"Excuse Me, Can You Hold This Flag?"

Day 1 in Brazil

The first day in Brazil was a bit surreal for me. For one thing, it was my last time getting off of the ship in a new port that wasn’t in the US. Second, we were back in a country that spoke hardly any English. We were absolutely spoiled in the past four countries we were in, and pretty much everyone in them spoke English incredibly well. Not so much in Brazil. Everything was Portuguese, which meant that I could read some of the signs because some of the words are similar to Spanish, but understanding was a completely different story. Portuguese sounds nothing like Spanish at all, the pronunciation is totally different.

Anyways, Team Awesome set out to explore on our last day together in port, since we all had different destinations for the next four days. We first wandered over to an ATM because we pretty much all needed money. After the ATM, we headed over to the big market that was near the waterfront. Sat down at a restaurant and some of us ordered a beer, even though it was only 10:30 in the morning (hey it’s 5 o’clock somewhere, right?). We got to sit and enjoy our drinks while watching Capoiera being performed on a stage right in front of us. Capoiera is a martial art that was developed and practiced in the 18th century, but it was eventually banned, so the Brazilians made it look like a dance instead, but it remained a martial art, if that makes sense. We wandered around there for a little bit, then decided to take the elevator into the upper city. The elevator cost .15 reals, which is the equivalent of about 10 cents US.

We took the elevator up to the upper city, then walked around. There was a big square, then a bunch of side streets you could wander off into. Not 10 minutes after we stepped off of the elevator, it began to sprinkle. Within another minute, that little sprinkle turned into a downpour. We ran over to the tourist information center for cover, got some info on a place to each lunch, then stepped outside and inched along under a miniscule overhang until we reached a restaurant. We all sat down and ordered our food. There are 2 unique things about Brazil: First, portions are pretty much always meant for two. Second, there is no such thing as a quick lunch. Our lunch took about 2 and a half hours to finish completely, so we were definitely ready to get out of there.

We walked out and down a little side street, and we stumbled upon a rather large square that had a stage set up in the middle of it, and a whole bunch of people wearing yellow and green outfits. After a little bit of questioning, we found out they were shooting a music video for the world cup. One of the guys came up to Victoria and said “Excuse me, but where are you from?” When she said Hong Kong, he said “I’m so sorry, but do you mind holding and waving the Japanese flag for us and dancing around with it?” She just laughed and said ok, and the rest of us got to jump in the background and dance. We stayed through about 3 shots, and the final video is now on youtube. As far as I know, you can’t see us in any shots, but some SASers make an appearance in the background of some shots, and you can see Victoria for a split second. We had a blast and danced around, then wandered through the shops a little bit. Once again, we decided it was time for an ice cream stop. After having phenomenal condensed milk and almond ice cream, which Shauna and I both went crazy over, it started to rain a little bit again. Some people decided to go back to the ship and nap before nighttime, and others wanted to stay out. I was one of the ones that wanted to stay out. Some of us wandered around, bought coffee, and got hair wraps before heading back to the ship to shower and get ready for our last dinner.

We headed out to dinner, and right as we got off the ship, it started downpouring. So much for looking cute. Anyways, there were 6 of us going to dinner, so we split up into two cabs, and they made their way to the upper city. This restaurant was supposed to be home to one of the best chefs in the world, so we were definitely looking forward to it. When we all sat down and ordered, we found out they were out of a lot of the stuff that we had originally ordered. Alli and I ordered this steak thing in a sauce. It’s really hard to describe, but it is served with rice and it is absolutely phenomenal.

Afterwards, we were looking for a place where a bunch of SAS kids were, some big outdoor party. As we were walking around, we couldn’t find all of the other SASers, but we happened to run into an American. As we were walking, he stopped us and said “Hey, are you Americans?” When we said yes, he said “Oh thank god, I haven’t spoken English in 3 weeks!” Upon talking to him a little bit more, we found out that his name was Devon, and he was living in Brazil for 5 months shooting a documentary about street children. He was hanging out with two Spaniards and a Brazilian or two that he called his friends. For not living there very long, he spoke incredibly good Portuguese. It was rather funny to watch his translations go back and forth from Spanish to English to Portuguese to English to Portuguese to Spanish.

