Quarterly December 2008 - Odfjell

Odfjell – Seniors visit
Normandie
In His Shoes - Wives Training at
Odfjell Academy
By: Olav Tangerås
By Mrs. Baverlyn Padillo-Delgado and Mrs. Sherryl C. Rojo
This year in June we arranged a tour
to historical grounds in Normandie
combined with a visit to Odfjell
Terminal Rotterdam (OTR). We were 26
persons that started the tour by plane
from Bergen to Amsterdam where a
waiting bus took us to the Carlton Oasis
Hotel in Spijkenisse for dinner and
overnight stay.
The next morning we visisted OTR,
first for verbal
presentations
of OTRs (50
years) history,
development
and future
plans, and also
the maritime
activity of
Odfjell in
Rotterdam. The
guided tour of
the terminal
and quays
reinforced the
impression
of a terminal
“strong as
ever” and an
impressive
vision with
plans for
the future.
Our thanks
to our hosts
for friendly
reception and a
good lunch.
Then we started our bus tour towards
Normandie. In the town St. Lou, we
checked in at a small but nice hotel,
our “base-camp” for three days of
excursions in “D-day land”.
The following day we visited Caen
Memorial which now includes Nobel’s
Peace Museum. Here we could see
authentic things, pictures, documents
etc from the 2nd world war. But most
interesting, a film showing (from both
sides) the preparations for and the
incredible execution of the allied forces’
plan to land its troops at five beaches
of Normandie on June 6th 1944. This
event, D-day, was later recognised
as the most important operation as a
start to free European countries and
to end the 2nd world war (1940-1945).
The subsequent walk on some of the
heights over the five beaches (Sword,
Juno, Gold, Omaha and Utah) where the
American, British and Canadian forces
landed, showed some real “landmarks”,
f.e. gun-bunkers/ positions, bombcrates,
outlook-posts etc, still there
more than 60 years later.
The walk through the American
churchyard near Omaha Beach with
almost 10.000 soldiers buried, and later
on a visit to the German churchyard
at La Gambe with approx 21.500
soldiers buried, made an immense
impression on all of us. The beaches,
the small towns in Normandie,
museums, churchyards etc all give
us an impressive, but still frightening,
story of all the suffering and devastating
damages of such a war.
The Normandie area have more than
war-memories to offer a tourist. The
Odfjell seniors visited one of France’s
most famous tourist attractions, the
Mont St. Michel, an earlier Benedictine
monastery and church from the middle
age, also used as prison, built on an isle
of cliffs on the beach. It now appears
as a tourist attraction with mostly
restaurants and shops.
At the end of our stay we went to see
the famous
“Tapisserie
de Bayeux”.
This famous
“carpet”, 70
m long and
0,50 m width,
shows Wilhelm
the Conqueror
invasion of
England and
the battle of
Hastings in
year 1066. This
embroidery is
an impressive
piece of art
which makes a
visit to Bayeux
worthwhile.
And finally - -
and something
we had all
looked forward
to - - a visit
to a genuine
old, family
run Calvadosproducer.
Really interesting and
“tasty” - - and the writer will not tell
who consumed the biggest number of
“samples” that afternoon.
After five busy and extraordinary
interesting days, time had come for our
bus-tour to Charles de Gaulle airport
in Paris and our flight via Amsterdam
to Bergen. As you can see from the
picture, a happy group of Odfjell seniors
who all wish for even more participants
when we go for new ventures, hopefully
in 2009.
After the grand inauguration of the
Odfjell Philippines at Atlantis Beacon
Tower in September, a conference for
management level officers was set a
day after in Subic. A lot of wives came
with their husbands for quality time.
The Odfjell Academy prepared a 2-day
training for us which made us feel
overwhelming. Being with our husbands
and staying in a hotel with a good
accommodation was already a privilege
for us and the said training was an
added bonus!
The group of 24 participants was divided
in two. The first group had the basic
first aid training and the second group
had their firefighting and lecture on
safety, then vice versa on the following
day. 2/M Sedutan and Capt. Perez were
our head instructors and they gave us
very informative lectures mostly on
safety which is applicable also in our
household and everyday living. The first
aid and Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation
(CPR) lectures were very useful, says
Mrs. Padillo-Delgado and Mrs. Rojo
adds “We were taught the correct
procedure on how to do the CPR. We all
had mouth-to-mouth with the dummy
and doing the compressions. Knowledge
is really important because if you know
what to do in a given situation, it will
really make a big difference because you
can save lives. But always bear in mind
not to add injury to the victim. If you are
not sure of what to do, don’t pretend to
know, just call for help.
Next topic was firefighting. We had to
enter an empty, dark cargo container
by groups of three, every five minutes
another group. – My fear of close
spaces, says Mrs. Rojo, made my heart
beating faster and I was breathing
heavily, I felt dizzy like I was about
to throw up. We were like in a maze.
There were times I needed to climb a
stair, and other times I needed to go
down. If it were not for the voices of
my companions, I might have backedout
half way through or cried for help.
So even though I was confused and I
couldn’t figure out where I was going, I
still continued and just used my sense
of touch to find our way out. When we
finally got out I was proud because I was
able to conquer my fear and was able to
lead a group.
From wearing the firefighting suit, using
the breathing apparatus, crawling on
the smoke dive chamber, doing CPR on
the dummy, using the fire extinguisher
and wearing the chemical suit, we
felt like we were in the shoes of our
husbands for two days!
We realized so many things from the
training, how valuable our lives are,
how safety measurements should and
must be implemented onboard and on
work area, and lastly, taking care of
ourselves to prevent any damage that
will change our lives. The training was
a learning experience and from all of
the wives - we thank Odfjell Academy
for the preparation and hard work, from
the instructors down to the cadets, and
to Odfjell Philippines for being so kind
hearted giving us this chance to be with
our husbands and spend quality time
together.
24 Odfjell Quarterly December 2008
Odfjell Quarterly December 2008 25