Mary called yesterday afternoon ( our time) to give us a quick re-cap of the visit to South Africa, which she loved. She said that she was up early (5:00am) the day that they arrived and loved seeing the lights and sunrise as they pulled into the beautiful port ( Mary is a photographer).
She said that they did a lot of shopping, went to a 4 star restaurant for dinner- had drinks, a wonderful meal and desserts and the bill with the tip was only around $20. She also went on the Amy Beihl trip which was amazing and the winelands.Mary said that she spends a lot of time with Kim from Flushing and Meghan from MA. She also mentioned Tamara and Becca.
She said that ship life is great. The rumors are rampant- but she seemed confident that the staff had a "plan". She mentioned that any student not going on a SAS sponsored trip had to complete a form with information with how they could be reached if the ship had to leave early. ( Just as an aside, my older daughter was on the F00 trip when the USS Cole was bombed and within days they trip was diverted from the Turkey, Croatia and Egypt destinations and continued on to the Kenya, South Africa, Brazil route. The "parents' trip" was to Turkey that year, so lots of plans had to be changed quickly, but it all worked out and Kate was happy with the new itinerary - young people are very flexible.)
Mary is looking forward to the Olympics. She was a coach for synchronized swimming in high school and hopes to get the boys on the floor involved in a routine. GO RED SEA !
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Tanzania
She had a great time on her safari ( I think that it was MOM9). She said that they saw four of the "big five" - whatever that means? She also said that that it will probably be the last time - for a long time that SAS stops in Dar Es Salaam - it was somewhat of a disastrous port.
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Tanzania
I am back with my safari report safe and sound. We arrived in Dar Es Salaam early on Sunday morning and soon after me and 30 of my closest friends and faculty members left for the airport to fly to Nairobi. That evening we all went for dinner to the world famous "Carnivore" restaurant, kind of a scary name for a girl who would prefer chicken or fish over steak, but it was one of the coolest restaurants I have ever been to. As the name suggests it is pretty much a feast of game meat. As the dinner began waiters walked around with meat on a sword, they told you what it was and then cut a slice and put it on your plate, there really was no deciding if you wanted it or not. The meal started off with chicken, easy enough, then we moved on to gazelle, hartebeest, eland, oryx, ostrich, and zebra. I am happy to say that I tried each and everyone, and enjoyed them all, I figured that this would be my one and only chance to eat zebra so I might as well go for it. The next day we realized why they took us there on the first night, we probably would not have been too keen on eating all the animals had we seen them earlier in the same day.
Monday morning we all got in our 7 person safari vans and Albert, our guide, drove us 5 hours to the Maasai Mara game reserve. The roads between Nairobi and the reserve must be the reason why SUV's were built, winter in New England hardly warrants 4 wheel drive anymore. They were a "bit" bumpy, or what Albert called "The Kenyan Massage." The fact that we got just 1 flat tire was an accomplishment. We drove right through the Great Rift Valley (for those of you who are geologically unaware (like myself) its where two plates of the earth's surface are diverging from each other, and in hundreds of years it will no longer be part of the continent of Africa). It was an absolutely amazing site. We finally arrived at the Mara Sopa lodge, which was a beautiful hotel right in the game reserve looking over the reserve. Soon after we settled in we left for our first game drive. We started off seeing zebra, wildebeest, impalas, and gazelle, which was all amazing to see. After we drove a little more through the park among the trees we saw some heads popping up and there were the giraffes. It was so amazing to see these animals in their natural environment; we had to keep telling ourselves this was not a zoo. Later in the afternoon we stopped our van no more than 10 feet from five lions relaxing in the sun, a little too close for comfort. And as we are driving through a giant herd of buffalo Albert let us know that the buffalo were some of the most dangerous animals in the reserve (thanks for driving us right through a herd!)Later in the evening we saw some hyenas feeding on scraps of food and bones. The entire day was like the Lion King brought to life.
