Mauritius

Mauritius

We got to Mauritius early in the morning on Sunday the 26th of February and we were cleared from the ship at about 9 that morning. A group of friends and I signed up to do a catamaran tour of the island that included all you can eat drinks and food as well as snorkeling for the full day. We ended up adding a whole bunch of other people last minute on our trip because the company we were booking through, Global Citizens Travel, told us we could all invite a guest on for free so we were able to get a bunch of other people on the catamaran for cheaper than we originally thought!

We completely lucked out with the weather too because there was an ominous dark cloud that was following us on our bus ride to the catamaran that ended up disappearing as the morning wore on and we had a beautiful day at sea. The catamaran was huge and fit the 28 of us perfectly. My two good friends Naomi and Raquel ended up not coming with us on the catamaran so we missed them a lot but it was an awesome group of people nonetheless. There were 8 out of the 12 Pitt students on the catamaran with me and when “Black and Yellow” came on we all went crazy and had some serious Pittsburgh pride in the middle of the Indian ocean, it was awesome!

Side note: The coolest thing about Mauritius for me besides its stunning scenery was that the first Mauritian I talked to was wearing a Yankees hat. If you haven’t already noticed the pictures I have taken of people wearing Yankees hats its because I want to put together a collage of all the people wearing Yankees hats all over the world for my brothers. I then want to include some sort of quote that says something a long the lines of “no matter how far I was from home I still found a piece of my family in each country I visited “… something cool though not my own words haha. ANYWAYS, I never would have imagined that I would find someone in Mauritius with a Yankees hat but there he was! The first person I talked to off the boat! It was awesome!! Now lets hope someone will have one on in Singapore and Vietnam.

Akwabaa!!! That means welcome! Again I had an amazing time in port! Ghana is a beautiful country full of friendly and beautiful people!

I am sure I am going to say that I will definitely return to each country I have visited so far, but I really mean it about Ghana. I actually have to go back too because I promised like 50 people I would. Ghana, in a nutshell, was the country I have visited that was the most life changing by far.

Ghana, some would say is the “soft” Africa. There is less crime and corruption compared to the other countries in Africa and it is much safer for tourists to visit.  Overall, I felt very safe, but I was also traveling in a large group for the majority of my time in Ghana and we had a local Ghanian with us the whole time which was also comforting. The people received us well throughout the country and were so excited to meet Americans! So many people would ask for your email addresses so that they could just talk to you. They don’t ask for money they just ask for conversation and to learn about you and your life as well as share their own stories. It was very interesting and nice to meet so many friendly people that were interested in the U.S.

Day 1:

We got to port at around 8 and customs was done by 9 so the group I was traveling with was on its walk to our tour guide soon after that. We arrived at the port gate and Fred our tour guide was there waiting for us. We boarded the bus and headed to the town in Takoradi to take money out of the bank. I had some trouble with my card but eventually it worked thank goodness.

We then began our travels to the Tafi Monkey village, where our tour guide Emmanuel is from. It was the longest bus ride EVER to this village which none of us were prepared for. The group that I went with was so much fun though and we had a really good time playing cards and other games to pass the time.

When we got to the village, we had dinner, which was delicious, and then we went to the center of the village underneath the only streetlight they had to watch a performance the villagers prepared for us. They performed for about twenty minutes and then a few of the girls on our trip jumped up and joined them in the center circle. The music they performed was all drums and singing. I wish I could post videos up on the blog because it was really awesome to watch!

I didn’t really partake the dancing because I was too busy using my friends camera to take pictures of the whole scene. It was really fun because the locals were really surprised that we got up and were dancing with them so they got even more into the dances and started mocking “American” style dances to the beat of the drums. That night we all stayed in different villager’s homes. I stayed in one of the communal houses where a few villagers were staying and then six people from my group. I had a nice bed that felt kinda like the tempur pedic beds so it was very comfortable. I had expected to sleep on the floor so it was a nice surprise having a bed! We had an early wake up call of 5:45 so we could go on our jungle walk the next morning.

We did our jungle walk and fed the monkeys and then went to breakfast. They had this porridge type stuff that was basically really soupy white rice with sugar that actually tasted really delicious! From there we took pictures with the little kids outside where we were eating breakfast and I let them play with my camera for a while before we left. I met our chef and got her contact information so I can send her the pictures of the kids I took outside the eating area. After breakfast we made our way over to the elementary school in the village.


