Continuing Finding Refuge after SAS

Finding Refuge was started on Semester at Sea Fall 2010 by a group of SASers who went to a village near Lake Volta, Ghana. This village called The City of Refuge ministries is for orphaned children who had been trafficked for child labor in Ghana's fishing industry. It has been operating for three years and has been helping hundreds of children.

There mission is to "create a global awareness of child slavery in Ghana by establishing university and regional organizations that educate the public on the existence of slavery. Empower the mothers within the targeted fishing villages by providing education and training for sustainable jobs."  It's a great organization that my college's chapter is hoping to continue so we may help in ending child slavery in Ghana.

The Ship's Interior

The New Map

The Union where we had all of our ship meetings

The gift store to buy clothing and more importantly insect repellant

Deck 6 Dinning Room 

Deck 6

Deck 6

South African Carver

Sarees in India

Love Around the World Documentary

What is love?

As we traveled around the world and encountered new friends we asked them "What does love mean to you?"

Sailing with the Arch

We sailed around the world with Archbishop Desmond Tutu

My Family

As we pulled into the port in San Diego, signs sprang up in the air reading, “welcome home,” “welcome back to the USA,” “get off the ship I’m out of money,” from friends and families waiting on the pier.

It was an adventure and on December 13 the MV Explorer docked in San Diego, California marking the end of our 108-day voyage around the world. Over 700 students, life-long learners, faculty and staff stepped off and greeted their loved ones.

On the pier in San Diego my mother and sister were waiting, but my small family has grown immensely over the past four months. I was never home sick because family was everywhere.

Many students who participate in Semester at Sea find home stays, one of the many field program options offered by SAS in each country, as an intrical part of their experience and understanding of each culture.

The last leg of our trip included spending Thanksgiving at sea. For those who celebrate the day it is a time for thanks and sharing with one’s family.

Students can sign-up at the beginning of the voyage to be a part of a shipboard family, in which a life long learner gets paired up with 3 – 6 students forming a family. I will never forget JoDee and Cooper my SAS mom and dad or my three sisters and one brother.

My family has grown to include members who have opened my eyes to a different way of life, and have shown me the kindness, and honesty that one usually only gets from their family.

My new extended family includes a Moroccan woman named Fatima who opened her home to my friends and I for an evening, made us diner, and shared secrets of what it’s like to be an Islamic woman. In Ghana a man gave us a free ride to an orphanage so that we wouldn’t have to walk in the pouring rain even though he was losing hours worth of work by doing so. We spent a day in a South African woman’s living room talking about the township she lives and works in. Also, my shipboard friends Maria, Anjali and Ashley, from India, Venezuela and Pennsylvania, were all there during sorrow, danger and laughter.

I now know, my family is all around the world.

Article published in Dec. 6 issue of Hometown Weekly Newspaper

Japan

Photo diary of China

Xi'an Warriors

As soon as our ship docked in Hong Kong we took a flight to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors. Xi'an was filled with smog and buildings under construction. The city is growing rapidly. Here, there is a clash between the old and knew. A wall built thousands of years ago in the earlier dynasties is still used for recreation use and entrances and exits to and from the city. While modern buildings trap the old shrines, monuments, and buildings.

The Terracotta Warriors were found in the 1970's by farmers. They were created in the Qin dynasty by Emperor Shi Huangdi. Each warrior has a different face thought to represent each officer in the emperor's army. The soldiers are to protect the emperor in the after-life. Xi'an also houses the tomb of Emperor Shi Huangdi.

U-G-G Boots in China

They are called U-G-G not UGG in China. They are fake UGG Boots and can be found in the five story shopping centers called Silk Markets. Stall after stall packs the hallways making it hard to move through without getting asked to buy something at a "good deal" or the "best price in the store." These women know what is in style and the latest brands. One stall has the newest style of UGG boots while the next has the latest Longchamp bag colors.

Traditional chinese shoes:

Other shoes I found in China:

Spain and Our Cabin

Our Cabin on Board Ship

Video diary in Spain

Faces from Africa

Morocco

Ghana

Ghana

South Africa

South Africa

10 Things to bring on an SAS field program:

1. Water

2. Money in a messenger bag (has strap that goes over your head) or money belt. At every port at least one person has been pick-pocketed so be clever in concealing your valuables.

3. A camera

4. Comfortable clothes – you WILL fall asleep on the bus rides.

5. An iPod for the long bus trips and days on the beach.

6. Presents for the people you run into along the way – the children love stickers and lollipops. If you are doing a township home stay, bring a gift for the family so they can have something to remember you by. I suggest something from your hometown.

7. Your laptop on overnight trips – internet access becomes a special treat and most hotels have WI-FI so take advantage because who knows when the next time you can check Facebook will be.

8. A soccer ball – everyone loves soccer and it is a great way to make new friends in a short amount of time.

9. Pen and paper – to write down not only interesting facts, but also names and numbers of the people you meet along the way, cool places you hear about and want to discover, and information you need to gather for your classes.

10. Be ready for anything – NOTHING goes as you planned so be “flexible” is the SAS motto.

The Animals of Kruger National Park

South Africa - Stepping back in time

The cables are the first things that appears over the wooden fences as I ride in a taxi to the wine lands. Then it’s the metal sheet roofs and then the people’s faces. Telephone polls are scattered between the few openings of the shacks. They are everywhere and each shack has their own cable coming from a poll. It looks like the May Day pole, but these are not bright colorful ribbons and the people are not celebrating. It is their daily struggle to get the essentials that come standard in our lives: running water, electricity, flooring, a toilet and shoes to walk to school.

Before arriving to South Africa Archbishop Desmond Tutu gave us a lesson on his home country telling us about the apartheid and the impact is had and still has on the country.

