AHHH. Sorry. 11/26

SOOO sooo sorry i havent been posting. honestly i haven't had time to write my blogs. So what im going to do. hopefully before Hawaii I'll do some photo updates from each country.

Yesterday was thanksgiving and right now you are all probably getting up to shop till you drop! haha. good luck with that. I'm sitting in an empty classroom with my friend Shannon trying to get some homework done. We only have a few more days of classes before we arrive to Hawaii on Dec 3rd. I really can't believe it is here!!

Ok I'll post more about India, Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong, China AND Japan... and some shiplife stuff.

Woahhh I am so behind. haha. well I promise I'll have something up soon.

Love you all and miss you all!!

SPRING BREAK! :)

Ok, so I know there is only spring break in spring semester but im going to call it that anyway. Mauritius WAS spring break. And it was amazing! The first night a group of us got a villa. My roommate Kristen booked it and me and my friends tagged a long – worked out perfectly! It was right on the beach and the villa was so nice! We spent most of the day in the water and hanging out at the beach and having a great time. It was so nice just having a break and relaxing and enjoying everything! :)

That night we went out to a bar called Banana bar .. or Banana. It was really fun there were a lot of SASers there and we all just danced and enjoyed the night. The rest of the night we spent hanging out at the villa and ended up running into Lax. Who actually got kicked off of SAS… so unfair!! Anyway we chilled basically for the rest of the night and a few of us all stayed up all night for the sunrise. It was so beautiful .. we were singing and dancing .. living in the moment. :)
The next day we had a catamaran booked. OMG best idea ever!!! If you do SAS get a catamaran. It was crazy and so much fun!! we went to Gabriel Island and then to a different area for snorkeling .. and there was an open bar! So needless to say we all got pretty tipsy, soaked up the sun and danced the day away. It was great. :)

We only had 2 days in Mauritius so that basically sums up what I did there. It was a great time and I loved unwinding and enjoying myself.

On the way to Mauritius…

The time between South Africa and Mauritius was mid terms time! Eeek. Luckily I only had one midterm which wasn’t bad at all! But other than that there wasn’t much going on between South Africa and Mauritius.

10/07 Farmfari continued!

That morning we cooked breakfast.. We had bacon, eggs and toast. After breakfast and cleaning up we headed to the pigs to get a quick briefing of how to feed the pigs and clean out the pens. All I could think is this should be interesting! Loryn and I got the pleasure of cleaning out the pig pens and the 2 of us tackled it like pros! Haha.

The pig pens draining system was broken so the clean up was more work than it was supposed to be but to be honest it really isn’t that gross cleaning out pig pens. There were 5 different pens to clean out and the only one I was scared of was the new mother because she had a little attitude problem and would start freaking out whenever someone got close. After cleaning out the pens you take all the manure and spread it on the trees that are planted. It’s funny because the whole time you are doing this the chickens are following you around thinking that it’s food. Some other things we did around the farm that day was plant trees, Evan has a lot of pomegranate trees on his farm. And we searched for more eggs around the farm.

That evening we decided to head out for dinner. We first stopped at Ronnies Sex Shop for a drink and to hang out with the bartender for a few. It’s a really cool place to hang out! After hanging out there and taking pictures of the tractor and sunset we decided to head into Barrydale for what Evan told us was the BEST STAKE EVER. Barrydale is a really small town so when we walked into the restaurant almost everyone there was someone we saw around the town on the first day. We had so much fun that night!! The stake was good and it was really fun hanging out with the locals! We met Jason, Matthew and Andrew. Jason was our waiter and he was so nice.. and Matthew had the same birthday as me!! And Andrew was into climbing. .. they all remind me of some of my friends back home :P If you’re reading this guys I had so much fun meeting you and wish we could of hung out longer!

Ok I’m gonna cut the blog short of SA.. I’m actually arriving to India in 2 days :D So I need to write a blurb on Mauritius before then! To sum up the rest of the time in SA .. the next morning we headed back to Cape Town and spent the last few hours out wandering the waterfront.

10/6 – Farmfari!!!

