Sea Olympics
Halloween--I was a robot!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Vietnam
Vietnam was amazing, it was close to a second Ghana. Everything was super cheap, even eating at a fancy restaurant cost maybe $3 per person! The first day, Evergreen and I just explored Ho Chi Minh City for the day, then met up with the other girls for dinner at a restaurant where they bring you raw meat with seasonings and you have to cook it yourself using a burner on the table.
The next day, Jocelyn, Evergreen, Laura and I went to the War Remnants Museum for the American War (or Vietnam War). It was quite the experience: I didn’t really know much about the war, but the Vietnamese definitely did not like us being in their country…and for good reason: Agent Orange was a horrible, horrible chemical we should not have used on their country. There were mostly pictures of the war, and most of the captions said things like “the U.S. military killed women and children”. I am only 21 years old, and had nothing to do with the war, yet I felt guilty for just being American, especially as I stood beside an older Vietnamese man, looking at a picture of a deformed child, a child who could have been perfectly normal if not for the cruelty of my country.
I’m in a service leadership class and we split into groups to do a service project in 1 of the ports. My group consists of 6 people and we tried so hard to get a contact for Vietnam, but it was just not working out, people would not reply to our emails or the phone numbers wouldn’t work, and our professor was not helping us, etc.
Then, the first day we were in Vietnam we got 2 emails from 2 different places! Two of the girls in my group were gone, so we brought a few extra people with us. I brought Jocelyn and then 3 other girls came, too. The first place we went was a shelter for girls who had been trafficked (the woman in charge would not talk about the girls stories). We bought a printer for them that they said they needed. We stayed a couple hours and played games with the girls. We brought string to make friendship bracelets and we didn’t even have to teach them, the girls immediately knew how to make the bracelets, and one girl grabbed me and she made a bracelet for me! We also had nail polish, and she did my nails, then I did hers!
The next day, we met our second contact; an orphanage for children affected by Agent Orange. Agent Orange was the type of herbicide that was sprayed by the US military over Vietnam during the Vietnam War (or as the Vietnamese call it, the American war). This causes major birth defects, including deformations and mental problems.
After an hour taxi ride, we arrived at the orphanage. It was so hard to first walk in. Most of the children had birth defects that were very noticeable. They did not speak English, so it was hard to figure out their mental age. After an hour, we fell in love with these kids because they were so sweet. My friend Carren and I both spent about 15 minutes just hugging one boy, if I tried to walk away he grabbed my hand and put it around himself and hugged me harder. He must have been about 14 yrs old.
Then we went upstairs. Upstairs was harder to see than downstairs. There were about 14 kids that were under the age of 5. These kids were just laying on cots, no pillow, no blanket, some had a towel, just staring at a blank ceiling. A few fans were going and the open windows let the flies in. There was no one with them when we got there, and we were left alone with them. They couldn’t hold their heads up on their own or walk. I don’t think most of them could talk. We changed a couple of their diapers, and many of them had what seemed to be bed sores. Because they spent all day just laying on the cots, the back of their head was flat, since they were rarely moved off the cot.
I had brought Evergreen with me, and she loved it so much we made plans to bring some more people with us the next day. That night, Ev and I went to a grocery store and bought diapers and food (that’s what they said they needed) and we brought them the next day. That day we spent most of the time with the little ones upstairs. We would sit and just hold their hands or rub their backs or stomach and talk to them. We eventually felt comfortable to hold some of them. I ended up holding a little girl who seemed very stiff (there seemed to be only one occupational therapist, so many of the kid’s muscles must not have worked correctly), but had big brown eyes and would smile when I tickled her. I sat in the corner of the room and sang to her: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Loch Lomond, Rock-a-bye Baby and Three Blind Mice (those were the only songs I could remember the lyrics to). She lay there and just looked into my eyes the whole time, smiling.
The day before we left Vietnam, after Ev and I came back from the orphanage, we met Jocelyn, Katherine and Laura for dinner. They said right before they were leaving an announcement came over the loudspeaker: “Code blue, code blue, cabin 4…”.
Shortly after, Becca (the field office director) came over the loudspeaker: “all LLC, crew, medical team and staff, cabin 4…”. As they were leaving an ambulance was pulling up. We thought nothing of it, Code blue has been announced a few times before and nothing really happened…we generally assume it’s a lifelong learner who has fallen down or something. We got back to the ship around 11pm, after going up the gangway and thru security, we were met by some LLCs, and told they had some news.
We waited for everyone behind us to make it up the gangway, then they started talking: “At 5:30pm today, a student, Andre Ramadan, was found in his cabin. At 6:30pm he was pronounced dead.” His parents were notified and flew to Vietnam. We have been told that he died of unknown medical causes. I can’t really go into much other detail, mainly because rumors travel fast on the ship, so I don’t really know the true story. But the day after we left Vietnam, we had a really nice memorial service: there were readings from the Qu’ran and the Bible and a Hebrew reading, and a few of his friends stood up and shared stories. His favorite music was played, and there was a slide show of pictures people had donated. We sang Amazing Grace and finally we filed out to the back of the ship, following the captain, carrying flowers, and everyone threw one off the back of the ship. So many people were in tears. He was 20, a student at the Univ. of California.
It’s been quite an experience this past week. And now we are going thru a storm and the swells are huge…and they are out of seasickness pills in the medical center!
Vietnam was amazing, it was close to a second Ghana. Everything was super cheap, even eating at a fancy restaurant cost maybe $3 per person! The first day, Evergreen and I just explored Ho Chi Minh City for the day, then met up with the other girls for dinner at a restaurant where they bring you raw meat with seasonings and you have to cook it yourself using a burner on the table.
The next day, Jocelyn, Evergreen, Laura and I went to the War Remnants Museum for the American War (or Vietnam War). It was quite the experience: I didn’t really know much about the war, but the Vietnamese definitely did not like us being in their country…and for good reason: Agent Orange was a horrible, horrible chemical we should not have used on their country. There were mostly pictures of the war, and most of the captions said things like “the U.S. military killed women and children”. I am only 21 years old, and had nothing to do with the war, yet I felt guilty for just being American, especially as I stood beside an older Vietnamese man, looking at a picture of a deformed child, a child who could have been perfectly normal if not for the cruelty of my country.
