My daughter Tracey just called "It was 5 minutes for $5 and that's a pretty good deal" she said. She ducked out of the room where Castro was speaking, he had been speaking for 'like 4 hours'.
Havana is beautiful but was cold today, in the 50s. The first day was in the 80s. They walked to the University of Havana. She did the 'health care' thing, and visited a hospital, along with Krista, with whom she roomed in Nassau.
Days are long -- they've hardly had an opportunity to explore the ship - the first day was the Cuba orientation - and she's been waking up at 'like 5am' and going to bed around midnite. (My kid LOVES to sleep. Can't believe she's getting up early.)
The room is small, but her roomates are 'really nice' and they 'really get along' -- she didn't have last names (sleep deprivation?) but there is Beth from Colorado, who goes to school in Ohio, and Kristin from Alabama, who goes to school in Tennessee.
I'm sorry I don't have more details for Krista and Beth and Kristin's parents.
She didn't mention getting the letter from me which I mailed the day before the deadline.... :-(
She sounded good, and said everyone was having a great time.
--------------------------------------
CUBA
ok, so like my phone call last night, this has to go pretty fast cause its $.50/min. thanks mom for sending the email out about how i'm doing. things are going pretty well. like mom said, yes, i heard castro speak last night and it did go for almost 4 hours and none of it was really coherent. after that, we were invited to a reception where they had a band playing and a bunch of students from the university of havana. we hung out there for awhile and were learning to salsa with some of the locals.
cuba has been fabulous aside from the dip in the temperature. after tonight we'll be on the boat for a over a week and will finally start classes. i think then everything will settle a bit and i can actually figure out my way to dinner without getting confused.
anyway, i will try and write again soon. i'm also writing a lot of real mail, but keep in mind that it could take up to a month from cuba. anyway, love you all, and i miss you very much.
i will talk to you soon.
love,
tracey
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brazil
My daughter Tracey called last nite from Salvador -- we got cut off after about 3 minutes -- it was SO abrupt, I cried...but she is doing well and having a blast and then this morning wrote to her email list
hello there everyone....
thank you so much for all the emails. im (sorry i cant find the apostraphe key on this board) doing the best i can to get to all of them, but im trying not to spend all my money on internet as well.
anyway, the first day in salvador i wandered the city and did some shopping (4 shirts for about $30). it is SO hot here. you get drained really easily.
then i left for boipeba island. the description that they listed for it didnt do it justice at all. the place was literally paradise. the island has no cars and only about 4000 people. we stayed in a little posada (hotel) about 10 steps off the beach. the man who owned the posada served as our guide and he is actually from new york. his brother was the chef and prepared all of our food. he used to own a resteraunt in vermont, and the food was outstanding. ive been eating so well in this port. its an awesome change from the food on the ship. our second day on the island we took a 12k hike across the mountain, and there really just arent words for the view. it was spectacular. i cant wait to develop my pictures and show them to yall. after the hike we took a boat ride out to a sandbar for some swimming. there were sand dollars so frequently in the sand that you had to make sure you were very careful where you were walking. there were only about 23 students on the trip which was awesome because then i got to really spend time with people that i hadnt yet met. everyone was awesome and we just had a blast. i almost cried when we had to leave.
oh, i forgot to mention that on our travel to the island the first day we stopped in this little village (and village makes it sound much larger than it really was) to shop for pottery. no lie, i got 3 handmade pieces of good size for the equivelant of $5. when our bus pulled in to the village the children started coming out of their homes and they all ran after our bus and stood outside the door waiting for us when we stopped. they followed us everywhere we went and begged to carry our bags for us. we gave away all of our 1 real bills (about $.30 each) to the kids.
this port has been great. im wandering around today and just shopping with some girls.
i hope everything is going well at home. im getting along wonderfully, so please no one worry. i miss all of yall very much and i cant wait to hear from you. talk to you soon.
love,
tracey
------------------------------------------------
Brazil
Hello there again...
After I wrote that last email I realized that I had left some good stuff out. So Boipeba Island was awesome!!! I really do want to go back. The villas at the posadas we stayed at were incredible. I was really tempted to buy a hammock because they were all so comfortable. I don�t know if I mentioned this before but the food was outstanding. It was all like gourmet, which was weird since we were in the middle of nowhere. Even at littlest things were awesome. The granola at breakfast was so good. It was full of all kinds of dried tropical fruits.
I don�t think I told you about this, but the first night we were there, a bunch of locals came to the posada to speak with us. They told us about how there is very little income on the island, but for the most part they didn�t seem bothered by it. They don�t want the development that money would bring along with it. The island just got electricity ten years ago, and there was one man who still lived beyond its reaches. Somehow all but that one man had televisions. I guess that�s true across most of Brazil. Even the poorest of the poor have tvs. The only things that they would feel they are lacking are healthcare and education. They haven�t been able to keep a doctor on the island for any significant amount of time, and its at least two hours by boat to help in an emergency. They have schools on the island, but most people only have about an eighth grade education, if that. The ones that make it the farthest in school then in turn become the teachers. Anyway, just thought you might want to hear more about the conditions on Boipeba. I found it to be really interesting.
