Yellow Sea during the Sea Olymipcs, Tom and Me at a club in Brazil, Life on the ship (hanging out in the halls to get internet!)

The kids in Ghana were soooo cute! This is some in their school uniforms!

I left my heart in Africa

One thing about Senase, they really do not speak very good English. We found a solution to this problem though; speak slightly like a cave man. I know I know it sounds very degrading and terrible but it worked. I would ask children “what’s your name?” and they would look at me blankly and just smile. Then my roommate Don would go up and say “ME. DON. What is your name (spoken in a weird accent)” and they would instantly tell them his name! it became sort of a joke with all of us saying “what is your name” in this strange accent. Anyways back to the story…

When we got back from the farm lunch had been prepared at a local school for us, it consisted of beans with a pepper sauce, rice, and plantains, and of course was delicious. GHANIAN FOOD IS SOOOOO GOOD!!! I wonder if we have any restaurants because we all have to go! After lunch we headed back to the village for our drumming and dance lesson. Our instructor was this tiny little man who kept getting really annoyed with us. First he tried to find someone to beat this cowbell, which was the main instigator of keeping the rhythm, none of the boys could do it! Frustrated I tried to give them advice and found the cowbell handed to me by our instructor, which of course I was able to do perfectly. I was really upset because I and wanted to dance so I tried to give it up but it was really hard because noone else could do it! Bryan tried forever and because I wanted to dance he finally just modified it so that Bryan could do it hahaha. It was really funny because Bryan just kept on trying and trying to get it but he actually couldn’t lol. We practiced forever the dance and I was actually really proud of myself because I had ladies telling me that I looked like a true Ghanaian which was saying something because literally everyone was laughing at our attempts to get the dance moves down. After our dance and drum practice which went about 2 hours we were exhausted but knew that we had to experience Ghanaian night life. We went out and danced to hip live, which is like African hip-hop and is awesome. I danced the night away with everyone and we noticed that Fred our tour guide was dancing really close to this girl named Maggie which we all thought was interesting but didn’t really think to much into it.

The next day we woke up and got dressed in our cultural outfits and performed the dance and drumming we had learned, but we totally messed it up, thankfully some students joined us, and we got slightly back on track however our outfits were really skimpy and my entire top fell down at one point which made everyone watching (which was over 300 people btw) laugh. It was slightly terrible lol. After that we got back on the bus and headed back to Takoradi.

The final day we were in port I went on an FDP (field directed practica) for my natural resources and social conflict class which was looking at the gold mining industry it is amazing some of the atrocities that those people underwent from the multi-nationals that came in to mine in these areas. (add in detail, story of Maggie and fred and the senase project) overall Ghana was an eye opening experience and one that I will never forget!

South Africa was AMAZZINGGG! If you didn’t already hear, because of the winds we were unable to dock for over 24 hours! Meaning that we lost an entire day in South Africa due to weather conditions it was terrible! I missed both my one day safari and my wine tour but in the end it was ok. When we got in I went out to explore Victoria Wharf with a few friends. The waterfront of Cape town is so gorgeous and rivals areas like san Francisco and San Diego for beauty. There is a lot to do there whether it is to ride the ferris wheel go to the mall, catch a movie, or go for a nice dinner right on the water. We went into the mall and it was nice to finally be back in civilization! I didn’t but anything but I was able to pick up my tickets for U2 for later that night!!!! After walking around for a while we headed back to the ship and got ready to head out for the U2 concert! The concert was taking place in the stadium that was recently built for the World Cup this past summer and it can hold up to 50,000 people! The entire place was packed and since we had general admission seating we were on the ground with thousands of other people. I went to the concert with Simi, Mandela, Alex, and Adit. We pushed our way to a pretty good spot and then waited for it to begin. In front of us were a group of South African students who were really rowdy and it smelt exactly like what me and chelsey smelt watching the world cup game in Pamplona in the town square. Brought back good memories and it was crazy to think that the game I was watching on the screen that night took place exactly where I was now standing! Alex and Mandela wanted to get shirts and beers and decided to go and come back but I refused to go because I knew there was no way they would get back and I was right! Simi went with them so that was the last time I saw any of them until after the concert, I was kind of mad because I didn’t know Adit at all, but we had a really good time and from where we were standing I could actually see Bono some times. The concert was sooooooooooooo good! If I ever get the opportunity to see them again I would go hands down it was the best concert I have ever been to in my life (which isn’t saying all that much but they were phenomenal!). After the concert we went out and stayed up wayyy too late.
I woke up the next day and walked around cape town (we were supposed to go skydiving but it was too windy ☹) so instead me James and my other guy friend Alias went and did some shopping and went to see part of the X games which were also taking place in Cape Town. I bought a marimba which is this cool instrument for Ben and we sat in the back of a van that had been converted into an atm and plucked away at the marimba for a while, it was good fun. Then we went out for a really nice dinner at this restaurant called beluga which had amazing food (I got sushi and lamb, both were fantastic) I went to dinner with my friends James and Brandon, and it was nice to learn more about both of them and then we went out to the famous long street which is home to all the bars and clubs and met up with some fellow SASers. Again we stayed out late this time purposefully because we had to leave for shark diving at 5:15 and did not trust ourselves ti wake up at a decent hour if we actually did go to bed. We went to this street side vendor at 4:45 and got amazing sausages, witnessed someone get mugged and made our way back to the ship with just enough time to change and meet up with the other peeps we were going cage diving with. The drive to Gannsbai (where we went to do it) was about 2 and a half hours away so we slept in the van. We got there around 8 and had some breakfast, The company we went through was really awesome they had taken people like Brad Pitt, Jeff Corwin (animal planet), cooper Anderson, halle berry, prince henry and more cage diving. The owner of the company was a researcher and had free dove with great whites many time in hopes to dispel the myth of them being cold blooded killers. We finally got on the ship and headed out. Let me tell you that I got sea sick very quickly becaue the boat was flying over the waves and the smell of chum kept sweeping by me, thankfully I didn’t throw up but my friend paroma did! When we got there the owner was already out doing research and he said that they had already spotted 6 sharks! This is really cool because it is not currently shark season and because of this nothing is ever guaranteed. However recently there has been a lot of shark activity at this time because climate change is making it so that everything in nature is a little wonky. We learned that there are only 1000 great whites left and that our children will probably never see one alive which was a very humbling and sad fact. Then we got into our wet suits and waited for one to come! The cage was a long rectangle and when we got in there were 7 different sections each section held one person. I was in the last group so I went up to the top of the ship to watch and take video. OMG these sharks were huge! They looked like giant torpedos under the water, even the baby one rivaled any shark that I had ever seen in captivity for size. Finally it was my turn to get in and amazingly I was not nervous! When you get into the cage you hold onto the bars that separate each section and place your knees onto this yellow bar. You stay like this with your body half submerged until they yell “down” at which point you are supposed to throw yourself under hold unto the yellow bar with your hands and observe. You have a little weighted belt which keeps you submerged but it took me a few tries to get down the sequence, first off because I am short getting back up was a challenge and also I kept forgetting to take sufficient air in because I always got to excited when they yelled for us to go down. I also kept knocking my shins into the yellow bar and kicking the guy next to me on my way up or down. However nothing mattered compared to seeing those sharks. We were lucky and had sharks come super close to us, one literally was staring me in the face from about 3 feet away, another swam so close that I could have reached out and touched him, a different one bit the cage right by james, and one floated by at about 15 feet in length, it was unreal!
When we got back from cage diving me and James although sleep deprived had this brilliant idea to hike table mountain. (add in story about crazy water selling man). It was probably the hardest exercise I have ever done! I have never done a stair master but from what I have heard from season stair master users is that this hike was like being on a stair master on the hardest setting for 2 ½ hours. All I know is that I barely survived it. Given that I have short limbs I honestly was bringing my knees to my chest to clim the high stones, and was at points literally on my hands and knees. Needless to say I took many breaks and James kept on running ahead then yelling words of encouragement at me. It started to drive me crazy because he almost sounded patronizing but that frusteration helped to fuel me on so I guess we could say he was motivational in a way. Getting to the top was such an accomplishment, and after doing that I honestly feel like I could run a marathon and survive (people who had run marathons said it was comparable-I dunno bout that but it was sooooo hard!) The view made everything worth it, it is like an alien world up there. You can see everything and the views of the ocean and of cape town are breathtaking. Table moutain from the ground looks entirely flat and has legendary clouds known as the table cloth for the way they wrap themselves around the top. There are many legends about these saying everything from a smoking contest that continues with the gods, or as a way for the beauty of cape town to remain hidden and secret from the outside world. The table cloth blew in after we had had a while to look around which gave us the opportunity to see both sides of table mountain and was amazing. After looking around we rode the cable car down and headed back to have another exciting night on the town.

