Cuba
Hello everyone! How is life back in the good old US of A? I hope everything is going well! I am currently typing this letter on the laptop I just picked up that I am renting from SAS... it's very nice. ;) So here I am, somewhere between Cuba and Brazil, thinking of all you wonderful people back home, so I thought I would write and let everyone know how things are going.
Where to start? I have so much to write about, and I know you are all just dying to read it! ;) I guess I will just start at the beginning, that's always a good place.
The day I boarded the ship, January 21, was the nicest day out of all of the days that I was in the Bahamas. Of course, I didn't get to enjoy it on the beaches -- I was up bright and early and at the docks by about 6:50 am. I was in the first group of students that went on the ship, which was nice, because there were no lines yet and so I zipped right through the check-in process. All the luggage had to go through security, and therefore didn't begin arriving until an hour or two after the first group boarded.
So, with nothing to do, I walked around the halls and introduced myself to people. (I have met so many people on this trip already; it is impossible to remember all their names. At least everyone else is in the same situation... you will be talking with someone you know or eating dinner with them or something and after a few minutes, one of you will say, "I'm sorry.... I don't remember your name," and you will re-introduce yourselves. It's getting easier, but, wow, it's a lot of names and faces all at once!)
Anyway, back to the first day... I walked into my room, and looked at the names posted on the door. Lo and behold, one of my roommates was named Maren ... I couldn't believe it! I had arranged a meeting for Colorado people about a week and a half before leaving for SAS, and about 5 people had shown up. One of them (who helped me organize the get-together), was Maren. It was odd that the one person I knew ahead of time turned out to be my roommate. Maren is a really sweet girl... I am glad we ended up being roommates. She has never traveled outside the USA, except to Canada. She is from Arvada, CO, but goes to Grand Canyon University, a small private school in Phoenix, and is majoring in English with a minor in journalism.
My other roommate's name is Janell. She is nice, too. She is from Washington, near Seattle. Her major used to be photo but now she kind of "makes her own major." She is really independent and likes going off on her own, and hates the fact that it isn't safe to do that in a lot of the countries. I really lucked out with my roommates, I think.
We kind of lucked out with our cabin, also. It is amazing the differences in the cabins all on the same ship. It sucks, because everyone paid the same price (except outside doubles, which are more), but everyone has such different accommodations.
For example, the rooms on either side of ours are prime. They are large, with big square windows and a couch and coffee table. A lot of the other triples are tiny, barely room for the beds and one desk. The worst are the inside doubles... they are bad because they are dark and seem smaller because there are no windows, and the rooms are small, too. Our room is nice. We have two windows, although they are the normal circular ones, not the big square ones like our neighbors have. We don't have a couch, but all three of the beds are on the floor, no bunk beds, so I would rather have it like that. We have one big desk and chair, and another comfy chair to sit in.
On the desk is the TV... there are three channels, almost always just fuzz, but sometimes at night they broadcast movies about the countries we go to. Before Cuba we had a movie called "Fidel," (kind of a biography/informative type movie), "Strawberries and Chocolate", about the treatment of homosexuals in Cuba (a real movie, not a documentary... it was actually pretty good), and something about urban development, I think.
Our closets are small, but not as small as some. I brought an extra bar to hang things on in the closet, and an organizer for shoes that I put things like film, hand sanitizers, hair brushes, toiletries, etc. in, so it works well. There are drawers in the desk and nightstand so we all got a few drawers, also. It is actually more space than I thought we would have. We have a big mirror over the desk, and a full-length one on the back of the door. Our bathroom is nice... we have a full shower with a tub, the medicine cabinet, and another big cabinet for medicine, toiletries, etc.
There are eight decks on the ship (my room is on Upper Deck), consisting of lots of cabins, eight classrooms, a library, a computer lab, etc. There are two dining rooms. Breakfast is between 0700 and 0830, lunch is 1200 - 1330, and dinner is 1800 -1930. The food is... eh.... dorm food. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are always available and are quickly becoming my staple. I have already gotten sick once on the voyage...on our first day at sea. Only it wasn't from the motion -- it was from the food. I was quickly reminded why I never eat scrambled eggs when I'm out anywhere, and especially not when they are prepared for mass amounts of people. But it didn't seem to bother anyone else.
Now I stick with a box of cereal and some yogurt for breakfast. Lunch and dinner (when not in port) consist of either peanut butter and jelly or a meal packed with carbs.... it seems to be the main thing served.... breads, pastas, mashed potatoes, etc. I am glad I packed snacks because you get hungry between meals. By the time I get back I will either have gained 10 lbs from all the carbs, or lost 10 lbs from not eating... my guess is the former.
The "track" is a horseshoe (a small one) and the "gym" consists of a few old weight machines, it's debatable how well they work, crammed into a little room. But it's home for the next three months. (Speaking of which, it's now less than 100 days until I get back.)
Anyway, enough about all that.... back to the first day. We departed Nassau at 1630. Within fifteen minutes or so we already had our first lifeboat drill. We had another one today, and will have one after each port. It takes a long time, since everyone has to go to their station and they call everyone's names. If someone is not present at one of the stations, they announce their name over the intercom. We have to wait until everyone is present and at the correct station. Everyone has to wear long shirts, long pants, and close-toed shoes, and we have to wait for the captain to go around to every muster station and check it before the drill is over. And all this time we are wearing our life jackets.
The rest of the first day we just got to walk around and meet people, explore the ship, etc. The first full day at sea was a loooong day. The fall voyages have two weeks before arriving in their first country, and have time to learn about the history, economy, etc. in the global perspectives class. We had only one day. We attended what is referred to as "Cuba Boot Camp"... a whole day's worth of orientation sessions on Cuba's history, economy, relations with the US, etc. Sessions started at 9 a.m. and finished at about 9:30 p.m.
I learned a lot about Cuba I never knew, though. For every port, we have "interport lecturers" come aboard and give presentations, and make themselves available for us to get to know and ask questions. For example, in Cuba a professor and a student from Brazil joined our voyage and will travel with us to Brazil. It was interesting to hear different points of view. Most Americans don't know much about Cuba, and what they do know is the view that is presented by America, and is radically different elsewhere. The US is one of the few countries that still votes to treat Cuba the way we do (i.e. not ending trade embargos).
Here are some facts I learned about Cuba that I never knew before: In Cuba, education is free, health care is free, phones, transportation, and rent, are all very cheap. There are 18 universities in Cuba. Due to the free education, there is almost no illiteracy. There is almost 0% unemployment, although incomes are not very high. More money is coming in from tourism now, so higher prestige jobs are considered to be things like bus boys and chambermaids. There is one doctor per 173 people, only 6.2 deaths per thousand live births, and 99.9% of births take place in a medical facility. There is a zero percent growth rate, meaning there is no overpopulation. But Cuba is still a poor country. It is very, very hard to get a permit to run your own business.
There is no free press in Cuba. The papers publish official statements only, there are no free radio or television stations where people can speak out, etc. But they still receive news, and can discuss world issues with any American just as well or better than we can. They like foreigners, and tend to leave simply because they would rather live in a first world country than a third world country. Who wouldn't? But US officials would like the American public to think it is because of the government. We had a briefing from the US Interests Department in Cuba... the opinions expressed were radically different from those expressed by the Cuban officials.
One interesting thing that we noticed, though, is that people were not allowed to speak with us unless they had a certain pass. We spoke with more people because we got away from the main streets and into the neighborhoods. The US has had an embargo on Cuba for over 40 years, meaning that trade and travel to Cuba is prohibited. Therefore, Cuba must turn to other countries, such as those in Europe, for its trade, which is often more expensive
There is mostly pork and chicken served, and recently fish, because beef is expensive, and there is no grain available to feed livestock. Rice and beans is a staple. The embargo is a shame... the people who really suffer are the citizens. If Fidel Castro wants a steak, he gets a steak, embargo or no embargo. The people the US wants to hurt with this embargo are no worse off than they ever were.
The phones and mail system in Cuba are horrible. Thank you to everyone who sent me mail, but I didn't receive any of it. Cuba is the worst port for mail on the voyage, followed by Vietnam. The rest are pretty good, but no mail was delivered in Cuba to the ship.
The people of Cuba are all descendents of a "trinity" or people: Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans. Therefore, the skin color ranges from very light and European looking to very, very dark. There is every skin color, hair texture, and eye color in between. Many of the people in Cuba are very beautiful! And they can all dance! I guess it is just because they grow up with it all their lives, but music and dance (salsa) are widespread.
We were supposed to dock in Cuba at 0800, but the dean told us we would be arriving early, and we could watch the sun rise over Cuba at about 0600. Excitedly, my roommates and I awoke at 0530, to discover we were already docked. We went up to watch the sunrise anyway. We waited. And waited. It rose at about 0645. By 0715, the sky was completely light, and the colors were gone, but the sun still hadn't broken the horizon. Maren and I went in to breakfast.... so much for that idea. :)
The first day I attended a welcome reception at the University of Havana. It was a beautiful place, and the Cuban students were wonderful. They were all very nice. There was a live band (as well as everywhere else we went the rest of our time in port.... restaurants, on the street, everywhere!). Afterwards, we decided to take a horse and buggy tour of the city. Maren and I, along with another student and a professor, hopped on a carriage and took off. Our "tour guide" was a young boy, maybe 11 or 12, who knew English from school and rode around with the carriage (his father, I think, drove) and explained everything to the tourists.
It is odd to be so close with your professors, eating dinner with them, going on tours with them, etc. but it is fun. They are all really fun and interesting people... most are here with their families. There are 11 kids on the voyage, ranging from 21-month-old Logan (more about him later) to an 18 year old. Most are in the 5 -7 grade range, though. We also have 11 senior passengers.
After the carriage ride, we went back on the ship for dinner. There was a trip that went to a Cuban baseball game that a lot of people went to, and it sounded fun, so Maren and I thought we would see if we could go. Often on trips there are extra spaces or people don't show up. (The cost of the trip was $15 dollars). Unfortunately, the buses were full... so we decided to go on or own, with some other people who couldn't get on the bus either. We took a taxi to the game ($2.50 a piece). The game was fun, we got in for free, and the team from Havana ended up winning, 5 to 2. It was interesting to see the differences between the two cultures... vendors sold sandwiches, unwrapped, from boxes, cinnamon crispitos, etc. Very fun!
To get home we took a CoCo Taxi... it is called that because it looks like a coconut. For those of you not familiar with coconuts, my first impression was that it was a yellow egg-shaped thing with the top front open.... it has three wheels, one in front, two in back! The driver sits in the front, and there are two seats behind him (but you can squeeze in three people, like we did). They are funny looking, and probably not the safest things. One of the professors said you have to be a very secure man to drive one of those.
On the second day, I went on a Hemingway tour. We saw the hotel he lived in for a long time, where he wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls. In the room he stayed, we saw his typewriter, some manuscripts, etc. Then we saw a hotel he frequented, and the house he lived in with his third and then fourth wife. The house was BEAUTIFUL!! My new dream home. :) Everything is exactly as it was after he died (he committed suicide in America in 1961.... he had 4 dogs and over 50 cats in that house... no wonder he was depressed!). He had over 9000 books in the house, from all over the world and in all languages. The house was surrounded by lush vegetation, a beautiful pool, and a "tower" with a telescope where you could see all of Havana in the distance.
After that, we went to a fishing village he used to go to and had lunch. Fish soup, salad with a gross vinegar dressing, pork and rice mixture and a piece of fish, ice cream for dessert. Lots of food. And yes, mom, I have been trying fish. Even fresh, I am not a big fan of it still. We returned to the ship about an hour before we had to leave to meet Fidel Castro. Yes, folks, that's right: Fidel Castro!!
That was a unique experience... very interesting. But, man, can he talk! I think he set a new record... usually 4 or 5 questions get asked... this time, only one was asked, and he STILL talked for about four hours!! He touched on everything from the situation in Venezuela, to US-Cuban relations, to age (he thinks there should be an age when old people have to stop driving... but he said, then there would be no professors able to teach! Hehe... see, even Fidel Castro has some sense of humor.)
He was actually hard to follow at times. He would start on one subject, than veer to another, working his way to a point, but before he made the point, he would veer off in another direction and work his way to a completely different point... it was hard to think back to how we were getting from one subject to a completely different one.
At one point, right after a question was asked, the youngest passenger on the SS Universe Explorer, 21-month old Logan yelled "MAMA" as babes do.... Castro laughed, saying he was commenting on the question. Then that lucky little kid got to go up onstage (his lucky dad holding him) and personally "meet" Fidel Castro and shake his hand (well, Fidel shook Logan's leg, actually). It was cute, because Logan realized that when he clapped his little hands, he could make the whole audience applaud.
After the "briefing" we went to a party (I can now say I have been to a party thrown by Castro!). There was food and a band and about 2000 or so students from the ship and the University of Havana. We had a crazy fun time... yes everyone, I know you don't believe it, but I was out there dancing and doing salsa with everyone else... my American friends and our new Cuban friends. It was a great time.
On our last day in Cuba we took it easy. We did some shopping, went to a museum, and climbed the bell tower to take pictures. It was so old and rickety, it was very scary... I couldn't make it up the last staircase. I was pressed into a corner having a panic attack while Maren and Janell climbed the staircase, so steep it was almost a ladder, to the windy top of the bell tower. Then we decided to walk around Havana just taking pictures and looking at things. (Food is so cheap! We got our meals for between one and three dollars).
The highlight of the day was when we stopped in a square to take a rest and were just watching people. A little boy (maybe 8 years old) came up to us and gave us each a flower. We said no, but he handed them to us anyway (usually they want money for it; that is why we said no). Janell knows a little Spanish and asked him his name, age, etc. There were some kids playing nearby and we wanted to know why he wasn't playing (he was carrying a ball along with the flowers). To make a long story short, soon we found ourselves playing ball with a bunch of neighborhood kids... kicking it to each other, throwing it, etc. It was a lot of fun... it was a great way to finish up our trip in Cuba.
Okay, okay, I know.... I am sorry to drone on and on but there was a lot to talk about this time. Now that you know all about the ship, etc. the other e-mails can be just about ports, and I won't have to go on for so long again. At least, hopefully. Once again, I hope everything is good back home... the dean just announced the Superbowl score. :) See, I'm not quite living in a hole!
Well, classes start tomorrow. It is nine days, I think, until Brazil (we arrive on Wed. Feb. 5). So next time those of you back home are complaining about your five days a week classes... imagine nine days straight. Okay, I promise I am finishing now. I send you all wishes of good mirth :)) See you all in less than 100 days!
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Brazil
Well, here I am, in the middle of the ocean, one more country under my belt, and on to Africa. I know all of you have been eagerly anticipating this email, so I figured I better get it out to you!
I was just up on the deck photographing the sunset� it is a beautiful night! The seas have been calm since we left Brazil, and the temperature today was a splendid 85 degrees. Sorry to all of you back in the cold!
Anyway, before I talk about my experiences in Brazil, I wanted to give you a little background information. The first bit of information isn't about Brazil, it is just some nifty statistics that I found interesting, and thought that you might, too. It makes you realize how ethno-centric many Americans are. We really are a minority in the world, but seem to feel that we are the most important.
So, imagine that the population of the world has been shrunk down to 100 people, yet the statistical representation remains the same as it actually is in the world today.
Of those 100 people, 57 would be Asiatic, 21 would be European, 14 American (North, Central, and South America), and 8 would be African. Thirty would be white, and seventy would be non-white. Thirty would be Christian while seventy would be non-Christian. Six people would hold fifty percent of all the wealth (and all six would be in the U.S.) Seventy people would be unable to read and write. Fifty would suffer from malnutrition, eighty would live in unsatisfactory housing, and only ONE would have ACCESS to a university education. That really makes you see things differently, and realize what we take for granted�
Anyway, back to Brazil. Brazil is known as the land of extremes (I heard this from a number of people, including our taxi driver, who spoke Portuguese). Brazil has the highest poverty rate in the world, yet it also has extreme wealth. Brazil used to be referred to as "Belinda," meaning it had Belgium's wealth but also India's poverty.
They are developed, yet underdeveloped, they are the champions of the world in soccer, and yet have a social problem with abandoned children. Sixty-three percent of first-graders cannot graduate first grade, and drop out after repeating it multiple times. Only six percent of those who pass make it through eighth grade. High school grads tend to be 24 or 25, and the average university students are 26 and up.
We were warned about the crime in Brazil, and not to carry anything valuable with us. I think they exaggerated. I actually felt safe the whole time I was there. Most of the crime is petty theft, and as long as you use common sense, you are fine. I felt no less safe than I would in any big city in the U.S.
Brazil has the world's largest river drainage system, rainforest (the Amazon, which is slowly being destroyed), soccer stadium, and hydroelectric dam. A new leftist, socialist president, "Lula" was just elected by popular vote (in fact, only Reagan ever got more votes in a presidential election). No one is quite sure what will happen from here on, but everyone has very high expectations of Lula. Okay, I think that is enough "background" information� on with the show!
We actually got to Brazil slightly later than expected because there was something wrong with one of the boilers and we were going pretty slow.
So right after we arrived in port, I took off on a trip for my religion class. First we went to the Afro-Brazilian museum� interesting, but our guide talked FOREVER� the museum was only 3 rooms! After the museum we went to a Condomble house (an Afro-Brazilian religion). We got to see where different ceremonies take place and learned a lot about the traditions and the religion. It was really interesting.
I actually didn't go out my first night in Brazil (I know, what a loser!) because by the time I got back from my trip most of my friends were already gone. But it was okay, because I was tired anyway.
The second day in Brazil I went to Cachoeira. It is a small town about two hours from Salvador. The trip was nice because we got to see a lot of the countryside. I LOVE the trees here� they were so cool looking, and some trees had these beautiful red flowers on them. I am sad I did not get more pictures� I was worried about crime, so I only carried disposable cameras� I hope my pics all turn out!
We went to a small market and learned about all the different fish and fruits that were being sold, and got to try some of the fruits. Then we went to a cacao farm, and got to see all the work that goes into growing the beans for the chocolate and all the manual labor before it even begins to resemble chocolate. Then we went to Cachoeira for lunch. It was just a small rural town, very cute, but not a whole lot going on.
Our last stop before heading back to Salvador was a cigar factory, where we watched the cigars being made. A few people on our trip even got to roll their own cigars.
I spent the trip with a girl named Yumika who lives down the hall from me. She is from Japan, but is going to school in the States in Virginia. She is such a sweet girl, and we have become really good friends. Anyway, after the trip Yumika and I headed up to the upper city for dinner and to walk around a little Salvador is divided into upper and lower parts of the city, newer and older. There is a big elevator that you take to get up or down that costs 5 centavos, or about 2 cents.
We explored a little while before sitting down at an outdoor caf� called Mama Bahia for dinner. (Bahia is the name of the state that Salvador is in). Dinner was delicious, and as we were talking and finishing our drinks and watching people, we started talking with the guy sitting at the table next to us. It turned out that he was from Cape Town (our next port).
His job is to deliver boats� he gets a boat, takes it somewhere, gets another boat, and takes it somewhere else. Sometimes he takes his own boat and makes other sorts of deliveries. It actually took him 2 months to get from South Africa to Brazil, so I am not going to complain about 9 days anymore! He spends most of his time in the Caribbean going between islands. He actually just left today to go back to Cape Town� it will be his first time home in 3 years.
Anyway, this guy (Mark) had been in Salvador for about six weeks, and he knew his way around pretty well, so he showed Yumika and me around. Then we went back to the catamaran just to see it� I can't believe they travel across the ocean in things like that! Actually, though, Yumika and I decided the catamaran was much more comfortable and homey than our ship is!! His shipmates, Garth and John, are also from Africa (South Africa and Zambia, respectively). They were all really nice, and we talked about the different cultures (Africa, Japan, Brazil, America) and they showed us pictures of all the places they have been. I'm really glad that we got to meet them.
The third day, I went on another SAS trip, this time to a favela. Favelas are pretty much the slums� they are built on the hills around cities. They start out as squatter camps and eventually become permanent "neighborhoods." The poorest people live in the favelas, often with no running water or electricity, open sewage, and crowded living conditions. The favela we visited was one of the nicer ones, where community action is being taken to improve the conditions. We walked around before going to a school in the favela. The kids there were great, and entertained us with capoeira (a form of martial arts in Brazil� it's really cool and really hard, but people do it all over, even in the streets). The kids were a lot of fun to play with, and try to communicate with (Portuguese is hard!).
After the trip I went to an outdoor "mall" with Yumika, and two other girls, Helen and Haley. We walked around, had ice cream (yum! gelato!) and Helen and Haley went on go-karts. It was fun just watching all the locals.
On Saturday, I began the day with a trip with two girls (Amy and Whitney) to a gem shop. It was a wholesale shop and they had all kinds of gems� rubies, emeralds, peridot, etc� for cheap. You choose the gem you want, the quality, and the setting. The gems ranged anywhere from 30 USD a carat to a few thousand. I ended up getting two rings made� a citrine one (yellow-orange) that was 1.62 carats, and a tourmaline one (very expensive in the states� comes naturally in lots of different colors. Mine is dark pink) that is 3.58 carats. They are both set in simple silver settings, and they turned out really nice.
After the gem shop and lunch, the three of us set off with four more kids to one of the most famous churches in Salvador: Bonfim. Apparently people even make pilgrimages there.
We took the city bus, which was an experience in itself. We were standing, and there was room in the back, but no one would move back� the standing people started about halfway up the aisle. Therefore, the seven of us were crunched in near the front and the turnstile. It was a challenge not only to stay standing as we turned the corners, but since I was the last one on, I had to concentrate on not flying back out through the turnstile. The driver kept yelling at me in Portuguese to move back, but there was nowhere to go. I finally ended up half on the railing, struggling to hold on. We all made it to the church okay (on the way back, we all piled into a taxi� as crunched as that was, I actually felt much safer!)
The church was beautiful, and well worth the experience to get there. After the church we went to the market and did a little shopping, then headed back to the ship to meet other friends. We went out for dinner and to walk around� we saw some drumming processions and things in the streets that were pretty cool. Everyone is preparing for Carnaval at the end of this month.
On Sunday I finished up some errands with Yumika and then I went to a soccer game. Yes, that's right, folks: a Brazilian soccer game! It was a lot of fun, even though it was the minor league and wasn't that full. Our team (Bahia) won (We were playing Victoria) but it was cool because everybody cheered and applauded Victoria anyway. Soccer is such a huge things in Brazil, and these kids were young (17-21) and so everyone wants to support them and keep there morale up.
After the game Yumika and I quickly ran back to the other docks to say good-bye to our new South African friends (well worth it� we got some advice about where to visit, and Mark's sister's phone number to show us around while we are there). Then we went back to the ship. A few hours later, we were sailing away from Salvador� and I must admit, it made me a bit sad.
But now I am on my way to South Africa, with many more things to look forward to (like the paper and the tests that I have before we get there!). I managed to keep this email a little shorter than the last one, so I should end it now before I think of other things I want to add.
The last thing I want to say is this: if any of you want to travel to Brazil in the future, count me in! It is a beautiful place, and there are so many more things that I would love to see.
I hope you are all well, and Happy Valentine's Day!
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South Africa
Subject: DO talk to strangers
My parents taught me not to talk to strangers, just like every other child learns when they are young. As we get older, we seem to hold on to that lesson we learned as children. Other than a quick hello when passing on the street or polite chit- chat while standing in a line, who has actually gotten to know a complete stranger? I mean, gone up to someone in the park or at a restaurant and struck up a conversation and actually made a friend with whom you will keep in contact? It is virtually unheard of. Our society teaches us not only of the dangers of this, but also of the oddness of it all�
I know many of you are thinking right now of the moment you were sitting in the Starbucks down the street or talking with your friends somewhere and that "crazy" guy came up and just began talking to you like he knew you� you exchanged glances that said "Who is this guy?" raised your eyebrows, politely responded until he left you alone.
But after only three ports, I am thinking of all the friends I have made that I am already keeping in touch with. Maybe it is just in our society that it is a taboo, and if so, I am glad I was able to leave and experience life elsewhere� it seems the goal of all of us on SAS is to talk to strangers� to talk to them, learn from them, and even befriend them. If you don't talk to strangers, you may never learn just how wonderful some of them can be, how honest and giving some people are, how big and generous a heart can be, and just what it means to have a "different" kind of friend than you are accustomed to� those friendships can be wonderful, too. And it teaches you how to be a better person in your own life. I know that I will always remember the kindness that people have shown me on this trip, and I will try and incorporate this lesson that I have been taught into my own.
Alright, I will step down off my soapbox now and tell you all about the beauty that is South Africa.
We arrived in Cape Town, South Africa, on Wednesday, February 19, 2003. My first reaction was, wow, this is great. Everyone speaks English! But the more I realized how much Cape Town was like America, the less great it seemed� wasn't I supposed to be experiencing different cultures? But even with the similarities, it was incredibly different. Maybe now I should go into one of my history lessons?
Cape Town, in my opinion, was more dangerous than Salvador (which we were all scared to death about visiting because of what they told us). While Brazil has a high amount of petty crime, South Africa has more violent crime� they have the highest rape rate in the world, as well as being the "most murderous country in the world."
One third of the rapes are of young girls by their teachers. Africa also has the largest AIDS epidemic anywhere. Almost 5 million people in South Africa are infected with AIDS. The life expectancy actually dropped from 68 years in 1988 to 51 in 2002, and may drop to 48 by 2010 due to the large percentage of the population that is infected. The president (Mbeki) has become a controversial figure today for believing that HIV is not the cause of AIDS. Therefore, he is not allowing the generic drugs to be brought into South Africa to help combat HIV, and only very rich South Africans can afford to have treatment.
There is a "rumor" in South Africa right now that by having sex with a virgin a man can get rid of his AIDS. The more "virginal" the girl, the more likely he is to get rid of the disease. This has led to the unbelievable statistic of 21,000 cases of child rape in South Africa in 2002� and the children keep getting younger. I almost cried while reading an article about "baby rape." Babies as young as just 3 months old have been raped, and this is a very large problem right now! It is such a regular occurrence now for young children to be raped that it often doesn't even make it into the news anymore. Recently a case made national news when a 9-month-old baby girl was gang-raped by six men. But most people around the world are still unaware.
The country also only recently ended its struggle against apartheid. For those of you who don't know, apartheid is pretty much just a fancy way of saying discrimination, segregation, and a belief that "whites" are better than "blacks" or "coloreds." Apartheid only ended in 1994 (!) and you can still see a lot of discrimination and hear many racist remarks. Okay, enough grim details� back to my experiences�
After our ferry to Robben Island got canceled on the first day (due to which the day up until about 1:00 was wasted), I spent the day looking around the shops with my friend Yumika and just getting used to the new country. We also planned out the rest of our stay. Cape Town was swarming with foreigners (I heard tons of German!) due to the fact that the Cricket World Cup is taking place there right now. I think I saw more foreigners than I did natives.
That afternoon, we went up to the top of Table Mountain. This is the famous mountain that towers over Cape Town. It has a completely flat top, which is often covered by a blanket of clouds known as the "tablecloth." While we really wanted to hike up, we didn't have 3 or 4 hours to spare, so we took the cable car. It was like a gondola with a rotating bottom so that you could have a 360-degree view on the way up. Once at the top, we realized we should have brought something a little warmer- it was cold! Our ears also began to hurt due to the altitude. But it was definitely worth it - the view was absolutely spectacular! There were paths on the top on which you could walk around and look in every direction. Looking out in the distance, it was impossible to tell where the ocean, sky, and clouds intercepted� the horizon had completely disappeared and the ocean simply faded into the sky. It made me somewhat homesick for the mountains.
After we came down off the mountain, we went back to the ship and had a quick bite to eat after which I rushed off on an astronomy trip. I was one of the very few on the trip who wasn't there because I was required to be due to taking the astronomy class. We went to the Cape Town observatory, where we looked though a humongous, ancient telescope (as in, this guy moved it by hand� it took his whole body weight� not like the new telescopes where you enter in coordinates and it moves there). The whole floor of the building moved up so you could look out of the telescope. Pretty cool! We looked at Saturn and Jupiter and Orion's Nebula.
Then we went outside to a smaller telescope where we learned about the constellations in the southern sky (like the southern cross) and looked at different stars� the three brightest stars in the sky can all be seen from the southern hemisphere, though not from the northern. I also saw Orion� but he was upside-down! His sword hung upwards. I felt special that I actually seemed to know more about a lot of the stuff than all then the people in the class (must be those two astronomy classes I have taken). Since I wasn't there on the trip for a school assignment, I went back up into the big telescope instead of going to the computer lab, and then we headed back. It was really fun.
The second day I went on an SAS trip called Operation Hunger. Operation Hunger is an organization whose main objective is to combat malnutrition. They actually weigh the children in the different communities to find out which ones are malnourished. They work with communities on developing schools, creating "feeding programs," etc. The program I went on was not actually a visit to places currently being helped by Operation Hunger, but rather to schools in some of the places that had already been helped.
Our first stop was a pre-school for kids 6 and under. The township used to have nothing for the children, and while the parents were working all day the children had no one to watch them or feed them, so they would wander down to the creek and dig through the garbage bags looking for food. One lady started rounding up the children into her own home and feeding and watching them until their parents returned. The community pressed her to open the "cr�che" and now it runs on donations and a small fee that the parents of the children pay.
The kids were a bit shy at first, because the only time they have seen white people is when they go to the doctor, so they have come to associate white people with injections. But once the bubbles and coloring books and stickers came out, they were all set to play. They even sang songs for us, and we did the hokey-pokey for them. We spent the whole morning there, and at about noon we walked through the neighborhood to another elementary school.
Here the choir performed for us, and then we were practically mauled by the 300 + kids that had just gotten out of school. You literally could not move, you were surrounded by so many kids. They taught us a special handshake that every single one of them knew, and they kept asking us to take pictures. I had them all writing their names on a piece of paper for me, but one of the kids stole my paper and pen! I didn't care about the pen. I just wanted the sheet with their names on it. We were not at that school long (which is good, because we were all somewhat claustrophobic being amongst so many people).
After that, we had lunch and briefly (like, 20 minutes) visited a school for the deaf. Our last stop was a high school, where we split into small groups and walked around with the high schoolers. We walked around the township and they answered our questions. It was really interesting. I was walking with 3 girls who have been best friends all their lives. They asked me as many questions about America as I asked about South Africa. We spoke about AIDS, poverty, and all the discrimination that still exists (for example, their school is all black. Even now, they cannot afford to attend the white schools, and even if they could, they are too far away and the girls would have no way to get to and from the school).
They still remember only 8 years ago when blacks had to have work passes to go into Cape Town, and they had to speak Afrikaans (the language the white Dutch settlers brought over). But we also talked about travel, and music, and boys� 16 year olds are similar all over� one girl's favorite singer was Brandy, and they giggled as they talked about boyfriends. It was a good experience.
That night Yumika and I tried to go to a place called Mama Africa that everyone recommended, but we didn't have reservations. (I'm actually glad we didn't go� we walked passed it later that night and it was so touristy� it was full of SASers). We ended up going to a place called Marco's. It was really nice, we had a candle, our bottled water came out in a wine bucket, etc. but it was still reasonably priced. There was a live band, and people got up and danced. Guess what I ate? The "Pan-African Platter," which consisted of ostrich, springbok, and kudu. It was actually good, especially the ostrich (and no, it didn't taste quite like chicken!). After dinner, we went out to a club and called it a night at about 1:30.
Friday was an experience. Remember the guy I met in Brazil who delivered boats for a living? (Mark). Well, he gave us his sister's phone number and told us to call her if we were going to be in Simonstown, where she lives. But he failed to tell us her name. The conversation, when Yumika and I called the day before, went something like this: "Hi. I'm calling for Mark Wannenberg's sister." "This is she" "Hi! My name is Christina. I'm on a trip around the world and I was in Brazil last week and I met your brother. He gave me your number. I'm going to be in Simonstown tomorrow and was wondering if perhaps you wanted to meet up for lunch" or something to that effect.
Now, while most "normal" people would be thinking, who is this crazy person, and should I meet her? And then planning how you will have a friend come with you, alert everyone about where you will be, etc. etc. Shirley was totally cool about it. She agreed to meet us. So, Friday morning Yumika and I piled into a taxi-van with about 12 or 15 other people (talk about being squashed� but hey, it cost 2 Rand as compared to the 20 Rand for a taxi). Then we bought our train tickets (only 23 Rand round-trip, first class!).
The ride was beautiful. We traveled through neighborhoods, and then some countryside and along the coast of a big bay. Simonstown was nestled on the side of a small mountain on the edge of the bay� it was like something straight from a storybook! Shirley actually picked us up from the train station and became our personal tour guide. She was so sweet! She was only 4'9" and she was one of the most talkative people I have ever met!
First we went to Boulder's Beach where we walked around and saw penguins! That's right: "Jackass Penguins" as they are called, and they were close enough to reach out and touch. It was actually one of only two mainland breeding colonies in the world. So cute! Then we went to a place called Smitwinklesbaai, where there was a beautiful view of the ocean and Cape Point, and then went to Bertha's for lunch, where I had some yummy fish and chips. We showed Shirley pictures that we had gotten developed the night before in a one-hour photo, and she was thrilled to see her brother, who has been traveling for three years but is returning home for the first time in as long later this month.
