The stowaway’s name was Espinoza Medina, who boarded at Ceuta, in North Africa’s arena. With a dream that he hoped would never end: to reach America, the coveted friend.
He started to work as part of the crew, doing the tasks he was hired to do. But the men on the ship, to his every word, looked at the stowaway and simply abhorred.
No one spoke to Espinoza or sought his hand, the loneliest soul in that floating land. Always alone, when the workday was through, he labored on something—a task he'd pursue:
An old, abandoned, cooling machine, the most battered AC that they’d ever seen. The crew mocked his efforts, they thought him a fool, and called him "The General Surgeon" of school.
In the fifties, an AC was a treasure so rare, to battle the weight of the sweltering air. In the hellish heat where the Persian Gulf lies, under the stare of the merciless skies.
The ship had arrived from Walvis Bay’s sand, to load up on oil in the Saudi land. At Ras Tanura, where the sun starts to boil, and humans are scorched by the metal and oil.
The heat in the cabins, the decks, and the halls, drove men to sleep outside the ship's walls. On the quays, on the docks, they sought any breeze, on raised wooden platforms, trying to freeze.
But by morning, as soon as the sun would arise, on the glowing white deck, you could bake your own pies. There was no place to hide, no shelter to find, the heat was a fever that drove you stone-blind.
And then... they all sought a friendship so new, with the strange, lonely man that nobody knew. "Espinoza is good," they started to say, "Espinoza is fine, he’s a brother today!"
The mystery’s solved... in his room, it was blowing, the repaired AC was humming and going! No one called him a "Surgeon" in jest anymore, as they lined up in hope at his cabin door.
For two days and nights, twenty men in a queue, slept in that room till the journey was through. The sick and the old were the first to go in, for the stowaway’s cool was a saintly win.
*Extract from "The Broken Mooring Line", an experiential
poetic work // page c60// e-mail: pmataragas@yahoo.com //
Texts and Narration: Panayotis V. Mataragas - ROTTERDAM //
Language adjustments and text adaptation: Kellene G Safis - CHICAGO//
Digital adaptation and text editing: Cathy Rapakoulia Mataraga - PIRAEUS//
*Ras Tanura. (more accurately Ra's Tannūrah, Arabic: رأس تنورة meaning "cape oven, cape brazier" presumably due to the unusual heat prevalent at the cape that projects into the sea) is a city in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia located on a peninsula extending into the Persian Gulf. The name Ras Tanura applies both to a gated Saudi Aramco employee compound (also referred to as "Najmah") and to an industrial area further out on the peninsula that serves as a major oil port and oil operations center for Saudi Aramco, the largest oil company in the world. Today, the compound has about 3,200 residents, with a few Americans and British expats.
Geographically, the Ras Tanura complex is located a distance south of the modern industrial port city of Jubail (formerly a sleepy fishing village) and north across Tarut Bay from the old port city of (Al-)Dammam. Although Ras Tanura's port area is located on a small peninsula, due to modern oil tankers' need for deeper water, Saudi Aramco has built numerous artificial islands for easier docking. In addition, offshore oil rigs and production facilities have been constructed in the waters nearby, mostly by Saudi Aramco, Schlumberger, and Halliburton.
Najmah compound (Aramco code: RT) is one of four residential compounds built by ARAMCO in the 1940s and the only one located on the coast of the Persian Gulf itself. Ras Tanura refinery is surrounded by a heavily guarded security fence, and Saudi employees and their dependents may live inside the Najmah residential compound which is less heavily guarded. Built originally to allow expatriate oil company employees (mainly Americans) a degree of Western comfort and separation from the restrictions of Saudi and Islamic laws, the community today has shifted somewhat in line with the reduction of western residents into a multi-ethnic mosaic of Saudis, other Arab nationalities (e.g. Egyptian and Jordanian), Filipinos, Indians, Pakistanis, and a few Americans and British expats - all of whom live with English as the common language.
Ceuta, like Melilla, was a free port before Spain joined the European Union.[citation needed] As of 2011, it has a population of 82,376.
Its population consists of Christians, Muslims (chiefly Arabic and Berber speakers), and small minorities of Jews and Indian Hindus.
Spanish is the official language. The majority of the city's population are ethnic Spanish who are opposed to the idea of being ruled by Morocco.
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poetic work // page c60// e-mail: pmataragas@yahoo.com //
Texts and Narration: Panayotis V. Mataragas - ROTTERDAM //
Language adjustments and text adaptation: Kellene G Safis - CHICAGO//
Digital adaptation and text editing: Cathy Rapakoulia Mataraga - PIRAEUS//
*Ras Tanura. (more accurately Ra's Tannūrah, Arabic: رأس تنورة meaning "cape oven, cape brazier" presumably due to the unusual heat prevalent at the cape that projects into the sea) is a city in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia located on a peninsula extending into the Persian Gulf. The name Ras Tanura applies both to a gated Saudi Aramco employee compound (also referred to as "Najmah") and to an industrial area further out on the peninsula that serves as a major oil port and oil operations center for Saudi Aramco, the largest oil company in the world. Today, the compound has about 3,200 residents, with a few Americans and British expats.
Geographically, the Ras Tanura complex is located a distance south of the modern industrial port city of Jubail (formerly a sleepy fishing village) and north across Tarut Bay from the old port city of (Al-)Dammam. Although Ras Tanura's port area is located on a small peninsula, due to modern oil tankers' need for deeper water, Saudi Aramco has built numerous artificial islands for easier docking. In addition, offshore oil rigs and production facilities have been constructed in the waters nearby, mostly by Saudi Aramco, Schlumberger, and Halliburton.
Najmah compound (Aramco code: RT) is one of four residential compounds built by ARAMCO in the 1940s and the only one located on the coast of the Persian Gulf itself. Ras Tanura refinery is surrounded by a heavily guarded security fence, and Saudi employees and their dependents may live inside the Najmah residential compound which is less heavily guarded. Built originally to allow expatriate oil company employees (mainly Americans) a degree of Western comfort and separation from the restrictions of Saudi and Islamic laws, the community today has shifted somewhat in line with the reduction of western residents into a multi-ethnic mosaic of Saudis, other Arab nationalities (e.g. Egyptian and Jordanian), Filipinos, Indians, Pakistanis, and a few Americans and British expats - all of whom live with English as the common language.
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| The Royal Walls of Ceuta and navigable moats |
* Ceuta, (/ˈseɪʊtə/,[2] SAY-UU-tə, or /ˈsjuːtə/, SEW-tə; Spanish: [ˈθeuta])[a] is an 18.5-square-kilometre (7.1 sq mi) Spanish city located on the north coast of Africa, sharing a western border with Morocco.
Separated from the Iberian peninsula by the Strait of Gibraltar, Ceuta lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.
Ceuta, along with the Spanish exclave Melilla, is one of two permanently inhabited Spanish territories in mainland Africa.
It was part of Cádiz province until 14 March 1995 when the city's Statute of Autonomy was passed.
Ceuta, like Melilla, was a free port before Spain joined the European Union.[citation needed] As of 2011, it has a population of 82,376.
Its population consists of Christians, Muslims (chiefly Arabic and Berber speakers), and small minorities of Jews and Indian Hindus.
Spanish is the official language. The majority of the city's population are ethnic Spanish who are opposed to the idea of being ruled by Morocco.
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| seafarers |
the tales of a greek sailor
