SeafarerHelp

2008-02-11T19:55:00.000-08:00

Hi.Today, or rather tonight, I want to tell you about a very special experience that I had a few weeks ago: our office was visited by the crew of a maritime TV channel from Amsterdam. Of course, makes perfect sense,-world's first exclusively maritime channel Sea TV should have been formed in Holland! This small northern country has been battling with and exploring the sea all it's history. God only knows how many maritime words have Dutch origin and how many powerful seascapes were painted by the Dutch masters. In our technological age, Holland presents the mankind with maritime TV.And it so happens that it finds the work we do at Seafarer Help very interesting. Great!But with this interest comes the idea of creating a program in which Seafarer Help should be featured. And that latter turns our humble office into a film studio.

Oh, yes, with all the necessary ingredients- bright, hot and almost blinding lights, attentive cameras, big and small microphones, athmosphere of exitement and of course slight panic. How do we look, are we forgetting our text, are we being convincing, is our articulation good enough? So many questions and doubts!It truly reminds me my training in drama school, and most of all the dreaded outcome of all the lessons, attempts to learn the lines, working with the charachter- the final performance. It is SCARY!

But is it really? It is clearly very enjoyable too!It is so enjoyable to hear my colleagues presenting our service in their native languages, it is so pleasurable to feel how courage awakes within you and just allows you to simply be even in front of the watchful cameras.Especially when our director and a camera man compliment our "performance", the entire process of shooting turns into a pure fun. I can feel that people around me grow bolder and start to "fly". Well,considering the nature of our work, we should be really swimming, or at least sailing, but we clearly were flying.

The day passes quickly. One take is followed by the other, we are asked to repeat our announcements and "scenes" again and again. Finally we are told that everything seems to work, all words are heard and pronounced correctly, everyone is looking into a right direction, the pace and the mood of the filmed material is right...

I hope that this "film" will help to present ISAN to a wider audience and that it'll make more people want to contact us, and that these future contacts will be coloured by trust and true compassion.

2008-01-01T04:49:00.000-08:00

Hello and Happy New Year to you! This is my first time here in 2008.And I just would like to mention how much I enjoyed writing on Blogger during the last year.I hope that someone out there might have enjoyed reading it as much as I did enjoy the writing process. If that is the case, then I could say that I fulfilled my mission on the Blogger site. If people found my writings boring, well...I can promise that I'll try to do better in 2008.

The first day of the year started in a very nice way at our office: mail boxes for a change were filled with the greeting messages insted of business ones, the office itself was overwhelmed by the rediculous amount of chocolate and by the sound of joyful radio waves that this time had a slightly classical flavor. This time it was Maria Callas and not Kylie Minogue. I do believe that it makes a refreshing difference!

And of course, people that I had to call, somehow all managed to give me positive news,-someone finally got their salary, another person got repatriated and was meeting the new year with his family and not away from them, one woman found out the truth about the certain issue that was troubling her deeply during the last year...It felt so good!

Let's hope that the entire year will have this light refreshing feel to it, let's believe that everyone on dry land and at sea will live in peace and harmony and that people of our world at some point will stop hirting each other. If it sounds too idealistic to you, please remember that the New Year's Day is a time when we are actually allowed to be somewhat idealistic. Happy 2008 once again, and please don't forget to read some of my bloggs on this very useful site!

2007-12-12T15:13:00.000-08:00

Hello. Don't you feel that Christmas is near? I understand that in our fast moving materialistic world it quickly turns into yet another business venture, but when I arrived to work today and saw our office transformed by the golden garlands, red bows and bells, it did feel very festive indeed. Our working space, although nice, is normally very blue and white, minimalist and strictly functional. So the sudden touch of Christmas magic changed it quite a bit.

I thought that it would be really interesting to see how people who are at sea or just arriving to an unfamiliar port, going to celebrate their Christmas? Will they feel slightly homesick and lonely? Will they call their families more often then usual? Or maybe they will be quite content with the company of their colleagues and a port chaplain dressed up like Santa? It’s difficult to say.

As our experience suggests thankfully there are a lot of warm-hearted people all around the world who are ready to provide seafarers with the genuine welcome during the festive season. Missions and seafarer centers in different countries invent various forms of entertainment and host imaginatively conducted parties for the sea workers. Not all the seafarers will join them this year, some due to the work commitments, others due to the lack of festive mood, caused perhaps by the problems they have to face on their vessel.

Obviously that can't be completely changed. But we hope that it can be improved. And we hope to play a part in this improvement. Christmas is a rare opportunity for everyone to reflect on the past year, on their relationships with others and on their relationship with themselves. Hopefully this Christmas most of us will be able to understand, to forgive and find a true joy in our souls. And maybe we will be able to feel this unspoken deep connection between the people on land and at sea. Perhaps we will realise that those at sea need our support and concern. They need it every day of the year, but Christmas time, like a magical lens, allows us to see it clearer and feel it deeper.

