Page 35 - Port of Baltimore Magazine January/February 2016

BY THE REV. MARY DAVISSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/PORT CHAPLAIN Photograhy courtesy of Baltimore International Seafarers’ Center
Halo-halo, despite the spelling, has nothing to do with haloes. It’s actually a Filipino dessert made from coconut, beans, evaporated milk and fruit. And an international group of port chaplains and lay ship visitors appreciated halo-halo as the perfect crowning touch to a weeklong course about Filipino seafarers. As executive director of the Baltimore International Seafarers’ Center, I was privileged to participate in this training, offered by the International Christian Maritime Association (ICMA) in Manila this past fall.
For up to 13 hours a day, 60 “ICMA Ahoy” delegates from 23 countries attended panels and lectures led by Filipino seafarers, seafarers’ families, clergy, welfare workers, scholars, union leaders and government officials. We boarded a bus at 6:30 one morning to march in Manila’s National Seafarers’ Day parade, and we enjoyed dinners
at seafarers’ centers. Many memories, like the karaoke offered at nearly every seafarers’ gathering, are as sweet as the halo-halo served at our concluding dinner.
But much of what we learned was serious and sad. After 12 years of visiting the cargo ships that dock in Baltimore, I already knew that seafarers typically spend nine consecutive months on a vessel — for decades — to support the families that they love. But before traveling to the Philippines, I didn’t appreciate how much of their off time
is also spent away from home. Most Filipino seafarers’ families live outside Manila. Yet the seafarers themselves often spend much of their one or two months’ vacation in the capital, training and looking for their next vessel, while living in spartan dormitories. They also face enormous pressure to share their earnings with their extended families and neighbors.
My experience in the Philippines
has transformed the way that I listen
to crews of every nationality, and
I’ve shared it with my colleagues. Listening is at the heart of the Baltimore International Seafarers’ Center’s ship visits. Although I’m the only full-time staff member, volunteers and part-
time chaplains from half-a-dozen faith backgrounds bring our total of crews served to 20-some each week. We board vessels in Sparrows Point,
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