South Africa

T.I.A- THIS IS AFRICA...

February 19 2008- Day 1

We made it across the middle passage!  Our ship arrived in Capetown, South Africa this morning at 0500.  I went out to the front of the boat to watch the sunrise over Table Mountain.  For those of you who don’t know what table mountain is….it is a mountain that looks like a table top; when the clouds form over the mountain it looks like the table is covered in a table cloth.  I had an FDP today for my HIV/AIDS communication class from 1300-1750, so I was kind of limited to what I could do for the day because I had to be back to the ship by 1300.  I got off the ship and went to a tour guide agency with a bunch of people to book a Township visit (I will tell you about it when I actually do it).  I then walked around the waterfront area with Meggie, Brittany, Ash, Erika, and Matt.  I can’t believe that I am in South Africa, I can’t believe where I am on the map, I am so far away!  The waterfront area was so pretty, especially the view of Table Mountain.  After walking around, we went out to eat at a place called St.Elmo’s Pizzeria.  I ate a delicious meatball pizza and drank a nasty vanilla milkshake.  Meggie and I left lunch a little early to run back to the boat to meet up with our group for the FDP.  We sprinted through the waterfront and made it back just in time, everyone was already waiting outside.

About our FDP- Bush Radio…so Bush Radio was started by the Bushmen (basically indigenous people against Apartheid) to spread awareness about HIV/AIDS.  This is the information I knew going into the radio station, and this is the information I know coming out of the radio station.  We were given a tour of the radio station but no description of what they actually do.  Then we all sat in a conference room and were supposed to watch 3 videos on bush radio being started and what not.  I’m a bit disappointed with this FDP because I could have easily watched these videos on the trip…I would have liked it if the people that worked there actually SPOKE to us about how the radio station was started!  On a positive note, I got to be on bush radio with a few other SASers.  We just said our name and where we were from and spoke about SAS on Bush Radio live!  All in all, I was disappointed with watching videos for a few hours about a radio station, when I only had 6 days in port…That is why I left early!  Meggie and I took a ghetto African cab back to the ship 2 hours early.  I was not willing to spend a few hours watching videos, there is just too much to do in South Africa.  I made it back to the ship in time to go on a township visit.

1700- Township visit with Candice, Kristin, Hilton, Andrew, Walter, Andrew:

I got to visit the township called Langa.  Langa is made up of 120,000 residents.  On our way to Langa our guide took us on a drive past District 6.  He stopped to show us the Circumcision field; at this field the boys who speak the Khosa language are circumcised in order to enter manhood.  After viewing the circumcision field, we stopped in the middle of the township.  As we were pulling in, about 50 little kids swarmed the car, they were so excited to see us, you have no idea!  Within seconds of getting out of the car I had about 20 little arms around my waist and reaching up to me.  These kids just wanted to be hugged and held and given proper attention.  I picked one little girl up and swung her around in the air- her face just lit up.  As soon as I put her back on the ground, there were 20 kids with their arms raised at me for me to pick them up and swing them around too!  After a few minutes of swinging these kids around and giving them hugs, I took some pictures with them and of them.  They were so excited to view the pictures on my camera and see what they looked like.  These kids don’t own anything like a digital camera, and they probably don’t own a mirror to see what they even look like.  They just wanted me to keep taking pictures with them and showing it to them.  I gave the kids my sunglasses to wear for some of the pictures…so cute!  When it was time for us to get back in the car and continue on our township visit, I literally had to pry these kids off of me.  This was probably the most attention they had received in a long time.  It was sad because they didn’t even ask me for money, they asked me for bubble gum and pens for school.  We got back in the car, and our tour guide took us to a sheebbeen in the township. A sheebbeen is a club that only men belonged to and had illegal political meetings during the apartheid era.  During these meetings, the men would drink home brewed illegal alcohol made by the women. The women used their own recipe to make this illegal alcohol; it contained 50-60% alcohol.  This illegal alcohol is called Umqombhothi.  The men now use the sheebbeen as a local social club, and the woman still brew the umqombhothi.  We all got the opportunity to go to this sheebbeen and sit and drink the umqombhothi with some locals.  This is no fancy club.  In fact it is basically a shack with a few wooden benches that the men sit on to sit and drink.  So we sat on the wooden benches and drank the umqombhothi from a metal bucket that they all passed around.  It kind of looked like dirty soapy water, but we all had to try it as part of the experience…not so tasty! (maybe this is why my stomach has been hurting?  I actually think I got a parasite in the Amazon, not the bucketJ)

After we left the sheebeen, we passed a lady on the street that was selling lamb heads for dinner.  They were freshly cut off the lamb and piled up on a table for people to buy and eat, just imagine the visual.  After seeing the lamb heads, we got back into our car and visited the hostels.  You have no idea the poverty that these families live in.  The room was about the size of my bedroom at home; it had 3 beds in that one room.  Each bed was for 1 family, and each family had a significant number of children.  These were not queen, or full size beds, they were regular twin beds for a whole family to share.  Once again, the kids who occupied this area were just hungry for attention.  All they wanted to do was have us give them hugs, hold their hands, and take their pictures.  They LOVED taking their picture and then seeing it.  I wish I could send them all the pictures I took of them!  The don’t have pictures hanging up in their home, they are lucky if they have a full wall to keep them sheltered. 

After our visit to the hostels, we went to a township called Khayelitsha, which was in Site C.  28% of this area is infected with AIDS.  Our purpose for coming here was to go to Vicki’s B&B for a home-cooked dinner in a township.  Vicki has been living here since 1989 and has had people at her B&B for 9 years.  Vicki told us that she enjoys having this B&B because it spreads a good word about the community.  This is not the bread and breakfast that you would typically stay in, but it was by far the nicest home in the township.  Some other facts that I learned about Vicki was that she doesn’t own the ground that her home is on, she has to rent it from the government.  Kayelitsha is the second largest township with 1.3 million residents.  Families are just squished into homes and live in conditions that you could not imagine, you really have to come to one to believe that people actually live like this.  Vicki has been very involved in the community for years; she has organized community meetings and parties for the children around holiday times to try and provide them with presents from people that donate around the world (she told us that these children would be so happy to even get pens for gifts during the holidays, can you imagine?).  Vicki and her family cooked our group dinner, which was amazing! My favorite part of dinner was the pap, rice and bread, it was yummy!  I tried other stuff she served us, but I didn’t like it, oh well!  While we were eating one of Vicki’s daughters put on a CD of Alicia Keys and sang her heart out.  I would say she was about 7 years old, and she was such a good singer, she loved putting on a show for people.  I would love to come back to this township or one like this and help out in the community like Vicki has done so far.