On Tuesday we all woke up at 5:00am for a game drive before breakfast. On this drive we found about 10 lion cubs from two different mothers waiting for their breakfast to return. They were so cute, but I am not sure it would be too easy to get them back on the ship. We then parked the safari van in the middle of about 15 elephants making their way across the grass. As they started to get a little too close we had to move quickly because there were a few baby elephants, which the parents are very protective of and if they came any closer we might not have made it back to the lodge. We saw plenty more lions, giraffes, baboons, gazelle, and zebra and later in the day we were lucky enough to see a leopard. That afternoon we visited a Maassai village, the Maasai are an ethnic group in East Africa, who, for the most part have resisted the transition to a western way of life. We got a chance to go in their homes made from cow dung, and they demonstrated traditional dances. We flew back to Dar Es Salaam early Wednesday evening. The port was as my mom described "a nail biter"
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India
I just received a call from Mary. Her group is now in Delhi and she said that the hotel is gorgeous. They saw the Taj yesterday and then again early this morning - magnificent! She mentioned being with Jana, Lauren ( from Boston) and Eric Kimmell. She told me that she had a long skirt made there and she didn't have enough cash and Eric was kind enough to lend her some money until they got back to the hotel THANKS ERIC!
She also said that a group of them decided to "dine out" at Pizza Hut and it was the BEST pizza that she's ever had. ( She did mention to me that most of the food that she's had in India so far has been bread, rice and potatoes( and Luna Bars) and she feels fine. She knew about the President's speech tonight,but not the CDC report. She sounded more anxious about the speech than the illness.
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Inida
On the first day of the voyage the dean told us �India will assault you,� I have discovered there really is no other way to describe it. From the moment I stepped off the ship, India assaulted every one of my senses. The sounding horns of cars, motorcycles, and rickshaws alike all swerving in and out of traffic lanes, the tastes of all the different foods in the north and the south, the smells so strong and sometimes nauseating, the feeling of the overwhelming heat and dirt against my skin, and some of the most depressing sites of poverty I have ever seen.
I spent my final day in Chennai in the markets shopping and just taking it all in. I went out in the late afternoon with a friend to hand out some of the 350 lollipops I brought on the ship. It was so wonderful to see the smiles on the kids� faces, we stopped to play with a group of 3 kids, despite the language barrier we had so much fun clapping, jumping, and laughing together. I witnessed the most heartbreaking scene of my India experience as I was entering the port area to board the ship. There was a group of 3 kids who were walking down the street with us and we all waved goodbye to each other, they turned around and started asking the next group of SAS students walking in the port for some treats or money and I looked back and saw a police officer picking them up and throwing the kids into a police car. My heart sank as I heard them scream, it was so hard to turn away knowing that there was nothing I could do.
India was definitely a country of contrast, the joy and colors with the celebration of Holi mixed with starving children passing off their food to their parents, and the peace and serenity in the temples of such a spiritual community, mixed with death defying rides in rickshaws swerving just inches away from trucks, motorcycles, and cars.
Between SARS and the war there are many strained faces in the administration office and I am confident they will make the best decisions with our safety in mind. They do not seem to be too concerned with the way other countries will receive us. Every port we have been to I continue to be amazed at people�s ability to separate people from the government. People are aware that we are not the ones making the decisions of the government and they don�t blame us for the decisions being made. I am really impressed by this as I feel like in the US if we meet someone from another country we tend to associate the actions of one�s government with that person.
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Ship Life
First off, on my first itinerary it said "Itinerary subject to change"...we experienced that twice before we even got on the boat with Venezuela and Tanzania and I think that people embraced the changes. I was expecting that there might be changes - between Kate's voyage and the tensions that were running high with Iraq before we left. I understand that people are a little disappointed, I am too, I was looking forward to seeing the Great Wall and celebrating my birthday in Hong Kong, but things change.
We have already been to 5 amazing countries, that most people will never have the opportunity to see and then people are complaining we can't go to some countries when there are hundreds of people sick and dying, and here we are saying poor us we don't get to go to all these places, not to mention the fact that there is a war going on. When I step back I realize that we are some of the luckiest people in the world and instead of being unhappy with these changes maybe we should embrace and be thankful for the fact that we are safe, healthy, and we are so fortunate to be on the most amazing journey of our lives. I am 20 years old, I have an entire lifetime ahead of me to go back and visit these places. I remember saying to someone in Brazil that I was having so much fun that if Brazil was our last stop I would go home happy. Personally, I am not going to let a change in itinerary spoil the rest of my trip, I am going to Nagasaki next and I can't wait!
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