FROM GHANA TO SOUTH AFRICA

After each port we have a reflection for anyone who wants to join where we just sit around and share stories. Usually, reflections have some funny stories, some really nice stories, and some sad ones. The reflection after Ghana was the most intense one I have been to thus far. It was also the most crowded. People shared amazing stories and when it was over I found myself still in the same seat an hour later as I processed everything I had just heard as well as my own experiences. Ghana is truly a place I will be going back to some day.

            About two nights into our trip from Ghana to South Africa, we had a competition called the King and Queen of Seas competition. Each hallway on the ship is called a different sea (kind of like the halls in dorms). So, my sea is the Caribbean Sea. Each sea had to pick one female (queen) and one male (king) to represent their sea. That night, each male and female competed to be named the King or Queen of all the seas. The competition consisted of three parts: Kid-friendly joke telling that was judged by a group of the kids on board, talent, and ABC (anything but clothes) competition—basically you have to make an outfit from anything but clothes and then present it. The kid friendly jokes were very cute…jokes like Which way does a sneeze travel? –Atchoo! And, Why did the cookie go to the doctors? –because it was feeling crummy! There were also some very creative ones. One guy got up and explained that he does improve at his home school, so he had the kids pick a place and an object and he would just make a joke right there on the spot…it was very, very impressive and he had a way of making anything that he said hilarious. Then, the talents were all great. Most were just hilarious, the rep from our sea has a very low talking voice so he came out and sang some good old Barry White. Another guy got up and recited "poetry" in a British accent…the "poetry" was lyrics from a popular rap song. One girl got creative and funny, she said she was going to perform a magic trick. She asked for a "volunteer" from the crowd and called on a guy named Daniel…Daniel has a twin named Matthew on the ship. She then told him she was going to clone him, placed him being a sheet and all of a sudden he has a clone standing next to him. We all laughed and clapped and supported just about anything that people put themselves out there with. We also had a couple of serious talents, one guy played a really awesome piece that he wrote on the piano, and another played the African drums really well. Then, it was time for the most anticipated round—the ABC competition. People got REALLY funny here. Some were in cardboard boxes, there was some duct tape and paper. One of the funnier ones was where a guy took the book 1493, the one that we are all supposed to read for our Global studies class. He ripped up the pages and cover and made it into an outfit. As he got up to present it he explained that he meant no disrespect to our professor, who was one of the judges by the way, and then was followed by a huge round of applause.

            For those of you have been keeping up with my blog you can skip this part because I'm sure you're tired of hearing about it. But I seriously can't get over how crazy-unique this community is. The night of the competition I felt like I was at camp with the amount of high energy that was in the room…the funny thing is that the judges were all of our professors and Deans and supervisors. At school, people like that just show up during class and then live some sort of mysterious life outside that we know very little or nothing about. Here, they see us making fools of ourselves during these competitions, and we willingly make fools of ourselves in front of them!

            The day before arriving Cape Town, the waters were especially rough. They were the most rough that they'd been since boarding the ship a whole month and a half ago. Walking through the halls was truly funny as people swerved from side to side and got to know the walls way to quickly and all to well. Meals were a whole other story. As we ate we constantly had to have our hands gripping out plates otherwise they would slide right off of the tables. Once again, class became optional for a reason that doesn't exist anywhere other than a floating university—sea-sickness.

            The night before each port we have a pre-port that I know I've mentioned before. In these pre-ports they tell us all about the country we're going to, and things to look out for and be careful of. At the end of each pre-port we have a "spirit stick" that gets passed from the previous receiver(s) of the stick to a new one. The spirit stick started out in the hands of the 10 people that got stuck in Ft. Lauderdale as they awaited their Brazil visas the day before leaving for SAS. Then, it was passed to the Information Technology "work-study" students who had been dealing with computer and email problems the whole first week like crazy. They IT tech guys passed it along to the "girls that shaved their heads on Neptune day". The girls that shaved their heads decided to give it to two very important people on our voyage. On our voyage we have a girl named Destiny who is deaf…she came along with her best friend from child-hood that also graciously acts as her interpreter. The two of them started a sign-language club on board that meets every B-day. I have attended a couple of sessions and it is really awesome to be learning. They always have a positive attitude and really teach us as a community a lot. They came up to receive the stick in tears and expressed their gratification. The entire ship-board community didn't clap, but did the sign for clapping which is holding your hands up on both sides and shaking them from side to side.