Ghana Drumming and Dancing

The first day in Ghana was a beautiful and sunny day.  It is towards the end of the rainy season here and the air is hot and humid.  I had signed up for a drumming and dancing workshop so at 10am we rode a bus for 10 minutes into town where the workshop was held in a pavilion.  The dancing group came from Accra (the capitol of Ghana) and the drumming group was a local group (from Takerati).  This was the first time that the two groups had performed together.  They did several different performances for us.  They were very good, and the drumming was very loud.  Afterwards they split us up into two groups my group went and learned drumming first while the other group went and learned the dancing.  We learned two different drumming parts to a performance called Panloco (don’t remember the exact spelling but that’s close).  After learning the first part and getting its rhythm down, we learned the second.  Then they spilt us into two groups and gave us either the first or the second part and we played them together.  After about an hour of drumming we switched with the dancing group and we learned the dance that goes with the drumming we just learned.  It was lots of fun.  We went to lunch about 5 minutes away at a hotel where we ate pasta salad, rice, rice with plantains, beef with “gravy” (it did not look like the thing we know as gravy), and chicken.  It was very delicious.  After lunch we went back to the pavilion and they performed some more for us.  One of the dances that they did had a long elaborate story that I can’t remember all of.  What I do remember is that for some reason the men were trying to trick the gods into thinking that they were women.  They wore skirts and carried fans and did these really fast circle hip movements kind of like in Tahitian dance.  It is the local dance of somewhere in Ghana that I don’t remember, but the dance teacher was from there and he was by far the best at it.  Finally we divided back up into our groups and while half of us were doing the drumming the other half were doing the dance.  My group was the second group to do the dancing.  When we finished the entire dance that he taught us the teacher sent us in the circle two at a time to do free style dancing.  When it was my friends and my turn we went into the circle dancing and just having a good time.  I was really into the music and decided to do some sauté chase (spell?) (jumping turn ballet thing) that in retrospect I shouldn’t have attempted because I was tired and I haven’t been keeping up with my dance exercises like I should.  Well I ended up spraining my ankle.  Luckily the dance ended soon after that and I could sit down.  Oh well I had a good time, I don’t regret going and it’s raining today anyway so there is not much I could do even if I had been able.  So I am following the clinics (and past experiences) advise and resting and icing and resting and propping up and wearing my ankle brace and icing some more.  I will get better soon.  This also gives me a chance to catch up on a few things that I have gotten behind in.  I also drew diagrams of the dance and the drumming that we learned so that when I get home in a few months I will still remember them. 

Here Comes the Rain

In the required class for all students and lifelong learners, Global Studies, we are currently talking about global problems.  We had guest speaker Cathy Rodgers who is the Vice President of world relations (if I remember her title correctly) for IBM.  She travels around the world and meets people and gets paid to do so.  She talked to us yesterday about global sustainability.  After her presentation she informed us that she has made it her goal to plant a tree for every person that comes to one of her talks on sustainability.  So for every person on this ship she has already made plans to plant trees in Ghana in our honor.  Today she gave a shorter talk on women’s issues around the world.  Most of it, while still shocking, I already knew from being a member of WOW (Work of Women).  But it was informative to hear from somewhere else.  She also briefly spoke about how much better it is, how more women are coming into power.  Some of the things I didn’t know where that there are 10 female presidents of different countries.  There are also 10 female Prime Ministers.  There are still nowhere near as many women as men and the wages are still not the same but this does show that things are getting better.  As Cathy Rodgers said “happier women make for happier men.” 

Lunch was tacos.  Very yummy.  Everyone loves taco day.  The only problem is that for the first time this whole voyage it is raining.  We have been lucky in not having any rain days.  The problem comes in when the people that normally eat outside can’t and have to come inside.  I don’t know how it was on the 5^th deck dining room but on the 6^th deck, where most students eat, it was chaos. 

Still on the ship

I saw dolphins for the first time on this voyage.  People have been saying that they have seeing dolphins all the time but somehow I always missed them.  Then today right after one of my classes a girl looked out the window of our classroom and there they were.  Earlier today I saw some flying fish.  Some people were very confused and thought that they were birds that were diving underwater.  The food today was really good also.  I missed breakfast but for lunch there was fish and chips (fried fish and French fries), Noodles with Cheese and Garlic (Mac and Cheese), and all the other normal stuff.  I don’t like fish but everything else was good and it was nice to have some French fries.  For dinner we had some kind of pork that was really good, cubed potatoes in a sauce, and spaghetti without the meat.  Also for dessert there was the all American classic, apple pie.  There isn’t usually a line for the dessert but tonight there was. 

