The Rest of Salvdaor...

My last four days in Brazil were okay at best.  Unfortunately, I got some kind of food poisoning and was cooped up in bed for a day and a half.  Not the best way to spend time in port, but oh well.  I got through seven countries without having any type of stomach issues, despite constant warning from the ship’s doctor. 

On my second day I had a very interesting tour of three different schools in Brazil.  We went to a local community school, in a very rough neighborhood in Salvador.  This school survives off of $6,000 from a charity in Switzerland.  All of the teachers are volunteers and the school is mainly seen as a haven for kids in the neighborhood.  The kids put on a dance show for us and it was great!  The second school was a public one in a more middle-class neighborhood.  It was a high school and Brazil has a very interesting system regarding students and college.  All high school students are required to take a test, kind of like an SAT.  Riding on this SAT is a lot.  If the students get a certain mark, they are admitted to public university for free.  We learned a lot about more about the school system in Brazil and how the system is divided between Catholic schools and the public ones.  The last school we visited was another public high school in a more sinister neighborhood.  This school was actually founded as a project to educate Brazilians about their different heritages, Portuguese and African.

In the afternoon we went to a gorgeous beach.   We had a relaxing afternoon and evening on the beach, ending with a beautiful sunset.  We then got Aci, a berry concoction straight from the Amazon.  It was delicious, and best of all it’s one of the healthiest things you can eat.  It’s sold in the U.S., but it’s also very, very expensive.  I’ve seen it in health food stores.  We went back to the ship early, as we were all exhausted.

On Friday, I went to a nursery school for a visit.  All working mothers in the neighborhood the school’s located in (not the best one) can have their children stay here for free while they are at work.  We got to meet all of the kids, aged 6 months to 5, and then spent about two hours playing with them.  They were the cutest kids I’ve ever seen!  I know us being there meant the world to them and I was grateful to give my time. 

From Friday afternoon to Saturday evening I was sick.  I have no idea what I ate, but something didn’t agree with me.  Not the most interesting stuff to write about, but like I said, I consider myself lucky not to have gotten sick in any previous ports.   I know people on board who have been in multiple ones. 

Saturday evening was the first time I got off the ship and we went to dinner at a local pizzeria.  I was happy that my appetite had finally returned and dinner couldn’t have been more delicious.  Sunday, we spent our time walking around different parts of Salvador, and buying souvenirs.  It really is a gorgeous city and I wish I could have seen all it has to offer.  Hopefully, I’ll get back here one day. 

So, now we’re off to Florida and home.  I can’t believe it.  Seeing “Salvador to Ft. Lauderdale” on my room’s television screen is so strange.  I will write one final post about a bunch of different things- after I get through finals.  I am still in school here…

Salvador Day 1

We arrived in Salvador, Brazil on Wednesday, April 21 (two weeks from day we’ll be arriving in Florida…so crazy!) at 8 AM.  Customs didn’t take long at all and we were off the ship by 10 AM.  Our plans for the day were nothing but wandering around the city.

Salvador had a different feel from any city we’ve been to so far. I can’t put my finger on it, but it was very different.   There’s Lower Salvador and Upper Salvador, Upper is where we spent the majority of our day.  You have to take an elevator to get in between the two, which I think is pretty cool and very different. Several of my friends who’ve been to Europe say that it reminded them of European cities.  I’ve never been to Europe, but could easily see how correct they were; you can definitely tell that a European power controlled this country.  Everywhere there were cobblestone streets with little shops, cafes and multi-colored houses.   We spent a good deal of time going in and out of different shops and then got lunch at one of the cafes. 

I also can easily see why there’s such a problem with mudslides in Brazil.  While we were eating lunch, it POURED rain.  There was a good ten to fifteen minutes of nothing but a straight downpour.  It was crazy…I’ve never seen rain like it.  It was actually very cozy sitting in a café drinking hot, Brazilian coffee (very good but I can’t wait for my cup of Wawa Joe when I get back home) watching the rain pour.  Lunch turned into an hour and a half affair due to the rain.  

