Wompliss Travels

Reflections on being "from" the U.S.

2011-06-16T13:59:00.001-07:00

I’ve never had a sense of nationality before. Now when I pass by an American Flag, I get a sense of comfort. I didn’t realize how easy it was to take our country for granted – to criticize it, to not be proud of it. I understand that we still do terrible things for power and have a lot of ugly history to recognize, but I want to appreciate The United States of America as a citizen who is proud to be from this place. In visiting other countries, flags flying around the port would let you know whose turf you were on, and give you a sense of place of the people who lived there. Flags would be a welcoming signal, a landmark, a visual for that stop on our journey. And together, with hundreds of other flags, it was a unifying symbol flying above our ship as we pulled into San Deigo on April 24^th, 2011.

As someone who doesn’t particularly identify with a political stance (I’d say more of a liberal leaning) I notice that it is easy to scoff at the progress of the United States. I had never really appreciated a soldier before, because I didn’t get the essence of war. I blamed my country for past acts without acknowledging that my freedoms are rare in this world. I was surprised when the people I’d meet in different countries would think I was enthrallingly rich, or that the U.S. is the one place they dream of visiting. Yet they’ll most likely never get a visa to visit.

What I realized even more on this trip is that it is easy to avoid appreciating all that we have. It is easy to overlook our own progress in human rights. It is easy to become disappointed with our wasting of resources, and not realize that we can breath in clean air and filter our water. Although the human and environmental issues I saw in these countries were poignant, I know that they also exist in the U.S. in some form. Unfortunately there is still a lot hidden from us that it takes visiting another country to see what it looks like. For instance, a statistic to tell you that human trafficking exists just as much in the U.S. as in that third world country. Or that right now, we have more slavery in the world than has ever existed.

Next time, I don’t want to be afraid to be proud of the USA. I will not be blind to its power and its global actions, but I want to be grateful that I have grown up in a place with so much opportunity. We’ve always heard that – from our parents, from presidential speeches, from those who visit, and history books - that the US of A is the land of opportunity. Well, from what I saw in other places, yes, it is.

Neptune Day

2011-04-13T21:25:00.000-07:00

Neptune Day happened a while back, but here are a few pics. The crew came through our halls banging pots and pans and blowing a whistle to wake us up, and the festivities started soon after.

Neptune Day is a maritime tradition for crossing the equator. Although we had done that a few times already on our voyage, it was still worth taking part. See the pics below!

Our captain, Captain Jeremy, was painted all green and we dressed in white robes to take part in the ceremony.

These are frozen fish awaiting to be handled and kissed by those who choose to cross over...

After going through a pool of muck, kissing a fish, and bowing to the King and Queen, you had the option to shave your head!

Sailing

2011-03-24T23:54:00.000-07:00

Internet has been scarce on the ship the last few weeks. We were saddened to learn about Japan and have since re-routed so that we’ll be visiting Taiwan instead of Japan. We arrive in Hong Kong tomorrow – so excited to be in China and be off the ship. Although it has only been two days between Vietnam and China, the seas are very rough! Everyone is walking around like a zombie and ship is shaking a lot!!!

Will add highlights from India, Singapore and Vietnam when my stomach calms down!

Incredible India

2011-03-16T19:25:00.000-07:00

"The Mantra to Woo Tourist"

Other SAS Bloggers

2011-03-09T10:30:00.000-08:00

Here are some other folks to follow if you are interested in learning more about ship life and the places we are visiting:

Kelly, our IT guy
Raja, my travel buddy
Faith, another LLC

Mauritius for one day

2011-03-06T21:38:00.000-08:00

Spent a day there between South Africa and India - here are some highlights:

Went to an SOS Children's Village. What's cool about it is that there are 8-10 children in different houses with a house mother. They cook meals together, have house chores, and all the houses are within a little "village" (the one we visited was 7 houses with a courtyard in the middle for playing). There were 97 kids there, all for many different reasons. There are a few social workers assigned to their cases, to help integrate them, and the community is set up to help them adjust to "real" life outside of the village, so they can feel ready to leave when they turn 18. The kids were a pleasure, and although we didn't speak the same language, we had fun taking pictures, playing games, and playing on the playground!

hehe - they tied thread around flies - free entertainment!

