Before I move on to my back to sea blog I'll mention something I forgot to mention about Brazil. On Friday, our last day in Brazil, it was my Mom, Patty's BIRTHDAY! That evening as we left the port I was able to borrow a friend's international phone and call home and hear my parents voices for the only time in the last 21 days. After about two minutes of greetings, I heard my Dad, David, say "Steph, it's so nice to hear your voice!" I said you too and then the phone cut out and it was back to emails. It was short, but sweet, and really so nice to hear your voices! So, publically, Happy Birthday MA!!! Love you!
Friday afternoon we got back on the ship! It was amazing, suddenly my tiny cabin with my twin bed seemed like a luxury suite. I took a very thorough shower for the first time that week and came out a new person. I evening staying up sharing pictures and stories with friends I hadn't seen in a few days. Later that night, it was apparent that Brazil had gotten the best of everyone. I stayed up late in order to finish my blog on Day 1 of Brazil…I wrote it in the piano longue (a popular hang-out area on the ship) and by 1 am (a time not usually considered THAT late here) I was all alone on the couch, with no one else in site…the silence felt so unnatural in this usually thriving environment.
The sense of days of the week here really seems to disappear. I have never in my life been asked to go to school on a Saturday. Here, everyday we have between the ports on the ship counts. So, the common association that goes along with Saturday of sleeping in and no class doesn't apply here…so you can bet that that Saturday morning I was in Global studies by 9:20am. The day proceeded like normal and we got right back into the swing of class and hanging out.
In Brazil we picked up two guys named Ricky and Shareef. They are what we call "inter-port students". Inter-port students typically fly out to meet us at the port we are in before the students home country. The students then live with us during our approach to their homes. They are really helpful in getting an "insider's" view of the country you'll soon be spending time in. One of our Ghanians, Shareef, 33, is an accomplished musician in his home country, currently pursuing a Master's in music.. That night we all met the students and Shareef put on an awesome show where he introduced some of his music to us. As I listened to him talk between song I was able to jot down a quote he said that really stuck out to me:
"Education isn't really about going to school. It has become some kind of norm to train you so that you can fit in and survive. I believe that education starts when you start to find out things in order to satisfy your own curiosity and your own needs. You have questions in your mind so you find answers for yourself, not for a job, not for school, not for anyone but you. Books are great, you must read, but the greatest book you can find is your own brain, so don't forget that."
Shareef sang and played beautifully about real issues that exist in his country.
After the mini-concert ended I stayed up speaking with some friends and the other Ghanian, Ricky. Ricky is 26 and currently pursuing a Master's in Business, more specifically tourism. I felt a bit like a reporter at first as I asked him question after question about his culture, food, people. He shared a few interesting things with me. For example, it is considered not only impolite, but almost socially unacceptable to use your left hand for anything from waving to eating to even writing. He said that the left hand is considered "dirty"…this is because in countries like Ghana, things like tissues and toilet paper aren't always as readily available, so the left hand has been adopted when making up for the lack of these things. Ricky said that in school if a young boy starts naturally writing with his left hand, the teacher would make them switch. He even warned me to never wave with my left hand because people would be offended and not want to interact further. I asked him, what happens if something happens to your right hand and you can't use it? He explained that if that happens and you need to use your left hand to do something like pass the salt, you should do it on the right side of your body with your useless right hand laying over top…this should sufficiently indicate your inability to use the right hand, and excuse your lack of manners, he explained.
Ricky explained that he had never left west Africa before this trip. He then looked at me and said in his authentic accent that I've had to listen intently in order to understand at times "I know it's been only a few days, but I miss my country, you know?" I then sat and reflected and thought to myself, what do I miss? Well, I miss my family, I miss my friends, I miss the comfort of my house, but do I miss the USA in the way that he misses Ghana? I explained my dilemma to him and he could not understand how I could miss things in my country but not necessarily the country itself. I grabbed a friend walking by and asked her "Amanda, do you miss America?" She thought about it for a second and said "Well…I miss my friends and family, but America itself? Nahhh, not really." Now Ricky was really in shock. Don't get my wrong, I love my home and the country I come from, but it doesn't have the type of rich culture and pride in that culture that these smaller countries offer. I say this as I also reflect on my times in Israel where time after time I encountered cab drivers, cashiers, and strangers on the street telling me how they could never leave their country, and encouraging me to move.
At home I find myself constantly complaining about such little things…these people have real issues in their country and yet it appears as if they have more pride than the average American. This was so wonderful to see and really inspired me look at my home differently.
…I hope this didn't offend anyone!
As per usual I stayed up far too late picking Ricky's brains and eventually getting him to commit to showing me and some friends around when we get there, and maybe even hooking us up with a local or two to stay with! Hopefully that will all happen, and when it does I will be sure to write about it!
So much has happened in the past few days, things like storms, super-bowl in the ocean, losing an hour of sleep on a nightly basis as we cross the Atlantic, class being cancelled for sea-sickness, and NEPTUNE DAY…BUT….I'll explain that later in a future post because it is late here and my computer is about to die. Goodnight everyone!
Steph
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