2007-11-25T05:17:00.000-08:00

Allow me to greet you on this relaxed and chilly Sunday.It's a first day in the office when I can actually say that it's not a lot to do,-a welcome opportunity to do some writing. For the last few weeks either our popularity grew, or problems at sea suddenly became more pronounced, but our phones kept ringing. Sometimes all the four lines were busy at the same time. The mixture of languages and dialects that we spoke reminded me of Tower of Babel. Figuratively speaking of course, as by using all these tangs we were trying to restore the order, or draw the plan towards a solution and to stop the chaos. However the original Tower, as we all know, was the actual symbol of latter.

In it's core that's what our job is about-restoring clarity, fixing the broken chain of events, broken lives. I know that it may sound too bolder statement, but that's what we do. Sadly we don't have much time to reflect on the philosophical side of our work, but it is certainly there.

So, with the growing popularity of Seafarer Help, the demands and complexities are getting bigger too. It is obvious now that as an organisation we are in the rare position of existing on the border of quite a few worlds,- the realm of Science, dimension of Human Rights, kingdom of Art, incloser of Law. And I haven't named all of them. This kind of "location" is surely a challenge, but with that it's a blessing since our organisation can obtain necessary knowledge from all these areas, consult with professionals from each of them.

With the rapid appearence of new posters, marketing materials, titles, photographs a visual profile of Seafarer Help becomes more distinct too. Like a growing person, our organisation finds it's true personality. It is interesting to watch, good to listen to and occasionally a bit annurving. Future is approaching, or our organisation moves towards it's shores.Perhaps this motion is mutual.

2007-11-07T12:50:00.000-08:00

Hello.Today's events reminded me that despite the creative and truly mind-expanding nature of the job we are doing here, it can suddenly turn towards you it's dark and somber face. Like some kind of forgotten ancient deity with four different faces that are attached to the same head, it can turn any of them todards you in any time. Thing is, you cannot possibly predict when it's going to happen and which emotion will be depicted on this face. Will it be joy, sadness, grief, dissapointment or triumph? We are not to know, and perhaps this unpredictability is one of the most interesting points of our work.

So today on the other end of the phone line I heard a true voice of pain...Of course it was disguised by the frigile and melodical voice of a woman, and yet her recent loss almost managed to turn her into the archetype. She suddenly rose above the level of daily existance and became a new Antigoni, modern Medea, contemporary Electra. Her emotions were so three-dimentional and her thirst for truth and justice so intence, that I simply couldn't help but to feel it with her. She lost her husband. Sea was cruel once again and took him away. Sea was what it really is- a blind forse of nature, fierce and untaimed element.

All we can do at this stage is to help the widow to find out the truth, to listen and to be understanding. I tried to be and to do all that during our conversation. It is not easy for me to say how successful I was, but the genuine effort was there. I even was able to stay positive and somehow not to give into the dark mood when our conversation was finished. A year ago it would be much more complicated for me to mentain a balance between compassion and actually entering the emotions communicated to me by the caller. I would truly suffer and allow my imagination to take me to the places of their pain. But today I gently asked my imagination to show me the pictures of possible solutions, of ways that could lead to the true information that our caller was longing for. And by doing so I saw the light in the end of the tunnel, but not the tunnel itself. As a professional I am glad to say, that I have certainly achieved something.

2007-09-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hello. Today is a "regular " day at the office.However we still had two rather urgent calls this morning.It sometimes does happen this way,-you arrive at work and before you even sit down in front of your computer, the phone that was silent perhaps all night starts to ring. As for me, I am always not quite awake on early mornings, but the nervous voice on the other end of the line is the best recipy for becoming truly alert. This abrupt return to reality happens quickly and suddenly all senses become very sharp, especially hearing.

If it carries on like that I might become quite good in voice reading. Some people gain exellent skills in palmistry, or decoding hidden drawings on the tea leaves, but our job makes us very familiar with the secrets of human voice, it's turns and twists, pauses and melodies.Perhaps I mentioned this before, but often I wander what people who call us look like, does mental picture you sometimes unwillingly create match the reality? Probably in some cases it does, and in some doesn't.After all what does that matter? No matter how our callers look, they still need our help. Young or old, men or women, blond or dark, strong or, well...shaken.

But now when I contemplate my upcoming presentation about the Ukrainian trip, I can't help but thinking about the "visual" side. Our colleagues in Ukraine have a drop in service,-thankfully port isn't far from their office. Sea is never far away from you in Odessa. Already during my visit I admired their bravery while observing how they handle the drop in sessions.My colleagues manages to keep their cool when visitor's emotions, or problems they brought with them were becoming overwhelming. Would I be able to keep my cool like they do? Would visual clews like facial expression or movements of their hands help me, or would they distract? I would love to know the answers on these questions. Maybe one day I will.Who knows how far business will go, and how big it will grow?

Perhaps if real, three-dimentional people well familiar with the untaimed forces of sea enter my working hours, it will make me to re-gain my senses during the early shift even faster? Like electrical waves, sudden flush of blinding light, or simply magic of human communication.

2007-09-02T04:12:00.000-07:00

Hello. Here I am, back to the waves of the net ocean. It is a relatively easy day today, but the problems of yesterday resoun in my head: now I know that I certainly want to speak as many languages as I can and I always prefer to speak to the people that need our help directly. I suppose I better exlain myself. Yesterday during my shift I had a call from a Spanish speaker. Luckily he had enough English for me to let him know that I would like him to call back later when our Spanish speaker will be in. But what if he had had no English at all? He could easily be in a desperate situation and could have required an urgent help. So, I had a bold desire to speak as many languages as my brain could take in! But after all realistically speaking I could probably take on quite simply a few Slavonic languages and some of West European ones but what would I do if somebody would call up in Chinese or Bengoli?

Yes, there is always a limit after which you desperately need a translator or a help of your colleague. However even if you speak a common language with someone, that does not guarantee you that the person actually really understands you.I don't want to go now into the philosophical issue of achieving true mutual understanding with any other member of human race, but our job occasionally presents us with such riddles. It happens especially when you have to communicate with the seafarer via his relative or a friend. Despite the obvious fact that people who represent seafarers and speak to us on their behalf truly want to help, they often misunderstand, misenturpit given to them information. That can potentially make things more complicated and slow down the process of solving the problem.

But I do understand that sometimes it is not possible to talk to the seafarers directly,- what if their phone is out of reach, what if they don't want their captain to overhear them talking to us, or they could be in hospital and who knows what else. Maritime profession is still very hard and full of hidden and apparent dangers. The fact that world has entered 21st century perhaps only deepens the risk,- sea is more polluted then ever, pirats are equipt with the most modern weapons and the vast majority of the society lives under the illusion that all the seafaring problems that existed in past are now illuminated.

So, thank God for the kind souls who wish to speak to us on behalf of their seafaring friends and family members! But one thing I would love to ask of them: please pass to us the exact information, correct messages and phone numbers. Ask the seafarer you represent as many questions as you can before speaking to us,please try to have their ships correct name and location, and also do ask them what kind of action they would want us to take. It is so very vital that you actually posess the correct and clear information. Everything which is vague and uncertain could cause sometimes very harmful delays!..Returning to the theme of wanting to speak a lot of languages, I wish sometimes that to start with we all could learn one global human language, the language of heart and of mutual trust and respect. If that language would have been widely known our work itself could have become unneccesary as people would stop hirting each other and making each other's existance difficult. But that is not going to happen just yet, so please call us if you have a problem!

2007-07-28T18:31:00.000-07:00

Today I would like to talk about the maritime symposium that I attended with my colleague a few weeks ago.The symposium was help by Centre for Maritime Research of Cardiff University and unfortunately we were able to attend only the second, closing day of it. But what a themes, what a gifted and passionate speakers!Of course it would be nice to see more people in the auditorium, but still, I must remember that maritime issues are a very specific subject that concerns a very specific group of researchers...

First two speakers bombarded us with the stats and figures. Such information is obviously very important, but sometimes is challenging to present: how do you make it easy and interesting to follow? I believe that the second speaker knew the answer to that.He talked about the numbers in maritime industry as if he was discribing exiting adventures of brave mythological heroes, he loved certainty and clarity of picture that statistics gave him, and surely forced us to love it too.His colourful graphs and charters projected on the big screen behind him helped us to visualise the subject really well. In the end of his speech he introduced the audience to the information regarding different attitude towards work related problems amongst different groups of seafarers;it was interesting to hear that Chinese seafarers seem to be the most outspoken ones. Could it be explained by their culture?

Luckily, the next presenter was a Chinese maritime researcher, who answered the question at least partially. He was describing seafarer's lives on the contemporary Chinese ships and touched slightly on how it was centuries ago. Sadly it was only a slight touch of history, that surely could lead to a fascinating revelations, but the ever present time was marching on and not many questions were allowed.

The final speaker was an extremely young sea captain. He was wearing his uniform with the gentle smile and very soft, despicable manners.Later I found out that interest in research, marine science and history forced him to abandon captain's career quite early and turn into a research student at Cardiff University. He was talking about crew's relationship with their superiors, and how sutisfying, or frustraiting seafarers find it.Unfortunately the latter word was heard much more often then the first one: the dialogue is clearly not always there and as our presentor's conversations with different seafarers demonstrated, some of them don't even think about approaching their captain in need, such a concept is alien to them. But that did not come as a surprise,-many of our callers contact as without talking to thgeir captain first, and sometimes when encouraged by Seafarer Help, they finally do so, their problem suddenly resolves itself.

Symposium prtesented me with the new, yet barely discovered branch of science,- Maritime Psychology. Apparently it has been proven that long life at sea changes human mind. In what way,is yet to be seen, but I certainly would like to hear more about it.

A very brief lunch afterwards triggered few informative conversations. I will never forget meeting few lovely people from Sea Health Denmark. They were enthusiastically describing their experience of working as maritime medics in their centre and while visiting ships. I am sure that their safety, nutrition and hygiene advise is quite significant to seafarers. Now I know who to call if health issue arises, and that is exactly the point of meeting ones colleagues from all over the world, that is the reason for sharing working experience.

But truly exiting moments are always so swift!And so, after final good-byes we had to return to the wet small station and catch our train to London, that would take us away from tiny towns with long, complicated names and sad looking Welsh dragons washed by untimely summer rain.

