This is the first time that I've checked email. They have a cybercafe in the hotel and its pretty cheap. Yeah right now the weather sucks. It's overcast, and drizzling outside so no one is at the beach. Yesterday it was beautiful outside though. It was probably in the 80's I laid out on the beach but I missed some spots when I used my suntan lotion and half my body is burned. We went into town which was ok but its really small. We went to a couple of clubs yesterday but they were both dead. They said it was their off season. Our hotel is rather empty too, although we have met some other semester at sea students who are staying here. We've met quite a few S & S students walking around. So far things are good, we got extra keys and they don't know four people are staying here and my roomates are really cool. Our hotel is nicer than a lot of other hotels I've seen but it could use some redecorating. It has a 70's motif to it and yesterday I got stuck in the elevator, but it really wasn't that bad. We're all going to go snorkeling sometime soon and I'd like to go kayaking sometime while we're here.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
yeah we met up with Vinney, we are all at an internet cafe in the middle of town. We actually went to the Atlantis yesterday. It was the largest and nicest hotel I have ever seen. It's gigantic and very cool. Unfortunately they have security guards by their beach and pool and you have to have a room key or a wrist band to use their facilities so that ended that. But, I was hanging out at the Towne hotel yesterday and the girl from the Atlantis stopped by to meet up with a friend and all of us went to a club.
It was the same club I went to on Friday when no one was there, when we went yesterday there were hundreds of people there. At 2:00 in the morning a huge fight broke out and people were being thrown off the balcony on the second floor and landing on the bar below. Then they called security and the police and twenty minutes later a fight broke out between them and we could here gunfire outside.
As soon as everything was settled we left and on our way out another fight broke out right behind us and this guy was just jump kicking people down the stairs. We got a taxi ride home but he wasn't actually a taxi and we think he was drunk because he was swerving all over the road. But we made it home ok.
I still have three other roommates, the hotel isn't on to us but they are on to Vinney, three people tried checking into their room and it wasn't under either of their names.
That's the update.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CUBA
Well I�ve been on the SS. Universe Explorer for five days now and have already seen Cuba. I don�t know where to begin so I�ll start off with the Bahamas and work my way up to today. Well the Bahamas could have been a lot better. The weather was cold and overcast for most of my visit. A couple of days it rained. On the plus side I had awesome roommates who I hang out with on the ship. We met like ten other people in our hotel who were also going on semester at sea so we hung out with them as well. For those who have never been to the Bahamas before let me just tell you that it is not as tropical or as secluded it as it may appear to seem in all the travel brochures. The island we were on had an extraordinary high crime rate with most crimes relating to drugs. Two people got murdered on our island while I was there. The local authorities suspect it was related to drugs. On Sunday night I went to a club with some other people where all the locals hung out. We were the only tourists there. It was reggae night and we heard this not so good dj. Then at two in the morning a huge fight broke out between the security guards and the police. Someone got stabbed on the second floor and fell down on the bar that was on the first floor. That�s when we decided to go. As we were leaving a larger fight broke out where the people behind us were jump kicking the people behind them down the stairs. Nevertheless I was happy to leave the Bahamas.
I checked into my room on the ship very early and got my entire luggage and was completely settled by 11:00am. I�m happy to report that we got one of the largest rooms on the ship. I have an outside triple with a desk and a couch. My roommates are very cool and we get along extremely well. They are both interesting guys, Will is from New York and goes to school in Chicago. His grandpa use to own the Atlanta Braves and sold most of his shares to Ted Turner a few years ago. My other roommate is Pat and he�s also from New York. We didn�t do much the first day except settle in and meet other people. Life on the ship is excellent. They tell you it�s not a cruise but that�s what it feels like. Food on the ship is much better than cafeteria food or anything I could make. The staff mainly consists of Philippino men who have been working here for years to support their family back home. I feel rather uncomfortable with the situation where they clean our rooms, change our sheets, make our beds, and do our laundry. They also take our trays; plates and silverware after were done eating. It makes me feel like we�re the rich white kids and they are the oppressed servants.
On the second day we had what the administrators called Cuba boot camp. We learned as much about Cuba as we possibly could because we would be arriving there the next day. We had lecture starting at 8:30 in the morning and ending at 6:00 at night. It was very hard to sit still through all of it but it was worth it. I learned so much about Cuba that I hadn�t already known before. Although Fidel Castro might be a dictator, he�s a dictator who overthrew an oppressive dictator named Batiste. Under Batiste�s rule seventy percent of the land were owned my foreigners, mainly Americans. When Castro first came to power he was very popular world wide including the U.S. Castro overthrew that government and nationalized everything to give jobs to the people. While not everyone agrees with socialism I see why he did it. Relations between the U.S. and Cuba went sour during the Cuban missile crisis where Eisenhower started an embargo against Cuba. Cuba�s main industry was growing sugar cane. With the embargo Cuba then was under the support of Soviet states. There economy expanded and turned into a mixed economy where it was part capitalist and part socialist. Since they could not trade with the U.S. they had to import most of their dairy from Holland and their cars are from Europe as well. Most of there cars are old �50s cars from when the embargo wasn�t in place. When the Soviet block busted in the early �90s their economy went to Hell. It was hard for them to sell their sugar cane or import basic necessities. Some things you may not know about Cuba is that it participates in doctors without borders and has an incredible medical school where people from all over the world attend. Fidel Castro is a huge supporter of Nelson Mandela and was against apartheid in South Africa. I watched a video about Castro on the ship and saw a clip where Mandela said Castro was one of his biggest supporters and a great friend. This past October, the U.N. voted on lifting the embargo against Cuba. 179 countries voted for the U.S. stopping the embargo against Cuba and three was for, the U.S., Israel, and the Marshall Islands. Just recently, Jimmy Carter who just received the Nobel Peace Prize said the U.S. should stop the embargo against Cuba. Sorry about the history lesson but Cuba fascinates me.
I got to Cuba on Thursday and toured the city with some people that I met. It was a big deal that we went to Cuba, we were videotaped live coming off the ship, and I can�t even begin to tell you how unbelievable that was. They had a band playing American songs with American flags everywhere. Since it�s a Communist country they only have two television stations and both are controlled by the government. They only have one newspaper for a country that�s eleven million people, which is also controlled by the government. We were on the front page every single day. In fact, my face was on the front page on Saturday but I haven�t seen the paper yet. We walked around Havana for a bit and we hung outside the Capitol where we got approached by a woman trying to sell us cigars. We told her we weren�t interested but then she invited us to her house. We decided it would be cool to see how Cubans live. We went inside her house, which was just this tiny cell with the blinds shut. As soon as we entered her children left and her husband came out with a black suitcase. He pulled these cigars out of the suitcase and tried to sell us them. We politely said that we weren�t interested. After that we got a tour of the Capitol, which was awesome.
Inside their Capitol they have the third largest indoor statue in the world. We met a local guy on the street who just wanted to show us around. He took us to a really good local restaurant where we had the traditional beans and rice for lunch. We continued to walk the streets of Havana where we passed this beat up old building that had music coming out of it. We stopped by to listen and it was a Rumba band playing, they invited us inside to listen and dance. I bought one of their CD�s and danced with their 80-year-old grandmother. Local kids from the street came in as well and danced with us as well. Afterwards, the leader of the band invited us to his apartment to meet his mom. We went to his apartment; let me tell you my dorm room is nicer than any of the other houses/apartments in Cuba I�ve seen. We talked for about an hour or two. He told me about his uncle who lives in San Francisco who he hasn�t heard from in over two years. Apparently that number is blocked when they call him. He gave me his uncles phone number and address and wants me to find him when I go back to the U.S.; he gave me his contact information as well. Later that night I went out to dinner and had a three-course meal for six bucks. If you don�t know how much that is in Cuba, the average worker gets paid about $8-12 a month, that�s how much I make in an hour. Since it�s a Communist government they get their food from the government. A typical family of four gets four small pieces of chicken breast, for eggs, and a Kilo of rice which is suppose to last them a month, and enough milk and other food to last them a week. After that I went to a bar and had a couple mojito�s with some friends. We took a taxi back and it only cost us two dollars.
The next day I went to the U.S. Special interest section in the Swiss Embassy to hear some American diplomats talk on the relations between Cuba and the U.S., since we do not recognize Cuba we do not have an embassy of our own but we have what�s called a special interest section in the Swiss embassy which is larger than the rest of the Swiss embassy or any other embassy in Cuba. Hearing the Diplomats makes me want to consider the Foreign Service as a career; you get awesome benefits as well as travel the world and meet top political leaders. After the "Embassy" we went to hear Fidel Castro speak. He had a reception for us starting at 3:00. He did not even begin talking until 6:00. Everything was recorded live on their television. He talked for about an hour before we could ask him a question. One it came to question and answer time, a girl asked Castro on what his thoughts about Venezuela were and what it could do to have stability. He talked for three hours going off on tangents and didn�t really answer the question. He was so boring that people started to leave. I love Cuba and its people but I don�t really like Castro. He has some good qualities but many more bad ones. He�s been in power for forty years and its time for him to leave. After we heard Castro speak we got free books that he has written on various political topics. Then he invited us to his private estate where we got to party with some other Cuban college students. All I can say is WOW; it was the nicest party I have ever been to. We were at this huge room with marble floors, gigantic swimming pool, and food galore. They had a Cuban Rumba band an open bar and ten tables of food. Right when I got there I had to go to the bathroom. The bathroom was incredible I must say, green marble with wooden doors on the stalls. I went to the bathroom and had to go number two. Well can you believe it they didn�t have any paper towels or toilet paper and I found this out after I went to the bathroom, so I�m sitting on the stall and I forgot to bring my emergency toilet paper, all I had were Fidel Castro�s books that he gave us. That�s right, I ripped the pages out and used Fidel Castro�s books that he had given us to wipe my ass! Who else can say that?
My last day in Cuba was very much a relaxed day. I was suppose to see the Bay of Pigs but I accidentally overslept. So I went to the market with a friend, bought a painting, and went out to lunch. After that we went to some art galleries and took a horse and carriage ride around Havana. Then we left that night where an entire crowd waved and yelled goodbye. It was sad to go. I love Cuba and its people. Their spirit is so admirable. The dean told us that Cuba is one of the safest ports we will be going to and the dean was right, it was such a beautiful and safe country.
Well it�s Sunday night and I start classes tomorrow. Today has not been such a good day. I�m seasick and have been throwing up all day. But being sick is very minor in comparison to the things I�ve done.
I haven't taken pictures of my room yet but I promise I will. My room is actually maybe a little bit larger than some of the other triples. We have two beds on the floor and one bunked and we have a couch! Although our bathroom is kind of small but we only use it to go to the bathroom and to shower. The main deck and promenade deck have square windows, I live on the upper deck which is
below the main deck so I have a porthole.
My one roommate's name is Bryan Duffy but goes by Will. My other roommate is Pat, but I forgot his last name. I can find out though. I'm actually really good friends with my roommates especially Will, they are both a lot of fun.
You're right I shaved my head today. It's the first time that I have ever shaved my head and I must say, I have a nice symmetrical head!
I no longer have seasickness, I think when I threw up the first time it was because of food poisoning but I'm not sure. I did take the Meclizine pills but they knock you out. At our medical center here they give out free Meclizine pills.
Things are good on the ship. I love my classes. Core starts at 9:20 in the morning and by the time lecture is done half the class has fallen asleep. The other day our Dean fell asleep. It's hard having morning classes because the ship rocks from side to side and it puts you to sleep, everyone is experiencing fatigue and I mean everyone. On top of that we've gone through two time changes
in the past week. Me and my roommates take a nap at least once a day.
We had a quick meeting about the Challenger with a moment of silence and that was it. It's kind of hard to be emotional about it because we have no television, in fact we didn't hear about it until the afternoon. How is it like there?
p.s. In three days I'll be in Brazil, are you jealous?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I just sent you guys a good four page email. Did you get it? Anyway, I think I answered all of your questions in the email. As for my friends, there names are Amy, Danielle, Ryan, Melinda, Constantine, Mark, Abby, Aaron, Noah, Lora, and of course my roommates Will and Pat. I am still trying to send pictures of my roommates and room. I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Life on the ship
has been rather busy. How are things back home?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BRAZIL
It's time for the Brazilian update. Life on the ship has been very relaxing and quite pleasurable. We had a ten-day stretch between Cuba and Brazil. We don't have any weekends so there's class every single day. When we're at sea for more than ten days they do give us a day off. For our day off we celebrated Neptune Day. Neptune Day is a celebration for all those crossing the Equator for the first time.
The festivities started in the morning (which you know isn't my best time of the day) andeveryone starts off wearing their swimming suit. We formed a huge line and got fish guts and oatmeal poured on top of us. Then we got hosed off in the swimming pool and as we exited the swimming pool we had to kiss a fish. After that, we bowed down to King Neptune (a staff member dressed in white robes and a tin foil crown) and got knighted. It is also a tradition to shave your head after crossing the Equator for the first time. I know that you're thinking, that I didn't have the guts to do it but I did. It's the first time I've ever had my hair this short. I was kind of afraid because I didn't know what my head looked like. I have to say though that I've been getting a lot of compliments and have been told that I have a nice symmetrical head.
The waves going from Cuba to Brazil are the largest so near the end I couldn't wait to get off the ship. On top of that, the food really sucks at the end of each voyage because they are running out of fresh food. One meal they used left over sausage from lunch and combined with a meat dish from dinner. That dish consisted of pork, chicken, and beef. I love meat just not all mixed together like that. It's been extremely hot and temperatures have been in the 90's. With the heat air conditioning is a necessity, but of course as our luck would have
it the boiler broke and for the whole week the air conditioning wasn't working properly at all. We have our thermostat set at 55 (the lowest it will go) and we still have to sleep with the covers off. All these things didn't matter because I was far too excited to go to Brazil.
We arrived on Wednesday, but because the boiler was broken we had to conserve energy so the boat was running slower than normal. This means that we got there a little bit later than expected, but it wasn't that big of a deal. We landed in Salvador and that's where I spent my first day. Everyone talked about how unsafe it is and how the street vendors are too pushy. I have to say though that I didn't feel uncomfortable at all. I love Brazilians (except for taxi drivers).
When we got there we went to the old part of town. I went to an Internet cafe to check my email quickly and then explored the rest of the town. We went to the famous Sao Francisco church which is known for it's Baroque architecture. Then we went shopping and hit all of the little stores. We went to this one place that sold homemade liquor. It was great, we got samples of all the different types of liquor they make. We got samples of coconut, chocolate, white chocolate, banana, mint, and pineapple liquors. We were little buzzed after that but far from drunk or even tipsy. I wanted to buy the chocolate liquor but we can't bring alcohol back on the ship. After touring Salvador we decided to go out for a nice dinner.
The port recommended us the best restaurant in the area. I went to this restaurant with eight of my friends, which was thirty minutes outside of Salvador. I had the meal of my life at this restaurant. I had to fill up since I had crappy food three days prior. It was all you can eat so I got lobster, mussels, caviar, cheese, salad, filet mignon, top sirloin, roasted chicken, dessert, and cocktails for $15. Obviously this wasn't like an "Old Country Buffet". $15 in the U.S. would barely get you a couple of cocktails. The dollar goes extremely far in Brazil. It was an all you can eat buffet, and waiters came to your table with skewers of different kinds of meat. The service was great; the waiters brushed the crumbs off our table after every course. After that we went to this huge outdoor mall where they played music in the streets. We danced and went to a club where they played Brazilian music. I got home at around two and I left for Lencois the following morning at 7:30.
It was a seven-hour bus ride before we got to Lencois so I got to sleep on the bus. I really had no idea what to expect about Lencois, I didn't know how to pronounce it, and there wasn't a lot of information about it on the Internet. We got there and it was incredible. Nothing short of being one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. Our hotel was the nicest one in the whole town (which only has a population of 6,000 people). Lencois is a tourist destination but a very small one so it still has a lot of its charm. There were barely any tourists when I was there. Lencois seems to attract a lot of hippie Brazilians, it kind of reminds of Boulder.
Our hotel was small but extraordinarily beautiful. There were palm trees everywhere and since it's so hot in Lencois the hotel is completely open. My room was a good size for a hotel room and it overlooked a natural rockslide, which are basically long pieces of jagged rock with water flowing on top of it. We went for a hike later that day on hilly terrain with rocks that were billions of years old. Diamonds were discovered in Lencois twenty years ago so diamond miners destroyed almost all of the plant and animal life to find them. Much of what was destroyed has been regrown; in fact you can't even tell that anything was cut down. At the end of our hike we ended up at a natural rockslide. A rockslide is just water that flows over rocks. The rocks are so old that they've molded together and they are called conglomerate rocks. Since water has been flowing on top of them for such a long time the rocks are completely smooth and you can slide on top of them. The rockslide ends into this rock pool. It was beautiful and with 90 degrees temperatures the water felt great.
When we got back we were starving. The hotel provided all of our meals for us. The food was out of this world; it was the best hotel food I have ever had. I had many ethnic Brazilian dishes as well as all sorts of exotic Brazilian fruit. That night we walked around town and went to a bar and drank beer with some friends. Lencois is extremely safe. Beer in Brazil is cheaper than milk. Drinking in Brazil is communal so when you but a bottle of beer it is a large bottle of beer for you and your friends and it only costs 75 Reais cents which is about 25 cents in the U.S. That night we fell asleep with our patio door open so we could here the rockslide.
The next day we went on a long hike on a deep river canyon to Sossego falls. Sossego Falls in Portuguese means hidden waterfall. The hike is about three hours each way. Our field book said strenuous and they were not exaggerating by any means. The hike is unlike any hike I've ever been on. The best way to describe it would be nature's playground but no one knows that it's there. It was awesome being secluded in nature. The river is a clear brown color not because it's dirty or muddy but because water passes through natural tealeaves on the ground. It's safe to drink the water, and believe it or not it also tastes like tea. We had to scale a lot of rocks and one of them I actually fell
off of and landed on my crotch. I think that was the most testicular pain I have ever been in, and believe me girls you have no idea what it feels like. It really does hurt. After three hours we finally got to Sossega Falls. There were only a couple of other Brazilians and the rest were semester at sea kids. The waterfall was amazing. I went cliff diving and got to swim underneath the waterfall. There was a slippery rock bed near the waterfall and I slipped on it and twisted my ankle. That kind of hurt, it's still a little bruised but not as bad as it used to be. After an hour or so we left and made the same hike back. We went out again that night to the local bars and had a great time.
The next day there was another hike to a mountain but I and some friends decided to do independent travel and go horseback riding. I love horseback riding but it had been some time since I had done it. We went on these huge open trails with trees and occasionally hit some open fields. About 1/3 of the
way we ended up at another river with some rocks. I didn't bring a bathing suit so I just laid out in the sun. It turns out that I'm actually pretty good at horseback riding. At one point I noticed that my saddle was a little loose but didn't say anything because I didn't think it was a big deal. On the way back I decided to race my friend Jimale and we were both going faster than a gallop. We made a left turn but since my saddle was a little loose it fell to the right and I was on the side of the horse instead of on top of it. I was right next to a dirt wall so the horse was scraping my back against the wall and cut it up pretty good. Then I didn't want to get bucked by the horse so I decided to throw myself off the horse but I was still holding onto the reigns and got dragged on the ground a little bit. My back got cut and scraped but it wasn't that serious. Our guide was far behind us and didn't see anything that
happened. Some guy on a horse in the opposite direction helped my put my saddle back on. Even though I got hurt and scraped up my back I still had a great time. That was our last day in Lencois and we went back home.
After coming back from Lencois we still had one more day in Brazil. We went shopping in Salvador and went into the pricey Jewelry stores. Since we were Americans they assumed we had money and gave us a private tour of the stores including showing us their private collection and art gallery. We got the royal treatment and you know they wouldn't do that to us in America. I did end up buying a stone for Alicia, one of my greatest friends. I bargained with the jeweler and got a great price. Then we went to a soccer game in the afternoon. It was a championship game but surprisingly there weren't a lot of spectators in the stands. It was a lot of fun though, I met some cool local people, they gave me a flag to hold for Bahia's (the region I was in) team. Then I went out to dinner one last time because I know that I wouldn't be having good food for a while.
That concludes my trip to Brazil, I'm sure I'm leaving out some minor details but I can assure you I had a great time and I can't wait to go back to Lencois. As for life on the ship, classes have been well. We had our first geography exam and I did alright, I got a B+, which was a 42 out of 50, and the overall average was a 37 out of 50. I think they might curve it or something. I'm not really sure. I'm also in Comparative Politics and we are reading a fascinating book about modern slavery. Did you know that there are 23 million people enslaved worldwide? It's a very interesting class, probably my favorite and my professor is so cool, she's a human's rights lawyer. She teaches law in Africa and she has experience with women's right and is working for the legalization of same sex marriage. She's a pretty hip lady for being from North Carolina.
I'm in a cultural anthropology class and right now we are looking at the cultural differences of language. Our professor use to live in Kenya so he is very experienced with African culture, which is a plus since I'll be in South Africa in two days. I'm also in a Geology course where we learn about global warming, environmental ethics, and public policy. Since I still needed a science credit and I'm policy oriented (remember I'm a poli sci major) I couldn't of picked a better class. My professor is a young guy and he has his wife and two year old boy on board. He's a very cool guy and a pretty strong environmentalist.
Every week we have an inter-port lecturer from every country that we are going to and lecture on their country in our geography class. This week our inter-port lecturer is a historian who use to work with Nelson Mandela and a huge political activist against apartheid in the 90's. During apartheid in South Africa the security police were afraid she was becoming too intelligent for her own good (she's Indian, and blacks and Arabs were looked down upon in South Africa) and arrested her numerous times for no reason so she left the country and became a political refugee in the United States. While in the U.S. she got her Master's or Ph. D I can't remember which one at Yale. I didn't know much about apartheid in South Africa but hearing this women speak truly inspired me. She talked about the gross human rights abuses that went on during apartheid. She said that whites would come and take their land for neighborhoods and forced them to move. They were not allowed to hold political office and their children's schools didn't even have a roof while the white school next door had air-conditioning, two swimming pools, a hockey field, with many other amenities.
Well that concludes my email. I'll be in South Africa in a couple of days and I'm so excited. My tentative plan is to attend an AIDS in development lecture on the first day. Then I'm doing the Amy Biehl foundation. Amy Biehl is a woman who was murdered during the struggle against apartheid. Her parents set up a foundation in her name, which goes towards the education and public facilities to local children and citizens. I'm also visiting an African township and hiking Table Mountain. On the last day I'm going kloofing, which is hiking, rappelling, and swimming on a river/canyon.
Now if you've read the email I applaud your patience. I've been very busy with school and such so that's why it has taken me such a long time to get back to you all.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It has been long overdue since my last bulk (yes I apologize) email. If you are not up to date I was in Cape Town, South Africa February 19-22. Cape Town was amazing; my only regret is that I wish I had a couple of more days to do everything that I wanted.
My first day I went on a Semester at Sea faculty directed program. The program was called AIDS in Development in South Africa. The program started at around 11 o'clock and we docked at 9. So I had a couple of hours to kill in Cape Town. Let me tell you, you think you were in Europe or in the South of France. This definitely did not look or feel like Africa. The shops by the port were all trendy boutiques and mainstream stores that can be found in the US. The cars were luxury vehicles and I even saw a couple of Ferraris.
Apartheid officially ended in 1994, but it sure doesn't feel like it. Everything is still segregated; only difference is that it's not legally enforced. Yes, I experienced all of this in my first two hours so you could only imagine what my time was like after that. I left for the AIDS in development program, which was at a Presbyterian Church in Guguletu, a South African township. The church is also an AIDS clinic and the finest facility in the whole township. Guguletu is approximately 350,000 people and the houses consisted of shacks and simple rectangular shaped cinder block designs.
At this township, approximately one in five are HIV+. When we first got to the church we attended a small lecture by the pastor who was also head of the AIDS clinic. He gave us the history behind the clinic as well as the gravity of the situation. People in Guguletu were forced into this township during the Apartheid regime. The apartheid regime is known as the most far right legal separation system of government where people's rights are determined on the color of their skin. Whites have the most rights with coloreds as a close second. Asians and blacks have close to no rights. The pastor told us that during apartheid many Africans were displaced thus losing generations of genealogical records. He believes that African families don't know what it means to be a family anymore because of the white people moving them around from township to township whenever they wanted their land.
The pastor also told us about the current administrations stance on AIDS. Mbeki, the current president and Mandela's successor, was quoted as saying that he does not recognize a link between HIV and AIDS. Before Mbeki was president, HI V positive people were given anti-retroviral medication, which would weaken the strength of the virus. Anti-retrovirals cut the transmission in pregnant women to child by 50%. This medication is also given to rape victims right after they have been raped to stop any possible infection if the rapists were HIV+.
Since Mbeki and the Minister of Health question the link between HIV and AIDS, something we've proven in the 80's, the administration has cut all funding for anti-retrovirals for AIDS sufferers and million of babies that could have been spared the virus are now being infected because expected mothers cannot afford the anti-retroviral medication. The pastor as well as our professors told us about this horrific baby rape myth and AIDS. South Africa use to be a colony of England and when the English had syphilis outbreaks, the whites would have sex with a virgin as an antidote for syphilis. Well, some Africans that are HIV+ and are desperate will rape a young child, which they think will get rid of their AIDS. This practice they learned from the English is just a vicious cycle infecting the younger and powerless generation. In fact, the youngest child ever to be raped was recorded in South Africa. It was a newborn baby just nine days old. The church as well as other churches in South Africa have been very proactive on combating AIDS in South Africa, a subject that is very taboo in American churches. The AIDS clinic also educates people in the townships and rural areas by handing out free condoms and demonstrating how to put one on. They also educate people on the virus and the different ways one can become infected. This Presbyterian Church also offers free HIV testing. Going to school at Elm Grove Lutheran AIDS was always something that bad people got, in fact I remember my fifth grade teacher saying that anyone who gets AIDS deserves it because of their lifestyle. Well, they should come here, millions of people are being infected against their will, and the churches are the ones doing something to stop it.
At the AIDS clinic we met others who are HIV+ and they told us their stories and even how they got infected with the virus. Most of them were very upbeat and wore HIV+ t-shirts to show that they have no shame. Their mission is to educate other people on the disease and prevent it from spreading to the younger generation. Most people working at the clinic are HIV+ and mainly women.
From what the pastor told us, most men choose not to get tested because if they find out they are positive they will look weak and look like less of a man. Even though some men are educated about the virus and have access to condoms they prefer not to wear them because it's not manly. If you wear a condom you are being a sissy and it has to be "flesh to flesh". We heard the story of one guy who had two girlfriends who died of AIDS and thought that he did not have it because when he gave blood he saw that his blood was "clean" because it was the color red. As you might know they have an HIV+ character on "Sesame Street" to educate the children on this disease. The only problem is that 65-70% of the population do not own a television and it's the rural Africans that are most at risk. Because of AIDS, the life expectancy will drop from 67 to 49 in the next two years. The average life expectancy in 1998 was 67 so it goes to show you how big and fast this disease is spreading. Half of all 15 year olds will die of AIDS in South Africa. Just imagine all the teenagers you know, they could be schoolmates, nephews, nieces, grandchildren, children, and half of them will die of AIDS. Now that apartheid has ended there is so much promise and future for these children, but sadly because of the AIDS epidemic their future looks rather dismal. Even if they aren't infected with the disease they probably know someone who is.
After visiting the church/AIDS clinic we split up into groups and went into the township and visited the homes of people who were dying of AIDS. The house I went to was a small one-bedroom house with no stove or oven. There were random car parts spread across the yard. This is where Wendy lives with her parents. Wendy is the woman who we visited. She is 32 years old and in the last stages of AIDS and has lesions all over her face and body. She is very thin and can barely keep herself up. She was just recently diagnosed with meningitis. The ten of us went into her living room and we got to ask questions about her condition and her thoughts about the current situation. Her father was also in the room, and when she didn't have enough energy to respond to our questions her father answered on her behalf. Wendy has a seven-year-old son and we asked her if her son has been tested. Sadly, he has not.
