Ghana

“The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it”

~W.M. Lewis

Ghana stole my heart. From the second we arrived I felt welcome and comfortable. The day we arrived I took a tour with SAS to the castles and slave dungeons. We saw Elmina castle as well as Cape Coast Castle. It is very hard to describe the way it felt to stand in the slave dungeons. Being in the exact place where millions suffered, waiting for their fates, was chilling to say the least. My friend Jill and I didn’t say a word to each other the entire time. It was horrifying, powerful, and extremely educational. The Atlantic Slave Trade is a topic covered in every social studies class from elementary school on, but there is absolutely no way to really get a sense of their horrible conditions until you see it. We were locked into two dungeons. The first was used for soldiers who were drunk or misbehaving. There was light, and plenty of windows to allow air circulation. The next one was used for slaves who misbehaved or tried to revolt. The only source of air or light was through the very small hole in the metal gate. It was absolutely suffocating, and the scrapes in the walls from shackles and nails made you feel like you were in the middle of a horror movie. It was completely terrifying, but I think it was an important experience. We also saw the men’s and women’s dungeons, and the tunnels finally leading to “the door of no return”. This is where those that survived the dungeons were brought to board the ships. We were told that the dungeons would be packed with hundreds of people, which was unimaginable, because we were feeling claustrophobic with about 25 of us. It was an incredibly powerful experience, and images of brands and shackles are still burned into my mind.

Our spirits were lifted, however, by the locals outside of the dungeons. One young boy gave me a seashell with my name painted on it, and another guy gave me a bracelet. We also learned how to play some instruments that were kind of like maracas. I had fun exchanging key chains and stories with people, and everyone was very nice. The next day I went on a canopy walk in Kakum National Park. It was absolutely gorgeous! The bridges were very high up, and very narrow and wobbly. I’m not going to lie, I felt a lot like Indiana Jones. I could’ve done that all day, I was having so much fun! We weren’t able to see too many animals, because all of the forest elephants and monkeys are nocturnal. We then went to eat lunch (delicious Jalof rice…I couldn’t get enough) and listen to the bamboo orchestra. The music was beautiful and the dancing was amazing! The dancer pulled some of us up to learn one of the dances. Yes I did go up, and yes I had the time of my life! They were kind enough not to completely laugh at us trying to do their dances…again, amazingly nice people.

            The next day I went to habitat for humanity. It was very fun and a very rewarding experience. I definitely plan on getting involved with more projects in the future. I was put on plaster duty, so by the end of the day I was completely covered in mud and cement. I think I got pretty good at it by the end of the day though! Some of the kids from the village came to eat lunch with us. One of the boys was about 14 years old, and he had skipped school because he had to go get water for his family. The well is about a two mile walk, so it took the whole day to get enough water. I think one of my favorite parts about the trips I did was the drive there. There is so much to see just looking out the windows. Women carrying amazingly large baskets on their heads, children bathing out of buckets right in front of their houses, people pulling in giant fishing nets on the beach. It is such a different lifestyle there, and it was beautiful to see the way they live. We passed by some villages that were entirely made up of grass and mud huts, with no electricity, no running water, and goats running around everywhere. To us, it seems so different, maybe even primitive, but to them it is all they know. I loved watching the kids wrestling with each other, playing soccer, and just smiling from ear to ear.

            We went to the beach the next day, which was quite an adventure. In Ghana you can hire little busses called tro-tros. Normally they hold about 10 people…our group had 16. Somehow we managed to squeeze everyone into one and made it to the beach. The tro-tro drivers stop all the time to do errands or talk to friends. On the way to the beach, our driver stopped to get himself some fried plantains, dropped off his recycling, and paid off the cops so that he wouldn't get fined for having too many people. The beach was incredibly beautiful and the water was so warm! I got stung by jellyfish a few times, but I was so enthralled by the beach and the people that I barely noticed. We brought some candy and gum and passed it out to some of the kids. They sat with us for hours, playing with our ipods and our cameras. We played soccer, and rock-paper scissors, and tag with the kids, it was so much fun! I even tried to balance one of the little girl’s baskets on my head….I was horrible at it, but it made her laugh pretty hard! We ate fried lobster and drank fresh pineapple juice, I was in heaven!

