Stay Tuned...

I have been accepted into an Alternative Spring Break program in Rwanda for spring break 2011. The program is through UW Hillel and we will be volunteering primarily in the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village. I am extremely excited for this trip and so fortunate to be able to participate on the program! More to come as it gets closer!

American Education System

Long lost blog, I doubt I have any readers anymore... But I will give a background to this blog post just in case. One of my SAS friends posted a facebook status the other day that said "The American education system did not fail your children; your kid's just lazy." Multiple people liked the status and commented that they agreed. Then a few days later the same friend posted "I love you all for agreeing with me- it gives me hope to know that at least some of us will raise motivated children who remember basic algebra outside of college."

Now, I had seen the status originally and let it slide but I felt the urge to reply to that comment. After all, I sat through 2 days of classes where I learn about the failures of the American education system and the misconceptions about parents and communities. So after talking it over with my roommate and another few friends, I decided to respond "i really have missed arguing with you :) while i am not completely disagreeing with you that there are children who are in fact lazy, and there are parents who do better jobs than others, i think you are misinformed in your generalizations about the education system, and the source or lack thereof of student's motivations. Part of the faults of the American education system is that it IS failing to properly educate and motivate students BECAUSE it has not adapted over the years to teach things beyond algebra (which is not a topic for everyone).
i suggest watching this video for a different perspective from an education expert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U "

Her friend John responded "I don't know, though. When kids whine about writing stuff out, reading complicated works, or doing not-very-complex maths without a calculator, that's a sure sign that something's gone dreadfully wrong. If we expect technology to do everything, we'll turn into a bunch of fat, lazy imbeciles... and god help us when the technology fails.
Now, there are those .5% that do, in fact, simply not learn well under the existing structure; they, however, are a law unto themselves. (I, for one, learned very little before eighth grade that I had not already learned myself or in the Gifted program. I did a lot of independent study, because I would say that I was highly motivated--and actively wanted to understand EVERYTHING [not to sound intentionally conceited or whatever; I won't deny that I was in a rather good school, all things considered]).
Hovever, for every one of them, there's the dozens who grew up with too much coddling or no authority figures... the ones who either expect everything to be freely given to them or taken forcibly from them. They're the vast majority of the issue."

and another person Oliver posted "This is related: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/gyrobase/rich-black-flunking/Content?oid=1070459&showFullText=true "

as I started to respond I realized that I have a lot to say and decided to post it on this never-used blog. here it goes...

I wrote what I wrote to add a differing opinion. I was fortunate enough to go to one of the top 50 public schools in the country where I can absolutely agree that the parents who blamed their children's failure on the education system were typically the ones at fault themselves. I also can say that I was lazy and unmotivated in high school but it sure as hell wasn't because my parents did something wrong, and given that my school was one of the best it wasn't seen as an issue with the school. Yet, I am going to graduate in May from a top university and not any basic math, science, etc. classes that I took in high school will help me in my future work. I don't really remember basic algebra, because there is absolutely no reason for me to know basic algebra. My lack of motivation in high school didn't stem from external factors like my home but from the school's inability to provide me with educational material that I was not only interested in, but that would create a desire for me to succeed.

John, you were in a gifted program so I assume that you know that gifted students are defined as such not strictly based on standard academic ability, but in domains such as dance and art. The American education system does not provide the proper programming to students that might fall right below the gifted line but that still excel when provided the opportunity to complete assignments in a variety of manners. Allowing a student to whose strengths may lie in a more artistic domain to complete a history assignment through video rather than through a paper can change the entire basis of motivation for students in schools whether in great school districts or incredibly shitty ones. This is really the point I was trying to make.

As for your last point, I honestly have no idea where you are getting your statistics or your facts (for your .5% either… are you including students with disabilities in that grouping?). I agree to some extent that they are the vast majority in affluent school districts but to generalize and miss an entire piece of the population that are located in inner cities creates flaws to your argument.

My knowledge base really stems from my last three and a half years in college and all the experience that I have gained in the field of child development and family studies. My focus is on minority students in low-income areas and because of that I view most issues from a social-ecological model viewpoint. There are no issues that can be pinpointed to one place as every level of our being interacts in some way. However, in order to create a change in one area you must begin in another. For instance, in order to get parents more involved in their child’s education and support and motivate them outside of school, a change must be made in getting teachers in the schools to place high expectations of their students and share positive messages with family members. I have seen the difference that a positive comment about a 9^th graders class work does to a parent who was previously thought to not care about how their child was doing. They essentially gave up on the system based on the feedback they were receiving from the school and community. According to research, when expectations are set high and positive feedback is extensive, students are much more highly motivated and have much higher graduation rates. Of course, this is just one example. 

I really have no view on Oliver’s article as I know very little about minorities in affluent neighborhoods (and that’s a whole other issue right there) and I don’t know enough about this research that was done. I also wouldn’t take that one community and use it to generalize the attitudes of African American families in affluent neighborhoods. But definitely an interesting perspective.

Welp, now that I spent time that I should be spending sleeping writing this I think I am all out of arguments. It's very possible that this last one is completely incoherent because i am so tired. But its been fun. As for the blog, hopefully I will see you after my Rwanda trip in March!

Salvador and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Oi! I’m done with the last port and heading back to America… Can’t believe it went by so fast. I just want to keep traveling, and not just travel but SAS travel. It is amazing how great an experience it is visiting all these countries with the knowledge that you have the safe haven of SAS, the group of people to travel with, and the programs that they provided. Brazil was an interesting experience and sadly not the best way to end my semester abroad. Here’s how it went down…

Day 1: Spent the day in Salvador in the old city walking around and doing some shopping, was part of a music video for the Brazilian World Cup team

Day 2: Left for Rio de Janeiro, had some trouble with the hotel, went to a football (soccer) game, tried to go out but started feeling sick and went back to my hotel

Day 3: Still didn’t feel well but didn’t want to waste my only full day in Rio in a hotel bed, went to Sugarloaf, a mountain with absolutely beautiful views but didn’t fully enjoy it because I got sick there, went back to my hotel where I spent the rest of my time in Rio

Day 4: Flew home, felt a little better but not 100%, was going to try to go out for the last night but due to miscommunication issues ended up staying in with three of my good friends who also had the stomach virus that I did

Day 5: Went back to the old city and spent the day walking around there

So yeah, not too much that I did, but what I did do I loved so at least that’s that.

I don’t think that I am going to write a whole long post but instead just touch upon some of the things:

First day- Filming the music video was SO COOL! We walked to the end of this street to discover that they were filming a music video and after standing there for a little while, they decided to bring in the people watching as extras and have us hold flags (because it was for the World Cup they had a bunch of different flags that they were waving around) and dance in the background. We ended up spending a few hours there doing it and learned the whole dance and everything. It would downpour every once in a while so we would have to huddle under whatever cover we could and we got to talk to the dancers as much as we could. It was so much fun. (We found out on the last day that Michael Jackson filmed a more recent music video of his in the exact spot and we got to watch it, it was pretty cool) I bought this umbrella hat for fun at one point and in one of the downpours I noticed this little boy huddled under a ledge wearing nothing but shorts and shivering. I went over and gave him my umbrella hat as a little bit of cover and he was so happy. We tried to talk using the little Spanish I know that is similar in Portuguese but I didn’t get very far. His smile was one of the best I have seen this trip though. We eventually forced ourselves to leave and walk around a bit, checking out some of the stores.

Old town is just really amazing. The streets were all cobblestone and the buildings were painted colorfully. It was just a cute area to walk around. A lot of us said that we were reminded of a lot of European cities and such. However, the crime is really bad around there. Even though I fortunately didn’t have any problems, a lot of people from the ship were mugged. The most amazing story that I have heard (don’t know how much of it has changed since it originally happened, it traveled around the ship) is that someone tried to steal a girl’s necklace, apparently her grandmothers and very important, but he pulled it off, then dropped it in a drain and kept running. A homeless man sitting on the side of the road saw it happen, pulled it out of the drain and turned it into the police station and she got it back! I like when nice things like that happen, no matter how true or untrue the story may be. 

