Africa Tree, Africa Sun, Africa Cloud

There are very few words that I have for how AMAZING South Africa was. After 2 very hard travel ports (Ghana & Morocco) and our 3rd six-day stretch at sea we were beyond anxious to get to Cape Town. The seas had also been particularly rough and my roommate situation was coming to a head, so Cape Town was looking to be a welcome reprieve. We got there on October 3rd and Drew, Corinne and I got up in time to watch the sun rise over Table Mountain as we pulled into port. The view was breathtaking and eating breakfast in the cafeteria under the shadow of Table Mountain was amazing. Not to mention one of the first things we could see was the massive World Cup 2010 Stadium at the base of Table Mountain, it was gorgeous and reminded me of the boys, which made me happy. We RAN off the boat once we cleared customs. We later found out that security coming into Cape Town was particularly tough and we even had drug-sniffing dogs come on and go through random rooms. I am sure some kids have drugs on the boat and I am very curious to see what happens if anyone gets caught- it couldn’t be good.

Gen and I were planning on just wandering for the morning and we met up with Kareem, Anjulie, Joey & Eric. We docked into the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront and man it was just what we needed. The second we walked off the ship we were met with a huge hotel and a giant boardwalk strip with tons of stores and restaurants and even a huge gigantic mall. This part was incredibly European & Americanized, but it was a great break. We meandered through the waterfront and into the city. We walked through the financial district, but since it was Saturday everything in that part of town was pretty quiet. Then we headed to Greenpoint Market, which is an outdoor market area and a big shopping area. This place was jumping on a Saturday morning! There were several groups of teenagers performing through the streets. They all had on costumes and were singing and dancing. It was great and super entertaining.

Kareem had his heart set on finding this sandwich they told us about at our preport called a “Gatsby”. Every time I asked someone where we could get one of these they laughed at us, so that meant it had to be promising. We finally found this cute little Middle Eastern place that served this and other Indian/middle eastern food. I got some samosas and Gen and Kareem ordered this famed sandwich. When it came we could only laugh. It was a giant sandwich with French fries, meat, lettuce, tomatoes, sauce and a ton of other stuff. They were HUMONGOUS, so I shared part of Gen’s with her. Kareem and I had to head back to the ship because I was going to the Khayelitsha Township and he was going to a rugby game. The owner of the restaurant pointed us in the direction of a “taxi” we could get for really inexpensive. We walked that way and talked to a cab driver who wanted to charge three times the amount the owner recommended we pay. We then saw a line of tro tro’s across the road. Tro Tro’s are these vans (which are usually illegal) that get packed with people and go to several different stops. They are like mini buses that make specific stops. Kareem and I asked the driver if they were going to V&A Waterfront he said “yes yes” and I asked him when and he said “when we are full” and I said well when will that be. Right after the words left my mouth a flood of people came rushing past us into the van filling it almost completely. The man started yelling “Get in Get in!” so we followed directions and jammed ourselves into the back row with 3 other women and a baby. At this point we are just laughing hysterically and we pay our .25 cents and the Tro Tro made several stops and Kareem and I have been in Cape Town for all of oh 3 hours we had no idea where to go. So we ask the lady with child next to us. She couldn’t fathom how two white kids found their way on a Tro Tro and weren’t scared shitless. Somehow we found our way back to the waterfront and I immediately got on the bus for my Khayelitsha Township visit.

We headed out to the Khayelitsha Township, which is on the far outskirts of Cape Town. Townships were developed in South Africa after the Group Areas Act was established in the 1950’s as an integral part of Apartheid. This act prohibited blacks from living within cities. In the 1980’s with discontent growing from the black population of South Africa they lightened up on many of the segregation laws to attempt to quell resistances. Many people flooded to the outskirts of cities to attempt to find work and that is how Khayelitsha was established in 1985. The townships became segregated towns where only non-whites resided. In South Africa people are not classified solely as blacks but instead as Blacks, Coloureds (mixed race) and Indians. During Apartheid each of these distinctions had different rights although all were limited. Now Khayelitsha is the home to over 2 million people. Technically there is extremely limited water & electricity although people have rigged up their own wires everywhere. At one point our bus actually had to stop while someone took out PVC pipe to lift a cable so we could drive under it. Most of the “homes” in the townships are shacks made of tin and wood barely pieced together. Most look like if the wind blew the wrong way they would tumble to the ground.

