cape town, south africa

so much has happened since my last blog entry.

cape town, south africa for five days was an experience filled with so many different emotions. we arrived on wednesday, february 18th and that's when the journey began for me.

i spent the first day exploring the two story mall filled with all of its outlet stores like levi, j. crew, coach and the list goes on and on. i was able to get a great lunch filled with lots of tofu (the ship has good food but its hard to get enough protein)

after lunch i came back to the ship to get ready to attend a play called freak country at cape town university. the play was good-a short story but very powerful.

the next day i was the trip leader for 57 people going to tour cape town, apartheid and a township. our tour of cape town took us through the city where we learned about its history which included dutch influences, churches, long street and the town hall where nelson mandela gave a speech they day he was released from prison.

we then headed to the district six museum where we learned about apartheid-residents of district six were displaced by the government and forced to live in squatter camps. although apartheid ended in 1987, there is a feeling that is still exists today when you hear people refer to others as colored or mixed. we drove to the sight of the squatter camp and it has been destroyed-there is nothing left but dirt, trash and weeds.

from the museum we drove to the largest township, khayelitsha, with over one million people. words can not begin to describe the feelings or the emotions i had when i first saw township after township as we drove on the highway to get to khayelitsha. each home is made from items that people find abandoned on the side of the road-sheet metal, pieces of wood, cardboard, etc.

when we arrived in khayelitsha it was overwhelming to see the levels of poverty. i struggled to be there are we drove up in big air conditioned buses, taking pictures of the township and touring the township. when we are in the states in harlem or five points, we don't have tourists get off of buses and take pictures of us or our homes, so what were we doing? we walked past a daycare filled with children who wanted to play with us, touch us and talk to us. some of our semester at sea students had stickers and the kids loved them! we then walked to a bed and breakfast within the township where we met the owner, vicky. vicky was a very passionate, knowledgeable and proud individual. she told us that each house had at least three children or more and extended family such as grandparents or aunts and uncles. we were reminded not to give the children money because if we did then they would always expect it and if they did not get money they would begin to beg, and although the people in the townships are poor they still have their pride. south africa has a forty five percent unemployment rate and over half of the country's people have aids/hiv. as we left the township we observed women of the township preparing dinner as the skinned goats' heads and placed them on make shift grills.

from khayelitsha, we visited another township where we had lunch. it was amazing to see the drastic changes from one township to another. the second township had small lawns that were being cut by hand with shears and were made from concrete blocks.

after lunch we hopped on a boat to robben island-the prison where nelson mandela stayed. we were given a tour of the prison by a former prisoner. we heard about daily life, saw mandela's prison cell and learned about the inhumane treatment of the prisoners including the discrepancies in amounts of food based on whether you were native, mixed or colored. working in the limestone quarry was another form of mistreatment since the limestone was not used for anything and the work left prisoners with t.b., poor eyesight and bad backs.

the next day i joined joan (ship nurse), bob (semester at sea 1978 alumni) and kendra (semester at sea student and csu student too!)on an adventure to table mountain-the world's oldest mountain at 260 years old. it is absolutely beautiful-if you get a chance google it (although i'm not sure pictures can do it justice) i had hoped to hike to the top but i'm still a little bit under the weather so i opted to take the cable car to the top-not a bad option since the cable car rotates as you travel in it giving you a panoramic view of the mountain and cape town. i spent most of the day exploring the mountain top and walking from the atlantic side of the ocean to the indian side of the ocean-it was incredible. i even had a great view of the soccer stadium that is currently under construction for the world soccer cup in 2010.

after table mountain we decided to visit the kirstenbosch national botanical garden-it was the first botanical garden in the world to be established to protect the local flora. after the gardens we returned back to the ship. i had hoped to catch a rugby game but missed the group who was going. :(

the next day, i hopped the red double decker bus with andrea (llc) and we toured the city of cape town checking out table mountain again but this time getting to see the backside of the mountain as we drove along the cape. after the tour, we headed back to the ship for lunch and then went to the mall in search of a coffee shop called melissa's. at melissa's one can get a hot chocolate but not just any hot chocolate-this hot chocolate was lined with nutella along the inside of the cup. having never had nutella i was told i would be in for a treat and i was-it was delicious!