I’m in a service leadership class and we split into groups to do a service project in 1 of the ports. My group consists of 6 people and we tried so hard to get a contact for Vietnam, but it was just not working out, people would not reply to our emails or the phone numbers wouldn’t work, and our professor was not helping us, etc.
Then, the first day we were in Vietnam we got 2 emails from 2 different places! Two of the girls in my group were gone, so we brought a few extra people with us. I brought Jocelyn and then 3 other girls came, too. The first place we went was a shelter for girls who had been trafficked (the woman in charge would not talk about the girls stories). We bought a printer for them that they said they needed. We stayed a couple hours and played games with the girls. We brought string to make friendship bracelets and we didn’t even have to teach them, the girls immediately knew how to make the bracelets, and one girl grabbed me and she made a bracelet for me! We also had nail polish, and she did my nails, then I did hers!
The next day, we met our second contact; an orphanage for children affected by Agent Orange. Agent Orange was the type of herbicide that was sprayed by the US military over Vietnam during the Vietnam War (or as the Vietnamese call it, the American war). This causes major birth defects, including deformations and mental problems.
After an hour taxi ride, we arrived at the orphanage. It was so hard to first walk in. Most of the children had birth defects that were very noticeable. They did not speak English, so it was hard to figure out their mental age. After an hour, we fell in love with these kids because they were so sweet. My friend Carren and I both spent about 15 minutes just hugging one boy, if I tried to walk away he grabbed my hand and put it around himself and hugged me harder. He must have been about 14 yrs old.
Then we went upstairs. Upstairs was harder to see than downstairs. There were about 14 kids that were under the age of 5. These kids were just laying on cots, no pillow, no blanket, some had a towel, just staring at a blank ceiling. A few fans were going and the open windows let the flies in. There was no one with them when we got there, and we were left alone with them. They couldn’t hold their heads up on their own or walk. I don’t think most of them could talk. We changed a couple of their diapers, and many of them had what seemed to be bed sores. Because they spent all day just laying on the cots, the back of their head was flat, since they were rarely moved off the cot.
I had brought Evergreen with me, and she loved it so much we made plans to bring some more people with us the next day. That night, Ev and I went to a grocery store and bought diapers and food (that’s what they said they needed) and we brought them the next day. That day we spent most of the time with the little ones upstairs. We would sit and just hold their hands or rub their backs or stomach and talk to them. We eventually felt comfortable to hold some of them. I ended up holding a little girl who seemed very stiff (there seemed to be only one occupational therapist, so many of the kid’s muscles must not have worked correctly), but had big brown eyes and would smile when I tickled her. I sat in the corner of the room and sang to her: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Loch Lomond, Rock-a-bye Baby and Three Blind Mice (those were the only songs I could remember the lyrics to). She lay there and just looked into my eyes the whole time, smiling.
The day before we left Vietnam, after Ev and I came back from the orphanage, we met Jocelyn, Katherine and Laura for dinner. They said right before they were leaving an announcement came over the loudspeaker: “Code blue, code blue, cabin 4…”.
Shortly after, Becca (the field office director) came over the loudspeaker: “all LLC, crew, medical team and staff, cabin 4…”. As they were leaving an ambulance was pulling up. We thought nothing of it, Code blue has been announced a few times before and nothing really happened…we generally assume it’s a lifelong learner who has fallen down or something. We got back to the ship around 11pm, after going up the gangway and thru security, we were met by some LLCs, and told they had some news.
We waited for everyone behind us to make it up the gangway, then they started talking: “At 5:30pm today, a student, Andre Ramadan, was found in his cabin. At 6:30pm he was pronounced dead.” His parents were notified and flew to Vietnam. We have been told that he died of unknown medical causes. I can’t really go into much other detail, mainly because rumors travel fast on the ship, so I don’t really know the true story. But the day after we left Vietnam, we had a really nice memorial service: there were readings from the Qu’ran and the Bible and a Hebrew reading, and a few of his friends stood up and shared stories. His favorite music was played, and there was a slide show of pictures people had donated. We sang Amazing Grace and finally we filed out to the back of the ship, following the captain, carrying flowers, and everyone threw one off the back of the ship. So many people were in tears. He was 20, a student at the Univ. of California.
It’s been quite an experience this past week. And now we are going thru a storm and the swells are huge…and they are out of seasickness pills in the medical center!
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Friday, November 5, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
LIFE ON THE SHIP
I suppose it would probably be a good idea to talk about ship life. We don’t really have internet, or TV or radio. I spend most of my time reading, playing card/board games or trying to find people that brought movies with them, but usually I just hang out with my friends. Oddly enough, we don’t have much free time (I suppose the fact that we have a time change every couple days doesn’t help!).
Classes keep us pretty busy, because we only have 20 some days of actual class time, so we have a lot to do in a short period of time.
We have explorer seminars, which are held in the union, the biggest “classroom”. A variety of people give talks on interesting topics-there are some very interesting people on this ship: Desmond Tutu; a husband and wife that were in the Secret Service; five professors were in the Peace Corps; a photographer/videographer; and plenty of other people who have led very interesting lives, who take time to share their stories with us.
We also have had open mic night, karaoke (6 of us sang Dancing Queen!), and the whole ship played Zombies vs. Humans. I’ve been taking salsa dancing lessons with the girls, etc. There is plenty to keep us busy!
We have an amazing crew, too. Most of them are Filipino. We have our personal favorites: Julius is Katherine, Jocelyn, Evergreen and my cabin steward. He always says hi and asks how our day is going. I accidentally threw a sock at him when he came around the corner while we were playing zombies, and he laughed so hard!
Then there is the dining crew: Perry is my personal favorite. He must have read my name tag the first week because he always says “Hi Jen!” - every meal of every day, and he’ll bring us drinks to the table, or desserts.