After our township visit, we went to Long Street.  Long Street is the center of downtown Capetown.  It is in the heart of the big financial district and is the big party spot for Capetown with bars, clubs, restaurants, and shops.  Long Street is in fact very LONG.  The first bar we went to was Dubliner- an Irish pub that had a live band that sang American music!  Since I am in South Africa I had to experience the South African beer (Castle) and Irish car bombs?!  The bar was filled with tons of SAS kids and a bunch of locals. SAS kind of took over this part of Long Street.  After Dubliner, I went to Jo-burg and then Fiction.  Jo-burg was a club that had a crazy DJ mixing some music and everyone just had a good time dancing on the dance floor, and continuing to drink some South African Beer.  Friction had a porch that overlooked Long Street that we all hung out on and drank.  All of these bars were on Long Street and were right next to each other or across the street from one another.  Each bar I went into was filled with a ton of SAS kids, it was a lot of fun!  I had to meet with my Safari group to go to the airport at 0315, So I figured that 0200 would be a good time to head back to the ship, finish packing my bag and meet my Safari Group.

 

Feb 20, 2008- Day 2, but I haven’t gone to sleep yet so it’s kind of like a long day 1?!

I left for the airport at 0315.  There were 60 of us doing this Kruger Safari indy, so we took a double decker coach bus to the airport.  I heard that on the way to the airport some kid forgot his passport on the ship, so we turned around and went back to the boat.  I don’t remember this happening; I slept the whole bus ride!  When we got to the airport I attempted to order kids chicken fingers, but instead they brought me cut up pieces of grilled chicken…how hard is it to order chicken fingers?!  I sent the grilled chicken strips back to get nasty grilled cheese instead; it was made with cheddar cheese- who does that?  Don’t they know grilled cheese is made with American Cheese. Anyways, I am eating this nasty grilled cheese and our flight boards in 40 minutes, so people start getting up to go through security.  I didn’t realize that everyone already go their boarding passes already, not me!  I forgot to get my boarding pass when we first got to the airport, so I had to first wait in line to get my boarding pass.  Luckily, one of my friends Meggie waited back with me.  When I got to the counter the lady behind the desk goes “I’m sorry mam we have no more seats available on the flight.”  I freaked out for a little bit on her because I had my ticket confirmation with me, and in a few minutes I was finally on my way through security and onto our plane.

A little bit about the plane ride to Jo’Burg- I sat in the first row of the plane and since I got on the plane so late, there was no room in my overhead for my bag, so I had to have the steward place it all the way in the back!  I was kind of nervous but it worked out ok.  I sat between two men from South Africa and spoke to one of them for a good amount of the 3-hour plane ride.  We spoke a lot about HIV/AIDS in Africa and he told me some shocking facts! 

* The average age for girls to start having intercourse is 10 years old in Capetown! 

* The average age for South Africa as a whole is slightly better, but still sooo young at the age of 12. 

* It is common for girls to be involved with older men.  It is not looked down upon, rather it is a norm.

We arrived in Jo’Burg to get on another bus to take us to Kruger National Park for our safari.  It was a 6-hour bus ride!  We were lucky enough to stop off at a rest stop where I ate 1 cheeseburger and 1 chicken cheeseburger (I haven’t eaten meat in so long, it was soo good!)  I slept most of the bus ride to Kruger and woke up to everyone staring out the window.  Everyone was looking at elephants, yet all I saw was an alligator (you know how I am when I first wake up- very confused and in my own world).  When we arrived to Kruger Park, our bus dropped us off at the wrong camping grounds, so we waited for our safari (wrangler-like) cars to come pick us up and take us to our camping grounds.  All of our tents were set up for us when we got there.  I have never slept in a tent before so I was pretty excited.  All the tents were the same, 2 sleeping bags, 2 pillows, and a pad underneath the sleeping bag.  I shared a tent with Meggie.  Our tents were set up around the perimeter of the campgrounds, with a beautifully set long table underneath an open tent to seat 70 people for meals.  After Meggie and I dropped our stuff off in the tent we went out on our first game drive!

9 of us go in these vehicles that look like a big Jeep Wrangler.  No, we are not caged in…if the animals want to jump into the vehicle, I guess they can, but they don’t.  I saw an elephant up close and personal using its trunk to eat!  I also got to see giraffes, impalas, white rhinos and a ton of birds.  One of the birds I saw was the kind of bird in lion king, Zazu!  We got to watch a white rhino go to the bathroom in the middle of the street.  So of course I took a picture of it and thought first to myself and then out loud…I wonder how long it would take for a human to make that much poop? Seriously though, I kind of wonder…my guess is 3-4 months.  We got back from our game drive by 1830 because that is when our gates close to get into Malelane (the name of our campsite).  We all sat around the big table and just talked and played cards.  We had people there that cooked us an amazing dinner!  I ate chicken cabobs, squash with corn, salad, and potatoes.  Not only was the food good, but they supplied us with unlimited bottles of Red and White Wine!  After our meal, we all just hung around the table, talked and drank wine and South African beer (all supplied by Siyabonna Africa- the group we did our safari with).  Meggie and I eventually went back to our tent, talked for a little while, and finally went to sleep.  The tents were so hot inside (lets just say we were definitely ROUGHING it!).  Day 2, still kind of day 1 is finally over, I am exhausted!

 

February 21, 2008-  Day 3

0430- I woke up to the sounds of our safari guides screaming “WAKE UP” through the mesh netting of our tent.  I guess 4 hours of sleep will do.  Coffee and biscuits were set up on the table for us to have before we went on our morning game drive.  The coffee was powdered and we just had to add water, but I drank it anyway because I needed to wake up fast!