Soccer game- one of the most amazing sporting events I have ever been to. We got to stand in the section that most of the hardcore fans were in with their drums, sparklers, and giant flags and they literally did not stop cheering the entire game. I have never seen something like it, even at a Wisconsin game. The only thing that would have made it better would be if there were more people there because it was basically empty aside from two sections. The teams that played were Flumenese and Portuguese, we were rooting for Flumenese who WON! It was worth going to Rio and spending the entire time there sick for.

So yeah, that’s basically it. Goodbye! (In English, because we are going to the States, wowwww)

Tema and Accra, Ghana

The first day in Ghana we had to deal with a lot of technical difficulties. The port was about a 45 minute drive away from Accra, the main city in Ghana and so there were supposed to be shuttle buses every hour that would take us to Accra. However, Ghanaians are on island-esque time and very, very laid back so we ended up waiting an hour and a half out in the heat with a bunch of other SASers for one of the first shuttle buses that didn’t show up. We learned after that that ‘once an hour’ is a very lenient time frame. We never even ended up taking the shuttles that Semester at Sea provided for us because they filled up really quickly when they finally did show up so we went with a big group of people in a hired bus. We were dropped off at a market that ended up being this amazing craft market and we spent the next few hours there. We were immediately met by a crowd of people that sold their crafts in the market, but they were much friendlier than people in other countries. One man walked us down the street to show us where a bank was, which I originally thought was strictly because he was going to walk us back and throw it in our faces that we got money but he left us and didn’t pressure us to buy his stuff when we returned. I met some amazing people that were all around the market and it was really cool. I was there with three other friends, and we got separated at one point two and two. So, my friend and I sat around waiting for a while to see if the other two would finally show up because we had been there for awhile and said we were going to go and eat something. I waited while my friend searched the entire place, asked a bunch of SASers if they had seen them but no one had. We weren’t sure if they left or what. So, in the meantime we didn’t want to just leave them there and I decided to go and talk to one of the women that was selling food and had an adorable baby in her arms. I asked if I could take a picture but she asked for money for the picture and that was when I noticed a little girl tugging on my shorts and asking for ice cream. There were a bunch of little kids around and it was so hot out so I agreed. They led me around the corner to this tiny little ice cream stand and I handed the man selling them some money for the rest of the ice cream and gave it out to around 20 kids and a few mothers. They were all so happy and excited, it was really amazing. We ended up spending the next half hour or so playing with them, taking pictures and dancing. In the end, we left the market because we were supposed to be meeting up with other friends and we didn’t want to miss them. We passed my friends on a street later while we were in a cab so they were fine.

After spending some time in a café with my friends waiting for everyone to arrive from their various whereabouts, we went to find a place to eat dinner. The place that was recommended relocated from the location the cab driver knew of so we ended up asking them to take us somewhere good. We were brought to basically the Chuck E Cheese of Ghana, called ChurCheese. There was an arcade and a jumpy thing, but the food was real and pretty good. Then we decided to go check out one of the bars that a friend from school who spent the semester in Ghana recommended but because it was a Sunday it was closed so we went back to the main road by the shuttle and went to a bar that we knew was opened. We spent some time there before heading back to the ship on the early side before the shuttle service ended for the night.

The next day I went on a service visit to the OSU Children’s Home in Accra. When we arrived we got a chance to speak with one of the “mothers” who told us about the home and who lives there (children there are orphaned and abandoned), how long they stay there, etc. As she was talking, there was a boy walking up and down the aisles over and over introducing himself and shaking our heads. It was really cute. After a little confusion, we got to go and play with the children. There wasn’t a plan of what we were doing so after we started off being just given a tour of the facilities, I broke off when I found the room where some children with disabilities were. There were three kids just lying on a mat in this room and one child sitting and crying in a stroller. They were all incredibly tiny, even though the staff person in there told us that two of them were six years old but looked two years old at most. I sat down with one little boy and was tickling him and getting him to smile and it was just so adorable. He was not only so tiny for his age, but literally had his ribs sticking out and it was pretty heart wrenching. Eventually, I left and found some of the other kids and students playing soccer and hanging out under a tree. A lot of people under the tree were holding these tiny, adorable little babies. I went over to a group of boys between the ages of 8 and 12 and talked to them for a while. We played catch, they enjoyed using my camera and we colored in a coloring book. One of the boys had my camera while I was coloring and was lying down videoing himself talking into the camera. The video was pretty funny. You can’t really hear what he was saying but he was making funny faces, and then watched the video and laughed. Some of the kids were in school and they had a break at one point and came out in their little uniforms and played with us for a while too. I wasn’t really sure why some of the kids were on break and others weren’t, but that’s what they told us. A little boy stumbled out of a building at one point crying so I went over to him and tried to figure out what was wrong. He just kept pointing at some of the older boys in one of the housing units and I figured that he took something of his. Turned out it was the sticker that I had given him earlier so I gave him new ones and it was fine. He was so cute clinging to my leg though, I felt so bad for him. Then we had to leave to go have lunch at a hotel restaurant. It was a delicious Ghanaian meal. We returned to the home after to do what we thought would be some painting and other service stuff, but it turned out that they didn’t have the supplies that we needed and the rest of the kids were either napping or in school so we signed out of the trip and headed into town. We were spending the night at a “resort” area about an hour outside the city by the beach so we were planning on cutting out early anyway. However, one of my friends wanted to stop at the market so we decided to quickly run back to it so she can get some stuff. Of course, we stayed a while this time too. Some of the people that we had met the day before remembered us, remembered who with were with and everything! It was really impressive. While my friend shopped my other friend and I hung out with some of the locals and played around with their drums for a while. They tried to teach me how to play but ended up giving up and played some stuff for us. It was awesome. We finally left as the sun was setting for the beach. Traffic was horrendous and it took us over two and a half hours for what should have been a forty-five minute drive. However, we got to see some interesting neighborhoods along the way. The hotel was located past a bunch of villages basically in the middle of nowhere so as we drove along we got to witness the incredibly social nightlife in these villages. Everyone was along the streets, cooking food, talking amongst one another which was all so interesting and amazing. When we arrived at the place (called Big Milly’s), we found out that there was no where that we could get food that was right there. They didn’t sell food and the two restaurants that were right there were already closed even though it was 8 pm. However, one of the locals that was hanging out at the bar at Big Milly’s offered to have her friend take us to one of the villages and get food there. He walked us over, got everything taken care of ordering and everything, and then waited while we ate our delicious chicken and rice meal in this little hut before walking us back. It was so cool to walk through the village and see all the people, some of them waving at us, following us around, giggling when we passed by. When we arrived back at Big Milly’s, our other friends that we were meeting us there had arrived. Some of us hung out at the bar with some of the locals at night before going into the house that we rented and hanging out there. I slept under a mosquito net which was pretty cool and it was all a lot nicer than I thought it would be. The next morning I woke up feeling like I was on a farm because of all the animal noises around us. It was pretty crazy- I have never been actually woken up by a rooster before.