Mez is also one of our favorites. He is from Jamaica, and always sings and tells us stories (he’s been on Semester - at- Sea for 20 years.). Mez calls all of us Smiley and brings us drinks and silverware. He even takes our water bottles and will put them in the dishwasher to clean them and then fill them with ice water!
We have a new buddy in the dining room now, too: Mardy! For Katherine’s birthday last week, he brought us ice cream cake with a candle on it for her! Then he asked us all our names and was talking to us forever!
The weirdest thing on the ship is the fact that we live simultaneously with our professors, which is sometimes odd. Such as this morning, I literally rolled out of bed and barely made it to breakfast in my PJ’s without taking a shower. I then ran into my sociology professor, who always makes a point to say hi to me.
I also have a tendency to run into the Tutu’s almost every morning, so I at least make it a point to brush my hair real quick before running to breakfast so I look semi-decent.
The professors also have a staff lounge, in which there seems to be an awful lot of dance parties happening that we are not allowed to attend….
I suppose I should also mention the most important people…my friends: Evergreen and Jocelyn live across from me. They are best friends from home, which is Tennessee. They were also home schooled, so they are very studious, but they aren’t as socially awkward as I would have guessed home schoolers would be. Laura is from Chicago and lives on the opposite side of the ship from us. She’s a bit odd, but nice nonetheless. The three of them are all work-study students and work on the ship. Katherine is from Colorado and lives a few doors down from us, she is also very studious and will talk to everyone and anyone. Megan is from Wisconsin and she is a floater, she comes and goes, but we are always happy to chill with her. She is very outgoing and shaved her head for Neptune Day! (When we crossed the equator).
I had a crazy week last week. I spend a lot of time next door in Jocelyn and Evergreen’s room. It’s cozy, and Evergreen and I tend to just sit in there and study; its easier to study when someone else is studying, too.
So the ship was playing this game called Zombies vs. Humans (similar to a game my dorm played in Scotland), in which the zombies have to tag humans and turn them into zombies.
Evergreen had been tagged by Ben, but she and I had an alliance so she didn’t turn me since we spend most of our time together. We were in her room, and Jocelyn had come back from work, and Jocelyn and I are in anthropology together. We have a novel to read, and she offered to read it aloud. So I grabbed my pillow and was lying on the floor listening to her read when Ben comes back with Megan, throws open the door and they tag me, turning me into a zombie! Jocelyn couldn’t be turned because she was in a safety zone: her bed.
Ben and Megan end up chilling with us, listening to music. Eventually, I was tired from our week of midterms and could kind of feel a cold coming on. So I said I was going to go to bed. Ben and Megan are like “No, stay longer, we’re not going to let you leave, let’s have a sleepover!“ And they sat in front of the door. I was like “No, I’m just going back to my bed“; but they wouldn’t let me, so Jocelyn offered to share her bed. I ended up staying, and our beds are smaller than twin beds, plus the ship was rocking a lot, so needless to say we did not get much sleep.
The next day I had midterms and I had pretty much missed a full night’s sleep, so of course, I ended up with a cold.
The next day, we go salsa dancing and at first I said I didn’t want to because I didn’t feel well, but then I got there and they were learning new moves, so I joined in.
Then we’re back in Evergreen and Jocelyn’s room playing Risk and watching a movie. I had been saying I didn’t feel good and was coughing a lot, but was trying to play it cool. Finally, I gave up on Risk and moved to lay down on Jocelyn’s bed. They each feel my forehead and determine I have a fever. They were very good at taking care of me, Laura even gave me Tylenol, and they all asked me 20 times if I was ok.
Unfortunately, this was the night before we got to Mauritius, so for the 2 days we had in Mauritius I had a fever and a cold. But I was determined to do things anyway.
Katherine, Laura, Jocelyn and I went to the Coloured Earth and hiked to see multiple different waterfalls-which were amazing!
Then we spent some time at the beach. It was short, but it was like spring break! The island was beautiful, and it was very relaxing, especially for me who was suffering from a fever, which left me with little appetite except for milkshakes!
Today, before we had to be on the ship, we got some free internet and did research for upcoming ports and bought souvenirs. We also bought some bootlegged DVD’s for $4 each, so we have plenty to do this week on the ship!
Mauritius was small but so expensive. We took a taxi to the waterfalls and the beach and it cost us almost $200. We had a nice cab driver though, and I thought if I held a conversation with him he might give us a deal. That didn’t work too well, but he ended up friending me on Face Book!
We also tried to go out last night to dance, but it turned out that the closest place was a $120 cab ride one way, so we ended up just playing music and making our own dance party on the ship.
I still have not caught up on sleep, and still have a cold, but I think the fever is almost gone, and I should probably go to sleep now that it is after midnight, and it’s back to classes tomorrow…
SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa is a bizarre place. The inequality is absolutely mind boggling. I had no idea how much racism had been present, and is still lingering. I did not live thru the civil rights movement in the US, but I feel like South Africa is just coming out of the 1960’s US. I have so much more respect for Desmond Tutu now. He truly is a man of peace and nobility. We were very lucky to have had him talk to us about the Apartheid and we could ask him questions, and it is just truly amazing what he has seen. In the city are these incredible high rise million dollar apartments overlooking the beach, and 5 minutes away are the townships with people who have no running water.
First thing I did was go on a 3 day safari. We had to fly there from Cape Town.
It’s funny the things that make you feel comfortable, such as when I got into the airport. I felt so comfortable in the airport, which I guess comes from all the time I spent in airports in Scotland. Also, South Africa was under British rule for a while, so they drive on the left, and speak English with an almost British accent. I had tea and scones and Banoffie pie and the airport looked just like London! It was all very British and I was loving it!
So we fly to Port Elizabeth on a small plane, there were 40 of us, and we took up almost all the seats. Security was so easy, we could bring as much liquid and food as we wanted! The safari place was really nice, we stayed in a kind of lodge, 6 of us to a chalet. I didn’t really know anyone, except Lauren who I went on the camel trek with, but she had 2 other girls she knew and I just kind of tagged along with them for a while, but we weren’t in the same chalet.
My chalet had nice girls in it, and the 6 of us went with 3 other people (the theatre professor who has been on Broadway, her husband and the trip leader) in the safari truck with a guide, who took us thru the park for the 3 days. We saw lions, elephants, monkeys, hippos, ostriches, rhinos, water buffalo, giraffes, wildebeest, zebra, impalas and lots of other animals up close!
The only problem was we weren’t prepared very well. They said wear shorts and dress comfortably and it turned out to be cold and rainy. I had one pair of pants I was going to wear to sleep in and a hoodie…luckily they had blankets and ponchos we could use.
I got one of the rooms with twin beds, so I had to share my room. I love people, and I am all about socializing and meeting new people (I keep telling my friends here I am really quiet and shy, but they insist that I talk a lot!), but honestly I am so sick of never having time to myself! Just some privacy, but my roommate always seems to be in our room with 3 other people then I have to find somewhere else on the ship, but there is nowhere to be alone, I can’t even remember the last time I ate a meal by myself. I’m not complaining….its just one of the things I kind of miss about being on land: I can always disappear for a while alone, but that’s pretty impossible on a ship of 1000 people.
The safari was great, so here are my 3 highlights of the trip:
1. Sitting in the truck, videoing an elephant coming towards us, then the guide telling us not to move and I record the elephant literally walking within arm’s length of us!
2. I met a girl that I actually sit next to in Anthropology named Jane, so we talked and we went for a walk in the park by ourselves, and we got to walk with wild giraffes who were just walking down the road…amazing!
3. I ate ostrich and crocodile!
We fly back to Cape Town, and I am pretty happy to be “home” because I couldn’t change clothes the whole time because it was so cold, and I missed my friends (it’s funny how easy it is to miss people I’ve only just met).
I had no plan for the next 3 days, so when I got back, everyone was on field trips. We were so lucky to have a huge mall right across the street from the ship, so I walked over there because I desperately needed a new camera and new sneakers. The mall was so British, I had a complete heyday in there! I bought a camera and 2 pairs of sneakers and I got shampoo and body wash and just a bunch of things that I should have originally packed.
I also found Lysisene, some sort of herb for canker sores, which somehow I had 5 in my mouth ( I have no idea how), but I could hardly talk or eat, my mouth was so sore.
After finishing my major shopping spree, I was just browsing and saw my friend Carren with her roommate Jeanette (who I actually met at the bull fight in Spain). They were going to get sushi and invited me along. So I tagged along, we got some sushi, then went to a British dessert place where I got a scone, jam, tea and clotted cream! We met another friend Emma and she showed us where to get free internet and we stayed there until midnight.
The last day, I had an FDP trip for my leadership class, which Carren was on as well. We went to a township. I had no idea what a township was; all I knew was that we were told not to go to townships, it was not safe.
Townships are basically all black people and they have built little shacks to live in. There are few doors on the little shacks, no running water, they are built side by side and there are thousands of people who live in these townships.
They are basically squatters, because they don’t pay for anything and the government can’t really do anything about them. We met up with students that live in the townships. They were so nice! We first went to a daycare center and met a bunch of young kids, all under 5 years old, and the headmaster.
The headmaster told us about the kids, and the worst story was about a little girl who was raped by her neighbor, who just snatched her from outside her shack. And this little girl has to walk by this man who raped her everyday after school ends, and she is only 5 years old. There were lots of kids with many traumas that have plagued them, but just like in Ghana, they never cease to amaze me with their smiles.
We also went to one of the students homes, which was a shack with no door or running water, but they had a makeshift kitchen with a stove, a bed and a TV, with dirt floors.
South Africa was an interesting place- all of Africa was. I am going to miss it. I can't remember what I thought of Africa prior to this trip, but I feel like I know it so much better now, and I really hope to go back someday.
I now understand why there are people on this voyage who have done Semester- At- Sea multiple times; some have done it up to 20 times!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
…And the bathrooms/showers were not great...so no one took showers that night--which made the 10 hour bus ride back awful. On the way was just as bad, because we went thru the Atlas Mountains and people were bus sick, and a young boy ate a prickly pear from a vendor on the side of the road and the poor kid must have vomited 5 times.
We drove all the way to a sand dune, where I dropped my camera trying to scoop sand into a water bottle, and now the zoom feature doesn't work :( As we pulled up in the bus, we were surrounded by men trying to sell scarves and get us to pay for camel rides...they climbed and followed us all the way up the dunes! It was so annoying-- they don't take no for an answer!
After the nomad camp we rode camels. Five were tied together and I was with a little girl and her mom, Lauren, Caroline and Katherine. I named my camel Leche (milk) because he was white, and Katherine named hers Mocha, because he was chocolate colored; together we made a Starbucks coffee!
We finally head back to Marrakech, and were turned free for the night. Lauren, Caroline, Nancy (Lauren’s roomie) and I went to the market that night, and there must have been a billion people there! They must have been on "Spain time"!
Nancy was a bit scared by an overly mean vendor, but Caroline bought 3 Moroccan rugs! The next day, our tour guide, Omar, took us around the Souks (market vendors?) and I ended up bartering for a carpet!
We finally made it home (to the ship!) and everyone could not have been happier to get a shower and food (my ATM card would not work, so I didn't get dinner the night before or lunch earlier in the day). The line to get back on the ship was ridiculous though, because everyone was getting back from trips, and security has to check all our bags. I was happy to be "home" and I immediately met up with Jocelyn, Evergreen and Laura, whom I had actually kinda missed!
The next day, the 4 of us and Katherine went to visit a mosque in Casablanca and attempted the marketplace. We ate our last Moroccan meal (couscous and mint tea!) then headed back to the ship, where we played cards and watched as we sailed away from Morocco.
We drove all the way to a sand dune, where I dropped my camera trying to scoop sand into a water bottle, and now the zoom feature doesn't work :( As we pulled up in the bus, we were surrounded by men trying to sell scarves and get us to pay for camel rides...they climbed and followed us all the way up the dunes! It was so annoying-- they don't take no for an answer!
