Shipboard Update

I realize I haven't posted a blog about Ghana. This is mainly due to the fact that it's so incredibly long and I am having a very difficult time putting everything into words. For now, all you need to know is that it was an experience that will last me a lifetime and I can whole heartedly say I will be back there very soon.

 

Nothing really major happens around the ship... until today! Things have been kind of off since we got back on the ship from Ghana (mainly because Ghana was so amazing!). Two days ago we experienced a unique event. The ship's captain went out of his way to cross the equator and the prime meridian at the exact same time. He blew the ship's horn, everyone cheered, and then we continued to sail down the prime meridian for a good fifteen minutes. Being the college students that we are, we all straddled the middle of the ship so that we were in both the east and west hemispheres at the exact same time... pretty awesome to think that we were in the center of the Globe for a split second. The waters have been rough all the way down the coast of Africa, but nothing that we can't handle. To be honest, we're all hoping for a bit of a storm or something just to say we experienced it.

 

Yesterday Archbishop Tutu came and lectured in my global music class about the apartheid and music. It was a great experience. He spoke about how all of the songs sound so happy, but in reality they're saying "watch out white men, the blacks are coming." That was pretty amusing to hear about how ignorant the whites were. He also made an interesting point about how the blacks would always go around saying they had already won. Why's this? Well because the white people had to ensure their freedom but continuously keeping tabs on the blacks and missing out on their freedom. That's an interesting way to look at it. While we were in Ghana Archie won the African Lifetime Achievement Award. He was supposed to be awarded on December 3rd, but he declined the invite because he'll still be sailing around the world with us! What a guy!

 

Today was Neptune Day aka celebration for crossing the equator! The crew dressed up and played their cymbals, whistles, and drums down all of the halls this morning to wake us all up at 7:30am. It was time to head up to the pool deck where we were greeted by King Neptune (Dean David), the Queen (Dean Sue) and the Prince (Dean Adam). Here's how the cycle goes: You stand in the side of the pool, get green fish guts poured all over you, jump into the main part of the pool, get out, kiss the fish, kiss King Neptune's ring, Kiss the Queen's ring and bow, and then get knighted by the Prince. Definitely a unique experience. What could possibly make it better? Desmond Tutu and his wife, Leah, sat right next to the pool cheering us on the entire way. I actually ended up doing this cycle twice since some people were a little hesitant about the fish guts.

 

Then comes the head shaving. The field office team (Lauran, Leah, and Becca) aka my bosses, acted as the Royal Barbers. If you wanted to, you could get your head shaved, get a haircut, anything. It was amazing to see the number of girls get up there without a second thought and hack off their ponytails that were once halfway down their back. Even the dependent children got involved as two sisters cut their's together (one was 8 and another was 12) and the doctor on the ship made it a family event as him and his two sons went bald together. All I'm going to say is that I did in fact end up sitting in a chair and letting my workstudy boss start chopping off my hair and we'll leave it at that.

 

The only downside was that we got shafted with Neptune Day. It's usually a day long event and we had to end it by noon because we all have a global studies exam tonight. Horrible planning, right? Oh well! Time to go "study." But no really, despite what you may hear, this isn't a cruise, you do in fact have work a ton of work to do. You just have an amazing experience as you move along!

 

The Ghana post will be up soon!

 

Peace.