2007-06-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

Hello.Today we reached the point where all the materials for the magazine project that I been mentioning previously are nearly ready.Articles are written,page layout is provisionally agreed on, photographs and stats are prepared. There is only one challenge yet to be met,-the cover. Of course once the content is ready, something like a cover seems less difficult or important. However it truly is very significant as it's colors,size, text and even font that used in this text has to represent and lead to the rest of the magazine.Cover is like a gate that leads into the garden, or if magazine itself to be a castle, then it's a bridge.

So, what our gate or bridge should look like, what it should be made off, and most importantly,-what message it suppose to convey? My colleague, who works on a visual concept of the edition asked me to think about a few ideas for the cover. My imagination is wilde, to such a point that sometimes I have to restrain it.That explains why to start with I was thinking of mermaids and the images of seabed with coral forests and glittering clouds of tiny tropical fish...BAD IDEA!For sure, and I would never dream to actually offering it for a consideration. But having said that, still nothing prevents us to address the question of the cover design in a truly creative way.

It is surely tempting to just scraud the magazine cover in a really beautiful image of a harbour or an open sea with the distant ships on a blue horison.But ALL maritime publications do that,-our's has to has a certain message attached to it. Simply pretty picture is not enough.We are helping people, we are a charity, we care, we do have compassion.As if to illustrate this on my aid comes half-forgotten image of greek statue from the mythology book which in my childhood my grandmother used to read to me regularly.The statue was representing a little boy carried to safety by a dolphin.Of course, both boy and a dolphin were made of marble, but they looked so unbeliavably alive, and waves underneath them so real and powerful that the image stayed with me forever.

Shall we use it? Aren't we often in the position of this magnificent and intelligent sea creature that almost instinctively saves those who are lost in a voletile waves? I am trying to find the image, I look through the books of ancient mythology, I search on the net, but keep finding the wrong boys that ride wrong dolphins. These boys most of the time fight their dolphins, or the dolphins themselves look sinister, more like a nemeless seamonsters. But this memorable statue from my childhood, I just cannot find.

Well, pephaps it some sort of a sign that that particular image should not be used.Nothing happens without a reason, at least that's what I believe.Therefore another image comes to my mind,-a human hand holding up a ship model above the tempestuous sea.That could probably work. It's a matter of taking a few photographs and then overlaying them in Dream Weaver or Photo Shop. But what about a deadline, would we have time to do it? Would people want to? I don't know, but I will offer the idea. And, yes, I could draw it myself, but perhaps drawing on the cover and only photographs inside the issue could clush with each other. But we'll see, and hopefully sea as well with people for whom our magazine will be interesting.

2007-06-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

Hi! Today I was looking at different possibilities for the layout of our second Annual Report. We were given four choices. The forth version attracts me the most; it is not eccentrically creative like Circus de Soleil's poster, but at the same time not tediously businesslike. As a background various shades of blue are used. It makes the page look alive and obviously reminds a reader about the sea that contains all possible shades of this cosmic color.

To me symbols and colors that represent organisation are extremely important. Even a style of font has to be taken into consideration, even spaces between the pharagraphs...And it's not just my artistic background, but a simple fact that the numbers of maritime organisations are growing and in the emerging paper ocean of their publications, our's has to stand out. New maritime organisations like young singers need to find their voices. Our's is there already, but now it has to be expressed visually.

ISAN as a charity is unique, it's goals and reasons are very distinguished from the rest of similar organisations. But now we are in the process of putting this "uniqueness" on paper. We need to show that it is a serious professional organisation with the heart and a real compassion for people who require it's help. Of course the mentioned above quolities by any means are not the opposite ones and surely can peacefully co-exist in the frame of unifying them style. However,making of these "frame" takes time and effort.

It is good that people who work here have different skills,cultural and professional backgrounds. That means that their imaginations work differently, they have diffent sense of style, they like different things. It could create slight problems, but at the same time most definitely will make the project very interesting. And hopefully when one day you, the reader, will see the copy of our Report amungst the materials of some maritime event, you will pick it up intrigued by it's striking design.

2007-06-09T08:53:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-05-29T19:30:00.000-07:00

Good evening!No,sorry,-night for me. I am on my first night shift in May. Not everyone likes working at night, but I don't mind it at all. It's not too busy and gives you time to reflict and truly analise things that happen at the office during the hectic afternoons.You can read all the maritime newspapers that had been waiting for you while phone calls from seafarers kept you busy.New ideas come flocking in silence, encouraged by dark blue of the sky and warm yellow light that comes from windows of houses opposite the office.

These "ordinary" square windows make me think of round ones on numerous distant ships that in this very moment sail in vast blue oceans.I wonder what brave people who serve on these vessels are thinking about after a long day of work, what do they dream about,what they think, what they read? Do they prefer books that tell them tales of a secure dry land, or would they read about people who decided to ride the waves, like them? Which films do they watch, what are they talking about during their spare time? Which games sailors play? Do they use newly produced set of cards that contains some information on maritime law and seafarer's rights? If they do use this particular set of playing cards, is it helping them to realise that there are people out there who care about them and are willing to offer their support?

