Cell phone call from Jr. in Taiwan

maacoinc
Mon, 02 Jul 2007 10:25:29 +0000

We just got a call from junior as he was walking down a street in Kao Shung or as he puts it cow dung( pretty dirty city ). The reception was better than at KP. The ability to keep up with your Cadet while they are at sea is incredible, from email to electronic tracking of the ship to talking to them on their cell phones as they tour a foreign port.Whats great about it is the ability to get live and almost live info on what they are doing and get some of the great stories and adventures while they are fresh in their minds.

I had a laugh when he told me the story of their coming into Yokohama. Junior grew up in Tokyo, went to a local Japanese grade school for 7 years and is completely bilingual in English/Japanese. He doesn’t really like people to know about it, he kind of feels like a freak show what with blond hair and blue eyes. During the pilotage into Yokohama the cadet logs the entries and passes the messages to the pilot and the mates on deck. Well the pilot’s english was a little rough so junior launched into relaying the questions in Japanese. In the words of my son, he “freaked out the pilot” with his Tokyo accented Japanese and caused the mates to go whoa where did that come from. Unfortunately they only had four hours in port so he didn’t have the chance to visit his old school buddies.

The ability to hear about these adventures almost as they happen really allow us ( the families ) to become almost an observer to their sea year. I can only think of how difficult it must have been just a few years ago just to keep up with where their kids are let alone communicate with them. I imagine in a couple of years from now they will be sending live video reports back!