After that a few of us checked out downtown for a few minutes (it was a Sunday so there wasn't much going on) and decided to go to the beach for an hour. I was so happy to jump in the Indian Ocean that I swam in my clothes. It was warm, clear, and very salty which made it easy to float. There was a lot of coral, and soft white sand. Very beautiful beaches there!!

India - First day

2011-03-06T21:09:00.000-08:00

India is so coooooool!! Met Raja's family, which is a serious highlight. Ate some yummy food, saw a temple, rode on a rickshaw (like being in Mario Cart) , and did some shopping. Oh, and I had a latte. That was a highlight too. Now I'm off on a service trip!

yummy food - I forget what is was called already! Veggie balls in a creamy sauce. Any comments on what this is?

View in a rick shaw

painting on the ground at a temple

Happy Feet & the Soccer Game (at a school in Cape Town)

2011-03-04T21:15:00.000-08:00

Guess what? After 20 years, I scored another soccer goal. Well, it was in a kick off game against 6^th graders in South Africa, but still! Another highlight of Cape Town was a SAS trip I went on, called “Biking the Townships and Interactive Soccer”. We rode bikes through a few neighborhoods, visited a community center, an HIV/AIDS organization, and a poor residence where “Happy Feet” started. Happy Feet is a non-profit that our tour guide, Siviwe, started for the kids in his neighborhood. There are three signature moves: a stomp, a clap, and clapping both hands to the sides of your calves.

The kids wear goulashes, which help with the sound, and make up dances similar to “Stomp”. When we made our way to a school after learning some Xkhosa (language), we helped first graders navigate a computer game with a mouse. They greeted us with a song in English, singing “Hello, how are you? We are happy to have visitors.” We sang them Itsy Bitsy Spider, gave out some stickers, and moved on to meet the lunch ladies.

We found out that they serve 1400 students a meal. Their kitchen is smaller than the size of my cabin on the ship, and eight of them fit in it. There were two buckets – one of rice and another of sardines and lentils. Each big bucket had a mug they would use to scoop the food out. Apparently many of the kids look forward to school because it is the only place they know they will be fed that day. Then a student choir sang for us – Oh Holy Night, African songs, and Happy Feet performed! We did our best to stomp out the short dance our tour guide had taught us, and the students seemed to pity us in a cheerful way. Then we were off to play soccer!

We just saw dolphins!!

2011-03-04T21:14:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while someone will see a whale or some dolphins jumping over our ship's wake. They're so sweet to see!! We are officially 10.5 hours ahead of east coast time and arrive in India tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cape Town #2

2011-03-04T20:55:00.000-08:00

OK – so the most of what I’ve shared about Cape Town is that it is unbelievably, strikingly beautiful. I got to go to a few places that were simply breathtaking.

One was the southwestern most tip of the continent of Africa – the Cape of Good Hope. That’s pretty cool!!! The other was Table Mountain. Another was Boulders Beach, which is a beach full of… penguins!! I’ll tell you about Cape Point and The Cape of Good Hope first.

We went to Cape Point National Park early in the morning after spending the night in this cute beach town, Simon’s Town, at a quaint bed and breakfast. When we arrived in our blue VW van at the Cape Point park, we drove in and hiked up to the top of Cape Point – we were the only people in this whole huge place that early in the morning! It was so windy that when you stuck your head out to look over the edge it felt like you were skydiving with the wind whipping past your ears and into your hair! The view of the ocean and the landscape was striking. Then we drove to the Southwestern point, passed by ostriches just hanging out, and played around on the rocks by the ocean.

On our way back through this national park, our taxi driver stopped the van abruptly, turned it around and we thought he was lost. As he turned on to another road, we saw that there were about 30 baboons just hanging out in the road! We pulled up to see them but kept the windows mostly closed, as they’ve been known to steal wallets and food from humans! After learning about this, I turned to others in the car to ask about the possibility of baboons evolving to incorporate into our society, where they actually use our currency. I thought it was a valid point, but I have a feeling it was still too early in the morning to have this conversation. We eventually made it back to our Bed and Breakfast to have a wonderful meal, and a real tea party!