the next day i chose to hang out with the witwer-dukes clan as we went in search of a market selling local goods. i should have known better after my last excursion with the witwer-dukes'- we walked and walked only to find out that the market was closed due to a 5k race that morning, as well as the construction on the soccer field for the world soccer cup in 2010. we ended up at another market and then the mall. i was unable to find anything i thought you all might want so i walked back to the ship empty handed. well i did have some pringles and some dark chocolate.

after having to stay an extra night in cape town due to the weather, we are now on our third day at sea as we make our way to mauritius. we are scheduled to be in mauritius on friday so the captain has us cruising along at 27.6 knots-looks like at that speed we will be there on time.

last night was the captain's dinner and since i was invited i thought it might be a good thing if i cleaned up a bit. i wore a blue suit (okay, pick up your chins from the floor and close your mouths) and sat right across from the captain-i think i kicked him under the table a couple of times. prior to dinner we had wine and appetizers in the faculty/staff lounge then we walked to dinner on the aft (back) of deck five. we had more wine with our dinner rolls and salads, then we had more wine as the main course arrived, after the main course we had more wine with our creme bruele and then after dessert we had more wine. the dinner ended after eleven- i had a good time chatting with the captain at times and the other faculty and staff at my table.

we are now eleven hours ahead of colorado time and after tonight we will be twelve hours ahead-sleep has been difficult with the time changes so it will be interesting when we have two days of april 12th.

walvis bay and swakopmund, namibia

well its been over one week since my last blog and most of that week was spent at sea. eight days at sea can be quite a long time especially when you are doing the same thing every day-global studies class from 9:20am-10:35am, work out from 10:30am-11:00am, shower, staff meeting from noon-1pm, lunch from 1-2pm, then desk duty or work stuff for a couple of hours, then game time from 4:00-5:30, then volleyball tournament and then dinner at 6:00pm. we didn't last long in the volleyball tournament so that really did not become routine :)

after leaving morocco, we stopped in dakar to bunker (refuel). just outside of dakar is a small island called goree island-this is where slaves were help just before they were taken to the states. we did not get off the ship on goree island or dakar.

after leaving dakar we spent eight days at sea. during this time, i met the four women in my family (luisa, jana, devin and michele). faculty and staff have the opportunity to adopted students on the ship thus creating a family. the idea is to spend time with your family having dinner, ice cream, going places together while you are in port, etc so the students feel like they are part of a family. some faculty and staff have ten to twelve students in their family-i only have four children since i am a single parent :)

i also have three faculty members (dee bird, fred levine and jon kastendieck) that i am meeting with in order to bridge the gap between student affairs and academic affairs. i met with them once during training in miami so i figured it was time to connect with them again. after meeting with them, i asked them to meet with my family of students-they thought it was a great idea so we all had dinner together and it was a good time!

i also had dinner with the lgbtqa group of students on the ship. dee bird and i are advising the group, for this semester. the group is small but we seem to be adding folks every time we gather for a dinner so that's great!

i also spent some time writing back to the twenty three fifth grade students i have adopted via the vicarious voyage program! i am working with two students (whitney and kristen) on the ship to send menus, newspapers and other items from each port we visit to our fifth grade class in golden, colorado (welchester elementary). they sent us a package filled with letters from each of them asking an assortment of questions so they all know now my favorite color, what my favorite food is, how many brother and sisters i have, the names of my friends on the ship and which country i am most excited to visit.