When the rain finally ended, we got on with our day.  We went into a Catholic church, St. Francis, for a tour.    This was the most beautiful church I’ve ever seen.  The statues, paintings, Crucifixes- everything was so ornate and detailed.  I could not get over it.  No church I’ve even been into at home even comes close to what this one was like.  It also was huge.  They had whole rooms devoted to the Stations of the Cross, different Brazilian or Portuguese Saints, and the Blessed Mother.  In addition to the main church, there were two very large chapels.  I was in total awe of everything.   

After touring the church, we got lucky.  They were filming a music video for the World Cup on one of the streets we wandered onto.   This video will introduce Brazil when the world cup rolls around.  So we all got to be in the music video for the World Cup (which hopefully will appear on YouTube) and got interviewed for a local news station.  Well, I didn’t get interviewed but some of the other SASers in the group did and they were going to show footage of all of us, in the video, on TV that night.  So, while I was at dinner, Salvador residents were seeing my mug on TV. 

That night we went to a local place for dinner right on the beach.  The restaurant was a little pricey, but the atmosphere was awesome.  I got Portuguese pizza, and it was the best pizza I’ve ever had.  There’s something very different about the crust/dough.  It was delicious. 

Sadly, the only thing about Salvador I didn’t like was how venerable I felt at different points during the day.  The city is known for frequent muggings and petty theft.   We hadn’t been in Brazil for four hours and we heard stories that fellow SASers had been mugged.  I know we all stick out like sore thumbs, but still that was quick.  At several points I just felt unsafe and decided not to go into certain streets for fear of getting mugged.  I definitely think this is the port where I need to be the most careful.  At least it’s the last one and I didn’t feel this way anywhere else.  Not too bad. 

So aside from the muggings, I’m looking forward to spending the next four days in South America (my third continent!).  I have two service visits to different schools in Salvador and then I have no idea.  Everyone who I’ll be spending the time with is low on cash.  So we’re going to see how much we can do in Salvador with spending the least amount of money!

Last Destination...

We arrive in Salvador, Brazil tomorrow.  I was planning on going to Rio, but my bank account told me otherwise.   So, I’ll be spending five days in Salvador.  One of the inter port students on the ship told me Salvador is a much better place to see what Brazil is like.  It’s not as touristy and very authentic. I’m excited.  I have two service visits to schools planned and I’m looking forward to them.

The last five days have been nothing but schoolwork.  Everyone on the ship is pretty much just doing homework, getting those last assignments done.  I was proud of myself and got done what needed to be done.  I still have two exams to prepare for after Brazil, which aren’t going to be so much fun.  So the last stop of my journey begins tomorrow!  It’s going to be great! 

The Rest of Ghana

My second day in Ghana was one I’d been looking forward to for a while.  I visited the Morning Star School, a private school in Ghana.  It’s a religious, K-9 school with just about 1100 students.  Unfortunately, only the ninth graders were in that day.  The rest of the student body was on vacation.  The ninth graders were in to prepare for a government test that will determine if they go to high school or not.  It’s different in Ghana.  In 9th grade, all the students take a standardized test and then depending on how they do on this test, they will be gain admission to a high school, which is 10-12.  So there’s a lot of pressure to do well.  We spent a good three hours with the school’s headmistress and she told us pretty much anything we wanted to know.   The school reminded me A LOT of a Catholic grade school.  Religious paintings all around, prayers in the classroom, and I dunno it just did.  There also was a poster in the library that said: “Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”  This poster was in my 7th grade classroom and half the people on the trip said they’d had this exact poster in one of their grade school classrooms. 

I had a chance to have a conversation with several of the ninth graders there and they just reminded me of me when I was in eighth grade.  They told me they loved it because they were the “kings of the school.”  They also were nervous about going to high school the next year and would be parting with students they’d known since Kindergarten.  I felt the exact same way in eighth grade.  King of the school, nervous about high school, and sad about parting ways with the St. Philip Neri Class of 2004, most of the whom I’d been with since Kindergarten.  Funny that Western Africa reminds me of this.

The headmistress took us on a tour and answered our questions.  One thing that is very different from private schools in the U.S. is that Ghanaian private schools get no funding from the government whatsoever.  They are completely dependent on the tuition.   Private schools, however, are the top rated schools in the country.  The headmistress said: “No public school comes close.”  I’d like to think she wouldn’t be lying (especially since the school is a religious one) and from some of the things she was telling is it would make sense.  Very interesting stuff.  The headmistress also told me she’d love for my future students (I’m an education major) to be pen pals with one of her classes.  That’s going to look good on my résumé one day. 

After the school visit, I returned to the ship and then was headed out for the evening.  We were fortunate to meet a Ghanaian named Nii (pronounced “knee”) on the first day and Nii was no ordinary Ghanaian.  He has a bit of a history with SAS.  In between every port we’ve had an inter port student.  A college student from a university in the next country we’re visiting sails with us from one port to the next.  This student will talk in lectures, answer our questions about the country, gives us good things to do, and stuff like this.  Nii was the Ghanaian inter port student from the Fall 2009 SAS voyage.  He ran into us on the street and told us and we couldn’t believe that we’d run into him.  He sailed with the MV Explorer from Casablanca to Accra last time she went around the world. 

Anyways, Nii wanted to help us SASers out again.  He had taken my friends all around Accra while I was visiting the school and was hanging out with us again at night.  He drove us to the resort we were heading to, Big Millys.  It was a forty-five minute drive from Accra and on the coast.  It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, but it was a great time.  It basically was a village hotel.  We had a great night there and Nii spent the night with us.  He was fun to talk to and I just couldn’t believe that he was going out of his way to help us so much.  We’d only met him about 24 hours before. 

The next day Nii arranged for us to have a Ghanaian style brunch, again going out of his way to help us.  The food was very spicy, but good and ultra fresh.  I think they may have killed the chickens and caught the fish that morning.  Afterwards, Nii took us to some secluded beach areas and I got a chance to swim in the Atlantic Ocean.  I still can’t believe it was the Atlantic.  This is the ocean I swim in every summer and have hundred of memories because of, but this time it was the other side.  I don’t know if it’s a feeling I can describe with words.  I felt at home in it and swimming today was unlike any of the other swimming I’ve done on this trip.   This probably makes no sense at all, and like I said above words just can’t describe it. 
So, it was a great evening and day getting to know Nii.  He had really interesting things to say and I really learned a lot about Ghanaian people from him.  I still CAN NOT get over how hospitable he was to us.  Hopefully, I can be the same way to a tourist in Philadelphia one day. 

Another interesting thing happened when I was traveling with Nii.  One the way to Big Millys, he took us to an off the beaten track restaurant.  It was a little joint run by a family.  The woman who served us and cooked our food had on a very interesting t-shirt.  It was a Catholic school’s basketball jersey.  It had the name on the school and a bunch of sponsors on the back- the exact same kind I used to wear in grade school.  The funny thing is I remember donating these old jerseys and seeing people donate jerseys exactly like them at church!   You’d always hear they went to African nations and I saw with my own eyes that they really do!  The lady told us jerseys like these come in every so often from U.S. Catholic organizations and are sold at a used clothing store for what would amount to $.25.   Nii said the region we were in relies on clothes like these because it’s the only kind the sellers can afford.  It was just so crazy and strange to see. 

Nii took us back to Accra and we headed back to the ship.  It was sad to say goodbye to him (we couldn’t see him the next day because he had classes) and I have his contact information so we can keep in touch. I spent the evening on the ship, as I was completely exhausted.  The heat, 3 hours or so of sleep the night before, and swimming drained me. 
The next day I didn’t do too much.  I headed into Accra and got some souvenirs, including an awesome African shirt, and spent a few more hours walking around the city.

Ghana was a different country.  The people here are very laid back, and very welcoming to Americans, which was so nice.  However, I didn’t really like the fact that it was so hot.  I can deal with the heat, but imagine walking around a big city where there’s running sewage everywhere, and it’s 100 degrees out.  Not the best smell in the world.   Also, a hidden price developing nations like Ghana are paying is traffic.   If you think traffic is bad in the United States, it’s ten times worse here.  The roads are terrible because there’s just a lack of basic road infrastructure.  Nii was going all over the place to get on to the highway.  There were very few labeled entrances and exits.  You just drove on a dirt road until and went into traffic.  Imagine 100 cars doing this at a time and then imagine the traffic problems that would create.   We spent a lot of time sitting in traffic.   