Cape Town Reflection #1

2011-02-28T12:37:00.000-08:00

South Africa was the most amazing time. Raja and I started our first day with a service trip with Operation Hunger. We learned about this non-profit that has grown over time to serve thousands in different squatter villages (aka “Townships”) that are still recovering from Apartheid. We weighed children in one village to track cases of malnutrition, and got a chance to enjoy them singing and dancing for us. I was amazed every time a group would perform for us (spontaneously) while in Africa, as they have the most beautiful voices. I think Africa as a country chose songs that best represent their vocal range – every song, even a simple one sung by six year olds, sounded stunning. Very young children would know all of the words and would have the confidence to take turns dancing solo in front of large groups. I appreciated that this was a strong part of their culture, and on both trips I led, I asked if we could respond to them with a song or a dance. The first time we danced the “Macarena” for kindergartners and later when we visited a school, we sang “Itsy Bitsy Spider” to first graders. Simple, but really the only few choices we seem to have when trying to find a song we all remember and share as Americans…

I was very glad to have started my journey in South Africa with an unveiling of the deprived side of Cape Town. There is so much wealth, glitz and natural beauty, that it is terribly easy to forget about the other side of the spectrum – the side that can be ignored when you are wandering by the gleaming white ferris wheel on the waterfront, passing through a gargantuan upscale mall, or jumping into the vibrant city life of Cape Town. There are families who will be in poverty for many more generations before catching a break. Many townships have no running water, sewage systems, or access to clean water. Some have electric wires haphazardly hung shanty to shanty, resulting in many injuries and deaths as people try to rent and borrow lines of electricity. And the country as a whole suffers from high rates of HIV/AIDS. The country seems to be very aware of these stark contrasts, but those who have the upperhand seem comfortable living on the very edge of the other side of this spectrum – beach homes perched in cliffsides along the water; city areas with the likes of Sunset Strip with beautiful views of the ocean with a cocktail; a glitzy waterfront boasting fancy hotels and consumer culture. Of course, one trend seems to stick with us wherever we go: the issues that we notice most are the same ones we face in the United States.

These two pictures represent what I am talking about - your first view of the Cape Town waterfront when you come in by boat, and then a picture from our trip into one of the villages of the singing & dancing children!

Cape Town, South Africa

2011-02-26T02:45:00.000-08:00

More coming soon! Here is the route we took when the high winds prevented us from entering a narrow birth (passageway at the port). We were on a very rocky ship for 30 extra hours, staring at this gorgeous view for some of it. The whole ship rejoiced when we heard that we could finally land the next day at around 11am. Here we are on our way to land. So many wonderful stories and pictures to share... will post soon!

Ship Life

2011-02-25T23:53:00.000-08:00

I’ve gotten some requests about life on the ship. Here goes...

My Living Quarters

I’m on the 4^th deck, starboard side (right side of the ship if facing forward), near the aft (back of the ship). Although I don’t get internet in my cabin, it is a decent trade off because the back is less rocky than the front of the ship, where there is more of an internet signal. Here’s a picture – adequate storage space, decently comfy bed, great view of the ocean! A small TV with a few ship channels on it (a few movies and announcements). Each day at 9:15am and 5:30pm, our Assistant Exec Dean Marti, otherwise known as “The Voice,” comes on over the loud speaker to announce the day’s events. This is broadcasted in all of our cabins, in the hallways, and outside on the decks for all to hear.

Seasickness

I’ve spent a lot of days on the ship feeling somewhat queasy, nauseous, or sleepy. The constant rocking of the ship has made many people sleepy, and so a lot of people take naps more often than they usually would. Naps and laying down also help with feeling seasick! But, some days are calmer and you feel like you have a brand new outlook on life because you feel somewhat normal again. Or, you hit land at port and forget completely about it, realizing how great this trip is.