0530 Safari game drive.  The reason that we have such an early game drive is to hopefully see animals like the lion that are out at night and in the early morning hunting for food.  For this drive, my guide was Freddy and I got to go in the car with Andres, Christina, Wodka, and a few other SASers.  On my morning game drive I got to see elephants, white rhinos, impalas, lions, giraffes, zebras, warthogs, bright blue birds, and Zazu birds.  I don’t really know how to describe seeing the animals to everyone.  It is weird to see all these animals just out there in nature rather than a zoo.  It is much more exciting and real!  As we were on our game drive it was normal to see elephants, and warthogs just crossing the road.  I got to see mommy elephants with their babies; the baby elephants are so small compared to the adult, and the baby always walks to the side of its parent in the back, this kind of hides the baby and protects it.  I also got to see the bark of a tree marked up by elephant tusks (elephants eat tree bark).  As far as the lions go, I got to see male and female adult lions, as well as baby cubs.  The male lions look just like Mufasa, but a LITTLE bit scarier in real life.  Giraffes do indeed have very long necks, I got to watch them eat from treetops.  When I was looking at the giraffes I couldn’t stop thinking about how they lay down (if they needed a pillow imagine how long it would have to be).  I also learned something new about zebras.  I used to think that zebras were just black and white striped animals, yet some of the ones I got to see were black, white, and BROWN striped!  During this game drive we got to watch an incredible sunrise!  We came back to our campgrounds at 0930 for breakfast…I feel like I have been up for a full day already and it is only 0930!  I took a little nap before breakfast and then had some yogurt with fresh fruit and granola.  After breakfast our guides took us to a nearby pool and a shop with souvenirs.  I got my first safari hat- it looks good, reallll gooood!  We swam and shopped from 1130 to 1330 and then went back to Malelane at 1400 for lunch.  After lunch we went out for our second game drive of the day.  I wound up going in the Jeep with all boys: Hilton, Andres, Garret, Andrew, Dave, and Max.  This time I got to watch the sunset…absolutely BEAUTIFUL.  On this drive I got to see one of the big five that I hadn’t gotten to see yet, the water buffalo!  The water buffalo was real funny looking; it had these funny looking horns that kind of looked like pigtails sticking out/George Washington’s old hair do.  I also got to see this little snake; unfortunately for this snake its head kind of got run over by a vehicle and was half smushed but wasn’t dead.  We saw this snake basically dying and suffering in the middle of the road and stopped to see what it was doing.  The snake was cleverly putting itself out of its own misery by stinging itself with its own poison and eventually died!  Our guide told us that this was a very small but very poisonous snake.  I got to see other animals on this drive, but they were animals that I had seen already in my past 2 drives…I still haven’t seen 2 of the big 5- a black rhino and a leopard.  We got back to Malelane at 0630 and played cards until dinner was ready.  We got served chili beef over rice and salad and once again endless amounts of beer and wine.  Delicious!  After dinner we all just sat around the table and talked, drank, and got to know some of our safari guides as they joined in on our drinking games.  At about 2330 a few of us went over to some nearby bungalows that some SASers were staying in.  We continued the festivities with them and I got to meet all new people in the bungalow (their names were Billy, Pete, Trisha, Britney, Hanna, and Jimmy).  They taught us some drinking game called 7’s, 11’s, and double’s- good times!  I finally decided to call it a night at 0200 since I had to be up again at 0415.  I went back to my tent to go to sleep and all I could hear is the boy in the tent next to me snoring as loud as ever…let’s just say I had a miserable night’s sleep.

 

February 22, 2008- Day 4

Only 2 hours of sleep…it’s worth it though, I am only in South Africa for a few days.  I’ll catch up on sleep in a few days.  Today we were woken up at 0415, it is our last day doing our safari so I got up all excited to go on another game drive.  For my last game drive I got to go with the guide Edwin- best guide ever!!!  Edwin took us on a drive an hour away from our campground.  He took us to the capital of Kruger; since we didn’t have much time, Edwin decided to cut off all the other vehicles and speed the whole way!  We were the only car to go there since it was so far away.  This time I went in the vehicle with Paloma, Max, Wodka, Andrew, Nikki, and Stephanie.  This drive started off like all of our other ones…we got to see some elephants and impalas!  We got to watch a beautiful sunrise in the safari.  Then I got to see another one of the big 5, the BLACK RHINO, which are very rare to see!  I also got to see a wildebeest on this drive.  So we are on our way to the capital of Kruger to try to see some hippos and all of a sudden someone in my car spots a leopard in the bushes.  We stop the car and we are all just looking at the leopard, snapping away at the pictures- we are so excited because this is the only animal left of the big 5 that we hadn’t seen, and most people don’t get to see it.  So here we are, sitting in an open jeep, so excited to see the leopard.  We are about ready to drive away when we see the leopard sprint across the road and attack an impala!  The leopard just grabs this impala by the neck, kills it, and takes into the bushes and up into a tree to eat it.  WHAT?!?!  Not only did we get to see a leopard, but we saw a leopard kill an impala!  We saw the leopards mouth filled with impala blood- nature at its finest!  I’ve got it all on video.  After the leopard killed the impala, all of the other impalas stood around in a big group and made this kind of grunting noise, like a form of a cry, they didn’t run away.  We were the only group that got to see a leopard attack and kill another animal, and one of the few groups that even got to see a leopard!  I have seen the BIG 5- Elephant, Rhino, Water Bufallo, Lion, and Leopard!!!!  We finally made it to the capital of Kruger, where we were supposed to get out and look for some hippos.  Since we took so long with the leopard we only had time to run into the shop for a little bit and then head back an hour towards the camp.  It was well worth seeing the leopard kill an impala…I’ll see a hippo some other day.  On our drive back to the camp, I got to see some pretty looking birds, leopard turtles crossing the streets, 1 hyena, rhinos crossing the street, and zebras…So what did you all do this morning?  We got back to the camp for breakfast (yogurt, granola, fresh fruit, and fresh bread) and then packed up our stuff and were back on the road by 1030 for Jo’Burg.  We took 2 buses back to the airport and of course I got on the bus with the broken AC…the air was literally colder outside than it was on the bus.  Luckily we stopped at the same rest stop on the way back, so I switched buses!  By this point of the trip we still had another 3 hours until we would get to the airport so I decided to lay on the floor of the bus and just pass out.  We finally made it to the airport…4 hours early!  I went with Meggie and a few other girls to a restaurant in the airport and ate some good ‘ole chicken nuggets and French fries.  When we got on line to board the plane, we found out that our plane was delayed an hour, and they were bumping random people off our flight because of a “weight issue” …not me though!  Let me tell you a little bit about my flight on Kulula airlines.  Our stewardess makes an announcement that they have overbooked the flight and they need some extra seats.  She then goes on to say “First one to ring your call bell gets to sit in the cockpit.”  So being an American and all I thought this was a joke, but no, the stewardess was 100% SERIOUS!  The guy sitting behind me got to sit in the cockpit for the flight back to Capetown!  When I asked the stewardess if we could switch half way through the flight she goes “Sorry mam we don’t like Americans.  You’re the reason we have this whole close door policy anyways.” Oh well.  We made it back to the ship at 0010.  What a day!