The nest day me and Jamed woke up and because we had been unable to go the day before we went skydiving. I have never been more nervous for something in my entire life! You get into this tiny plane and they have this clear cover that slides down to close you in. I unfortunately was the last on the plane and was thus pressed against this tiny glass cover, which seemed like it had no lock. Since I wasn’t harnessed into anyone yet this was really really scary and I kept forcing the guy to tell me it was locked. We went up and I was also the first one to go (which in hind sight was smart because if I had seen anyone go –apparently it looks like they are sucked under the plane-I probably would’ve freaked) I was almost hyperventilating by this point especially since I didn’t really know what was going on. About 60 seconds prior and I had sat down in my guys lap and he had strapped me in, only telling me to keep my head up and that we were going to sit with our legs dangling out of the plane. Looking out only seeing earth and things as tiny specs below you, knowing that in a second you are going to be freefalling is actually insane, I look positively crazy and then in the next second I was falling, with my cheeks blowing back and only incredible views around me, I know they say your stomach doesn’t drop but I still waited for it fully expecting it to happen but it never came. It was the biggest adrenaline rush ever and I can’t wait to go again (maybe for our 21st chels??) I got a video of me doing this which is probably the most disgusting thing you will ever see and it rivals the soccer video (so yes you all will be dieing when you see it) as far as funniness and ugliness of me (if it is somehow incorporated into my wedding you all will die)
After skydiving I went to an internet café for a bit-I only managed to get one movie up and maybee two pics ugh and then me and James, lilly, gabi, greg, and paroma all went to Robbin Island. Robbin Island was a place where the kept political prisoners and was where Nelson Mandela was kept. It was really cool to go there and learn more about such a historical place. The tours are given by past prisoners so they are able to tell you about their story and whatnot. Our guide had gotten arrested for trying to recruit people into his organization which was anti-apartheid. He was arrested at the age of 19 and was forced to stay in prison for 5 years. The prison was very segregated and there were many different areas all of which were separated from one another. For example the areas where the high profile inmates like Mandela were kept was very segregated and they were unable to interact with other inmates. Our guide was in a group holding cell where most slept on the floor. Another interesting fact was that different ethnic groups received different treatment. If you were A (white) a B (colored-Asian/Indian) or a C (black). Based off of that you were given different food, different privileges etc. It was really sad and interesting to hear about the inner workings of Robbing Island, a place with such a notorious past.
My final day in Cape Town I spent on an SAS trip where we helped out a local NGO called operation hunger. They work on multiple projects in varying sectors from food aid, water sanitation, and HIV aid and education. We went to help out at a local food kitchen that they help in a township right outside of Cape Town. It was amazing how different this part of Cape Town is. The disparity in the townships rivaled that which I saw in Ghana. Shack houses, with outhouses, no running water, or electricity and barefoot children running around painted a very different picture than the one I had first received at the Cape Town waterfront. We met up with a woman who worked for operation hunger and who specifically helped out at this soup kitchen often. When we first got there she told us that the mothers were going to come early and that we were going to do a short research study where we took the weight and age of the children and then based off of that determined their level of malnutrition. A -3 was severely malnourished, which went to a 0 being average to 3 being overweight. We weighed around 35 children, of the children that we weighed; only two were 0’s. Most were -2 or -3. The most despairing situation came in the form of a sweet two year old that weighed 14.5 lbs…less than half of what she should have. It is hard to imagine that there were two sides to the Cape Town that I saw but this definitely showed me that poverty did exist here. The hardest fact was that these people did not seem to want to help themselves. There is a clinic about 15 minutes away that provides care for malnourished children free of charge, but for some reason or another it is not utilized. It is discouraging because how can you help to change this cycle that is perpetuating society if people are not willing to help themselves? How can you empower people to realize that their situation isn’t dismal? We helped to cook the food and then left while it was cooking to go an visit a donated library that this man named John had started. It served as an afterschool program for kids and children from all around the township came to utilize it. We learned that in the school the highest education that a teacher has is a 7th grade education, the lowest was a 4th grade education. These teachers were responsible for teaching classes of upwards of 50 children. This obviously does not facilitate an atmosphere of learning and pushes children through the system whether they are illerate or not. The afterschool program was helping to provide the needed push and help that these kids needed to succeed in school. It was nice to see that some programs were really able to make a difference. After we visited the school we went and had lunch on a local beach. I went on this FDP with non of my normal group (Mandela, James, and Alex were supposed to come but ditched out…) but I really enjoyed talking with some new people and getting to know them better, it was a nice change of pace. We ate our box lunches on the sand watching the waves, and talking about boys, and life on the ship and general girl gossip that I normally miss out on, given that I hang out with a bunch of guys all the time. After lunch we headed back to the soup kitchen to help them serve the food. I was privileged because I ended up getting to hold a little 4 month old baby (who honestly looked and weighed the same as a 1-2 month old..) who was a twin. Her sister wasn’t there but looking at her precious little face I couldn’t help but think of the incredible bond that she was going to share with her twin (just like you and me cheech). The little baby, Camden was so precious and she ended up falling asleep as I rocked her so of course I fell instantly in love and when she woke up people had to literally pry her out of my grasp so that they could hold her, but after holding her for about an hour I guess it was time to share, plus my arm was tired. After that we left and we headed back to the ship to leave and head for Mauritius and I fell instantly asleep, only to awaken 14 hours later to find myself sea bound again…

More of Ghana and more to come

After walking around Takoradi for a little bit I had to go back to port because I had an FDP with my women in national development class. It was a talk on the new Domestic Violence law passed in Ghana. The main point of the talk was to highlight specifically what fell under the new law as “abuse.” The speaker went into great detail as to what exactly can be considered domestic abuse. For example if an HIV positive partner who knows they have the disease, intentionally passes on the virus that is considered domestic abuse. A female lawyer also presented at the talk. Her main focus was on how people’s perceptions needed to change and how women needed to be empowered to break through the cycle that occurs in domestic violence cases in Ghana. From the woman many said that they would turn to family members who would then turn them away and force them to return to the abusive relationships. The lawyer believed that education was the stepping stone for these women to break through and become independent. Many women do not have the means or livelihoods to make it on their own. Their lack of education combined with multiple children keeps them locked within these toxic relationships. At the lecture many young Ghanaians were present, especially young men. This seemed to be something that could be viewed as a leap forward in the sense that it shows young males had an interest in changing the current perceptions on abuse in Ghana. The current perception is that people should mind their own business and that the woman should suffer in silence. This means that even when people have clear evidence that a woman is being abused they would not likely go to the police to help her. The fact that so many young individuals were present points that a change in perceptions is soon to occur. Womens movements internationally struggle to make rapid changes and empowering the woman of Ghan will be no different, it is going to take time and a shift in the traditional way of thinking in Ghanaian society. This traditional way of thinking goes back to the idea of gender roles in society and how men are seen as the head of the household. However I was reassured by the role that the church is taking in helping to eradicate abuse through workshops and facilities for battered women. After the talk I went back to port and got ready to go out. I went out with Bruno, Tom, and Laura to a little bar that a lot of SASers were going to to watch the super bowl. It was pretty fun however I went back semi early because I was supposed to leave the next morning at 5 for my homestay.