The General Day

Truth be told, the food has been quite good. This is a picture of some of us eating lunch on the deck - most of my meals take place there. They even clear your dishes for you! There is a constant PB & J bar, which is always a hit. The crew is super friendly and extremely efficient. There’s about 200 of them who deal with all aspects of the ship – security, engineering, facilities, dining, etc. There are only 20 women crew members out of that 200, and most crew members are Indian, Filipino or Jamaican. It’s a challenge to be alone outside of your cabin, as there are always random conversations to have, folks to run into, or new things to do. For instance, I decided to take a nap on the 5^th deck today, and after about 20 minutes I woke up, rolled to my side and saw Julianna and Carolyn, who had yoga mats. They were coming outside to do some yoga and I joined them in doing it. Things like that happen a lot. You’ll be doing one thing, and then hop on to the next. I’ve been facilitating Laughter Yoga, which seems to be a hit so far, and I arrange all of the fitness classes – so far we have students and staff teaching Zumba, Belly Dancing, Yoga, and Tai Chi for the shipboard community. We also have a P90X group and Insanity group that meet every day at sea.

Each day breakfast is served 7am-8:30am. I usually get up there around 8:26am, before the food goes away. Sometimes I’ll sleep through breakfast, wake up to the Voice at 9:15am and snack in my room instead. Every day I have a staff meeting at 12:15pm, and before and after that are student or planning meetings, or the class I am auditing, “Stress Management” with Jeffrey Cottler – look him up, he is pretty cool and a well established academic, psychologist and writer! I supervise two students who help me with programming and also advise a Peer Health Education group. Other than that, I help students who have an interest in wellness get their ideas up and running, or facilitate other programs that interest people. It’s pretty fun!

Things I miss:

Eating breakfast in my pajamas, at my leisure, on a Saturday morning

Making a meal and eating it on my back porch

Opening a window to air out a room

Getting a phone call or picking up my phone to call someone on a whim

Kale and quinoa

Things I appreciate on the ship:

Having your bed made every day

Having a safe place to come back to when traveling at port

Sitting on the deck watching the water go by at any time of day

The small community feel and many opportunities to learn and think about new things!

Slave Castles/Dungeons

2011-02-15T11:38:00.000-08:00

In Ghana many people go to visit what is called the Slave Castles & Dungeons. We visited Cape Coast, which has one such castle. It looks out to a bright blue ocean and I can imagine it was once a beautiful looking place. It still is ridiculously beautiful, and could almost be peaceful, except that it is haunted by a very sad and unjust history.

Serving as a fort, it was taken over many times and finally run by the British in the 1600s as a holding place for African men, women and children who would be sold into the slave trade. We went on a tour of this place and learned even more about the atrocious conditions Africans had to withstand, and how there was an actual community and church functioning around and above the dungeons. Literally, a torture chamber is right next to the church, or the dungeons are right below administrative spaces. Our guide shared with us some very difficult truths as we went through the tour of these spaces, and entering into the actual dungeon made it both real and incomprehensible that people once survived there in this way.

First our tour guide took us to the suffocation cell, where they would lock people if they tried to escape. Here there would be absolutely no light, ventilation, food or water, so they would stay until they died. In the men’s dungeon, there were 1,000 men stuffed into a small space, divided in five compartments - strongest to weakest. There were small ditches in the ground to insufficiently carry human waste out to the ocean. As much as two feet of human waste would be lingering in the dungeon amongst these people – dead and living. I am still trying to comprehend how one even tries to sit or to sleep, or even breathe in such circumstances. 300 women stayed in another dungeon and were often pulled out to be washed and raped by soldiers and dealers. It is hard to imagine two months of this, with about 50 percent of the slaves surviving overall. When the slave ships came, they were walked through the dungeons and finally saw daylight after so long. There is a wonderful view of the ocean, with a sandy shoreline and waves crashing white spray against black rocks. I wonder if at this point the slaves had a glimpse of hope for something better, or a small moment to appreciate fresh ocean air… but I assume that they had lost much of their integrity, strength, hope, and especially their trust in the men leading them to their fate. These Africans walked through the “Door of No Return” to enter canoes that took them to the slave ships. The Door of No Return signifies that no African leaving through that door would ever return back to their continent of Africa, or their country. In the slave ships were even worse conditions. There they were shackled to each other and forced to lay two by two by two for months on their way to be traded and even more degraded in health and humanity. Forced to lay in their own waste and disease. Be hungry, seasick and motionless. Be witness to death and smells that no human should ever know. Sometimes all of the slave passengers would be thrown overboard alive, if the ship was in trouble of getting caught carrying slaves.