 

February 23, 2008 

Today I woke up at 0915 to go SHARK CAGE DIVING with the great white shatk projects!  We had a 2-hour cab ride to wherever this shark cage diving place was.  They take us on this little boat out into the ocean to see the sharks.  There is a cage that holds 4 people attached to the boat that the divers go into.  So we get out to where we need to be on the water and we take turns going in the cage.  I was in the last group to go in the cage, so I got to see the sharks from the boat first.  They are some scary looking animals that I definitely would not want to get in a fight with.  I went in the cage last with Andrew, Andres, and Hilton.  We all had to wear wet suits to go into the cage because the water was freezing, it was 16 degrees Celsius…my hands and feet were so cold!  On my first attempt to get a wet suit on, the guy handed me a size too small and was convinced that I could squeeze into it…it didn’t happen, it was meant for someone like 5’2”, so I had to put on an already used, wet, wet suit…what a sight!  So I finally got to go into the shark cage!  The guy on the ship used Tuna as bait, and lots of Chum to attract the Great Whites.  Whenever the shark came near the bait, which was in front of the cage, the guy on the boat would scream “DIVERS GO DOWN” and we would have to hold our breath and go down to the bottom of the cage to look at the great whites.  The sharks were literally 3 feet away from my face…it was so cool!  It’s hard to describe how the sharks look when you actually see them underwater and so close- they were huge and really mean looking.  Shark diving took up most of our day, we left at 1700. 

For dinner, a group of about 20 of us went to a place called Moyo (look it up online, or better yet come to South Africa and go to this place…it is amazing).  Moyo is a restaurant that is in a tree house in the winelands. The restaurant holds up to 1,500 people, and is buffet style.  I decided to be adventurous tonight and try some new foods that I actually liked.  I tried ostrich, lamb chop, African pudding, and some more South African wines! The people that work at the restaurant come around and paint your face with some Afrikaans symbol and they provide you with blankets to keep you warm.  The atmosphere is absolutely amazing and is like nothing I had ever seen before.  After dinner, our cab driver dropped us all off on Long Street for our last night in port- PARTY time.  We went back to Dubliner where we once again found most of the SAS kids.  We all just danced and drank the whole night.  I got to meet a group of locals that go to University of Cape Town, there names were Ross and Adam, I don’t remember the other’s names.    They bought me a south African shot that consisted of a shot of Jack Daniels and a shot of guava juice and you mix them around In your mouth…YUMMY!  I made it back to the ship at 0400 to find Andy and Adam sitting in the staircase watching Tennesse take 1^st place in basketball!  I finally went to sleep at 0600.  Only 1 day left in Capetown L, I don’t want to leave!

 

February 24, 2008- My last day in Capetown, I don’t want to leave

Today I went to this market in Capetown that is only open on Sundays.  People set up different stands at the market and were selling different hand made crafts.  It was amazing to see the many talents of the people of Africa.  I shopped around for a few hours with Candice and Kristin and found some cool African things to bring home.  Candice, Kristin and I came back to the ship by 1430 to take a taxi to the Botanical Gardens for a local Afrikaans concert.  We met up with a group of SAS kids and just set up blankets and towels and lay on the grass, ate, drank, and hung out until the concert began at 1730.  The atmosphere was beautiful.  We walked around to look at all the different flowers, landscaping, etc.  The view of the mountain and the city of Cape Town was amazing.  Finally at 1730 we enjoyed some local Afrikaans music and headed back to the ship at 1800 to do some last minute shopping in the mall and make it back on the ship by on-ship time, 2000.  A local Afrikaans high school choir came onto the ship to sing songs for all of the students at 2030.  What amazing voices they had.  They sang some songs in English, some in Afrikaans, and some in Khoso (the click language).  It is amazing to me that not only these children, but even our tour guides, and most of the Afrikaans people speak at least 2 to 3 languages.  That is one thing that I am envious of; it makes me realize how ignorant most Americans are, we just expect everyone else to speak our language and if they don’t, we become frustrated. 

 

I had an AMAZING time in South Africa!  I hope to come back here in the near future and work in the townships and get to know more about the culture.  There is just so much to do in South Africa, I wish I had more time.  I tried my best to describe everything I saw and did in South Africa, but it is really hard to put all of my experiences in words.

Onto Mauritius…

Wait...I think I see something...

February 18, 2007

So we arrive in Capetown South Aftrica tomorrow!  I cannot wait to see land!  I don’t have anything too exciting to tell you for today, so I have decided to send you all of the random, funny, and weird quotes that my professors have said so far on the ship.  Here they are:

“I have read that in some cultures there is group masterbation…I would really like to see a picture of that.” – Sushil Usman 1/30/08

“Professor Usman…(the tightest professor on the ship)” –On Intro Slide for class—Sushil Usman 2/1/08

“I enjoyed the empty nest actually…the one advantage, I can run naked in the house, no worries!” – Sushil Usman 2/1/08

“The woman outlives the man, she inherits it all and marrys a young man and lives it up for 7 years.” – Sushil Usman 2/4/08

“I am not gung-ho on attendance, so if you are not going to attend my class, tell me so I can mark you present.” –Sushil Usman A5

“You kids are like Pavlov’s dogs…you always writing stuff down…How to pass gas, you write it down!” – Sushil Usman 2/18/08

“If I want you to know something [for an exam], I should tell you…and then you’ll know it.” – Jim McLennon B1

What is liberty?

“I called up my girlfriend last night and said are you free, and she said no, but I am reasonable.” – Jim Mclennon B1

 

“If necessary, we’ll just draw some lines through assignments.” – Jim McLennon 1/31/08 B2 

“We’re going around the world!” – Jim Mclennon 1/31/08

“You can’t masturbate in a grocery store, you just can’t do that.” -- Jim Mclennon 1/31/08

Talking about teaching abstinence to married people…”Then what’s the point of being married?  Husband comes home and wants sec and wife says not tonight…not ever. … YEA RIGHT.” – Uncle Joe B1

Talking about old people having sex:  “What we used to do all night, takes us all night to do it now.”  -- Sushil Usman 2/18/08

Well I am off to bed now as my ship pulls into port in about 3 hours!!!  I cannot wait for my time in South Africa, there are so many things that I hope to see and learn more about.  I will tell you all about everything I did in South Africa in 6 days…I don’t want to waste time blogging when there is a whole country out there to explore!

Until next time…

Is anyone out there?

February 17, 2008

1 more full day until we reach land!!!  I haven't seen any other form of human life besides people on our boat for days!  Also, I can’t wait to get some normal food!!!

So today was a pretty ordinary day…I went to global studies (kind of boring), went out on the 7^th deck to catch up on some reading, ate lunch with my boat family including Victoria the inter-port student, worked out in the gym, went to sociology class (got an 90 on my paper), and went to my HIV/AIDS class.  After class, I sat outside on the 7^th deck with Candice and Kristin and just talked (like camp, I love not having a TV for people to sit around, it forces you to actually talk to people and get to know them).  Since we are only 2 days away from South Africa we had our first pre-port meeting tonight…they basically talked to us about the area our boat would be docking in, what was near there to do and how to get around.  I hope to get to go to Table Mountain while I am there and experience some South African bars!  I also want to go to the winelands and to Moyo (a restaurant in a tree-house that holds 1,200 people).  After our pre-port meeting, I met with the 60 kids that I will be traveling to Kruger Safari with.  I found out that after my 2-hour flight to Jo’burg, I have a 6 hour bus ride to get to the Kruger camping site!  It’ll definitely be worth it.  After that meeting, my sea (which is my team for the Sea Olympics) had a crazy Highlighter Party.  If you don’t know what a highlighter party is, everyone wears a white t-shirt and everyone writes in highlighter all over your t-shirt.  We had our party in the faculty lounge, with blacklights to make the highlighter glow on everyone’s shirt.  I would say that the best song that we all danced to was SHOUT!  Trying to dance and jump to that song on a very rocky boat is entertaining to watch, and quite a workout.  Oh yea, I got my grade for my first global studies exam back today.  Out of 700 something kids, only 3 got an A (A starts at a 90), I got an 84 so I don’t feel soooo bad anymore.

GO BERING SEA!!!!

Boat life

February 16, 2007

Exciting news...we have crossed the Greenwich Meridian...which means we are officially in the Eastern Hemisphere!

I’m not going to sit and tell you everything I do everyday, because you could probably care less about some of it, so I will just highlight some of the good stories.  On my first day of Choices in Relationships class, my professor, Sushil Usman, told the class that he used to have a policy that if you can beat him in ping pong, you got an automatic A in the class…he told us that he changed that policy when a Chinese kid in the back of the room challenged to play him (Chinese kids are really good at ping-pong according to Sushil).  His policy on the boat is a free smoothie if you can beat him.  Sooo, after class, I challenged Professor Usman to a game of ping-pong and came out victorious!  Free smoothie for me and hopefully a free A?! 

Tonight was coffee house.  I got to listen to a few people sing, juggle, and tell jokes.  Everyone who sang had such a great voice and the guy who juggled knew so many juggling tricks and told jokes while he did it.  Here is the story he told (true story):  So a few years ago this guy who was juggling, named Phil, went on a trip to the Amazon River.  He was in charge of 18 high school kids, I think it was some kind of trip or a summer camp thing.  Anyways, Phil remembered some advice he had heard…these little fish in the Amazon are attracted to urine, therefore don’t pee in the Amazon.  If they scent the urine, the swim up your P*%#@.  Phil wanted to take extra precaution, so he decided to put a condom on for extra protection from these little fish.  So Phil and the 18 kids got onto the canoe to go to the place where they could swim.  Little did Phil know that they wouldn’t be going in the water for 2 hours, they would be in the canoe for 2 hours first.  So here is Phil, sitting in a canoe for 2 hours with a condom on.  Finally they get to go swimming and Phil jumps off the boat into the water.  He checks to see how his condom is doing and it was no longer there.  So they finish up swimming, and Phil gets back to the canoe with all of his students to find his condom floating in the canoe with them.  Phil grabs his condom and puts it in his pocket; 6 kids saw the floating condom and Phil was left to explain his story to them.

What a day…

From Brazil to South Africa

February 13, 2008

Not too much to tell for today.  Lets see…I went to global studies, and watched a movie called Monsoon Wedding in my choices in relationships class.  Since today was an A day, I laid out and tanned my front side, ab side.  Unfortunately the food officially sucks.  The salad is kind of brown and dirty, the only meat they serve is fish and pork (neither of which I eat), the sauce for the pasta is quite nasty, and if they have chicken its usually on a bone which I don’t really like and it is not very good.  So my usual meal consists of PB&J and rice.  YUCK!!!  Tonight we had a jungle animal theme party for the whole ship.  Most people dressed up as different animals, but Candice and I decided to be different and dress up as fruit trees to feed the animals.  Clever right?  I also filled out Spongebob and High School Musical Valentine’s day cards (like the ones I used to use in elementary school) to stick on people’s doors.

