monkeys, mamas, and me

It is crazy that I am used to life on the ship. It has become my home. I no longer have to think about which way to turn or what deck I am on, it has become second nature. Military time is still a little confusing but, it’s easy enough to figure out.

The schoolwork is a little overwhelming, we have a lot of reading and we, as students, have to be proactive about our assignments. Professors are so willing to work with us, but we have to make the initiative. Plus it is hard to get anything accomplished when anywhere I go to study someone interesting to socialize with usually passes by.

Two nights ago, I attempted to sleep on the 7^th deck with some of my friends. The stars were beautiful, I was comfortable, but there was too much light from the teacher’s lounge, and a lot of chattering from other students, even at 1 am when I was really trying to fall asleep. So I grabbed my sleeping bag, and workout mats, and retired to my cabin, where Kelly Rose was already sleeping.

I took the first dosage of malaria medication. It tasted so nasty, but I guess it’s worth it. I am not trying to get malaria, and it has given me some really vivid dreams. I wouldn’t say nightmares, but the dreams were so real. I am hoping this may help with my goals of lucid dreaming.

It has been a little disappointing not receiving as many emails as usual, I guess that my family is getting used to my absence (hint, hint, nudge, nudge: I hope this will guilt you into emailing me more). Kelly Rose and I have considered emailing each other.

I am still in awe that I am actually on this voyage. Kelly Rose bought a world map to put on our wall and I wake up everyday amazed of all the places I get to experience.

Every night there are a series of films, documentaries, and entertainment. Last night, there was a documentary on female circumcision in Africa. It was so disturbing that I could only watch the first few minutes of it. I am a little worn-down by the social injustice and poverty that I am witnessing first-hand and learning so in-depth about. Sometimes it is hard to stay positive but there are good people and good programs out there. I have been thinking about how I want to spend my future. Whatever path I choose, or that chooses me, I hope to be an activist for justice.

We will be porting in Tema, Ghana tomorrow. I am planning on exploring the city of Accra on Tuesday, and potentially meeting with some women from the organization Global Mamas. It is a micro-loan org that strives to help women gain independence. You should check out their website www.globalmamas.org. Their goals remind me a lot of Muhammad Yunus, who won the Nobel Peace prize in 2006 for the Grameen Micro-Loaning Bank he founded. On Wednesday and Thursday I will be doing an overnight through SAS called “Volta Explorer.” I will get to swim at the base of the largest waterfall in Ghana, and hike through the rural area, known for the indigenous monkeys found there. I think the hike has us cross the Volta River 11 times. I am participating in a Habitat for Humanity project on the last day of Ghana. This will be my first service trip on the voyage.

Where Are All the Moroccan Women?

