S Africa
On Friday Feb 24th, I walked around Cape Town with two other friends and we wandered the streets. Most of the restaurants were serving foods native to other countries. I found the streets to be really empty. I think a lot of people come there to work and then return to their houses in the suburbs. It felt very European. Everything was very clean, the cars drove on the opposite side of the road, the gas stations were very modern and the city looked new and pristine.
We also noticed that all the people walking around on the roads were black or colored because the white people were the ones with cars. We stopped in a couple of shops. South Africa has a lot of recycled art. There were elephants, bowls, birds made out of old cans and wire. It was beautiful, reflecting back on it now; I wish I bought something of that nature.
We had lunch in a sidewalk café right near a bunch of vendors. The café felt even more European, the food was presented beautifully and there was incense burning near us to create an ambience. We had a bottle of wine and it was perfect. But the whole time we ate, I noticed that the blacks were the waiters and we were being served. We were sitting, relaxing and eating but I just was wondering what social and racial pressures were hidden underneath that peaceful city.
We met a couple of interesting people at lunch. I met a vendor that was from Argentina and was backpacking Africa and had been to the US to sell his stone jewelry. We also talked to two ladies who were sitting next to us. One works in America for half the year and knew about Semester at Sea! The South African accent is very peculiar. It is very similar if not exactly British.
We travelled into an area with pink, yellow and blue houses that was considered the Muslim area. I talked to a man there and he pointed out all the nearby mosques. The houses were painted in such strange color coordination because when they were built, this population was illiterate and could not write down addresses. They used the color combinations to identify their house. It was strange to see one area of town segregated for a certain type of people.
I also stopped at a store that sells goods made by women in the townships. I bought a beautiful beaded purse. It was really hard getting used to the money system because a US dollar is worth ~7 Ran (S. African currency). So lunch would be around 210 Ran but it was really around $ 30. Every time we get into a new port we have to change what word we use to refer to the currency and it gets confusing because people forget. Sometimes other Semester at Sea kids speak in how much it cost in US dollars and not the foreign currency.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Friday, March 2, 2012
Pictures From Cape Town
Center of the Earth
Baby Ostrich
Great White Shark!
Safari ! This is not zoomed in.
Safari ! This is not zoomed in.
View from the top!
Sunset at Lions Head
This is Seal Island and there are about 50 thousand seals living here.
Still a Kid
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Feb 16- 17 Ghana
Feb 16- 17 Ghana
We also had the awesome chance to meet a couple girls that were studying their semester abroad at the University of Ghana. They had wanted a really different experience for a study abroad. It was really nice to share our different study abroad experiences and ask each other multiple questions about our experiences!
We ended the evening by walking about a half hour to the mall, crossing streets and getting a good look at the surroundings that we would have missed if we just drove by in a car.
The most prominent physical feature of Ghana is the dirt. There is only grass around nice fancy buildings but everything and everyone is covered with dirt. Also, so many people are idle, sleeping on the streets or just waiting for someone to come along to buy things.
I feel that this trip is the start of what I wanted out of my experiences in these countries and I am starting to get the hang of it. Many agreed from the Semester at Sea trip, they enjoyed Ghana a lot more than Brazil and I think that is because it was more of a culture shock which is what many of us expected on this trip. The other places we visited was not that unusual from the norm. I like the people interaction but I want to know what they want to change about their government. The guys I talked to (jay) said they don’t care about elections or politics because nothing that they say will matter to the guys on the top.
The Ghanaians have a very interesting handshake where they end the shake by snapping each other’s finger. Our tour guides were really trustworthy. At first, I was hesitant to become too close of friends but they were really trustworthy and never kept us in the dark. They also emphasized sharing among ourselves. We would switch meals and we made sure to purchase for their food. We got their emails and facebook names to keep in contact with our friends.
The fourth day was probably the most difficult and uncomfortable day for me. I had wanted to get my hair braided or twisted in a salon. I made plans to meet up with one of the guys and we had a lot of different expectations for how the day would play out. He had the taxi driver wait for me while I got my hair done and didn’t negotiate a price beforehand. In the salon I went to ,the women doing my hair would not really talk to me. It could have been a language barrier but it was frustrating because I was sitting there for an hour and a half and was really hoping to get to hear about Ghana from a woman’s point of view. My hair was perfect, it was still curly but kind of doubled up so there was significantly less volume. It did not stay long! Later that night we went out to a local bar that had an outside dance floor.
The last day we went to the City of Refuge which was a place that tried to help stop human trafficking. They are doing a lot of community development with single mothers and the fisherman that are purchasing the children.
They also had just started a school which is where we worked for the afternoon. I got to organize the soccer uniforms, they were going to have their first soccer game the next day on their new field. They were in the process of building a school that was funded by donations from other organizations, including one that was started by Semester at Sea students, Finding Refuge. The organization was just beginning its projects with big hopes to expand.