 

February 14, 2008 – Neptune Day

0720 and the hallways were so loud.  The crew was marching through the hallways banging pots and pans, blowing whistles, and banging on everyone’s door…it is Neptune Day!  Neptune Day is just a tradition that they do on the boat to initiate us into the sea!  We had no school today in honor of Neptune Day.  So like I said, they wake us up really early on a non school day, and we have to go up to the 7^th deck for our “initiation.”  The dean and other faculty members give this funny little speech and then each student has fish guts poured on them…it smells NASTY!!!  Then you jump into the pool to attempt to clean off the nastiness and the raunchy smell.  After you jump into the pool you have to kiss the dead gutted fish on the lips (yep, the fish whose guts I just got covered in)!  Sweet Valentines Day kiss right?  Everyone is supposed to shave their heads on Neptune day as well, but I didn’t; however about 30 girls actually did shave their full heads, along with a lot of the guys.  Moving on…the waters were the worst today than any other day so far.  The drawers in my room opened and shut all day until I duct taped them shut.  To try and explain the roughness of the waters, I look out my window or out onto the horizon for a few seconds, one second all I can see is the water and then a few seconds later all I can see is the sky.  Very scary looking; it looks like the boat is going to tip over.  Chairs and tables have been sliding across the decks, along with people; it is really entertaining to watch people trip and fall, or drop their food in the cafeteria!  It is really hard to walk today on the boat, it seems like a bunch of drunk people failing the walk the straight line test!  Our doctor told us that you know someone is drunk on the ship if they are the ones that can walk straight!

 

February 15, 2008

I woke up just in time today for global studies.  After global studies I finished up a paper that was due at 1335.  Speaking of homework, studying and essays…it is nearly impossible to do any of the above on this ship!  The only place that is really quiet to do any work is in my room; my room is at the front of the boat, which is very rocky and very nauseating to try to do homework in.  Aside from that minor detail, there is always so much other stuff going on that I want to do instead of reading or doing my HW.  For example I would much rather lie out and tan, and swim, than read a book!  I managed to finish my paper though.  I am not too worried, all of my teachers are really cool.  They don’t want to be bothered grading long papers so they are very lenient with assigned readings and assignments; they keep making “adjustments” to our syllabus.  I learned how to play spades today and basically am just continuing to hang out with some of the same people and meet new people.

 

Currently I am somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean between Brazil and South Africa.  I am traveling along the Middle Passage (I learned that in global studies), which is kind of cool.  Only a few more days until we reach land again.

Brazil!!!

Feb 5^th – Arriving in Brazil

Today we got to our second destination, Salvador, Brazil…just in time for the last day of Carnival! PARTTTTTAAYYYY.  When I got off the ship, there were these women called Baianas that greeted me and gave me one of these bracelets called Pulseira do bonfim.  The Baianas tied the bracelet onto my wrist with three knots.  With each knot she tied, I made a wish; Brazilians believe that your wishes come true when the Pulsiera do bonfim falls off, on its own, the ends cannot be cut.  After I got off the ship, I waited for Candice and Andy to go buy a t-shirt to get into Carnival (probably the most expensive t-shirt I have ever bought, but definitely worth it).  I chose to do the day-time Carnival because I had to be back on the ship by 2300 to leave for the airport for Manaus for my Amazon trip.  So, about Carnival….CRAZY!  I have never seen so many people partying.  The shirt that Andy, Candice and I bought were to get us into a Camarote.  The camarote is an area that is kind of like a balcony/club for viewing the trucks going by during Carnival.  Everyone in your camarote wears the same t-shirt and there are many different camarotes.  Within my camarote there was food, DRINKS, and tons of people.  I got to drink with the locals and celebrate their favorite time of year.  Carnival made me realize how much more difficult the language barriers are going to get this trip.  I tried to communicate with the locals in Portuguese, but it wasn’t very easy to do, but it was entertaining.  At Carnival I got to see Brazil’s biggest popstar, Evete Sangolo.  I had no idea what she, or any of the others were singing, but it sounded good to me!  While in the camarote, people on the trucks of the singers were throwing different things to the people of the camarotes; I managed to catch a water bottle, a few bandanas, and a bouncy ball.  For the most part, I drank Cervezas and jumped around in the crowd of my camarote.  Towards the end, I used my Portuguese to communicate with one of the carnival workers in the street.  “Su camiseta, Gostei! Eo Caro por favor.  Quanto e?” – me.  “Cinco real”- It all amounted to me getting an awesome carnival shirt off of one of the carnival workers for 5 real = $2.50…what a souvenir!

The cab ride home from Carnival…LOCO!  All that I need to say is that I made it back to the ship safe; the cab driver decided to turn down a 1 way street, then realized it was one way so he backed up until he got onto a 2 way street- backing up onto oncoming traffic, turned around, and then continued to take us to our ship.  I think our cabdriver may have been at Carnival earlier that day!  After Carnival, I packed my bag and hung out around the ship until 2300 when we left for the airport.

 

February 6, 2008

So I left the ship in Salvador at 2300 hours to make our first flight to Rio de Janeiro.  Our first flight was at 0250.  About the flight, I fell asleep after a bit of turbulence to be woken up by some guy throwing up in the aisle between Kristin and I…unfortunately for Kristin she got thrown up on.  After that got cleaned up I went right back to sleep until we landed in Rio.  We all had to get onto a connecting flight to Brasilia and then another connection (but same plane) from Brasilia to Manaus.  On the flight from Brasilia to Manaus I sat next to a couple, Patricia and Leonardo.  They are my age, and being that I talk to everyone, I practiced speaking to them in Portuguese for most of the flight and they practiced speaking their English with me.  They got off at the connecting flight, and I stayed on.  Once again I fell asleep until the plane landed in Manaus at 1045.    It was a long night of flying, and I had a full day ahead of me! 

Carlos the Jaguar, our tour guide for the Amazon, met all 30 of us SAS kids to take us to our Amazon trip.   We got on the bus to get to our home for the next few days, a small little boat, and it started POURING (we were in the RAINforest after all)!  I was pretty upset at first, I thought that it was going to rain the whole time, making for a miserable trip.  Anyways we got to our Amazon “home” and it was still pouring, but Carlos told us that there would be a light snack waiting for us…stale bread and cheese, and cashew juice L GROSS!  When we got to our “home” we met our tour guides, Rui and Se, 2 very, very knowledgeable men about the Amazon that would soon teach us a lot.  Day 1 was filled with a lot of stuff…the first thing we did after we ate our stale cheese sandwiches was went to the meeting of the waters (the Rio Negro and the Amazon).  The 2 different bodies of water touch one another, but they do not mix.  They are both very distinct; the Rio Negro looks like very dirty water, and the Amazon water looks like chocolate milk.  The reason that the Rio Negro and the Amazon waters do not mix is due to differences in their density, velocity, and temperature.  It was weird to see two bodies next to each other, you could basically see a line between the two waters because they wouldn’t mix.  After the meeting of the waters, we ate lunch on our boat; lunch consisted of fish, noodles, rice, beans, salad, and fruit.  I had the fish and noodles, well I had the fish until I found out it was fish, I thought it was chicken at first and then I tasted the nastiness of cod fish!  So much for lunch!  After lunch, our group walked through an Amazon Village where we saw a bunch of little kids, alligators, monkeys, and giant lily pads.  Se, our tour guide made animal sounds to attract the different animals (I have video on this, its hilarious).

