We’d had it on the cards for some time, but today Robert, Ferdinand and I headed to Rotterdam to visit the port and the Seaman’s Mission there. Joost de Bruijn is one of the many chaplains there, and he’s an old friend of Sjaak, so we got a free lift down, accompanied by Sjaak’s girlfriend, Hardassa. I don’t quite know why she came, maybe just in the role as glamourous assistant.
We arrived in time for the ecumenical morning service in the Maritime Hotel. It’s available for public usage, but many seaman quite often stay there while awaiting transfer. Our group nearly doubled the congregation size, which was comprised mostly of Filipinos. Joost’s speed – 45 minutes – at getting through the hymns and liturgy reminded me of that Father Ted episode, in which Ted says mass in five minutes. OK, he wasn’t quite that fast, but I felt the organist held him back. With someone a bit quicker on the keys, he could have broken his record. Later, we learned that the Filipinos like the mass that fast, apparently.
After coffee in the church hall (hotel restaurant), we took a tour of the port, and ended up with a nice meal, paid for courteousy of the Diaconie, and then a quick look inside the Seaman’s Centre. It has a specially titled, “Karaoke room”; what a shame that we couldn’t stay and test it out.
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