…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.

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.

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.

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!