Allow me to introduce you to Danilo (Dah-nee-low). Danilo was our waiter at dinner and also one of the people circulating around the lido deck clearing tables of dirty dishes and attending to the needs of the passengers.
Upon first meeting Danilo, we observed that he was a mild mannered, quiet, reserved man. These qualities are appealing to us because we are somewhat quiet and laid back ourselves. Initially we thought Danilo was going to be a tough nut to crack. We could not have been more wrong. The moment we showed an interest in his life (where he's from, his wife, his son, his language, his village, his time spent on the ship etc...) he lit up like a Christmas tree. It was one of those instant transformations I described yesterday. Subsequent conversations became longer, more detailed and more personal (personal meaning the conversation went beyond idle chit-chat). In fact, he was spending so much time with us, I was afraid he might get in trouble with his superiors.
During our conversations we learned Danilo is 42 years old and from the Philippines. He has a wife and a son (both had names we couldn't begin to pronounce). His son is 23. He is in his third month of a six month contract on the ship. Sadly, later in the week he was informed he would have to work two more months (8 months total) before going home. We learned Danilo is from a small village of about 8,000 people where most of the people are very poor. He told us elections in his country are corrupt and he thought American elections and politicians we on the straight and narrow. We had a fun time discussing that :-) We learned lots of other things about Danilo, but one thing remained painfully obvious. Any time he would talk about home or his family he would almost tear up. He didn't cry, but you could tell he was fighting the need to do so. The man was breaking our hearts! We asked him if he ever got any days off. In his broken English he said, "Never. No day off. We work. all time". He went on to say he worked from 7:00 A.M. until 4:00 P.M. Then he got an hour to eat, change clothes and maybe rest for a few minutes before reporting to the dining room to work from 5:00 P.M. until about 10:30 or 11:00 P.M. Danilo will do this 7 days a week until October. I don't care who you are... that's a grueling schedule. However, you must know that Danilo never once complained. He merely answered our questions honestly.
Danilo is a nice, kind, gentle, sweet man who loves his home and loves his family. It's obvious he misses both terribly. It only took a day or two to get emotionally attached to Danilo. The more we got to know him, the more attached we got to him. The last night in the dining room was not without hugs and tears. Danilo, again, did not cry, but I'm pretty sure I could detect a tear or two in his eyes.
Leaving the ship on Friday morning was painful. Not because our long awaited cruise had come to an end, but because we were leaving behind people who had touched our hearts during the short 5 day cruise. It's strange... you go on vacation to have a fun, carefree time, but you end up leaving with heartache. You make a connection with people only to leave with the knowledge you will probably never see them again.
I will likely never get to see my friend Danilo again, but rest assured I will never forget him. I will always pray for him and if possible, will find a way to send him some money.
Farewell, Danilo. You probably don't know it, but you had a profound affect on my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment