Takoradi to Cape Town- F10.

Back at Sea; Takoradi to Cape Town

We are now Emerald-Shellbacks. We crossed the equator and the Prime Meridian at 0-0. We had to go 30 mails out our way to do this, but now I will have a picture of this memorable occasion. Actually, there is a professional video that was that I can download .

Spent my first day at sea getting my hair cut and having a manicure and pedicure. I now look a little more human.Someone also had a cocktail party in of the 7 th floor suites for Marguery who is leaving us in Cape Town.

Next Dayt

(now the days are becoming confusing again) was Neptune Day (another video) when many of the students and the Archbishop went through the ceremony, kissed a fish, had fish oil poured on them and got their heads shaven

But now we are getting into the serious stuff again. Movies re apartheid and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the terrible atrocities that were committed during apartheid. Our inter-. port lecturer is Louis Patler is a business man who advises Fortune 500 companies on business trends and has a best selling book on the subject .He was an activist in the 60's and 70's and told about an SAS trip to Cape Town in which they would not let the black students off the ship. He got on the loud speaker and suggested that no one get off. After they resolved this issue and everyone landed, three students, 1 black, one blond girl and another man took a car up to Table Mountain. Half way up a car came up beside them and ran them off the road, killing the black student and severely injuring the others. Archbishop Tutu talked about living as a Nobel prize winner and Archbishop in Cape Town and his children not being allele to play with the white children. The problems with the Townships' crime, aids, unemployment etc. are not being dealt with.

Friday (I think) A wine tasting party at 5. Then the cultural pre-port. Our choir class sang

the African National Anthem in the six languages of S.Africa and the Archbishop led it. (He is becoming more visible now) One day left and we will be there.

.

Takoradi to Cape Town- F10.

Back at Sea; Takoradi to Cape Town

We are now Emerald-Shellbacks. We crossed the equator and the Prime Meridian at 0-0. We had to go 30 mails out our way to do this, but now I will have a picture of this memorable occasion. Actually, there is a professional video that was that I can download .

Spent my first day at sea getting my hair cut and having a manicure and pedicure. I now look a little more human.Someone also had a cocktail party in of the 7 th floor suites for Marguery who is leaving us in Cape Town.

Next Dayt

(now the days are becoming confusing again) was Neptune Day (another video) when many of the students and the Archbishop went through the ceremony, kissed a fish, had fish oil poured on them and got their heads shaven

But now we are getting into the serious stuff again. Movies re apartheid and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the terrible atrocities that were committed during apartheid. Our inter-. port lecturer is Louis Patler is a business man who advises Fortune 500 companies on business trends and has a best selling book on the subject .He was an activist in the 60's and 70's and told about an SAS trip to Cape Town in which they would not let the black students off the ship. He got on the loud speaker and suggested that no one get off. After they resolved this issue and everyone landed, three students, 1 black, one blond girl and another man took a car up to Table Mountain. Half way up a car came up beside them and ran them off the road, killing the black student and severely injuring the others. Archbishop Tutu talked about living as a Nobel prize winner and Archbishop in Cape Town and his children not being allele to play with the white children. The problems with the Townships' crime, aids, unemployment etc. are not being dealt with.

Friday (I think) A wine tasting party at 5. Then the cultural pre-port. Our choir class sang

the African National Anthem in the six languages of S.Africa and the Archbishop led it. (He is becoming more visible now) One day left and we will be there.

.

Takoradi to Cape Town- F10

Back at Sea; Takoradi to Cape Town

We are now Emerald-Shellbacks. We crossed the equator and the Prime Meridian at 0-0. We had to go 30 mails out our way to do this, but now I will have a picture of this memorable occasion. Actually, there is a professional video that was that I can download .

Spent my first day at sea getting my hair cut and having a manicure and pedicure. I now look a little more human.Someone also had a cocktail party in of the 7 th floor suites for Marguery who is leaving us in Cape Town.

Next Dayt

(now the days are becoming confusing again) was Neptune Day (another video) when many of the students and the Archbishop went through the ceremony, kissed a fish, had fish oil poured on them and got their heads shaven

But now we are getting into the serious stuff again. Movies re apartheid and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the terrible atrocities that were committed during apartheid. Our inter-. port lecturer is Louis Patler is a business man who advises Fortune 500 companies on business trends and has a best selling book on the subject .He was an activist in the 60's and 70's and told about an SAS trip to Cape Town in which they would not let the black students off the ship. He got on the loud speaker and suggested that no one get off. After they resolved this issue and everyone landed, three students, 1 black, one blond girl and another man took a car up to Table Mountain. Half way up a car came up beside them and ran them off the road, killing the black student and severely injuring the others. Archbishop Tutu talked about living as a Nobel prize winner and Archbishop in Cape Town and his children not being allele to play with the white children. The problems with the Townships' crime, aids, unemployment etc. are not being dealt with.

Friday (I think) A wine tasting party at 5. Then the cultural pre-port. Our choir class sang

the African National Anthem in the six languages of S.Africa and the Archbishop led it. (He is becoming more visible now) One day left and we will be there.

.

Ghana

The next day I went on the canopy walk in the jungle at the Kakum National Park ,one of West Africa's surviving tropical rain forests We passed through many small town and villages all of which appeared very poor. Sanitation is almost non existent and people use the ground .

We arrived at the park and were told it was a steep climb to the canopy walk over a rough trail. There were some big steps and our ranger ignominiously piggy backed me up the last 10 steps!! (No picture!)The canopy was no problem and I have some nice pictures of that. A ranger helped me back down the hill. He said that I had now beaten his record for the age of a person making this hike!! We also got a short lecture on the many medicinal and other uses of the trees.

In the afternoon after lunch we had another concert and dance show by the village people. They used the same dances as we had seen at the workshop but they appeared much more authentic as this group was obviously not professional.

Yesterday we went to the village of Nzulezo which is a fishing village built on stilts on a large lake. We got there by about an hours' canoe ride. About 400 people live here using the fish from a lake for food, drinking the water, using it for a bathroom and washing their clothes in it . After another canoe ride back. we had lunch at a house on the beach , and then drove back to Takoradi through a rubber plantation and along the shore line lined with tall palm trees.

Tonight we sailed out of Takoradi to the cheers and wavings of all on the dock. Evidently this was a big deal for this small city as we are apparently one of the very few ships with passengers to sail in here. Our Dean, Archbishop Tutu and 5 students were greeted by the king in a special ceremony awarding the Archbishop some special award/ The pictures we saw reminded me of a National Geographic article showing the Queen and Prince Philip visiting some of the colonies!. It was all over the TV and newspapers here.

At the post port discussion group the overall feeling was that the people of Ghana are wonderful ,friendly, unbelievably hospitable and go way out of their way to be nice. An exception to this was in the market place where some people felt some discomfort because they felt that they stood out as being so different and were not entirely welcome. Also the fishing village women obviously did not want strangers marching through their home ( We could hardly blame them for this because even though someone was paid for this, it probably was not the women)

One of our lifelong learners' daughter was on the spring SAS trip and found out about children ,whose mothers are unable to supper them, who are sold as slaves, Young children are sold for $10. to fishermen,. who use the boys to dive into the water for fish This is very dangerous because the vegetation in the water catches and drowns or injures hem .The girls are used for sex and other services. They are worked 16 hours a day and many die. This,plus the tales we heard last year about the electronic dump workers , makes life for many people here very difficult.

I think LLL's are much more involved in service projects on this trip than last year.The parents organized a service trip to the area to help with the orphanage which is trying to get the slave children back and take care of them. They will continue to support them if possible. Another group of LLL's and students put in a water treatment plant at a village.

There is a different feeling on this ship. All of a sudden people are faced with the realities of what three quarters of the worlds experiences every day.

Sunday-Feb. 17.,2010
Back to the ship. I stayed in my cabin for the next two days trying to get rid of my cold which has now turned, as usual, into bronchitis. I got some antibiotics from the clinic and hope they work. We sail tomorrow for Ghana, stopping at Los Palmas in the Canary Islands for fuel. We won't be able go ashore which is too bad. The Canary Islands are a great European holiday resort which my father came to often.. I would have liked to have seen them.

I got the chance to get to know some of the LLLs a little better. Some of them have had some interesting occupations. One was chief of staff for a congressional committee and another was a secret service agent assigned to the presidential details of Reagan, Ford and Clinton. His wife, another secret service agent works on board as student security. An orthopedist, several people with their own businesses etc. All of them interesting and no kooks. The community is beginning to come together as it did last time and groups are begining to form.
I went to my classes but otherwise stayed pretty much in my cabin.

