JOURNALS OF A FILIPINO SEAMAN

Few days went by just playing civilization 5 "brave new world" expansion game on my PC, just to kill a few days off before reporting back to career shipping last Wednesday May 14th, 2014 . Due to the limited money I had currently, originally my only agenda at that day was to attend the accounting briefing and had the accounting slip be signed by the accountant (which I accomplished within two hours), But I figured that I still some spare time and I do wanted to know what's Character I use in Fallout new vegas the deal behind the new "Marina COP" document . I do know that it’s a replacement document for the TESDA C.O.C. (Certificate of Competency) , but don’t exactly know the further details on what kind of documents I'd be needing to get one. I went to the PRC / TESDA booth and asked on how to get one , Mrs "Teri" wasn't around and the fat lady with glasses gave me a small paper slip and told me that this is the document I'd be needing , gi...

Received a call out of nowhere on my Cell phone and when I answered , it was from Career Shipping office informing me that I would be deployed in Conti Greenland within 72 hours. Puzzled, I asked why the reason behind the short notice. The caller said that I had a functional Schengen Visa ( European Visa) , I told the caller that my documents for deployment aren't ready yet and I still have a couple of things to sort out. She replied that if that was the case then I had to report back to career shipping to sort things out. The following morning , I hurriedly packed my things up and headed to the shipping office to confirmed the said deployment. I was in the hurry that I didn't even bother to go my usual daily rituals to take a bath before heading out.   I arrived at exactly 9am in career shipping office and quickly headed to captain Galang's office to clarify my said departure. Good thing Captain Galang reassured me that I will not get deployed on Tuesday and that there was...

A day after completing and upgrading my SRC, I received an SMS from my the shipping company informing me of a sudden change of schedule , and departure time. Puzzled I sorted it out and found that the schedule for departure in Cape Bari will be the last week of May 2014. No big deal on end and that I could use some spare time in finishing off my pending medical situation. Thursday went by and my sister urged me to go to the local dental clinic to have my tooth cavities patch up. We went to Dr. Ponti a well-known dentist here in Marikina and upon visiting and a rough estimate on how many teeth exactly I had cavities with (which ended on a total count of 11 tooths, instead of one three). Not surprisingly the cost of all the repair plus cleaning ended up on about 6,700 PHP (Philippine Pesos) , a very costly repair which I only estimated earlier to be just at least 2,500 PHP or less. Before being put on the dentist chair, I asked my sister seriously if she has enough money for the repairs ...

Total chaos as expected inside POEA, by the time I arrived there literary a hundred people flocking the whole compound to conduct their daily affairs related to overseas employment.     Sadly there are a lot of changes in POEA compared to the last time I had been here a few years ago. The POEA is much more chaotic and disorganized now, worst is that the instant "one stop" shop they brag about a few years ago has been disbanded (booths that process all documents needed like , NSO , DFA, TESDA, PRC, MARINA, NTC, NBI, ). Aside from that they're no longer issuing the quarterly publication on the list of licensed maritime companies.   Anyway I'm here to get my SRC card here and according to the application form I got I'm scheduled here at 1pm to apply for that card. While I was waiting in the PAGIBIG waiting area, waiting. The Security guard called out and announced on the mega phone that they prioritize first MAAP graduates and they get to be out on fr...

usual routine medical test , answer honestly the HIV / STD test  Routine medical examinations in Maritime Medical laboratory clinic proceeded as scheduled and with little problem (only Dental and possibly X-Ray as the main challenge). It took me only half a day to finish all the 5 Medical exam stages ,which included Audio, Optical, Laboratory (blood chemical), X-ray and ECG, Physical, Drug test and Psychological test. I'm glad that my stool sample is no longer needed on the laboratory test , So I just threw my "shit cup" on the trash bin. Apparently according to the attending dentist that checked my teeth the cost of the entire dental repairs will be as much as 2,400 PHP and that even excludes the dental cleaning that will follow. The cost of the repairs is very high and I'm not exactly sure if having it repaired on the said clinic will persue , For now the only remedy solution I could think of is have my teeth repaired on a local government hospital and get a Medical...