JOURNALS OF A FILIPINO SEAMAN

After a week of delays , I had now finally got back again to get some action and packed up all my gear for another session of paper works and find out what happened on where I left off. My agenda's are 1.Find out what happened on my 2nd medical which I took on the 19th of April. 2.Get the medical clinic to fill out the Physical Medical form which to be used for the marshal island SIRB 3.Finish the application for the Marshal Island SIRB at the License counter of Career 4.Signup the contract for the Ship Cape Tallin. First off I visited Maritime medical clinic again located in UN Ave Malate , and got to found out what the hell happened to my second medical which I took last April 19. When I got there I went immediately to the second floor to the Registration building to inquire. The receptionist said that I should go first back again on the laboratory and that my status is still pending. What the hell ?!! Pending ?! I immediately went to the laboratory department to sort out this is...

For the moment there isn't anything that career requires of me, and they are also waiting for my U.S. Visa to arrive at their office. Once it arrives thought that’s the part where career would be rushing me and tell me to hustle up. Minor Objectives still almost remain exactly the same and that the only thing that was accomplished was the Major objective of getting and securing a U.S. Visa at the embassy, The rest of the "TO DO" things are still pending up to now due to the lack of funding. My sister was a big help in giving me the necessary funds needed to pursue this agenda and I'm forever in debt on her efforts, as a matter of fact a huge majority if not all the funding came from her. So far this is still the objectives that need my attention. 1.Photocopy my sisters ATM Card and submit the photocopy to Career shipping. 2.Open an ATM bank account under my moms name and pass the photocopy of it to career. 3.Report back to Captain Ledesma and attend the...

Weather's getting harsher and I'm suffering from heat exhaustion every now and then. Imagine its now officially 36.6 degrees Celsius according to the government weather service and its only an average temperature, Unofficially its about 40 plus degree's now in the metro city and getting worse. Weathers so bad that I'm having a very bad cold because of it plus heat exhaustion and fatigue. General rule that I had to do this summer is to stay out of the sun (and any direct contact to sunlight) from 9am to 4pm, otherwise heat and dehydration will nail me. I'd take in mind to drink water and antioxidant meds everyday. For the moment I didn’t bother attending the remaining two seminars left and focused my attention in checking my equipment and other stuff that might be needed later on, So far the latest news based on what I check on my equipment is that most of it is still intact and in good order, though some needs repair and replacement and some needs to be cleaned. Ove...

With the help of my sister , I was able to secure the endorsement in BPI bank to open an account there in Sta. Lucia East Grand Mall. Career gave me two endorsement forms one for my sister and one for my mom, As of the moment hopefully by next week I'd be able to finish this allottement issue. Able also to finally take and finish the "Anti-Piracy" seminar from career at room 307. This seminar isn't that difficult and that it just basically describes what to do in the event of a pirate attack on a commercial ship. They also included information that 21st century pirates don’t come with eye patches and daggers in between their teeth with wooden large ships, nowadays they come on inflatable fast rafts with external motors and a ladder and wield some Ak-47's and a huge rocket propelled grenade  (R.P.G.). The lecture seminars described a safe room in the ship called a "Citadel" (also called a "Panic room" here in the land based) were in the advent o...

A peek on inside Career shipping office Was 10 am when I received a call from my home and at first I thought it was my sister just calling back again and that the she forgot something. When I picked it up it wasn’t my sister but it was some staff at career shipping office informing me on why the hell I haven't filled out the form yet for my U.S. Visa application and ordered me to report back in the office right away. Well they don’t really have to rush me on that part since I'm going to the Shipping office anyway. During my walk to the jeep station, I received another SMS from career informing me to attend this so called "MST" (another jargon term in the office) training seminar on Wednesday . Ok duly noted and it’s a must that I attend "MST" since I accidentally screwed up on the "Anti-Piracy" seminar and overslept on my house. At the visa counter booth One golden rule I learned in career shipping is whenever it comes to reporting is NEVER COME IN...

Took advantage of the said holiday break to reinforce my finances and ask for help, four days of waiting is a long time especially if I'm expecting Financial help in order to proceed on my objective's. Good thing that Financial help arrived as scheduled and now I'm back again on my feet to settle some score in the medical clinic and career shipping. This time I'm very eager to solve this situation on a very quick basis. For now the financial help that arrived is adequate enough to solve my primary problems, though sufficient it is very limited and I should keep in mind that I should use it wisely. On Tuesday April 02, 2013 was busy as expected and had again hurdle my way towards the medical clinic for two objectives. One is to recover my chest X-ray plate I submitted on the X-ray department and the second objective is find out what happened to the results of my recent medical diagnostics and if there are any troubles, eliminate it as quick as possible. Third objective i...