The sad story of the waiters

BOOM! SURPRISE! Today is not cooking Saturday, it's Surprise Saturday.
Guess you didn't see that coming.
Are you surprised? I bet you are.

So now let's get back to the serious face because this post means a lot to me.
I hope you enjoy reading and appreciate your beautiful life more after this post.
P.s Have a wonderful week my friend :)

At the beginning of August I got the pleasure to join my grandmother on a cruise around Norway.
On this cruise were a lot of waiters from India and the philippines.

Everytime for Dinner, each family got their own table where they’ve eaten every evening with the same waiters serving them.
The table I was sitting at had the perfect view on every waiter and his “table” where he organized his work.
Some of them seemed very sympathetic and whenever you looked at them they smiled.
Others seemed really concentrated, like my waiters.

The last evening I decided to stay after dinner and talk to them.
I asked my waiter for how long he was already working as a waiter and the answer was nine months.
When I asked him if he liked he said no.
He told me he absolutely hated it but there was no other option for him.
He was a 29 years old man. Married with two kids at the age of nine and six.

I asked the other waiters if they liked it.
Some of them did some of them didn’t.

Honestly I had to control myself to not start crying.
They work on these cruises for nine months straight until they get the chance to fly home for two months until they have to get back on the cruise.
Every single one of them was married.

One of them was 40 years old and had an 18 years old son.
He was working on the cruise for 14 years now and he loved it.

He said who else would get the chance to see the whole world?
I guess that’s true.

Another one told me they earn 500€ in a month.
That’s nothing for all the effort they have to put in.

I stayed talking to my waiter and asked him about his normal day on a cruise.
He wakes up at 6:00AM and starts working because he needs to prepare the restaurant for breakfast.
Then he needs to serve and clean while that.
After breakfast he needs to clean all up and prepare everything for lunch.
Same serving while that and cleaning after.
Between that, he sometimes gets a little break where he normally does paper work.

And then, there’s dinner.
There are two dinner times on the cruise so he works straight through until 11:45PM.
After that he goes to bed.

This is how his day looks like for nine months.
He said sometimes but really rare they get a day off.
And for what?
500€ in a month.
Before saying goodbye he told me he could see in my eyes how shocked and heartbroken I was.
He said it’s okay and that I don’t have to worry about any of them. They’re all doing fine.
But in my eyes it’s not okay.

And I told him that I really wish he gets another option and that he gets the chance to work in his country so he can be with his wife and his kids.
I still often think about the waiters.

Now that I’ve seen their life…and still they are so happy and full of positive thoughts.
We should be happy and apreciate everything we have in life.
I feel like this gets lost more and more nowadays.