Next we walked around the town and did some shopping, and went on a boat tour of the naval base (in which we could not take pictures, due to security issues). We wanted to stay longer, but had to take the 4:25 train back because according to Shirley the later trains would not be safe for us. However, she was disappointed that we had not brought clothes along, as she wanted us to stay the night and see her house so she could show us around more the following day and we could meet her 21-year-old son. Her kindness and generosity still amaze me. Yumika and I returned home (in the dining car!) and grabbed dinner and spent the night making a few phone calls home and writing lots of postcards� it was a long day and we were too tired to go out!
Saturday was a busy day also, trying to fit in everything we hadn't previously had time for (sadly, I never had time to make it to the wine lands). The morning was spent walking to the market, shopping, doing last minute shopping in the mall near the boat (i.e. buying snacks to get us through the sea stretch), and trying to find somewhere to ship wine home from (which didn't happen� shipping rates to the US are crazy high, and each state then adds additional taxes).
In the early afternoon we took a ferry to Robben Island. Robben Island is a small island off the coast of Cape Town, which used to house lepers and lunatics, but more recently, during apartheid, it became a political prison. Nelson Mandela (the former South African president) was held on the island for 15 years, and we were able to see his tiny cellblock, as well as the limestone quarry where the prisoners were forced to do backbreaking labor and the dust from the limestone permanently damaged their eyes.
The tours were given by former political prisoners. It was very hard for our guide to speak about some of the things, but he was working there anyway by advice of a psychiatrist after nothing else had helped him face his past and get through the pain and anger. It was very sad but very interesting� you don't think about these things happening during your own lifetime.
Four days in Cape Town was much too few. There are so many things I wanted to do that I didn't have a chance to do, and many people I wish I could have had more time with. I guess I just have one more country to add to the list of places I want to return to someday.
I hope you are all well. Best wishes,
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Tanzania
Subject: the lion sleeps tonight
Hello, hello, hello! Well, I have returned from my safari in Tanzania. Luckily, I was not stepped on OR eaten by any wild animals. I would like to say now that the artists who made "The Lion King" really did their research� I was amazed that the animals I saw in real life were so incredibly similar to the animated ones in the Disney movie.
I really didn't see Dar Es Salaam at all, except for driving through it, so I won't really talk about it except to say that it was kind of interesting to see how people reacted to us. Semester at Sea has not been to Dar Es Salaam in 20 years, whereas it regularly goes to all our other ports of call, so the people here were not "used" to us.
Unfortunately, after our port was changed from Mombassa, Kenya to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, it was a longer trip to the place my safari was, so I had to do a lot of driving. The first day was about an eight-hour drive to get from Dar to Arusha. On the way, however, I was able to see lots of scenery� including Mt. Meru and Mt. Kilimanjaro! It was interesting to watch all the little towns we passed and see the people.
This was our first exposure to a third world country and there was lots of poverty. This is also a very Muslim society, so the women wore long skirts and the men were all wearing long pants. I often saw women walking down the street carrying heavy loads on their heads; either buckets of water, sacks of grain, or some other thing. I was amazed that they could carry them! Others would have large loads of heavy firewood strapped to their backs, because it is also the woman's responsibility to collect the firewood
I also saw lots of Maasai� you have probably seen pictures of this tribe before: they usually are wearing bright red, they have lots of jewelry on, including lots of big earrings so the holes in their ears are very large. They live in houses made of dried dung and straw with thatched roofs, and they are often seen herding cattle and/or goats and donkeys, and every so often camels. The Maasai believe that God gave them cattle, and so therefore all of the cattle in the world rightfully belong to them. They use cattle for everything in their lives: dowries for wives, other sorts of payments, milk, etc. The cow is the most important thing in Maasai society. The only things the Maasai eat are blood, milk, and beef, and they do not have the diseases like heart diseases that we have in our society. They were an interesting culture to learn about, so it was neat to see them all over.
I was on a special safari, which about 25 or so SAS parents attended. It is a special thing that Semester at Sea does where they have a trip in one port on the itinerary that brings the parents and students together. When we arrived in Arusha, the parents were waiting for us (they had been in Kenya for several days already before coming to Tanzania to meet us). It was nice to see my mom (although she was a bit disheveled� the airlines lost her luggage and it never made it to Africa� she had been without luggage for 5 days by the time I saw her. Luckily, it had arrived that morning so she finally had her things again).
All the parents were very excited to see the students, so there was a nice reunion. We proceeded to dinner and a small acrobatics show. Our hotel the first night was really nice (Actually, all of our lodges were. They all had beautiful settings). The parents had already been on a game drive, but so far the only animals I had seen were goats, cows, donkeys, and chickens. I was excited to get going on our safari!
The second day started early. We all split up and loaded into small vans with eight people apiece. My van consisted of my mom and me, and 3 other sets of mothers and daughters. Our driver's name was Louis, and he proved himself to be wonderful� he had eagle eyes that could spot animals from far away or while they were hiding in the trees or grass, and he was very knowledgeable (i.e. what is the difference between the white rhino and the endangered black rhino? They are actually the same color� the white rhino is slightly larger and has a wider mouth. The name white rhino came from the German mispronunciation of the word "wide").
On this day we drove farther into Tanzania and stopped off at Gibb's Coffee Farm. It was quickly apparent why we had switched to the small safari vans� the paved roads ended and then dirt roads began. And when I say dirt roads, I don't mean like rural back roads� I mean dirt roads that are full of pot holes and rocks and bumps so much that the vans have to be serviced after each safari (which only last a few days).
This day we were in the back seat, so the dust and the bouncing were even worse. In fact, I had an allergy attack from all the dust even though I had taken medicine, and I spent most of the rest of the day using up all the Kleenex everyone in our van had with them. I think I inhaled so much dust the past few days that I will be coughing up rocks. Your clothes and body would literally have a layer of dirt on it by the end of the day so that when you took your socks off it looked like you had been lying in the sun for about a month straight.
The coffee farm was up on a mountain with beautiful scenery, and so before lunch we set off in a small group with a guide to go on what they described as a "nature walk" that would be short and we could see the grounds.
Well, our "nature walk" ended up being a two-hour-long steep hike up the side of the mountain in the sun and noon-time Africa heat. By the time we came down, we were exhausted. We had brought along very little water, and had on no sunscreen, so when we returned we were hot, dehydrated, and sunburned. The hike wouldn't have been bad (it actually was very beautiful) if we had just been better prepared and actually expecting it; and, also if it hadn't been between noon and two o'clock, the hottest time of the day. After our hike we had lunch and relaxed for a while. Then we climbed back into the vans and set off to our next lodge.
This lodge was on the top on the Ngorongoro Crater, where some of the best game viewing in the world takes place. As our van climbed up to the top of the crater, we looked down and saw the treetops white with storks. It was really neat. The view from our room looked straight down into the large crater, and from a telescope on the balcony upstairs we were able to see elephants and water buffalo.
After dinner there was an amazing acrobatics show, which was really just an extended version of the one from the night before. The young men had amazing strength� they could have been gymnasts� and they could contort themselves into the most awkward positions imaginable. They ate fire, took running leaps and stacked themselves four-high on each others shoulders, and did all kinds of stunts. It was really cool.
That night my mom and I went out to look at the stars: I have never seen so many stars in all my life. There was no light pollution because the nearest large city was hundreds of miles away. You could see the Milky Way and it was much bigger (and milkier) than I have ever seen. I think my favorite part was the constellations: I always complain about how they never look like what they are supposed to and I have no idea how people came up with them. However, when you are able to see all of the little, faint stars in addition to just the brightest ones, you can actually see the pictures and easily tell how they were named. Orion actually had a whole body! It was really amazing.
The third day was another early morning. This time we left our luggage at the hotel because the roads in and out of the crater were so steep that the vans couldn't have made it with our luggage. The first animals that I saw up-close- and- personal were zebras. The crater is actually full of zebra, gazelle, and wildebeest. They are the main animals in the crater. Right now it is actually right in the middle of migration before the rainy season comes, and so there were tons of animals, many of which had babies! Actually, I would have to say that the majority of the species of animals that I saw had babies. In the crater we saw zebra, gazelle (grand gazelle and Thompson's gazelle), hippos, elephants, rhinos, lions, water buffalo, wildebeest, jackals, hyenas, warthogs, flamingos and TONS of other kinds of birds.
