Hello! Today is relatively calm Saturday,-we had only one call. Yes, when I arrived at work there were few follow-ups waiting to be done, but they couldn't possibly create a proper theme for today's blog. But the call was significant. Seafarer was nervous, sometimes angry, and yet his manners were absolutely despicable. He knew that I was trying to help and that despite the fact that the core of the problem is his health, both him and I have to be patient. We need to keep our cool to deal with the matter succesfully, otherwise...

Otherwise he won't be able to give me all the detailes of the information I need, he won't remember names and locations, diagnosis that doctors of the foreign contry gave him. I, in my turn won't be able to hear him out as well as I should, won't be capable of recording his words correctly and think thoroughly about the ways of helping him.

It may sound strange, but I suddenly realised that sometimes this job teaches me that in order to be truly helpful and compationate I need to restrain my compation!It's not a paradox, but a very practical and perhaps only possible solution for dealing with some situations we are presented here in Seafarer Help. This inconventional restriction has nothing to do with cruelty or lack of empathy. For me human emotions here are transformed into actions and expressed through some very grounded and hopefully helpful steps towards the possible solution. Still words like - "I understand"-or-"I am sorry to hear that"- are essentual.

But as I already mentioned above,one shouldn't go overboard with expression of their compassion. A light touch of human warmth is enough. It really works and goes a long way with people who ask us for help. Being strong men and women they don't want to be pityed. Most of the time they seek genuine understanding and of course real effective solutions.

Hopefully we will be able to provide just that to a called with despicable manners who contacted us today.