In my collage class we are working on collages either from Spain or Morocco (there isn’t enough time to do both).  I chose Spain because I picked up more items that could be used for my collage there.  We are doing an interesting collage technique that I will do my best to describe.  We start by drawing outlines of the picture we want to have for our finished product (I drew a building in Spain).  Next we use tracing paper and carbon paper to copy certain shapes onto different paper that we either made from stuff that we collected or purchased or gathered from the country we choose.  I collected lots of different paper napkins that say different things and have glued them together on a piece of paper.  We then will glue all our “puzzle pieces” onto our collage.  We will finish by painting, drawing, using pastels, and whatever to make it look like a finished product.  I have a long way to go. 

We will get to Ghana in 3 days. 

Back on the Ship

Today we went right back to class its strange after having 11 days off to get back to the school routine.  I only have one class on A days so I luckily had some time to study my notes and remind myself what we were last talking about in class.  During the time in the two ports I finished reading two books for class giving me extra time while at sea, so today I also hand washed some clothes in my bathroom sink.  Last night my friends and I started a game of Phase 10 and plan on finishing it tonight if everyone doesn’t have too much homework to do. 

Last Day in Casablanca Morocco

The last day in Morocco we went back to the mosque because three of our friends wanted to go see the inside and Evergreen and I were happy to wander around the outside.  It was really foggy that morning and at first the top of the minaret couldn’t be seen.  But by the time we left we could see it even though a few wisps of fog hung about making it look very mystical.  We walked through the medina to the new part of the city for lunch.  I had couscous with chicken and fresh squeezed orange juice. It was really good but by the time I was full it looked like I hadn’t done anything but move the food on my plate around, there was just so much there.  For dessert we all shared orange slices with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top.  I know it sounds weird but it is actually really good.  Before going back to the ship we walked around the medina some more and some of the girls bought some things.  So slightly sunburned I got back on the ship and we said goodbye to our second port. 

The Mosque and Rabat

This morning (Monday morning) Evergreen and I went on a SAS (semester at sea) led tour of the mosque here in Casablanca.  It was, if possible, even more magnificent than the cathedral in Seville.  The huge and really heavy roof (I don’t remember what our guild said it weighed) could be opened up almost completely splitting in the middle because of this the floor has heaters that can be turned on so it doesn’t get to cold for those praying there.  The architect was French (although I don’t remember his name) and I found it very intriguing to see the French style mixed with the Arabic.  The glass on the giant chandeliers was from France, and all the marble was from Morocco.  The wooden rails were cider from the Atlas Mountains (I think I remember that correctly but you can probably check on wiki to know for certain).  In the lower levels and on the outside was all the gorgeous tile work mostly in blues and greens but there was a whole room in yellow. 

The bus got back to the port a little before 10:30 so we caught the train to Rabat which is the capitol of morocco and only about an hour away.  We ate lunch at a little café that was playing Jim Croce.  I got a quarter of a roast chicken that came with a little pile of rice and French fries.  We also both got fresh squeezed orange juice (I forgot to mention that we also got some at the market in Marrakech).  The whole meal was very good.  After paying and talking to a man who I think was the owner about Jim Croce we left to see this town’s medina.  It is amazing to me how the three different town’s medina’s where so different in what they sold and the people that were there to buy things.  Although that could have been from the different times of the day we were at each market as well.  After making our way through the market we wandered around some more and eventually found and old fort that had been made into a garden.  We were sitting down when I felt something behind me and when I looked there was a cat just standing there leaning against me and then she just lay down right there beside me.  She had a few kittens running around behind us playing they were so cute!  I love cats.  We left Rabat at 3:30 and made it back to the ship just after one of the camel trek groups had returned so we had to stand in a long line before actually getting on the ship.  While waiting in line two more buses came with more students.  One of the ships staff told us that three buses were coming in tonight.  Dinner was good as usual.  I don’t think there can be such a thing as a bad day on this trip but we will see.  I keep having to remind myself that I have only been gone for about three weeks. 

Half-day in Casablanca

After getting back to the ship so late the previous night Sunday morning I slept till about 10:30.  After eating lunch and looking at the shuttle bus schedule we decided to wait for the next shuttle bus and in the mean time catch up on some reading for classes.  So it was 2:00 pm before we even left the ship.  We exchanged some money then wandered around Casablanca’s medina stopping at a café to drink some mint tea.  It was a nice laid back day. 