i guess it goes without saying that i had dinner every night that we were are sea :)

after six days of being at sea, i began to feel a little under the weather and by the time we docked in walvis bay, namibia i was feeling better yucky :( but still went on the city tour of walvis bay and swakopmund. before we could get off the ship, we once again had to clear immigration and customs-this included them having to stamp over one thousand passports. we also had our first diplomatic debriefing in which we heard about the current state of affairs for namibia as well as how to be safe while in namibia. although we had to wait on the ship until 1o:00am before it was cleared, we were treated to namibian children dancing and singing to us.

once off the ship, we headed to our bus to begin the city tour. namibia is the second smallest populated country(2.1 million) so having us arrive (over one thousand people) was a little overwhelming. the bus ride to swakopmund was filled with a mixture of desert, dunes, sea and homes. we even passed the home where brad pitt and angelina jolie stayed while they were waiting for their third child to be born.

along they way to swakopmund we past a place called guano bay-this is where one gentleman spends his time collecting bird feces and sells it so it can be used as fertilizer and such. he even sells a percentage to europe where they use it to make lipstick! after hearing this, and taking in the smells of guano bay, i am so glad i do not wear lipstick :)

as we continued on to swakopmund, we were able to see the division amongst the namibian people with one side of the road being occupied with homes belonging to the "mixed" (black and white) and the other side of the road with homes for the "colored" (blacks only). some of the older homes in namibia have roofs made from cardboard which is not a problem unless it rains-which may happen once ever five years or so.

while in swakopmund, we visited a place called karakulia weavers-where we watched local people making rugs and tapestries from wool. we learned from beginning to end how the wool is cleaned, dried, sometimes dyed, spun or not spun depending on its use, and then watched as a handful of folks created spectacular images of elephants, zebras, springbacks, antelope, figures, etc from wool into rugs and tapestries. we even received a special treat when our guide asked one gentleman to count from one to ten in nama for us so we could here the use of clicks when he spoke-it was truly amazing!

after leaving the weavers, we made our way to the kristall galerie where we saw the world's second largest crystal.

we then spent some time in town before heading back towards walvis bay. on our way back, we stopped at dune 7 where i attempted to climb to the top of the dune. i almost made it but was unsuccessful-i think i would have made it had i not been sick.

after returning to the ship, i emptied my shoes of namibian sand (which i will bring back with me), hopped in the shower and then went in to the town of walvis bay with a bunch of folks to have pizza at crazy mama's. we had heard the pizza at crazy mama's was great so we wanted to try it but we were worried we would not be able to get in since it was valentine's day. not only did we get it but we received one free carafe of blush wine, one free carafe of sangria and one freed small garlic pizza because it was valentine's day :) oh, and the pizza was great!

after leaving crazy mama's, we walked over to a bar called pet planet where they not only sold adult beverages but had live animals walking around the place. we saw parrots, goats, cats, dogs, etc.. we even played with a curly, white puppy who i am convinced would have ended up as the ship's mascot had we not a strict no pet policy.

i spent the next day, and night, in bed. my body hurt so bad i was tempted to go to the clinic but didn't in hopes that i would feel better after lots of nyquil, sudaphedrine, emergen-c and ibuprofen.

we are now on our last day in walvis bay, namibia and while i do feel better i have opted to stay on the ship, work on some conduct letters and watch the seals play in the bay.

we leave namibia tonight and after one day at sea we will be in cape town south africa!

casablanca and marrakech, morocco

well, it's been one week since my last entry so i am hopeful i will remember everything that's happened since i last wrote.

after leaving spain we headed to gibraltar to refuel (bunker). the hope was to arrive in gibraltar on february 1st and then move on to casablanca, morocco, but due to bad weather the gibraltar port was closed. we ended up in a holding pattern with a plethora of other ships waiting to bunker-when it was our turn to bunker the seas were so rough we could not get fuel so we continued to play the waiting game.