Questions are numerous, but answers are rare. Yes, we are visiting ports and talking to the crews, attending conferences and are in constant contact with seafarer centres. But perhaps we still need serious help from journalists and port workers to share with us true,three-dimentional experiences of life at sea. We most definetely need to hear more from seafarers themselves, and not only when they have a problem, but even when they go through their daily routine. Of course such opportunities couldn't be provided by Seafarer Help,-active support from maritime publications and other forms of media is vital here. But are there maritime libraries that are independent from Seafarer Centres, are there film archives that offer a wide choice of movies with marine theme? How many TV programmes dedicated to the seafaring issues?If such facilities exist, are they known to seafarers and are they easily accesable for them?

We know about the Sea TV in Holland, about quite a few maritime newspapers and magazines all over the world, but still there is a feeling that it wouldn't be enough to make dry land dwellers aware of matters of the sea, and cultural life of seafarers more fulfiling. We clearly need more TV programmes, probably better stocked libraries on board of many ships and generally more interesting and varied cultural events for seafarers at sea and on land. Maybe a database of maritime fiction and cinema should be created, or perhaps there is one in existance already and we simply need to became aware of it? Perhaps some research has to be carried out on the topic of how seafarer's cultural and spiritual needs are met?..Ideas keep arriving, as I said, but now inspired by almost silver sky of early morning.

2007-05-23T11:21:00.000-07:00

Hello to those who might come accross this writings on the net!Today in London we had a very first day that could really remind everybody that summer is just around the courner.But alas,- mood in and outside the office is not always the same!So,when I arrived at my desk I found that there is not much time for relaxation, as essentual ability to connect to our colleagues abroad is failing us.

For a few days now I had been desperately trying to contact our twin organisation in Ukraine, but without any success. I know that situation in this country is far from being stable and communications are first thing to go when country experiences a period of chaos. My own memories of life in post-soviet Georgia proove it: darkness, silent phones and faint internet connection that isn't always there... I truly hope that circumstances in Ukraine are not that grim and that kind people I met there won't have to put up with the harsh reality for long.

Eventually familiar voice broke the silence on the other end.Hurrah!We finally got in touch!We came up with alternative ways of communicating and will try them out tomorrow. What a relief! Re-established connection makes me truly happy, I understand once again how important it is to be able to reach people and feel that our planet is not too big any more. Now I will be able to solve some problems and inform seafarers about the outcome of their cases in their own language, and my ukrainian colleagues will help me with that.

If you are reading this lines and find them a bit sentimental, please think twice: often we are dealing here with high emotions caused by very seriouse issues brought to us by real three-dimentional people. And in the midst of all this it can be stressful to loose an ally, even if it's just for a week, for a day, or even an hour. However now everything should return to normal and hopefully tomorrow will bring only solutions, not problems to everyone, but first of all to people who work at sea.

2007-05-12T06:04:00.000-07:00

Hello. Last few days at the office forced me to think about families of those who work at sea.We had several calls not from seafarers themselves, but their mothers, wives,brothers.These people although might have never seen the sea, but seem to be so weel-informed about it, so familiar with the joys and problems that it might give brave humans who are trying to tame it!

Often sea professionals are extremely corageous and compitent while on board of their vessel, but once they step on dry land their strength leaves them. Taken out of their familiar world they become somewhat lost and need assistance of their loved ones to get on with their daily routine.Their families gladly provide seafarers with such help. Perhaps they understand that after months at sea filled with physical strain and risk,their children, husbands, brothers need and want to be taken care of.Sadly often seafarer's families have to deal with something less ordinary then daily errans. They might need to fight for the rights of their seafaring member, protect them from the unfair treatment, assist them with finding a new employer,or persuade a previous one to finally pay their hard earned wages. This list could be continued into infinity.

Such reflected experience apart from obvious negative impacts on seafarer's family also makes them stronger, bonds people together and I guess increases true understanding between it's members.It is difficult not to admire young or aged women who persistantly fight for the interests of their husband, or father, keep calling inpenitrable biurocrats, searching for organisations that might be able to help, are never tired to ask for justice again and again. After conversations with women like that I start to realise how important is the second part of the sentance,-" Seafarer Help is assisting seafarers and their families". These families do need our support, both practical and moral. I do understand now that often they have no-one to share their concern with, no-one who is ready to truly listen.

Recently Film four showed a new film about somebody who was born on board of the ship and spent all his life there. Their problems started when one day they had to step off it and live on a dry land...The hero of this story is not exactly a seafarer, but it still is relevant to what we do here at Seafarer Help. The title is "Legend of 1900", highly reccomended!

2007-04-11T02:18:00.000-07:00

Often I get requests from different people,-work colleagues, friends, internet pals,-write something, will you?They know I like writing, it has always been easy for me and during my school years I've written many essays instead of my classmates.That carried through to an adulthood, and so far has been fine, I just kept writing and enjoying it until... Until at Seafarer Help I suddenly discovered that there might be situations when my words could hirt or sadden somebody. What if I have to let them know that we can't help, or that they actully are signed off for a reason and thir performance at work was concidered to be poor? And, the most terrifying possibility: what if I have to inform some unfortunate family, that their father, son or uncle died at sea?

All these "what if's" could turn into a trying reality any time. It is of course lovely and very satisfying to give people good news and hear how their voices start to shimmer with joy. However, it cannot happen in every case we deal with. Yesterday I had to say to a person who worked on ships as a cook for all his life, that entire crew was deeply dissatisfied with his performance. Under such circumstances we can't actually help, and no-one can. Seafarer simply has to cut his losses and bare grim reality, there are also lessons to be learned, and if they are a right person, philosophical attitude. Not much else. It is difficult, very difficult!