We watched the kids do their morning routine and we presented them with an indestructible soccer ball which they loved!! Then we got on the bus and headed out for our trip to the tallest waterfall in western Africa. The name I can’t remember but it was soooo pretty and a really fun hike up to the water fall. After that we had a delicious lunch at the restaurant near the waterfall.

More on Ghana to come!

Thoughts from class 2/12/11

My philosophy professor today opened up our class with a discussion about how he hopes that we are not taking Semester at Sea for granted. This has been something I had been contemplating myself since we left Brazil a few weeks ago. He spoke about how if he was home and someone was talking to him about their experiences on SAS how would they react?
He went on to discuss the real power and point for studying abroad. My reason for semester at sea was the fact that I had the chance to see what I have already learned about throughout my education and to see the things I have always known as well as have fun traveling the world.

If I told you there was poverty in India what would you say to me? Yeah, we know. And if I told you the slaves came from Africa what would you say? Yeah we know. If I were to tell you about the horrific events of apartheid that occurred in South Africa what would you know? Maybe the basics and that it still a sensitive subject even today but would you really get it?  You might ‘get it’ but would you really feel it and have an understanding of what these people experienced? Probably not, unless you witnessed it yourself. To see it in front of your face, to feel where these people came from is completely different than learning about it in a textbook.

And that’s why everyone needs to travel and see  the world and meet people and have these experiences for themselves!
I have heard from many that have visited the concentration camps of WWII that it was one of the most profound experiences they have ever had because they were able to really feel what the victims of the Nazi’s experienced.

The value of this trip is what it is doing for us and for me it is what I am going to after this trip that will be the real value. How many people can say they studied abroad and went to different countries and did charity work while they were gone? SO Many! But how many people are doing something when they get home about what they have seen and learned? Not as many. Our trip’s motto is “Think Globally, act locally” or as Jake Fitz likes to say “GLOCAL!”. That motto is all to perfect for study abroad and especially Semester at Sea.

I don’t want to go home and re enter my life where I left off. I want to go home and be a changed person. I want to be someone with a purpose. All these experiences I have had will be great stories to share at the dinner table but if that is this trip succumbs to I will be doing a great injustice to my not only my parents for helping me do this, my friends for their support leading up to the trip and throughout it, but mostly myself.

Next blog post: experiences in Ghana!!!

Thoughts from class 2/12/11

My philosophy professor today opened up our class with a discussion about how he hopes that we are not taking Semester at Sea for granted. This has been something I had been contemplating myself since we left Brazil a few weeks ago. He spoke about how if he was home and someone was talking to him about their experiences on SAS how would they react?
He went on to discuss the real power and point for studying abroad. My reason for semester at sea was the fact that I had the chance to see what I have already learned about throughout my education and to see the things I have always known as well as have fun traveling the world.
If I told you there was poverty in India what would you say to me? Yeah, we know. And if I told you the slaves came from Africa what would you say? Yeah we know. If I were to tell you about the horrific events of apartheid that occurred in South Africa what would you know? Maybe the basics and that it still a sensitive subject even today but would you really get it?  You might ‘get it’ but would you really feel it and have an understanding of what these people experienced? Probably not, unless you witnessed it yourself. To see it in front of your face, to feel where these people came from is completely different than learning about it in a textbook.
And that’s why everyone needs to travel and see  the world and meet people and have these experiences for themselves!
I have heard from many that have visited the concentration camps of WWII that it was one of the most profound experiences they have ever had because they were able to really feel what the victims of the Nazi’s experienced.

The value of this trip is what it is doing for us and for me it is what I am going to after this trip that will be the real value. How many people can say they studied abroad and went to different countries and did charity work while they were gone? SO Many! But how many people are doing something when they get home about what they have seen and learned? Not as many. Our trip’s motto is “Think Globally, act locally” or as Jake Fitz likes to say “GLOCAL!”. That motto is all to perfect for study abroad and especially Semester at Sea.
I don’t want to go home and re enter my life where I left off. I want to go home and be a changed person. I want to be someone with a purpose. All these experiences I have had will be great stories to share at the dinner table but if that is this trip succumbs to I will be doing a great injustice to my not only my parents for helping me do this, my friends for their support leading up to the trip and throughout it, but mostly myself.

Next blog post: experiences in Ghana!!!