Ship Family

"God sets the lonely in families"

-Psalm 68:6

With 400 people onboard, it is easy for people to get lost and feel uncared for in the sea of people. Therefore, everyone on the ship is assigned to be part of a family. Every Tuesday is ship family night, where we gather to eat dinner together. Here birthdays are celebrated and depending on the family, some will go out for dinner, others will go on outings at other times during the week. It's an opportunity to get to know more people and have a small group of people that specifically take care of each other.

Currently we are under-staffed in the catering department,
but previously when we had enough people a weekly 'special'
dinner was created for 1 family. A 3 course meal was prepared
and would be specially served. This was my family's special
dinner.

As there are so many of us, getting our whole family together for more than a few minutes is challenging. In total, my family is made up of: Carlien, Seelan and their daughter Tessa from South Africa are our ship parents. My brothers and sisters were originally Jane (Aus), Tommy (US), Rosanna (Aus), Marika (Finland), JiYoung (Sth Korea), Shay and Kevin (Germany), Eileen (Singapore). Jane, Tommy and Rosanna have now left the ship and every 3 months we get 2-3 new people for a few months then they leave and another 2-3 join us, but our core stays the same and will gradually get smaller as people leave the ship until it is necessary to merge with another family and start again.

Part of my ship family, from L-R:
Nicky (Sri Lanka - he was a STEPper and only stayed 3 mths),
Marika (Finland), me, JiYoung (South Korea), Tessa (Sth Africa)
her mother Carlien (Sth Africa) and Jane who has now left (Aus).

Tessa is Carlien and Seelan's
daughter. She's 3 years old
and is truly a delight. We
have become fast friends
and will always sit together
at dinner. She chatters away
and sings songs, and if there's
something she doesn't want to
finish on her plate but knows she
must, I'm always asked to make
the fork and food into an airplane
or, as we live on a ship, a
dolphin flying through the ocean!

We found a cat at dinner time
and he made himself comfortable
in my lap, which made both
Tessa and I very happy!

This time, Tessa agreed that she would
take a bit every time I did. Since we
were eating carrots and broccoli, it was
probably more in aid of getting me to eat
my veggies, more so than Tessa!

Kevin from Germany. He's the photographer
of the group. This was a family outing at
Unawatuna Beach in Galle, Sri Lanka.

fun at the beach

Marika, from Finland.

Shay - my little brother from Germany. He is
from my PST and one of the family I am closest
to. I always wanted a brother, and now I really
do feel like I have one - we have fun joking
and teasing each other, but he's also good for a
hug and we look out for each other, just as family do.

Ship-dad Seelan. He is one of the leaders onboard, and was
acting director of the Doulos for it's last 6 months.
Seelan is an incredibly wise and knowledgeable man
and I really enjoy being a part of his family.

My ship-mum, Carlien. Carlien is so caring and welcoming.
She loves each of us and makes time for us whenever
possible - their cabin is always open for us to drop in and
say hello or have a talk when we need to.