Robert - ship volunteer
A couple of days ago, I promised to post the stories of some of the ship's crew (they're the ones who work around the clock to keep ship life ticking over - in between being arrested, racing to London in record time, running ship open days and setting up musical events and press conferences). This morning, Robert tells his story - Rebecca.
Robert - ship volunteer
Hungary
My day on the Arctic Sunrise starts at four in the morning. I get up before everybody so I can write - for my Hungarian blog, my office and my PhD in Mongolian Linguistics. At 7.30 I begin life as a ship volunteer with mopping, cleaning, paint chipping and helping where I am needed.
In the evening, I go back to work, this time learning English. In my school in Hungary, we were never taught English. The first time I really spoke it was when I joined the ship one month ago. I am learning, but it takes time! At least my phrase book amuses the crew – it does not say how to buy bread but it has lots of phrases like “your eyes are like pillows”.
I love taking part in non-violent direct actions (once I spent two weeks at a resistance camp on the Zengo in minus 20 degrees Celsius), so the blockade at Faslane was really exciting for me. I also love the physical work of the ship after spending so much time in an office. Before the ship, I worked as a Greenpeace area networker in Eastern Europe. Before that, I took a masters in Tibetan language and culture and before that, I have been a greengrocer, bookseller, smuggler, bar tender, painter decorator, proofreader, translator, journalist, author, poet, university tutor, reiki practitioner and rock climber.
The future? I would like to keep working for the protection of nature, travel a lot, write books about my journeys, find my place in the Cosmos and, of course, keep shipping and become a good deckhand! And one day I would like to be able to say “your eyes are like pillows” in perfect English...
Comments
Hi Robert - unless Rebecca has helped you a lot - it seems to me like you have a very good grasp of English already!
I am amazed that you find the time to work for Greenpeace and do so many other things - especially a PhD! My PhD thesis is still lying in taters inside a folder on my computer somewhere. I have not seen it for the last 2 years or so - I don't know if it is still alive.
So... I think you are pretty amazing really! Are you a magician or some kind of Hungarian wizard? :-)
Posted by: Lisa | March 12, 2007 1:15 PM
Hi Lisa,
Yap, Bex helped me... But now she is not here so my English will appear as it is.
My dissertation is sleeping like yours but it's getting wake up, at least I try to do my best... I have a bit hard days - physical work, learning English etc.- and I think there are two possibilities: I will strenghten or I will die :) Because I am not a wizard - but I'd like to be that reading Harry Potter's books in English - only a small, 36-year-old kid.
I was really happy to get your comment, thx for it!!!
Posted by: robert | March 12, 2007 6:08 PM
(I didn't help him much, honest :-)
Posted by: rebecca | March 12, 2007 6:23 PM