guapas

In Cebu, pretty girls are called "guapas." As in most Asian cultures, pale skin is desirable, so they call all white girls guapas. And they stare at us a lot. And they tell us over and over again how beautiful they think we are. We're kind of used like a sideshow attraction sometimes. One lady told us that the guys would see us at some program or event and say "The guapas are there! The guapas are there!" and then they'd want to come to the thing. And then they hear the gospel, all because they wanted to come stare at the white girls. It's annoying sometimes, but I see that God can use it.

This story is not about God using us so much as it is about men staring at us and making us laugh. We have on the Doulos what we call the Sundeck. It's above the Boat Deck where the lifeboats and bookshop are, and it's open, so that you can go there and get some sun (thus the name). Today Kris (who is American but of Dutch heritage) and I were sitting on the Sundeck, leaning against the railing. We could see the people walking past to go to the bookshop. One of the men walking past happened to glance upwards, and he saw us. I didn't see him at first, I was reading a book and not paying attention. But Kris saw him and he was making eyes at her. He continued walking while looking up at us and trying to flirt. He was doing well with that for a while. But those sneaky lifeboats...sometimes they just jump out in front of you! He walked straight into my lifeboat (that's lifeboat 6, the biggest one on Doulos, we call it the Life Ship), dropped his shades and phone, the phone fell apart, and he was feeling really dumb. That's when I noticed him, when he ran into the lifeboat. We laughed, a lot. So did the security guard who was guarding the entrance to the bookshop. Maybe that'll teach him to stop staring at pretty girls.

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Rachel

thabo

On the ship, if you don't already have a significant other when you join, you aren't allowed to have one until you've been with the organization (on the ship or off) for a full year. Many people on board had 6 months of training in South Africa before joining. So, even though they've been on the ship only as long as me, they can already get SP (that's Social Permission). So, as I work at the Info Desk and people all treat me as their personal secretary, this guy Thabo and I have a running gag that I am his secretary, scheduling important meetings for him and such. He is able to get SP starting this month. So he asked me in January to start making a list for him of potential ladies he could get SP with. As I am his secretary, that apparently is in my job description. I'm a good employee so I willingly agreed to do this for him.

(This next part may not seem to go with the story, but stay with me here) There are several places on the ship where you can take things you don't want anymore. Toiletries go to the Blue Cupboard; clothes, accesories, housewares go to Charlie; and books go to the Staff Lounge. As they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure. I have found many treasures in these places. A couple of months ago, I was in the Staff Lounge, looking for any interesting books to read. I came across a book called "Cooking for One." I thought, 'That's the most depressing book I've ever seen! But I may have a use for it sometime...'

Then Thabo asked me to find him someone to get SP with, and I knew what I had to do. Rather than making him a list of ladies he can get SP with (though every time one of the girls who went to South Africa training mentions that they can get SP now, I let them know that Thabo's on the market now) I am going to give him the depressing book! Being that the 14th of February is generally accepted as a day to celebrate love, I'm going to give it to him then. And tell him, "Thabo, since I can't find you anyone to get SP with, it may be a while before you get a wife, but until then, here's something that should help you out!"

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Rachel

my new favorite game

I was wrong about the girl who we told we were eating Jackalope. Turns out, she believed us the whole time. She went to a drama practice and they had to start out by telling something about themselves. She told them that as a child she had pet rabbits and now she's eaten rabbits. They asked where? when? And she told them that it was on the ship just a few days before. They didn't remember eating rabbit, though. So later she went and asked the cheif steward and he told her that it was actually chicken. I nearly died laughing when she told me all this. I didn't really think that she believed us the whole time. But, she did...

That's not my new favorite game, though. Cat and I just moved from our old cabin, where we had 2 other cabinmates, to a new cabin, where it's just the 2 of us. It's a beautiful clean little cabin where we can get a full night's sleep. We discovered yesterday, just before our second night in our new cabin, that there's a small gap in the corner where two of the walls come together. It's by the head of my bunk, and on the other side of the wall is the head of one of our best friend's (Kris) bunk. It's just big enough to pass papers through. We already knew that we could talk to her, because the walls are thin, but now, we can pass secret notes! It's so much fun. I don't know why. She passed us a poem last night:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
I would write more
But my brain hurts
So I'll let it sleep
And also my new roommate
Thinks I'm crazy
Because I talk to the walls

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Rachel

jackalope

One of the most amusing things about living with people from different countries, especially if they don't know a lot about the US, is that they'll believe just about anything you tell them! Last night we had something Swedish for dinner, the menu called it "Flying Jackob." We had never heard of that before, but we figured it must be similar to a Jackalope. Throughout dinner, we talked about how great it was to eat Jackalope again, and all that. The Australian and Brit who were eating with us played along, though they hadn't actually heard of Jackalope (until that Pixar short "Boundin" came out-there's a Jackalope in it). We described to them what Jackalopes are, and then a German girl sat down with us. So we went through the explanation again.
She said, "I thought this was chicken!"
And we said, "No, no, it's jackalope. Look at the menu-they just spelled it wrong!"
I thought she was going to start crying when she said, "It's like a rabbit, right? I don't want to eat a rabbit!"
"Too late," we said, "You already started eating it, may as well finish it now."
I think she figured out in the end that we weren't actually eating jackalope, but she did believe us for a while. I'm not sure what she believes about Jackalopes though.

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Rachel

Merry Christmas!

Well, folks, I think I've successfully survived my first holidays away from home.

I got back from 2 weeks of being on an A-team (a ministry team that stays off the ship for the durarion of time that the ship is in a port) and it was Thanksgiving. We had big plans for celebrating. But, it didn't work out. Then we replanned and it didn't work out again. I spent Thanksgiving Day taping paper to the floor, in preparation for drydock. It was pretty much the worst Thanksgiving of my life, but it's also the first time in my life to not be able to have Thanksgiving dinner and family discussions on thankfulness and getting totally annoyed by my relatives and all that.

Then, I was off the ship for another 2 weeks, another A-team, during drydock. I got back from that about a week before my birthday. After the big let-down of Thanksgiving, I was anticipating the worst. But, actually, my birthday was pretty good. My K-group (onboard family) had dinner with me, with chocolate cake and rainbow ice cream. And we arrived in the Philippines that day. There were about 6 birthday cards waiting for me in the mail container. So I got multiple birthday cards in the mail, on my birthday, for probably the first time in my life. Entering my mid-twenties was a bit traumatic though.

A week later was Christmas. We had celebration on board for about half the day Christmas Eve and all day Christmas Day. I think they plan a lot for us so that we don't have so much time to think about what we're missing at home. Again, because Thanksgiving was so terrible, Christmas didn't seem so bad to me. The annual picture of the ship's company is taken on Christmas day:



And here I've zoomed in on me and some of my closest friends:




Here I am with my cabinmates, three of them actually live with me and the one on the left just pretends to: