Captain and Tenille

A story from the coast...

At the coast, the staff was really nice. The guards were especially friendly to us as we would see them by the pool, on the walkway or when we went on the beach. There was one guard named John that Molly made friends with when she was by the beach one day waiting to meet up with me (I was on the internet).

When I got over John started asking me questions as he would like to be a teacher and he was excited to find out that I am in education. I answered his question and encouraged him to go for it and reach his dreams.

We saw John several times over the next few days and said "goodbye" to him a few times as we kept thinking we were leaving.

On our last day, I had walked back to the room for a moment by myself and encountered John on the walk. He came up to me and was all excited. Our conversation went like this...

John: I heard that you are the captain of the boat.
Me: What
John: I heard that you are the captain of the boat, I want to be on your boat.
Me: What boat.
John: The boat, you are the captain. I want to be on your boat. I would like for you to hire me to work for you on your boat.
Me: laughing... You don't want to be on my boat? It is crazy on my boat!
John: I am very serious. I want to be a teacher and I want to come to America and to work on your boat.
Me: I am sorry, I am a teacher but I do not hire the people that work for us. I can't hire anyone. I do know though that you will be a great worker for whatever boat you work on...

It always makes me sad to hear people want to come to America. We have so much in comparison that it is hard when people say these things to us. Especially someone so kind and who seems to be such a hard worker. He is working as a guard to save up money to go to school to be a teacher. You wish that everyone had the opportunities that you have had. At the same time though, it is not wonderful for everyone in America and there are many poor here but people from other countries don't see that. They see the people that can afford to go to Africa that have enough to live come there. They think that we have it all in America and that life is wonderful there. In comparison, it seems that it is much easier as these people work so hard for so little.

I encouraged John to keep up the hard work and to keep going for his dream of being a teacher. I think he would be a fabulous teacher and I told him to keep studying. He really wanted to contact us but we took his email address instead. I wished him well.

Now I had to go back to Molly to inform her that people think that I am the captain of our ship.

I told Molly that it appears that I am the captain of our ship. She said she had heard of this from someone before but did not know what it meant and if they think we really have a ship or if it is a metaphor.

I told her that I thought it must be a metaphor and that for some reason, people think between her and I that I am the boss- hence the title Captain. I then explained that if that were the case that she can be Tenille from the singing duo "Captain and Tenille" from the 1970's. I also said that they sing a song called "Bananas" or something like it that basically says, "Bananas, bananas, I think I'm going, bananas, bananas, I think I'm going bananas" That will be our theme song on our ship.

So since then, that is our theme song and we are Captain and Tenille. I have had to ask her to grab a few things for me when I was holding Selina or because I wanted to borrow or have something of hers (ie a soduku puzzle) so I will say, "Tenille, can you please give me a ...."

It has given us a good chuckle and reminded me of the times when my sister and I were young that we would listen to that album and dance around the house all crazy to the "bananas" song!!

Just thought I'd share this morning as I am still thinking about our encounters with John and what a kind young man he is...

We are leaving soon, hopefully to do a donation to a local orphanage and to go to the market for a little shopping. It is slightly raining on and off as it has been all night so it is pleasant out but that will soon be replaced by humidity... so the forecast calls for more sweating!!! Surprise! :-)

Jennine