We had the wonderful opportunity of hosting some U.S. navy sailors last week. An email went out saying that 3 U.S. ships would be in the Singapore port for a few days and they were looking for some American families to host them for sightseeing or a home-cooked meal, or whatever time we were willing to provide. Mark was going to be out of town, but I volunteered to host a couple of days.
On Monday night we have 2 female sailors who had dinner at our house and then we walked across the street to the local market and showed them around a bit. The next day while the kids were in school I had 2 sailors, Chelsea and Tim, and I let them check facebook, which they are not allowed to do on the ship, and then we walked to the local market, we picked up the kids from school so they could see the American school here, and then I took them to a Singapore shopping mall. Checking facebook was a very emotional experience for Chelsea since she hasn't seen her nieces and nephews for so long and misses them so much.
Each set of sailors we gave a tour of our house so they could see how Americans live in Singapore. We were able to ask them about their living conditions and when they had last seen their families. I was able to thank them on behalf of our family for their service and to tell them that if hosting them would support our troops then that's what I wanted to do. It was a very special experience for us and hopefully for them. The children were able to thank them for their service.
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