As a charity we still can listen and help someone just by being compassionate. It means a lot to those who work at sea. After months of being in an enclosed environment and seing the same faces day after day, a new and sympathetic listener could be seen as a real treasure. Even if this listener is unable to help practically and is a barer of not exactly pleasant news. But we shouldn't loose a side of the fact that any true information is bringing clarity and stopping confusion. Therefore by releasing it we are already helping the person concerned and shouldn't be shy about it. Work at ISAN certainly tought me that any truth makes complicated situations much easier and is a beacon, or perhaps a lighthouse in our case.

2007-03-20T08:46:00.000-07:00

Here I am back to this spot of cyber space. My silence wasn't caused by sudden laziness,- I was away. That was a business trip to rich and beautiful and yet troubbled Ukraine. One of my Unkrainian colleagues described the mobern state of his country in a very vivid way- "Ukraine is like a glamorous woman in an old and durty dress". Unfortunatelly I had to agree with him. Well, for now, of course. The dress surely will change into a gown of a rare and precious fabric, and that will happen with assistance of people like my odessan hosts.

Yes, I spent four short and very memorable days in port of Odessa that overlooks misty and cool in this time of year Black Sea. In fact, when I saw it's slow waves licking the shore, from the 8th floor of Maritime Hotel, normally dark water seemed pale with the cold metallic shine. Heavy cargo ships resembeled silent arctic islands and seagulls above them cried as if asking for help. HELP!I'm almost certain that this word echoed in minds of all people who observed this picture. That was the reason that brought me here, the force that created organisation very much like ISAN in Ukraine.

It was difficult to believe that problems are so serious and deeply rooted in this strikingly unusual city, charmed by the approach of early spring. However honesty and willingness to share that my colleagues desplayed inabled me to sense the situation quite clearly. Their work has one specific feature that differs from our office routine,- seafarers can simply drop by, pop in to talk about their concerns. To me it was fascinating: instead of trying to feel person's condition only through their voice I suddenly saw expressive, dark from the touch of sun and sulty oceanic breeze faces, caught sparkles in visitor's eyes and read lively gestures of their hands. So much easier, but at the same time so challenging!

I admired bravery and intelligence of young people who work in newly opened office. They will overcome shiness and obtain the experience, in few months their voices will start to sound calmer, their knowledge and trust in own abilities will rise rapidly, they WILL succeed! Actually they have all that already, and by being who they are they giving hope to seafarers and any other fellow human beings that they meet in their daily life. After sharing some of my work experience with them, there is one thing I would like to wish to this talented new collective- luck and lot's of it.

2007-02-07T05:59:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday was bursting with joy and a winter sunlight. The day started with the delighted voices on the other end of the line. A grateful crew was calling us from Middle East to say that after months of frustration, waiting and helpless anger, their problem was finally resolved and they can go home. The perspective of seing their families and simply being able to rest in their own bed seemed like an unatteinable dream, but now it's going to turn into a true reality. The sailors can sense a firm ground beneath their feet again and think of the sea nostalgically hoping that their next ship will lead them towards the less challenging destinations.

With the joy and overwhelming feeling of freedom an inevatable sadness is present in our conversation. Now, when everyone's free to go and dive back into their own life, we suddenly relised that this hard situation brought us together, allowed people involved to support and care for each other in all sort's of different ways. Perhaps Budhists would say that we improved each other's carma. And maybe we did!

A successful resolution of the case brings encouraging sutisfaction. In moments like that the entire job with it's challengies and stresses makes perfect sense and wish to obtain the best possible results get's stronger. It is quite magical to think that we can make a real difference in people's lives on the other side of the globe! But any magic happens once in a while in a midst of hard work and, yes, disapointments. Having said that, deep down there is always a secret hope for a happy call like that.

2007-01-30T06:23:00.000-08:00

It is difficult to believe but our first year at Seafarer Help passed like a quick moment, like a swift glimps of light. 2007 arrived with grey tearful clouds and abandance of work. First few days at the office proved to be crowded with emotions and requests,- "Tell my wife that I am all right!", " Ask my son when he'll be back!", "Connect me with my family!"O-oops!We don't do that, even though we understand perfectly well how lonely and desperate people might feel after a months, and sometimes,-you'll be surprised!-years away from home. But we are ready to listen, so that's what we often had to do during the first week of new 2007. It is really interesting to be on the passive, receptive end of the conversation: your silence, pauses, intencity of your attention, even breathing is that mysterious sea on which caller places boats and ships of their thoughts. They know exactly when your attention dropps and become slightly panicy, trying to gain it back and re-establish the connection...

This year already gave us couple of turbulent and complicated cases. Sometimes three, or more countries are involved in solving the problem and such a dialogue becomes truly fascinating and nurrishing for both soul and intellect. When in the process of dealing with the issue a positive event happens, a door, even tiny one opens, the sutisfuction is immence. It is beautiful to be able to make friends all over the world, and when phone stopps ringing start imagening them, attaching faces and personalities to voices you hear on the other end of line. What looks like friendly Turkish woman, is she wearing bright dresses, or smart office outfits? What books reads strict and always serious English chaplain?Is Russian captain dreaming about streets of Vladimir, or Suzdal when he's asleep after a day full of responcibilities?