Being in Morocco proves nothing short of experiencing bizarreness. Most of the time it has felt like a time warp to the biblical times. A majority of my time here has been spent on an organized trip with SAS to the Sahara Desert for a camel trek. The excursion was spent primarily on a coach bus with 40 female college students. We stick out like a sore thumb and the bus windows make the bus feel like a little US island traveling through the Moroccan streets. The first day in port 165 people met in the Union, gathered our passports, and departed the ship on 4 coach buses for a 3 hr ride to Marrakech. We spent the night in Marrakech, woke up early, but for the second time in two weeks, my alarm clock was faulty and I woke up with a mere 10 minutes before checkout time. Luckily, I did not miss the bus, because they will leave without you. From Marrakech, we drove 8 hours to the Sahara dessert through the Atlas Mountains. This experience in itself was very intense. Our bus driver, even in the eyes of the most aggressive American driver, was indisputably crazy. He tailgated, sped, looked everywhere but where we were headed, all on the narrow mountainous roads. The trip leaders actually yelled at him on numerous occasions (through our tour guide-since he only spoke Arabic). The bumpy roads of the Atlas Mountains have no guard rails, and no rules. Many of the girls became ill on the bus, and there was a constant stream of dust being vented into our lungs. Luckily, (and the only thing that kept me sane) the views from the bus were amazing. Unfortunately, my camera is out of commission and I was unable to take any photos.
Once we got through the Atlas Mountains we went on a camel trek through the “Sahara” desert. All I am going to say about this experience is that I left with a sense of guilt for paying to ride camels that had apparently been abused and looked very ill. There were only 80 camels for 165 people, which meant half of the time was spent walking. And we could see the buses parked on the road for the entirety of the trek. Although the nomad camp that we spent the night had a great atmosphere and the sunrise and sunset were beautiful, I was thoroughly disappointed with the camel portion of the excursion. Apparently last year 3 students got drunk, destroyed some of the tents and got in physical fights with the nomads. To say the least, the nomads were wary of us and it made things a little more awkward than anticipated.
We were very fortunate with Jamal, the Moroccan tour guide that we were assigned. He was fluent in 5 languages, had a sense of humor, and was very knowledgeable on the history and current culture of Morocco. Although, I got stuck in the back of the bus so I couldn’t hear a majority of what he had to teach us.
Experiencing this African Muslim country has been very difficult for me. We hardly see any women in public, and the ones we do see, wear various stages of veils. Where are all the Moroccan women? Most of the children I have seen are beggars, shepherds, or roaming on the sides of mountain roads in packs of 3 or 4 walking to collect drinking water. I pride myself on promoting an equal playing field for both sexes and have been able to relate to a lot of teaching in my previous Race, Gender, and Class Studies. It has been really hard to see the level of sex-segregation and oppression here. It makes me feel like what I was fighting for does not matter in the big scheme of things. I don’t want to come home and settle for things that I think are injustices, it just puts into perspective how lucky I am to be an American woman, even if there is room to improve our system. I would not feel safe, as a woman, traveling in Morocco unaccompanied. This has been particularly frustrating because there are things I want to do and see, but I would never do it alone.
Also, the language barrier has been pretty difficult. I pride myself on my social skills of striking conversation with strangers. This just is not possible for me here. Everyone speaks Arabic and some speak French. I am lucky that I made friends with some ladies on the trip that speak French pretty well, otherwise I would probably still be at the Souk (market) in Marrakech unable to get a taxi back to the hotel. Arabic is completely foreign to me, although, I just got down the greeting “As-Salāmu `Alaykum” which translates to “peace be upon you” and the response “wa `Alaykum As-Salaam” which translates to “and upon you be peace.”
Islam is a very interesting religion. I actually like a lot of the ideals and practices they exercise. There are 5 pillars every Muslim is expected to do: 1-Shahada (profession of faith); 2-Salat (prayer-which is preformed 5 times daily-dawn, noon, midafternoon, sunset, and night); 3-Zakah (paying of alms-which includes giving 2.5 % of ones yearly earnings to someone in need-usually a less fortunate family member or neighbor) Jamal was telling us that there is no one that regulates this but it is rather a personal sacrifice that is between the giver and god on judgment day. There is a saying they have that says “What the right hand gives should be kept from the left.” This ideal is also incorporated into their architecture. The outside of many building look very modest but when you step inside there is beautiful marble tile work and vast open courtyards. 4-Ramadan, this is currently in session. The ninth month of the Muslim calendar is spent fasting from food, alcohol, smoking, etc. As soon as the sun sets the fast is broken. That means whenever I eat throughout the day I try to keep it discreet. Finally, the 5th pillar of Islam is Hajj, which is the Arabic name for the pilgrimage to Mecca. Unfortunately, for many Moroccan’s the Hajj is not ever feasible because it costs 6,000 Euros to get to Mecca. It is a great honor to return to your community as a Hajj or a Hajja.
The market’s in Morocco are called Souks. The freemarket I visited in Marrakech is the biggest in the world. Most of the vendors are Arabic or Berber or Arabic-Berber, which just refers to where they are from. Arabic are plains people, and the Berber are the mountainous people from the south. The haggling is intense. It was a strange thing to be bargaining so intensely over the price difference of 300 dirham versus 250 dirham as that is 6 dollars. Especially, when I see the poverty and lifestyle these people have to face. I am feeling a great sense of guilt about my place in society.
Yesterday, the trip with SAS ended and they dropped us off at the port in Casablanca, I was feeling overwhelmed and tired and almost didn’t venture out. But it was my friend Stephanie’s birthday so a bunch of us went to Rick’s café, the restaurant featured in the film Casablanca. It was beautiful, there was a live jazz band, we sipped on Moroccan wine, and smoked Cuban cigars. It wasn’t a local place, so I felt secure being a woman. We met this lady named Cathy who owned the restaurant. She used to be a US consulate worker but got out after 9/11. She gave us some of the history of relations between the Morocco and France.
I am planning on going to a lecture by a female hip hop artist featured in the documentary “I <3 Hip Hop in Morocco,” which might be available on Youtube, and I highly recommend it. After that, a few of us are going to check out the souk here, although we have heard it is not comparable with Marrakech. The ship sets sail at 8 tonight and classes resume tomorrow so I will spend the evening catching up on all the homework I haven’t touched since before Cadiz.