My goal had been to see an aardvark, but Louis told me they are nocturnal, so no such luck. I was also disappointed to learn that he had never seen a meerkat (they are actually called something else, I had to find their picture in a book because Louis had no idea what I was talking about.) He told me he had never seen one before, so I guess they must be in a different part of Africa.
(Try this link for more info: http://www.pbs.org/kratts/world/africa/meerkat/ )
However, we did have some neat encounters� the vans cannot go off the roads and the crater is quite large, so a lot of what you see depends on luck (my friend was on safari in Kenya and didn't see lions the whole time!). Right at the beginning we were the only van to witness something really cool� thanks to Louis' eagle eyes and fast driving. We were zipping through the crater over to some hyenas that Louis had spotted through his binoculars.
Suddenly, he changed direction and took off at top speed somewhere else. We were all really confused as to why we were headed away from the hyenas, when suddenly he braked. There were three lions (a young male followed by two females) that had fresh blood on their jaws and were walking into the tall grass for a rest after their meal. At this point I was in the front seat of the van. The top came off the van so everyone could stand up and take pictures, but in the front seat this was not possible. Therefore, Louis was allowing me to sit in the window of the front seat to take pictures. However, the three lions were so close that he told me I would have to get in and stay in because it wasn't safe. The lions stopped and looked straight at us before continuing on.
Another cool thing that happened was when we were looking at a bird by a small watering hole. Louis started to continue on� suddenly I yelled to him to stop. "There's something in the water!" I exclaimed� and sure enough, about a minute later (a minute in which everyone was convinced I made them stop to look at a rock that was barely visible in the water) we saw our first hippo. I was excited because I had spotted it when no one else, including our guide, had.
The last cool thing in the crater was the rhino. There are only about 15-20 black rhinos in the crater. They are solitary animals and tend to stay in the parts of the crater where there are no roads, so often safari groups don't see them. We actually saw four. We were the first group to spot a rhino, and we called the other vans on the radio with our location so they could see it, too. They weren't what I was expecting. They are big and amble around slowly and every so often a huge stream of urine (it looks like water coming out of a hose) sprays straight out of them to mark their territory. Anyway, on the way out of the crater we saw three more, two of them were a mom rhino and a baby, but they were all actually pretty far away. We were never able to get close to one.
After we left the crater we had lunch and then left to drive to the Serengeti. On the way, I saw my first giraffe! They are so goofy looking, but they are really cool. It is so weird to just be driving down the road and randomly see a giraffe or some zebra out of your window. The Serengeti is huge� about 8000 square miles, so the animals are a lot more spread out than in the crater and can be harder to spot, but it was a lot more what I had imagined Africa looking like and a safari being like.
The word "Serengeti" actually comes from the Maasai word "Siringet" (sp?) that means "endless plains." That is just what it was, too� plains that stretched out for as far as your eyes could see. On the way to our lodge in the Serengeti, we saw some elephants up-close and I also saw my first male lion with a big mane! (He was sleeping with some lionesses and cubs). We also saw lions eating an elephant that had died. We saw a baboon with a little baby on its back, a leopard in a tree (incredibly hard to see� I didn't even take a picture because I knew I wouldn't be able to pick it out later) and our first sighting of cheetahs! We also saw more hippos, zebra, gazelle, wildebeest, and buffalo.
Our lodge this night was right in the middle of the Serengeti. It was an outcropping of rocks that they had built the lodge around. You could actually hear the animals outside at night. The sunset was beautiful because there was smoke in the air from the controlled burning that was taking place around the park.
The following day was a day that I had been looking forward to� the day of the hot air balloon ride! I was at a fair when I was about six years old and I waited in line all day to go on a balloon ride (it was tethered to the ground� it just went up and back down) and there was only one person left in line ahead of us when they decided it was too windy to do any more rides that day. Ever since then I have wanted to go on a hot air balloon ride (as all my friends know). So, we woke up bright and early and headed out for what everyone told us would be an amazing experience: watching the sun rise over the Serengeti and seeing the animals hunting in the coolness of the morning.
The day was off to a promising start - while driving to the place that we would take off from, a hippopotamus suddenly crossed the road on the way to the watering hole. He was so close that our driver had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting him. It was interesting because no one on our safari had seen a hippo before that wasn't almost completely submersed in water.
When we arrived at the take-off site, we split up. Sixteen of us would be in one balloon, and 12 would be in the other. The other balloon was named Simba, and ours was Tembo (lion and elephant in Swahili). The balloon basket was lying on its side, and the balloon man explained to us what would happen. He would bring the fans out to start filling the balloon with air, and then go inside to check everything. When he came out and gave the signal, we would all get in the basket. He would start shooting the fire in to heat the air, and away we would go.
However, it was a little bit windy (I would have called it a light breeze, but for ballooning that is a lot of wind) so he wanted to wait until the sun came up, because usually the wind died down then. Well, they brought the fans out and started blowing up the balloon, and our balloon man gave the signal. We all got into the balloon basket. It was like an egg carton: it had little partitions and two people were in each "compartment." The basket was on its side, and you laid in it on your back like you were sitting on a seat and held onto the handles on the top in front of you. When the balloon rises, you will be in a sitting position. This is also the position for landing.
My mom and I were on the bottom (there were two rows each with four compartments and the balloon man was in the middle.) The bottom is actually more "dangerous" because when you land the balloon "jumps" across the ground and if you have long hair it can get caught under the basket. Anyway, the balloon man tried incredibly hard to get us airborne� our balloon bounced along the ground, the basket started to turn upright, but he just couldn't make it; there was too much wind.
It was the first time they have had to cancel a balloon ride due to wind since October. When he opened his suitcase up, he had certificates made out for us and everything. It was disappointing, but I would rather be safe and I'm glad we didn't go if it was dangerous. I have to give the man credit� he tried so hard to get us up into the air that he actually burned a hole in the balloon. So, it looks like I will have to try ballooning another time�
After our botched ballooning attempt, we returned to the lodge to have breakfast (with no balloon ride we also missed out on the champagne breakfast that you traditionally get with a balloon ride). Everyone on our tour who didn't attempt to go ballooning had gone on a morning game drive, so we set out on one, too.
We saw the normal animals: zebra, gazelle, wildebeest, etc. We got to see more giraffes, and also we saw a herd of elephants that had babies of all different ages and sizes� there were three little ones that couldn't be seen over the tall grass when you were farther away. In late morning we left the park and began the drive back. We stopped at lunchtime to eat our boxed lunches at the Olduvai Gorge (actually, the name is the Oldupai Gorge, but once again German mispronunciation changed the name to what it is known as now).
I was excited that I actually got to go there. When I was in middle school I did a big presentation on the gorge and Louis and Mary Leakey and the discovery of the oldest known ancestor to humans. My partner and I had a box of sand that we buried some "bones" in, and we dressed up like archeologists (stereotypical ones, at least, in safari-type gear) and pretended we were the Leakeys and dug up the "fossils" during the presentation.
Then in college I took an anthropology class and learned all about human evolution, and many of the discoveries at the gorge. I never imagined that I would actually visit it. We only were there for a very brief amount of time before we went on. I would have liked to stay longer. I did, however, have the man who has worked at the gorge with the Leakeys and been there for a long time ("A century" according to our safari director) give me a job offering� he told me to get my degree in anthropology and archeology and come back to Africa to work with his team at the Olduvai Gorge. I think he was just impressed with my middle school project.
After we left the gorge we stopped at a Maasai village. I didn't like it much, but I had known that I wouldn't� it was a Maasai village, yes, but it was a Maasai village that was there to earn money off of the tourists. We walked in and immediately began to be haggled to buy beaded necklaces and earrings, to pay a dollar to take a picture of someone, or to give them free gifts, like pens and things, which they quickly put inside their clothes and moved on to the next person.
My mom and I retreated into a small Maasai "house"� a hut made with cow dung and with a thatched roof. One of the people from the safari was inside with he lady who lived there, and explained everything in the hut to us and answered our questions. I was fine sitting in the small, hot hut even with all the flies that were around� until I saw a spider crawling down the man's shoulder. I said goodbye and exited the hut in a flash� my mom managed to stay inside for about 5 more minutes before coming out. Luckily, we only stayed at the village for about half an hour before continuing on.