My friends that met up with us there the night before had actually been driven there by a friend that they met their first day in Ghana. Each voyage has an interport student from the country that we will be visiting that spends the time on the ship in between the port before their country and their country and shares with the shipboard community information about their culture and such. My friends randomly happened to run into Nii on a street in Accra, who was the interport student for the last voyage that went to Ghana. He was really awesome and so he came and hang out with us at Big Milly’s and then spent the next day there with us. We started off our morning eating a meal at someone’s house that Nii set up for us when he ran into this person in the village the night before. We thought that this persons house was a hotel, it was that incredible and beautiful. There were about 9 people living there one of the woman told us, and she had actually spent some time in the US and now tries to take in exchange students when possible. It was nice to talk to her. They cooked us an amazing meal and it was just such an interesting experience. After seeing the villages down the road the night before and then seeing this house that was gated in, we could really see the difference in wealth in Ghana. After we ate we went to go find a spot on the beach to hang out at. Nii had been in the area a bunch of times and knew of a secluded beach section down the street from where we were so we went there for a little while. The tide was high so the waves were literally coming in and sweeping the entire beach. They were also so strong that it was hard to even stand when they would go in and out. It was fun to hang out for a little while, but because the waves were so strong there was no space that was dry to lay out. So we decided to leave and find another area, and on our way out we were stopped by someone that said it was a private beach and we had to pay because we used it. Nii argued with him for awhile because he said that he has been there a bunch of times and never had to pay. We ended up paying but it was annoying. The next place that we walked to was perfect. We got to lie out and the water was nice but the waves were still huge. I was started to fall asleep when everything got eerily quiet and I felt like something bad was about to happen. I looked up as my friend was basically attacked by a huge wave, fell over comically and I guess I screamed a little because it got my friends attention luckily as this huge wave reached all the way up to us even though we were up on a hill. We grabbed all of our stuff as quickly as we could (which wasn’t quick enough) and one of my friends shoes was swept away. It was pretty crazy. Further up on the beach wasn’t really smooth so we stood around for a while before deciding to call it a day. We headed back to Accra, ate a little snack at a restaurant by the shuttle stop and then went back to the ship.

That night I went to a bar in Tema, the port city. There were hookers EVERYWHERE. It was so funny, one of my friends just literally sat there in shock for a while. The bar was really cool though, it was outside and had a dance floor and everything. There were a bunch of SASers there as well as some of the crew and it was a really fun night.

On the last day I went on a trip for a class to the Accra Psychiatric Hospital. It was really interesting. I had gone to the psychiatric hospital in Hawaii so it was great to see the difference between the two. The facilities were not as bad as expected, but unfortunately they are understaffed. There are only six psychiatrists in the entire country and four are at the hospital. We saw a bunch of different wards and spoke to a bunch of different patients, which we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do at an American hospital because of confidentiality issues. All in all, it was a great day. When we arrived back at the ship, my friend and I went out on a search for the post office to buy stamps. We got in the shuttle that they had for getting from the ship to the port gate (it’s an industrial port so it’s not very suitable for tourists). We asked the driver about how far the post office was and he ended up taking us there and back himself for free. It was awesome (once again though, time and responsibility is clearly on a different level). I really loved Ghana and definitely loved the people. It was a great port and an amazing time. On to Brazil next…

"We are GHANA have fun!"

Ghana- where you sweat from pores you didn’t know you had. I love Ghana though, end of story. Never did I think that I could be in a place so close to the equator and leave wanting to ever go back. This has definitely been one of the hardest ports to leave because it was just such an incredible experience, I met some amazing people and did some amazing things. Because I am swamped with everything in my life right now, I will just give a recap and HOPE that I have time to blog a full blog about my time before getting to Brazil in a few days. So, here we go….

Day 1: Traveled from the port to the main city of Accra about an hour away, walked around a market there for a while, met some incredible people, met up with friends for dinner and drinks

Day 2: Went to a children’s home in Accra through SAS, traveled to a beach area where we would spend the night, got to eat dinner in a village and hang out with Rastafarians at night

Day 3: Spent time at the beach, went out in Tema (port city) at night

Day 4: Went to the Accra Psychiatric Hospital

It was probably the place where I did the least when I lay it out like this but where I got a lot out of each thing that I did. More to come soon hopefully...

Cape Town, South Africa: Day 3, 4 and 5

Malo! The third morning in South Africa I met up with my friends in the morning with the intention of going up Table Mountain. The sky was extremely overcast and foggy though, and Table Mountain is great mostly because of its incredible views over the city so we spent some time trying to come up with a potential plan B and a plan for the afternoon regardless of what we did in the morning. By the time we finished procrastinating and trying to come up with a plan, the sky opened up and the sun came out so we immediately jumped in a cab and rushed over to the bottom of Table Mountain. We clearly went at a good time because the lines for the cable car were short (we waited 2 and a half hours less than friends who went two days before) and we were up to the top overlooking an absolutely beautiful Cape Town in no time. We walked around the top for a while, saw some friends and wished them luck as they geared up to repel down the side, and took some awesome pictures. We then went and got a delicious lunch at the restaurant on top of the mountain before walking around for a while longer. I believe the top of Table Mountain is something like 2 miles long so there was a lot of space to walk around and different views to see and it was pretty awesome. We spent some time talking to an old English couple who were on vacation for about two months and also came on a boat. They were flying home though after this. As we were waiting on line for the cable car back down, we were trying to decide what to do we saw posters for things to do in Cape Town and decided to go to one of them which was the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens.

The gardens were absolutely beautiful and had a ton of just grassy areas that families were picnicking on and it was amazing. I am not someone who is very enthralled by flowers and trees and nature in general (which my friends soon found out when the bugs were all over us) but it was really beautiful. We ended up just finding a quiet bench in the middle of one of the small gardens and sitting there relaxing for a while. It was a lovely afternoon. Yes, I said lovely. I could have spent hours there but I was meeting up with some friends to go hike a mountain so we had to leave.

We hiked Lion’s Head that evening, which is right next to Table Mountain and as you walk around it you get a 360 degree view of the whole city because the path circles around the mountain. We made sure to get there for sunset and found a good spot off the path to watch the sun go down with a fantastic view of Table Mountain on the side. It’s funny, we watched the sun go down over the ocean (ATLANTIC OCEAN already) and while it was beautiful, I realized that sunsets over the water is not as much of a novelty now that it’s what we see as we eat dinner every night. But it was still truly beautiful and peaceful and we had a great time just relaxing up there and enjoying the view. As soon as the sun was no longer visible, we started our descent down so that we would still be able to see where we were walking. We sat for a while waiting for a cab looking over the harbor area where our ship was docked and it was pretty to see the city all lit up. Then we went to dinner at a place called Dizzy’s. On the menu they had some rules of life that were absolutely amazing: (here are a few of them…)

1. Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it.

2. Thou shalt not weight more than thy refrigerator.

3. You should not confuse your career with your life.

4. Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.

5. Never lick a steak knife.

6. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she’s pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.

7. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that deep down inside we ALL believe we are good drivers.

8. Your friends love you anyway.

These were just 8 out of the 20 on the menu… absolutely amazing. After a long dinner with my friends and 3 of one of my friends South African friends (well, one American who has lived here for a few years and her South African friends), we headed back to the ship for the night.

The next morning, we had an early start as we were going to Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope. First, we were stopping at Boulder Beach, known for its penguins and so I was ridiculously excited the whole drive there. It took us about an hour and a half to get there, partially due to a large marathon that was taking place that day and so we had to detour a few times. Unfortunately, it was a foggy day so the drive down that is known for its beauty wasn’t as amazing as it could have been, but definitely still nice. When we arrived at Boulder Beach, it was drizzling and cold but SO WORTH IT. There were a ton of penguins all over this one area, some of them nesting, some of them hopping around, some “mating”, some swimming, etc. It was incredible. We were able to get really close to them too and we spent a lot of time taking pictures. The only problem that morning was that the area that the penguins were in were filled with these large boulders (hence Boulder Beach) and we were climbing all over them to see all the penguins. Since it was drizzling the rocks were slippery and I was wearing flip flops that were also slippery and so I slammed into a rock at one point clumsily and sadly my camera which was around my neck did too. I had awful bruises on my leg and elbow and so did my camera. I think I am sadder about my camera’s dent. Needless to say, I changed into sneakers right then and there and was much more careful the rest of the time there. We left the beach to head down to Cape Point National Park. It is this huge area filled with just green and it was amazing. We had the Indian Ocean on one side, the Atlantic Ocean on the other (still so crazy) and we hiked up to the lighthouse on top of Cape Point so that we could see where the oceans meet. It was a beautiful view from up there and really amazing. Around the lighthouse, people had left their names all over the area. We had fun walking around trying to find SAS people because that’s always cool. I do not have nearly as much of a problem as other people on this ship with the strict rules, but someone I know was turned in by a staff member for leaving her name in this area and “defiling private property.” There were THOUSANDS of names up there and it just seems a little bit ridiculous to me. Anyway, we spent some time up there, and then drove a little bit farther to Cape of Good Hope, took a picture at the sign that said that it’s the most southwestern place in Africa and then continued on our way. On our drive down to Cape Point, we saw a ton of signs that said “BABOONS are dangerous WILD animals. DO NOT FEED” and it wasn’t until driving down to Cape of Good Hope that we saw a huge one on top of someone’s car. We also saw a ton of wild ostriches, which are a strange looking but huge animal. So, on our way back we were keeping our eyes peeled for them. We saw a few off the side of the road so stopped to take some pictures. As we were sitting there, I watched as a mother baboon with a baby on her back snuck over to a car, whose passenger door was open and whose passengers weren’t paying any attention, and grab a bag of chips before running away. The people’s faces were amazing. You just saw the driver look over, notice the baboon grabbing the food at the door, and he screamed shut the door! As she shut the door with a terrified look on her face and the baboon left with the chips. They then laughed about it for a few minutes, as did we. Next we went to Simon’s Town, which was a cute little beach town that we had lunch and ice cream in and did a little shopping. It was great.

