Random Thoughts on Ghana

We really had no idea what to expect in Ghana. We saw lots of extreme poverty, but people in general seemed happy and we saw no evidence of malnutrition or starvation. It is one of the more prosperous African nations. People everywhere were friendly and anxious to talk to all of us. The street vendors were very pushy, to the point where you really didn't want to buy anything from them. But, when you consider a per capita income of $1200-$1500 per year it is easy to understand their desperation. Also, we were in one of their major ports, and they are visited by only 5 or 6 cruise ships per year. From that standpoint it was hard to bargain prices down when you realized what a difference 1 or 2 dollars can make to them, or that they would wait 2 months before another ship arrived. We had a waitress cry tears of joy over a $2.00 tip.

We made several trips up and down the coast. The roads are quite good. With the exception of a few cement block houses, most were made from various combinations of sticks, mud and fronds. Cleanliness is a relative term, what appeared dirty at first glance was actually as clean as they could make it. Women were always busy sweeping the dirt in front of their homes and small businesses. In the villages we passed we saw cement block schools, but many who visited remote areas reported that some schools were more like animal pens, many were without roofs. Most people seemed to cook over open fires, and most villages had a central water pump where everyone obtained their water. The people stand tall and proud, looking elegant in their traditional dress. On Sundays most of the women wore white, and looked clean in spite of the fact that they walked for miles in dusty hot humidity. Ghana is mostly a Christian nation, and there are references to God in the names of many small businesses.

We spent 2 days in the university city of Winneba. The students treated us to various forms of African music, and were delighted when most of us got up and danced with them. Profs were educated at the masters and doctorate levels, and several studied in the U.S. In spite of the heat, people of importance wore suits or at the least freshly ironed French-cuffed shirts. One boy on the beach was even wearing an ironed shirt, the irons are heated with charcoal. Many people we spoke to in the villages desired a higher education but their parents could not afford to send them for additional schooling.

At the grocery store we were not able to find many familiar items to add to our snack stash on board, and there were no diet sodas to be found the day we shopped. While we all enjoyed our visits to the countryside, I think all were happy to return to the comforts of ship-board life.

High Winds Delay Entering Cape Town

We were supposed to be in Cape Town early Thursday morning, but because of high winds we were delayed for about 30 hours, but we made it!!  We were greeted by lots of frolicking harbor seals and a beautiful view of Cape Town with Table Mountain in the background.  Friday afternoon 9 of us headed out in a van to the Stellenbosch wine country visiting 4 wineries.  South Africa has some really nice wines.  We ended the day with a scrumptious meal in the University town of Stellenbosch.  Linda and I shared a venison carpaccio, Caesar salad, mushroom risotto with truffles, and grilled Elan (like big deer).
 Food and the company were excellent!  We got back to the ship around midnight.


Today, we were in town early doing some sightseeing, talking with folks and shopping.  We stocked up on all kinds of drinks and snacks for our next sea days including two really nice bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon from South Africa.  Lunch was a skewer of crocodile, ostrich, wort hog, Kudu and homemade venison sausage, red bell peppers and dried fruit grilled with a quince-jelly sauce.  Anyway, it was really good and the crocodile was actually better than alligator.


Tomorrow we will be up at 4 a.m. to head out for a three day, two night safari at Kampara Lodge with hopes of seeing the big five - Elephant, Lion, Leopard, Buffalo and rhinoceros.  Google the lodge if you like, it is really beautiful.  


Everyone asks what our best day is and we always answer...today.

Remember the miracle is: the more you share, the more you have.


Ciao

CAPE COAST CASTLE, GHANA

This is an essay I wrote (in Spanish) for class:

Nearly everyone in the world thinks they know the horrors of slavery. However, seeing the place where their voyage of terror began gave me a very different perspective. During our visit to Ghana we visited the Cape Coast Castle. It is situated in a very beautiful place directly on the ocean. It was a perfect day, sunny with a clear blue sky. But soon our thoughts were far from the beauty of our surroundings. No, we felt the terror, the anguish, the desperation felt by those enslaved in the castle. The cells were for those who behaved badly. The number of people crowded into the cells depended upon how many people had behaved badly. They were hot, humid, and most of all DARK. Then there were the dungeons, some for men and some for women, where hundreds upon hundreds were kept. Again, they were hot, humid, and dark. About twenty feet above the ground were three very small openings which provided light and ventilation. Urine drained from a trough in the center of the rooms, and excrement piled high in troughs on each side of the rooms. The slaves were branded like cattle with hot irons in order to identify their owners. One thing I saw with much irony was a chapel directly above the dungeons!

This was just the first part of their journey to hell. When it was time to leave the castle the slaves passed through "the Door of no Return" to ships waiting to transport them to the New World. The horror of these voyages is another very sad story. Those who survived the voyage began the third part, a life of slavery at the hands of cruel masters.

WE'RE NOT IN CAPE TOWN YET

Well folks, we awoke yesterday a.m. to the beautiful sight of Cape Town, South Africa. However.... due to high winds they could not send the pilot boats out to bring us into the harbor. We have sailed around in circles for the past 24 hours. This a.m. there is not a white cap on the ocean, seas are relatively flat, and we're still circling????? For us it is a disappointment that we are missing time in beautiful S.A. (and a trip to the wine country this a.m.). For others, many had safaris leaving early this a.m., and many passengers have parents/girlfriends/boyfriends who have flown all of the way here to visit. They can stand on the docks and see us circling out here! We'll keep you posted.

Tomorrow Morning Cape Town, South Africa

It is now almost 10 p.m. here.  We have been so busy on the ship that we have neglected to post to our blog.  We have so much to report on Ghana and tomorrow we will be in Cape Town, South Africa.  Today the smooth winds have picked up and the seas are quite rough.  Tomorrow we will look around  town and in the afternoon hike up to Table Top mountain for a sunset picnic.  Sunday at 6 a.m. we head out for a short 3 day safari.  

I promise we will do better with our reporting.

Ciao

SALEM ORPHANAGE MANAUS, BRAZIL

We're going back in time a couple of weeks. We never had the time to post this, but the visit to this orphanage was a very special experience.

It was heart wrenching and heart warming. Heart wrenching because these (20 or so) children were there because their parents had died or abandoned them, or because they had been taken away from their parents for abuse/neglect or their parents' inability to care for them. Heart warming because they seemed happy, healthy, clean and well dressed and there seems to be a concerted effort to keep siblings together.

The orphanage is church run, and young Christian North Americans, (18-22 y.o.) come for extended stays to interact with the children, who range in age from 1-14 years old. When our bus load of 25 Semester at Sea students, profs and Life Long Learners arrived we were eagerly greeted by most of the children. The few who hung back at first joined in the fun by the end of our two-hour visit. The pre teen/teenage girls immediately latched onto a female and held hands for our entire visit. All of the children wanted hugs, lots of hugs!! Our students, male and female alike played with children of all ages, throwing them up in the air, playing tic-tac-toe with markers and papers we brought, playing board games and playing soccer with a soccer ball donated to them by One World Fútbol Project. They insisted on sharing with us the candy we brought for them.

My gifts of pens were not the great hit they had been in the Amazon several years ago. I guess they have sufficient pens! However, balloons were a hit for all age groups. I wish I had brought more. When they broke they tied them on their wrists as bracelets. Match box cars were the favorite of a teen age girl, go figure! Another favorite was Wooly Willy, the picture of a bald man with metal shavings that you drag up to make hair, eyebrows and a beard. Remember them??

Parents who have had their children taken away from them are allowed to visit, and one woman with six children there was visiting. She had become homeless, and cannot have her children back until she has a home. There was no mention made of a dad. Very sad.

Part of the money we paid to go on this trip was used to buy a huge duffel bag of stuffed animals for the orphanage. Too soon our visit as over. We won't forget these children, and hopefully they will have fond memories of our visit.