Our first stop was in a neighborhood within the township. They had laid out some crafts that were all fair trade goods that we could purchase. One of the community leaders told us about all these social initiatives they are beginning including girls groups and AIDS prevention meetings. Then we went to a store to see women doing weavings, which were incredibly intricate and beautiful. They then did a small dance performance for us. After that we headed to Vicky’s B&B. This is on my list of places to hit up when I come back. Oh yeah guys, our first grown up vacation we take together as cool grown up friends is going to be to South Africa, I planned the whole thing in my head don’t worry. Vicky is a woman who took her home within the township and turned it into a fully functioning B&B. She markets it as giving people the opportunity to get the full township experience. At $30 a night in that vibrant community it was something I wish I had had time for. In all of the 15 years she has been open she has had two visitors who were actually from South Africa, which just goes to show how interested wealthy South Africans are in the what they did to their fellow country men. This was not a frou frou fun trip in the least. It was the equivalent to wading into the slums of Bombay. Vicky also runs a program for the local children and tries to take them on field trips (table mountain etc) and get together Christmas gifts and things. After visiting Vicky’s B&B we went to another one run by another woman. It was amazing meeting all these empowered women who were fully vested into helping their community and the area around them that was important to them. The woman at the second B&B had actually studied at the University of Pittsburgh as a fellow in the mid 90’s after Apartheid ended. She had been a community organizer and worked for NGO’s before Mandela had reformed the government there. Then in the mid 90’s she spend time in the US studying community relations in depth. She returned to Khayelitsha and said that she did not know how to help. Then she saw that as South Africa was opening to the rest of the world there were buses driving through their towns every day with tourists. She said everyone felt as if they were in a zoo with tourists just driving through to look without ever stopping. So she decided to open a B&B so people could spend time with them. After that proved successful she decided to start seminars to show others in the community how they could do they same. She said she didn’t look at them as competition because she knew in the end they were all helping the community and not one single person needed to be the sole breadwinner. She also went into detail about how her B&B helps so many facets of the community around her from the people she employs to the dessert she buys for guests. There are many Universities from the states that come and spend time with her to give students hands on experiences with social action. She also provides these kids with homestays so they eat meals at her B&B but actually live with a family. She also went into detail about how she educated the families she organizes homestays with about cleanliness and how you have to change sheets between guests etc…that made me pretty happy since I have an inherent problem with germs. After visiting the last B&B we walked through the township for about 20 minutes meeting the people and seeing everything hands on. This was one of my favorite trips I have done with SAS so far. These women were so amazing and seeing the townships was definitely something I appreciated. It is easy to come to South Africa and only see the white parts, so this added a whole new dimension.

We headed back to the boat, and I took a much-needed nap. Then Drew, Gen, Corinne and I met up and went out to Long Street where all the bars and restaurants are. We ate at this fun place called Cape to Cuba, which had fun drinks and tapas and stuff. We sat there and ate and drank for a while and then headed to this place called Mama Africa. It was decorated all Africany and had a live band. It was fun and we got drinks and hung out there. We ran into Christie, Leigh Anne, Charis and Carly, which was good and the band was super fun. Corinne isn’t used to going out and drinking stuff. She goes to a Catholic University where they are super strict about it so she isn’t totally comfortable with the whole situation. So the band ended and she went back to the boat with Leigh Anne and everyone. Hell if Drew, Gen and I were going back even though I had to be on my safari at oh 6:45 am. We found this Irish bar with live music called Dubliners and there were a ton of SAS kids there. We drank and danced there for a long time it was great. There was crew there too, which got interesting because they have such strict anti fraternizing rules with the students. It was amusing. It was so much fun just to be off the boat and free and out I was ecstatic. Finally around 3:15 we figured we had to be up in 3 hours so we headed back to the boat. This was the point I realized that I should have really referred to Cape Town as No Sleep Ever for the 6 Days I am Visiting Town because it only got worse from there on out.

We got back to the boat and Fiana wasn’t in my room…thank god. And Gen and I had the brilliant idea that she should come to my room and we wouldn’t sleep at all just watch an epi of 6 Feet Under and then she would just go on her trip that left at 5. After eating some biscuits and nutella (drunk ship food? Nowhere near as good as majestic) I fell asleep till my safari where thankfully the potentially raging hangover that I knew was coming at some point had held off and I was smart enough to pack ahead of time. Mary and I called each other just to make sure we were both up and we got on the bus to head to the airport.

We had a short flight to Port Elizabeth, in which I slept in an attempt to recover from the few hours before. When we got to Port Elizabeth we saw another World Cup Stadium and then had about a 2 hour drive to Kariega Game Reserve. We stopped at what they called a rest stop but was really a gigantic supermarket type place. Here I met Kam, my new partner in crime. She is from Bermuda and is on SAS with her friend Rochelle. By this point my headache was setting in and we made an exec decisions to try the mac & cheese. It was delicious and I am now a big fan of shitty rest stop food in South Africa.

We also found out that some kid named Daniel did not make the flight and lived out all of our worst nightmares. He wasn’t in his room when the field office called (with a girl!). He got up right after our bus had left for the airport so he jumped a taxi to try and get on the plane. He missed the flight and his taxi driver then offered to drive him to Kariega. The cab driver then took him to his township to pick up his wife and then to his friend’s house to trade his cab for his friend’s Mercedes for the drive. He finally got to Kariega at midnight after paying approx $500 USD to get there. Hilarious.

We got to Kariega and checked into the lodge. Then we took game vehicles to lunch. The game vehicles were these open air keeps that had rows of seats each one slightly elevated about the next. Lunch was delicious the food was amazing. They had loads of venison (lasagna, meatballs) dad would have been in heaven. After lunch we went to check out our Chalets. They were beautiful. Ours had 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and there were only 4 of us in it. I decided to share a room with Riley. There was this one sort of strange girl named Marissa and she got her own room and so did Rochelle who is also from Bermuda. We played around in our gorgeous chalet with wrap around porch for a little while. The views were amazing. We also realized they had TV! With Satellite! We were beyond ecstatic (we also deemed that simple stupid things now make us inexplicably happy). So we even got to watch a little Extreme Home Makeover. Yeah. As Ellen is probably laughing right now- I was in heaven. After hanging out we got picked up for our first game drive. 10 of us piled into our game vehicle. We looked around and realized that we are all girls with a very hot game driver, named JR. He sped off and we were trying to be chatty with us and suddenly stopped in a huge field for the “rules”. He came off very strict and the 10 of us were joking around and trying to get him to smile continuously. It was drizzling a little and he very graciously provided us with really attractive green ponchos. It was also FREEEZING, but we were cracking up the whole time. It was just a great group of girls and we were constantly egging him on and cracking jokes. It took a little while, but eventually he warmed up to us. Kariega is split into two game reserves. The one our chalets were on had giraffes, impala, nyala and other slightly less harmful animals. The other side of the reserve held the lions, rhinos, elephants and more dangerous animals. This is where we got to go on our 1st 3 hour game drive. Within 45 minutes of our drive starting we had the good fortune of running into a sleeping lion! They do not tag their animals in Kariega so whatever you see is found by sheer luck/talent of your game driver. We got within 15 feet of this sleeping lion it was so cool. JR kept turning around yelling at us because he was so nervous for our safety. We couldn’t stand up or stick any limbs out of the vehicle because it breaks the line of car and the animal then realizes that there is an “intruder”. We drove around for 3 hours and saw so much game. Pictures will have to do it justice it is too boring to just list animals. We stopped around sunset and got “snacks”- chips and soda of our choice, and a pee break in the bush.

This is when we really got to know JR. Apparently to qualify as a ranger you have to LIVE in the bush for 180 days straight. Killing your own food and chilling with the Bushmen. So needless to say JR was a hotty but his social skills were a little inept. Definitely had a dark past.

Our first game drive lasted until about 7pm. As we returned to the chalets a HUGE giraffe just wandered out from behind a tree next to the chalet. It was so cool. We dried off and had a delicious traditional BBQ. We then went to sleep as we had another game drive at 5:30 am. We got up at 5:30 am and it was POURING out. We bundled up and had not packed for it being so cold and rainy. My totally awesome new waterproof (not just water resistant) LL bean rain jacket was hanging in my closet aboard the MV Explorer. We had another fun game drive. We saw hippos, which were very cool. We also made the find of the day with the Rhinos. JR was saying that they have recently been having problems with poaching on the reserve. 3 weeks prior to our arrival a rhino was killed on the reservation. Its head was completely cut off so they could take the horn. The horn is used in the Muslim faith and for other reasons as well. After that incident the rangers were doing all night shifts to try to protect the reserve. 2 nights before we got there they actually got shot at by the poachers and now they have stopped monitoring because it was too dangerous for them. After our game drive we got breakfast and napped. Then had lunch and wandered around the reserve. Since it had rained so much that morning all the trails were closed. Also they did not want us to wander by ourselves because the buffalos were herding across reserve and it was very dangerous.

We had another game drive that night. The weird girl Marissa had been super into all the drives and guessing what animals were. She hated the rest of us. She asked if 2 ostriches were sisters and I promptly asked or are the best friends or co workers? She did NOT like this and snapped at me saying “that is a perfectly legitimate question”. So she loved me. We were all discussing who was going to sit in the front with JR on a large group before he picked us up. He comes down the road and stops and we see that this girl was so adamant that she sit in the front that she walked down the road to get to JR before he picked up the rest of us. It was very passive aggressive and we all were hysterical at how weird it was.

It was a good game drive and we got to see a ton of elephants. They were mating and herding so it was sort of dangerous JR was very careful about where he put our game vehicle. JR then took us to a very romantic sunset overlook. It was gorgeous and we ribbed him about trying to woo all 10 of us. We also found out that he has given drives to a ton of famous people. His most famous was Elton John who he gave a one on one drive with. This made us super excited as we had been singing Lion King songs all day. We also made some nasty jokes about Elton John hitting on JR. After sunset we headed back to the lodge for dinner. With all the money we paid for this trip (which was totally worth it) we got a bunch of free wine and beer. This was great and only complimented the delicious food. We then decided to keep the party going in the bar and some of the Rangers joined us, including JR. Most of us drank till about midnight because we had another 5:30 am game drive. I went to bed and everyone came into our chalet at about 2 am. It turns out one of our girls decided to go home for the night with JR. YUP! She WENT HOME WITH JR and was just sitting in the game vehicle when he picked us up at 5:30 am. We can only speculate but rumor has it that some action happened in the game Vehicle. Cracked us up.

The morning game drive was a river safari as well. We got to go out on the water and see some birds and we stopped in a huge field and had coffee, tea and JR made me special hot chocolate! They really have all these drives figured out down to the second and they really are operating as 5 star resorts. We headed back for breakfast and then started to head out. Two of the boys had bought full on ranger outfits from the gift shop and had been wearing them for the past day. They had convinced JR that they deserved to become Junior Rangers. The rest of us jumped on the bandwagon and all started bugging him about the junior rangers. As we were leaving he whipped out these cute diplomas that said Junior Ranger on them. He said they normally give them to the 12 year olds that complete the nature programs but he figured us college kids would enjoy them just as much. It was great he was such a good sport and it was such a fun group of kids. Definitely worth all the money and I am a certified Junior Ranger!!

We flew back to Cape Town and dropped our stuff and went to find Internet. This was super stressful and so not worth the energy. I finally found a place I had to pay for, but I had a few glasses of wine and got to skype with dad so that was good. Afterwards Drew, Gen, Kara & I got dinner at Quay 4, which was a fun outdoor restaurant with great views of the ship. Then we headed to Mitchell’s, which was the bar SAS frequented the whole time. Apparently the night before one of our deans was extremely drunk and bought everyone shots. It was fun and we stayed until closing. We still didn’t want to go to bed, and thought there was a party on the pirate ship. Yes there was a pirate ship. There are these people who dress up a pirates and sail from port to port and let tourists party on the boat. Pretty sweet job. We got there and the pirates were all passed out downstairs. Lauren got the bright idea to steal one of their pirate costumes. So she ganked the jacket and proceeded to wear it around for the rest of the night. We grabbed a cab and headed to Long Street and went out there for a long time. We finally decided to head back home at about 5am. No one had any money, but me (always responsible) so I had to pay for our cab ride back.

The next morning we got up at 9 (town of no sleep) and headed to the Cape Malay quarter. We were supposed to hike Table Mountain but it was raining so that was no go. The Cape Malay quarter was just an area of brightly painted houses (reminded me of the Gingerbread houses on the Vineyard). Then we wandered to Greenpoint Market again and finished up our shopping. We also went to the Castle of Good Hope, which was supposed to be one of Cape Town’s big tourist attractions. It sucked. We amused ourselves and they had a really long table that sat 100 people, but then you would need to have 99 friends. We played on a cannon and defaced a wall.

After that we decided we would go see the World Cup Stadium. When I say we I really mean I wanted to go see it so I could take pictures and brag to Tim, tom, graham, dohnny cole etc. Our cab driver was a nasty bitch and dropped us off in the MIDDLE of the construction zone. At this point we had no way out and were trapped between massive lanes of cars and a do not enter construction zone. You hear this Tim? I did all of this for you, just to get a picture of the god damned stadium we are going to be looking at all summer long. We tried to walk out but we got about ten feet and there was a giant sign that said “NO PEDESTRIANS BEYOND THIS POINT”. By the grace of God a shining BMW pulled up and it was cab! He offered to take us back to the ship and we excitedly clamored into his car. We got back and took naps and decided to get sushi for dinner! I was so happy since I missed sushi so much. They had all these great rolls and even had a “sandwich” roll, which was shaped like a triangle of a sandwich. It was great and we had a coupon. Dinner ended up taking forever but we sat for a while and it was enjoyable. We met up with Drew and Kareem and headed to the Green Dolphin Jazz Club. We were beyond exhausted at this point and stayed until the club closed at 12 and then went back to the boat and went to sleep. It was a fun club and I had to go for my Jazz History class. Yup doing class work at a bar at midnight…sweet life.

The last day in Cape Town Corinne and I had bought tickets to head to Robben Island. You have to take a ferry to get there and it was very emotional and interesting. Our guide was a former prisoner; it is amazing that such a horrible thing happened and it was so recent that the freed prisoners can give tours. We saw Nelson Mandela’s prison cell and also toured the island. There were penguins! We headed back and went to get lunch & Internet so I could talk to Mom & Tim. We were debating on going to Table Mountain, but decided against it (since I KNOW I am coming back) and it was a good thing! Kara went out there to try to go and the Cable Car wasn’t working so it was good we didn’t waste our time. We ran last minute errands and headed back to the ship to leave Cape Town.

I had such a great time and it was definitely my favorite port so far. There was so much to see and do and the culture had so many facets from the townships to the V&A Waterfront. It took me two weeks just to process it enough to write about it. It was a pleasant surprise as I was not expecting that much from South Africa and was not particularly thrilled with its addition to the itinerary. It was fabulous.

Neptune Day

Subpoena from King Neptune

• To all Pollywogs (otherwise known as persons who have never crossed the equator
by sea): You are hereby requested to appear before the ROYAL COURT OF THE
REALM OF NEPTUNE, in the DISTRICT OF EQUATORIUS. It has been brought to
the attention of HIS HIGHNESS, NEPTUNE REX through his trusty SHELLBACKS,
that the good ship MV EXPLORER is about to cross the equator and enter those
waters accompanied by passengers who have not acknowledged the sovereignty of
the RULER OF THE DEEP. THEREFORE be it known to all Slimy Pollywogs that
The Royal King NEPTUNE REX, Supreme Ruler of all citizens of the deep, will with
his Secretary and Royal Court meet in full session on-board the offending ship M.V.
EXPLORER on the 26th day of September AD 2009 at 0900 on Deck 7 Aft to hear
your defense.