Ok so the adventure begins!! Evan picked us up at the water front and we were on our way!! Damien decided to stay behind so it was Loryn, Ariel and I. Evans farm was about 3 hours from Cape Town and it was in Sanbona Wildlife Reserve. Along the way we stopped in a town called Barrydale and got our dinner for the night at the butcher shop which was some yummy lamb and sausage. South African LOVE there meat!! After stopping there we stopped up the street at the grocery store for a few things and at a black smiths shop just so we could see what it looks like.

We headed towards Sanbona and stopped at a place called Ronnies Sex Shop which is a restaurant/bar that by the looks of it is in the middle of nowhere!! But it was really cool the inside has bars and underwear hanging everywhere that had been left behind by tourists over the years. We grabbed lunch there before headed to the farm. On the sign at the front gate it said “Danger: Wild Animals - Entry at OWN risk.” When I saw that I got so excited!! I didn’t expect it to be actually INSIDE the game reserve!! Evan was telling us that there are only about 3 private properties in the reserve, his being one of them.

When we first arrived we took a little detour and Evan showed us a dead giraffe in the middle of one of the roads .. we all were about to get out of the truck to check it out and Evan said “wait. If you see a lion don’t move. OK lets go!” haha. We all got a laugh out of that! After taking a look at it we headed to Evans house. His house is surrounded by 2 gates and 1 is an electrical gate to keep everything out.

When we got to his house we all cleaned his house. After sweeping and mopping we headed out on a safari!! The roads were all bumpy dirt roads. I wasn’t really sure what to expect. We drove around for a while, all of us with our eyes wide open ready to spot anything! After a short time Evan stopped his truck and hopped out. He noticed some elephant footprints on the road and there were fresh droppings along the road too. The elephants were close by! We drove in the direction of the foot prints and stopped at a lookout post to see what we could see. We were all really quite just looking into the trees in the distance and all of the sudden we saw movement! We all hopped back in his truck and made out way in that direction. And there they were! ELEPHANTS :) there were a few of them, 1 adult and 2 younger ones and they were so close to the truck. We sat there and watched them eat for a while. It was so cool!

While we were on our way on the search for the next animals, Evan pointed out places where things happened to him. Like there was this one spot where he had a standoff with a lion when he was on horseback. It was only a short time before we stumbled across our next sight. There was a big family of giraffes all eating from a tree a short distance away from the car. Giraffes are very skittish and can be pretty aggressive so we had to be very quite while we were watching them even though they could hear us and would look straight at us when we weren’t making a sound! There were 6 giraffes total, 1 adult male, 2 adult females and 3 younger giraffes. The adult male was SO huge we didn’t see him at first then his head just popped up behind a tree as he began to walk to the other side of it. They are such beautiful animals! As we drove back toward Evans farm we saw a lot of antelope and some rhinos in the far distance.

When we arrived back to the farm Evan showed us around some more. We met all the piggies and saw where the chickens stayed at night. On his farm he has free range chickens that spend the day outside and then at night they know to go back into the coop and the gates locked to protect from animals that could break in. We also had a little egg scavenger hunt and tried to find all the chicken nests and the eggs for breakfast the next morning. :) that night we had braai which is the Afrikaans word for barbecue.. we had our lambs and sausages which were so yummy! After dinner we all went out and sat under the stars for a long time. It was so dark and you could see so many stars! You could even see the milky way! There were a lot of satellites too and shooting stars. While we were out looking at the stars you could hear animals walking around in the distance outside of the fence.

Heyy..

I'll finish the rest of my update for South Africa and my farmfari adventures after Mauritius. We dock in 6 hours!!! yayyy :)

10/05 Township School & Kids :)

The next morning Loryn, Arial and I got up bright and early to head on a service project with our friend Sarah. She set up a project with a local agency to help at a school in a nearby township. We headed out around 830 to the office which was actually right near where the poetry meeting was last night. Our project was to paint the school yard walls. They were a very boring white color and we painted them a bright yellow to help liven it up a bit. It looked so much better afterwards! It took about 2 hours for us to paint all of the walls.