The next morning my alarm went off at 4 oclock and I got up fully expecting to shower, wash my hair, etc for the three days of sirtiness that was to come. However just as I was going to the bathroom, my phone rang. It was Casey the girl in charge of the homestay asking where I was. Confused I said in my room and she impatiently told me that It was 5:10 and I was late to leave and that they were about to go! My phone had somehow changed the time so that my phone was an hour off! Luckily I had packed most of my bag the night before and so I didn’t have to worry too much about packing but in my panic I could not find my ID card which is necessary to get off the ship. Luckily Mandela and Bryan came to my room and much calmer were able to find it for me. I ran out of my room and apologized profusely for holding the group off. So then I left for my home stay unshowered with oily hair, and having forgotten my deodorant and contact case and solution. However, I was just thankful that I didn’t miss it! We walked out to where we met the vans and prepared to get on when a woman approached us asking if we were from the ship. When we said yes she told us that one of our shipmates was being held in jail for not paying for his taxi. We went to bail him out and it turned out to be my friend James! Our tour guide bailed him out and then we finally got into our vans and set off!

To give you a bit of background information on why I decided to do this homestay. First while on facebook one day (researching semester at sea instead of studying or doing anything related to being productive last semester) I stumbled upon this website called the Senase project that was started by a group of people from the Fall 2010 voyage of semester at sea. They had done a homestay in Ghana and it had changed their lives. So inspired by the people and wanting to help them out they began a non-profit in honor of the village that they stayed in Senase to help them raise enough money to build schools. The way they had done the homestay was really random. In Accra they had met a guy named Fred who was just beginning a tour agency, after hanging out with him for a while they expressed their desire to get an authentic experience while in Ghana. Because of this he decided to take them to his hometown of Senase. Fred is an amazing person. He is only 20 years old and already runs his own company in hopes of putting his money and labor back into his village so desperately in need of help and funds. When I saw that there was going to be an opportunity to visit this village I jumped on it. Needless to say I was excited to get going and see what my time in Ghana would teach me.

Our first step was at Elmina Castle a compound that was owned by the Portuguese, originally starting out as a religious place for the Portuguese, Elmina castle was the first castle to be established in Tropical Africa. It was also a major site for the slave trade in Africa. Going to Elmina it was unreal to think of the atrocities that were inflicted upon these people. They were kept there for anywhere from a month to three months and were kept in horrible conditions not even let out to go to the bathroom. The women were raped and separated from their children and many people died while waiting to get sent to the Americas. Looking out the door of no return where they would board the ships was really emotional, because thankfully for us we were allowed to turn around, but for many of the Africans it meant being separated from their families for the rest of their lives, as well as a life of labor and hardship if they managed to survive the trip over the ocean. The craziest part about all of it was the fact that many of the slave trips went to Brazil, meaning that the MV Explorer had literally traveled on the same route as these slave ships.

The rest of the day was very long and consisted of a lot of sleeping and driving. We stopped at an artisan compound and picked up our drums, which I really hope make it through US Customs! (we shipped them home) It wasn’t until late at night that we arrived in Senase. We were greeted by over a hundred kids yelling laughing and jumping, all of them wanted to hold our hands and take pictures with us. They loved to see themselves in the camera lense. It was so awesome to just be surrounded by all this instant love. You could tell that they really wanted us to be in their community. After our welcome at the school they played drums and everyone danced around for a while before heading back to Fred (our tour guides) family home. We were given dinner, which was a delicious fish stew over rice cooked with a local leaf that I still don’t know the name of. After dinner everyone was fairly exhausted so we all set off to our respective homes with our host families. Most people were just staying with one other person but I was in a group of 4. I roomed with Bryan, Mandela, and this guy named Don. I seem to keep breaking the statistics of both semester at sea, and every trip I go on by usually being with guys haha, of the 8 on our trip (with 22 girls) I got three all to myself! Our house was actually the farthest away form the central part of the village and we had to walk for 15 minutes down a dirt road (covered in toads!-both dead and alive) and cross a rickety plank bridge to get there. Our host family was really nice and the man who owned the house was named Francis. We were surprised to discover that we would be staying there alone without the family who would be staying somewhere else. I think it was in an attempt to make us feel more comfortable but we only felt bad since we were unsure where the family was staying. The house consisted of a family room (that also had a fridge) and then one bedroom. Given what we were expecting it was really nice. We also had a real bathroom with a flushing toilet and a place to shower. The house was set up in a sort of compound so the bathroom was shared among all the residents of the compound and we had to use keys to get into it. Francis had a tv and he turned it on for us and we watched really funny music videos with big fat ladies and normal sized guys dancing around. Fatness is not taboo here, it isn’t frowned or smiled upon but having more meat on your bones is a signal of wealth here. Once Francis left we were all pretty worn out so after watching a few more music videos (with lyrics like : if its good for you, then its good for me, then its good for the ganga) we headed to bed.

I barely slept at all because roosters in Ghana it appears do not just crow at dawn but at any hour of the night. But I was up bright and early ready to head out! A local guy nicknamed Obi (because we never knew what he was saying his name was we think it might have been Obijeke) came to help us navigate our way back. We walked around saying good morning to everyone ( in Twi you say : Ma Che! ) and then asking them how they are doing (etta sey? To which you could respond ayyay or me woo ya ) they laughed at our funny sounding Twi. Obi took us to his friends pig farm and then got us these yummy fried balls of dough similar to doughnut except they were just made with banana and flour. After that we went to eat breakfast at Fred’s house. Breakfast was a gruel made out of cornstarch that was actually surprisingly delicious. Then we went to go see the daily lives of people. This consisted of going to visit a farm. It was a 15 to 20 minute bus ride out to the farm my group went to visit, and I was surprised and horrified to know that this distance is usually walked by the owner of the farm. The owner was a 65-year-old lady whose livelihood depended on the farm. Taking us to her plot of land we passed by little huts that people live in, so that they don’t have to commute to their farms everyday. These were more of what I had envisioned when I thought of village life, made completely out of mud and with no electricity or running water. There were a lot of kids helping out shucking corn or doing daily chores, when asked why they weren’t in school we learned that many families could not afford the school fees. I want to write more but I will later on Ghana, I’m sorry to keep you guys waiting!

Waka Waka Africa!

