1st Hari Raya Celebration onboard (teamwork that made this occasion succesful)

1st Hari Raya Celebration onboard MT.Bunga Lucerne

The teamwork that made this occasion succesfull.

This was my first time celebrating Hari Raya Aidilfitri onboard.It was my first ship on MT.Bunga Lucerne.Four of us were the only Malaysians onboard as the rest were from the Phillipines.Me together with my 3rd officer,4th engineer and the chief cook were the Malaysians onboard.Just few days before the raya celebration we encountered tremendous typhoon when sailing across the south china sea,but that did not stop our preparation in getting ready for the celebration.All of us worked as a team together to prepare the food like cutting the onions,garlics.peeling the prawns,scalling the fish and many more.We decided to work as a team as we did not want to burden the chief cook as he himself had alot of work to be done.As we worked together the job was finished within a few hours.I decided to segregate the work so that we can save time.I asked the A/B to be incharge of cutting the onions and garlic,the O/S to be incharge of washing the meat and vegetables,wheras I was incharged of setting up the tables and chairs.

 Most of us onboard were longing to be with our family,as we  were already on our final month of our contract.What made us strong is that our bond as a team kept getting stronger.On the day of hari raya the muslims onboard gathered together and started their prayer in the morning on the bridge wing.The prayer was head by the Captain as he was the most experience man onboard.After completing their prayer we all got up to the 'monkey island' and took photos together.Although it was a special day and most of the public in Malaysia were celebrating the festive with their loved ones,but sadly me and the third officer had to get back to work,as we were on the same watch,that is the (0800-1200) watch.Both of us shared our stories about how nice it would be if we were at home.Both of us started staring at the sea and felt sad.What made us happy was,all of a sudden the AB suddenly came on the bridge and started bursting the party poppers,playing hari raya songs.Me and my third officer was just waiting for our watch to end as we can smell the food from the bridge itself.

And there came the time we were waiting for,12pm.After handing over the watch to the 2nd officer we din't even talk much to the relieving officer,we straight rushed down to the officer mess as  where the party was held.Everyone were waiting for our arrival,because me and my third officer together with the chief cook were ones who did the most work to make the party succesful.There were just too much of food on the table such as,grilled lamb,fried chicken,bbq chicken,sphagetti,pasta,rendang 'ayam',many types of sweets and much more.The best thing was after our meals the 3rd officer and the 4th engineer gave me an 'angpow'of 100 dollars each.As a cadet it was an handsome amount of money.Although all of us were exhausted but we had a smile on our faces.It was my first Raya celebration onboard and it was a enjoyable and succesful one.