I’m discovering something about myself that I am pretty sure I have always known, but never took the time to recognize: I comprehend this world through relationships. The things I remember about places I visit or even memories I have from way back when have to do with interacting with others – the moments filled with laughter or thought-provoking discussions. It is hard for me to forget someone’s smile, their demeanor, their humor, and especially their stories. I could have visited the Taj Mahal while in India, but instead I stayed behind in Chennai and met some of the most incredible people who will forever be my memory of India.
Before I delve into that! I think I should provide you with an outline of things that I still need to get around to telling you about! In case you haven’t noticed, I think that I have worn-out Spain here on this good ole blog. There are plenty of pictures and stories to keep you satisfied! So, even if I never get around to thoroughly walking you through the details of each of my bullet points below, at least you will have something to go off of if you want to send me and email so that I can tell you more, or when I get home or back to UVA in January at least you will have a clue as to what I did with all my time!
Morocco –
DAY ONE
- Arrived in Casablanca
- Left on a 4-Day Semester at Sea trip via charter bus
- Arrived in Marrakech several hours later
- Went to a great restaurant for lunch, Moroccan style
- Spent the afternoon free-time getting lost in the souqs
- A terrential downpour, very uncharacteristic of Moroccan weather, left us sprinting through the rain to the bus – Moroccans cheering us on as we ran!
- For dinner that night, went to a crazy place called Chez Ali – like a Moroccan “medieval times” festival. Bizarre.
- Rode the bus for about 8 hours to Zagora – on the edges of the Sahara desert.
- Bus ride was crazy – winding through the Atlas Mountains
- My bus, bus 3 almost crashed into a truck coming around a blind curve on the mountain
- Arrive in Zagora
- Rode camels to our camp in the middle of the desert
- Enjoyed the evening sipping wine and looking at the stars
- Had interesting talks with the nomad men while laying on the dunes looking at stars
- Slept outside, not in tent, with Carley – woke up at 3am shivering because it was so cold
- Morning camel ride
- Back to the bus to return to Marrakech
- Started to go to dinner with a group – ends up the restaurant we sat down at was not serving food
- End up going to dinner in a Riad that our tour guide Jamal had set up for a few of us
- Walked around the Jemaa el Fna Square at night – so alive with activity!
- Get up early to go to the souqs for final shopping
- Go around with just Christey.
- Get a little lost and off the beaten track – end up down an alley watching men dying the silk and wool they use to make scarves.
- Get a good deal on a Moroccan tea set (really excited about that)
- Return to the bus to depart for Casablanca
- That night go with friends to Rick’s Café in Casablanca (yes, like in the classic movie)
- Enjoy time out with friends, get in a taxi back to the ship that attempts to rip us off big time until we are saved by a “good” taxi driver who had to yell at ours.
- Final day in Morocco
- Go to the souqs in Casablanca – so different from the one in Marrekech
- Shop around with friends
- End up going back to Rick’s Café for lunch
- Spend last few hours roaming around
- Get back to the ship and ready to go!
- The oppressiveness of religion
- Hanging out with Kareem who speaks Arabic
- Getting to know Carley so much better
- First taste of a culture so completely different from my own
- Corruption
- My discomfort – in not only being an American, but a woman
Ghana -
DAY ONE
- Randomly hoping on the trip to visit the Morning Star School
- Absolutely loving my time at Morning Star School – and planning to come back for film documentary footage
- Going to the Welcome Reception that night with University students
- Meeting Nii and Fifi
- Walking through the backstreets with University students to go hang out at a place called the Purple Pub
- Having a heart-to-heart with Nii about faith and Christianity
- Walking back to Oxford Street in Accra and catching the last shuttle back to Tema to get on the ship for the night
- Leave on the Cape Coast Historical Tour
- Drive out to Kakum National Park
- Walking through the canopy walk on rope bridges
- Hanging out with Steven and Gio
- Chatting with Rankin along the trail
- Eating lunch in some random restaurant with alligators
- Back on the bus to head to Cape Coast
- Overwhelmed with the sights out my window!
- Arrive at the beach front resort – where we are to stay for the evening
- Delicious dinner including fried plantains – yum!
- After dinner meeting Enoch!
- Have the best conversation ever – everything from politics, to religion, to personal life decisions! So great!