After the nomad camp we rode camels. Five were tied together and I was with a little girl and her mom, Lauren, Caroline and Katherine. I named my camel Leche (milk) because he was white, and Katherine named hers Mocha, because he was chocolate colored; together we made a Starbucks coffee!
We finally head back to Marrakech, and were turned free for the night. Lauren, Caroline, Nancy (Lauren’s roomie) and I went to the market that night, and there must have been a billion people there! They must have been on "Spain time"!
Nancy was a bit scared by an overly mean vendor, but Caroline bought 3 Moroccan rugs! The next day, our tour guide, Omar, took us around the Souks (market vendors?) and I ended up bartering for a carpet!
We finally made it home (to the ship!) and everyone could not have been happier to get a shower and food (my ATM card would not work, so I didn't get dinner the night before or lunch earlier in the day). The line to get back on the ship was ridiculous though, because everyone was getting back from trips, and security has to check all our bags. I was happy to be "home" and I immediately met up with Jocelyn, Evergreen and Laura, whom I had actually kinda missed!
The next day, the 4 of us and Katherine went to visit a mosque in Casablanca and attempted the marketplace. We ate our last Moroccan meal (couscous and mint tea!) then headed back to the ship, where we played cards and watched as we sailed away from Morocco.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Morocco was not Europe at all... in Spain I felt safe and at home. In Morocco, I would never go out alone, I always was with at least 2 other people, and never out at night. Women are definitely lower on the hierarchy than men in Morocco. It was about 100 degrees outside, and we could not wear shorts, had to keep our shoulders covered and sometimes wear scarves to cover our hair (always in a mosque). The first day, Evergreen, Laura and I set out on a train to Rabat, the capitol. None of us spoke French, had any cash and were not prepared for Morocco. Crossing the streets was taking your life in your hands. There were no lights telling us when to cross, and it seemed people just beep their horn for fun. We were scared to death running across the street, then getting stuck in the middle as mopeds swerved around us and cars beeped as they whizzed by us. Somehow we make it to Rabat, and we walk to the Chellah - some ruins of an old village. We try to pay, but the ATM gave us big bills, and the clerk made a big deal out of the fact we didn’t have smaller change...this keyed in a “tour guide” who right off the bat said I’m your guide....we should have known better. He spoke broken English, but did give us information about everything, though we should have keyed in when the he had a few shouting matches with the guards. At the end of the tour, he tried very hard to rip us off and we ended up giving him about a $12 tip. We then walked back towards the train station, and stopped to get something to eat, then walked thru the dirty market place. We made it back to Casablanca, luckily meeting some other SAS students in the train station to walk back with in the dark. The port is big in Casablanca, so we had to run to catch the last shuttle bus to take us to the boat.
The next day, I left for Marrakech. Katherine was on the same trip as me, but we got separated. I ended up sitting with a girl from my small group meetings, Lauren. We stuck together most of the time, and also met a girl named Caroline. At the hotel, we had random roommates and mine was named Twin and she goes to JMU! Small world!
We went to the Market, in which we experienced bartering for the first time, snake charmers, and men with monkeys and snakes, trying to put them on your shoulders...I was yelled at for taking a picture of a snake charmer because he demanded money, and I refused to give it to him. The market place was the scariest place I have ever been! They yell at you and if you even touch something they try to make you buy it; women grab your arm and start doing a henna tattoo, then make you pay them, even if you didn’t want it. I tried to ignore the vendors yelling, and one even stuck his hand out to shake mine and I kept walking and saying no and he grabbed me by the arm and wouldn’t let me go...it’s not a pleasant experience. I am a pushover, and was ripped off almost every time, even with the help of Lauren and Caroline. We spent a night at a nomad camp as well, which was fun, but people had money stolen from their tents.
The next day, I left for Marrakech. Katherine was on the same trip as me, but we got separated. I ended up sitting with a girl from my small group meetings, Lauren. We stuck together most of the time, and also met a girl named Caroline. At the hotel, we had random roommates and mine was named Twin and she goes to JMU! Small world!
We went to the Market, in which we experienced bartering for the first time, snake charmers, and men with monkeys and snakes, trying to put them on your shoulders...I was yelled at for taking a picture of a snake charmer because he demanded money, and I refused to give it to him. The market place was the scariest place I have ever been! They yell at you and if you even touch something they try to make you buy it; women grab your arm and start doing a henna tattoo, then make you pay them, even if you didn’t want it. I tried to ignore the vendors yelling, and one even stuck his hand out to shake mine and I kept walking and saying no and he grabbed me by the arm and wouldn’t let me go...it’s not a pleasant experience. I am a pushover, and was ripped off almost every time, even with the help of Lauren and Caroline. We spent a night at a nomad camp as well, which was fun, but people had money stolen from their tents.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
We set sail in a couple hours for South Africa. Ghana was AMAZING! I absolutely loved it! The first couple days I went on a trip to Winneba, which is the sister city of Charlottesville, VA. The hotel was nice for Ghana, but awful by our standards, I had to share a bed with a girl I’d never met before, and the shower was literally a bucket of water. We met the mayor, chief fisherman, market queen, university students and some kids at a school. The were so welcoming, and seemed to just love us! They gave us gifts, and the young kids loved to have their pictures taken and gave us a million hugs!