Ghana Arrival

We have finished our very calm trans-Atlantic crossing, having paralleled the equator in the area of the doldrums.  We have had some very good news along the way, little Tomas from Costa Rica, Nani and Teo's baby, had a surgical repair of a ventricular septal defect (a hole in the "wall" between right and left ventricles").  The surgery was on January 31st at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and he was discharged three days later. He's a tough little guy with an amazing disposition (it seems like all those named Tomas/Thomas have that trait.-lol).  Hopefully, they will head home to Costa Rica on February 15th.

We entered Ghana shortly after sunrise with fog and smoke filled air.  Once dockside we were greeted by a drum and dance group, really nice.  Everyone is anxious to head out and explore this new (to us) African country.  Linda and I are heading from Takoradi to another town where we will spend the night and next day.  Who knows what is in store for us!!
Everything on the ship continues to be exciting, interesting and completely enjoyable. 
We will report back in a few days after our return to the ship.

Ciao...Tom 

SEA OLIMPIC RESULTS

Well the Olympic torch has been extinguished and I have to report that there there was just too much youthful energy for the "OLD"  Sea Salts, but we gave it our best!! The day was so very much fun and really brought the shipboard community even closer together, if that is possible. The culmination was an aft deck BBQ followed by closing ceremonies. SO licking our wounds we graciously enter another day and steam on closer to Africa.

Many of the kids could hardly speak today.  

Our journey thus far has taken us over 6000 nautical miles into seas that are at a depth of 4800 meters.  Tonight we have our "State of the Voyage Address" and several movies including:
      Young and Restless in China
      The End of Poverty
      Heart of Gold (about Ghana)
      Amandla


We life- long learners (SEA SALTS) meet every day while cruising at 4:30.


That's all for now.  Ciao...Tom

SEA OLYMPICS

It is now Thursday, February 3rd and we are much more than halfway across the Atlantic on schedule for our Sunday arrival in Takoradi, Ghana.

Last night was the kick-off ceremony for the 104th SAS Sea Olympics!!  There were 9 teams made up of over 700 people.  The students had 7 teams representing the seven seas, faculty; staff and kids were called Luna-Sea and we, the life-long learners, were and still are the Mighty Sea Salts.  The ceremony began with the parading in of the teams in loud, raucous, competitive style.  I think all of you could probably hear us.  The first event was the presentation of each teams' banners - both visually and audibly.  We did not place in the top 3 here, but not to despair because we knew we had the the sea chant and our super secret dance to dazzle the judges.  We were surprised to be called to perform second, but we were pumped and ready!!  We began with our song written by 88 yo Betty which ended in a deafening applause and just when all thought we were finished we suddenly (well for old folks) broke into our Michael Jackson routine with six dancers (I, Tom, was one-whew) around 87 yo old Boyd "Michael" Jackson, but wait we finished with a pyramid from six of our Sea Salts with a crescendo cheer from the whole Sea Salt Community!!!  Judges score - 10, 10, 10.  The remainder of the seas were amazing with enough energy to power the ship, but in the end it was SEA SALTS #1!!!!!!

Today, we begin the Olympic events fraught with the need for technical skill, lightning-like speed, and endurance.  They include SAS basketball (like horse), spoon and ping pong ball relay, synchronized swimming (all guys for us 65-87 years old) with Boyd, 87, in his tighty-whities well above his waist and tee shirt tucked in.  By the way our colors are white.  We continue with the highly stressful and strenuous card stacking, crab soccer, 3-legged relay, dress our leader (Linda's event), and the quintessential strength requiring tug of war, our team represented by the mightiest of all - 5 women over 60.  We are the odds on favorite to win the tug of war against those pesky college kids.

Well, I had better start stretching and warming up, it could take hours.  By the way, my legs are completely bruised from all the leg clapping last night, a particularly brutal and barbaric event.

Aye me hearties, let the games begin!!!!!