January 6th - A Day to Remember
January 6th. On this historic day on the good ship Volendam it is a Sea Day. David and I slept in a bit after a night where I was troubled with bad dreams, in one I dreamt about my cat Bela. It could have been any cat and for some reason her lower jaw came off. No idea why or what that meant but in my dream I was scared and protective of my precious kitty. As this is a Sea Day the Daily Program was filled with educational programing and entertainment.
We have been asked, told to wear masks for the first three days and today was mandatory Covid testing for all the passengers. If we were under a certain threshold making would be lifted for all except the wait staff. There are a significant number of passengers who refused to wear masks. It clearly says, MASKS REQUIRED. Yet despite this a good number of passenger refused. Today was no different. At breakfast one of the waiters mask slide down his nose as he went out of his way to please a group of 6 people, all unmasked. A man in the group, probably in his late 60’s called him out; “Hey BOY pull your mask up over your nose.” He said it in such a way as to be demeaning and rude. Here this young man, Indonesian as are most of the service personnel on the ship quickly pulled up his mask, and apologized to the now smiling wrinkled faced old man. He and his group laughed. It was appalling to bear witness and his intention was to humiliate. I looked at him and as soon as the waiter serviced him and his group they all laughed as he left. I turned and said something to the affect to; “was that really necessary? None of you are wearing mask so what was your point?” He looked at me with disgust and said; “‘we were eating”. “No you are not, you were just being rude and that young man is not a “boy”. That was it for him and he then went on the attack; “I suppose you believe in open borders, do you believe in God? And some other ugly call outs to me, I just turned away and on woman in his group told him to drop the politics. The man was clearly being racist. Probably 90% of the people on this ship are white people, 90% of the service personnel are Indonesian. They work so hard always with a smile and gracious. I make a point of thanking expressing appreciation to the staff as they literally wait on us hand and foot. I appreciate all that they do. I acknowledge my privilege to be in this ship for 74 days. I take non of it for granted. Yet there is a population who do not, they expect to be serviced. They flaunt their ‘White Privilege’ and this guy and his group were clearly racist.
Then there was another bald headed guy, probably 70, obese with his timid looking wife, also unmasked wearing a T-shirt that read, Annoy a Liberal with facts. I realized then that these people were commemorating the insurrection by flaunting their ugliness. These folks, many in some variation of a cowboy hat, are no doubt Confederates, racists and white Supremacists. There are plenty of them on this ship. It is revolting and embarrassing to see then treat the staff as servants. I imagine these people would be slaver owners if they could. As an ‘American it is shameful.
We spent the rest of the afternoon learning about The building of the Panama Canal, Costa Rica and went to afternoon tea. I also played a few round of Mahjong and went to a writers group. A very nice day. Now it’s time for ‘Shabbat services where I will again express my gratitude for this opportunity.
Other than that it is Friday so David and I will attend Shabbat services and tonight is ‘Dressy Hollywood and Casino Royal’ night. So David and I got all dressed up and went to Shabbat services along with a dozen other Jews on board. We met a particularly nice couple and ended up having dinner together and stayed till they shut down the restaurant. And tomorrow we are off to Costa Rica to 7 hour eco-adventure tour the canals, rainforests wildlife refuges and Macaw Sanctuary. Thank you God for this opportunity.
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