our arrival into the casablanca port was like riding a roller coaster that had gone off the tracks. the captain had to lift the stabilizers in order to turn into the port and this caused the ship to shake, rattle and roll (literally). we were at dinner during this time and i ended falling backwards in my chair, glass cups and dish crashed to the ground and shattered and the students were screaming.

having arrived late in the evening on february 2nd, we were not allowed of the ship since immigration still needed to board the ship to stamp over one thousand passports and clear us with customs. since we were a day late, we lost a day at the riad we had reserved in marrakech but we made our way via train to marrakech to spend one night instead of two. after a three hour train ride, i arrived in marrakech with the witwer-dukes family and we made our way out of the train station to search for a taxi. finding a taxi in morocco is definitely not a problem-once we walked out of the station we were mobbed by a tom of taxi drivers all wanting to play lets make a deal.

we finally negotiated a price (thank goodness for kathy's ability to speak french) and we were whisked away to our destination. the driver claimed to not know exactly where our riad was located so he dropped us at the entry way to the souks.

for those of you not familiar with a souk, i definitely was not, it is similar to a flea market but about a thousand times bigger with snake charmers, monkeys, camels, dancers,etc. all of the literature about the marrakech souk reminds tourists to only visit the souk in small sections since you will inevitable get lost.

as we got out of the taxi we again had lots of folks wanting to take us to our final destination for a price. we had no idea where we were or where we were going so we were more than a little bit frazzled. one gentleman finally assigned himself to us and we were off-he took us through the souk where we twisted and turned through shop after shop after shop filled with leather goods, hanging skinned dead animals, scarfs, jewelry, seafood, baked goods, pottery and the list goes on forever. at times we were unsure of our safety as we were led down narrow alleys or alleys where there were no other people. we walked and walked and walked during which time we looked at each other on several occasions with questioning looks of fear and concern. just as we were about to give up, we entered onto a tiny, dark and narrow alley where our riad was located. we went round after round with our "guide" about the price he should be paid for taking us to our riad- when we ran out of duram he still refused to leave so we ended up giving him dollar bills so he would go away. it is so hard to be fair, and not be taken advantage of, when you know you are in a poverty stricken area.

although we were now at the riad we still had no idea where we were in marrackech or how to go anywhere so we stayed at the riad for the remainder of the evening. the woman running the riad did not speak french and we did not speak berber but we managed to some how communicate with her until another person who spoke french arrived. the riad was three stories high and consisted of five rooms, three bathrooms and two small kitchens, one "sun" room and a patio of sorts up top. the center of the riad was open to the elements so as it rained the water poured into the center of the riad-it was freezing cold and there was no heat. as we sat in the sun room we huddled close together in order to generate body heat (thank goodness we had harry who is the witwer-dukes family furnace :) ) once the gentleman who spoke french arrived, and saw how cold we were, he offered us a small heater which we proceeded to sit around as if we were at a campfire in the woods.

not being able to communicate very well with the woman of the riad we some how managed to understand that she would be making us a traditional moroccoan dinner. she left the house at five pm, returning one hour later and proceeded to make dinner for the next two and one half hours-but no complaints as the meal of couscous, vegetables and chicken was so delicious!

after waking up the next morning, too cold to take a shower, we brushed our teeth with bottled water so as to avoid getting sick, and as we prepared to leave we discovered we had to pay for our couscous dinner. we again negotiated a price, paid it and after asking for directions were on our way. before leaving marrakech we had the opportunity to visit the musee, the medersa (seminary school for boys ) and the quobba. all of these sites were amazing as we learned about the history, life and culture of morocco. it rained the entire day so we were cold, wet and tired as we made our way back to the train station.

once back in casablanca, i took a quick shower then went to the union to be put in a group who would join a morrocoan family for dinner in their home. my group ended up being other staff members i work with on the ship and after we showed our dinner hostess the ship, she drive us to her home where her maid was preparing our dinner. our hostess spoke english, french, berber and arabic so we had a lovely conversation as we drove to her home. her and her husband are dentists in casablanca and their two children (one boy and one girl) attend once of the private schools in casablanca.