Words cannot begin to describe what I just experienced in Africa. It was fun, humbling, amazing, life-changing all in one. The first day when we pulled into port I was a bit skeptical getting off of the ship because there were a lot of hecklers trying to sell their wares and it was really intense with them being very pushy. But we got off and started to take the 20 minute walk to get to the end of the shipping yard where we could catch taxis. On our way we began to smell a very interesting scent. It smelt very yeasty and almost sour and was not very pleasant and the smell almost overpowered you when you were walking by some of the storage cells at port. It took us about 15 minutes to realize that it is cocoa. Ghana is one of the leading exporters of cocoa in the world. In our classes we learned a lot about the cocoa industry and the negative effects it has in Ghana. Like any 3^rd world country Ghana has a lot of things that could use improvement and one of them is their labor force and the price we pay for the goods we import from them. Farm owners can barely make a profit on these wages and thus use child, slave, and exploited labor on these cocoa farms to turn a meager profit. I helped with a project where we sent valentines to David West (CEO of Herseys) to try to get him to see why he should create a fair trade chocolate bar for hersheys (who is one of the last companies to do so). I know multinationals are always more concerned with the bottom line but I feel like we also have to take into account the repercussions of forcing this bottom line lower and lower. It leads to poor working conditions in sweat shops, child labor in cocoa, increase in poverty, a decrease in education for the children of the families, the list could go on and on but it basically perpetuates the cycle of poverty. And poverty was definitely evident here. For the first time I saw children with round bellies not from overeating, I saw people who only ate one meal a day cook me breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I saw hunger in the eyes of children that broke my heart, I saw kids who could not afford to go to school because their families could not afford the uniform and the 40 cedi per semester (under $30 USD) cost that it would take to send them. But before I get more into that I should fully explain my time in Takoradi. Takoradi is one of the bigger cities in Ghana and it definitely was unlike any city I had ever been to. Full of shacks similar to the favelas with tiny little stands littering the dirt filled streets with vendors everywhere: men selling piles of used shoes on the road. Women walking around with huge containers on their heads (everyone carried things on their heads!) with everything from drinks, foods, and trinkets inside; while their baby was also wrapped onto their back. Bush meat for sale with heads of antelopes and other unknown creatures, women cleaning fish and giving the innards to begging children, goats and chickens walking around the market as if they to were shopping. I finally felt like I was in another world. Ghana made it evident that I had finally left the United States. I want to write more right now especially about my homestay(and about the poverty and experiences I inferred above) but I have a ton of HW so I will try and get the rest posted by tonight but I wanted to give you a little insight into what I experienced!

Ghana Ghana Ghana

Today in Class we focused a lot on Ghana since we get in tomorrow, it is very interesting to learn some of the facts about this country which seems to have so many facets. Ghana is a leader in the cocoa industry and thus is a place that is working on brining fair trade to specific co-ops child labor is very prevalent especially in the cocoa industry. Also an interesting fact is that only 13% of women use contraceptives in Ghana leading to the prevalence of large families and the spread of HIV. Dance is a huge part of their lives as is singing and drumming. They dance to welcome any sort of event or parting. In our home stay we will be dancing as a farewell. Its actually a big deal, for our final dance many important officials and all the primary schools will be coming to watch us! Drums are not only for music but it is also spiritual where they believe that a drum is an extension of life until it is past use. The drum I am getting will be no different. 2/3 of Ghana are Christian but they also follow and believe in the customs and traditions of their specific tribes. I think it will be really interesting to see what I take from this country but finally we have reached the places that I believe will have a profound impact on the what path I decide to take career wise.

Go Yellow Sea!!!..or not (Ghana in 2 daysss)

So the yellow sea sort of failed at sea olympics…but we all had a lot of fun there were a bunch of different events, as head of the cheer team I pretty much just went to all of them and yelled a bunch. There were a bunch of different relays, a synchronized swim competition, a dress our LLC (like an RA) comp, spirit, chant, banner, etc pretty much everything you would see at any sort of homecoming week. We won a few but for the most part we kept placing third or fourth in events and not placing in the ones that awarded the most points. I liked it though because it got us interacting with people that we might not normally talk to in our sea. Other than that ship board life has been pretty much the same across the board nothing too exciting has happened. A bunch of people had tests but I don’t have anything until after Ghana, so like the procrastinator that I am I am waiting to study till after Ghana. I am soooooo excited to get into Ghana its going to be AMAZING! I am doing a homestay for most of the time that I am there and know that its going to be awesome I have convinced my friends Bryan and Mandela to come along here is our basic itinerary:

Senase Village

MONDAY Depart port as early as we start driving westward to the historical town Cape Coast,our first stop at the Slave Castle that used to be the administrative house for the British and a slave cell for the slaves.After a tour through the slave dungeons we will continue to to the Ashanti Kingdom where we will make a stop in the biggest open market in Ghana Kajetia Market to shop for few things then continue to Senase a unique village with very welcoming and loving people. After a short introduction to your various new families we will take a walk to have dinner with my family(Fred's) in a unique traditional way. Join the dancers and drummers for your first lessons of African music and dance, where you will be taught about 5 different kinds of African Music and dance.

Overnight in your new homes

TUESDAY Be wake by the melodies from the birds and get ready to visit the chiefs and elders of the village to seek permission to be in their community and also made them aware of our presence in their village as tradition demands. we will then depart to the village school to engage in some activities like teaching, singing,painting,playing etc. Gift can be shared. Over 90% of this community are farmers so it will be good to help our families in the farms at noon after our visit to the school.

Return home with stuffs from the farm to prepare dinner, where each group will be with their new families helping them in the preparations of dinner. Meet the dancers and drummers for your second lessons.

WEDNESDAY Ready for the lifetime excitement, where we will all meet at the village circle at the durbar where the chiefs,Queen mother and the villagers will be present to watch us perform and say farewell to us as we depart after our performance. We will then in our sad way say goodbye to families and friend and depart back to port.

I CANT WAIT!!!

Acapella is going good, I am not completely failing at it and I actually really like it. Nothing else is new I would love to hear from you guys though with what’s up back in the USA and Canada so please email me!!!

amreddy@semesteratsea.net

Ghana Bound-staying busy though!

Hello All! Well we are back on the sea and back to the monotony of shipboard life, don’t worry Im not bored but it is very repetitive lets see Sea Olympics is two days away and I am captain of the yellow sea cheer squad! Haha we are sort of terrible but its all good its fun! Also I have made this trip about facing all of my fears and so I have joined a club that many of you will probably not believe but I have joined the Acapella club on our ship, and actually I really like it! I have been dubbed an alto (lower for girls) and we are working on doing “teenage dream” by Katy Perry. If you didn’t know this about me I have a fear of ACTUALLY singing in public by actually I mean not in my fake singing voice that I use when around others. Other than that I have actually been getting really involved in art and have also started sketching and will be making a sketch for a banner for the non-profit “freedom in creation”, a NGO that brings art to former child soldiers in Uganda. On top of that I am still dancing taking Zumba, going to African Dance Classes, and even planning to dance bollywood for India Pre port. Hip Hop club is well underway and I am heading up the Mr. SAS Pageant which will be taking place between Ghana and South Africa! So the monotony of shipboard life definitely has its ups!

Oops!

Forgot to add that the second day I went piranha fishing again and managed to catch one! Success!

Now I'm a Real Jungle Lady!

So today is the first day back on the Amazon River heading back towards the Atlantic and Brazil has left me exhausted, bug bitten, and extremely excited, because the fun I have already had on this trip can only just be beginning. I am going to try to recount all that has happened to the best of my ability so here goes my time in Brazil!

Getting into Manaus the city was nothing like I had expected. First off I pictured Brazil as this really exotic place and instead Manaus just looked dirty and industrialized. Getting off the ship there were Amazonian dancers which was pretty cool. The first thing I did when we got into port was go on an FDP to a local orphanage. I was pretty nervous going, just because I wasn’t sure how I would feel seeing parentless children but when I got there my perspective changed. The Monte Salem orphanage works more with children who have been taken from their families for various reasons but should be going back when they reach a certain age. This sparked some concern for me because some of these kids had been victims of domestic violence and I didn’t think that returning them to those sort of situations was necessarily good. Most, if not all of the children were however unadoptable. They were all really precious though and I am so glad that I had the forsight to bring toys with me. The little boys loved the planes, the girls liked the bracelets and all of the bubbles were snatched up in a matter of minutes. It also helped to clear the air of any awkwardness and I think that my fellow shipmates were also glad to have stuff to give the kids-and I didn’t mind sharing because I was not trying to win a popularity contest with the children, just wanted to make them happy. The hardest part was the language barrier I reverted to slow speaking Spanish and was fairly successful but Portuguese and Spanish are pretty different. I ended up spending most of my time with two little boys Louis and Zac. There were so precious and I played a lot of trucks with them they kept saying Chia which I didn’t learn meant auntie until I asked Becca later. Overall the visit was rewarding and I definitely respected the establishment and all the hard work the people running it put into it. They receive no compensation from the government and have to work hard to keep it up and running. When I got back I relaxed a little bit and prepared to go out. Everyone was planning on going to a place called Samba. I is basically just a street were musical groups go to practice for the upcoming carnival. Becca and I didn’t go until around 10 oclock and by the time we went to get a taxi people were already coming back. Apparently our dean had said that now it was unsafe for people to be out and that everyone should return to the ship, however this did not deter us in the slightest. I knew that a ton of people were still there and that while the dean was acting on good faith, he also had told us to wash ur hands every hour, and thus was being a bit overprotective. A boy named Max who had returned to go back to the ship didn’t want us going by orselves and we semi convinced him to return with us even though he was certain it was ending. Good thing he did because we arrived to find the party in full swing! It was so much fun we hung out with locals (all of whom are very interested in americanas lol) and a ton of people from SAS were there as well so we had a blast dancing samba and drinking caprinhas (a mixture of cashasta lime and sugar) As it got later and later more and more people started to leave but I was now hanging out with Becca, Bruno, Tom, and Max. Bruno is from Brazil and is awesome, we hang out a lot on the ship and now being in his native country it was nice to have another person around who could speak fuent portugese. It was really fun to hang out with them and hang out with local people, so we stayed out way to late!

