Guest Posts on County 10 are provided by contributors and the opinions, thoughts, and comments within are their own and may not necessarily reflect those of County 10.
Honduras is one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere according to the International Monetary Fund. Over 70% of its people live in poverty and over 50% of Hondurans live in extreme poverty. A combination of international crises and adverse weather events during the past few years have kicked the Honduran economy to its knees and sent its residents reeling further into economic purgatory, especially its women. Proportionally more females are unemployed compared to their male counterparts by at least four percent.
So, I’m never surprised when I encounter a female worker from any impoverished Latin American country whenever I’m on board a cruise ship somewhere in the world, particularly from the countries of Honduras or Nicaragua. I’m always curious how they escaped the devastating poverty to land a job for which they are not paid as much as someone with the same occupation in the United States, but certainly, with their salaries plus whatever tips they accrue, they can attain a level of affluence few of their countrymen (and especially women) can dream of.
For example, on my wife’s and my latest cruise, one of the servers on board was a young lady from Honduras named Aurora. I’m always grateful when I have an opportunity to practice what little Spanish I know with a Spanish-speaking person, although for me it’s always a humbling experience because inevitably there are words or phrases I cannot understand and I have to ask for their meanings.
Each experience seems to help my knowledge of the language and my ability to speak it, but I’m beginning to doubt if I’ll live long enough to master it. As a way or rationalizing my continuing effort to learn more, I fall back on the quotes of various people in history (most of whom I’ve never heard of), who try to encourage by saying the journey is more important than the destination; which I’d like to believe is true because this trek to Spanish fluency is inching along at a snail’s pace.
Anyway, back to Aurora.
Each worker on board a cruise ship must wear a pin on his or her shirt signifying the person’s name and country of origin. I’m always curious about where workers come from, and with workers coming from nearly 60 different countries, that curiosity goes a long way. It’s a great way to start a conversation, and to our chosen cruise line’s credit, workers are encouraged to engage with passengers when passengers ask questions about their background.
And the workers seem genuinely happy to reveal a little about their lives before and after they signed on the dotted line. A requirement for each worker is to learn English, and often the servers, by necessity, speak the best English; and as there are often many Spanish-speaking passengers on board, having a server who speaks both languages is a benefit to the cruise line.
Early on during our last cruise, Aurora waited on my wife and me, and when she initially approached our table, my eyes of course went to her name tag. I was pleased in that I’ve not encountered many workers from Honduras. Her English was very good, and when I asked if she minded me attempting to order in Spanish, she smiled and said, “Sure.”
I struggled through the effort, which she seemed to more or less understand, but before she left to wait on another table, I asked, “¿Dónde aprendiste inglés?” (Where did you learn English?”), thinking that she must have gone to a private school which taught our language because her mastery of English was impressive.
She smiled a little and said in English, “I taught myself English.”
Which surprised me more than just a little, as that’s not the path most workers take to English fluency. The cruise line pays for new workers to learn the language with a subscription to the online language tool of Babbel. Obviously, cruise workers are all on different levels of English fluency, but she spoke English much better than I ever hope to speak Spanish.
And then I asked, “At what age did you start?”
To which she replied, “Twenty-seven years ago.”
I don’t know her history growing up in Honduras, but for someone who I would have guessed was in their early thirties, she knew at an early age that learning English was a pathway to a more affluent life.
Most of the people who work on cruise ships come from the Philippines, about 60% of them at least, with smaller portions from other countries around the world. India provides a large contingent of workers. To nearly a person, they’ve all been professional and willing to accommodate any reasonable request asked of them, all with a smile.
That’s not to say they don’t have bad days, but most workers are on duty at least 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, with an occasional day off, so having a few days when they are tired and a little irritable is completely understandable. This is all while they are away from their families for as much as ten months out of each year.
It’s tough duty. However, over 70% of workers on any given ship will spend their few months at home and then come back for another nine or ten month contract. One young man from the Philippines told us that for two years he struggled with being away from his family for so long and questioned his decision to become a cruise worker; but then he realized his sacrifice was improving the lives of his family back in the Philippines, which provided the joy he needed to continue.
As most workers do, he would send a good portion of his earnings back home to his family to help make ends meet. And when he did return home, he was given the King’s treatment by those whose lives he had financially improved while he was gone. He was not allowed to hardly lift a finger until he flew back to another cruise ship somewhere. Incidentally, workers’ transportation to and from the ships is paid for by the cruise line.
We’ve talked with older workers who have worked for the same company for over 30 years and say they would never consider working for any other cruise line.
While on the ships, workers must be the family and support system for each other, and we see that on every cruise. For example, while in the main dining room, when they are not too busy, which is not often, we might notice a little good-natured, totally appropriate ribbing from a young man from the Philippines towards a young lady from Indonesia. To which she responds in kind. Genuine smiles and laughter all around indicate a healthy and supportive work environment.
However, when the dining room is busy, the wait staff is all business, working together to provide the best service and an enjoyable experience for all guests. It’s a choreographed display of teamwork that one rarely observes.
It warms my heart, though, once in a while to see even a miniscule chink the professional armor of cruise workers.
One late night, my wife and I were having tea and apple pie at a small restaurant midship. One floor below, in the atrium, a solo guitarist was playing a popular song from the 1970’s. Business was fairly slow, so the manager, who was from India, and a young lady from the Philippines, who on that occasion was serving as the person seating guests, were visiting quietly standing side-by-side near the front station where guests wait to be seated.
The manager was about fifty years old and stood about six foot two, while in contrast, the young woman may have been half that age, and she may have stretched out at an even five foot. The contrast was impossible for me to ignore, so I was doing something for which my mother would always admonish me: staring.
The unseen guitarist finished one song, and after a few seconds began playing a more lively tune, which for some reason prompted the young lady to grab one of her manager’s hands and gently turn him toward her where she took hold of his other hand, and started dancing, kicking her feet out and about, while her boss stood before her like a smiling, giant wooden statue.
The incident lasted only a few seconds before the young woman realized how her display was so out of character for someone who previously had exhibited overwhelming pride in her professionalism. But for me, the episode was an unexpected, but gratifying, glimpse of the humanity of which we are all capable if we can just trust ourselves to, once in a while, do something harmless, but completely out of character.
It was an incident I doubt I’ll ever forget because of its kindness and randomness. In a world of predictability, it took a young lady from the Phillipines to remind me of the joy of spontaneity.
And in a world of entitlement, it took a young woman from Honduras to once again prove that perseverance is one great and admirable human characteristic.