After our walk through the Amazon village we split into 2 groups to go canoeing.  As we canoed in the Amazon, I saw young kids canoeing in separate boats.  We all started taking pictures of them, and they kept coming closer and closer to our canoe.  Finally they grabbed onto our canoe and were putting alligators, sloth’s, and snakes in our faces, and asking for money!  I was so scared of these kids and their animals, I almost tipped our canoe over.  It was sad to see little kids using this as a means to try to get money for themselves and their family.  I also got to see many homes on the Amazon river.  I didn’t really know that people lived on the Amazon river, and how poor their living conditions were.  Like us, they sleep in hammocks, and their homes appear to be a place that just provides a roof over their heads.  I also got to go piranha fishing, but I didn’t catch any, oh well!  Still in the Canoe, our guide took us to look for alligators, which they caught with their bare hands by shining a flashlight in the water.  They could tell that there was an alligator because if the flashlight hit the alligator’s eye, it lit up red.  The alligatore were pretty mean and ugly looking.  On the prettier side, I got to see the underside of huge lily pads.  I originally thought that lily pads were just a flimsy little leaf, but they are so extensive and intricate on the underside.

Finally we went back to our ship from the canoe and had dinner.  This time we got to have some chicken.  After dinner we set up our beds, or should I say hammocks.  We all slept in these hammocks, that were very close to one another.  It was a cool and unique way of experiencing the Amazon…actually sleeping on the amazon river, in hammocks, just like the people that live there!  Later at night, everyone on the trip with me got to know one another as many of us had not even met on the ship yet or if we had, we didn’t really know each other.  We played a fun and intense game of ‘Never Have I Ever.’  It was a cold night of sleeping, we only had a hammock to sleep in, no blanket, and no real shelter, we were roughing it.

 

February 7^th, 2008 – Day 2 of the Amazon

After my first night of sleeping on the Amazon River, I woke up for an early breakfast on the boat- egg and butter sandwich with pineapple on the side…yummmmy!  The pineapple was definitely the best pineapple that I have ever had.  Day 2 was our hiking day.  We took a canoe to an Amazon trail that Se suggested.  We hiked for about 4 hours.  In our hike we got to see and try different things of the Amazon.  We saw aloe, ambe (Amazonian cigarettes/marijuana), vicks (the stuff that smells like vicks vapor rub- the stuff that we used to put on nanny’s legs), and tree phones.  I also got to try vine water, which is used for back pain from water sticks of the Amazon, along with milk from a tree, sorva (tree chewing gum), and our guide Rui rubbed live ants on his hand and arms to use as protection against jaguars!  Se also showed us a bird call technique that he learned to call for the screaming Peehaw.  We learned how to make a torch in the rainforest and we learned about a branch of a tree that you can rub on your skin to use as a natural bug repellent.  Another interesting fact about our hike was that se brought his machete and cut through different ways to make our own trail in different parts.

It was a long, hot hike but we got to see so much!  On our way to and from the hike we canoed through the flooded forest.  This is an area that for part of the year, it is…flooded; the water goes up most of the tree trunks.

After our hike through the Amazon rainforest we came back to our boat to have lunch- rice, beans, and fried chicken.  Then we all took naps in our hammocks and went back out on the little canoes to get a better look at the flooded forest.  After our canoe ride, we came back to the boat, and went swimming in the Amazon River.  I jumped off the top of our boat into the Amazon with Annie and a bunch of other people.  We all showered in the Amazon as there was no shower on our home for the 3 days.  Luckily ,some people brought shampoo, conditioner, and a bar of soap.  After our shower in the dirty waters of the Rio Negro, we all hung out on the boat, talking and getting to know one another more.  Then we broke out the Brazilian beer and rum and played a few games of flip cup with these tiny little Dixie cups!  Since we didn’t have enough rum and beer to last all of the night and for our beach party, Rui took 4 of the girls on a liquor run through the Amazon to a local market, weird but awesome!  Dinner for us tonight was barbequed on the beach- it was beach party night!

 We had sausage, chicken, steak, mashed potatoes, rice, beans, and noodles.  After we ate our dinner, we listened to Rui and Carlos drunk singing some American songs like Lucy in the Sky with diamonds and then some native songs.  We were able to hang out on the beach by the fire, look up at the stars, and just get to hang out.  We also had our own fare share of drunk sing-alongs.

 

February 8, 2008- Last day in the Amazon

I woke up at 0730 to have another ship-made breakfast: eggs and a roll and pineapple.  While I was eating my breakfast I didn’t feel so well…turns out that I was sick all day and for a few days to come.  A few other girls were sick today also, not too sure why.  I had sharp pains in my stomach and really achy legs (I  hope it wasn’t malaria).  Even though I didn’t feel well I did al the activities we had planned for the day.  The first activity of the day was going to a native village in the Amazon called Terra Preta.  When we arrived at the village in the morning I saw a bunch of kids of the village playing in the dirty waters of the Rio Negro.  There was a little girl swimming and sitting on the dock brushing her teeth using the waters of the Rio Negro.  It was fun and interesting to watch these kids find so much joy in playing in the waters of the Rio Negro and washing up.  About the actual village…the village was made up of 29 families, consisting of 150 people.  One interesting fact that I found out about the people of this village was that the average life expectancy is 80 years old, which was 10 years more than the life expectancy in the actual city of Manaus.  The leading cause of death of the people of this village is high blood pressure.  I got to meet the president of the tribe, and I also got to see many different buildings and landmarks of the village.  I saw the village’s church (which had electric guitars), their school (which was built by the help of world vision building); their school looks nothing like school that I went to- it was one small building, and was not attended by the kids on a daily basis), different homes, bbq pit, and a pen with a pig (which would soon be the food for the village people).  The homes were so simple, with hammocks as their beds.  We also got to play with the kids on their soccer field.  I got to see a monkey in the village…I really want a pet monkey.  One of the little girls of the village noticed that I wasn’t feeling well and came over and handed me what looked like a pea to eat to make me feel better; she was really cute about it and I pretended to eat the pea and feel all better.