Marrakech

Saturday a group of 6 of us took the train to Marrakech.  The train ride was about three hours and 20 minutes getting us there at around 2:00 pm.  It was a little hot but not too bad, most of us slept at least part of the time.  When we got there we found a little café to eat some lunch.  We then walked into the Medina which is the old city and is full of twisting little streets.  In the center in the most knotted up streets is where the big market is.  I bargained for an outfit for myself, it is blue and it is one of the semi-traditional long tunic/dresses that most women here wear and pants that you are suppose to wear with it but I think that I could wear them separately.  I also got a pair of blue handmade leather shoes for myself.  It was a good day.  We took a 21:00 train back to Casablanca getting there a little after 1 in the morning because of a delay, and then getting to the ship (we have to walk about a mile and a half from the port entrance to where the Explorer is docked) at about 1:30.  There is a shuttle bus to take us to and from our peer to the port entrance but it stops running at 9:00 pm.  We were very tired but also very dirty and sticky because it is so dusty here you end up with this gritty sticky coating on exposed skin, so we took quick showers and went to bed. 

Second Day in Morocco

I don’t really recall why we decided to go to El Jadida today other than that we wanted to see a place without lots of tourists and more particularly SAS people. It was a good adventure. So a group of 5 of us took a train at 10:30am and got to El Jadida around 12:00pm. With only a tour guide book with a small map in it we at first had the idea that we would get in a taxi and point to where we wanted to go. Well there weren’t very many taxis and there were a lot of people waiting so we went to plan B which was to walk until we could catch a cab. There is only one road leading away from the train station and the town center couldn’t be that far away right? We spent about three hours walking around and never made it to the town center. But we did have a good time walking around and at one point we stopped to ask for directions from what turned out to be an off duty cab driver who was very nice and couldn’t believe that we had walked all the way from the train station. We asked him if there was any place to eat but because it was the hot of the day and Ramadan had just ended he said that no places were open. He offered to drive us somewhere but we decided to continue walking mostly because we didn’t think that all of us would fit in a taxi. So we ended up back at the train station where we ate some snacks in the café and waited for the next train which was suppose to come at 4:15pm. The ticket booth was empty until 4:05pm at which time we asked him about tickets to Casablanca. He informed us that because of the end of Ramadan the trains were on a different schedule and that the one we had been waiting for was canceled the next train to Casablanca wasn’t till 7:15, one of the girls with us wanted to be back before that because she had an early field trip to be at the next day. So we went outside to wait for a taxi to take us back to Casablanca. While we were waiting two police men came over asking who was waiting for a taxi because there were so many people waiting. They then said that they had called for more taxies for all of us. I overheard one of the guys talking to the police saying that he needed a taxi to Casablanca. So we went over and asked if we could get a taxi to Casablanca. The man luckily spoke English very well and said that yes we could and we ended up sharing a cab to Casablanca with him, during which he explained to us about Ramadan. We also learned that he had a job in marketing and planning events, and that he use to work for a big video game company that made the Prince of Persia and Raving Rabids(not sure about the spelling on that one). It was very interesting to hear his perspective on Morocco. We even made it back to the ship before dinner was over. Another good day. Tomorrow it’s on to Fez.

First day in Morocco

We arrived in Morocco at about 11:00 this morning (Morocco time which is only 4 hours different from home). This was the first time that Semester at Sea had gone directly from one port to another with no days in between. Because of this changed they decided to offer three more field trips one of which I signed up for. So today at 2:00pm a group of us went first to a local private school. At this particular school they teach most things in English but they also switch between Arabic and French so the kids can speak all three languages and frequently switch between them all. We were only there for a few minutes but it gave us a little insight into how they learn (apparently there school system is like the French but I don’t entirely understand all that that entails).

After leaving the school we went to the SOS Children’s Village. This one was the third one out of five started in Morocco. Instead of living in one big orphanage building the orphans are divided up into “familys” with no more than 8 kids per family. Each family has a “mother” whose job is to be these kids mother. She is not allowed to be married nor have any kids that are not grown already and must undergo different evaluations. The mother is given one day off a week to do what she pleases while the other mothers who the kids call Aunts watch them. They have about 98 kids there right now, the youngest being 4. At the age of 18 the kids either go on to college or get a job and are, as far as I could tell, considered able to take care of themselves.

We got to play and talk with the kids. Some people played soccer with them others basketball and one girl even played tennis with a boy. I started talking to three girls one of whom spoke fairly good English. I would ask them questions they would ask me questions and at one point they even started trying to teach me Arabic, which of course I have now completely forgotten, but it was fun. When it was time to go no one wanted to leave.