After a whopping two hours of sleep I was up again because my trip was scheduled to leave at 8 and I had told everyone to assemble at 7:45. In the end we had 27 people going, this is with two not showing up (they were too drunk and hungover), and four joining in at the last minute, after waiting a bit for stragglers we ended up being about a half hour late. After collecting all the money from people I was walking to the Amazon backpackers office with over 3,000 in my purse and was very conscious of all the street people around me. It was a relief once we got to the office and everything started rolling smoothly. Claudio, the owner explained exactly what we would be doing, and our tour went underway. We were going to take a boat ride to see the meeting of the waters, then go see some giant lily pads, after which we would get on another boat which would take us to the jungle lodge for traditional Brazilian lunch, after that we would take canoes for over an hour to go piranha fishing and then finally arrive where we would build camp for the night. The first thing great about our tour was the main tour guide, Sami he was an Indian man from Guyana who was a straight Rastafarian and spoke a lot in Bob Marley Lyrics his favorite probably being “one love man, one love” He definitely made our trip. Going to the meeting of the waters was AMAZING it is where the Amazon River meets the Rio Negro. The Rio Negro is a lot more acidic and dense than the Amazon and appears really dark in color while the Amazon is almost a muddy consistency. Where they meet there is a clear division and you can see the line separating the black water from the brown. It was really cool to see, after we crossed into the Amazon we took a van which stopped off at a local floating house. A lot of houses here are either floating on the banks of the river, or are on stilts. This one was unique because all around it in the water were giant lilly pads. The lilly pads were huge probably double the size of my face. After that we boarded a river boat that was pretty cool, it had a few decks and we jammed out to Bob Marley and got to know our guide as we continued on. Sami is originally from Guyana and has had a very interesting life, he does not know how to read or write but his knowledge of the jungle is impeccable. Before he came to Brazil he worked in the diamond and gold mines in Guyana and had experienced extreme violence showing us multiple bullet and spear wounds he had gotten throughout his life, many from trying to protect good mining areas. It was funny to watch him dance around to Marley as he swung and sharpened his machete. After a while we arrived at the Amazon Lodge where their eco lodge is. There we had lunch of traditional Brazilian fare the lunch consisted of fresh little bananas, pineapple, rice with potatoes and onions, beans, fresh cucumber, onions, and tomatoes, chicken in a soup sauce, breaded whole piranhas and other breaded fish, this powder (that I can’t remember the name of used to aid in digestion), a salad of beans and finely chopped green peppers, and onions, bread, and another sort of chicken dish. It was really good and all of us were starving so we ate a lot. I also got introduced to guarana, a soda drink that is AMAZING! If you ever have the opportunity to order it or try it DO IT! After that we chilled at the lodge for a little bit and there was this black little monkey there that was sooooooo cute it had the most precious face! I will try and post a video of it! After that we headed out on motorized canoes to head closer to our camp as well as to go piranha fishing. It was really cool to just be cruising down the Amazon River and I really tried to take everything in that I was seeing. The water of the amazon is this really muddy color but it also appears as smooth as glass. With our boats cutting through the water it created a very interesting ripple that sort of mesmerized me. The water was also the perfect temperature not too hot or too cold, the kind you automatically want to jump into. As we started to try our luck at piranha fishing closer to the banks of the river I began to get frusterated. Firstoff we were using raw chicken skin for bait and everytime I felt a tub (which was often ) I would yank only to find that the piranha had managed to bite my bait off of the hook without getting caught. This continued for an hour and a half as I continued to fail, while watching a few others around me succeed, sooooo frusterating! I ended up not catching one which made me really sad, but by this time the sun was starting to set and we really needed to start setting up camp. I had no idea what this actually entailed but I soon found out, and man was I surprised. While my boat arrived about 30 minutes after some apparently Sami had taken the first group into the middle of the jungle had looked at a spot covered in trees and vines and proclaimed it the spot and instantly started machetying everything in sight. By the time I got there they had cleared the area and were in the process of cutting down trees to create a base from which we would hang our hammocks. The company had never had a group of our size and I think that they underestimated the time and energy that it was going to take to finish our camp. The sun continued to set and we continued to toil getting more and more agitated as we became hungry, sweaty, and kept encountering bugs of massive proportion. Never before had I seen bugs the size of the ones I kept witnessing multiple were as big as my hand and I wont even go into the tarantulas, one of which was inside of my friend Dan’s shirt. Needless to say after setting up logs and creating our shelter all of us were ready for a drink. Luckily Barbara using the machete that had done multiple things (kill a piranha, cut down a tree, etc) was now slicing limes for much needed Capirinhas. We also then went hunting for Caymen. I was searching for my flashlight when I realized that I had been left behind! I was so mad because I was the one who had kept on bugging sammi to make sure that we got to go. So I grabbed another few people who I knew wanted to go and we began to navigate our own way through the dark of night in the middle of the jungle. I don’t know what possessed me to do this other than I really wanted to hold a caymen and I was a little bit tipsy after my capirinha. Phil, me, Simi, and Micah carefully made our way as we tried to navigate the path that was barely visible in the dark. Luckily we ran into a guide who pointed us in the right direction and we made it just as the boats were about to leave us. OMG the stars were the most beautiful I have ever seen them. In the middle of the amazon with little civilization around us the sky was filled with them. The guide pointed out cinturon de orios or in other words orions belt and me and Micah sat and absorbed the sights. Because of this it came as a surprise when all of a sudden our guide Tonio was holding up a Caymen! It was pretty small but had been hypnotized by the light of the flashlight and was laying fairly motionless with Tonio only holding him by the head. He didn’t even respond as we each in turn held him. When we returned to the shore Sammi had another Caymen and gave us specifics about their nature which I video taped. After we returned back to camp we had dinner which consisted of this amazing chicken that I ate but I am pretty sure it was undercooked. Then we stayed up and talked and went to sleep, my hammock happen to be located right over a stump and so my sleep was not very restful and I only dozed off and on. The next morning I woke up feeling probably the worst/most disgusting I ever have in my whole entire life. I finally left my hammock when Sammi announced that it was breakfast which consisted of fruit covered in swarms of honey bees, and hard boiled eggs, and other fare equally covered in insects, needless to say I didn’t eat a lot of breakfast and planned to wait till lunch but first we had to trek through the jungle. There isn’t a whole lot I can explain about this, he pointed out a lot of plants and trees that had a multitude of uses like ingredients in aspirin, acai trees, malaria cures and leafs used to make houses. It was muggy and hot and everywhere you looked you saw green whether it be trees, vines, etc. There was also crazy insects like giant ants, huge bee hives, or gorgeous butterflies, beetles that lives in little tiny mud mountains, it was amazing and utterly unexplainable so for that I apologize. Sammi kept telling us that we were real jungle ladies and made us bracelets out of a bark that works as a rope. He accidentally called them slave bands forgetting the word for bracelet and we now call ourselves the slaveband brigade. On our way back to the lodge we stopped to jump off the top deck of our ship into the river. So yes I am sorry I did swim in the Amazon and after feeling disgusting it was a definite improvement on my situation and I did not catch a parasite or anything like that. We went back to the jungle lodge and enjoyed the same delicious meal we did on the way in. After about 4 hours we finally made it back to the ship and somehow found the energy to go out again I don’t know how we did it but we did.