It was about 10:30, and Devon and his friends said they had a club we could go to. So we headed to the club they were talking about, since it seemed as though we had nothing else to do at this point. Upon arriving to the club, we were let in by one of the scariest men I have ever come across in my life. He had the biggest muscles I have ever seen, and it was apparent that he was on steroids. He had a bunch of tattoos, and a tiny tank top and jeans and he was slightly terrifying. We walked in and up a set of stairs, and there were two ways we could go: to the left was a bar, and to the right was the dance floor. The dance floor was a small room whose walls were covered with sequins, and there was a dj playing in the corner. We were the only people in the entire place, but we danced it up anyways. We were informed that the parties don’t really start until midnight, so we were an hour and a half early. We danced for a little bit, then decided to head out to another little bar that Devon knew about.

When we got to the bar, there were 2 tables set up outside, so we split up. Vic, Alli, Kara, and I sat at one, and Brit, Graham, and Shauna sat at the other. We sat and talked with Devon for a while, and he translated his friends’ Portuguese into English, and in this way, we were able to have a pseudo-conversation. I was able to understand a little of the Portuguese. At least, I was able to understand enough that I got when the Brazilian said that we were all very beautiful and I understood when he asked where we were sleeping. We were also taught a dance by the men that we liked to call Revelation (it really mean revolution, but the way it is sung makes it sound like revelation). After we sat there for a little while, it starting pouring rain. It was definitely one of those surreal moments on the trip where you think life can’t get any better than it is at that moment in time. After sitting there for a while, we all hurried back to the square to get cabs back to the ship. We all had a great last night together, and we were all ready for our trips the next day.

Day 2 in Brazil

This trip was a USD girl trip. There were 4 other girls and myself that were going to a little island off the coast of Salvador called Morro de Sao Paulo. Emily, Amy, Laney, Clara, and I (all from USD) set off on our 2.5 hour catamaran ride that would take us over to the island. Upon arriving at the island, my mouth dropped open. There was a giant hill with a lighthouse sitting on top of it, and there were palm trees everywhere. The water was beautiful, and the island itself looked like a little slice of heaven. The second we got off the boat, a guy came up to us and was asking if we knew where we wanted to stay. I gave him the name of a little pousada (or inn in Portuguese) and he took us there. As we were walking down the streets, I absolutely fell in love with the place. There are no cars allowed on the island, the main mode of transportation is usually your feet. There were small stores and restaurants everywhere, and kids were running around completely unsupervised by their parents. We arrived to our little pousada, got two rooms, checked in, and decided to wander around a little bit. We walked up and down the beaches, went in some stores, then went back to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner.

We went to dinner at this beachside restaurant around 7:30 or 8 pm, and we were the onl ones there. I forgot to mention that Brazilian tend to eat dinner ridiculously late at night, like around 9. So we all sat and ordered food. Two of us shared crab moqueca, which they bring to you in a pan and you pour over rice. It was absolutely phenomenal and so yummy. When we first got there, we got a coupon for one free drink each, so we all ordered caipirinhas, the traditional Brazilian drink of their rum and lime juice. We got them and they were absolutely phenomenal. Eventually we learned how to say free drink in Portuguese, so we would turn up the charm and keep asking the owner for free drinks, and he kept giving them to us. We each got about 4, then we each ordered a pina colada as well. We sat at this restaurant for about 4 hours, laughing talking, drinking, and enjoying each other’s company.

We got word that there was a party going on on Second Beach that started around midnight. All of the beaches on the island are in numerical order, from first through fifth. You could easily walk between each one. Our pousada was on first beach and the restaurant and parties took place on second beach. The other three beaches were a little quieter and places you would go during the day to relax. Anyways, after we headed over to second beach, we all had our desserts. Acai bowls. Acai is a wonderful berry that is so good frozen and blended up with bananas and granola on top. After savoring those for a little bit, we noticed more and more people wandering around the beach. Many of the booths were beginning to set up their stands on the beach for the parties. Majority of the booths consisted of every tropical fruit you can imagine, and a few different types of alcohol. You would walk up and tell the people which alcohol you wanted with which fruits, and they would make the drinks right there in front of you. We stayed until the part got started at midnight, danced around for a while with some Brazilians, and then two of us started not feeling well. Clara and I headed back to the hotel to get some sleep, as we both felt nauseous and not too hot (no it wasn’t from drinking too much). The others got back around 3 or 4 in the morning.

Day 3, 4, and 5 in Brazil

I combined these because they pretty much consisted of doing the same things every day we were there….
I woke up the next day to a light knock from Clara on my door wondering if I wanted to get breakfast with her. We ate right at our hotel, since it was included in the price, and it was pretty good. Eventually, the others slowly woke up, and we all still weren’t feeling too hot. We couldn’t figure out if it was the food we had eaten, or too much of the really sugary alcohol, or the fact that the ice in the drinks may have been contaminated. We have no idea. Anyways, for the next three days, we spent a ton of time sunbathing at the beach, ate a lot of acai and crepes, partied from midnight to varying times in the morning, and just relaxed in our last port.

Some of my favorite moments on the island consisted of our early morning swims in the beautiful clear waters of the Atlantic Ocean, watching the local sunset soccer games right on the beach outside of our hotel, laughing with the girls, eating phenomenal food, and just enjoying life. I mean, what else would y be doing if you were on a gorgeous island for 4 days? I know I’m doing a terrible job of explaining everything we did, but we didn’t really do much except explore, relax, and catch some last minute sun. Our basic schedule for the last 3 days was: Breakfast, swim, wander, tan, lunch, wander, stop for a drink, tan, shower, watch soccer, dinner, beach party, bed. I’m not trying to make this short, but there really isn’t much else to say.

On April 25th, we caught a catamaran back to Salvador, and while majority of the people slept, my mind was racing. This was it. My last journey back to the ship from a port. I started having a slideshow moment in my head, where memories kept flooding back from the countries I visited and the experiences I had in the last 3.5 months. It was a long ride, and when we got back, I headed to the market to spend a few last minute reals. In the midst of wandering, I lost the other girls, so I got to head back to the ship alone, which was perfect. I walked back with my backpack on my back, my moneybelt securely around my waist, my souvenir bags in my hand, and a smile on my face. As I got closer to the ship, however, the smile started mingling with tears, and it was with a heavy heart that I swiped my card onto the ship for the last time.

Brazil was an absolute blast for me. My day in Salvador was great, and I had a great time relaxing on Morro. Brazil is definitely right on the top of my list for places to go back to, because I want to go to Rio, the Amazon, and Carnaval. One thing I must do before I go back to Brazil is learn a little Portuguese! It was a little more difficult to get around here with English than it was in the past 4 countries I had been in. Most of the people that I had met were incredibly nice and accommodating, although some people did get robbed. The entire country is so vibrant and colorful, even more-so than countries like South Africa and India. There is music always playing from windows, people are always out and about, and the whole environment is just one of fun and good times.

So, this blog details the end of my travels. I, at the time of writing this, have been home for almost 4 weeks (I’m a slacker I know), and I am getting ready to leave for Guadalajara, Mexico for summer school. I will be writing one last final days on the ship/reflection blog, but I honestly don’t know when it will be posted. I’m still trying to make sense and integrate everything that happened on my trip, so that reflection might be a little while from now. Everything is still sinking in, and not a day goes by that I don’t think about the ship, the countries, the people, and my lifelong friends that I have made. I cried almost the entire plane ride home with the girl sitting next to me, and I am pretty sure other passengers on the ship thought we were crazy. Thank you to everyone who has followed me as I circumnavigated the globe, I hope you enjoyed reading about my adventures and that now maybe some of you will either go on Semester at Sea as lifelong learners (look it up….great thing for when you retire!) or that some of you will consider sending your kids on Semester at Sea, or you can apply to be a teacher or nurse on board. I also want to say a huge thank you to my mom and dad for sending me on this trip, and a big thank you to everyone else who helped out. Love you all!

Ghana-na-na

Ok, so I know that I am already home and that I have been slacking on my blog for the past month, mostly because: 1. I got lazy, 2. The was a lot of sun to catch, and 3. Because I wanted to spend as much time as I could with my friends at the end of the trip. I apologize to all of my lovely loyal readers who have traveled with me thus far, and I will let you know that I will be finishing my blog within the next week. I am going to do a post about Ghana and Brazil, then one last post about the last four weeks on the ship. Enjoy Ghana!

Day 1 in Ghana

So for the first day in Ghana, a bunch of us were headed out to simply wander around. We got off the ship relatively quickly and hopped in a cab. Now, we were docked in Tema, which is a 30 to 45 minute bus ride outside the main city of Accra, which really sucks, to put it nicely. So instead of waiting another hour for the shuttle since we had just missed the first one, we hopped in cabs and took off. We wanted to go to a little city called Jamestown, and instead our drivers took us to a market right outside of Jamestown that they got commission from if they took us there and we bought anything. At this point, none of us had Ghanaian cedis, so we told them we would come back. We headed off to try and find a bank, which proved to be relatively easy, as there were about 10 within a square block. We got some money, then headed off into Jamestown. Jamestown is an old little town in Accra that is obviously incredibly poor. There were shacks built up alongside the road, and there was trash everywhere. I had major flashbacks to India and how dirty it was there. We were going towards the lighthouse that sits along the coast when a local came up and introduced himself to us as Vis. He asked us if we wanted to go down to the local fishing village that was sitting along the water. We replied that we were going to go get a soda somewhere, and his eyes lit up and he told us to follow him. He began leading us toward the fishing village, and we followed, not asking questions. We learned from past travels that if a local wants to show you a place, most times you should go/it is safe to go, especially in broad daylight.

Once we got down into the village, he took us to a little shack that was playing loud music on old blown out speakers, and he led us through a curtain to the inside. We were pleasantly surprised to find that this little wooden shack was technically a “bar”. There were drinks lining the back wall, one table, and 7 or so chairs. We all sat down, relieved to be out of the heat. Some ordered a beer, but I was perfectly happy with my ice cold Coke in a glass bottle. Let me tell you, foreign countries know how to do it. Soda tastes way better in a glass bottle than it does out of a can or a plastic bottle. We sat in the little shack and relaxed with Vis for a little bit, all the while getting stared at by a little girl of about 3 or 4. Vis said the reason she was staring was because she had never seen white people before, which was a strange concept for all of us to comprehend. Although I guess it makes sense, since Ghana isn’t exactly a tourist destination for those who can afford to travel to far-off foreign lands. After enjoying a soda, Vis took us around the fishing village a little more, and we got to see more of the shacks, mothers washing their children, the wooden fishing boats they used to fish with, and kids playing soccer barefoot on the beach. Going into a place like that is an incredibly humbling experience, and it shows just how much we all have to be grateful for in our lives. But the best part about going into these places is seeing how happy the people are, despite the fact that they don’t have much. It is all they know, and although we could tell times are rough for these people, many of them smiled to us as we walked by.

After the fishing village, Vis got us two cabs and had them take us to downtown Accra. We were starving, so we stopped in a place called Papaye, which is Ghana’s equivalent of a fast food restaurant such as McDonalds. The only difference between Papaye and McDonalds was the food choices (this place had chicken, French fries, fried rice, etc) and the time it takes to get your food. Whereas Mickey D’s can take 5 minutes max, this place took a half an hour just to get our food. I must say, I like this about foreign countries. There is never a rush, meals take at least half an hour, and dinners rarely last less than an hour and a half. It is a nice change from the US, where we always seem to eat as fast as we can and you are rushed out of the restaurant by waiters and waitresses. Our lunch was quite tasty, especially the fried rice that Victoria got.

After lunch, we headed out onto the streets to do some business with some street vendors. There were numerous little stalls set up all along the streets selling the typical little knick-knacks and souvenirs that we had already seen a lot of. Shauna and I got these awesome pairs of patchwork pants that are incredibly comfy and cheap. Graham got some more pirated movies to add to his collection, and we got a few other things as well. After wandering around the shops for upwards of an hour, we headed to an ice cream shop to get ice cream. It was absolutely excellent, especially on a day whose temperature was well into the high 90’s. After ice cream, we were headed to a hotel to meet some friends. We hailed a taxi and were about to get a second one, since there were six of us, but our taxi driver told us we could squish. So squish we did. We had Graham in the front seat with Victoria on his lap, then Brittany, Shauna and I squished into the back seat, and Alli splayed out across us with her knees bent. We were cracking up the entire way to the hotel, which was probably a 20 or 25 minute drive. Once we got to the hotel, we met up with Trevor, Christina, Melinda, and Jose, who were staying there for the night before headed out to the jungle the next morning. It was absolutely wonderful to get out of the sweltering heat and sit on something softer than a plastic chair or wooden bench.

Christina had bought a bunch of fruit, cheese, and crackers as well as wine, so she made a little spread of stuff for us to much on until some others got there and we could all head to dinner. We hung out in the room for a little bit, then we went to dinner in the hotel. We spent about 2 hours having dinner (I had a wonderful pizza), then we headed over to the casino that was attached to the hotel. It was a tiny little casino, but Graham and Thomas found the blackjack table and were happy little campers. We hung out there for a little bit, the girls played a little bit of the slots, then we headed back to the room. We hung out for a little longer, then hopped into cabs for the 45 minute drive back to the ship.

Day 2 in Ghana
Day two in Ghana had me up early (again) to go to the OSU Children’s Home in Accra. We hopped on our buses and had about an hour drive into the city. Once we got into the children’s home, they took us all into a room to talk to us a little bit about the orphanage and what they do there. The orphanage houses about 250 children that range from the ages of 1 day old to 18 years old. Most of the time the children end up there because their parents did not want them, their parents are incarcerated, or their parents can’t afford to send them to school. The children at the orphanage are required to get an education, which is why parents who can’t afford school would drop them off there in the first place. After a brief intro, the lady showed us around a bit, and then we got to take off in separate directions and play with whichever children we wanted to. At the very beginning, I stayed with the infants who were playing outside. They were maybe a year old, and they were just playing around and hanging out. I sat down, and immediately this one little guy came over to me, so I picked him up and sat him in my lap. He had on a bright yellow shirt and a diaper made out of a towel, and he was so cute. He sat in my lap for a good 15 or 20 minutes before falling asleep, and which point one of the house moms took him and put him down in a crib.

I then wandered over to one of the places where there were older kids. These kids ranged from between 4 to about 6. I had packed some stickers in my purse, and when I brought them out, I was swarmed. I was warned that they would like stickers, but I really wasn’t expecting such a reaction. At first I would stick one on their shirts, but then they would always take them off and stick them on their faces, so eventually I would just stick them on whatever patch of skin they would let me stick them on. They had them everywhere! Their foreheads, noses, cheeks, ears, upper lips, everywhere. They were so cute! Eventually I ran out of stickers, so we had to find other things to occupy the kids. We played ring around the rosy, I gave them piggyback rides, and they stole my sunglasses, which is how I ultimately found the two loves of my life. There was a boy and a girl, both who stole my sunglasses, put them on their faces, then posed for the camera as I took photos of them. What made me fall in love with this boy and girl was the fact that they both held up peace signs as I took photos of them. The girl had the cutest little attitude, and the pose she struck when I took her photo was so awesome for a girl of about 4 or 5 years old. We played around with the kids for a little longer, then we all hopped on a bus to go to yet another buffet lunch, then we hopped back on the bus and went back to the orphanage for another hour and a half.

Going to a place such as this in a place such as Ghana can definitely teach anyone a lesson. Although these kids don’t live in the greatest conditions, they are some of the happiest children I have ever seen in my life and they always have a smile on their faces. They can teach kids here a thing or two about privilege and happiness and materialism. What you have/own definitely is not what makes you happy in the long run. We got back from the orphanage around 5 or 6, and I caught up on some stuff before heading to bed before my village visit the next day.

Day 3 in Ghana
Goodbye ship life, hellooooo village visit. We were headed off to a village about an hour and half away from our ship. Upon arrival, we were all shocked to see just how many people were gathered to welcome us. There were at least 100 people waiting, if not more. We got off the buses and were immediately bombarded by children. There were plastic chairs set out for all of us, and the children all walked with us, hand in hand, until we were sitting in our chairs. Then, the naming ceremony began. It took about 3 hours for all of us to get our African names, and it was slightly exhausting. In between us getting all of our names, the children would perform dances and pull us up to dance with them. The only way to really describe their dances was walking around with a mixture between a prancing horse and a flapping chicken. Eventually I got my African name, which turned out to be Setsoafia…quite a mouthful. It literally means “god saves”, and I was handed a pot with my name on it and a bracelet was tied around my wrist before I was allowed to head back to my seat. As everyone else was getting their names, I wandered off to play with some of the kids in the village, and I spent the last hour of the naming ceremony doing so. I played with some absolutely adorable kids; one was wearing a Beatles shirt, and another had on a shirt with a giant face of Obama on it.

