Breakfast with the Golden Arch

We’re docked in Hilo, waiting to clear customs.  Everyone has to file by, pick up a passport, show the passport to two different customs inspectors, and then give the passport (if US) back to the ship’s purser.  Kind of a pain, since we just came from San Diego, and the only reason we stopped in Mexico was to circumvent protectionist trade laws.  But, it gives us all a chance to enjoy the swell views from the dock (warehouses, natch), get our land legs back, and chill while waiting for everyone to clear.  Immigration clears the whole ship—or not.

It was very exciting to wake up and see the lights that signal LAND!  

I’ve loved being at sea, but it’s been a hard slog of long days at work (no weekends on the ship; every day is a class day).  As dawn broke (clouds again) and the lights went off, the land disappeared for a bit and I went back to my cabin to get dressed and have breakfast.  The outside eating area was very crowded, and I was later than usual, having stopped at the office to print out the dozens of “off ship overnight” forms of people visiting family, going to other places in Hawaii, and finding hotel rooms to sleep off the drinking they’ll do today.  (How sad to go around the world and spend your shore time passed out drunk.) 

As I was getting ready to leave the dining room, I saw Desmond Tutu sitting down—and an empty seat beside him.  Detour!  He’s on the ship till Cape Town, but he is not an early riser, so I usually see him coming in as I’m heading to work.  So I grabbed the chance to find out what it was like to be in the presence of a man who has seen history—who IS history. 

Our conversation was a blend of awkward small talk (what are your plans for Hawaii?), politics (he drinks Coke rather than Pepsi because of the two companies’ roles in overturning apartheid), gossip (no, I’m not telling), and lots of jokes.  Like me, Arch enjoys a good joke.  Like me, he enjoys his own jokes tremendously. 

Probably the similarity ends there!  He can switch from a joke to a serious point in a flash.  We moved from talking about kids and grandkids to the role that American college students played in moving the Congress to pass an anti-apartheid bill over Reagan’s veto. 

Like every great minister, he engages with his audience, finding them where they are and getting them to think, finding the sweet spot between guilt and responsibility to inspire action. 

Then, we were called to go up to the immigration face to face.  I was waiting, with the other faculty and staff on the stairs up to Deck 7, when the Archbishop came up behind us, saying, “Are we not supposed to go upstairs?  Like Moses!”  With that, the sea of humanity parted and he walked up the stairs.

I tell ya, folks, the Arch OWNS this boat.