So, now we’re crossing the Atlantic Ocean and off to Brazil, our last port of call.  I cannot believe there’s just 21 days left on this voyage.  I have no idea where the time went.  Hawaii and Japan seem like another lifetime ago.

Western Africa!

We arrived in Ghana at around 8 AM on Sunday, April 11.   Clearing the ship didn’t take too long and we were off of it by 11 AM.  It was like being back in India.  Our ship’s position- according to the TV in my room- is 00 Degrees or right on the Equator!!!   You can imagine how hot and humid it is…it’s completely draining!

Accra is about forty-five minutes away and luckily the ship has a shuttle service for us.  Where the ship is berthed is simply a harbor.  Nothing exciting.  We were spoiled by the harbors in Cape Town and Port Louis.  So, after several hours of waiting inside the ship we finally got on a shuttle and were in downtown Accra.  Walking around was fun and we didn’t go anywhere too special.  We hit a few markets and a nice place for ice cream.  The heat really is just unbearable and it isn’t the cleanest place.  It’s not India dirty, and the poverty isn’t as bad, but it comes very close.  Sewage running in the streets and trash is everywhere.  You also can see just how much “developing” this developing nation is doing.   It seems to be in a transition period.  Construction, billboards, and many other signs like this all spell out development.  I bet if I come back here in ten years Accra will be a very different city. 

For dinner we went to an interesting place called, ChurCheese.   It was a lot like Chuck E Cheese (I think that’s the spelling) back home.  It had a play area out front for kids and then an arcade inside.  Yes, a bunch of twenty-year olds really went here.  The dinner was good; I had pizza.  Ghanaian food is very, very spicy and I’m not too keen on that. 

The first thing I noticed about Ghanaian people is how friendly and pro-America they are!   One guy came up to us and just started talking to us.  He weaves bracelets and made one for all of us for free.  He just wanted to practice his English.  He told us about all of his friends in America, more likely tourists he’s met.  He really wants to go to the U.S., but he has the same problem many other people who I’ve encountered on this trip have: he can’t get a visa.  We spent about 2 hours talking and walking around with him.   As we were walking around a lot of other locals just came up and started talking to us.  They all just asked questions about America and they are especially interested on hearing about President Obama.  “He came to Ghana!” At least ten people told me today.

During the 2008 election there was a campaign poster for Obama that pictured his face and the word “Hope.” I’m sure you’ve seen it.  Here you really see just how much the word “hope” means.  Ghana was the central loading station during the slave trade.  A few hours down the coast are slave dungeons and you can go to ports where the slaves were loaded for their journey to the Americas.  These nice, friendly people that I met and spent a good part of my day with would have been slaves a few hundred years ago.  The fact that the United States of America, the only superpower in the world, now has a black president (after a long history of putting down black people) truly is a source of hope for the people of Ghana, and something they should be proud of.

Tomorrow I’m off to a Ghanaian school and I’m very, very, very excited to see another foreign school.  Then we’re going to Big Milly’s, a resort.  It has beaches, sun and fun.  Something like that.  The beaches here are supposedly gorgeous and I’m excited to swim in my old friend, the Atlantic Ocean.   It’s also going to be a very cheap few days.  A taxi ride anywhere in the city costs 5 cedis, which is about $3.  We booked a suite at this resort and it’s costing everyone less then $10 for the night. 

Journey to Western Africa

We ended up leaving Cape Town about 24 hours later then we were supposed to due to high winds.  So we’ve pretty much sped the entire way to Ghana.  Luckily the Atlantic has been pretty calm so we didn’t experience any problems. 

Everyone is trying to get all their class work done (I mean we are in school right?) as the deadlines for everything are fast approaching.  No one wants to talk about the fact that we just have twenty-five days until we are in Florida. 

One evening during the trip to Ghana, we had a fancy dinner on the ship to celebrate a bunch of people’s birthday.  This is when the ship truly felt like a cruise ship.  Everything was fancy.  The silverware, glasses, dishes, and the food was delicious!  I knew there was really good food on the ship somewhere.  It was a five-course meal, for just about $5 a course, which isn’t too bad at all. 