The next day I went swimming with Dolphins. When I signed up for this trip I assumed that it would be like the dolphins you would see in places like Hawaii or Florida, boy was I mistaken, There are two different types of River Dolphins there are small blue ones, and then larger pink ones. Both have elongated snouts and a slight hump in the place of a dorsal fin. They are pretty freaky looking especially the pink ones which is what we swam with. This was not the traditional swimming where the dolphins are trained but we swam with wild dolphins who came over through plain curiosity and the enticement of a fish or two. They were fairly friendly and hung out a lot around our feet, one came in between my legs so I was straddling it. They didn’t really break the surface a whole ton and they felt really WEIRD! Sort of rubbery and squishy at the same time. The pink ones get their color because at a certain size their skin stops growing and so as it stretches it turns pink. On the way back we stopped at a local village for lunch which was very similar to the ones I had enjoyed on our tour. We also toured the traditional way of making rubber. Way back in the early 1900’s (I think) rubber was made from trees in the Amazon they would extract this white sap and volcanize it over a fire. It was pretty interesting to see but it was also sad to know how the rubber industry here pretty much failed. Englishmen brought back seeds from the Amazon to Malaysia and then totally destroyed the market for rubber in the amazon. Then we went back to the ship. I went out that night and our tour guide got us free bottles to share among shipmates for being such great clients! Thought that was pretty cool. The next day I just went shopping for souveniers and went to sleep because I was so tired and woke up to us back on the River heading towards the Atlantic. I had an Amazing experience and would not change it for the world, but I am super excited to get to Africa. If you guys want to know specifics on anything email me (amreddy@semesteratsea.net) and I can add detail!

Class, Darleen, and feet pinching crabs!

So I just realized today in Global Studies that we are traveling 1000 miles up the Amazon to reach Manaus. I had no idea that was the case and before I left I kept scouring the coast of Brazil looking for Manaus when in reality, Manaus is located 1,000 inland in the mid NorthWest Region of Brazil. Crazy!

Yesterday we had our first Ship Wide Activities Night which I helped to plan along with my other board members! I actually really like being on the activities board because we are responsible for all shipwide events so I got to chose what sort of activities we will be having like a Mr. SAS, a student made travel video film festival, a around the world theme dance, etc. We are all pretty creative so I feel like we are definitely going to make this semester awesome. I don’t think I got on sea council because they drew names out of a hat…lame but I have no idea who our representatives are so its kinda weird…I had my third day of classes today and they are all really interesting except econ. Our teacher is actually very strange and asks us ambiguous questions which spark these heated debates. For example she was asking what the biggest difference between feudalism and capitalism was. I said that in Fuedal times people were less motivated because all or most of their crop yield/money/etc went directly to their feudal lord, whereas with capitalism people are more motivated to not only work hard but to become innovative because there is competition and your hard work is compensated with personal advancement. My teacher actually sneered at me and then said “Now what sort of assumptions is she making here?” She continued to say how I was assuming that in Fuedal times people didn’t work hard. I dunno I just think she’s kind of mean and is very close minded. She wants us to follow her way of thinking and its really annoying. My answer might have had assumptions and was probably far from what you would see in a textbook but I believe that there was validity in what I said and the way she responded did not foster an atmosphere for discussion. Kids later in the class actually yelled at her so I know that I am not alone in thinking she’s ridiculous someone was like “why do you ask us questions if nothing we are going to say is what you want to hear?!” haha its entertaining at least to see people sparing with each other an her. Anyways back to the ship-wide activity, we had an open mic night and then an impromptu dance. The open mic night was a mixture of amazingness, sillyness, and then some horrifiness (horrificness should be made into a word just to describe the act I am about to talk about) So anyways there was the usual mixture of singing and guitar playing but then there was the act by Darleen. Here is some background on Darleen. The first time I ever laid eyes on her was at breakfast a few days ago, this is why I noticed her…she was wearing green plaid pajama bottoms, a HUGE fluffy bright pink terry cloth bathrobe that fell to her knees, a turbo twisty (which makes your hair look like its in a turban-for after you get out of the shower) and a fanny pack around the robe…ummmm WHAT!? Is it really that hard to at last take yur hair our of your turbo twisty and put on a shirt with your pajama pants?! Anyways tis opitimizes Darleen who is also in my econ class. On the ship I have become friends with a bunch of the different cliques that have formed. Me and Becca call ourselves jumpers because I would say we are some of the few who hang out with a wide variety of people (thus the reason that my amazon trip has 25 people all from different cliques i.e. the Chapman Kids, the deck 4 kids, the squad, Dave and the trouble makers, etc…and I made up these clique names, other than the squad which is the name of these guys intramural team…) anyways I was hanging out with a small clique to which I was recently inducted (no joke they said Alicia we have decided you can join our crew…the ship is getting a bit weird) but this specific one includes Sarena this gorgeous Indian girl from London, Nicole, a super trendy asian from New York, and Patrick and Chance to gay guys who are Hilarious! Anyways I was sitting with them after helping set up for open mic when they were like did you hear that Darlene is performing?! Apparently she had asked them to help her execute Gagas bad romance video and had wanted them to makeout while carrying her in…wtf…they obviously said no but I was still not sure what we would witness when she did come in, and this is where the word horrificness is brought into play she had two boys carry her in waering tiny little outfits and for the entire song she proceeded to belt out the worng lyrics while looking like she had taken a crazy amount of drugs and doing really disgusting dance moves. Her eyes were rolling in the back of her head and she was growling and crawling around the floor, at one point her hair extensions fell out…I think you get the picture, well I was horrified yet could not stop laughing. Darleen is now infamous on the ship but I actually think she is insane. After that we had a dance party which was sortof fun but the DJ was my constituent on the activities board who is flambouyantly gay and would nly play techno. Overall it was fun though. I lost Becca in the dance party but then went and hung out with Mandela Bryan and few other people and we proceeded to play Mafia for about two hours…soooooo much fun! I finally went to bed at two in the morning. Today is what we call a reading day where we are supposed to catch up on all the reading that we have been slacking on however I have been in meetings allll day. Members of the American Embassy came on so I went and listened to a lecture on Brazilian Economics, then I had a meeting with my global studies group where we decided we were going to do our project on the affects globalization has had on Chinese economics, after that I went to a discussion on working as a foreign ambassador for the US. I don’t think its for me first off you move every two years or so to a new country and while I do love the idea of living abroad I also do eventually want to have a family and it sounds quite hard to do in one of those positions. The rest of the day I have just been finalizing details for the Amazon Trip, which has become a huge group of us. Its crazy to look out the window and see huge amounts of lush vegetation it doesn’t even look real. I can’t believe that tomorrow we will be reaching Manaus!!! I’m supposed to be holding the first meeting for Dance Club in a few hours but I don’t know if it made it into the dean’s memo (the daily news-which has not been posted today) so not sure if anyone will come. I did however get approval to perform with Ritika and Sarena for pre port in India…we have pre port for Brazil tonight I hope it’s interesting because the last one for Dominica went on for wayyy too long. There were funny parts where the doctors sang and presented us with the only way to truly not catch a disease, a huge plastic bag with a hole for a scuba mask to breathe through that they named the full body condom (Becca was actually considering it because she is terrified of malaria), but as a whole pre port is pretty lame giving us obvious advice you know, like don’t drink, don’t hook up with anyone, make sure you take your malaria medication, etc. Speaking of malaria medication my roommate and me are doing weird things in our sleep well actually Erin is a lot worse then me. Two nights ago I woke up to her screaming and freaking out. I was so terrified that I hid under the covers haha probably not the best response to her cries for distress but I panicked I yelled at her to tell me what was wrong and she cried back that a crab had just bit her toe. Now normally this sort of announcement from someone who had been sleeping would have brought out a laugh in me HOWEVER there are some facts to take into consideration A. we had recently left Dominica where crabs would dwell anywhere even in the mountainous regions and B. Erin had started out the night at a slumber party on the deck and had not come back to the room till early morning leaving plenty of time for a crab to have crawling from the deck into her sleeping bag. We scoured our room and no crab was found but the screams had terrified me and I fell into a fitful sleep where I dreamt that I was one of the clean up personnel for natural disasters and I was called to a site to clean which was this mountain of straighners and curling irons that had been confiscated. (IF I haven’t already mentioned this I got my straightener back! It took an hour of begging but finally the security guard let me shift through the garbage bag stuffed full-like at least 100- of straighteners and curling irons-I think this sight is what elicited my dream). Apparently during this time I had this conversation with Erin in my sleep:

Me: Mom, Can I please get a dog now

Erin: No

Me: (with a sigh of resignation) Okay

Later I again woke up to Erin freaking out (no screams this time) claiming that there were bunnies all over the floor, she has no recognition of this one at all…

So needless to say we are unsure whether this is an affect of our malaria medication or craziness but we hope it stops lol. I will try and write while I am in Brazil but If not at least expect an update in the next 5 days!

Heading towards the Amazon!

So we have officially entered the Amazon River and here are my first 2 observations:

1. The river is really really wide in places! When we first entered we could not see either sides of the embankment and if it wasn’t for the muddiness of the water I would’ve thought we were still in the ocean.

2. The bugs here are ginormous! They like to come to the ship and I have seen way to many bugs who look like they are on steroids. Also a ton og little mothlike things have been hanging out around the lighting fixtures which is grossing out the girls

I started taking my doxycycline and will continue to take it until after Ghana. Doxy is my malaria medication and hopefully it works! Im a little nervous because it heightens your chances of getting sunburned but hopefully I will be fine. I’m planning a one night overnight into the jungle. At first it was just me and Becca but now a ton of our friends want to go! I think there are going to be over 20 of us, some random and some really fun people. Here are some of them:

· Mandela is this black guy in my econ class who is super nice and I’ve hung out with him a few times because me and his roommate bryan are friends.

· Taylor #1 is this kid from UVA who pretends to be this crazy partier but in reality is just funny and a complete goof.

· Krystal is Becca’s roommate who has a crush on Mandela…could get interesting. She is Persian and Mexican and thinks she looks like Kim Kardashian (she dosent but she is pretty)

· Becca is my bestie on the ship and while we jump between a bunch of cliques we have kind of become known as a pair, because we are ALWAYS together. We also share really similar taste in men, among many other things, I always have a good time when I am with her!

· Jack #1: Lives next to Becca and Krystal and is a big teddy bear and really nice he is obsessed with the Chicago Bears…he is from Chicago so I guess it makes sense.

· Bobby: Jacks roommate who is probably the most annoying drunk ever, its weird because I think he looks like a mad scientist(like complete geek glasses and all) but then he just gets super hammered and creepy, but he is who he is, he def knows my name but thinks I look like an Erica and so refuses to call me Alicia. Other people agree that I look far to exotic to be an Alicia which I think is so weird because no one has ever said that to me before but apparently Jack thinks I look like a Naomi and other people have concurred…so weird

· Eric: Don’t know him a friend of Jack and Bobby’s

· Barbara and the Chapman Kids: I don’t blame them for being the largest clique on the ship but they honestly travel like a pack, so when I invited my friend Barbara to come obvi all of Chapman had to come too lol there are quite a few but all are really nice and a lot of fun.

· Jack #2: Don’t really know him yet but he is really nice and is a D Chi at AU.

· Alexa: met her at the towne she is awesome, and super nice.

· Dave and trouble makers: These guys are always breaking the rules but they also can be serious and are always fun, they are all super metro so it should be funny seeing them in the jungle.

· Katie: One of my faves, I roomed with her and Steph at the Towne so hopefully she comes!

· Taylor #2: another person I met at the towne she is a sweetheart!

Hope that gave you a bit of an idea of how diverse my friend group has become its really all over the place, but I think that’s what makes it so tight is that we are all from all around the country yet we are all able to connect and go on amazing adventures together. I will write more soon!

Classes Rock!

So the anti-nausea patch has some crazy side effects I have had cotton mouth all day and have become far sighted and keep seeing doubles if I am too close to a textbook. I also get really confused and have been jumbling my words but honestly its better than feeling like shit all day. This morning I started class at 8 but went and ate breakfast with my friend Taylor at about 7:30. He is taking a class super early too. Its funny walking into the dining hall that early because everyone is just exhausted and looks terrible especially if they have been sea sick all night. Thankfully I was feeling fine minus the weird side effects. Class today really gave me a good perspective on why I am taking the path that I am in life. In my women and national development class we had a speaker. His name is Andrew Briggs and he works for an organization in Uganda where they try to create an outlet for children (especially ones affected by the war, AIDS, etc) through facilitating art workshops, they also have been working to provide better drinking water to the remote villages. He showed us a video clip he had taken during his time in one of the remote villages where he had a guy take him to their local water supply. The water that these people were drinking without even treating it is unbelievable. It was murky and in spots yellow from pollution or whatnot. Did I mention that Andrew is a complete hottie and I have a major school girl crush on him? Hes in his late 20’s I think but I am meeting with him to learn more about his organization. After that class we had Global Studies and had a lecture from a psychology professor on the ship named Dr. Kottler (I am actually attending one of his FDPs in Brazil). He told us an amazing story which I know I have to share. About 10 years ago he and some of his collegues traveled to Nepal to do field research. While he was there he started to notice that some of the girls were disappearing from the villages. Intrigued he began to investigate. The girls that kept disappearing were from lower castes (similar to the Indian caste system) and came from very poor families. Dr. Kottler asked many people what was happening to these girls and noone would give him a straight answer. Finally he cornered the local school’s principal and demanded an explanation the principal said this to him:

“Do you see that young girl over there? The one with the tattered school uniform? Her name is Enu. She is one of 3 children and is the youngest in her family. Her family is very poor and because schooling is only free up until a third grade level Enu will become forced to drop out of school. Because she is just a burden on her family she will be sold, taken to Mumbai and wil become a prostitute, probably being raped 15 times on her very first day. She will remain in the brothel for about 4 years until she become to sick and weak and then she will die, or be cast out on the streets.