After the naming ceremony was finally over, we went across the “road” to see where the members of the village did their weaving and pottery making. The pots were the simple clay pots that you would see the giant plants in sitting outside of restaurants. They were doing the weaving in the traditional kente pattern, which was created specifically in Ghana. Apparently, the Chinese had recently been recreating the pattern and selling items woven with it, but Ghana somehow sued for the rights to their pattern and won, so China had to stop producing items with the pattern on it. The machine they were weaving on was so old and rickety looking, it didn’t look like there was any way possible that anything could be created on it. But the scarves and cloths that came of off it were absolutely beautiful!

After the village, we headed to a smaller wildlife reserve that housed a bunch of baboons and some antelope. We were headed for these caves that were filled with bats. They told us while we wer eon the bus that we all should have worn tennis shoes (little late), and that it would be easiest to get into the caves if we weren’t wearing flip-flops. A girl behind me said the cave wasn’t that amazing anyways, so most of us in sandals stayed on the bus. When the others got back, they said we didn’t miss much, and that the caves just smelled like bat crap. Therefore, I decided that my decision to stay on the bus was a wise one.

Day 4 in Ghana
On my last day in Ghana, we were headed to the Accra psychiatric hospital for a class. After going to a psychiatric hospital in Hawaii, I was excited to go to Ghana and see what mental health care was like in a country that is about as opposite from the United States as you can get. Upon arriving at the hospital, they opened the gates and our bus drove on in. The grounds were run down, with very sparse trees and the majority of the area was all dirt. The buildings looked old and dilapidated, but the area itself was huge.

Once we hopped off the bus, the resident psychiatrist walked over and introduced herself to us, saying that she would guide us around for the day. First, she took us over to the women’s ward, and let us right in. There was a small courtyard when some patients were sitting, and there was a nurse in the corner washing a patient’s hair. She gave us a quick intro, and we were allowed to go into the ward and see the beds and the areas where the patients were staying. They slept on rickety old cots, and we also noticed that there were mats on the floor. My professor asked how many people were in the entire hospital, and she responded with 1,200. What was the maximum capacity of the place? 600. They had 600 more people than they could technically fit. As a result, people slept on mats on the floor. Once we got outside and she began telling us more about that particular ward, one of the patients came up and asked if she could speak. She began telling us what she was doing there, and her speech was rather scattered. After she was done talking and after she had walked away, the resident took her file and explained to us that she was bipolar and that a recent episode of postpartum depression was what brought her back to the hospital.

After the bipolar lady, we went to visit the model men’s ward, which looked very much like a prison. As we walked through, we stopped in front of one section that had about 8 beds and one guy was lying down. The resident called him over, and he came shuffling out. The resident started asking him questions, like why he was there, how long he had been there, etc. He said he was there because he was hearing voices in his head. When my professor asked how many, he just shrugged and said 4 or 5, and they sometimes all talked at once and said bad things about him. He seemed so sad and depressed about this, and it made me realize how much I really want to help people with mental illness. We spoke to him for a few more minutes, then my prof asked if we could go to a ward that was not a model ward. So, we got to go to the men’s forensic ward, where there were over 288 (it was mean for 60) men that had all committed some crime but were deemed too mentally ill to stand up in court. When we all walked in, everyone immediately started walking over to us. Under normal circumstances, I think this would be incredibly scary. The thing that I really think managed to calm everyone in my group down was the fact that the behavior of the nurses was so incredibly calm, cool, and collected. They never gave off any uneasiness at our presence. We were allowed to talk to a bunch of the patients, and one guy in particular told us his story about him having a device in his foot that controlled what he did.

The psych hospital was definitely the best field work I did in any country on this trip. That one trip taught me more than any time in any classroom ever did, and I loved it. Ghana was such a learning experience for me overall. Going from South Africa into a “real” African country allowed me to see things that I couldn’t see in a big city like Cape Town. The people we all so nice for the most part, and it was great to be in a country where people could understand you. I definitely want to go back to more African countries in the future, as I think the continent has so much to offer and so much more to see and learn from. Next, off to Brazil!!!!