Our reward was to spend time with the kids! :) We got to play with them and they were so excited to see us – all bright eyed!!! When you greet the children, if they are shy or hesitant you are supposed to hold out your thumb (like a thumbs up) which shows that it’s alright, and they will touch your thumb with theirs. Once you do this to one kid all of them want to touch your thumb so it’s really cute! We spent about an hour with the kids and we took pictures with them and they sang, prayed and counted for us.

The ride home from the agency was pretty interesting. We went on a bus that goes back and forth from certain spots. I’m not too sure what it was called but it was BLASTING (to the point my ears were ringing) music and they would yell out the windows to try to get people to come on. It only cost 5 rand and it was really entertaining for the time being. But omg they needed to lower that music!!

The first thing we had on our mind was FOOOD when we go back since we all missed breakfast. We stopped at a place and grabbed some pizza then attempted to go shopping in Green Market Square. We were all so fed up with haggling though and we only lasted a few shops then all agreed to head back to the ship.

That night we headed out again and stopped at Mitchells which was right at the water front and started the night off with some fish bowls. To sum up the rest of the night it was a long cab ride to a club that had a dress code and half the people weren’t dressed nice enough to get in. so the group got separated between a few different clubs. The one I was at was a dud.. we had to beg the guy to let us in because none of us had a valid ID on us to show we were older then 18. UGHHH it was so stupid. But anyway he let us in and then we were the ONLY ones in the club haha. It was an early night but still really fun besides all the confusions with the clubs.

10-04 / Observatory!

That night we headed to Observatory which is a city right near Cape Town. Loryn heard about a place called A Touch of Madness where they had poetry readings and it sounded really nice so we decided to stop in. We caught a cab and he headed that way, then got lost so we hopped out and asked from some direction and after a few wrong turns we found it. It was still early (about 630) so we decided to get something to drink before hand and headed to a place called Obz Cafe. We all split a bottle of wine (Loryn, Ariel, Damian & I) and chatted with each other and made friend with the waiter. Who was a stand up comedian and wicked funny! Around 8 we headed back to catch the readings. So many of them were amazing! There were some duds but I can’t really judge seeing as I don’t have the talent, or the guts to get up and read in from of a crowd. After the readings we headed to the bar across the hall and we started talking to one of the people who read their poetry. His name was Evan and we ended up learning he actually knew someone on the ship! He knew the nurse Stephanie and she originally had plans to go work on his farm (which is IN a wild game reserve) for a few days and volunteer there but unfortunately she was the lucky one how had to be on call for Cape Town. Well one thing led to another and (I think it was Ariel) asked if we could come instead and Evan said yeah we could! Woohooo

The rest of the night was spent bar hopping. We went to a bar called Dubliners and it was really fun! We met some cool locals and some fellow SASers and danced the night away! Then we went to this sketchy bar called Mercury were the floors were sticky and they were playing like death metal techno .. WEIRDD. And there was a stage with a couch on it.. so me and Ariel went to go dance on the stage.. then we found a guy PASSED OUT on the couch and there were huge speakers blaring right next to him.. needless to say we weren’t there long.

10-04 / Table Mountain woooO!!

OH MAN!!!! What did I get myself into. AHHH. The whole way up I was thinking this to myself. The route we took was supposed to be one of the easy routes. Well according to “Yellow Man” down at the bottom. Haaaa it so was not!!! It took us about 2 hours to climb the mountain and honestly, the view makes up for the hell I put myself through to get up there lmao. The excuse would be – “Oh look! I need to take a picture!” so we could stop. It was Ariel, Loryn, Shannon & I who all climbed together at one point Loryn and I got a little ahead but in the end we ALL MADE IT! :) I was so proud of myself!! Haha and the day could not have been more gorgeous – you could see SO FAR!! And we spotted to ship. Which looked oh so tiny in the little miniature city below. We spent about a half hour walking around gathering ourselves and headed down the easy way, on a cable car. Best idea ever!! It took 2 hours to get up and 3 minutes, maybe even less, to get down!