Dr. Kottler looked at Enu and he looked at the principal and said what can I do? The principal laughed and said absolutely nothing that is these girls fate. They are girls who are low in the caste system and even if her family did not sell her she would not be able to pay her school fees. Dr. Kottler asked how much school fees were yearly. The Principal laughed again and said way to much, she would need a fall and spring uniform, books, money for food etc. Again Dr. Kottler asked how much. The principal said well for a years worth of schooling its very expensive and costs 2500 Rupees…the equivalent of 50 USD. 50 USD to save a girls life. The fate of these girls from being sold into slavery was separated by $50 USD a year. Horrific things happen to the girls of Nepal. Some Indian men believe that if they have sex with a virgin it can cure them of aids…these girls are as young as 9 years old and there first encounter within the brothel occurs with someone who has aids…Dr. Kottler reached into his wallet and pulled out 2500 Rupees and said to the principal make sure Enu goes to school. As he walked away one of his colleagues came up to him and said what are you doing? Bewildered Kottler responded by saying he was helping Enu. The colleague gave him a sad smile and said did you see where the principal put all that money? He put it right in his pocket, to make sure Enu goes to school you are going to have to go back to Nepal every year and make sure she is in school…10 years later and he is still visiting and working with the girls in Nepal now he helps to send dozens of lower caste girls to school, and Enu, his first girl is in college at one of the top universities in Thailand. I was enthralled by his story because it really shows how one little thing can completely change your life. That day 10 years ago he made a decision that has helped so many to achieve their dreams. It really goes to show that if you are passionate about something you can do it. His parting words to us were “ I hope that each of you can become haunted by an individual on this voyage, because those experiences will shape the rest of your life.” I know that I am going to see some amazing things as well as some really depressing stuff but I know that I will take his words to heart, because that is what I want to do with my life. Many people mistake what I want to do with the idea that I want to change the world and in that they are so wrong. I know that in many places I would never be able to affect entire communities, but I do know that empowerment can change lives, and that I have the willpower and tools to empower others. My grandmother gave me the most amazing gift anyone could ever give me when she helped to fund this semester, I cannot thank her enough because I know 100% that this is exactly where I am supposed to be right now. She empowered me through her generous gift and through that I hope to create a ripple effect. For the past few years I have been having fun but I never felt like I was doing what I was meant to with my time. Learning about poverty and how people can make a difference even on just a few has already changed my perspective. I hope that I can help to empower people to really reach their full potential and in turn they will continue to educate others. I hate my econ class but that should come as no surprise lol but I love my geology class. We have to pick a topic to really focus on and I am going to look at lack of drinking water in places like Ghana and India. All of my classes are super interesting (minus econ) and I know that I will really care about them which is a big improvement from last semester lol. The ships calmed down today and a lot less people were getting sick which was nice. Apparently a pod of dolphins were following the ship earlier but I missed it cause I was in class. Im starting to work on my video but its taking a bit longer than I expected. I will check in soon!

Dominica and Shipboard Life

So the past few days have been a whirlwind but AMAZING! I have been hanging out with a bunch of different people and my days on the ship consist of this:

A DAYS:

Wake up and if its still early (before 9) I go to breakfast

Around 11 I go to the gym normally with becca and a few other girls who we met and are free at that time.

Maybee do a bit of reading and then just go lay out and chill on the deck, maybee go swimming etc.

B DAYS:

7:30-wake up and rush to breakfast

8:00-Women in National Development

9:15-Global Studies

10:30-Global Capitalism and the Economy

12:00-Lunch break and also a chance for me to do reading or whatever

2:55-Natural Resources and Social Conflict

4:00 till bed-basically studying and hanging out on the deck.

Now onto better ish…We have left Dominica and are on our way to Brazil! Dominica was amazing! Never have I met friendlier people in my entire life! Before we go into any port we have a thing called pre port lecture where they go over what is expected of us/teach us about the culture. Its nice because then we don’t go completely blind into a country. The first day we were there we went on a bumping tour. We got to go to some of the prettiest places in all of Dominica we started our tour by heading up to Middleham Falls. On the ride there we saw so much vegetation it was incredible! It was a tour hour hike completely uphill (no joke felt like I was on a stair master and my butt has been hurting ever since) but it was soooo pretty the waterfall is gorgeous and is surrounded by vegetation on all sides we went inot a little cave and climbed up and did a bit of cliff diving which was really awesome but a bit scary. After that we went to Trafalgar falls which is actually two waterfalls right next to one another they call them the mama and the papa. The papa waterfall is long and skinny but slow moving and lazy while the mama is a lot fatter but has all the power haha. Then we went to the hot spring sulfur baths which are known to clear a ton of different ailments for your skin. I loved it there bit I had to move to a different pool because Patrick (one of the guys who came) found a dead lizard floating in ours ewwwwww. After that we were supposed to go snorkeling at a place called champagne reef . Its called champagne reef because of the volcanic activity which causes bubbles to rise up from the ocean making it look like your swimming in a glass of champagne. However, we didn’t end up going because they wanted us to pay extra. Then because our guides felt bad that their boss gipped us they took us to a local bar to dance we had such a good time! I dance battled a lady who was probably 45 and she could break it down! It was a really fun night then later we went out to a club called crazy coconuts which had been specially opened just for semester at sea, it was one of my friends’ Jackson’s bday so it was really fun! The next morning we woke up semi late and me, Becca and her roommate Krystal really wanted to go ziplining so we went on an adventure to find a company to take us. On our way we asked for directions from this guy who was so nice and ended up not only taking us to the company but also skipped work to take us to the zipline place and then filmed us the entire time! His name was Dexter and he was our age studying tourism at the local university. He is a prime example of how nice people are on Dominica it was no big deal for someone to go out of there way to be nice to you and really make sure you enjoyed your stay . Anyways we got to the ziplining place and I learned that we were not only ziplining but would also be doing crazy ropes course things. If you know me well you would know that I hate ropes courses and this one was gnarly with logs suspended in the air and weired things that zigzagged but guess what I did it and I only almost cried once which is quite the accomplishment. After that we didn’t have a lot of time but we did go get a local sandwich of curried cod fish. Getting back on the boat was a pretty big bummer but all of us are excited for Brazil! Today I did nothing. The waves are huge and im sick once again which sucks but we are going so fast! Where I am in the boat (the front) makes it so that I am actually getting raised out of the water and crash back down which makes my stomach drop. I put on a sea sickness patch yesterday which has been helping but its still pretty bad. Write more soon!

The voyage continues...

Last night we had our involvement fair which basically is how everyone is signing up to get involved on the ship. I didn’t want to overstretch myself so I only signed up to help plan events on the ship like talent shows and what not and then also signed up to start a dance club on the boat. If I do both of those and the sea council as well as getting on my seas, sea olympics committee I should be pretty booked! I went to bed fairly early last night and was up at 7:30 to go to breakfast with the roomie. I don’t have class today so everyone was really surprised that I was up but breakfast is my fav meal and I have also heard that it’s the best meal we get each day, which after having it, I can agree with. Food on the ship can be a bit sketchy. For breakfast we usually have fruit salad, potatoes, eggs, and an assortment of pastries as well as cereal and toast which is absolutely perfect for me. But for lunch and dinner it varies there is usually a salad bar with really weird dressing and a strange pasta salad or lentils, a fish, and chicken options, a pasta, some form of potatoes, and a few vegetarian options which always include copious amounts of celery which I found out the hard way about…. There is always the option of having a peanut butter and jelly or soup as well. I have already lost weight and have a feeling this is going to be a continuing trend because the only things I will eat are salads, chicken, fish, and veg options (celery picked out). Today I am going to use the gym with a girl I’ve met named Becca. We went to sign up after breakfast and already almost all the spots for ellipticals were full! Luckily we squeezed ourselves in at 11:00 and then we are going to go outside on the deck to use all the weight machines. Becca is super hilarious and really bubbly and knows a ton of people! Im glad I got to know her because she goes to school with a bunch of people on the voyage. The campus store also opened today which I am really happy about because I forgot to bring a water bottle and I really need a lanyard so that I don’t lose my key or card! Today is going to be a pretty chill day for me and then tomorrow I start classes bright and early! I have four classes tomorrow! Natural Resources and Social Conflict, Global Studies, Women in National Development, and Global Capitalism and the Economy. Im really excited for all of them except global studies because I hear that class is somewhat of a joke, everyone on the ship is required to take it. Well I might go back to sleep for a little bit but I will write again as soon as something interesting happens!