When we got back to the ship we went to an internet café to waste a little bit of time before going out at night. I got to Skype my ENTIRE family for the first time in a long time so that was really nice. When I say my entire family I mean my mom, Jason, my grandma, grandpa AND aunt all squeezed into my mom’s office. It was hilarious. Then I went to the supermarket right there to buy some matzo since it was Passover and I really wanted it mostly because the majority of the food on the ship that I eat is bread and pasta. That night I went out with a few of my friends and one of my friends friend’s from South Africa again. We didn’t really have a plan as to where we wanted to go so we drove around stopping at different restaurants that one of the girls likes but we kept getting turned away. Apparently part of it was that we were there on a Saturday and it was busy but according to my friend racism is still a very large issue and since the boy that kept going in to see if they had a table for us was black, it played a large part in us continually getting turned down. It was extremely unfortunate and sad. Eventually we went to the casino nearby where they had a ton of restaurants and that was perfect. We had an amazing buffet of Chinese food and the casino was incredible and reminded me a lot of one of the places that I have been in Vegas before. After dinner we went to do some gambling, something that I have never really done by myself or legally. I spent most of my time at a roulette table and found that they played it much different than they do in the US but I really liked the way that they played. Our odds were much better. I don’t really know gambling speak but I ended up with three times the amount that I started with which was extremely exciting. It was definitely a success.

The next morning I got to sleep in since all my friends were in church for Easter. So, I woke up, ate some breakfast and then went off shopping. It was an amazing morning. It has been so long since I have been able to be completely by myself, outside, wandering safely. I was in heaven because the port was safe enough to be able to do so. I went to the mall, bought some world cup stuff because when will I ever be able to do that again? And then went back to the ship to meet my friends for another township tour. We were being toured around by the two people who took us out the night before (one who is from America, volunteered in a township three years ago and decided to stay here since, and then one who is from South Africa). First, we went to Sabrina’s (the girl from America) apartment where we got to see her really nice apartment that overlooks table mountain (amazing), and then headed out to the first township. We got to get out and walk around this township and stopped at a shop of one of the lady’s living there and talked to her and got some cool stuff. Then we continued to walk around throughout the whole township. The first township that I had been to a few days before was heavenly compared to this one. People lived in shacks that were barely standing and that we learned caught on fire often and because they are all on top of each other, hundreds catch on fire at a time—we had actually seen a fire in this township the night before and wanted to help out but no one knew where the fire had been that we spoke to. People were walking around all over the township saying hi or just staring. We were told beforehand that people would be very wary of us at first until they heard us speak because there are still a lot of hard feelings towards white South Africans, but then they would get really friendly because they love Americans. One thing that we noticed was that a lot of people had cell phones and cars and couldn’t understand why that instead of homes. We were told that the government will provide them with homes but with that comes the responsibility of utilities and such and they cannot handle all of that because they don’t know how. On our walk we came across a bar so decided to go check it out. It was AWESOME. The bar was a shack with a small room with a couch on it but there was music and we danced and talked to the guys in there for a little. At some point some women came in and were dancing with us to and it was definitely a unique experience as we picked up quite the crowd. This was after just a little bit of our day and I was already loving seeing the townships more this day than the other because we were getting to interact with people who were really living in awful conditions but were still smiling and happy.

Next, we drove around for a while through a few other townships just seeing what they were like. Some of them were more crowded and dangerous than others; some of them had large bustling markets and lots of shops for hair braiding and food. We got to pass by the restaurant that I had eaten at two days before and it was hopping. The traffic was awful blocks away from it, people were parked all over the street and it was just packed because it was a Sunday. We then got to another township where we got to stop at the organization where Sabrina volunteered her first year. It is called Home from Home and provides “supported and supervised foster care for orphaned, abandoned and vulnerable children in small family homes in the child’s community.” There were about 10 kids and they ran up to the car when we pulled up. We got to spend a good amount of time there playing around with them. My camera had been taken out of my hand the second that we arrived and they were all really enjoying taking pictures of each other and I ended up with some amazing pictures actually. It was a great time and I wish that we had more time there. After we left, we stopped a little further away to get snoek, a type of fish that one of my dad’s friends told me to make sure I get. The portion was HUGE, came with fries and everything, and I only wanted a little bit so after a few bites I was done as was everyone else in the car. Luckily, we had entered another township and were trying to find some African beer and someone who was home so that we could see what the shacks looked like inside. We stopped outside a pretty large bar and there were a few kids playing outside the car so I got to give them the rest of my food. They were so happy and excited and about 5 of them were just crowded around with these huge smiles and it was just so rewarding and amazing. We went inside the bar which was crazy and busy and sat down at a table. This bar was much bigger than the last and we got to talk to a bunch of people. One man came over and was shaking all of our hands and was so excited that we were there. He toldus that he never thought that there would be a point where white people would come into the townships and sit with black people and he was just so happy that is was now possible. After we left that bar, we went to Malobungwe’s brothers home. In terms of space it was very roomy but there were also only two people living there whereas in some of the shacks there could be anywhere from 1 to 10+. So, as I said his home was nice and roomy with electricity and a tv, but the roof was collapsing and there was a ton of water damage. Then we finally went to get African beer in someone’s home. It was interesting. We drank it out of a bucket right after it was brewed and it was like a pink seedy substance. It wasn’t strong but there was definitely the aftertaste of beer. My friend referred to it as a beer smoothie and I concur. My other friend referred to it as milk and gasoline and that’s an opinion I do not share but can understand. Sadly following that visit, we had to head back to the ship so that we weren’t left behind but it was one of my favorite days of the trip so far without a doubt.

Even though we were supposed to leave a few hours after that, we didn’t leave until the next afternoon which was such a tease. It’s not easy waking up to Cape Town out your window and being unable to explore!

Sorry this post took so long, I have been crazy busy with homework and birthday dinners and it’s just getting to that crazy point in the semester where everything piles up at once.

Cape Town, South Africa: Day 1 and 2

South Africa was yet another port where I awoke knowing that it was beautiful outside since my roommate excitedly screamed and ran out of the room at 6:30am with her camera in hand. I proceeded to pull myself out of bed so that I could watch the sunrise over Cape Town in the distance, which was absolutely beautiful. There was Table Mountain, a very distinctive landmark in Cape Town on one side and Robben Island (the prison where Mandela was held) on the other side. Cape Town was definitely one of my most anticipated ports so I was pretty excited to finally see it there in front of us. It took us some time to finally get in to the port, and a few hours later we were docked and outside my window was the pier! The first thing that we did though, before getting off the ship (or even being cleared to get off the ship), was hear from a woman by the name of Linda Biehl. One of my largest trips for my service class was to the Amy Biehl Foundation in Cape Town, which is a foundation that supports programs in the townships for children. So, I had done a lot of research on the organization and we had found out the night before that Linda Biehl (who started the foundation with her husband) was coming on the ship to speak and I was incredibly excited for it. We had talked about Amy Biehl’s story in our Global Studies class (which everyone is supposed to attend) and so a lot of people showed up to hear her story from her mother’s perspective. [Mothers reading this: see if you could see yourself doing the same.]