Throughout our time there we made good friends with the vendors that set up at port when we got there. They all had amazing memories, and they knew exactly who you were and what you wanted to buy every time you walked past. That night, Jill and I hung out with some of the guys and learned how to play drums. It was definitely addicting! I spent hours learning different beats and songs! Finally, at 1:30 in the morning we went back to the ship with swollen hands and amazing memories. Jill has been wanting to get dredlocks for a while, so our last day was mission day. I had some souvenirs to buy, and we needed to find somewhere for Jill to get her hair dredded. Luckily right out of port we ran into a friend I had met a few nights before, named Elvis. He completely took care of us all day. He took us to the bank, the post office, and found someone who would do Jill’s hair. For the rest of the afternoon we sat on the street, ate tiger nuts, and talked about our lives while about three people worked on Jill’s hair. Elvis was hilarious and very nice. When I kept thanking him for helping us out so much, he told me “you don’t have to thank me, we all need each other, it's the way it should be”. How true is that? I found myself shocked at how friendly and helpful every one in Ghana was, but really they have it right. It should be like that everywhere! My experience in Ghana was incredible to say the very least. I was sad leaving the other ports, but this time I actually felt like I was saying goodbye to friends. I absolutely intend to go back someday. I learned and saw some amazing things, and I fell in love with the people there. American guys definitely need to learn some things from Ghanaian men…they know what romance is, that's for sure! I wish I could show everyone the things I learned and felt while I was there, but I know that won’t be possible. Just know that I loved it in so many ways! =) Next stop South Africa! Miss you all!

Slideshow is below =)

Ghana Slideshow!

Here today, Ghana Manana =)

Saturday February 5^th, 2011

“The real voyage of discovery lies not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes”

~Marcel Proust

It has been nine days since we left Brazil, and everyone is itching to get off the ship tomorrow in Ghana! I’m not going to lie, though, it’s been a very fun nine days! It was my friend’s 21^st birthday a couple of days after we left Brazil, so we surprised her with a nice dinner. The ship offers these specialty dining nights that you can pay extra for. It was so worth the money! We had a five course meal complete with champagne, paté, and some amazing soufflé (makes you wonder where they’ve been hiding all this gourmet food)! I have been taking a lot of time to reflect on everything I have experienced so far, and what I am about to see as we travel further and further around the world. I have had some amazing discussions with professors, staff, even Captain Jeremy, about everything I’ve seen and the fire it has sparked in me. Sailing down the Amazon was definitely amazing! There was so much to see, and it was pretty cool waving at people in their tiny little fishing canoes. After 2 days of smooth sailing up the Amazon, we were all a little bit nervous about crossing the big, bad Atlantic. It really hasn’t been bad at all. The Atlantic Ocean was good to us. Even through some storms the water stayed calm! It has definitely been a pleasant surprise, since we were all bracing ourselves for some major rocking. Some people got bit by monkeys in Brazil, so I’m sure they haven’t been having the best time, considering the long series of rabies shots they are going through right now. And a few other people were on IVs (lets just say they had a bad case of “Brazil Belly” and they were all dehydrated). But so far no serious disasters!

            I have had some very thought provoking classes the past few days. In my environmental science class we talked about wealth and quality of life. My eyes are really opening to how extremely stressed we are as Americans. When most of the rest of the world is just happy if they get dinner that night, we are worried about the next car we want to buy and what the latest fashion trend is. We always want bigger and better and faster, the thought of starving or extreme thirst would never even cross any of our minds. But for so many people that's all they know. Here we are preaching to other countries how they should live and how they should protect the environment…they are probably thinking “yeah when I can live like Americans maybe I will have energy to think about conserving resources”. Its really scary how wasteful we are, and we don’t even realize it, because that's just the norm in the US. In Dominica if you don’t have food one night, you can walk right over to your neighbor’s house and they will gladly share with you, not as a favor, just as a way of life. If I walked over to my neighbor’s house in Colorado Springs and asked if I could eat dinner with them tonight they would think I was crazy. We are so absorbed with this every man for himself, constant competition lifestyle that helping out a neighbor without getting something in return in just out of the question. It made me think of swimming class in 9^th grade. I remember getting in the pool and complaining about how cold it was. The teacher told us that if we just relaxed our muscles, our bodies would warm up faster, because when you tense up you are just making it worse. Maybe that's what we need to do. Just relax our lives. We are so tense and competitive, maybe if we just relaxed, helping out anyone in need wouldn't seem like such a burden. If we weren’t so obsessed with being the richest or the skinniest or the smartest, we could step back and realize that while I’m eating a dinner that could feed a family of five, some little girl in Nepal is waking up and praying that today is not the day that she gets sold into sex slavery. Those are real things. They aren’t just scary stories. Every day 30,000 children die of completely preventable causes, starvation, malaria, thirst…these are all things that we could prevent. Yet when 3,000 Americans die in one day, wars are waged, millions upon millions of dollars are poured into funds that go to the affected families….millions of dollars that could have easily saved 30,000 children every day for months. These children also lost loved ones, usually their entire families. Only these kids don’t have the state of New York to provide grief therapy and compensation, in fact they don't even have a meal for the day, or shoes to wear. I’m not being insensitive towards Americans affected by 9/11, but the fact of the matter is even without all of the donations, each family involved would have received more in compensation than most people in the world will ever see in their lifetimes. The UN calculated that if the wealthiest countries of the world donated 0.7% of their GNP, we could end poverty the world over, The United States, the great and benevolent world power….yeah we managed to scrape together 0.1% of our GNP. I honestly don’t even think that people would notice that 0.7% went to starving children in Africa. We would still be waking up and getting our Starbucks, driving our SUVs, and coming home to a fridge full of food and prime time TV. These are things that I have been thinking about a lot lately, and yes, its been a very frustrating few days of realizations. Luckily there are some amazing and inspirational people on board to help me work through the confusion and frustration.