After a morning at Terra Preta we took a canoe ride through the flooded forest where we managed to get stuck on a log and hit a branch that knocked a ton of ants into our boat…not so much fun!  After we unstuck our selves from the log, we went back to the boat for lunch that I didn’t eat because I didn’t feel so well.  We all spent the afternoon napping in the middle of the Amazon on our hammocks; what a life!  After naptime was over, we went to another village, a more tribal village.  As our boat pulled into the beach of the village we could see the president of that village- he wore just a pair of tightie whities and some red Indian paint.  We all pooled 100 REAL together to pay to see a ritual dance by the tribal people.  This ritual dance is what they do to welcome other tribes to their tribe, which usually last 24 hours.  The people of the tribe were like what you see in textbooks, the women wear no tops and the men are just in their underwear, everyone wearing tribal paint on their faces and bodies.  This tribe was made up of 15 people.  While I watched the ritual dances, one of the little girls of the tribe sat on my lap to watch the ritual as well; she was adorable!  After we watched and participated in their ritual dance, we got to look through their handcrafted market and finally walked through the dark back to our boat.  When we got back to the boat, we packed our bags, which smelt really bad, ate dinner, and left for the Airport.  Se sang the whole bus ride to the airport…he also told us that he “never dreamed that so many people would clap for him”- I took videos of him singing, but his laugh at the end of each song was priceless, he was like a big/little teddy bear.

For our flight home….0230 was our first flight to Brasilia.  I slept the whole 3.5 hours.  Then we had a 3-hour layover in the Brasilia airport, along with the kids that did the Amazon trip through SAS. I would say that there were about a good 70 kids asleep on the floor in the Brasilia airport, I was one of them.  Finally we took our last flight back to Manaus- arriving at 1045…it was already our last day in Brazil and I haven’t gotten a real night of sleep. 

On the bright side you should know that I made it back from my Amazon trip from the worlds most crashed airlines- TAM.

All in all, the trip was amazing, and definitely unique.  I left for the Amazon not really knowing anyone else on my trip, and came back with another group of friends and 30 more familiar faces!

 

February 9, 2008- Last Day in Brazil- Salvador

I spent most of my day walking around the city very tired and sick form my Amazon trip.  I took this elevator up to get to the main city street of Salvador because there is no other way to get up there.  I just walked around, sight seeing, and looking in all the different shops.  I walked around with a bag of candy to hand out to the kids on the streets; some of the kids were so appreciative and cute.  I went to a place called Mercado Modello, where they sell a lot of handcrafts, paintings, native instruments, hammocks, and Brazilian clothes, etc. 

From Carnival to the whole Amazon Experience to Salvador, I had a great time in Brazil.  Next port of call- South Africa, a 9-day journey across the Atlantic Ocean…should be fun.

Almost in Brazil...

February 2, 2008 – Which way does your toilet flush?

Today was the equivalent to a weekend for me…no school!!!  Let’s see, I slept in, which for me is 1015, then laid outside on the 7^th deck with Candice and met a bunch more people,; I feel like I meet a ton of new people each day but I still don’t know so many people. 

Sooooo….today I crossed the equator.  Surprisingly I knew that there was no visible line to see when crossing the equator, but I did learn something new…the toilets flush the opposite way once you pass the equator!  I can’t wait to try it out in Brazil.  I wonder if it will look differently going down; what do you think?  I also went in the small pool that we have on the ship because it was too hot to tan all day without any water to go in.  For dinner, I ate with the people of my sea- the Bering Sea, the boat is divided into different groups (seas) for Sea Olympics, which is like color war in camp!  Today is also Laundry Day- I think that’s pretty exciting because they do my laundry for me AND they fold it!  I am still learning Portuguese by one of the students Dani, who is from Brazil.  One of the professors described the sound of the language as “a drunk French person trying to speak Spanish.”  Late night I hung out on deck 7 for pub night, and got to meet and hang out with a ton of new people.  Probably doesn’t sound like a lot of fun to you, but I am having a great time!

 

February 3, 2008

Not too much to share today.  We have been at sea for a while now, but we will be in Brazil in 2 days!!!  Lets see, today was a B-day…that means 3 classes for me, very stressful!  In global studies an announcement was made that there would be no GLOBAL STUDIES tomorrow.  That’s good news, more time to tan and sleep…we were told we were supposed to read though… yea right.  I looked in the ocean all day to try to see the infamous flying fish that everyone is talking about; everyone has seen these flying fish in our travel time from Puerto Rico to Brazil except for me!  I looked out the windows during class and in the ocean when I laid out, but still no luck!  Like I said, a pretty uneventful day.  On the fun side of things, I played Xi, Ben, Zach, Adam, Andy, and Andres in ping pong and won 17 games in a row…girls rule boys drool.  After ping-pong, Candice and I went up to the 7^th deck to hang out and play some drinking games…I learned how to play Egyptian ratscrew…good times! I more day until land!

 

February 4, 2008

Tatiana canceled global studies for us yesterday so that we could have time to catch up on our readings.  I slept until 0930, went to the gym at 1000, laid out until lunch at 1230 and then went to class at 1335 and then went back outside to lay out and go in the pool.  I got to see a dolphin today, but still no flying fish…oh well, I’ll keep looking. I did my daily P90x ab workout.  We arrive in Salvador tomorrow for Carnival- it is going to be insane, more details to come!  We had our standard pre-port meeting tonight to go over everything for Brazil and then I met with the group of kids that I am traveling to the Amazon with.  I can’t wait for Brazil…I will blog again on Feb 9^th or 10^th about everything I did.  I will try to blog some in Portuguese, I am learning it really slowly but I plan on practicing it while I am tin Brazil.

 

If you want to try calling me you can try to call me on my international phone on either Feb 5^th or Feb 9^th, I should be able to pick up.