Yesterday, I went to the rainforest, with Jocelyn, Laura, Megan, Tesia and Anthony. It poured down rain, go figure! We did a walk thru the canopies and a nature hike. It turned out to be an awesome day, 6 of us had to squish in a taxi, and take a Tro tro, which is a minivan. The food was so if-y here. Laura and I ate what seemed to be balls of dough that were supposed to be dipped in a soup type thing that had pieces of goat meat in it, and they don't give you silverware, you’re expected to use your hands. Jocelyn is picky like me, so she had chicken and fries lol but then in the taxi on the way home, she threw up out the window...unfortunately she was holding my backpack because Laura was sitting on my lap in the front seat, and she got some vomit on it and all over the door, the poor taxi driver had to clean it up :/
Last night I went dancing at a club with Evergreen. I got out of the taxi, took two steps, and fell in a concrete drainage ditch! It was hilarious, Evergreen could not stop laughing at me. One minute I'm beside her talking, next thing I know I'm in a hole about 3 feet deep! But I got a bunch of cuts on my hand, foot, bruise on my leg and my chin hit the sidewalk-- I was so close to knocking out my teeth! The bouncer took me inside (after everyone stopped laughing at me) and put what seemed like rubbing alcohol on my cuts, he was so nice! I'm hoping for a cool scar, so I can tell people I fell in a ditch in Ghana! They play this one song at the clubs all the time, it's called Waka Waka? All I can make out is that it says Africa somewhere in it, which might be why they played it 6 times last night.
And today I went to volunteer at an orphanage, where I fell down on a muddy hill, and made the cut on my hand even bigger, lol. The kids were WONDERFUL! They were so caring and sweet and loving. We brought them shoes because they had none. We just stayed the day and played with them. One little girl, Rachael, drew me a picture, and they loved my camera, I have almost 900 pictures just from the kids taking pictures. They all wanted hugs as we were getting ready to leave, and many kids wanted to go with us. One little boy said to a girl I was with "Please take me home, you can be my mom! I promise I will listen and be good!" It was heart-breaking to leave them. These kids have nothing… they wear the same clothes for a week, no shoes, their clothes have holes in them, they have no toys. We brought them crayons and coloring books, but they still smile and they are so selfless, so many kids offered us to have some of their lunch, and we couldn't bear eat the orphans food. Rachael did my hair, and when I hugged her goodbye, she said God bless you. As we drove away in the taxi, the kids stood there waving, and we all had tears running down our faces. It was horrible and wonderful all at the same time. Never again will I take anything for granted.
Ghana has been my favorite port so far, just because the people are so friendly! I gave out my email to so many Ghanaians, and the University students wanted to friend us all on Face Book. I used to fear these kind of people who asked for my name and contact info, but now I see it is because they genuinely want to be friends, and they called us their brothers and sisters.
I do have 2 bug bites. I took vitamin B, and bummed bug spray off Katherine and Megan, but still got some....here's hoping I don't get Malaria! lol
I absolutely LOVE Ghana! I was in a minor freak-out mode because I saw pictures of the rainforest, and I wanted to go there, and I also wanted to go to an orphanage, but I had an overnight FDP (Faculty-directed Practicum) for one of my classes. I almost did not go on the FDP, but in the end, the syllabus required we go to at least one of his FDPs. It was supposed to be about the court system, and I don’t understand/care about politics at all whatsoever.
We were to meet some Ghanaians from the courts that were coming to the ship, and they ended up being almost 2 hours late (Ghanaian time interpretation is different than ours, apparently!). They finally arrived, and we eat with them, give them a tour of the ship, and then we leave Takoradi to make our way to Winneba (the sister city to Charlottesville, VA, which my professor, David Toscano, was a past mayor of Charlottesville).
3 hours later, we arrive at the council building to meet the Mayor of Winneba. I had very little clue as to what was going on, since their accent is so thick, and sometimes they don’t speak English. We then make our way to a University Campus where we meet Ghanaian students and we have a sort of open discussion and Q&A with the students, who were very interested in Semester at Sea. After the discussion, we all had multiple students come up to us to shake our hands and just talk and many of them asked for our Face Book names (tho we won’t know if they friend us until we get internet again)!
Then we made our way to the hotel for dinner… the students stayed up and we just chilled and talked.
The next day, we went to an actual court hearing. It is towards the end of the rainy season, and it poured down rain, to the point of flooding and a bridge was supposedly out. But we lucked out and got to see a wedding in the court room!
We then left to go meet the Chief Fishermen of Winneba. We had a Q&A with them, but it was difficult because they did not speak English, but we had our inter-port lecturer Joe Baami (a person who rides the ship with us from one port to the next, and they live in the next port), and he interpreted for us.
We then went to a marketplace to meet the queen mother of the market. At first, it seemed they had no interest in meeting us, but the professor gave them a gift, then all of a sudden out of nowhere, all 20 of the women rush over to us, shaking our hands and hugging us and we are taking pictures with them and they bring us gifts, we all got a bracelet they make. We took pictures of the children too, and they loved to look at the pictures. The children would gather around us and pose. They just loved us!
We then moved on to a school to which we brought an indestructible football (soccer) ball that is supposed to represent peace. All the children of the school came running out to us and again loved the cameras! I sat on a step and kids were sitting on my lap and hugging me and I let them use my camera to take pictures of me, and showed them the pictures I took of them. They would come up to me and say, “Madame, what is your name please?” I would tell them, and ask their names, then shake their hands. These kids were amazing, they were so happy and had no fear of us, the white Americans who showed up out of nowhere and took their pictures. One boy even asked me what country I was from. I did not want to leave, it was such an amazing experience. And it was great, because it was not only us as students who were experiencing something like that for the first time, but Professor Toscano and his wife and their 12 year-old son, Matthew, was playing soccer with them. The photographer and the student affairs manager were all smiling and laughing and just having a wonderful time with these kids, who had probably never seen a camera before in their lives. There are slave dungeons still preserved in Ghana today. Seeing these kids makes me wonder how in the world could anyone have taken children like them into slavery? As we drove away, the kids waved and shouted good-bye! Kids everywhere in Ghana always wave, with the biggest smiles, when they saw our bus going by. We then had a special invitation to meet back at the town council.
We arrive to meet up with Emmanuelle, one of the university students we had met the night before. He is in charge of a youth group, and about 6 of them came and presented us with Ghanaian bags, as a token of our “brotherhood”, and a letter inviting us to always be welcome in Winneba. The mayor also presented SAS (Semester At Sea) with a large wooden wall hanging and a glass replica of the council building of Winneba to take back to the ship with us. These people were so friendly, from the small children, to the university students, to the town elders, to the women in the market place. I cannot even explain how it felt to be so accepted by these people, who were so warm and welcoming, or how it feels to be hugged by one of the small children, or the excitement in the face of a student when I say of course I’ll be your friend on Face Book, or the smiles of the women in the marketplace as they embraced us like family, even though we could not understand each other’s languages.
