After the long day we had prior it was nice to rest up for today. We started by heading over to DP World at the Limassol port. We looked around at all of the large ships in port. We met with one of the port managers who presented to us about the company and what they do. I was excited as this was the company we did our project about back home in our pre-departure meetings. He was a great speaker and was motivated. 

One thing the DPW speaker spoke on was their initiatives involving sustainability and the inclusion of women in the shipping industry. DPW and Cyprus as a country are significantly different from the US in these issues. The inclusion of women in the shipping industry and workforce still seems to be very less than that of men comparatively to the US. He explained that they have a mentorship program where men mentor incoming women which isn’t necessarily how it would be done in the US. Their sustainability efforts were also vaguer and didn’t necessarily address how they are staying green as a company, but more what they are putting money towards in other organizations like the Jane Goodall Foundation. These conclusions made me very grateful for what privileges in terms of advancements we have in the US.

Then the HR manager from P&O explained even more specifically of their initiatives. She spoke on how many boats come into their ports and how they handle it with tug boats and pilot boats. I had never known much of how it was done so it was intriguing to hear. 

We then headed back out to the bus where we would get to see a tour of the DPW facilities. This tour was followed by a tour from our next site visit, Eurogate. This facility was on a different side than DPW was and we had to get specially escorted into it. This side was very interesting as it highlighted all of the shipping containers and how that system works. They have large cranes that can load and unload the containers off of the ships and many different vehicles to transport the containers around the facility. After our tour we got a presentation by one of the Eurogate managers to understand more about how all of the systems work together.

Afterward, we went to lunch where we didn’t really know where we were going but then we got surprised with a boat for lunch! It was so cool and we got to enjoy our lunch with the views of the old port. We then had the Chairman and manager of Cyprus Port Authority come to answer questions and present to all of us about their positions. It was very interesting to have learned all about shipping today as it really opened my eyes to more industries.