In Guguletu, anti-retrovirals are given to 150 people. Remember, 1 in 5 out of 350,000 are infected but only 150 can get anti-retrovirals to weaken the effects and stop it from spreading. The government provides some anti-retrovirals, but they are mainly provided by NGO's and different non-profit organizations. Just think if we all donated just a little how many people could be spared in this region. Wendy told us that the government is cutting off her anti-retroviral medication at the end of this month. Remember, she has meningitis too. We asked if she was upset that the government was cutting off her anti-retrovirals and she said that even if they didn't she couldn't take her medication anyways because you need to take it with food, and she doesn't have any food to eat. The only thing her family has eaten in the past two day were a couple of potatoes fried in three-day-old oil. Her father can't work because he has to stay at home and take care of her. We asked her what there thoughts were on the Mbeki's stance on AIDS. They were outraged; Mbeki is part of the African National Congress political party that all black South Africans vote for. They were both angry that Mbeki has turned his back on them. They feel that the government is extremely corrupt. We asked if Wendy was afraid for the future and that's when she started crying. She was sobbing saying she was afraid for her son to grow up without her mother. At that point, everyone in the room was crying both males and females. I can't remember the last time I cried or felt so sad. The ten of us decided to gather some money together so they could at least buy some food or pay for anti-retrovirals. Anti-retrovirals are only $40 a month, which is nothing to us, but to them it's Wendy's life.
You would think our government or IGOs would do something to make these drugs more affordable but if you can believe it or not American pharmaceutical companies at the latest WTO meeting said they would not give up their patents and make the drugs affordable even though many AIDS activists were at the WTO meeting pleading to make the drugs more accessible. This is the downfall of capitalism; I use to be pro-globalization but not after reading about the WTO and anti-retrovirals in the South African newspaper. One European pharmaceutical company cut the prices of their AIDS medications by 92% to make them more affordable in Africa. One good thing to come out of the Bush administration is that it promised to give $15 billion in aid to Africa to stop this epidemic. Wendy told us that it's only Americans like us who come to visit her home that try to make a difference. She says a white South African has never been found in her township before.
Now you are probably thinking that two and a half pages is a lot to write about one field trip but I was so moved by this program. In many ways I'm glad I went on this trip because it opened my eyes but in some ways I wish I hadn't. Going to Wendy's house still haunts me and I think about it on a daily basis. I've been to AIDS walks before but I can't say that I made it my personal mission to stop this disease nor have I cared that much about this epidemic. Now my life has changed, I want to make a difference any way I can.
Well, after going to the AIDS in Development field trip I decided to hike Table Mountain with my friends in Cape Town. Hiking this mountain was the best way to process my thoughts from everything I had just seen. I hiked it with my friends Mark, Amy, Danielle, and Constantine. I thought hiking in Boulder and Lencois was difficult but this topped them all. The first part of the hike was extremely vertical and required lots of endurance. My friend Amy got sick so she went back down and took the cable car to the top. The whole middle part was ok but we saw signs everywhere telling us to look out for rams. Somewhere near the middle of our hike we got lost and we weren't sure that we were on the right trail. We ran into some people and it turns out we were headed in the right direction. The very end of the trail was so vertical that we had to climb on top of rocks to get to the top. It's called Table Mountain because it's completely flat on top. Once on top you can see both the Atlantic and Indian Ocean. They had a little restaurant on top so after our hike (which took 2 hours) we decided to get some food and drink champagne to celebrate. I have to say, South African champagne kicks ass, way much better than the cheap champagne I bought myself for New Years. We were so beat and it was getting dark that we decided to take the cable car down. We all took a nap for a couple of hours and then later that night we went to a club. This concludes my first day in South Africa.
The second day was more relaxing. In the morning I went with some friends and walked to the market. It was kind of a long walk so we went out to lunch and went to the market afterwards. I got a nice hand crafted wood table for $12 and a traditional African mask for $40. I have no idea how I'm going to get either of those home. After many hours spent at the market we went back to the ship and I ran into some friends who invited me on a helicopter ride. It was my first time ever on a helicopter and worth every penny of it. I got to see all of Cape Town and Table Mountain on our half hour helicopter ride. It was absolutely beautiful. Later that night I went to a musical with some friends entitled "District 6". As I mentioned before, under apartheid, whenever the whites wanted the black African's land they would push them off it and give them little compensation and move them to temporary housing at a township. At the theater we had dinner beforehand, which included some more South African wine. "District 6" is a musical about blacks living in a township being forcibly pushed off their land. Surprisingly, the musical was one of the best musicals I have ever seen. It was sad, funny, and entertaining.
The third day I was in South Africa we decided to take a train to Stellenbrosch and cycle through the wine lands. We started our venture early in the morning because it was over an hour train ride. I went with nine friends and when we finally got to the place where we were renting bikes from they only had two left to rent. Two of my friends ended up renting those two bikes and left their driver licenses as collateral. He gave us directions to another bike rental place to rent more bikes. The second bike we went to was not renting out bikes that day because they were servicing all of them. Finally after walking throughout town we found a place where we could get more bikes.
When we got our bike our friend Melinda just happened to tell us that she has never ridden a bike without training wheels before. In fact she hadn't ridden a bike in the past ten years. So before we could get anywhere we taught her how to ride a bike in front of this pizzeria. When she finally figured it out how to pedal right we started cheering for her. All the South Africans thought we were crazy, I don't think they've ever met anyone our age who doesn't know how to ride a bike. Come to think of it, either do I. Well just shortly on our way to our vineyard my friend Constantine got a flat tire. The rest of the group went on their way and I went back with him to get a different bike. When we went back the rest of the bikes had very little air in the tires so we had to go to a gas station to fill our tires up with air because the bike rental place did not have an air pump. By this time our group is far ahead of us. I had a very romanticized view of what cycling through the wine lands looks like, it's really just biking on the side of the highway to get to the vineyard you want. Well Constantine and I made pretty good progress with our bikes and we passed our friends Chris and Lora. Apparently Chris got a flat tire on his bike too so he and Lora were walking the rest of the way there.