Our final stop for the night was at Lake Manyara- another beautiful place. The next morning we set off back to Arusha (about 2 hours away) where we said farewell to the parents. They left for Kilimanjaro airport to fly back to Nairobi, Kenya, and we went the opposite direction for another 8-hour drive back to Dar Es Salaam.
The safari was definitely one of the coolest things I have ever done, even though there was a ton of time in cars and not much time to enjoy the beautiful places that we stayed. I think that I will have to go back someday� if for no other reason than to finally do my balloon safari.
I hope everyone is well� next stop: India.
Hugs,
Christina
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Christina Ship Life
Hey there. I heard about the blizzard in Colorado� I hope you are all safe and warm and enjoying a few days off!
I just wanted to send everyone a quick update, I am working on my India e-mail right now, but until then I just wanted to let everyone know what is going on in the meantime. I was upset when we had a meeting today and the dean announced that we have begun bombing Iraq. It is hard to be away while these things are going on, partly because the lack of information available on the ship makes you feel disconnected. SAS is doing its best to keep us informed, however.
I guess the national terrorist-warning thing the US does, was upgraded from yellow to orange, which is only one step below red. However, it was also at orange earlier in our voyage, and downgraded to yellow before being put back up to orange. So I don't think it is anything to be too worried about.
The main topic of discussion at our meeting earlier today was to discuss what will be happening in our future ports. As you probably all now, there is some sort of disease going around right now, mainly in the Asian countries (and specifically Hong Kong) although cases have been reported all over the world. Nine people have died from it. We are being updated daily with the information directly from the CDC, and the information is quite different than what is being reported in the news� for example, they do not even know for sure that it is a virus, although they suspect it is.
Anyway, sanitary precautions on the ship have been upped a lot, and as of now they are not planning any changes in our itinerary. I kind of doubt that there will be any changes made, but you never know for sure. If there are, I will be sure to let you all know!
Anyway, I just wanted to say that I returned from India safely (and I'm not even sick!) and that our dean asked us to let everyone back home know we are okay and what is going on with the disease in Hong Kong. Apparently there has been a lot of worrying by SAS parents, and although this is serious, it seems to be getting blown out of proportion. I am going to be as safe as I can in the upcoming ports (I always am) and SAS will take good care of us� they will not put us in any sort of imminent danger. And you all know I can be obsessive-compulsive about washing my hands� see, it does come in handy sometimes!
All right, I am doing fine, and I hope you all are too, and I'll try and get that India email out to all of you soon!
Christina
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India
Greetings, everyone!
Well, we have left India and are now sailing through the Indian Ocean, soon to be in the Pacific! I have delayed writing this email, but I decided that I need to get it sent off since you are all probably curious as to what happened in India. Well, the reason I didn't want to write this email is that I had some strange feelings about India that I felt were not normal. However, in speaking to many, many other SAS students I have discovered, surprisingly, that a large portion of them feel the same as I do.
I was completely unprepared for what I experienced in India. Or, perhaps a better way to say it is that I was, in fact, too prepared. The India that I experienced was not at all the India that people had told me I would experience, and I left with a strange feeling inside - guilt. I feel guilty that India did not affect me the way I thought it should have. It affected me, of course, but so has every country that I have been to. India has left me feeling heartless and guilty, simply because I am not experiencing the distress and helplessness that so many told me that I would feel.
We arrived in Chennai (formerly Madras) on Saturday morning.
"You can smell India before you can see it" was one of the things I had been told, multiple times. I had also been told to bring an extra pair of shoes with me, because India would be so dirty I would want to throw them away afterwards. - "India will assault every one of your senses," they told me. You will see things you have never seen, beggars on the street will be grabbing you, it will smell horrible, etc - "It will be overwhelming, and full of contradictions. You will struggle not to cry." Dr. Doug informed us during pre-port that 80 percent of us would get "Delhi belly." In fact, we had no classes the day after India, because we would all be sick, not to mention mentally exhausted. - I had been excited about India until about a week before we arrived. Then, I began to wonder if I really wanted to go. I was scared, and not sure that this was an experience I wanted to have.
The morning we arrived, Yumika and I woke early to go up on deck and watch the ship dock, as we always do. "Well," Yumika said to me, "we can see India� but I can't smell it." "Maybe we are still too far away," I said. Later on, while waiting in line outside (the customs officials decided they needed to see each and every one of us, rather than doing all of our passports at once, as they did in the other countries) we still could not smell India. "Maybe it's because we're in the harbor," I told her. "It will probably be worse in the city� there aren't any people in this direct vicinity to litter or pollute." There was a smog cloud over the city, I noted.
It was after 1 PM before the ship was cleared and we were able to get off. Five people had trouble with their visas (they ended up never being able to get off the ship in India), and we were waiting with one of the girls to find out what would happen, so we didn't leave until almost 3 PM.
I braced myself before I walked off the ship. I took a deep breath, composed myself, and stepped into the sunlight. As we walked through the harbor area and closer to the street, I began to become nervous. I thought about what the dean had told us the night before. I didn't think I was prepared for the mob that would be waiting for us when we exited the gates� the beggars, the starving children, all of them grabbing at me. However, when I walked through the gate, the only people that "swarmed" me were the rickshaw drivers.
My roommate Janelle and I walked down the street a little ways before finding a 3-wheeled rickshaw, as we had been told to do. We also agreed on a price beforehand, as we had been told. We asked him to take us to an open-air market. "No shopping malls!" Janelle demanded emphatically.
I later learned that we were some of a very small minority of students who had actually gotten to an open-air market rather than a shopping center or the expensive emporiums that the drivers would take you to whether you wanted to go or not. They received a kickback from the store, maybe a hundred rupees, about two dollars, simply for bringing you there, even if you didn't buy anything. Every single one of us ended up at at least one of those stores while in India, sometimes multiple times because of different drivers who all wanted the money.
Anyway, Janelle and I spent a few hours walking around the market (our driver insisted on staying and driving us back and he followed us everywhere we went). It was interesting to see the market. At one point, we walked through a huge line that stretched on until it went around a corner and we couldn't tell where the end of it was. As we crossed through the line to the other side (it cut down the middle of the market) someone in line asked us where we were from. The United States, we told him. Houston, he asked. No, we said.
We asked what he was waiting in line for. To see God, he replied. He pointed to the front of the line, which led up some steps into a brightly decorated temple. God is up there. We walked up towards the temple, but could not see inside. We asked our driver. Apparently there was a Hindu god in the temple. At least, that was what we understood him to be saying (his English wasn't the best). There was also an elephant near the temple. This was something we got used to seeing in India� they were known as the blessing elephants, and you put a coin in their trunk and they hit you over the head with their trunk, blessing you. I never actually did this. I was going to, until my friend Tara got covered in elephant snot and commented that the elephants weren't exactly gentle with their blessing "taps".
Although I saw more cows walking the streets in India than I saw western people, I never felt uncomfortable. All the glances we received were purely out of curiosity, and I never felt threatened. In fact, India is the country that I have felt the safest in so far. It was more modern than I was expecting� billboards all over, traffic clogging the streets. It smelled bad when we drove over rivers or other water, but that was the only time. (Well, other than the normal bad smell of exhaust and pollution that is in any city.) There wasn't sewage running down the streets like I had expected� at some places in the slums there was a little, but no more than I'd seen in Brazil or Africa.
Anyway, after a bit more "shopping" (really just walking around) we returned to the ship to have dinner and shower because I had to meet my group to leave on my homestay. I did not participate in one of the Rotarian homestays in Chennai. I went to a rural village called Erode and did a homestay there. In order to get to Erode, we had to take an approximately seven-hour-long train ride. The trip to the station was interesting, with our leaders trying to keep us all together and doing a head count every single time we moved more than ten feet to a new locale.
The exciting thing about the train is that it was a sleeper train, which I have never been on before. The group of students I sat with were really nice, and although the train left at 11PM it was after midnight before I climbed up into the top bunk (actually kind of hard to do) and tried to settle in for the night. The sleeper train was fun, but not something I am dying to experience again. Three days later when I returned to Chennai sleep-deprived from waking up every time I tried to roll over in the narrow space and with a neck, shoulders, and upper back that are still incredibly sore (I miss my chiropractor!) I decided it would be a while before I did another sleeper train.
Well, when we awoke the next morning, we were pulling into Erode. We then divided into two groups. I was in the smaller group, and headed off with nine other students to Gobichettipalayam (which quickly became referred to as G-town, for obvious reasons).
