The last two days while in the Amazon

Wednesday
I woke up with the most mosquito bites I can remember having in a very long time. Honestly, I hadn't even remembered what a nuisance those things were. During breakfast I found out about what I missed last night. Everyone commented on me falling asleep so early. Hahaha. I didn't realize how early it was when I did…nor did I think I would literally sleep until the following morning. Oh well. Clearly was exhausted… Took the usual commute to work (everyone load up on canoes). However, it was raining. I had grabbed my roomie's plastic clear poncho so for the first time in my life, I unwrapped what looked like a humongous garbage bag and willingly pulled it over myself. It was the dumbest look ever… totally not attractive. It also proved mostly ineffective because after sitting in the canoe for the longest 15 minutes of my life while we creeped on…. the wind kept pulling it up and my face was getting wet and I wasn't able to see anymore hahaha. When we got to the school it slowed down but we had to walk from the pier to the school and that was a journey through wet clay and mud. We definitely tracked a lot of stuff all over the place haha. Anyhow, we got to finishing up the touches of green and white. Then we worked on painting the outer walls of the school yellow which was diluted sooooo much that it was runny and the original yellow became a botched kinda peachish color. Very interesting to say the least. So we worked with that. Once the weather cleared out, the guys and the locals begin removing the previous parts of the bridges. All that was left standing was the original foundation. Some folks helped measure out the size each plank needed to be cut into. Then we each got to hammer it down (for the sake of symbolism). The group picture we eventually took was something our professor said he would blow up in Hong Kong and send a copy to be hung in the school. The day proved to be a much more relaxed day and Richardo did a lot of singing for us. He knew a ton of Michael Jackson songs and was more than willing to share it with us. Shakira was another popular artist. He whipped out a guitar and sung a few Portuguese songs as well. I was kinda getting annoyed with the professor though. He didn't do anything! But no more comments about that. You had to be there to get the point I am trying to say without saying! That night we stayed awake for some time. Not too much voluntarily in the beginning… but rather because of nature. Yes, it poured that night too and our hammocks got rained on. ahahaha. So we were all trying to figure out what we would do… whether we would have to sleep in the dining area or what… but the crew replaced our wet ones with dry hammocks…plus once the rain cleared up and they added more plastic bags to the roof, we were set. However, we used that time to play a bunch of card games like UNo and T-rex which was hilariousness! Then we also play a few rounds of Mafia… we also did some of those mind-games… like "crossed and uncrossed, i can take a trip from, black/red magic…" Alec and Elizabeth and Russ was trying so hard to make it obvious for me to guess the rule for the green glass door party or "black/red magic" I couldn't understand it for nothing. Then, we kinda didn't want to sleep since it was the last night but everyone else was already drifting to their hammocks so when we finally walked in it was pitched black and silent. I got the giggles and couldn't stop laughing. I was also banging into Alec whose hammock was next to me on my left, Elizabeth was to his left and the professor was to her left. Me laughing had the hammock rocking…so I was bumping into him and he was bumping into Elizabeth who was trying to stop him, who was trying to stop me because she didn't want to bump into our professor….man that would been awkward! Anyways, I couldn't stop laughing and Alec couldn't stop laughing…and you know how you try to whisper but you can't because you are laughing so hard…. I felt like in all our efforts to be mindful we weren't being very mindful and honestly, it was beyond us to help it. hahaha. Finally, we calmed down…and tried to go to sleep. It was harder though since the hammocks were a little damp (slightly drizzling again). And I had new mosquito bites :( But I fell asleep and that was that!


