Catch up due??

Today officially marks the fact that it has been more than 2 months since I've updated my blog. (cringe) Really- I'm sorry for those who actually do read this and I haven't seen or written to in a while. Actually- sorry to everyone who reads this. Ironically, I have 2 friends who also haven't posted in a while- one posted last the first week in December ( as I did) but then the other... well, she's going on 11 months of no posts... hmmm..
Well, many things have been happening in the last 2 months. The last post was 2 weeks before the ship arrived into my port, so the entire month of December was excused for the busyness of life on board and the responsibilities of Line Up. But... the month of January? yeah, sorry about that friends!
But where to start? Well, I left off in Beirut - it was such a crazy time those first few days. I went from someone that very few people knew on board to people saying "oh, you are the "Katrina Lynch, please, Katrina Lynch" that gets paged so often!". Even though I'd been around the ship for a while, on this one, you tend to get lost in the crowd unless you are "someone". I was in charge of all the teams that would go out into the city to different places, which was a huge blessing for me. I had hoped that I would be in charge of what we called "On shore Events" because I would get to meet more local workers and get to know different organisations that had a hand in making Lebanon a better place for so many. This included many schools, after school care and weekend kids clubs, hospitals, orphanages and childrens homes, and even an organisation that works with Iraqi refugees. Making the contacts was something I needed to get up the courage to do so ( as I am mildly afraid of calling people I dont know whatsoever!) but once that was made, I found many friends and people willing to help the ship out in whatever way. If leaders of different organisations came to the ship to visit ( as many did) they wanted to see me and of course, I would show them my home and explain to them more of the ship that they had only heard about.
The first few days had a few hiccups, a few tears shed, a few complications ( visa issues of the entire crew which threw me back into my Purser days and the memories of stress came flooding back!) and the change from real meals to living off drinks and snacks... its amazing how long you can survive off coffee and juice! I felt like I was constantly running from my office down to Deck 4 and back up to the Events office. Luckily for me, the onshore Events office was right across the hall- a second office for me!
Sadly, the busyness of the first 10 days made it difficult for me to hang out with my local friends that I had made. A few of them came to visit on board and I was able to show them around, but not spend the time that I really wanted. Thankfully, an off day or two proved just what I needed as I got off the ship and slept at a friends place- no pages or people knocking on my door- just little kids giving me hugs :)
I think I'll leave it there for now, the next post covering the 2 major events for me in December :) well, within the port visit!