I just can’t comprehend or even begin to imagine how humans would get to a point of thinking that any of this was OK. To treat any living creature this way, especially human beings – I can’t imagine how it was reasoned or rationalized or taught; how anything on this earth would be treated that way without critical thought… and yet I see in our history how deeply impenetrable many forms of oppression are. Or how critical thought somehow floats away slowly without us realizing.

A bit more on Brazil

2011-02-12T07:54:00.000-08:00

So far the MV Explorer has sailed from Nassau, Bahamas, to Roseau, Dominica, to Macapa, Brazil and sailed the Amazon River into Manaus, Brazil. After sailing back out the same path, we entered the Atlantic Ocean and sailed straight across for nine days to Takoradi, Ghana. The capital of Ghana is Accra, but we were about four hours away in a smaller city. Now we are sailing along the African coast, on our way to Cape Town, South Africa.

The ship was very rocky on our way to Brazil, and many people got seasick! We were happy to sail on the Amazon River, as it was much calmer water and we weren’t swaying from side to side all day. We sailed on the Amazon River for three days and crossed a point called “The Meeting of the Rivers”. This is where the Rio Negro and the Amazon River meet. The Rio Negro (“Black River”) is actually very dark – almost black – in color, and the other river is brown. You can see this difference distinctly as you pass it. In Brazil, I slept in the jungle on an army hammock during a trip called “Jungle Survival Skills”. Men who retired from the Brazilian army took us on a hike around the jungle. We learned about various plants and how they can cure malaria or help heal a wound. We also learned how to set animal traps and learned more about tribes who continue to live in the Amazon Jungle.

Here is one of my favorite pictures so far - the River Boat we took across the Rio Negro to go "survive" in the jungle. It's very popular to take river boats, and you can take one for a few days, sleeping in a hammock along the perimeter, fishing and stopping in villages.

The middle of the earth?

2011-02-11T09:03:00.000-08:00

0 degrees latitude, 0 degrees longitude.
Today we crossed the point where the Prime Meridian and the Equator meet. The captain announced to go to the "starboard side" (right side) of the ship and then blew the horn as we passsed that point. We were told we would feel a "bump" or see a sign, but to our demise, there was no such thing. Just ocean! We thought, with all of the world knowing this is the center of the globe geographically, isn't there at least a bouy?

Here it is!

Dominica (Doh min ee kah)

2011-02-10T14:29:00.001-08:00

Dominica is a beautiful place! Many people often confuse it with the DR, but in fact, it is its own Caribbean Island. Here I went on a trip into a village to learn about the traditions of the native people – there are only about 3,000 left on the island who uphold the same way of life. As people (i.e. Christopher Columbus) came in to try to enslave the island’s inhabitants, this island is the only place that native people survived. They knew how to hide and survive in the mountainous rain forest. We learned about their traditions, food, living situation, and how they co-exist within an otherwise “developed” country.

This picture is of a bay leaf - I had never never seen nor smelled an actual bay leaf in fresh form! It smells delicious.

The Haus Cottage "Botel"

2011-02-10T14:09:00.000-08:00

We decided it would be good to get a night away from the ship. I admit, I feel totally spoiled living on a cruise ship and having my own room. But there is something about "getting away" from the port, and the ship, and having a window to open, or a taxi to ride in, or actual ground to sleep on that is just plain refreshing. The place we stayed was like a Ghana version of the resort from "Dirty Dancing" - except this one had crocodiles! I pet a crocodile. Willingly. I will have to post that picture soon! We stayed at this place for a night after visiting Cape Coast, then went to Kakum National Forest the next morning. We were almost the only folks staying there, which was a bit odd, but I could see how it would be a hoppin' place at peak season.

In Africa...

2011-02-10T13:55:00.000-08:00

Never thought I would go to Africa. I realized this trip that there is so much more to say than what would fit into a mass email. We just left Ghana (Takoradi) tonight, and so many of us are still processing what we experienced, learned, smelled, danced to, and saw. I want to share with you, in a somewhat candid way, my thoughts on a few highlights.