Weather isn't exactly friendly at Senegal this time of year it and feels very much like summer in the Philippines (to be specific like in the month of April or May) , I had been doing all the precautions and Do's and Don'ts in a hot climate such as these. Always bringing my water canteen around with me to keep my hydrated and keep myself cool as much as possible , to the point which I wear my coveralls wet.
Senegal as
I describe is pretty much calmer and quieter than it west African neighbours .
Locals around here are friendly and mostly do "Small boat" business
selling internet sim cards and top up loads, I myself bought an internet sim
card load in one of these (unfortunately I didn’t bought a top up load and
later found out that they accept Euro's as well). In the extent merchants here
on these small boats are fairly honest enough to do business with and there's
little need to be watchful over them, they simply just do business in selling
and not steal or rip off a helpless sailor.
Two days
ago people here on board hesitate a lot on whether we should contact the locals
or not , they have doubts that these people might be robber's (or pirate's) of
some sort but now things are a bit different and they now sought to contact
each small boat that pass through here as much as possible to buy internet sim
cards and top up's. Mostly these small boats pass around in the anchorage area
every morning or so, to sell stuff and if interested you can contact them. THEY ACCEPT US DOLLARS AND EUROPEAN EURO'S which
is very convenient.
For general public information the communications
company here is called "ORANGE" (equivalent to "Smart
Communications" in the Philippines). Internet sim cards are sold
separately here and you have to buy a top up load in order to use internet,
(they don’t come along on the sim card). By the way all the manuals and
language here is in French, and internet is charged via bandwidth usage (20MB,
150MB , 500MB, 1GB, 2GB, 3GB)
To Top-up a
sim card (or "reload" term in the Philippines)
Press *123*
code recharge # (then press call button on your cell phone)
To Check
balance
Press #123#
(press call button on your cell phone)
To Sign up
for internet service
Press
#1234# (press call button on your cell phone)
(official
website by the company is www.passorange.sn)
Customer
service hotline
Press 1441
(press call button on your cell phone)
(Information
given by 3rd mate Vergel Acebo Abalos)
As for the
news on work
Mooring
operations were difficult. Apparently Captain Kolev has poor work decisions and
had us bring out mooring ropes in just an hour before we go to berth. As an
obvious result , me , O.S. Ronnie Macalawa and BOSUN Payopay are all dead beat
tired before even the mooring work to start. To make it worst the weather on
that day wasn't pleasant and was terribly hot, it a surprise that I even
finished the job without being sick of fever from heat exhaustion and fatigue.
(it’s a good thing I drank another cocktail of my meds , to at least lessen
chances of being sick).
At berth ,
people on board here are being so discriminative about African Senegal's .
Fellow Filipino's and Europeans alike, in some instances even refuse to let
them in inside the crew mess for a cup of coffee and shun them - labelling them
as "EBOLA" , I'm not saying that we should fraternize or be
"buddy-buddy" with them, what I'm saying is that we could at least
treat them humanely after all despite their colour and appearance they are human beings WITH FEELINGS. Filipino's hate
being discriminate but on the way my fellow Filipino's are acting right now ,
they're showing off a very poor impression.
One
instance , is this watchman whom was just simply asking for a cup of coffee.
Out of pity I decided to let him follow me at least to the entrance of the
accommodation entrance on the portside to give him a cup of coffee . By bad
luck it turns out that Messman Montoya saw me and he said "people like
them are not allowed here, only the agent and loading master are allowed to
enter" , he looked at the poor Senegalese with total disgust, plus he's
lecturing me like some sort of self-righteous bastard. I told the Senegalese to
go to the suez cabin room outside and wait for me there for the coffee, I went
back to Mess man Montoya and asked if there is a specific designated coffee cup
for the watch men to drink . He rudely said no and said with disgust that we
don’t give them coffee cups , annoyed with so much discrimination against them
, I decided to get whatever coffee cup I can find on the coffee area and get
coffee for the watchmen by myself . Before I even get to finish the coffee I
saw Mess man Montoya , talking to Captain kolev and saying (or more like
impressing him) that he foiled an attempt of a nigger to enter the
accommodation space then he went back to the galley and told the cook about it
as like he was broadcasting the whole wide world that no niggers are allowed
on-board.
I feel very
sorry for the watchman about the treatment and this kind of behaviour of my own kind , yet I couldn't do anything about it but just simply give him the coffee that
he ask. I often wonder why we Filipino's get discriminated most of the time and
yet I ask myself that sometimes maybe this is the judgement we get because we
discriminated other people about their colour and race.
The
following day I recent bought a top up card from one of the agents. (good thing
3rd mate Vergel Acebo Abalos is a smooth talker and talked his way in
convincing the agent to buy the top up loads for us and bring it here)and
immediately hooked up my computer for the internet. Here's what I found out on
what is happening on the sailing community in the Philippines
- First off , it looks like MARINA will be handling and taking over the show on all maritime related interest of Filipino sailors - as in everything. Aside from issuing seaman's book, and now COP's, Marina will now be absorbing functions in regards to issuance of licenses to sailors . Before it was PRC (Professional regulations commission) who issues this blue plastic license cards by late quarter of 2014. To summarize MARINA will be expanding its influence(to some extent power) and will be the "head honcho" on all matters about Filipino sailors. Big question now is whether or not this will be another bigger tyrant replacing previous tyrants who govern Filipinos sailor's or their dealings will be fair and just ? - stay tuned !!!. For us ordinary common sailors , it means were not going to visit PRC anytime soon (or none at all) for our license related affairs which includes examinations and such. Another big question is I wonder how much will they charge us for examination fees ?? I hope they're not going to rob some poor young helpless deck cadet on those fee's like what they just did on veteran sailors about COP's
- The political party "ANGKLA" seemed to made it out after all on the latest political elections and has managed to get a seat on politics, unfortunately like all other political parties, this sailor themed political party ended up just siphoning government funds for their own personal gain and basically just don’t really give a shit about sailors , heck they even ignored a recent seafarers day parade on luneta - really bad impression on them since thier political party is sailor themed . Hmmm I wonder since PTC company formally backed this political party a few years back or in some ways connected , I asked myself were does the government supplied money for political party goes to ??? (Please don’t tell me it all went to PTC ) oh well follow the trail of the money - well uhm government money that is :D . Oh yeah by the way from what I heard , this political party is run by cold blooded people from "Elite" maritime probably those PMMA (or MAAP) sons of bitches - Hmpf !!! no wonder they don’t give a shit on us.
- Now news about us deck cadets (or at least those who feel like deck cadets), there is a recent rumour that implemented by marina that aside from your usual record training book (the blue one that looks like an oversized notepad) , deck cadets have another notepad size booklet to fill up to according to what I heard it another "Journal" or "Diary" of some sort, uhm if that was a case then can they count this blog as well ? maybe I could update it out online every now and then :D - nah I don’t think any MARINA official wouldn't be happy about what I'm writing . Anyway if being a sailor in the Filipino maritime community is bad , then deck cadets gets the worse treatment of all.