Regards,
King Neptune and His Royal Court

Neptune

This was the summons we were all emailed several days before the actual event. Neptune Day occurred on the first day back on the ship from Ghana. The crew woke us up at 7:45. They were banging drums and blowing whistles up and down all the decks for 1 whole hour dressed in all white with these funny hats on. I still had a wicked fever but I forced myself to throw on a bathing suit and head up to the pool deck. I walked out into quite a scene. All of our professors were completely dressed as gods and goddesses. The first part of the ceremony was we had to have “fish guts” poured over our heads and then we jumped in the pool. After the fish guts we had to kiss a dead fish and then we got knighted as Shellbacks by our executive dean. Our Captain was decked out fully as King Neptune and was completely painted green from head to toe, next to him sat our assistant Dean and she was dressed as his wife- they looked so ridiculous it was great. Drew and I did the whole process together and I did all of it! Got fish dumped on my head and everything. The 2nd part of the ceremony (which I did not take part in) was that people had to have their heads shaved. Our teachers and deans were all doing the shaving and there was hair everywhere. My friend Kara was the first to go and off came all of her long long blonde hair. I was so surprised at how many girls shaved their head- one of the old lifelong learners even shaved her head! It was adorable. Some kids went the original route and only got Mohawks and one girl even shave half of her head. Needless to say everyone looked like cancer patients or Thai prisoners we couldn’t decide. It was a super fun ceremony and I was so happy I was able to pull myself out of my fever to partake in it. I think it is great that SAS still keeps these old sailing traditions alive and it is also a ton of fun.

Ghana! Where people are far too nice for their own good.

We arrived in Ghana on September 22nd. We were told we were going to Accra, but as we got closer they started throwing around the name Tema. It turns out that we were not porting into Accra, but instead we docked in Tema, the 3rd largest city in Ghana (that really doesn’t mean much) it is also solely an industrial city. The cool thing about Tema is that is lies directly on 0,0 and is the closest city to the center of the Earth. SAS arranged shuttles for us, one to the port gate and then one to Accra hourly. Turns out Accra was about 45 mins- 1 hour away from where we docked, which caused some problems later on. We ended up arriving late because at around 5 am we experienced some of the worst fog I have ever seen in my life. I looked out my window and couldn’t even see the water it was that bad. This slowed us down quite a bit.

On the first day I signed up for a city tour in Accra, since I didn’t know much about it. The first place we went to was the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park and mausoleum. Kwame Nkrumah was the 1st president of Ghana after they gained independence from Britain in the 50’s. We got there the day after a huge celebration in his honor. It was the centennial of his birth and they are celebrating the next few months. It was a very pretty park with an amusing museum filled with all the random stuff he touched & used throughout his life, like a desk and a couch wrapped in plastic. It was amusing to say the least. Then we headed to lunch at a hotel and they had fried plantains, which were so delish. Then we went to the W.E.B. du Bois museum/mausoleum. It was his old house that was also filled with random old stuff he had touched at one point in time. His tomb was also in a structure outside. This was a slightly informative tour, but since it was SAS’s first time in Ghana we did not know what to expect with any tour and this was compounded as the trip went on. Then confusion set in. FYI for the next time yall travel to Ghana, there is only 1 bank that accepts mastercard atm cards. So make sure you bring a visa. This was a bit of an issue for me the 1st day thankfully I had stuck some American cash in my purse just in case. Then there was a massive amount of confusion because some people (including me) had signed up to go to the Welcome Reception at Asheshi University and others were just going back to the ship. The tour dropped those off us attending the Welcome Reception off in downtown Accra where the SAS shuttle drops off. Mary and I killed an hour of time wandering Oxford Street. We ran into some other kids and got a good idea of what type of shopping was around. Then we hopped the shuttle and headed to Asheshi University.

We got to the University a little early and no other students were there so we started mingling. Here I met Gloria. Gloria is a lifelong learner who has sailed with Semester at Sea 6 times and after we go to Mauritius will have been to 159 countries! How ridiculous? Her husband flew for Pan Am back in the day and she used to take her kids around the world with her, she was great and had great stories. She also said she offered her grandson a free trip on SAS and he turned it down! How crazy? Especially after I have seen the extremes kids have gone through to afford this. I don’t know how this program is going to continue to be successful at the rate that they are raising the costs.

Finally the program began and the university dance group performed for us, and the president of their student body spoke. They served us little appetizers and we mingled. We met some very interesting kids. Nii and Fifi were the ones who were the most into us. Nii actually didn’t attend Asheshi and had graduated with a BFA and was an artist manager. So he was very interested to hear about my time at MTV. They offered to take us to their local pub, which was more like a shack with Malibu and other very American liquors. We sat around for a while exchanged emails and chatted. Then we hopped the shuttle back to the boat. The shuttles were very frustrating we were supposed to leave at 10 but sat around waiting for dumb kids till 10:45. We got back to the ship and man, some kids are so dumb. 1 kid threw up all over the gangplank and another threw up in the dining hall. The final count by the 2nd day was that 4 girls and 6 guys had alcohol poisoning. Our poor doctor was up all night.