So many questions could be asked! And luckily some can be answered. Especially with experience which finally starts to step in after a year of work.But it brings new challengies and needs, of course. There is a strong urge to speak as many languages as possible,- callers who hear sounds of their native language are immediately comforted by it. Sadly one could never speak all the world's languages, or give help to every single person in need. However, it is good to try. And we will keep trying in new 2007, hopefully with luck, courage and hope, fine weather and plain sailing!

2006-11-19T02:57:00.000-08:00

Hi, I have returned after a little time off to this blogging page. Nice to be here again. It is a relaxed Sunday at our office. Sometimes I am not sure if people are aware that we are actually open during the weekend. Or perhaps it's just an old well-settled thinking pattern,- "I'll call them on Monday, poblems will have to wait". But will they? Most likely not! And especially in maritime profession, when people have to live on edge more or less all the time. Maybe after a while seafarers adupt to such a life and take it as normal?

The answer is "no", clearly NO. Sometimes they are just too tired to ask others for help, too independant, or sadly too afraid! Luckily world around us is slowly becoming aware of this simple truth. Performance of Pata Nostre, the play about daily lives of Filipino seafarers, is one of events that definetely raises public awareness regarding maritime issues. I was happy that the event came to it's logical conclusion during the three nights in Teatro Technis. The group of frts time actors, director-playwright and enthusiasts who stepped in as stage hands and producers staged this big two-act play with rare boldness and commitement.

And although luck of acting experience and technical or textual imperfections couldn't escape my attention, somehow it wasn't important. The very fact that such a huge group of people from totally different walks of life plunged into a busy London existance, still could find time and energy to put on stage this maritime story, is already an extraordinary event. They showed to the audience how lonely life at sea can be, how sometimes families cannot cope with constant absence of their fathers, or what it feels like to have a fare captain, or why ones life turns into a real hell on Earth if captain isn't a good person. Perhaps sometimes point was put accross too bluntly, by charachters proclaiming slogans instead of beliavable real dialogue, but that didn't matter either.

Who knows, maybe society needs to hear the painful truth about life at sea told in a very grotesque, shamelessly streighforward manner? "It is so difficult to be a wife of the seafarer!" "It is terrible that my family only interested in my wages, or the next present I give them, but not in me!" " It is so sad that seafarers have to leave their country to find a good job!"Proclaim, scream and shout characters of Pata Nostre ( "Our Father"in Latin), and although by doing so they might dissapoint some theatre goers, they most certainly will make them hear of what life of seafarers is truly like. And then hopefully more dry land cityzens will gain a deeper inside into why it is so imprtant to respect and support people who's destiny depends on real powerful oceanic waves, and not ones cleverly projected on white theatrical backdrop.

2006-10-29T07:33:00.001-08:00

Hello, I haven't been here for a few days. It's because we've been quite busy at the Seafarer help office. I couldn't think about anything apart from my working escapade,- tiping, sending, putting list of the tatrgeted countries together. It sounds slightly military perhaps, but we "target" countries only in case of the promotion compaine, if we plan to attack them with the overwhelming stream of green-blue posters, Seafarer help cards and offers of assistance.

Now the first wave of such a compaine has reached cyber shores of ex-soviet states. Let's see what kind of responce we get. For the time being however, we will have to sit and wait keeping ourselves occupied with the more immediate events. For example with the desperate for our help seafarer from South Asia, who is not only very stressed, but also speaks limited English. He is even slightly angry with me that I don't speak Tagalog. But it so happens that in my part of the world this language is not one of the most commonly spoken.

So, when we finally reach a mutual understanding and get to the bottom of his problem with the bold help of my Chinese colleague, it feels like a victory. Well, perhaps a small one, but still a victory, that hopefully will lead to a bigger ones in the future. Future when we will recieve a joyful e-mail or a phone call from our Filipino sailor saying that everything is now all right. To bring this day closer, we all will need to apply boldness, creativity, competence,integrity and first of all compassion. If we manage to find enough of this wonderful human fuel within ourselves every day, then working for charity will be easy.

2006-10-29T07:33:00.000-08:00

2006-10-21T08:45:00.000-07:00

This is a one of the easiest days at Seafarer Help,-no calls, no particularly complicated followups. Only big grey sky that is looking into a mirror of our office window and a murmuring of silver radio transmitter are left to fill the silence. There is also a little task for me,-I was asked to make a list of Russian speaking countries where we should start our upcoming e-mailing compain. Hopefully it will help us to make Seafarer Help more popular in this part of the world.

To start with my task seemed very strightforward and simple. But once I made a list of all the ex-soviet republicks and started searching through the relevant sites for some contacts there, the countries turned out to be a real web ghosts. Only biggest of them like Ukraine and Russia seemed to be fully present and in touch with the rest of the modern world. Smaller once had just a few contacts with the phone numbers and e-mails that didn't work, or were not mentioned at all.