el condor pasa

ok so i had a little breakdown. im not saying things are perfect now but my wise little sister sent me a reassuring email replying to an even bigger anxiety attack than you were able to witness. she pointed out that even though i have been fortunate enough to have some traveling experience. this is my first time to travel solo. and i have a lot to learn. i naively entered this trip with no expectations of running into problems. i have never experienced homesickness before. but i have to live in the now. and there is nothing wrong with a good cry. i am back on my feet and ready to circumnavigate this globe. i have to be confident and put myself out there, even if i dont speak these spainards language.

if you can't tell. tonight was a better night. although i am turning in early because kelly rose and i are going to try to catch a 7am bus back to cadiz, so we can enjoy some paella (signature spanish seafood dish--i am eating this for you josie) and a visit the beach (that 007 was filmed on) before ship time of 6pm. they are very strict about the curfew. i dont know the specifics but it is some ridiculous calculation for every 15 min you are late (late counts as not being on the ship, even if you are in the line to get on the ship), you are given a timeout at the next port of call for 2 hrs.

the bar that we went to last night was on the riverside of sevilla. apparently the area isn't super safe but we were traveling in a very large group so we felt pretty secure. i dont tend to like traveling in large groups but it happens. we were definitely fitting the profile of loud obnoxious americans too. but anyway, kelly rose, bridget, christina, and i walk into a bar next to the american bar all of our fellow SASers chose to drink at, and stumbled on a creepy local bar. we decided to stick it out since the bar tender spoke pretty good english and the locals were up for conversing. i met this guy named carlos, and since neither of us knew more than 12 words of each others language i think we held a pretty good conversation (mostly 2 hours of charades and pointing at each other saying "te" and "me"). at one point in the convo he said "hepay" and pointed to me. i looked at him with one brow raised and repeated "hepay?" then carlos smiled real big, pointed again, raised his left hand, gave me the peace sign and said "hippie." we both cracked a smile, and then i knew he understood. the rest of the night was spent trying to explain semester at sea, our families, politics, and i think we spoke briefly on the topic of motorcycles.

we met a guy named miguel (he told us to call him mike) today at dinner. he was our bartender/waiter. he studied in jersey, and spoke perfect english. he was really silly because he didnt let on to this for a while, i think he was eaves dropping. he was joking around a lot with kelly rose giving her a hard time. after claiming spain was the best country in the whole world because of the food, the absense of an open-alcohol container rule and the smoking anything everywhere, he gave us a few tips on spain. he said that doggy bags were, contrary to belief, allowed and not looked down upon. he told us never to order a sandwhich or french fries. and then persuaded us to buy 45 euros worth of fried seafood, scrambled eggs and cod, and this amazing clam dish.

i am excited for morocco because i am hoping it won't be such a bar scene. i am tired of only entertaining the opposite sex, as they try to make advances. i want to meet locals without feeling there is an expectation at the end of the night.

Cadiz, Sevilla, and Small Freak Out

We have been in port now for 2 days. Spain is a beautiful country and it is nice not being on the ship. It got really small really fast. Overall, I am enjoying my time in Spain. I am a little worried about not taking full advantage of my opportunity, but optimism is forcing me to believe I will get better at the traveling thing as this is just my first port.