Amy was a 26 year old American that was visiting South Africa and helping the black people fight for equal rights. She had previously spent a lot of time in Africa working for woman’s rights and was an extremely well-known and admired person by people all over the continent and by large governmental organizations in the US. Three days before she was supposed to fly back home to California, she was driving her friends who had no ride home back to their township. At the time, there was a large activist group chanting their motto “One bullet, one settler,” and they pulled her from her vehicle, and stoned and stabbed her to death. Her shirt had so many holes in it that her mother immediately burned it. The four men who had killed her were convicted and sentenced to prison for many years. Five years into their sentence, they were given a chance to redeem themselves due to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission- trials went on that allowed all political prisoners this chance. Linda and Peter Biehl (Amy’s parents) went to South Africa during this time and met the killers family (the video they got of this shows Amy’s parents telling the killer’s parents not to cry) and then proceeded to testify about how they believed that Amy’s killers should be forgiven and released. So they were, and years went by and now, over 15 years after Amy’s death, two of her four killers work for the foundation, one of their kids call Linda Biehl grandma (in Xhosa)  and they have reached the unbelievable point of an amazing relationship. The Foundation was created in honor of Amy because her parents knew that she would want her work to be continued. Right now, the Foundation reaches out to over 3000 children every week and makes an incredible difference in the townships.

Shortly after hearing Linda Biehl speak, the ship was cleared and I proceeded to leave and explore the incredibly nice port area. Some of my friends wanted to shop, but the mall was incredibly expensive and since I was not going to be busy on a safari for three days I was hoping to get to a market or somewhere that would have cheaper merchandise. (An example of how expensive things were- $20 for a snowglobe).  So I walked around until lunchtime with some friends and got to see how beautiful and great the waterfront was. However, I was shocked by just how similar it was to many beach towns back in the States and that was a little disappointing. I got to stop at a grocery store in the mall which was just like home and amazing (had matzos too!) and then we went to lunch at a diner-esque place where I had a burger and milkshake that was delicious! Next, we went to meet the ferry at the waterfront to take us to Robben Island. There was a video showing on the ride over that gave us a brief history of who was held in the prison and why it is so important to South African history today. When we arrived at the island, everyone was put on buses for a bus tour around the island. Our tour guide was hilarious and extremely interesting and knowledgeable. The people on our bus were from about 5 or 6 different countries and no matter which country it was he was able to relate it to South Africa’s history and how people of all these countries helped to shape the people of South Africa today. I thought that that was really interesting to hear because I feel like we are always hearing about how other countries shaped the States, and especially Africa’s effect on the States, but very rarely do I hear it the other way around. The bus tour showed us the grounds and our tour guide told us about how all the political prisoners were there and how it has been vacant since the 90’s after waves of release due to the TRC. The most interesting and in many ways disturbing part is that it is currently being used for conferences and there are guest houses for those people participating in the conference as well as people living on the island (our second tour guide does). Mandela has actually gone back a few times and stayed there during a conference which must be really difficult. We saw a field where Mandela had done some work- there was limestone in this area and due to a lack of eye protection when working there the suns reflection on the limestone created such an awful eye problem that no one was able to take pictures with a flash of Mandela. After our bus tour, we got to walk around the prisons and see the way that people lived in there. The cells were tiny with a bucket as a bathroom and bed as five blankets on the floor. Some of the cells were different depending on the building- that was one of Mandela’s three cells while he was at Robben Island. We also saw a cell that was much larger and would hold around 30 people. While in that one we learned about the way that the prisoners were treated- blacks and colored were treated differently. It is amazing that even in a prison setting the lines were so clearly drawn between skin color and treatment. Blacks received significantly less food per meal than the colored prisoners, for instance. Our second tour guide that showed us around the prison had actually be a prisoner himself for six years. We had been told earlier that a lot of the tour guides are and the reason is that there are so few good job opportunities for black people in South Africa that they take what they can get, even though it is difficult. We took the ferry back to the mainland after that. On the ferry there were a group of students and they were so amused by the boat rocking (the waves were huge) and they were laughing and jumping around and my friends and I were like, clearly they don’t live on a boat. It was funny.

That night I went out to dinner with some fellow Jews to a kosher for Passover restaurant in Cape Town. It was one of the most delicious meals that I have had in a while. Then I went out to one of the big bar streets where a few hundred SASers were and that was my night!

The next morning I woke up for my service trip to the Amy Biehl Foundation. The bus that we used was like a plane- three and two across, very strange. We filled in all the seats and had some people double up because so many people wanted to go. We started off the day going to the foundation office, watching a video that gave us some background on Amy’s story, met and talked with the managing director who gave some interesting insight as to how he keeps the organization functioning financially, and then were given an opportunity to purchase some items in support of the foundation. The managing director was actually really, really interesting to hear from because he runs this non-profit organization as a normal business. He has managed to get the office space that they use for free, they have many different businesses supporting them by producing and selling products (Amy’s Bread and Amy’s Wine) that will have a percentage of the profit given to the foundation, and there are a few hotels in the area that add a fee a little less than 1 USD to the bill per night. All together, these few things create approximately 2000 USD per month. He says that it’s because he stresses the importance of social responsibility with other businesses that he works with and doesn’t want to rely strictly on direct donations. It was interesting. Next we drove into the townships and stopped at a school. The children are currently in the middle of school break so we knew going into the day that we would be seeing just some children doing activities that they don’t normally do when school is in session. So, at this school we walked up as the kids were in the middle of this interesting circle game and so we joined in and were dancing and chanting some word. One of the men in the middle kept stopping at certain points and grabbed two or so people from the outside and gave them some sort of fortune. We asked one of the South African inter-port students that was with us about it afterwards and he told us that they were calling on the ancestors and giving some sort of fortune from what they knew about the person. We figured as much. Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay there for too long as the kids were about to go eat lunch so a half hour later we left to get our own lunch. We ate at a place in the townships called Mizoli’s (don’t know how to spell it) that is a really well-known township eatery and a popular hangout. It was an amazing meal with some great meat that I have no idea what animals they were exactly. But excellent. There was a fan bus there to pump people up for the World Cup which would be in South Africa over the summer and some of the people on our trip were taking part in dancing and singing competitions and it was really fun.

Finally, we went to another site in the township area where we would be spending the remainder of our day with the kids helping them prepare for a mini world cup tournament that they will be having soon. So we met them and spent just a little bit of time by these storage buildings before walking through the township over to a big field. The kids were really excited to play soccer and a lot of them immediately went over to play when we got to the field. Others were much more amazed by our cameras and video cameras and spent the next hour or so playing with them. Then there was a group of kids that were playing with the crayons and painting their skin which was really cool. I spent a lot of time playing with kids that were taking pictures and it always amazes me how smart kids can be at figuring out how the camera works so quickly. I got some great pictures from the kids taking them and spent some time with some really, really adorable and happy kids. After some time doing that I went over to where some people were drawing on their skin and there I met my new friend for the afternoon. I was sitting on the ground and he came up behind me and started hanging on my back. For the rest of the afternoon we played some games and took a lot of pictures with him hanging on my back. He became very possessive of me and every time that we would get separated he would come running back. We were playing these circle games with the entire group at the end and my friend got an amazing video of him smiling and laughing while I was jumping up and down in the game with him on my back. It was amazing. It was really hard to leave all of the kids that we met, especially because a bunch of them chased after our bus as it drove away. It was a really amazing afternoon. On the bus back to the ship, one of the men that killed Amy Biehl and that works for the foundation now came on our bus to talk about it. It was really interesting to hear from him and see how he has changed his whole life and now has a family and has truly reconciled with his past.