Perheps these places are still recovering from the political and social disasters that shook them twenty years ago. That means that sea workers there most of the time have very limited, or no access to any professional advise or assistance. If fact, I don't need to guess, I know it for sure. I am Georgian. It's just that it is not always easy to face such a cruel reality. I remember quite a few months ago trying to get through to the only seafarer centre in Georgia. The phone kept calling, and calling, and calling...No one was there to pick up, my e-mail bounced back.

Unfortunately that isn't because seafarers are not in need of help there, or have nothing to be discontent with. Quite the opposite,-because their problems are too huge and money is too tight. It would seem like a real luxury there to build a good seafarer centre. The population is still too busy with pretty basic survival. Sometimes due to neccesity, but more often because people forgot about any other way of existance. However, Black Sea is still welcoming and beautiful and friendly dolphins are still greating approaching ships by performing their acrobatic tricks for amazed foreign visitors. But ugly reality desturbs the eturnal beauty of nature. Once foreign crew steps off the ship, unattractive daily routin creeps in.

I suddenly remembered far too well how city of my childhood got filled with bodies of dead people and trees. How dangerous it became to leave home after dark and how sound of a gunshot turned into something terribly familiar, even normal...Well, I better get on with my little list because who knows, maybe it will make a difference to the sea workers of those troubled places. There certanly everyone needs help, and paople who try to connect their countries with the rest of the world, perheps even more.

2006-10-15T10:19:00.000-07:00

Hello again. Today was a really difficult day, although normally Sundays suppose to be relatively uncomplicated at our office. Well, not this time...I had an alarming call from a seafarer in South America. Him and his crew are desperate to go home, but that's not what their company has in store for them. The living and working conditions on board of the vessel becoming unbearable and people just don't feel like putting up with it any longer.

Sunday is a truly unfortunate day for urgent cases!Offices are shut and phones are silent. 24 hours under ordinary cercumstances are not a lot of time, but in emergency they equal eturnity. Trying to seek help from somebody on the opposite end of the world becomes difficult and you suddenly realise that our world is still big enough as soon as mobiles and regular post stop working. Proportionally I am starting to feel really small sitting in my comfprtable blue chair here in aloof and fashionable London. Nothing much I can do right now!I feel slightly guilty for seing perfect geometry of well-constructed modern buildings from the office window and being able to reach easily for my warm cup of coffee. Perhaps it is totally irrational, but I wish I could be there, with our troubled callers to truly share their their fate with them, talk to them face to face.But I can't...

Me and my colleague are taking turns in talking to reccorded messages in Portuguise and Spanish. But what we really need is a live human voice with the kind heart and eagerness to help attached to it. Hopefully tomorrow it will happen, since it will be a working day. And also hopefully they will have enough time to stop the ship with it's unhappy crew from sailing towards the anonymous port somewhere across Atlantic. Anonymous because the captain doesn't want to disclose this information to his crew,-another way to control people...

Let's believe that tomorrow will be better. It was a difficult Sunday.

2006-10-13T08:20:00.000-07:00

Hello my online travellers!I am back.Well, today's discussion at our office was quite artistic by it's nature,-we had to produce the final version of a leaflet for an upcoming conference. It is really great that God granted us all with such a different personalities, otherwise one could never discover the truth. They say that it becomes apparent during a good healthy debate...Does it?I am not sure, but our local truth will take time to reveal itself to us.

Symbol is a strange thing, it has it's own, very unique language that isn't always the easiest one to master. Obviously here we are dealing with maritime life, joy and sorrow triggered by it. So, I personally would like to see more beautiful ships, seashells and emerald waves floating through our site and marketing materials. That however would be perhaps too unpractical and sometimes confusing. Especially if all these imagery is born in the ocean of my imagination,-it is easy to drown there.

However today during our discussion we avoided usage of life saving boats and desided to go for something less adventurouse but clear and to the point.They all should know that if they happen to work at sea and facing a problem, they can call us. The leaflet became more personal, with the photos of real people working at our office, with descriptions of recent cases that caused us true worry, joy, concern and once again proved that all humans no matter where they are want to be understood, loved and supported.

I hope very much that people on the conference will pick up lot's of our pale blue leaflets and as a resoult will call Seafarerhelp. I also look forward to getting my hands on transforming our marketing literature!One day leaflets will have wavy adges and differently colored pages, the text itself will look more unusual,-latters will take on shapes of rare and striking fonts, they will gain an off-pink glow of mother of purl, and writing will be as dynamic as fiery movements of dancers on Minoyan frescos. Untill then I have to learn a bit more about clarity, patience and strightforward communication. These things are so important in our work!

2006-10-01T14:31:00.000-07:00

Hello. My name is Dimitri Devdariani, I am a seafarerhelp officer from Georgia. A post-soviet Georgia that is not a particularly wellknown country. But yet, a very beautiful one. I am glad to be able to use my languages and urge to help people. Also to use my love for writing and nature. It is so wonderful to be connected to this amazing blue mystery,-SEA!Even if it's a distant connection from my office desk, through the telephone lines and miles of waitless air filled with human voices...Voices that ask for immediate help and understanding, voices of people unated and touched by the sea. Some of their stories are mesmorising, some heartbreaking, but all worth listening to. So, happy reading, listening, sailing. I hope to meet you in this hospitable cyber ocean!