Upon arrival, we had to wait a couple hours for the ship to be cleared before exploring Cadiz. I signed up for a last minute city tour, which was really beneficial because it gave us a feel of where to explore on our own. I went for a walk with some new friends and we ran into this street performer in a small plaza, he was making huge bubbles with a hand-made tool. It was two long sticks and a cotton strings made of old t-shirts. There were two girls running around popping them. He saw us watching and let us try. I made two successfully. They were the biggest bubbles I have ever seen, two adults could fit inside of them. It is funny that of all the monuments and history I saw, this may have been one of the most memorable moments.

Kelly Rose and I decided to visit Sevilla, so we booked a bus and hotel for two nights and we are here now. Our hotel is beautiful. It has two courtyards--one of which houses a full grown orange tree.

We have been taking it easy not filling our schedule too too much. I am a little upset though because we have been taking taxis to this one area of town which we thought was a long way from our hotel only to find out it was just around the corner. I feel a little taken advantage of, and like a stupid american but I guess it is a good lesson to learn early on. I wish so badly that I was multi-lingual. This is going to be the most difficult thing for me. I don't tend to be shy but it has been hard for me. Last night we went to a couple bars on riverside and although I talked to this one guy from Sevilla for the whole night, I couldn't tell you anything we talked about.

I am a little nervous for the non-european countries next on the itinerary. There are things I want to do but I am scared to do it on my own. Homesickness is setting in a little bit, and I am trying to keep my nerves. I am making myself anxious. I know I can do this, but it has been difficult. I don't want to miss out. I just have to be comfortable in the fact that I am not going to see everything so I should enjoy what I do see and not take it for granite by worrying what I miss.

We will head back to Cadiz tomorrow morning early. So tonight will be an early night. I am just going to write some post cards, meet up with some friends for dinner and go to sleep. Wish me luck.

Classes Have Begun

So classes have begun. I don’t think I will be skipping any classes this semester (especially since I figured out that each individual class is costing me $425, plus they can all hold my attention). All the text I have been assigned has been very interesting and well worth the hefty amount of time I have spent reading. I am really happy with all of my classes except Global Studies. I am finding it rather boring. It is almost like he is trying to prove that the world has become “flat,” which is what I believe to be an obvious observation. I wish instead of focusing more on the problems we discussed solutions. After writing this though, I am convinced that this will come later. I suppose it is necessary to set the stage for potential solutions.

The nice thing about being contained in a ship is the strong community between students and faculty. They cannot escape us and we cannot escape them. So far I have had lunch with Dick, my Terrorism professor and I have run into my Women’s Studies professor quite frequently. They have all extended sincere invitations to join them for meals and conversation. It is impossible to avoid them. They are all super interesting and cover several different fields:

Sustainable Environmental and Economic Development for Emerging Nations with Professor Dan Duran:
Although the title is a mouthful, the first reading I have begun for this class is amazing. We are reading Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman. I would recommend this book to anyone and I will lend you my copy as soon as I get home. It is an overview of why living the lifestyle of Americans is not sustainable and gives me hope that American can and must be on the forefront of ensuring a sustainable future, however that is to be accomplished.

Freedom of Movement from a Cross-Cultural Perspective with Professor Farzaneh Milani:
I am already enjoying this class. The details Prof. Milani offers us are superb. She points out oppressions that are often overlooked, even (or maybe especially) by women. The original Cinderella is based off of the Chinese tradition of footbinding. The ancient tradition involves the breaking of a woman’s foot in order to have small “beautiful” feet. With small feet a woman would have a better chance of marrying into wealth. This theme is found in many heroines of modern literature and film (ie Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Repunzel). A film everyone should look into is Killing Us Softly by Jean (her last name escapes me now. And although the reading list for her is very hefty it is worth noting: Dreams of Trespass, A Border Passage, The Handmaid’s Tale, Reading Lolita in Tehran, Scheherazade Goes West, and The Three Inch Golden Lotus (this list is mostly for the benefit of you, Ellen J).

Terrorism and Insurgency with Professor Dick Farkas:
I will dedicate a whole blog to this course in the near future.

Global Studies with Brian Winchester

Sorry if this blog is a little dry. I will get into the social stuff that is going on soon too.