Received a call out of nowhere on my Cell phone and when I answered , it was from Career Shipping office informing me that I would be deployed in Conti Greenland within 72 hours. Puzzled, I asked why the reason behind the short notice. The caller said that I had a functional Schengen Visa ( European Visa) , I told the caller that my documents for deployment aren't ready yet and I still have a couple of things to sort out. She replied that if that was the case then I had to report back to career shipping to sort things out.
The following morning , I hurriedly packed my things up and headed to the shipping office to confirmed the said deployment. I was in the hurry that I didn't even bother to go my usual daily rituals to take a bath before heading out. I arrived at exactly 9am in career shipping office and quickly headed to captain Galang's office to clarify my said departure. Good thing Captain Galang reassured me that I will not get deployed on Tuesday and that there was just a slight mix up on what happened.
It was a relief that I won't be in a rush to and I still have plenty of time to fix my documents. While I was at Career office I took in the extra mile of finishing other paper document stuff needed, such as my application for a Liberian seaman's book and clearing out other small details like the English proficiency test (which they call marlin by the way) my proficiency score is still passing thought , I personally think my English vocabulary has deteriorated slightly compared to my performance two years ago.
The following day , I received another SMS message yet again on career ship management (I'm starting to get annoyed that I kept receiving messages from them every now and then). This time It was about something on the NAC / COP documents, after a brief conversation with the person in charge of these documents on the telephone, it was revealed to me that the COP documents I took on PNTI are meant only for BTU / BTR seminar and not the COP for Marina. To make it simple BTU / BTR COP is different from MARINA COP (althought both of these documents have a "COP" at the end). To avoid confusion , here's what I figured out , translated to what is the equivalent version of our old documents
MARINA COP ----> equivalent to TESDA certificate of competency ( TESDA COC)
BTU / BTR COP ----> equivalent to the old NAC certificate of seminar trainings
So the bottom line is I'm back again in doing several mini - quest yet again in completing these documents, and finding out that I'm just halfway on my current goal.
For the moment here's my Mini Quest Shopping list.
Go to Career Ship Management and get some info about MARINA COP
Attend the accounting briefing at Career Ship Management
Attend PDOS Seminar at Career Ship Management
Go to MARINA and get the MARINA COP document
Go back again in maritime medical laboratory and get the PEME certficate
Retrieve the BTU / BTR COP document in PNTI.
Apply for Liberian Seaman's book at the License counter on our company.
Seriously I could finish this within a week or couple of weeks, but the thing that complicates my situation is the availability of funding. For the moment only my younger sister is the one shouldering all the expenses I need to accomplish this and she's already feeling the strain of my financial drain. Without her financial backing all my activities will be put on standstill and a halt. I don't simply want to add more strain on her in the financial part , but unfortunately I'm stuck and have to relay on it.
Anyway this serves me a lesson that I should me be more wiser in handling my money and as much as I hate being uncharitable, I have to be very cautious in trusting people when it comes to money matters (like lending my money), because chances are some of them don't exactly pay their debts at all. When I get out of this mess, I really swear that I won't lend my money to other people. I don't like being in this kind of situation ever again