So tomorrow we dock in Ghana.  I’m going to a Ghanaian school, which I’m very excited about, and the rest of the days I don’t have any really organized plans.  We are, however, going to a hotel about an hour from Accra, the capital, where the best suite in the hotel is just about $60 a night.  Divide that by 8 and it’s under $10 a person.  There’s beaches and bunch of other awesome things close to this hotel, which should be pretty awesome.  Seeing that where we’ll be in Ghana is few degrees north of the Equator, the beach seems like an awesome idea!   

The Rest of Capt Town...

The rest of my time in Cape Town went so quick I can’t believe it’s already over.  On Thursday we hiked Table Mountain, which is the mountain that overlooks the city.  It was like climbing a giant Stairmaster. If you can, Google “Table Mountain” and you’ll see what I mean.  It’s literally a straight climb up to the top.  At various points, I felt like I couldn’t go any further. We stopped a bunch of times to get our breath back.  We made it to the top in about two and a half hours.  It was an awesome feeling getting to the top after such a rigorous climb.  Looking over the city was a great reward as the views of Cape Town from the top were unreal.    The ocean, also, seemed to stretch forever from the top and it looked like you could see Antarctica, but I doubt it.  I got some awesome pictures.  We had a much-needed lunch at the top at the restaurant that’s up there and then took a cable car down (thank God). 

That evening we hit the nightlife of Cape Town.  The main street that all the clubs and bars are on is called Long Street.  We went to an Irish pub for a few drinks and then went to another club in a different area of the city.  The club we tried to get into was called “Tiger, Tiger.”  We were denied entry because of our shoes.   I had on polo, jeans, and sneakers.   The dress code is based off of your footwear, which is very odd.  We ended up going to another club, and we met some South Africans there.  It was a fun night out on the town.

The following day, Friday, I had a trip scheduled to the famous wine lands of South Africa.  We drove through them and stopped in the town of Stellenbosch.  It had dozens of little shops, cafes, and restaurants along the main road.  It was also set perfectly behind mountains, which really added to the atmosphere of the town.   We walked around for a bit, but a lot was closed because it was Good Friday.   We then got to cycle through the town and wine country.   It was a great twelve-mile bike ride through the town and the wine lands.  They were absolutely gorgeous!   It was so scenic and probably the best bike ride I’ve ever taken.  My usual route through Wissahickon Valley Park in Philadelphia has nothing on it.   We ended up at the Solms Delta Estate, a local winery.  We had a nice lunch and wine tasting.  I’m not really a big wine fan, but these were really good.

As soon as we got back to the ship we went to Lion’s Head Mountain, another mountain overlooking Cape Town.  We didn’t hike all the way up it, but just high enough to see the sunset.  It was an amazing sunset, and again the views of Cape Town and the ocean were unreal. 

That evening we went out for dinner with my friend’s friend who lives in South Africa and is studying here.  I got the chance to have an interesting conversation with her boyfriend (I couldn’t spell his name if my life depended on it), who is a native of South Africa.   He had some really interesting things to say about life in South Africa as a black now that apartheid is over.   He said he still feels a lot of racism towards him and that it still is very much present throughout the country.  He was eleven when it formally ended and during his youth he never would have been allowed in a restaurant such as the one we were eating in.  He did say that he thinks the country is on the right track to fully accepting and tolerating everyone, but like anything, it will just take time.    It was really cool to spend as much time as we did with them because they really were able to give us a neat look into what life in Cape Town is like. 

The next day we took a drive out to Cape Point, where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet.  The drive was long but we had a really nice taxi driver named Adiel.  I’m butchering the spelling.    He was a really chatty guy and he had some really fascinating things to say about religion, life in South Africa, and the economic downturn.  I gave him my e-mail address so hopefully we’ll stay in contact.  Before we stopped at Cape Point, we stopped at Boulder Beach, it’s called Boulder Beach because the entire beach is basically a series of boulders right on the water.  It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to swim here but we saw penguins!  There were hundreds of them roaming the beach.    I was able to get inches away from them, but I didn’t think petting them would be the best idea.  When you got this close, they just stared at you and twisted their heads in a funny way.  They didn’t run or seem to mind that we were invading their homes.   They were so cute and I really wanted to take one back to the ship with me. 