Township Homestay 10/03-10/04

Around 3 the evening I had SAS trip to a nearby township. It was only about 20 minutes from Cape Town. When we arrived there weren’t a lot of shacks which is what I expected. But instead there were houses that lined the streets you could tell it was a poor community though. The children were waiting for us and immediately the playing began! We played a version of ring around the rosie that they played and other childhood games that I remember playing growing up – just in a different language. We also gave TONS of piggy back rides which was the highlight of the activities.. every kid wanted one hahah. They were so cute!!

My “mama” for the night came and picked me up after about an hour of playing and we headed to her home. It was right down the street and it was a 2 bedroom, 1 bath cozy home and they had 2 extra bedrooms built outside of the house for their other children. My “mamas” name was Mama Pinky and she was so kind. Jules spent the night with me there. We hung out with her and chatted for a while before we met everyone.

Later on Yoli, her oldest daughter stopped by and we went for a short walk with her and one of her friends around the township. We ran into a random guy – who seemed like he was drunk – he was claiming to be a police officer and that he knew all the street names around and would show us around anytime. Lol it was amusing. Anyway we walked her friend home and then headed back, her friend’s house was a lot different from hers. It was actually a home made out of scrap metal.

Shortly after getting back to Mama Pinky’s home her son Siya got back from playing with friends. Siya is a ten year old boy and he is the sweetest little boy you’ll ever meet!! Jules and I spent most of the evening, well basically all of it, playing and hanging out with Siya. I brought a big box of crayons and some colored construction paper and we all drew for hours! Siya is such a good drawer he drew me a picture for his 2 little puppies and his big dog named Blacky and I drew him a picture of our ship. When I gave him the picture he said “my friends will not believe this! Will you write you name!?” It was so cute. I also had my portable printer and printed out a bunch of pictures from the night for him – he loved them and he even drew a picture of him holding his dogs based of one of the pictures. It came out so good, he’s really talented.

Siya definitely made the experience so great at our homestay. He was so great full of everything and always had a smile. I wish we could have stayed longer to get to know everyone more. The father, Waitlord, didn’t talk much until later on into the night when he saw us all drawing. But when he saw us drawing her said “oh, I can draw too!” and he grabbed some of his blue print drawings from work to show us. Waitlord is in construction – I think he is an electrician. He was explaining to us that the whites were usually the ones who got the education and now his work know that he’s the one in charge and they are paying for him to get the certifications to show he has the skills that he knows. It was really nice that he opened up to us and was able to talk to us, he seemed really reserved at first.

I had a great time on my homestay. It was my first Semester at Sea trip. My only complaint is that it was too short. It went from 4pm to 10 AM the next day. Which is not that long at all. I loved getting to know the family though they were all so kind. And Mama Pinky said “I have never met people like you, so kind and so talkative” to me and Jules. That was so nice of her. I wish we could have spent more time with her.

South Africa!!! Cape Town 10/03

10-03

We pulled into port around 5 AM. It was still dark and all you could see was the city lights with the back drop of Table Mountain – the view was amazing! After the ship docked I jumped back into bed for a while until we had to meet with customs to get our passports stamped. In South Africa they have to meet with each person to stamp their passports. Which I think is pretty pointless because they didn’t even look at my picture.

The ship was docked in the V&A Waterfront which honestly is the most touristy thing I have ever seen. South Africa has SOOO much history and the V&A Waterfront is full of expensive hotels and restaurants with a HUGE mall and is basically a safe haven for all the rich tourists that travel around the city on huge tour buses. Needless to say I did not spend much time in that area. It was so fake, not the real South Africa at all.

That day we spent the morning exploring the surrounding area. We found a sign pointing to various cities around the world and the distance. There was one pointing to Boston – I was 12421 Km from home! There were also a lot of things still up from the world cup. Like there was a big feris wheel anda giant red sculpture of a man made out of coca-cola crates. We all got lunch at a restaurant called Paninaro where we all stuffed ourselves on pizza and drank a lot of wine! Yumm yumm! There was a really cool street group performing right near us and they were so great!

09/27/10 We’re Emerald Shellbacks!