The next day was when we went on that 12k hike I told you about before. I�m pretty sure I forgot to tell you about what I did that night. After dinner, we walked over to the center of town (about 5 minutes down the beach) where the locals put on a capoeira presentation. Capoeira is this mix of dancing, martial arts and aerobatics. It began as a way for slaves to teach each other how to fight, and they disguised it as dance so their masters wouldn�t know. The tradition is vital to their culture even today. There are capoeira schools all over Brazil, especially in the state of Bahia (where I was the whole time) because of its large African population. They began with the children. It seemed as though most of the boys in the town were involved. Then the older guys would join in as if even in the performance they were to learn more about technique. Eventually the children were phased out, and just the adults were performing. There were even some females in the presentation, which I�m pretty sure is a new thing. They went on for over an hour. When they were finished, the beat from the drums changed and a more social dance began. One of the guys who had been at the talk the night before began pulling some of the American girls out into the circle to dance. I think I was probably about the third girl to go out. It was definitely one of those �dance like no one is watching� moments. It was so much fun. I have a picture of it from one girls digital picture so I�ll see what I can do about getting that to you.
Anyway, so that�s the rest about Boipeba. I can�t do that island justice. Even when you see the pictures I�m not sure that you�ll be able to get the full effect of it all. Its my new favorite place on earth. When we got back that night a bunch of us decided to try out this restaurant that we had heard about. From what we heard it was the best place to eat in Salvador. It was this huge buffet with all kinds of crazy food. (I really don�t remember if this was in the last email I wrote, if so just skip over it) There was sushi and all kinds of fruit and veggies and seafood. Then they came around with big skewers of all different kinds of meat. If you wanted some they just carved it for you right there. There was also an enormous dessert cart. For all that and a bottle of wine it cost about $20. It was so much food and the service was awesome. There was always some one there to push in your chair under you when you returned from the buffet.
Then our last day in Brazil, Krista, Kristin (not my roommate) and I walked around Salvador. We found this awesome little jewelry store. They sold all kinds of stones and then you could design the jewelry you wanted. Krista had two necklaces made, Kristin and I each had rings made. Mine is of a stone called Amazonite, its kinda like turquoise but a bit more green. I love it and that only cost about $30. We just had a blast sitting in a jewelry store having people wait on us and designing our own stuff.
So now you�ve gotten the best description I can give about my experiences in Brazil. I loved it! Now we�re back to classes. We�ll be in Capetown though by next Wednesday. I�m so excited for South Africa. There are so many things I want to do. I�m doing two Semester at Sea service trips, Operation Hunger and a Township visit (they should be listed on the website if you want to read more about them). Then I really want to tour the winelands and hike Table Mountain and visit the District Six Museum. It�s a lot to do in 4 days, but I�m gonna try and pack it all in. Between now and when we arrive in Capetown we lose 4 more hours. I don�t know if I mentioned it before, but we consistently lose hours as we cross time zones on this trip. Then when we cross the International Dateline we gain it all back by having two April 29ths. Krista is a little disappointed because her 21st birthday is the 28 so she just missed having two. Anyway, so all of us our constantly tired. There is so much you want to do. I find myself always wanting to elongate conversations because I only have a few months with these people, but a lot of times you just have to cut them off and get to sleep. Its amazing how much those few hours can drag you down.
One other thing�. I received info about my Vicarious Voyage class. Vicarious Voyage is a program that hooks up students on Semester at Sea with elementary or high school classes around the country. They write to me, so I get extra mail, and we send them stuff about our trip. I have a class of 25 third graders at O�Hara Elementary School in Pittsburgh. I�m working with another girl named Tanya. We�re sending them a package in a few days with postcards of the ship for all of them and these Brazilian friendship bracelets. We got a whole stack of letters from them when we got to Brazil so Tanya and I split up the pile and are writing each of them a letter. I�m so glad I�m doing this. They�re letters are so much fun to read and most of them drew pictures too. I�m just easily amused I guess.
Alright, so Mom, now you have your long detailed email (Mom wrote to me saying that some people write really nice long descriptive emails and why were mine so short). I hope I didn�t bore anyone. Its all really interesting to me cause I�ve experienced it all. You�ll have to let me know how it goes over with y�all.