We finally got to Spiers vineyard at 2 o'clock and had lunch. At three o'clock we went to a wine tasting and tasted the wines of the region. The lady directing the wine tasting was so rude to us because we were young that she didn't even acknowledge us. Even though she was extremely rude we still ended up buying wine. It was about 4 o'clock and Chris and Lora had to pick up their drivers licenses at 5. Only problem is that Chris has a flat tire and the last train left at 6 so we didn't have time to walk the bikes back to the rental place and pick up their drivers license. So they left after the wine tasting and called the company to have them pick up the bikes at the vineyard. They left right away for the train station which was nearby.
Meanwhile, I and some other girl were sent back to their bike rental place to go pick up their drivers licenses. The bike place closes at 5 so we had to hurry. The girl I biked with was kind of slow and we were short on time so I asked her where the bike rental place was and passed her. She gave me the wrong directions and I ended up getting lost trying to find this bike rental place. Now I'm starting to panic, the last train leaves at 6 and I have to get to my friends bike rental place to pick up their drivers licenses and still have to return my bike plus I'm lost and as many of you know I'm not very good with directions (and that's probably an understatement). I somehow wound up in this neighborhood and I'm asking everyone for directions to the center of town. No one knows how to speak English except for this man selling vegetables on the side of the road. He gave me directions and I found my way to the center of town. While there I ran into my friends and they went with me to both bike rental shops and we made it to the train station just in time. Later that night we went out to dinner and to another club.
My last day in South Africa I spent it going kloofing. Kloofing includes rappelling down waterfalls, hiking, and boulder hopping. I went with about five of my friends kloofing. For many of them, since they live in big cities on the East coast, this was their first time doing anything kind of outdoorsy. In fact, my friend Constantine didn't know what rappelling was until we were getting ready to put our harnesses on. He got zip lining and rappelling confused. We rappelled down three waterfalls, which was incredible. Rappelling down a mountain is hard but going down a waterfall is even harder because it's
all wet. Surprisingly, I was one of the better ones in my group and I didn't even fall once. Kloofing was the perfect end to a perfect stay in South Africa.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today was the first day since before South Africa that I checked my email. I have been meaning to email you guys with the South African update except I just haven't had time to write it. I like to put a lot of thought into my emails and don't want to write a crappy email. I'm at an internet cafe in Dar es Sallam in Tanzania.
It's kind of scary here. There's a lot of anti American attitudes. Their newspaper yesterday compared Bush to Hitler. Other people were wearing t-shirts with the world trade centers on fire. But those people are the minority. I hang out with kids who live in big cities so they are constantly always looking out for me since I never have had to worry about pick pocketing and what not. Yesterday we got followed by 2 people and we also got yelled at by a police officer with a gun for walking on the wrong side walk. I think he just yelled at us because we are American. We have been telling everyone that we're from Canada. I'm definitely not going to hand out any of my American t-shirts here.
They just had an anti-American protest last week so walking into town is rather nerve racking. Today three guys followed me personally because they saw my money belt and my bag. My friend noticed and we went into a less crowded area and went inside the post office to lose them. 1998 is when the embassy was bombed but the diplomats said terrorism isn't bad in Dar es Dallam, just in Zanzibar so we are not allowed to go there. The SAS crew was robbed at gunpoint last night so they are recommending that all people who are not on a safari to stay on the ship.
I know this all sounds bad but Tanzania is rather enjoyable and I'm looking forward to my safari. I'm doing a three day safari to Mikumi but I don't know what number it is. Mikumi is in a valley between two mountains and its only 4 hours away. This way we have more time to do the safari and less time traveling. Since it's in a valley all the animals are there instead of in the mountains.
I had a lot to do this week so you should expect a South African update soon because I do want to write one.I had a lab, paper, and an exam this week between ports which was only six days. I'm so tired because I haven't been getting any sleep. I'm at an internet cafe and only have 8 minutes left so I have to rap this email up. But I would love to hear from you guys tomorrow. I miss speaking to you guys on the phone. If you can find out which hotel I'm staying in that would be great. If not I'll bring my credit card and I'll call you from the hotel and hang up so you can call me.
Miss you guys,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It may seem like I'm bombarding you all with the emails but I have to get it out of my system now because I have two more exams coming up. During the week between Cape Town and Tanzania we had the un-Olympics. Every hall is split up into seas. I live in the Red Sea and on our day off we had an all day un-Olympics with events and competed against other seas. The events were ping pong, synchronized swimming, soccer, world trivia, improv, make me laugh, male bikini contest, make a swim suit, pie eating, mashed potato carving, chocolate syrup drop, and an obstacle course. Of course as with every Olympic game we had an opening and closing ceremony. The opening ceremony was the night before the games. We had a lip singing show from each sea during the opening ceremony. One sea's color was pink so they all dressed in pink including the men. My Anthropology professor dressed in a pink halter-top and gave quite an amusing lip singing performance. I haven't been able to look at him the same way sense. Our sea and color was Red, and we sang "Great Balls of Fire."
The ship was extraordinarily rocky for the un-Olympics so all the events that were outside changed to indoors including synchronized swimming. My events were world trivia and improv. We didn't score in the top three for either events but in improv we got fourth. Sadly, our sea ended up getting last place. The professor's sea beat us too. But it's not about the competition it's about having fun. We also had a talent show during that week. I have to say I am quite impressed with the amount of talent we have on the ship, I feel so out of touch with the creative side of my brain when I look at some of the other students. Being on the ship was rather rough because the waves were so big. Luckily the waves have subsided now. The great thing about being on the ship though is seeing the incredible sunsets over the ocean, they are truly out of this world.
