Bits of food: organic waste bin. Empty toilet paper rolls: flattened and put in paper recycling. Beer bottles: deposit in glass collection. And, unlike the UNR campus for example, I haven't seen a single exception. No cans in the trash bin or food down the drain. Finally, people like me!
Plus, no harsh chemicals. While mopping the floors this morning, I lifted one of the rubber bath mats in the shower near our cabin and voila! There was an entire ecosystem down there! Mold and fungus and algae and maybe even some lichen- it was difficult to tell. (This might be the opportune time to recall one of my purchases in Lorient: flip-flop sandals.) Anyway, what was the compound of choice for commencing an attack on the microscopic metropolis? Vinegar. That's right, simple household vinegar. Can I just tell you how many people in the U.S. would have thrown out that mat or doused it with some God-awful chemical from Monsanto?
Today I was put in charge of making a banner. Well, I don't get to decide the text. Or the dimensions. Or the color or the placement. But I am definitely in charge. It looks like the few sewing skills I learned for Burning Man might finally come in handy.
After dinner, on the bridge, Anita, Luke, and Helena were talking about different things and recalling Greenpeace actions in which they had been involved. They happily talk about scaling enemy ships and getting arrested like you and I talk about going for a bike ride. Luke recalled three days spent in a Carribean jail with 25 other people who were hauled in on the same trumped up charge (they had a big party in there to pass the time). Helena described her experience with a group of American strangers as they sailed a yacht from the Virgin Islands to the east coast of the U.S. (she needed a ride). Anita pointed to some radical photos of a Zodiac racing through a blizzard and said, simply: "That was me." I just love being in this environment!
You know, I think it might have been the Cape of Beday.
-Marnee
