March 2009 Weddings
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Rachel
How did I not know you lived in Asia before? Tell me more!!
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Re: Rachel
::Edit - OMG I typed a lot::
I was living on a ship for a year, just after Rodgers and I started dating. The ship was a sister to the Titanic and almost as old. It's now decommissioned as it is deemed not seaworthy by the 2010 maritime regulations. They've turned it into a restaurant/conference center in permanent dock in Singapore.
We went to Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea. It wasn't really like living in the countries themselves since we lived on board the ship most of the time, and we only stayed in one place for 10 days to 4 weeks; I think it would have been like living in an expat community, except more cut off from the real world, and we were working with locals all the time.
Five days a week, I worked on board, running switchboard and doing other reception type things. One day a week I was off and could go exploring wherever we were. One day a week, I was assigned to a local church for a ministry project. I experienced everything from devastating 3rd world poverty in Cambodia to sparkling clean gigantic fancy malls in Singapore.
The Philippines was my first real experience with street kids, and actually is a big part of my motivation for wanting to start this orphanage in Kenya. We were all invited to dinner at an orphanage started by an American couple, just outside of one of the cities - let's say it was Manila because I don't remember right now. They had started small, just raising a few street kids, and now they have about 75 or so kids. All of their staff were once street kids and were raised in the orphanage. Filipinos have the same cultural mentality as Kenyans regarding orphans. Extended family should take care of them. When the family doesn't take care of the orphans, they live in the streets and are seen as a nuisance.
The worst part was being 11-14 time zones away from Rodgers for 340 days - I call it an XLDR, extreme long distance relationship. We had limited communication options on board. We had super slow snail mail, email, Yahoo messenger, and phone. Fortunately for the Americans, the phone was a satellite phone with a FL number, just like calling a number in the US. I was occasionally homesick for my family or familiar foods or the ease of getting around town when I had my own car and could read the street signs. I was always homesick for Rodgers.
Wow! What an amazing experience! That's pretty cool that you were able to see all of those places and very neat about the orphanage. I still think what you guys are planning on doing is just incredible!
When I was younger, I always said I wanted to work on a cruise ship for a year or two to tour the world. What kind of ship were you on?
I'm pretty sure family communication is going to be the most difficult for me. At least, I'll have Bryan and Margot with me.... you were so far from Rodgers AND your family
Thanks for sharing!
It was originally a cargo ship, then an immigrant ship, and was a "luxury cruise liner" in the 60s & 70s. It's very small compared to today's cruise ships. Because of all of the work we did (besides just running the ship) the cabins were filled with crew and staff - 350 of us. We had a few cabins for guests, but they were only for crew/staff family members to visit.
There was a bookstore on board which sold educational and religious books that anyone could come on board and buy. We also put on programs - English classes, programs about the ship's history, programs about the international crew, conferences for pastors, Bible studies. On land, we did all of those same type of programs, plus service projects. We had our own medical team on board to treat the crew, and they would do medical work in some locations. We did building projects. In more affluent cities, we did a lot more English classes.
You're one of those brave people who can just pick up and live a new life somewhere else. I really admire people like you. I could never do it, and I'm kind of jealous of the ability. My life is so typical. As hard as it feels some days, it's so easy and bland. Kudos, seriously.
Plus, I'm jealous you were on the Titanic's sister ship.
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All of this.
I am too selfish to leave my family for that long.