I really lucked out. The kids I was with were great. We all got along really well, and they were all very respectful and didn't complain even when none of us had showered in three days. We also had no trip leaders, and therefore no authority figures constantly reminding us "we have to wake up early tomorrow, you should get to sleep" etc. It was nice to prove that we all were mature enough and (luckily, the group I was with) considerate enough to not be disrespectful and represent our country and the program well.
Our host family was wonderful (and incredibly large). We stayed in a really big house and the family was very kind. The food they served us was wonderful. They all stood around with different dishes and any time one of us started to run out of something on our plate they would rush over and give us more. In India one does not use silverware. It is also rude to eat with your left hand. So there we are, trying to rip bread in our right hands, scoop up rice and chutney, etc. It got kind of messy sometimes, but it was fun.
Our hosts ran a school, so the first morning we went to the school and watched the boys chant/pray. It was Sunday, so school was not in session, but the students that were there (I think they are boarded at the school) showed us around.
We went to a market where we walked around and looked at all the different fruits and herbs and things that were there. It was interesting� very colorful! And it all looked wonderful. Then we went to a farm where we walked around for a while and later watched as one of the men who owned the farm climbed a tree to get coconuts for all of us to drink. We then went to a sugarcane place and got to see every step that goes into turning sugarcane into actual sugar. It was pretty neat, and let me tell you� real sugar looks and tastes nothing like the processed stuff that we know as sugar in the U.S.
We had a late lunch at the home of our host family's sister. It was wonderful. Then they had us all lie down for a while and take a nap. After our nap, we headed out again, this time to a textile factory where we saw them dyeing the cloth and all the different steps that went into getting it ready to be exported.
We then returned to the house we had lunch at and our host family showed us their pictures from weddings and other things, and then we had a long discussion with them ranging from everything about their society to what they thought of the war against Iraq. (Let me tell you, they did not seem to think very highly of Bush or his decisions, or some of the things our country has done in the past. They were very opinionated about everything. It was really interesting.) Then we had a late dinner and headed back to the original house where we would be staying the night. Once again, I stayed up late talking with my new friends (about 12:30), which couldn't really be helped, seeing as I was sleeping in a bed with two other people.
The next morning we met up with the other group of students at a school in Erode, where we had breakfast. Then we traveled on to Bhavani Temple, where we spent about an hour and a half going into the different temples and learning about the gods that they were for.
This temple is on a spot where three rivers meet (although one of the "rivers" was an underground spring) and any place that three rivers meet is considered to be very holy. In fact, our hosts told us, this could be compared to about as close a place that existed in the south comparable to the Ganges in the North. Indeed, we saw people bathing in the shallow river, and we learned that many people have their ashes dumped into the river after they die. However, I did not think it had quite the effect that the Ganges and Varanasi would have had on me.
After the temple we went to a carpet-weaving center, where everybody bought things. Since this was the place they were made, the prices had not been marked up. I myself bought a bed cover (yellow) that would fit a double bed and four pillow cases (red, purple, green, and pink) that came out to the equivalent of about twelve dollars. We then returned to the school for lunch.
After lunch, we went to a school for physically handicapped children. Most of the children had deformed feet or legs that made it hard for them to walk, although some had other ailments such as holes in their cleft palettes. The children were incredibly sweet, and they preformed many things for us, including a karate demonstration, a skit, and chanting. In return, we performed for them.
We had been aware this would happen, but we had not prepared much ahead of time. Ever resourceful, one of the students did gymnastics, one did Kung Fu, we all sang to them (the national anthem� something we all knew. We were going to sing John Lennon's "Imagine" also, but it didn't happen). We also helped bring the rain to India (snapping, patting your legs, etc to make sounds of a storm), and a couple of other things (like teaching them to do the wave).
The kids were thrilled. They said that Semester at Sea had never preformed that much in return for them. We had a short time to play with the kids and then we went to another school. Then the kids there (six 13-year-olds) did a dance for us to traditional Indian music and it was so amazing! They did an awesome job, even though they had only had two days to prepare.
We then visited a Sidda factory where they make herbal medicines. We got to see all the different herbs and every step that goes into actually turning them into pills. This is one of only a few places in the world that makes the types of medicines that they do, and they are the largest exporter of them in the world.
We then had a short meditation session, then went to dinner and back to the train station, where we said goodbye to our hosts. Another night on the sleeper train, and we arrived in Chennai at about six the next morning.
After taking a wonderful shower (any shower feels wonderful after walking around in 90-degree heat for two days without one), I met my friend Helen and we went into the city to a place called T. Nadar to do some shopping. Then we returned to the ship to leave on a trip through SAS. We went to a lecture on poverty and gender issues, and then went to the "slums" to walk around. Even here, I found that what I witnessed was not as horrible as what I was expecting. Maybe it is just hard to see such horrible things when you are surrounded by such beautiful, kind people. After returning to the ship and having dinner, I was exhausted after my last three nights of barely any sleep. I decided to stay in for the night, and take it easy.
The last day in Chennai, my friend Yumika was supposed to be returning from her own homestay, and we had made plans to go to one of the famous Indian movies we had heard so much about. The film industry in India is huge, and the movies are a grand experience: people clap, boo at the characters, everything. We were both excited to be going. However, the time she was supposed to meet me came and went, and I sat on the ship, wondering what had happened. Finally it was the time that we had agreed that if she weren't there, I would go do something on my own. (I later found out that she hadn't stood me up - it was a situation beyond her control).
However, all my friends were on trips or already out in the city. I went and sat next to the gangway, waiting for a group of people that I would ask to join (I actually did this in Brazil, also, and it worked out well then). After sitting there for about 45 minutes with no prospects (I didn't feel like asking the group of snobby sorority girls, the professors, or the guys who were discussing about how their time in India so far had consisted of getting drunk and passing out on the beach. I figured if I went with the first or last group I listed, some of us would not end up coming back to the ship alive� and I don't mean me).
Finally, I saw my friend Jon walking out with another girl I knew. I jumped up, asked if I could join them, and set out into the city for the final day. We went to Spenser's, the mall in Chennai, where we met up with an Indian boy that my friends had introduced to me the day before. We shopped around a little, and went to an Internet caf�, and then returned to the ship. Right as I walked into the port area, Yumika and two other friends were walking out, so I turned around and went right back to Spenser's again. Today was the only time that I had actually gone somewhere and seen other SAS kids, maybe because I hadn't gone to the mall before now, but it was swarming with them!
When we got back to the dock, Yumika had taken out 40 rupees to give the rickshaw driver (which is a little less than a dollar) in addition to what we had agreed on, when a woman ran over and snatched the money from her and ran about ten feet away. She stopped, looked at us, and counted the money. As we got out of the rickshaw she ran into the street and then away. It wasn't a big deal, it was only 40 rupees, and the lady definitely needed it more than we did. But it was a surprise how quickly it happened and it was kind of sad to see. Actually, the end of our last day was the only time since we were in India that the harbor had had a large amount of people in it. It wasn't as many as they had warned us about, but there were some children begging and pushy people trying to sell us things or get into their rickshaws.
So, I left India. I left it without the feelings that my life would never be the same again. I left without the feelings that I had witnessed horrible atrocities. I left it without the images of dirty children begging me for change haunting my dreams. I left with a feeling of guilt that I did not feel these things. It changed me as much as every port has� but it was not the change I had expected. I left thinking that I would like to return someday� for many reasons. Considering I hadn't been sure I wanted to go the first time, that was a surprise to me. I left India with my shoes� the extra pair of old shoes that I had brought, expecting to be so filthy I would throw them out. I laughed, thinking my shoes had been dirtier on my safari
So, I guess I do need more time to evaluate my feelings of India, just like they told me I would. I need to evaluate why I didn't have those experiences - did I just not witness what other people did, did it not affect me the same way, or was everything simply exaggerated beforehand? It's almost as if no one was willing to admit India hadn't affected them like everyone said it would, so they played along, telling their horror stories and exaggerating their experiences. Interestingly enough, the majority of people I have talked to seem to feel the same as I do� and I know that this ship is not full of heartless, uncaring people. So, I guess I'll just have to wait and see�
I hope you are all well, and you're staying warm and safe during the Colorado blizzards. (By the way, thanks to the THREE people who all sent me pictures/comics of snow "just in case you forgot what it looks like").
Only six weeks until I'm back. I can't believe it is that soon!
Best wishes,
Christina