There are hundreds of child slaves in a fishing village that were sold there because their moms could not afford to raise them or they were orphaned. The owners have people working in the village talking with the community and are there to show that the organization is not there to get them in trouble with the law or to take away their livelihood. Many of the fisherman do not give up the kids easily because they think they are teaching them a trade and also many of them were slaves when they were younger. It is a really complicated situation and it is a system that many survive off of and that has existed for so long that it does not seem wrong to those who live with it.
Many of the children are malnourished, do not receive education, beaten and some die from the work they do. The organization we visited had about thirty children. They had living there after they had been taken from the fisherman. They do not ever pay for the kids because that encourages the cycle. I got a chance to work in the classrooms with the children. I helped a young boy with subtraction and I played with the preschool kids. They were all beautiful and loved being with us. I also went with two boys to put sand on the soccer field to make lines. They did most of the hard work but I enjoyed trying to help. One boy took my camera and was taking pictures and videos of everyone. That was one good way to get myself in pictures! Many of the kids love not only being in pictures but also taking pictures. We take it for granted that we have such easy access to cameras.
We also had the awesome chance to meet a couple girls that were studying their semester abroad at the University of Ghana. They had wanted a really different experience for a study abroad. It was really nice to share our different study abroad experiences and ask each other multiple questions about our experiences!
We ended the evening by walking about a half hour to the mall, crossing streets and getting a good look at the surroundings that we would have missed if we just drove by in a car.
The most prominent physical feature of Ghana is the dirt. There is only grass around nice fancy buildings but everything and everyone is covered with dirt. Also, so many people are idle, sleeping on the streets or just waiting for someone to come along to buy things.
I feel that this trip is the start of what I wanted out of my experiences in these countries and I am starting to get the hang of it. Many agreed from the Semester at Sea trip, they enjoyed Ghana a lot more than Brazil and I think that is because it was more of a culture shock which is what many of us expected on this trip. The other places we visited was not that unusual from the norm. I like the people interaction but I want to know what they want to change about their government. The guys I talked to (jay) said they don’t care about elections or politics because nothing that they say will matter to the guys on the top.
The Ghanaians have a very interesting handshake where they end the shake by snapping each other’s finger. Our tour guides were really trustworthy. At first, I was hesitant to become too close of friends but they were really trustworthy and never kept us in the dark. They also emphasized sharing among ourselves. We would switch meals and we made sure to purchase for their food. We got their emails and facebook names to keep in contact with our friends.
The fourth day was probably the most difficult and uncomfortable day for me. I had wanted to get my hair braided or twisted in a salon. I made plans to meet up with one of the guys and we had a lot of different expectations for how the day would play out. He had the taxi driver wait for me while I got my hair done and didn’t negotiate a price beforehand. In the salon I went to ,the women doing my hair would not really talk to me. It could have been a language barrier but it was frustrating because I was sitting there for an hour and a half and was really hoping to get to hear about Ghana from a woman’s point of view. My hair was perfect, it was still curly but kind of doubled up so there was significantly less volume. It did not stay long! Later that night we went out to a local bar that had an outside dance floor.
The last day we went to the City of Refuge which was a place that tried to help stop human trafficking. They are doing a lot of community development with single mothers and the fisherman that are purchasing the children.
They also had just started a school which is where we worked for the afternoon. I got to organize the soccer uniforms, they were going to have their first soccer game the next day on their new field. They were in the process of building a school that was funded by donations from other organizations, including one that was started by Semester at Sea students, Finding Refuge. The organization was just beginning its projects with big hopes to expand.
There are hundreds of child slaves in a fishing village that were sold there because their moms could not afford to raise them or they were orphaned. The owners have people working in the village talking with the community and are there to show that the organization is not there to get them in trouble with the law or to take away their livelihood. Many of the fisherman do not give up the kids easily because they think they are teaching them a trade and also many of them were slaves when they were younger. It is a really complicated situation and it is a system that many survive off of and that has existed for so long that it does not seem wrong to those who live with it.
Many of the children are malnourished, do not receive education, beaten and some die from the work they do. The organization we visited had about thirty children. They had living there after they had been taken from the fisherman. They do not ever pay for the kids because that encourages the cycle. I got a chance to work in the classrooms with the children. I helped a young boy with subtraction and I played with the preschool kids. They were all beautiful and loved being with us. I also went with two boys to put sand on the soccer field to make lines. They did most of the hard work but I enjoyed trying to help. One boy took my camera and was taking pictures and videos of everyone. That was one good way to get myself in pictures! Many of the kids love not only being in pictures but also taking pictures. We take it for granted that we have such easy access to cameras.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Photos from the Amazon
Cassie on the Amazon
Floating Forest
Floating village
A hawk or eagle for Mom
HUGE Lily Pads
Piranna Fishing
Cassie and Ev enjoying local candies.
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