After the beach we headed to Cape Point.  It was an amazing drive up the coast towards the point.  It was a thirty-minute walk (up hill) up to the actual point.  The view was amazing.  You could literally tell you were looking at two oceans at once.    The Indian Ocean was to my left, calm and peaceful, and to the right was the wavy, and rough looking ATLANTIC OCEAN!!!  It was truly a shocking sight.  I couldn’t believe I was looking at the only ocean in the world I was familiar with before January 17.   Home isn’t too far off.  Actually, New York City, was about 12,500 kilometers away from Cape Point.  (There was a sign at the top.)  So Philadelphia’s even closer.   Cape Point was amazing and reading all of the history inside of it was also fun.  Supposedly, the Flying Dutchman haunts the waters off of Cape Point, hundreds of sailors have claimed to see this ghost ship.  Maybe I’ll see it.   There was also a lot of interesting WWII history surrounding Cape Point.   Watchtowers were at different points on the bluffs overlooking the ocean; used to keep and eye out for German ships.  

After Cape Point, we went to the Cape of Good Hope.  The Cape of Good Hope is the southwestern most point on the continent of Africa.   It was pretty cool and there were baboons everywhere.  They roam around the Cape Point National Park (where all of this stuff is) and there were “Danger! Wild Baboons!” signs everywhere.    We parked to take pictures of them and a baboon actually ran right next to another parked car, reached in the open door, and stole a bag of chips.   We watched the entire thing happen, from the safety of our car, and the looks on people’s faces when the baboon reached inside were priceless.  The baboon (it was a female with a baby on the back) then went up the hill and enjoyed the bag of chips.  Truly priceless.  We also saw ostriches wandering around everywhere. 

We then headed to Simon’s Town, a few miles away from Cape Point.  We had a delicious seafood lunch here and then walked around the little town.  This town was awesome.  It reminded me of Sea Isle City, New Jersey.  Walking up and down the main street was just like walking up and down Sea Isle’s Promenade.

We then headed back to the ship to relax for a bit before heading out again.  We went out to Cape Town’s casino, where I won over $500 playing poker.  Okay, just kidding about that.  I did win 100 Rand playing poker, which is roughly about  $15.  Pretty good if you ask me.   The casino was awesome and was just like ones in Atlantic City.  I realized while I was there it’s going to be weird being back home (in a month!) and not being able to legally go to places like casinos and bars. 

The next morning, Easter Sunday, we went to church.  We accidently went to an Anglican church (it’s Easter, and I say you get credit for just trying, especially when you’re in Cape Town), which is kind of funny if you ask me.  I thought we were going to Cape Town’s Catholic Cathedral, the Cathedral of the Flight into Egypt (as I discovered later in the day), but we ended up at the Cathedral of St. George the Martyr, the Anglican one.  I was a little mad it wasn’t a Catholic Church (I really want to get to a mass abroad), but the mass was so similar to a Catholic Mass that if I really couldn’t tell the difference.  The cathedral and the service as well, were both beautiful.  I am going to make a serious effort to get to a Catholic Mass in either Ghana or Brazil.   I spent my last few hours in Cape Town shopping for more much-needed souvenirs at the waterfront right by the ship. 

I LOVED Cape Town.  It’s a little gem at the bottom of Africa.  I had no idea what to expect from this city, and I genuinely fell in love with the city.  The temperature, at the moment, was perfect.  It was like late September, early October weather (in Philadelphia) and was a great break from the constant summer we’ve been in.  There’s also so much to do here.  We were only here for five days, and I didn’t do everything the city had to offer.  I think we could have been her for two weeks and still not have done it all.  

So now we only have two more ports of call and my trip around the world is rapidly coming to an end.  Professors are talking about finals and I’m e-mailing my parents about May 5.  Nuts.   We did get a little extra time to look at Cape Town though.  The ship was supposed to set out at 8 PM on Sunday, but because of high winds the port was closed.  Hopefully by morning we will be back at sea and headed to Ghana. 

Happy Easter to my family!  It was strange not being home to celebrate it with you!  Love you and see you in a month!