A daily log

Day 6 — September 2, 2010

My time on this ship has consisted of rudimentary routines and daily chores of cleaning my room and doing my homework. I know excitement waits for me when we reach the docks in these unfamiliar places. I wonder what they will offer, bring and how I will be influenced by them.

I hear rumors about each country and get excited and fearful about a language barrier, gender inequality cultural practices, getting kidnapped, or some other crazy theory someone can come up with.

Up till now the only places I have traveled to do not compare to these third world countries. I have been to towns where the only cultural experience left after the touristic places, events and shopping has conquered is found out in the rural areas.

Currently I have four service visits in Cape Town, India, Singapore, and China. I hope this coupled with my desire to use my time in these ports as an anthropological study I will be able to begin to understand what it means to be a citizen in these countries today, the issues they face, their hopes, dreams and the essentials for a happy life.

Land ahoy!
Day 5 — September 1, 2010

We have been at sea for six days taking classes, eating, getting to know each other, eating, going to the gym, eating, and scheduling field programs when we dock in the different countries.

8 a.m. - I just had breakfast and decided to climb to the seventh deck. Looking out to sea at the vast emptiness of the Atlantic that stretches out all around me made the ship seemed insignificant and defenseless against this monster of an ocean.

It’s only moments after these thoughts darted in and out of my mind does land appear over the horizon line. It’s the first sighting in six days. All of a sudden a rush of students, faculty and staff run to the starboard side with a camera in hand.

Click! Click! Click! Everyone’s camera goes off as if in unison. The whole incident felt like we were in the movie Waterworld and we had only dreamed of the day we would see land with all of the beauty and magic it could posses.

All day long people were talking about seeing the Azores.