Today at 1230 we crossed the Prime Meridian and Equator at the same time!! This means we were at 0 degrees latitude and 0 degrees longitude!! Not many people can say they’ve done that!! That day we all became Emerald Shellbacks which is one of the rarest form of a shellback! Woo woo :P

You can check it out here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line-crossing_ceremony#honors

ALSOOOO guess who I ran into when I was at 0 – 0! Desmond Tutu!!!! Me and Shannon were trying to get to the front of the ship on deck 7 and it ended up being closed and as we were about to turn around we ran into Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu! :) :) :) We got a picture with him and he asked us “Did you feel the bump!?” when we got to the Prime Meridian/Equator :P then he showed us where to do to get back out. Which we already knew but followed along anyways. :D

9/28/10 Neptune Day

Neptune day is to celebrate crossing the equator. Which was a day late for us lol. We get woken up real early by the crew who are dressed up in robes, beating drums and making a ton of noise. After being woken up we all made our way to the 7^th deck for the ceremony. Which includes having “fish guts” poured on you, kissing a fish and kissing the ring of “King Neptune” AKA Dean David. It was a lot of fun! And I have so many funny pictures. A lot of people shave their heads too. And a TON of girls did too. But don’t worry I didn’t lol!

09/29/89 The big 21!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEE :) Lol I had a great birthday :) I woke up to my door being plastered in post it notes by Shannon .. thanks Shan!! And got cards, presents and cakes .. my friend Loryn made me a “I’m 21 .. buy me a drink” sign for South Africa & a shot book .. which will be fun to fill out!! I’ll have to make up for it in South Africa seeing as I don’t drink on the ship .. wayyy to much $$. But it will be fun and I can’t wait ot celebrate!! My other friend from work offered to cover my shift so I didn’t have to work that night which was really nice of him! :D Another cool thing is Desmond Tutu had a discussion panel that night too. And where we sat he sat just a few seats from us. So all and all I had a great birthday! Thanks everyone for everything :) and thank you everyone back home for all the facebook birthday wishes!!

9/25/10 Our Last Day

During the morning a few of us made our way to the markets to explore. The markets are more targeted towards the locals so there was a lot of food, spices and household items. It was really fun exploring the market in Takoradi, seeing how they shop and live. Everyone would say hi and the children would follow you around.

That afternoon we all got together again for lunch and final goodbyes with Fred and Olivia. It was sad saying goodbye to them because they had been so kind to us over the last few days. And I can’t say enough good things about Fred and Can Do Land Tours. Although I was on a tour for the past few days it really didn’t feel like one. I felt like I was hanging out with my good friend who was showing me his home and I couldn’t have asked for anything more! Everything happened exactly as it should have. I met the most amazing people and have made lifelong friends! :)

We headed back to the ship and stopped at the markets that were set up right next to the ship. I bought some nice souvenirs which will help me remember my times in Ghana. The few days following Ghana was very overwhelming. Before Semester At Sea I always told myself I wouldn’t experience culture shock and that I was ready to see what I was going to see. But Ghana was definitely culture shock for me. These past few days were full of things that I have never experienced before. And I’ll always hold them close to me and never forget them. I would find myself tearing up when I thought of the people I met and places I visited, how the children in Akatim village deserve so much more then what they have. I hope someday that I will be able to help them and give them what they need.

Dancing & Drumming! 9/25/10

Today was our last morning in Senase. We had breakfast in Freds mothers house which they prepared for us and after our goodbyes, lots of hugs and pictures we were on our way. We stopped in town for our welcoming ceremony which had been put off since the first night. There wasn’t as many people in town then there was the first morning we went in but as the drumming and dancers began the crowds formed. The dancing was amazing! I do not understand how they move like that! There are some videos on my page of it that I’m tagged in .. and I’ll be posting some once I get to free internet. Hopefully in South Africa.

They danced a few different dances, all with different meanings – and the drummers were so talented. After the dancing stopped someone came over to us to let us know that culturally – after they dance we have to dance for them. OH MY GOD!!! I was so nervous at first. The crowd had grown so big and there was not one open space in the crowd surrounding us. But once we got up there and started to boogie & make fools out of ourselves it was so much fun.. we were all laughing, dancing and jumping around. The crowd (including the Chief, Queen Mother & Elders) loved it and I’m sure they got a laugh out of it!