- Off to get a good night sleep – enjoy the fantastic Ghanaian chocolate left on my pillow.
- Early morning – have to fit in visiting 2 slave dungeons
- First, Cape Coast Slave Dungeon
- Enoch is there, always asking if I would like him to take a photo of me in this place
- Learn so much about these eerie places where so many terrible things took place
- Go to Elmina Castle – another huge slave dungeon
- Once again, overwhelmed by the history
- Enoch and I have to say our goodbyes
- He tells me to call my mother at home on his phone to say hello
- Finally back on the bus to drive back to the ship
- That night, supposed to go out with Gio to celebrate his birthday
- Somehow missed the bus, ended up with a big group on a private charter bus
- Strange night – not really with any of my close friends from SAS
- Go back to the Morning Star School, just me and Steven
- Get a lot of great footage for my film documentary class
- Absolutely love the family running the school and enjoyed interacting with the students
- Afterward, Steven and I went shopping on Oxford Street
- Was trying to meet up with Nii to hang out one last time and say goodbye
- Had trouble finding each other, but finally Steven and I meet up with Nii and Fifi
- We go to get lunch at a hole in the wall place
- Have FooFoo – pretty gross, use fingers to slop up a bready paste sitting in a hot liquid with meat.
- Nii gives me a book about Ghana and a necklace
- Say our goodbyes, get on the bus back to the ship
- Bus is pulled over by the corrupt police who just want to be paid off
- Back to the ship and depart!
- So much. I'll have to write about this in a full entry. I want to come back to this special place.
South Africa – (Already explained everything except the final 2 days!)
DAY FIVE
- Have to wake up super early, but I make it to the Habitat for Humanity trip!
- Bus out to a township outside Cape Town
- Work on the house, meet the local children
- Meet the family we are building the home for – they are deaf
- Luke took sign language in college, and is able to somewhat communicate with them – absolutely amazing to see the excitement on the family’s faces to have someone be able to communicate with them.
- Spend the evening with Julie – try to go get internet at Quay 4
- Take a day to go shopping with Laurel and Katie
- Go to a Pancake House in the Waterfront area – delicious
- Try to get to the wholesale market
- Somehow end up in a sketchy market above the train station with an unofficial guide
- Man who took us there had a conscious that told him to take us somewhere safer
- Go to the Green Point Market – make several purchases
- Come back to the Waterfront – eat at Ocean Basket inside the HUGE mall
- Buy a calling card – phone home! Talk to Bampa and Mom.
- Head back to the ship just 45 minutes before on-ship time.
- Depart SA!
Mauritius –
DAY ONE
- Head out the villa that Mary Chandler booked for 12 of us
- Use the free internet provided by the villa
- Take a walk to get some lunch at restaurant in Flic-n-Flac
- Rest and Relax in the Villa
- Go out that night to local places around town
- Walk to David and Bryan’s villa – get there and they don’t have the key. Go figure.
- End the night skyping with Elise and Mom.
- Sleep in
- Get up and head to the beach! Yay!
- Lay out for several hours.
- At 3 we decide we could do a little lunch – go to the grocery
- Back at the villa we enjoy out bread, crackers, brie, gouda, and jam.
- Spend the rest of the afternoon resting and uploading photos to internet
- Go out to 90 degrees to eat some appetizers
- End up taking an hour taxi drive to Grand Bay (ridiculous)
- Go to the jazz performance at the Banana Bar (?)
- Leave early because of frustrations
- Thank goodness for our great taxi driver Harvey – so smart I talked with him all the way back to the villa at 2am in the morning while everyone else slept (I really just wanted to make sure Harvey didn’t get sleepy)
- Up at the crack of dawn to make it back to the ship to get on my Snorkeling and Catamaran trip for Marine Biology
- Spend the day on the catamaran – listening to Akon, seeing whales breaching 30 feet away from us.
- Snorkel, even though the reefs were not in the best shape.
- Enjoyed the day with Allie, Laurel, Tara, and Olivia.
Okay, so starting tomorrow I will tell you about the wonderful place called India. I’ll try and get around to explaining these stories in more detail, but I hope you now have a little better idea of what in the hect I’ve been up to!
That’s it for now! Time to sleep!!!!