Yesterday, I went to the rainforest, with Jocelyn, Laura, Megan, Tesia and Anthony. It poured down rain, go figure! We did a walk thru the canopies and a nature hike. It turned out to be an awesome day, 6 of us had to squish in a taxi, and take a Tro tro, which is a minivan. The food was so if-y here. Laura and I ate what seemed to be balls of dough that were supposed to be dipped in a soup type thing that had pieces of goat meat in it, and they don't give you silverware, you’re expected to use your hands. Jocelyn is picky like me, so she had chicken and fries lol but then in the taxi on the way home, she threw up out the window...unfortunately she was holding my backpack because Laura was sitting on my lap in the front seat, and she got some vomit on it and all over the door, the poor taxi driver had to clean it up :/
Last night I went dancing at a club with Evergreen. I got out of the taxi, took two steps, and fell in a concrete drainage ditch! It was hilarious, Evergreen could not stop laughing at me. One minute I'm beside her talking, next thing I know I'm in a hole about 3 feet deep! But I got a bunch of cuts on my hand, foot, bruise on my leg and my chin hit the sidewalk-- I was so close to knocking out my teeth! The bouncer took me inside (after everyone stopped laughing at me) and put what seemed like rubbing alcohol on my cuts, he was so nice! I'm hoping for a cool scar, so I can tell people I fell in a ditch in Ghana! They play this one song at the clubs all the time, it's called Waka Waka? All I can make out is that it says Africa somewhere in it, which might be why they played it 6 times last night.
And today I went to volunteer at an orphanage, where I fell down on a muddy hill, and made the cut on my hand even bigger, lol. The kids were WONDERFUL! They were so caring and sweet and loving. We brought them shoes because they had none. We just stayed the day and played with them. One little girl, Rachael, drew me a picture, and they loved my camera, I have almost 900 pictures just from the kids taking pictures. They all wanted hugs as we were getting ready to leave, and many kids wanted to go with us. One little boy said to a girl I was with "Please take me home, you can be my mom! I promise I will listen and be good!" It was heart-breaking to leave them. These kids have nothing… they wear the same clothes for a week, no shoes, their clothes have holes in them, they have no toys. We brought them crayons and coloring books, but they still smile and they are so selfless, so many kids offered us to have some of their lunch, and we couldn't bear eat the orphans food. Rachael did my hair, and when I hugged her goodbye, she said God bless you. As we drove away in the taxi, the kids stood there waving, and we all had tears running down our faces. It was horrible and wonderful all at the same time. Never again will I take anything for granted.
Ghana has been my favorite port so far, just because the people are so friendly! I gave out my email to so many Ghanaians, and the University students wanted to friend us all on Face Book. I used to fear these kind of people who asked for my name and contact info, but now I see it is because they genuinely want to be friends, and they called us their brothers and sisters.
I do have 2 bug bites. I took vitamin B, and bummed bug spray off Katherine and Megan, but still got some....here's hoping I don't get Malaria! lol
I absolutely LOVE Ghana! I was in a minor freak-out mode because I saw pictures of the rainforest, and I wanted to go there, and I also wanted to go to an orphanage, but I had an overnight FDP (Faculty-directed Practicum) for one of my classes. I almost did not go on the FDP, but in the end, the syllabus required we go to at least one of his FDPs. It was supposed to be about the court system, and I don’t understand/care about politics at all whatsoever.
We were to meet some Ghanaians from the courts that were coming to the ship, and they ended up being almost 2 hours late (Ghanaian time interpretation is different than ours, apparently!). They finally arrived, and we eat with them, give them a tour of the ship, and then we leave Takoradi to make our way to Winneba (the sister city to Charlottesville, VA, which my professor, David Toscano, was a past mayor of Charlottesville).
3 hours later, we arrive at the council building to meet the Mayor of Winneba. I had very little clue as to what was going on, since their accent is so thick, and sometimes they don’t speak English. We then make our way to a University Campus where we meet Ghanaian students and we have a sort of open discussion and Q&A with the students, who were very interested in Semester at Sea. After the discussion, we all had multiple students come up to us to shake our hands and just talk and many of them asked for our Face Book names (tho we won’t know if they friend us until we get internet again)!
Then we made our way to the hotel for dinner… the students stayed up and we just chilled and talked.
The next day, we went to an actual court hearing. It is towards the end of the rainy season, and it poured down rain, to the point of flooding and a bridge was supposedly out. But we lucked out and got to see a wedding in the court room!
We then left to go meet the Chief Fishermen of Winneba. We had a Q&A with them, but it was difficult because they did not speak English, but we had our inter-port lecturer Joe Baami (a person who rides the ship with us from one port to the next, and they live in the next port), and he interpreted for us.
We then went to a marketplace to meet the queen mother of the market. At first, it seemed they had no interest in meeting us, but the professor gave them a gift, then all of a sudden out of nowhere, all 20 of the women rush over to us, shaking our hands and hugging us and we are taking pictures with them and they bring us gifts, we all got a bracelet they make. We took pictures of the children too, and they loved to look at the pictures. The children would gather around us and pose. They just loved us!
We then moved on to a school to which we brought an indestructible football (soccer) ball that is supposed to represent peace. All the children of the school came running out to us and again loved the cameras! I sat on a step and kids were sitting on my lap and hugging me and I let them use my camera to take pictures of me, and showed them the pictures I took of them. They would come up to me and say, “Madame, what is your name please?” I would tell them, and ask their names, then shake their hands. These kids were amazing, they were so happy and had no fear of us, the white Americans who showed up out of nowhere and took their pictures. One boy even asked me what country I was from. I did not want to leave, it was such an amazing experience. And it was great, because it was not only us as students who were experiencing something like that for the first time, but Professor Toscano and his wife and their 12 year-old son, Matthew, was playing soccer with them. The photographer and the student affairs manager were all smiling and laughing and just having a wonderful time with these kids, who had probably never seen a camera before in their lives. There are slave dungeons still preserved in Ghana today. Seeing these kids makes me wonder how in the world could anyone have taken children like them into slavery? As we drove away, the kids waved and shouted good-bye! Kids everywhere in Ghana always wave, with the biggest smiles, when they saw our bus going by. We then had a special invitation to meet back at the town council.
