Christmas in Angola (Offshore)

I never thought he would do it. But he did. Greg partially shaved his head to emulate the largely receded hairline of our party chief. All for a Christmas play.

Yesterday marked the 3^rd of the past 4 Christmases that I have spent far from home- in Saigon with another American family, in the Indian Ocean on my very first seismic vessel, now off the shores of Angola.

My first seismic Christmas, 2 years ago, I came on board and found that no one had stepped up to organize a Christmas celebration. So hastily, as a trainee, I tried to pull things together – a fun picture / global celebrity quiz, a rewriting of Twas the Night Before Christmas (see blog post 2 years ago). I did what I could with one week remaining before Christmas day.

This year I prepared. Out ship, in the middle of Angola, became the confluence of many ways to celebrate Christmas. For some it's a family event with gifts, for others it's a very religious holiday, and many on board had never celebrated Christmas I wanted to make it a Christmas to remember.

I started the Christmas Celebrations with a Playmobile advent calendar from my mom (which I hauled from the US to Norway, then to Angola). Much to my surprise, the crew loved it. Angola is one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, so we made the decision to follow GMT, thus the night shift had to wait until 1am to open the next day's addition. I will note though, that this year's Playmobile scene was less Christmas based and more pirate based, but it was perfect for a seismic vessel such as ours.

On Christmas eve I played Santa, delivering a card to each crew's cabin.

2008, however, will mark Western Pride's very first Christmas play. I rewrote (again) Twas the Night before Christmas. Instead of the father "springing from his bed to see what was the matter", it was our party chief. And thus to better "become the part", I convinced Greg, a crew member, to shave his head. As he "sprang from his bed to see what was the matter" he threw off his hat to the hysterical laughter of the crew. We also had 6 "live" reindeer, 1 donkey, and 1 "remote" reindeer from Norway. Santa was from Nigeria. And workboots were hung instead of stockings. And when Santa sprang to his sleigh to drive out of sight, he radioed in "Western Pride, Western Pride, this is sleigh…Merry Christmas to Pride and to Pride a Good Night". It was a success – the prancing reindeers stole the show, as did the freshly bald party chief.

I organized Christmas Carol singing, complete with Santa playing the keyboard. The karaoke skills of the Filipinos came in very handy to fill the room with song. And I must admit, we sounded quite good.

Each crew member also got a gift from Santa, as well as the requisite photo on Santa's lap. (my gift was a singing Elvis mug)

And the final touch was a viewing of Elf yourself with all our chiefs (see it here).

The galley crew produced quite a spread with lobster, 2 whole pigs, gingerbread cookies, and a decorated galley.

Now the crew is asking - "Laura what are you planning for New Years?" I think Christmas was a success.