she apologized for taking us into her home via the kitchen (the customary way to welcome someone into your home is through the front door) but it was raining so we got out of the car in the garage. the kitchen was quite spacious with food everywhere. we were then directed to the upstairs were we entered one living room then proceeded past the dining room to another living room where there was a corner fireplace already lit and waiting to warm us. (we noticed the plasma tv and wii game in the living room as well) as we drank mango juice and ate chocolate and nut covered almonds and little cookies we chatted with the children as our hostess disappeared to change and converse with the maid.

at 9:00pm the father arrived and we were drilled with questions about the ship and the semester at sea program. then around 9:30pm their friend, samuel (who is also a dentist and works with them in their office) arrive with his partner, grace, and after chatting for a few minutes we sat down to dinner. there were eleven of us for dinner so the table we all sat around was a considerable size so when the dish of couscous, vegetable and beef arrived and took over the entire table our mouths dropped open in astonishment. the bowl of food was set in the middle of the table, everyone was given a large spoon and told to stay in their lane of the bowl as we began to eat. there was no worry about double dipping or mixing broth in your "lane" of food. after eating spoonful and spoonful after spoonful with no end in sight this dish was taken away and replaced with smaller plates of a variety of salads, hummus, olives and breads-and again we shared it as if we had been best friends for years. after partaking in the salads and knowing there was no more room in our stomachs, a third dish of five chickens with sauce and mushrooms was placed in the center of the table (again the table disappeared as the bowl consumed it) i attempted to eat bread in hopes of avoiding the chicken but the father graciously tore off a piece of chicken and asked me for my plate. as i pushed the chicken around my plate, the father again asked for my plate adding another sizable portion of chicken to my plate. not wanting to be disrespectful i ate a bite of chicken and engaged in a conversation with grace in hopes of not having more chicken added to my plate or appearing to be rude by not eating the chicken that was already on my plate. after the chicken plate was removed a huge bowl of fruit (oranges, apples, strawberries, kiwis and dates) took its place in the center of the table. we were treated the largest oranges i have ever seen-they were sweet and juicy.

once dinner was officially over, we moved back into the living room where we treated to tea (best tea i have ever had) and homemade desserts made by the father's sister in algeria. our conversation continued until midnight when i politely reminded folks that we should go since the family had work and school the next morning.

the next day was spent in casablanca, where i again experienced a souk but on a much smaller scale and of less intensity. we walked around the souk, negotiating prices (not my forte at all) and interacting with the people of casablanca. we then went to a food market where we purchased saffron and again witnessed dead skinned animals such as pigs, sheep, cows and even live turtles.

once back on the ship, we settled in for another eight days at sea-awaiting our arrival in walvis bay. as we pushed off from casablanca, our departure started the same way our arrival had begun with the captain reminding us of another rough transition as we made our way to sea. we were warned to remove items from our desks, dressers and to basically baton down the hatches.
there were lots of students sitting on the tiled floor in tymitz square awaiting the rocking, rolling and swaying of the ship so they could slide from one side of the ship to another as if they were on a slip and slide. unfortunately this time around several folks got hurt- we had one broken wrist, several broken fingers and one three inch laceration to the head.

other than a few minor incidents, conduct on the ship has been minimal. overall, the majority of students on this voyage are incredibly respectful and thoughtful. i have had some conversations with students about their experiences in spain and morocco that have moved me to tears and others that left me speechless as i listened to their stories of maneuvering through countries where they can not speak the language or know the lay of the land.

as i end this blog, i would ask those of you that are in contact with my mom (madre) that you do me the favor of sharing the following with her: i miss her and love her with all my heart and soul and wish she was here with me whether it be speaking spanish in spain, shopping in the souks in morocco or playing scrabble for eight days at sea.

i continue to be humbled every day by this experience and opportunity of a life time!