We arrive to meet up with Emmanuelle, one of the university students we had met the night before. He is in charge of a youth group, and about 6 of them came and presented us with Ghanaian bags, as a token of our “brotherhood”, and a letter inviting us to always be welcome in Winneba. The mayor also presented SAS (Semester At Sea) with a large wooden wall hanging and a glass replica of the council building of Winneba to take back to the ship with us. These people were so friendly, from the small children, to the university students, to the town elders, to the women in the market place. I cannot even explain how it felt to be so accepted by these people, who were so warm and welcoming, or how it feels to be hugged by one of the small children, or the excitement in the face of a student when I say of course I’ll be your friend on Face Book, or the smiles of the women in the marketplace as they embraced us like family, even though we could not understand each other’s languages.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
1. The first week at sea was the toughest, obviously, because I was in a whole new place and knew no one. I had such high hopes for being friends with my roommate, Chelsea, but she came from Los Angeles with her boyfriend and 3 of her friends, so she was all set with her group of friends. Meal times were tough because there was limited seating, so every meal I had to just find a random table with an empty chair, introduce myself and make small talk. Sometimes, I just wanted to eat alone, but always had to sit with someone. It ended up being a good thing tho, because I sat alone one day, and the table next to me had a free chair, so the 3 girls there asked me to sit with them. I said yes, and it ended up that Jocelyn and Evergreen actually live across from me and Laura lives not too far away either. For the next day or so, Laura always seemed to find me at meal times, so we always sat together, and occasionally we sat with Evergreen and Jocelyn. Evergreen and Jocelyn are actually best friends from home, both were homeschooled and Evergreen’s dad is their church pastor, she is the youngest of 12 children! Laura and I ended up sitting with Megan one day at dinner, then we stayed up half the night playing trivial pursuit. At some point I also met Katherine, and together they make up my little group of friends.
2. Spain was amazing! I went to a bull fight, which was horrible, bloody and disgusting to watch a bull be tortured and killed, but by the time the 5th of 7 bulls was killed, we were all getting into it and it was a great time! Spain time is also different from our sense of time. I went with Laura and Megan to Jerez for a day, but Laura has a bolt in her head for a hearing aid and it was bleeding, so we called the medical team, who did not answer the phone (good to know!), but we eventually got thru an hour later, so this cut our trip short since we had to go back to Cadiz so Laura could go to the clinic. She ended up to be fine, and we just spent the day shopping, all of us finding €5 shoes! The next day I went with Megan and her friend Ben to Ronda, which was a long bus ride away, but totally worth the view of a giant bridge across a massive gorge in the earth! The last day I went thru the market place with my anthropology professor on a SAS trip with Megan and Jocelyn. Then we went for tapas after, and it was all seafood! Jocelyn and I hate seafood, but we did our best to eat it. I had Oysters, shrimp, seafood paella, dogfish (my favourite cuz it tasted almost like chicken!) and a few other random sea creatures! The Spanish eat their meals starting around 10am, then again at 2pm, then again around 10pm, and every meal is eaten slowly, and they share tapas, and socialize. It was so relaxing and fantastic to just sit and take your time, eat and talk! Except when we actually had somewhere to go, then it was almost impossible to get the bill! I was also dying to go out to a club (relive my days in Scotland!), so I dragged Laura, Jocelyn, Evergreen and Megan (it was her bday) out on our last night, but the nightlife doesn’t start til 2am since all their meals are so late. We started at a tiki hut on the beach, and we ran thru the water and got soak and wet! We then ran into some other SAS students who were looking to go out, so we went with them to a bar that played everything from lady gaga to salsa! Finally we ended up at a club, and danced til the early hours of the morning, and Evergreen, Megan and I were the last ones standing!
2. Spain was amazing! I went to a bull fight, which was horrible, bloody and disgusting to watch a bull be tortured and killed, but by the time the 5th of 7 bulls was killed, we were all getting into it and it was a great time! Spain time is also different from our sense of time. I went with Laura and Megan to Jerez for a day, but Laura has a bolt in her head for a hearing aid and it was bleeding, so we called the medical team, who did not answer the phone (good to know!), but we eventually got thru an hour later, so this cut our trip short since we had to go back to Cadiz so Laura could go to the clinic. She ended up to be fine, and we just spent the day shopping, all of us finding €5 shoes! The next day I went with Megan and her friend Ben to Ronda, which was a long bus ride away, but totally worth the view of a giant bridge across a massive gorge in the earth! The last day I went thru the market place with my anthropology professor on a SAS trip with Megan and Jocelyn. Then we went for tapas after, and it was all seafood! Jocelyn and I hate seafood, but we did our best to eat it. I had Oysters, shrimp, seafood paella, dogfish (my favourite cuz it tasted almost like chicken!) and a few other random sea creatures! The Spanish eat their meals starting around 10am, then again at 2pm, then again around 10pm, and every meal is eaten slowly, and they share tapas, and socialize. It was so relaxing and fantastic to just sit and take your time, eat and talk! Except when we actually had somewhere to go, then it was almost impossible to get the bill! I was also dying to go out to a club (relive my days in Scotland!), so I dragged Laura, Jocelyn, Evergreen and Megan (it was her bday) out on our last night, but the nightlife doesn’t start til 2am since all their meals are so late. We started at a tiki hut on the beach, and we ran thru the water and got soak and wet! We then ran into some other SAS students who were looking to go out, so we went with them to a bar that played everything from lady gaga to salsa! Finally we ended up at a club, and danced til the early hours of the morning, and Evergreen, Megan and I were the last ones standing!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)