I�m having a great time and I love this trip. Don�t worry about me. You�ll hear from me soon. Thank you in advance for all the letters I�m getting in Capetown that you�ve been telling me about. You have no idea how excited I am. Keep them coming! Let me know when you get mail from me.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tanzania
hey there...
just thought i'd drop everyone a quick line before i head off on my safari tomorrow. today we wandered around dar es salaam a bit. its definitely much different than the other cities we've docked at. its much smaller and less touristy. today proved to be a bit of a challenge simply because the first day in port always is, but it was also sunday. most things were closed today. we spent our first few hours just walking in circles really. it is unbearably hot here. we were about to give up on the day when we ran into some other students who had found an open market. we took a taxi there and found great crafts. i love all the markets in these countries full of handmade artifacts. i even bartered a bit using some soap. then because the people were so nice i gave them one of those post it pads that mom gave. it has a little cartoon that when you flip through the pad, this little guy surfs. i showed it to them and they were amused.
when we went back into town we ate dinner at a hotel resteraunt and the food was great. there we also met our guide for our safari tomorrow. he seems really nice and reassured us that we wouldn't be eaten while camping in the bush. thats always good to know.
alright well i need to get some sleep considering i'll be on a bus at 6am tomorrow. pray that no wild critters gobble me up in the next few days. i'm so excited!!! i'll be sure to take lots of pictures.
i love you and i miss you!
love,
tracey
------------------------------------------
Tanzania
hey y'all!!!
thought i'd let you know that i wasn't eaten on my safari. i had a great time!
it took us 10 hours to reach the campsite and park that we stayed at. when we arrived at the campsite, we realized that they weren't joking when they said camping. there was a large horseshoe shape of tents, small tents. my friend jessica and i went and claimed the biggest one we could find and set our stuff done. we wandered around to find the "bathrooms" which we wooden stalls with holes inside them. the showers were the same structures minus the holes but with buckets of water hanging above them. there were definitely some girls that were a bit freaked. then we had dinner. it was pretty amazing what our camp staff made cooking over a campfire. it was really good. after dinner, jess and i decided to grab our journals from our tents and write a bit before getting to bed. we found a lovely visitor in the tent with eight long legs. considering both jess and i are not found of spiders, we couldn't deal with it. the boys were quite impressed with the size of the thing. ok, everyone can stop laughing at me now. it took me awhile before i was able to talk myself into going back into the tent. i did, and slept fine despite the many odd noises going on outside the tent. amazingly, the thought of wild animals didn't scare me since i knew that there were maasai warriors surrounding our campsite protecting us.
so we woke up around 6 and ate breakfast and then headed out for a full day game drive. we rode in these land cruisers that had panels in the roof that could be removed. it allowed us to stand up on our seats and see the great view around us. we saw elephants, giraffes, ostriches, impalas, warthogs, waterbucks, zebras, and LIONS! some of the animals got so close to our vehicle that i didn't even need to use the zoom lens on my camera. it was incredible. we were really lucky to have seen the lions. we came upon a bunch of jeeps looking at some grass. one of the drivers said that they thought there might be lions out there somewhere. eventually they got tired of looking and drove off. our driver glanced around and then drove off the road, which is illegal. we went speading through the bush and went around a tree and practically ran over two female lions lounging in the sun. i still can't believe how close we were to them. it was awesome! anyway, so we drove around the park the rest of the day and saw tons of animals. that night we ate dinner and hung out around the campfire. our interport lecturer came to our campsite to tell us about the maasai tribe guarding us. they are the only matriarchical tribe in all tanzania. before dinner that night, i was sitting where we eat reading and this woman warrior came wandering through. she was astonishingly beautiful. she was dressed in the traditional red garb and held a spear. she also had the tribal paint on her forehead and cheeks. we interacted as much as is possible with a huge language barrier and i ended up taking a few pictures of her. she couldn't be much older than me but its so weird to think about how different our lives are. anyway, that was kinda random, but its one of the highlights of the trip in my mind.
the next day we left early again and spent the entire day back in the game park. we saw so many elephants. a bunch of them actually gave birth recently so there were a lot of very small babies. it was really cool to see how they circle their young to protect them when the jeeps came by. at one point, this one large elephant grew a bit curious of us as we were watching him and starting to approach us. he was so close that i could have reached out and touched his trunk. it was ridiculous. we saw a lot of the same animals the second day and also saw some hyennas. i spent a lot of time the second day just standing up to grasp my surroundings as we drove through the park. i must have stood while we were driving for at least three or four hours straight. i can't explain it, but i think the air is different in africa or something. it was invigorating. after leaving the park we stopped at a maasai village where they were selling handmade goods. it was neat to see all that they could make, but it was also an assaulting experience. they swarmed us as soon as we exited the vehicles and were relentless. they threw necklaces and baskets at us. i guess someone must have given the kids stuff because they wouldn't leave me alone. it got to the point where i was scared. even when i got back in the jeep they wouldn't let up. they shoved their hands through the open windows and were grabbing at us. its obvious that this place is a lot different than those we've been to before. i guess this will help ease us into india.
anyway, so today we woke up early and spent another ten hours on the bus to come back to the ship. when i got back here i unpacked and all my stuff is so dirty between the sweat and the dust its just gross. i've talked to a lot of people that did different stuff and it sounds like everyone saw basically the same stuff and had a great time.
i hope i did an ok job explaining everything. i wanted to send this while it was still fresh in my mind. i may write again with content more responsive to my experiences, but it usually takes me a few days to get my thoughts together.
i hope all is well at home. keep me updated!!!
i love you and i miss you.
love,
tracey
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------