That night, I joined some of my friends who are big salsa dancers back home at a salsa club in Cape Town. We started out the night taking lessons- so I went to beginner lessons on how to move your feet with a friend while they all went to more advanced lessons on how to actually do some sweet moves. Afterwards we all met up for “social salsa-ing” and they showed off all their skills while I showed that I can now move forward and backwards, attempt to spin, and count in salsa numbers (1,2,3..5,6,7..). It was an awesome night though. After we were done there it was about midnight and since we were on a big bar street we went to walk down it and see if we could find some good bar for a little while. On our way, we passed a big group of men that were clearly in some sort of conflict gathered on the sidewalk so I used my common sense and street smarts and kept walking but my friend stopped to see what was going on because as it turned out there was a girl at the center that it seemed like they were trying to mug but she was being stood up for by a few people who were telling everyone else to get away from her so we grabbed our friend who was our token boy that night (or as the administration likes to say, at least the illusion of a tough man, kind of like having Jason there for scare factor) and kept walking. It was definitely hard to decide whether or not to walk away though- at least at home you can call 911 but the police in SA don’t uphold the same safety standards. We ended up stopping at a food place and I spent some time talking with a friend to a local about how even with Mandela’s efforts, there is still so much to be done in the country to change the racial segregation issues. It was really interesting to hear him talk because he was really frustrated and passionate about it. At that point I was starting to fall asleep at the restaurant and so I headed back to the ship with some friends who were going back.

So, that was day 1 and 2 of Cape Town adventures! More to come later…

South Africa Rundown

Well, as of yesterday there is exactly one month left of the semester. It is crazy that in the past two and a half months I have traveled around Asia and have spent my last two weeks in Africa. Eight countries down, two to go. It is really, really difficult to process.

So, South Africa… not what I expected. We were docked in the waterfront area which is an extremely touristy section of Cape Town with expensive restaurants and shops and basically only tourists walking around. If I took a picture of the mall that was in the center and asked you if it was a mall in Africa or the United States, I can guarantee that you would say the United States. Maybe it would be because there was a Martha’s Vineyard store, maybe not. I think that I had this expectation of arriving in Africa and being hit head on with poverty and remnants of apartheid and a strong African culture, but all of that is subtly evident on the surface of Cape Town. As the five days went on and I interacted with more people and traveled around the area, I discovered where to find what in my head is Africa. South Africa is a complicated country, with a lot of issues still being worked out following the abolishment of apartheid. What I discovered quickly, is that the abolishment of apartheid and the policies the country had in place that segregated blacks, coloreds (some white blood and Muslims), and whites were politically abolished, but not in the minds of the people in South Africa and the way that people still lived their lives. One easy way to tell that there are still segregation issues is by driving around and noticing the housing that people live in. For the most part, whites live in nice housing, many times in gated neighborhoods. Black people tend to live in townships, most of which consists of thousands of shacks on top of one another made out of tin and cloth and cardboard. Colored people live in housing that is somewhere in between the two. Their houses tend to be more structurally intact and stable. Anyway, that’s just a little taste of what I noticed and found interesting and I will definitely be expanding on all of that when I talk about my time there.

Before I spend some time writing out all that I did in Cape Town, here is a summary:

Day 1: Walked around the V & A Waterfront, toured Robben Island, went out to a kosher for Passover restaurant for dinner

Day 2: Amy Biehl Foundation- supports township programs for children, got to eat lunch at a famous township restaurant and help children prepare for a soccer tournament, went to a salsa club at night

Day 3: Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, hiked Lion’s Head

Day 4: Saw PENGUINS at Boulder Beach, Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope, Simon’s Town, casino

Day 5: Toured some townships with a South African and an American who has lived here for three years (AMAZING)

Surprise! Day 6: Finally left Cape Town, after sitting with it outside the window unable to get off the ship for 20 extra hours due to high winds

More to come soonish…

Hello There Mainland Africa!

HELLOOO MAINLAND AFRICA! I am currently sitting outside taking a studying break, staring out on one side at a beautiful sunny day (the temperature is perfect enough that I am able to sit in the shade with jeans and t-shirt on... perfect) with the incredible blue water reflecting the bright sun and cloudless sky. On the other side is at the moment a fairly large city but has throughout the earlier part of the day been the rural Africa that I pictured. Some friends estimate that we are about 20 miles away from the coast and I am going to believe them since I have no concept of distance. It is pretty amazing. We had a really rocky day yesterday, and according to the map on our screen knew that we were pretty close to Africa but it wasn’t until last night once the sun set and we were able to see the city of Durban lit up. From what I have heard, the reason that we are so close to the shore is that it is either the shortest distance and easiest way to get to Cape Town, but also that this is the area where all the sailors/explorers used to fail their mission to sail around the world all those years ago. After yesterday I understand why no boats could make it through. It is crazy that mainland Africa is so close to me right now. I just want to swim ashore already, I am so excited! We arrive in Cape Town in a little under two days!

 Happy Passover to all the Jews reading this!!

Port Louis, Mauritius

Mauritius… what can I say? It is magnificently beautiful all over the island. If you think that Hawaii is paradise, you have another think coming. According to a Mark Twain quote, “God made Mauritius, and then based Heaven off of it.” Aside from the fact that Semester at Sea students are known to wreak havoc whenever we have been to the island, people were extremely nice to us (aside from some people trying to get houses and hotel rooms for the night) and it was such an interesting place. If you don’t know, as I didn’t before the trip, Mauritius is an island off of Africa, to the east of Madagascar (we passed it yesterday and could see it out our windows). It is a MAJOR tourist spot of Europeans, Indians and some Africans. There are a large amount of Indian and French locals on the island, and the majority of people that I interacted with spoke French, Creole, and English. Similarly to the majority of Caribbean Islands, people in Mauritius are definitely on island time. Some people had some crazy stories about how relaxed on time their cab or catamaran drivers were when they were on such a tight schedule due to being here only two days.

When we docked in the morning, I went out with one of my friends to find somewhere to use the internet. We had been told that there was coast-to-coast wifi throughout the island (the only country in the world with it) but we had no such luck. We were docked pretty far from the main part of the city, and since no one knew exactly where to go it took us a little while to get there. (The only piece of advice we received was from the diplomat who gave the diplomatic briefing who told us to go towards the tall buildings… You can’t see the tall buildings until you are really close.) When we finally found where to go, we stopped in a shopping complex to eat something and use the computer. I needed to job search badly. Unfortunately, we had to eventually succumb to paying for internet for an hour. After that, we met up with two other friends that we were traveling with for the afternoon to go to an adventure park. The drive out to the park, which was about an hour away and far into the countryside, was incredible. The views were just unbelievable and breathtaking. I have never seen a bluer sky and water, greener plants, etc. We drove to a town called Chamarel, which was out in the mountains and went deep into the forest to find the park. We got set up with our gear, deeted up (bug spray) since the bugs were supposed to be crazy as it was a fairly rainy day and incredibly muddy, and set off to complete the ropes course. It started off with just a series of these foot bridges that were right in the heart of the forest and everything around you was botanically fantastic. Since it was so muddy and our shoes were completely caked with layers of mud, people kept slipping and sliding all over them- we were hooked up to a rope so it was ok. When we finished that section, we hiked up to the ropes course. We then spent the next hour or so going through a bunch of obstacles that were different than most ropes courses I have experienced. It REALLY didn’t help that our feet were muddy either, it required much more arm work so that we didn’t fall. After we finished, we were covered in mud, disgustingly sweaty and unbelievably thirsty… but it was worth it, we had a lot of fun.