The next day Kareem and I teamed up to explore Accra on our own. We took the shuttle downtown and there was literally no one on it. Everyone was on SAS trips. We met up with this one girl, Charis, who was meeting going to a branch of the company she worked with in Nicaragua this past summer. Getting off the bus was a little hectic. All of the street hockers had figured out that about 75 white kids were getting off a bus once an hour. They’re not dumb so they started congregating around the bus. It was so bad I couldn’t even get off they were crowding so much. With my experience in India and NYC and Kareem’s experience in Egypt we are used to just being mean and nasty and they usually go away, this is not the case in Ghana. They were following us for 2 blocks at this point and Kareem just flipped and started screaming at them to go away. They looked at us and go “Why aren’t you nice? It is nice to be nice.” This was the most frustrating part. It is easy to get people to go away by being mean, but these people just wouldn’t let it go. They kept asking your name and then they would start making you a bracelet even if you didn’t want one. We found an internet café for Kareem, and finally lost the locals. I hadn’t brought my computer with me so I just kinda hung out.

The tour company that was running everything for us in Ghana had given a short FAQ sheet and it gave us the name of a local restaurant, if we wanted to try the “real” thing. It took us a while to find Osanka Local Restaurant. We had to ask around and people were very surprised that this two obviously foreign people were asking for this restaurant. We got there and ordered Fufu w. groundnut stew and Banku with okra stew. Fufu is a dough like substance made out of Cassava it has the consistency of raw dough and it was submerged into groundnut stew, which is basically peanut stew. I was ok with this until I found a fish spine in the stew, very gross. They use every bit of everything in Ghanaian cooking. The reasoning for this is obviously because food is very scare. Their food is also very oily because they use Palm Oil since there is such a shortage of water in West African countries. The Banku was another raw dough substance except this was made out of cornmeal so it tasted like raw sourdough bread dough. It was no submerged in the stew and you were supposed to use the dough to sop up the stew and then THROW it in your mouth and swallow…notice the no chew part? It was a very interesting experience to say the least. Our waitress had to show us how to eat basically and all the locals thought we were very interesting. As we were heading out Kareem was trying to get directions and one of the waitress pulled me into her lap. She was saying I was so pretty and asking all these questions. I tried to be nice, but it was very awkward as I was literally sitting in her lap. I think she may have actually been mentally handicapped. She then asked me when I was coming back to Ghana (not for a long time) and how she could talk to me again (you can’t?). She then gave me her cell phone number and I promised that I would call her very soon…..

We headed to Makola market. The hospitality people said this is where I could find my local food market for my food & culture class..man were they off, but it was an adventure. There are no words for this market. It was just tons of local Ghanaians (they looked at us like we were crazy lost kids which we are most of the time so it was pretty accurate). There were just stalls upon stalls and you had to walk through some stalls to get to others and at one point we accidentally ended up in a back room, which was awkward. We didn’t buy much just walked around and took it all in. Then we walked back to the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park because Kareem hadn’t seen it. Instead of paying to get in Kareem just took pictures in front of the gigantic no pictures sign. It turns out we were super lucky we didn’t get caught because some other SAS kid was in the same position and got caught by the cops and actually got arrested.

Then we headed to the ‘cultural’ center, which was really just an arts market. Somehow the second we walked in these guys attached themselves to us. Kareem let it slip that he was Muslim and then it was all over. One of the guys was Muslim and insisted on showing his Muslim “brother” to all the best shops and getting us the best deals. We bought some stuff, but our best deal of the day was on these patchwork bags. I wanted 2 and had seen them on Oxford st. for like 10 cedi each. It is about 1.75 cedi to the dollar so not dirt cheap. These guys wanted 150 cedi for 2…that is almost 100 dollars I was like uh no. So we walked away and our “friends” said they would get us a good deal. Good, I said 15 cedi for both no more…oh an insult. Back and forth (like usual we are gonna be so excited when we can just walk into a store and buy something again) finally I got them both for 15. Yep brought him down 100% Kareem and I make a saweet team. We then visited our new friend David’s drum shop and I promised to send him more business in the next days and we finally extricated ourselves from the cultural center and got a cab back to oxford street. We got back and went to Global Mamas. This was a great micro financing store that promotes free trade. It was slightly associated with SAS as there was an FDP to explore micro lending. They had great stuff and I got some fabulous presents that benefited a great cause. We also went to the super market and I got biscuits and looked for People magazine to no avail. However, I did find a magazine called MIZZ in GHANA. Thought of Lisa and Liza and laughed pretty hard. Before we had left the boat we had left some notes on peoples doors to come meet us for dinner, but no one got off the shuttle. We later found out all the trips came back approx. 4 hours late. This was getting to be a bigger issue. We didn’t want to go back but had been out for 8 hours so we got back on the shuttle. As we were sitting down Charis hopped on and pulled us off and we had drinks with her and the dependant child co coordinator, yet another awesome job. This girl was a 2nd grade teacher in the states and she had 2 brothers whose parents are both professors on SAS and they asked her to come a long with them on the trip to teach their 3 kids every day. She got to keep her class in Rhode Island and got a long term teaching sub and was able to just come on SAS. She met her class before we left and is leaving in Hawaii so she sees them before Christmas. She also skypes with them in every country we go to. It just seemed like such a great job. We sat and had some drinks, I tried Savanna the Ghanaian hard cider, delish.