After our little dance it was time for us to leave.. I did not want to leave.. these few days were not enough time at all! We said our goodbyes to the little ones who ended up sitting on our laps & surrounded us during the ceremony and made our way to the van. The swarm of people waving, shaking hands & hugging us grew so big! There were just too many to say bye too but I wish I could have said goodbye and thank you to each person for welcoming me into their village and being so kind and loving. The children poked their heads into the van and waved until we started to drive off. Driving away was very overwhelming and I started to tear up. Just thinking about how much I’ll miss the children and how I bonded with them so quickly, made me think of how much I wanted to come back there.

Seventh Day Adventist Church & School

On our way home we stopped at another school called the Seventh Day Adventist Church. We visited it to see the difference between a school that was well off compared to the one we visited in Akatim village. Before we even entered the school you could see the difference in uniforms, how they didn’t have holes and weren’t worn out. Entering the school was a big shock. It was huge compared to the Akatim school. This school had cement walls and a water system. There were classrooms outside as well but they were built sturdy with no holes in the roof. The children were much more welcoming and right away wanted to play with us and take pictures and were very eager to greet us. They had drawings on the walls and windows with shutters to keep the rain out. It was like two different worlds!

We didn’t get to spend much time at the school but we got to play with the kids and they were given a few school supplies and a soccer ball. They kids loved the soccer ball and right away they were running and playing with it. The children were wonderful there and I wish we could have spent more time there.

The rest of the ride home went by so fast we all chatted and got to know each other more. Fred told some of us a story about the egg and what it symbolizes in Ghana. He told us that the people dear to him he calls his egg because you have to support them and be there for them. If you don’t support them they will drop and break and like an egg they will be gone forever. I think this is such a strong message. I ended up spotting a wooden egg carving and bought it to remind me of my time in Ghana. :)

That night a small group of us decided to get dinner with Fred and his sister Olivia. Olivia is such a sweet lady. We had dinner at a nearby restaurant and enjoyed eachothers company. I loved spending time with them!

Around Senase & a Visit to Akatim Village School 9/23

That morning Sarah and I had a very early wakeup call at 4 AM from the rosters outside. We both managed to fall asleep again and were woken up around 6 AM to get ready for the day. We explored the village a little this morning while we were waiting for the others to get up. We went along with Francis to get water for the day from the water pump. At the water pump there were a few people there already gathering water. They greeted us with big smiles! To gather water people would use BIG bowls or jugs, always carrying them on their heads back. There was a little boy there, who was SO cute, standing by the pump with a small pot of water on his head staring at us. When we walked off with his mother (who had a big bowl on her head) he kept on looking back and spilling his water EVERYWHERE. He was so adorable!

After everyone got together we went into town center to have breakfast. When we first headed out I didn’t think there would be a lot of people out in the town center but when we arrive there were so many people! There were a lot of kids wearing their school uniforms. There was even a live band playing! Haha it was a lot of fun. We had porridge & donuts for breakfast which was really good. The donuts weren’t like ours, they were basically fried dough balls – there was one called a sweet bar which was really good! While we ate we were surrounded by young children and people were lined on the streets watching us. We spent the morning socializing with the villagers, taking & showing pictures to the children, eating and dancing. It was such a good time!! The children love the pictures and keep on asking for more and more pictures. And when you show the pictures to them they light up and start pointing and laughing & screaming.

After we had breakfast it was time for us to be welcomed into the community by the Chief. We walked down the street to the home of the Chief. As we went in the Chief’s home, one by one we greeted and shook the hands of the Chief, Queen Mother and Elders. They were all so nice and welcoming to us and were so grateful that we were visiting their village. The Queen Mother even spoke directly to us which is a great honor.