The apartheid ended in 1994, but from being there only six days it was clear there still was a sense of separation among the South Africans. The ship docked at a newly built port, which included a mall, five star hotel, and elegant restaurants along the pier. Student who did not adventure out of the port area would not of suspected anything.

The city itself looks like it could be a city in the US. It has the high-rise buildings, easy transportation, nightlife, and businessmen and women walking with their cell phones glued to their ears. But, the real disparity is seen within the “towns” that are on the outskirts of the city. These places are the townships. The government has created some, but most are informal settlements taken over by squatters. The one township I visited, Monwabisi Park in Khaylitsha Township, is actually part of a nature preserve, but 20,000 squatters had made it their home.

Along the coast are mansions and driving by it feels like Malibu. Some times I forgot I was in Africa. Even in the kinds of shoes they wore there was this disparity. In the townships children wore flip-flops like in Ghana and in the center of Cape Town women and men wore nice sneakers and sandals like in the US.

One of the life long learners on Semester at Sea said “it is like I have stepped back in time to the US in the 70s. We all might be equal now legally, but their isn’t respect for the other race.”
The city is still dressed up for the World Cup with soccer ball sculptures in the fountains, World Cup advertisements, and banners saying, “Cape Town welcomes the world.” The city is still hyped up on the influx of tourism and spike in their economy. What will happen when that money runs out?

Right now, in the city, no one respects each other no matter if they are white, colored or black the only color they respect is green. Money it is what they want and it is what they need. You can see it in the overprice cab fares and the cost of clothes in the mall. You can see it in the townships with children lining up to get food, 50 percent of the population out of work, and diseases such as HIV and AIDS the highest in the world.

“The system of apartheid is so ingrained that it is going to take ages to turn it around,” Tutu said.

Nothing happens over night, but there are people who are trying to make it happen. On my visit to Khaylitsha Township a group of SAS students and I learned about the Indlovu Project. This ecovillage consists of hand built structures made by the locals with sandbags and Ecobeams. Their mission is “to create an innovative, simple and sustainable way to improve the physical, emotional and economic health of the community.” The founder, Di Womersley, has created this place that includes a health clinic, community center, volunteer housing, a day-care center, and movie house for the whole community to enjoy. She said she can see the depressed state of community and wants to bring purpose to their lives, get children off the streets, and help mothers stop drinking. Ultimately, she wants each family to have their own sustainable home.

There is a saying painted on the wall in the main guest house which reads “sisonke singenza umahluko” meaning “together we can make a difference” and I know this is possible from seeing the success this one women has so far had with her project in bringing the community one step closer together.

The Hammam Experience

I stood naked in Morocco.

Despite spending the past six days in Morocco visiting a Children’s Village, ridding Camels through the palm groves of Marrakesh and exploring the interior of the third largest mosque in the world I didn’t understand the culture until I bathed among the women of Morocco.

The Moroccan bathhouse or Hammam was situated down an alleyway far from any average tourist destination. This was my first independent trip in Morocco and I was skeptical when the cab driver dropped me off near Hammam Ziani on a street populated with only men.

Inside the Hamman a man appeared and asked me if I spoke French. I told him no only English and a little Italian. He shook his head at both, but pointed to a menu with a British flag placed on it. I choose the most expensive package. He handed me the printed receipt and sent me up a flight of stairs. At the top a woman took the receipt and I paid her 300 dirham. She handed me a basket of soap, a wrap, and pointed to a changing room while telling me to take off all of my clothes but my underpants. I finished tightly tying the wrap around me and opened the curtain of the dressing room. Standing just outside I saw two Moroccan women pulling off all of their robes.

Out in the streets of Morocco the only interactions I had were with men trying to get me to buy things in their store or in the taxi’s. This place was only for women. It was their place.

The spa worker led me down some stairs into a small steam room with marble bowls, chairs and faucets. She took my wrap and instructed me to wash myself with black goo. I sat at on a stool in front of a bowl with my arms wrapped around my chest. I had no idea how I was going to wash myself and stay as modest as I could. The bowl didn’t have drain so the water spilled over the sides. The steam was like a sheet and covered the room. Several minutes of uncertainty and rewashing occurred until a different spa worker came in and lead me to a bigger room with marble slabs in the center surrounded by more drain-less bowls and stools. I laid down on what seemed like a butchers block and she proceeded to scrub me so hard that it felt like I was being tenderized for a meal.

The next step, after being skinned alive, is to marinate for about 30 minutes. I was first covered in a grainy brown substance and wrapped in plastic. During that time two Moroccan women had walked in and began washing each other at one of the bowls. They were talking together in Arabic, laughing, and what seemed to be joking around with the spa workers.

The women were wearing thongs and black lacy underwear. Underneath all of those robes they aren’t that different from me.

I got up and looked around sure that the Moroccan women would be staring at me analyzing all of my flaws like at spas in the United States. But they didn’t and I realized they weren’t judging each other or me. I felt comfortable and almost accepted into their lives because I was taking part in this tradition.

Ablution in the Islamic society is apart of their daily lives. They have to clean themselves before being in Gods presence. Some of these women come once or twice a week to the Hammam.

It was empowering to be among these woman who completely mask their identity to society, but come together in a secure place, reveled their bodies and gossip about their lives.

After rinsing off and redressing in my skirt and black shirt I walked outside feeling welcomed into their lives because I had been apart of such an intimate part of their lives. I saw them without their robes on and heard them speaking to one another without asking their husband’s permission.

On the street, however, I was again confronted with the men staring as I walked with my hair uncovered. As I quickened my walk I passed by a woman and her children. I gave her a friendly smile, but I didn’t receive one in return. At the most basic level we are both woman, but there are many different customs that divide us.