On our drive back to the ship, we stopped at a grocery store since we hadn’t really eaten yet that day and it was getting really late. I had already noticed it in Port Louis and definitely felt the culture shock, but there were so many white people all over the place, especially in the grocery store. It was so different than what we have been used to the past two months, where if you see a white person in port, especially a young one, odds are it’s a SAS person. Whats amazing and definitely going to be weird when we return to the states, is that the amount of white people aren’t even nearly as great as it will be back at home. Anyway, the grocery store was amazing. I forgot how much I miss grocery shopping when I know what all the foods are and plan on spending hours in the A & P when I get back home. They had Laughing Cow cheese, which was my favorite find to the point where I didn’t stop talking about it the rest of the day because I was so excited. They had a ton of other brands that we find at home too. We were in a rush though so we couldn’t spend too much time there and went back to the ship to quickly shower and get ready to go out.

We ended up staying in Port Louis for the night because the cabs to the big bar areas in Mauritius are incredibly expensive and some of my friends didn’t want to pay it. We ended up having a really fun night, went out for a nice dinner, and then ended up at a bar with probably the rest of the SASers that didn’t leave the city as well as some of the crew which was fun. We also went to a casino and it was exciting to be legal and able to gamble in one. Eventually we called it a night and took a water taxi back to the ship.

The next morning we had to leave the ship by 8 so that we could meet the rest of our group and the catamaran that we were taking out for the day in Grand Bay, about 45 minutes north of us. Speaking of direction, one of the funniest things about signs on the island is that because it is so small a lot of signs just say The North or The South and that is all that some people know about where they were. The catamaran was awesome. It was a beautiful day out, we got to swim and snorkel and there is no greater excitement about swimming in the ocean greater than a bunch of people that have spent an entire semester so far staring at it wanting nothing more than to jump in it. We spent some time on a beach that was about an hour boat ride away from the island and the water and surroundings were just beautiful. It was an excellent day.

When we got back on the ship, I had a phone interview and then we watched the ship leave Mauritius… for SOUTH AFRICA!!!! SO EXCITING!!

Sunrise, Sunset

The sunrises and sunsets have been beyond incredible this whole time pretty much. We sit and stare all the time. Especially the last few days though, the sun was setting bright red, and rising a beautiful, radiant pink (yes, I woke up for the sunrise). We are all also falling in love with the ocean. It is just so crazy to sit and stare at the water and the suns reflections and the colors lighting up the sky and realize that we are just such a tiny part of the world. We are a dot in the big blue ocean. It’s just so amazingly beautiful every day. I don’t know how I am going to not be able to watch it all the time when I get back home. I might be sitting by the lakes in Madison this summer every sunrise/sunset. Anyway, here are some things that we have been up to lately…

Disney Movies: We have been watching non-stop Disney movies as both my friend and I got these massive Disney movie packages in Vietnam- 136 movies!! It is incredible. So that has been really great and exciting…

Crossed the Equator: NEPTUNE DAY! There is a tradition that when you cross the equator you honor that day as Neptune Day by having fish guts poured on you, kissing a fish, and shaving your head. So, that day just passed and it was a lot of fun. There were rumors that the crew would wake us up at 5am but they didn’t until 8 by drumming and dancing down the hallways. Then, everyone went out to the top deck where the festivities began. I am amazed at how many people shaved their heads. I have heard something like 200 people and around 50 of them are girls. It’s absolutely hilarious to walk around the ship and just see all these bald heads. Someone made a funny comment about how everyone decided to shave their heads to look like skinheads/neo-nazis right before we get to Africa. But yeah, when I have the chance I will post a picture of me with my newly shaved head. It’s sadly not very smooth. The good news though is that they added in a locks of love donation possibility so a lot of people were also just cutting their hair short and donating!

Talent Show: We have an unbelievably talented group of people on the ship. Aside from the talented singers that are inevitably found in a large group of people, there was a competitive jump roper, breakdancers, swing, hula and salsa dancers, incredibly talented poets/rappers, etc. It was a long show but definitely entertaining. There are also a bunch of singers who have cd’s coming out after the voyage. Crazy.

Cochin, India

When I walked on the ship I ran into some friends who were planning on going to see a Bollywood movie in about fifteen minutes. I decided to join them and ran to shower and change because I was gross after the full day of traveling. Two of my friends had passed a theater earlier but weren’t sure of the name, just knew that they were supposed to tell the rickshaw driver to go to the cinema. At this point when we left the pier, my friend mentioned something about how the city was filled with the Indian army and navy because of some terror threats and I learned about the failed attack on Mumbai. So the rest of the night I was definitely on edge driving through the city- the only thing that was keeping me sane is knowing that if it was truly dangerous for us to be around the port Semester at Sea wouldn’t allow us off the ship. So, we started off at one theater that was playing a scary movie and we vetoed that 3 to 1 thank god. We walked around that area for a little while before finding another rickshaw driver to take us to another cinema, where they weren’t playing a scary movie. The ticket and popcorn cost less than two dollars. AMAZING. We saw a movie that none of us can figure out the name of that was one of the weirdest and most twisted and corny love stories we had ever seen. It was all in an Indian language that we couldn’t identify aside from a few random cliché English phrases. Yet, we completely understood the plot (we think) and the only thing we really missed out on is some of the reasoning for certain things and the few times a joke was made and we didn’t understand what they said. The main story line of the movie was guy meets girl, guy realizes that girls father is the man who raped and killed his sister whom he was extremely close with when they were little, guy meets father and threatens him and they both try to kill each other at different points, father eventually admits his wrongdoings and then commits suicide, movie ends with girl and guy getting together still. SO ODD, but great. The “attractive” guys in Indian movies (and music videos) are SO unbelievably different than the attractive American man. They are heavier and all have these intense mustaches. The girls were also not stick thin. After the movie ended we went back to the ship to sleep.

The following morning I met up with some friends to go do some shopping for our service visits and check out some of the city. We ended up getting a great rickshaw driver who took us to the perfect spots. I was able to get cheap board games and lots of pens and stuff for the children in the next few countries. We also went to check out the water where the Chinese fishing nets were before heading back to the ship to grab lunch before my service visit.

The service visit was to an SOS Children’s Village- they are found all around the world. The organization is truly an incredible one, and is a very well-known charity and large recipient of celebrity donations. So, I was not very surprised when we arrived to a beautiful “village” with incredible gardens, houses, and well-dressed and happy children. The hundred or so children there are separated about 15 people to a house and have a mother figure that lives with them as well as aunts and uncles that help them out. The children refer to the other children in their home as their brothers and sisters and you can definitely see that there is a strong family love and bond between them. The children are well-educated, and most of them grow up to do great things with their lives. We had about an hour to play with them following a welcome show and then we left. While I think that it was great that we were there and provided the children with some outside company on our visit, there were a lot of things that I was unhappy with afterwards. First, I was under the impression that we would be doing some actual service on our service visit. There were around 100 SASers, and given that people were going and building schools and bathrooms and houses on their service visits in extremely impoverished villages, I thought that our willingness to do some sort of service was wasted. Second, there were too many people there to just play with one child for an hour. I don’t regret going per say, but I regret not figuring out something else to do that would have been much more impacting to more people.

That night we watched the ship leave and it was a bittersweet moment as we said goodbye to not only India, but Asia, and realized that we had the next three ports in AFRICA!!

Delhi and Agra, India

We had to meet in the ship’s union the second day to leave for our trip to the Taj Mahal! The airport in Chennai was incredibly old and low-tech, tiny and ALL on the ground level, which was extremely different than any airport I had ever seen before. What this meant is that you took these shuttle buses from the gate, to the planes where you walked on. It wasn’t that the planes were tiny, it was just that the airport was. The most interesting part of the whole airport/security experience is that there was a separate line for males and females, and girls walked through a metal detector, but it was off and we were just checked with one of the wand detectors behind a curtain. It was different. There was also always just one line for females at all the other security areas we went to throughout the trip versus at least two for males. I have learned that while traveling, I like to have the window seat (don’t worry Lorrie just while traveling to new places) because you can see some incredible views, especially through India where we were never high above the clouds. We took off and landed twice due to a stop in Bangalore. When we finally arrived in Delhi, we headed right to our beautiful hotel, where we once again had to go through security, and then had a whole greeting ceremony inside with a drink, bindi being placed on our forehead and we got flower leis! There was a pretty little sign as well that said welcome SAS. It was so nice. We then quickly had a delicious Indian food buffet lunch and then went to tour around Delhi.