One in particular is Andrew Briggs, who is an SAS alumni who saw his calling in Uganda. He started a non-profit called Freedom in Creation. They set up schools in refugee villages for escaped child soldiers and slaves. There are actually more slaves today than there were during the Atlantic Slave Trade! He helps them recover through art therapy. He then takes their artwork and displays it around the world in galleries and cafés. The money he raises at these benefits goes directly towards the school and the village, and they use it to install fresh water wells for the village. Many of these children escape horrific wars and terrible conditions only to contract cholera or hepatitis from unclean drinking water. Meeting these amazing people helps me to breathe a little bit easier, and reminds me that there is so much hope and opportunity out there. Anyways there was my rant that has been running through my head the past nine days.

We were able to get a tour of the bridge (where the boat is operated), which was very cool. It was great to be right in front of the ship and see how everything works. The Captain even came up to talk to us and answer some questions. He is very nice and very funny. My favorite thing he said (when asked if he ever gets bored, and if he ever gets off the ship in port) was “well I’m the boss so I can do whatever I want….they say that absolute power corrupts, but I think absolute power is rather neat” (in a British accent). He is very funny and a firm supporter of the Semester at Sea program. I was also adopted! We have a program called extended families, where lifelong learners adopt students. I have a single mother. Her name is Evelyn, shes from Austria and has all sorts of interesting stories. My sister’s name in Emma and she just graduated high school, so this is her first college experience! Evelyn is so sweet she always calls my room to wish me luck on tests and we all get dinner together every now and then. It's a lot of fun!

And then there was Sea Olympics…. Each hall is considered a different “sea”. I am a part of the Mediterranean Sea, and every year since the very beginning of SAS, Sea Olympics has been held. It was incredibly fun. We had an opening ceremony, and every sea had to come up with a cheer or two and present their banner. The next day was all events. I don’t think I have ever laughed so hard. The events included synchronized swimming, hula hoop, crab soccer, wheelbarrow race, card stacking, and so so many more. Everyone was very spirited and EVERYONE was wearing their sea’s colors (GO GREEN!). All of the students represented seas around the world (i.e Red Sea, Yellow Sea, Baltic Sea, Bering Sea, etc), and then the lifelong learners (the older group on our voyage) were the Sea Salts, and the faculty and dependants were the Luna Sea (pun totally intended). Let me tell you, the Sea Salts’ synchronized swimming team was absolutely hilarious. Imagine four older guys in speedos, doing a very graceful routine to the Star Wars theme song. In fact there wasn't a single routine that didn’t have me on the floor laughing. I was very impressed. It was such a fun day, and at the end they announced the winners. The grand prize was getting off the ship first when we arrived in San Diego. We didn’t win, but you can be sure I had the time of my life.

Dean Dan was so impressed with how spirited we were (AKA extremely loud and competitive), he is having the Super Bowl streamed to the ship tomorrow night! Everyone is very excited, it should be a fun night! I’ll be watching the game with all of you…only I’ll be watching it from Africa! And just to put the cherry on top, he also told us last night at the “State of the Ship Address” that he wrote a letter to Bono, who will be in South Africa when we get there (yes I already have tickets to the U2 concert in Cape Town), asking him to come sail with us for a few days. When I asked about it he said….”yeah how do you write a letter like that? It took me forever! But I came up with…’Dear Bono, I am writing to you from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean’…that way he will have to keep reading!” Cross your fingers for us! We may be fortunate enough to have Desmond Tutu and Bono on the ship with us….talk about a double whammy! Work is going really well, we are planning out a really cool ball for the end of the voyage. I am slowly getting used to being in class on weekends, and then having a whole week off to, ya know, explore AFRICA! We also lose an hour about every other day…I am 10 hours ahead of Hawaii right now! So weird! Its mid afternoon here and no one Hawaii is even thinking about waking up yet! I also have a special Valentine this year…Hershey’s chocolate. The shipboard community is getting together to send “hate mail in a heart”. Not as mean as it sounds, but basically a couple of girls came up with the idea to send valentines to the big wigs of Hersheys to ask them to join the movement against child labor in cocoa plantations. A lot of us participated and Hersheys is definitely getting a lot of valentines this year!

I am very, very excited for Ghana, and everything to come, my friends are beyond amazing and my classes are eye opening! Still happy, still learning a lot, still missing you all…but WOW I love it here! =) More to come! Thank you all for reading! It means the world to me!

Short slideshow below =)

Some pictures from the boat