I signed up for the three-day safari to Mikumi national park in Tanzania. Most people signed up for a four or five-day safari but I thought I would get bored watching animals that many days in a row. Before we left we had a safari briefing with a safari director who was on board. All the safaris went through the same company. At first they told us that for our safari we would be staying in a five star hotel and eat dinner there, as well as drive through the game park in SUVs with game drives every single day.
We had two days to chill in Dar es Salaam before our safari. Dar es Salaam really is like being in a completely different country. All the other places we went to were somewhat built for tourism. Not Dar es Salaam. We had to wait a couple of hours on the ship because there were problems with immigration. The diplomat from the US embassy came aboard our ship and told us to be extra careful. We were originally supposed to go to Kenya but because of November's terrorist attack on an Israeli hotel we were rerouted to Tanzania, a country that is a third Muslim. The Tanzanians have been rather anti-American lately with the impending war on Iraq. It was just in 1998 when the US embassy was bombed in Dar es Salaam. Zanzibar which is off the coast of Tanzania, right by Dar, was reported by the CIA as having terrorist activity so all the safaris and trips that were suppose to go to Zanzibar were canceled and furthermore no one was allowed to go there independently.
We got off the ship and it was a Sunday afternoon, which means that everything was closed. It was extremely hot because it's summer time here and we're near the equator. The banks and all currency exchange places were closed and my ATM card didn't work anywhere. We ended up going to the National Museum because it was free. The museum was extremely tiny, and we were followed by two men. They went away once we made it to the museum. After the museum we went back to the ship and just relaxed.
The next day we went to Muwenge market and I bought a small ebony statue. After that we went to town to mail some post cards. We went to another market where all the locals hang out. We felt extremely out of place because we were the only tourists there. The market was two stories and they sold things like food, garden supplies, electronics, sewing machines, clothes, and other basic necessities. My friend decided to whip out her digital camera and take pictures. Some guy was right behind her and saw her with the digital camera, he then went over to his friends and started pointing at us. We think he wanted the camera so we decided to go in a hurry before they approached us.
Walking away from the market I adjusted my money belt that was tucked into my pants and three other men saw me do that and followed me. All three off them surrounded me and tried to get into my bag (which was locked) and they also tried to mug me. My friends surrounded me and put their arms around me and we went into the nearest building to get away from them. We wanted to go out that night but Semester at Sea issued an 11 o'clock curfew because four of our crewmembers were held up at gunpoint the previous night in their taxi. No one was hurt but it was serious nonetheless. There were less than 80 people on the ship because most of them were on a safari so at night we played Sardines, it's kind of like hide and go seek. It ended up being a lot of fun.
The next day was our safari, I was so happy to leave for our safari because I was really starting to dislike Dar. We got to our safari by bus. Originally they told us it was a 4-hour drive but ended up being a 7-hour drive. We were suppose to stay in a 5 star hotel but they couldn't accommodate a group our size so we moved to a motel that was two hours away from our game park. We went on our game drive that day but we went in our bus instead of our SUVs, which meant we couldn't go all over the park. They also canceled the last game park drive on our last day because we were so far away from the park. At that point everyone started to complain. I kept a positive attitude because I was still happy to be on a safari in Tanzania, how many people have done that? Our first game drive we saw elephants, giraffes, hippos, and zebras. When we got back to our hotel, they didn't have a lot of food so we had very small portions. Our hotel room didn't have air conditioning, the bathroom light didn't work, we had to sleep under a mosquito net, there was a lizard in our bathtub, and we had no water pressure. Obviously this is much different from the five star hotel we were promised but it was no big deal to me. It kind of reminded me of Boy Scout Camp.
So many people were dissatisfied that a bus sent people home the next morning and a bunch of people left including my Comparative Politics professor. After our morning game drive, we went to a wilderness lodge, there we were told that we would have a new hotel only ten minutes away from the game park. The lodge we were at for lunch was on the game park and too small to accommodate everyone for the night. Our safari director worked out a deal that anyone who wanted to leave after lunch to go back to Dar would be given a $200 refund and all those who wanted to stay would have a better hotel, a morning game drive on the last day, and a $100 refund.
As you all know, I love animals and love nature so I decided to stay. Out of 75 people that were on our safari only 27 stayed that night. That meant that so many people left that we got to stay in the wilderness lodge on the game park!!!! It was so incredible; the animals were all around us and an elephant even came up to our pool to drink water. After lunch we fed vultures, which were flying right above us, our leftovers. You have to be very careful at night and walk with a buddy because of all the different animals in the area that might attack you. I would have much rather preferred staying on the game park in the wilderness lodge, than in a 5 star hotel so it was perfect for me. Our rooms were actually like huts all spread out with patios overlooking the game park. We had to sleep under mosquito nets and of course we had more lizards in our room. But I got a refund and all the people that were really unhappy and or sick left so only the happy optimistic people were left.
Throughout the entire duration of the safari we just wanted to see a lion. The first two days we didn't see any but finally on our last game drive on the last day we got to see two female lions. In addition to lions we got to see a crocodile and a couple of monkeys, all animals we hadn't seen before. We woke up at 5:30 in the morning and went on our game drive at 6 to see the sunrise and because that's when most of the animals are awake. Makes me think of the old saying "good things happen to those who wait." While others hated our safari I loved it. I had the best time, the only thing I regret is that I chose a safari that did not go to an African village, and I would have loved to see the indigenous Massai Mara tribe. When we got back I went to an Internet cafe and went out to dinner with my friend Constantine. We had to be extra careful once again because two tourists on the other docked cruise ship had their throats slashed while we were there. Besides all the hostility towards Americans (we told people we were from Canada) I had a great time on my safari and I would love to go back to Tanzania to go to an African village and perhaps see Mt. Kilimanjaro.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------