Megs (my manager) told me last night that I had been volunteered along with Cassandra (the youth program coordinator) and a few others to escort children and teachers from a local school in Greenland on a tour of the ship and drop the off in the Canaletto (our Italian restaurant) where they would be able to eat an assortment of junk food. I was less than thrilled, not because I don't love kids but simply because I was so tired and not feeling well, so I had planned to sleep the day away.
The next morning...
I headed to meet Cass and Stephanie (another one of the youth staff) in the atrium where security was supposed to drop them off. Five minutes later we didn't have to look for them because we certainly could hear them coming. Within 30 seconds we were inundated with close to 60 children ranging in ages from probably 10 to 14 years old. Our first mission was to get a group photo on the staircase. Little did our photographer know that he had his work cut out for him...these kids were wild and to make it even better, they spoke NO English. We were trying to position them down the staircase and then group the remainder of them in front of the stairs with some standing and some kneeling. After 17 minutes of pulling kids up stairs and off of the banisters as they slid down them, we managed to take a few decent shots!
We started the tour by walking around to some of the public areas like my Culinary Arts Center, the main show lounge and the casino. When we reached the casino several of the boys headed straight for the Black Jack tables and sat down. The casino was closed, but a few of the casino staff were there counting cards and standing there for “decoration” during the tour. One of the boys handed him his camera phone (every single one of these kids had cell phones). Three of the boys posed as if they were professional gamblers placing their bets while the casino manager took the shot. Next to the casino are four elevators, so we slowly began to herd them into groups and take them up to the top deck to see the library and Club HAL (the kids club on board) before lunch. Two girls ran over to one of the slot machines to take a picture "playing" it. I was responsible for the last group of gamblers, so I waited for all of them to finish and got them into the elevator. I asked them if they liked to play poker at home with my makeshift sign language in an attempt to some semblance of a conversation. The boys knew exactly what in was talking about and they told me "yes, but pretend money". When our elevator reached deck 11, the doors opened and we had 52 of the happiest children yell "hello" followed by a fit of the most contagious laughter. That, by far, was one of my favorite moments of the day. It goes to show that happiness is the same in every language.
The kids ran wild in the Crow's Nest (library) checking out the chess sets, reclining chairs,computers and puzzles. While the kids were moseying around, Steph walked by and said "how did they get a dog in here?" She didn't get a chance to answer me when I asked her what she was talking about. We wrangled (and I use that term loosely...it was more of a grabbing and pulling method) them up and as we were exiting the library in see something in this teens sweatshirt and a small bottle hanging out of her pocket. I pointed and unasked her what she had and she pulled out a puppy, looked like maybe a Husky with bright blue eyes and I don't think it could have been more than two weeks old. I asked if in could hold it and she willingly handed it off to me. For the next 10 minutes or so I carried this sweet little puppy when I realized that none of the students nor the teacher even knew she had brought this little guy with her. We got the kids outside and down to the sea view pool where they touched the Jacuzzis and used the restrooms before I handed Snoopy (that was the puppy's name) back to his rightful owner. Unfortunately, the picture of myself and Snoopy has disappeared – but I’m waiting on one of the guests I know to email me a copy!
Our next challenge was to get them from the back of the lido to the front through the hoards of cows grazing the buffet line. These kids did not do well with staying in line or keeping calm, so Cass and I knew that we were in for it and we were right. We stood at the back doors to the lido and waited for all the kids to finish with the restrooms, several of them were able to ask us what our names were. I told them mine and every single one of them told me theirs. It took me a second to figure out that they were telling me their names so that I would repeat it and they could laugh at my terrible pronunciation. When the laughter subsided, we asked the three chaperones to ask the kids in their language (Greenlandic and they had a teacher from Denmark teaching them Danish and English) to get in a single-file line. I started to physically just put their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them in an attempt to move the process along.
We finally made it to the other side because the guests actually thought these kids were cute and they all stood back to let them through (mind you, if these kids were on the entire 17 day cruise, these folks would be livid with these rambunctious kiddos.) We made in to the Canaletto and managed to sanitize all of their hands and get them into seats. All hands were on deck for this one and the chefs brought over plates of pizzas, hamburgers, hot dogs and French fries. Each kid just began grabbing all the food (at least one of each) and loading their plates! One kid had so much on his plate – I couldn’t imagine he would eat it all but he came pretty darn close. He’s the little boy in the red shirt sitting in front of me here:
Junk food like this is not something too common in their town. The hottest item on the table? Coca-Cola! We gave them all a can along with a glass of ice to start off. When I noticed some of their glasses were running low, I picked up a few cans and started pouring it into a few of the kids glasses. They all started shouting something along the lines of “ME!” to fill their glasses despite that they were still half full. Other kids took the cans and put them between their legs so that I thought it was gone and would give them more. They LOVED the stuff!!! I’m sure you can only imagine what happened when the ice cream cones with chocolate ice cream came out – one kid had two in each hand and was making sure to alternate licks among all of them.
Here’s a few shots of us with the kids…
Quote of the Day:
“There's a trick to the Graceful Exit. It begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, or a relationship is over - and to let it go. It means leaving what's over without denying its value".
- Ellen Goodman