We decided to try and go to this club called Jazztones that the hospitality desk had said had live music every day of the week. This was great for me because I needed to see jazz in a country for my History of Jazz class. It took some doing to find it and we finally got there and it was all closed up, so they gave us another recommendation, but we never found it. We got a cab that took us back to Oxford st and we ended up at the purple palace; this huge purple building with orange windows that we had been looking at for days. We went in and they had a bar, lounge and then a rooftop restaurant. It was a little pricey, but we got to sit on the roof over looking Accra and it was amazing. We had some drinks, ate very little to save money and then got on the shuttle and headed back to the boat.

My third day in Ghana I had a SAS trip, where I didn’t know anyone. I met some kids and about 15 minutes into one girl blabbing I realized she was the annoying German girl from my bridge tour…fabulous. We headed out to Kakum National Park, which is a rainforest. They are famous for their canopy suspension rope bridges, which were amazing. We were able to walk 130 feet up in the air on these planks of wood. In total there are 7 bridges that span 1,100 ft. It was a little scary as the bridges swayed back and forth and the we were just walking on planks of wood. It was super fun and a little scary. After Kakum National Park we headed to Elmina Castle. Elmina Castle was a castle that was used to hold slaves before they were sent to the Americas. It was originally a Portuguese castle built in 1482. The Dutch took the castle from the Portuguese in 1637 and eventually the castle fell to the British in 1871. This castle was hugely important in the slave trade and held a lot of history. I hadn’t really put much thought into the slave castles, but when we arrived I was actually overcome with emotion. You could see how horribly these people we treated before they were shipped to be the Americas to become slaves. It showed how horrible Europeans could be that they did not see humans at humans and were able to enslave others so easily. There were dungeons that held hundreds of people at one time. They also had torture chambers and other horrible things. To top it off there was a church at the center of the castle, which just seemed so hypocritical. In all the years of the slave trade about 100,000 slaves left elmina castle to the Americas. The village Elmina was in was also really cool. It was a huge fishing village where much of the fish supply for the country comes in. It was really amazing to see all these people, boats and fish.

We then headed back to the boat. Part of the problem with Ghana is the ridiculous traffic EVERYWHERE. It took forever to get back and we finally pulled in at 7:55 just as everyone was lined up outside to get on the 8 oclock shuttle. There was no way I was going to make it back on the ship to change and then get out to meet everyone. This is what blows about not having cell phones. Thankfully, I met this great girl Lauren from New Hampshire and we decided to chance it and make the 9 o clock shuttle and hopefully figure out where everyone was. We headed out to Oxford St. and went to the same bar we stopped at the night before…thankfully we ran into everyone right away. We bounced between this pub called Venus and a hardcore dance club called Mistral. Venus was cheaper and so that is where we ended up. I felt bad because Kareem had never really been around drinking. He doesn’t drink because he is Muslim and lives at home for school so he hasn’t really ever been around it. He felt super uncomfortable and hopped the 11 o clock shuttle back. Around 11:30 the door to Venus opened and who walked into the bar? Oh yeah that is right MATT SOSON walked into the one bar in Ghana I was at. It was hilarious. He looks at me and goes “I have never actually been shocked speechless in my life”. So I hung out with him for a while and some of his friends who were really cool. He has been there since July and has already had malaria once. He also has to shower with a bucket. It was good seeing him considering I haven’t since after freshman year of college. After I hung out with him for about an hour Lauren grabbed me and said she found a cab back.