After the welcoming ceremony we headed back to the center of town and piled into the back of a truck bed to head to the school in Akatim which is a close by farming village where Fred actually attended school. As we settled into the truck bed the rain started to pick up a bit but it wasn’t until we were on our way that the downpour started!! We were all soaked from it but it was so fun we were all laughing and I even have a really funny video of it with my waterproof camera which is hilarious!

Visit to Akatim Village School

We arrived to the school all drenched and the children were all lined up sticking their heads out looking at us. The day we visited was the second day of classes. There were four classrooms in the school with the youngest children set apart in a different building. The school was not in good condition, there were no walls, just boards nailed up, the roof was leaking and almost all of the children could not afford to buy books or school supplies. We spent the day doing activities like coloring, singing, clapping and using other sorts of games. Grant and I worked with the older kids and we all colored. The kids loved it, they were so proud of their work and they all did so well! The teachers even joined in and loved it. They played some of the games in the coloring book and they had so much fun. One of the teachers was only 20 years old and came to the area just to teach the students.

At first the children were very shy around us but after a while they opened up to us and welcomed us in. It was so sad seeing them there when they deserve so much better. I know the students are very smart and are capable of learning so much but without their school supplies and the ability to do homework it are almost impossible for them to learn. After we spent the morning with the children we got to meet with the headmaster of the school. We asked him questions and got to know a little more about the school. They have about 80 enrolled students in the school but not all of them continue to come because they can’t afford to. A large majority of them can’t even afford a notebook or pencil for class. We also learned that we were the first white people that the students have ever seen! After our talk we went back to spend more time with the children and presented the school with a soccer ball to share among the students. They were all so excited about it!

We also had the pleasure of walking some of the students home to see how far they have to walk to get to school. We set out with the children, who usually will walk alone, down the road towards their homes. The whole time the kids were asking for pictures and making funny faces and laughing. At one point I handed my camera over to one of the boys to take some pictures and he had a blast with that! I love them so much you can tell they are his because you can see his fingers in about every one of them! :)

We walked for about 45 mins until we got to one of the boys houses. The boy and his father invited us in to visit his home. It was sad to say good bye to the other children who had to continue to walk. Some had to walk another 2 hours to get home!!

We walked to the boys house which was pretty far into the woods and when we got there the boy climbed up and orange tree that was about 20-30 feet high! He picked a bunch of oranges and we headed out. The ride home was very fun! We were in the back of another pickup truck, but this time it was full of produce from the day. Along the way we made 4 or 5 stops for more people and more of their produce. There were almost 30 of us in the back of it and the first 2 rows were packed with stuff. People were sitting on the edge and it was so nerve racking thinking that they would fall off! Everything was fine though. :P

We arrived back home and spent the evening with the children in the village. I went down to the soccer field in attempt to play soccer with the kids but there was a practice going on. After a few minutes there was a mob of children surrounding us, watching us and posing for pictures. There was one point where I was sitting down that the circle of children was so thick that I couldn’t see anything past them. This was also the most I’ve ever been asked for my contact number by 6 – 10 year olds or being asked to be there future wife. One little boy was so cute, he came up to me and poked my arm and said “you are so soft! Will you be my future wife?!?” then word must have gotten out that I was really soft because I was getting poked for about 10 minutes by the children. 4 of the girls: Celestine, Lydia, Dorothy & Francisca were around me a lot that night and once they opened up enough for me the girl began playing with my hair and braiding to too. They were so sweet. I printed out some pictures of us and gave them to them and it was a huge hit..they loved them!!

That night for dinner we had Fu fu - it is soooo yummy! We ate it communal which was so much fun and we also had some rice and stew which was supposed to be served individually but we all got caught up in the moment and dug into whatever bowl we wanted!! It was a riot. After dinner we headed into town briefly and grabbed a beer at a local bar. The bar was blasting reggae music and it had a really good vibe. A man walked up to us with a big smile and said: “You are white people, I am black man, I love all people!” and he was dancing and having a grand old time! We called it a night once we got back from the bar seeing as we all had a very long day. Before bed Sarah, Fred & I had a long talk which was really nice. The day was amazing and it was something I will never forget. There was not one point during the day that I was not smiling!