We went to both Old and New Delhi, which is beautiful in some parts and incredibly impoverished in others. We went through it all on a bus, and consequently sat through a ton of traffic, but it allowed us to see a lot of sights and people. One area that we passed through was filled with construction sites and lots of people living on them. Children were hanging out on the side of the roads wearing next to nothing, but waving and smiling as they watched us pass by. It seemed that no one was immune to waving at us- including the children playing in the road, the construction workers, or even people driving in cars (we almost saw a few people crash due to staring at us and not looking in front of them). In contrast to the poorer areas we saw lots of beautiful monuments and temples surrounded by green parks. The first stop on our tour was the Gandhi Museum, which is where Gandhi spent his last days and was eventually shot. It was amazing to see and incredibly interesting. There was so much that I didn’t know about Gandhi. There were quotes that he had stated all over the place and my favorite was “My goal is friendship with the world and I can combine the greatest opposition to wrong. I have implicit faith in my mission that, if it succeeds- as it will succeed- history will record it as a movement designed to knit all people in the world together, not as hostile to one another but as parts of one whole.” We took a picture stop at the Baha’i House of Worship, the residences of a bunch of different government officials, and finally toured a Sikh Temple.

The Sikh Temple was beautiful, but also served a really great and interesting purpose. Sikhs have to pay 5% of their income to the temple, so that they can provide food for the community. They have this large hall that serves as a huge kitchen. However, the food is not provided as a means of charity, but rather is available for people of all religions to eat together in peace. Inside the temple, there was a service being conducted in the center of the room, and people were scattered all around it sitting on the floor and either meditating or just watching.

I was talking to my mom that night and when she asked “how is India?” I responded, “I am in love.” She said “with who?” to which I laughed and said “India!” I said that I am in love with the people, the culture, the food, the colors, the smiles, the cities, etc. And that was just the second day.

We had a lovely 5:15 wake-up call the next day so that we could take an early three hour train to Agra. The whole station was packed with Indian families and tourists just like us. The first train that stopped in front of us had a smell leaving it that immediately hit you in the face, had bars over the windows rather than glass, and had people just literally jumping on and off of it before it came to a stop. We weren’t on that one. Our train was basically like an old train with the tray tables and everything. The views through the countryside were once again amazing. I did my best to sleep as little as possible as we went through slums, villages, wealthier areas, farms, etc. When we got off the train my disastrous breakfast box encounter happened (see older post for details) and then went to our hotel where we were once again greeted in a great ceremony similar to the last hotels but there was music being played this time.

We went to some store that our tour guide gets kickbacks for where they did a whole demonstration on how to make cashmere and silk rugs and then tried to sell a bunch of traveling college students things that cost over 1000 dollars. It was a bit of a joke. We went back to the hotel for lunch afterwards and then left for the Taj Mahal! We were shockingly not met by a ton of beggars at the Agra Fort, our first stop before the Taj. Agra Fort was a mixture of a battle fort, a jail, a mosque, and a palace. There were beautiful gardens and the architecture of it was amazing. There was also an amazing view of the Taj far off in the distance from the top of it. A little bit later, we got back on the bus to finally go to the Taj Mahal. After going through security, you have to walk through these big solid gates that are blocking the view so right as you walk through them its just THERE. There were a lot of beautiful gardens, ponds, and marble platforms in front of it that we spent a lot of time by taking pictures. There were workers running around with whistles yelling at some of the tourists trying to fill up their water bottles in the fountains. We saw the inside of the Taj Mahal, but apparently missed the things that you are supposed to see (like the precious stones) since our tour guide had told us nothing. That was pretty upsetting to find out afterwards. There were people on other trips that didn’t even get time to go inside though so at least we did. Also unfortunately, we stayed long enough to see the sun slightly set but left about 15 minutes before the sky would have lit up in such a way that the colors of the Taj change.

The next morning we had an amazing breakfast before driving to the deserted city of Fatehpur Sikri. It was a huge architecturally beautiful area filled with pretty gardens and the whole place just seemed to go on forever. My friend and I spent some time speaking with a man and his grandsons who took some pictures with us and then gave us their address so that we could send them. It was cute. About 15 minutes before we had to leave, two of the other SAS groups arrived there… there were over 170 SASers there- total chaos! Afterwards our whole group was talking about how happy we were that our group was tiny and people got along because we all were hearing from our friends about how disastrous their trips were.

That afternoon was an incredible one. We started off gong to Mother Theresa’s Ashram, an incredible orphanage. I spent the majority of our very short period of time there with children with disabilities. They were all incredible and I had such an amazing time with them. I have never seen such smiling and excited children in my life. After that, since my friend and I were the only two people left in there we decided to go find our group, who were in a section of the orphanage that had the most adorable tiny babies and toddlers I have ever seen. I spent most of my time with this one little boy, who I later sent a picture of to my mom asking if she knew anyone who was looking to adopt. He received a snack at one point and after taking a bite immediately took a piece to give to me. I have the most amazing picture of him offering me his food. I sat with this little boy and his friend who were hilarious with each other (I plan on using my internet time and uploading pictures of them later) until an older girl tapped me and told me that my group was gone. I sadly said goodbye to all the kids and ran to catch up with my group, but not before this other little boy took his juice box and wouldn’t let me leave until I “took a sip” of it. Luckily, I have a lot of practice pretending to eat and drink fake food/drinks so it wasn’t a problem. The thing that I most took out of this visit is that if these children that I met can appreciate everything that they have with the smiles on their faces and be the most amazing, bright children offering us their snacks, then we have a lot that we can learn from them.

A bunch of people wanted to go shopping afterwards so we went to this cute little area of Agra to check out some stores. It was difficult to do after the orphanage. We then went to dinner at a Pizza Hut, which in India is a nice sit down Italian restaurant and was delicious. Since we couldn’t finish all of our food, a few of us went out with our leftover pizza to try to find these two children that we had seen asking for food earlier. We walked around for about 20 minutes trying to find them but we couldn’t and that was sad. We noticed this apartment complex as we were walking, where these little boys were playing cricket in the yard and the girls were sitting around outside. We waved to them and one older boy came over to talk to us with his little baby brother. Eventually, after talking to the boy for a while, they decided that they trusted us enough to let us inside the gate to where they were playing cricket (it was a private residence). So, we played cricket with them for a while and the girls watching were laughing at how bad one of my friends was at it (he was used to playing baseball was his excuse). It was so much fun and we were sad when we had to get back on the bus. We had a long train ride back to Delhi that night but we had fun on it. When we got back late to the hotel everyone immediately ran to their rooms to shower and then go out in the few clubs inside the hotel. Indian nightlife is basically non-existent, so the bars and clubs that people go to are in hotels and they were filled with strictly tourists.

The next morning, we were able to get a late wake-up call before flying to Cochin. The flight was fine, some people were extremely sick on it because of some sort of food poisoning or they drank the water from the sink or some other sort of causation for an intestinal problem so that was interesting. I felt really bad. Tons of people are sick still (days after leaving India) because of something that they ate or drank. I just got lucky I guess. We arrived in the Cochin airport at around 4:30. As we entered the terminal and the city in general, it was very clear that this was India’s resort-esque city. I was reminded a lot of Mexico actually. It took us an hour and a half to get to the port, where we then had to wait to go through customs for over an hour. By the time we got to the ship and got through security it was 7:45! Definitely a very, very long day.

More to come soon about my time in Cochin…