We saved some drunk kid who was wandering around the streets and threw him in the back of the cab with us. It was actually one of the scariest cab rides of my life. We took the beach roach back to the boat and as I said Tema is like a 45 minute drive and it was about 1am at this point. We got stopped at a police checkpoint and since we didn’t know where the port was from the beach road and thought this checkpoint might be the one leading up to it. The cops open the window and ask us where we are going and Lauren says we are from the Semester at Sea ship and that we are American….bad idea. The cops go away and then we drive a little and then they run after us and stop us. I am sitting shotgun and they come over to my side and start touching my arm. They were like you are so pretty will you marry me and then all of a sudden they go- You are American You are rich you must pay. After seeing Dad deal with cops like this in India I knew there was no way out. I had the money but I didn’t want them to see exactly how much money I had so I started feeling around in my purse. The other girls in the back seat were scared shitless. The cops then started flashing their light in my purse as well to see what was in there. I was NOT ok with this and turned to our driver and was like they need to stop that. Thankfully I had 10 cedi just sitting on top of my purse and I gave it to them and we sped away. Our cab driver was stunned and very upset. He said that rarely happens and if it does they never take the money usually it is just a test and they give it back he was very shaken up. We finally got to the port and at the gate some people who claimed to be security said we had to transfer to a pick up truck to get the boat, but after that incident we were not having any of this. So they let our cab and another groups cab go a little further and then the head of security came over and was adamant that our cab had to turn back. We there was a group of like 8 of us in this beat up pick up truck that brought us to the boat. It was super sketchy and we were all really uninformed as to what was going on. We told the girls in the other cab what happened and they had a similar thing happen to them. This girls then went apeshit on SAS security when we got onto the boat saying how we were mistreated etc. The poor security guys were like if it wasn’t within the port we cannot do anything about it. Those girls went inside and I had a calm conversation with Savio, my favorite security guy, about what happened. He said it was nearly 1am and we only had one drunk guy with us and we were not in America. I agreed with him and said that situations like this arise in 3rd world countries and some kids don’t understand. It turns out it could have been worse because some SAS kid was actually held by the police at gunpoint at a security check point that night. It was SAS’s first time in Ghana so it was understandable they did not have all the kinks worked out of the system yet. Next time hopefully they will run the shuttle longer so we don’t have situations like this one.

Anyways, I got back and went to bed and started not feeling so hot around 3am. Fiana was sleeping with Jayson in our room (obvi) so I felt really bad feeling around for a thermometer but finally 5 I broke down and got it out. I went into the bathroom and had a 101 degree fever. I didn’t know what to do because I was supposed to have a trip in like 3 hours. I decide to push myself and go even though I felt like shit. It was the Torgorme Village Experience and I had really been looking forward to it. Thankfully, Mary was on my trip so I was able to just die next to her until we got there. It was this small village in the middle of nowhere and they had all gathered for a traditional naming ceremony. We sat and watched some beautiful dances and all the little kids run around. We greeted the elders and the chief and the ceremony began. I wanted to feel better so bad but I just kept fighting off vomiting all over. I felt like I was the Europeans coming to America and giving the Native Americans smallpox’s in a blanket. I tried to make this joke on the trip and no one got it…which made me feel even sicker. We each got called up individually to get our name, a beaded bracelet, and traditional pot with our African name painted on it. When I went up to get mine I just willed myself not pass out the whole time. Some little kid in the village had taken a liking to me and I got a special scarf placed on me when I went up. It was great and I really wish that I had felt better to experience it more. We still had a lot of names to go and I sat back down and had never been that afraid of passing out before in my life. I stumbled to the bathroom and got so sick, but thankfully they had like an actual bathroom, which made it a little better. Even though I was miserable I just kept thinking that one day I will be laughing about the time I almost died in a village in Ghana and I tried to get over it. When the ceremony was over the kid who gave me the special scarf came up to me and asked for me to take a picture with his son. His son was not happy with this so it ended up being a ridic funny picture. All of a sudden this huge storm blew in and all the dust started getting kicked up so we booked it back to the bus.

We were supposed to drive up to these caves to see some bats and it was going to be a 5 minute hike, but because of the rain the bus couldn’t get up the mountain so it was turned in to a two hour hike. This is when I had had enough. I never really wanted to hike in the first place I just wanted to do the village so we vetoed the hike idea and just slept on the bus. For some reason the LLC’s and tour guide wouldn’t let the bus even bring us to a nearby restaurant so we could at least sit there, so a group of us hunkered down and slept. Finally, the hiking group got back wet, muddy and praising us for making the right decision. They said it was not worth the 2 hour hike in the rain and my fever was still at like 101 so I think it was a pretty good idea I didn’t even go there. I slept the whole way back to the ship and got on and passed out. I didn’t even watch us pull out.

I am glad we stopped in Ghana, but since it was the first time SAS was in there some kinks definitely need to be worked out for next time. I found out later that our captain apparently hated it. I guess cops aren’t the only people who want bribes and that customs almost didn’t let us in because they wanted money. They also had a problem with the pilot on the pilot boat. The pilot boat is a boat that comes along side the ship when we are right outside the harbor and lets a local pilot hop on the ship to help us dock into the harbor. We have this in every port. Well I guess the pilot wanted a little extra money as well and wouldn’t get on the ship at first. Also when we docked I guess they screwed up pulling us in and the whole side of the ship was scraped and needed to be repainted. I guess Captain Jeremy is particularly patient too and apparently the other captain who sails with SAS isn’t nearly as patient and is going to have a hard time with it. We also heard that we were the biggest group of Americans to ever be in Ghana at one time so that was really cool. The Obama mania was absolutely out of control. They had billboards with the Obama’s his face was printed on dress, jerseys and absolutely everything you could think of. I don’t know how I feel about Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize, but seeing how intensely Ghana supported him I can see that he is making a global impact. Our trip to South Africa was rough. The seas were not easy and it was definitely the hardest passage yet, but South Africa was totally worth it!!