Spring Alums: We have at last found out why they keep the air conditioning so cold. It is to keep the mold down. That is also why they clean so thoroghly each day. We have the daily meeting in the faculty lounge, but because there are so many of us, it just seems as if we were socializing. Faculty is also there. Not like last time when we were in a corner and felt like you were missing something! Betty is a very knowledgeable and efficient coordinator If she, or Chris, a graduate student in environmental sciences, have a notice or someone has something to say, they take the mike and say it, but it is no big deal. It seems to run smoothly and I like it. The medical staff is much younger than ours and don't socialize as much with us. Deans both nice. David Geis seems to have learned everyones name on the ship!! Our Ghana presort last night was hilarious. The med staff always puts on a song and dance show to a song of "take you malaria meds, use condoms and don't drink too much" They are great. Last night my marine biology prof., Tim Wood, gave a dead pan talk on how to use a pit toilet that had no toilet paper. I wish I had taken my camera for both of those th

ings.

Arrival in Ghana Wed. Sept 22

I had signed up for a Drumming and Dance Workship under the direction of the Afrique Dance Ensemble, a professional and well known group. As I was still suffering from the bronchitis I elected not to participate but just watch. This was a mistake, because even though I enjoyed the music and dance part, not participating is boring. I got some good ..pictures though.

On the drive though Takoradi the poverty is striking. There is not a single house or building that doesn't appear to be in need of repair. In spite of the talks given us by the preport lecturer and student, explaining the history and current progress of the country since independence which sound very positive, the reality is that this is a very poor country in need of a lot.

Thursday

We arrived at noon as expected and the ship was cleared by 2.This is the last day of Ramadan and most places are shut. They thought that there would not be any trouble over the guy who is threatening to burn the Koran, but to keep our eyes open. I went down to the bus to see if I could go on a trip going to Rabat. There were four of us waiting but I was the first and so got on. The others did not.. The drive through Casablanca showed a pretty clean city with, unsurprisingly, white houses. The road to Rabat was flat and the fields on either side dry and bare. Rabat was also not very interesting. A city, and maybe a country, in cultural transition. Old walls and fortresses dating back to the 12th century plus modern buildings. We visited the king's palace,in which he does not live, and the casbah which reminded me of a Cycladic village in Greece, with narrow winding streets and colorful doors. This was a half day trip and we only spent a couple of hours there but it is not a city I would plan on revisiting.

Friday, Sept 10

We left at 8.20 for the four hour trip to Marakesh . As we approached the city, the countryside changed with little Berber villages making their appearance. It was still very dry and red but the fields became less flat and we could see the Atlas Mountains in the distance. The city of Marrakesh reminded me of Santa Fe. All the houses were red. Apparent;y a lot of famous people have houses here which they use occasionally as they do in other trendy places. I am not sure what the attraction is because it is very hot in the summer Our plan was to ride a camel to a Berber house, have lunch and ride back. However we were told that, due to the size of our group (two busloads) we would go by dune buggy and return by camel. My dune buggy driver was a very handsome Arab. Unfortunatly he did not speak Engliish and we both spoke french "un peu} but we didn't know the same words! Lunch was an elaborate affair and we all sat on the floor around round table and dishes were brought and put in the middle. The correct thing to do is eat with your hands, but they decided to give us forks and spoons. We all ate out of the same dish and did not have plates of our own. Food was good, but I am still a meat and potatoes person who does not like new foods so I didn't eat very much. After lunch, there was some dancing and then to the camels. They were smaller than I expected and had quite delicate bones. Their saddles were blankets with a metal handle in the front and rear and no stirups. Th ride was quite painful because ones legs are spread apart and there is nothing to rest your feet on. At one point, the call to prayer came and I tried to take a movie of the camel with that in the background. Too bad it came out blank! I was very glad to get off the camel and found me legs had become numb and I couldn't walk very well!/

Saturday

I developed the first cold which is going around the ship so decided not to go on the mornings' tour. I did go to lunch though as the bus picked me up. After walking for a few minutes through the hot dusty street though I decided that it would not be a good idea to go to the bazaar which I had been looking forward to.and where I had planned to buy some leather things. I went back to the hotel and went to look for a pharmacy. I found one but it was closed. A man came up to me and said he spoke English and could he help me. He wrote down the name of another pharmacy and then asked me for money. I said I had no change but could give him an american dollar. He said $5 and I said no way and walked away. Apparently this type of behavior is not unusual.