Thursday
Woke up to Abby telling folks about her hallucinations thanks to the malaria medicine she is taking. Mine is Doxycycline which just makes you more sensitive to the sun (so minimal sun exposure is recommended), but I just spent the last few days in the heat so go figure. Prior to that, there was Dominica and I've been okay so I guess it depends on the person. The medicine she was referring to has been doing just what she described. It is a side effect and not only has my roommate Mandy experienced some crazy dreams but our mutual friends as well. To listen to them is entertainment in itself. Seriously. hahaha. Anyhow, yeah, woke up and it felt surreal that our journey had so few hours until we would be departing to head back to our ship……..but oh how we were ready to come back to the shipppppp!!!!! Even though our hammocks got switched out and replaced with dry ones, it was still drizzling a bit at some point during the night. Our stuff was damp and it was uncomfortable sleeping. I had the most difficulty that night finding a comfortable position for sleeping plus I was finally worried about bugs since I guess I felt invincible and was delusional about the effectiveness of my heavy deet spraying the first two days I got to the Amazon…not a good call. hahaha. Have a ton of mosquito bites… it's a nuisance scratching your knuckles…. some rather odd place for a bite, but guess the mosquito was satisfied.  But yeah, it got cold (as usual) during the course of the night because we are right above the water…so that wasn't a great combination. There was some confusion about what time we would leave and head back to the ship. On ship time was 3 pm and we would be leaving Manaus at 5 pm sharp. The lodge lady was talking about us leaving at 11 and we quickly disagreed….. was she crazy? The length of time it took just to get there would make us all late and we would probably arrive sometime by disembarkation time. I tell ya, no one but Americans seem to have that sense of urgency. We tried to explain this but we ended up leaving at 9. Our group was pushing for 8 am so that we could possibly do a little bit of souvenir shopping. The other group wanted to leave at 9 --somehow they ended up winning. We ate breakfast, and had more than enough time though since we were all packed and basically sitting around… Folks were buying the hammocks they slept in as a memory element or even the Amazon Tupana tee shirts the staff wore (minus the "boss" ,"guide", "coordinator" or other job descriptions on the back haha). Then we start loading on the boat/ferry thing. We assumed that everyone was on because we had only discussed it a million times…. Midway through our slow ride drifting down RIo Negro, the other group realized they left 3 girls who happened to all be staying in the same room. Womp Womp. We had to turn the boat around and head back to the lodge. If you knew how slow it was going already only to have to return and then remake that trip, you would have groaned too. The other thing was whether we would drop by the school. We originally wanted to save time and go to the school via canoe as we had done the first 3 days while the other group was eating breakfast etc. Especially since the bus had to meet us on the other side (where the village was anyway). But nope. We were stuck with waiting it out. So we come back to the lodge after we had yelled and waved goodbye and folks start clapping when these three girls start coming down the steps towards the pier. The fact that there was a bit of waiting while one of them ran back in the room didn't help the way we felt about them in that moment either to be honest hahaha…. like how did they not notice they had gotten left? If it had been our ship and they missed the MV Explorer….shame on them. They would have either had to go back home someway somehow or fly to the next country and catch up with the ship. What was even more interesting was how transportation in the Amazon was already limited then add the language barrier, who knew whether or not they could even obtain the means to get out of the jungle… but moving forward. We headed towards the village. The bus was doing better (hahaha), we really didn't know if we would have a functional bus but we hoped so. We loaded our things and then walked towards the school. There was a few kids around but mostly the adults. We showed the second group what we had painted. The transformation was nice and seeing the bright colors from a distance was instantly gratifying. We also got to present the money after two SAS talked about their reflections of the experience… and the headmistress gave her bit which was translated by Nigel. Finally we piled up on the bus and got to traveling. Stopping for bathroom breaks was annoying because we just wanted to get there already…and the allotted ten minutes became a whopping 20 minutes when half of the bus kept emptying out to check out the stuff in the convenience stores…or in fact, if everyone was in line for the bathrooms. Fast forward to when we got on the last boat just before arriving to the ship, we got on it and there was food waiting for us..that was lovely. Then just before we pulled up near the ship, it started pouring…however, we were able to see the point where it was pouring and where we originally were (where it wasn't). That was a wild experience… wish I could have taken a picture. I had heard of that - where one side of the street is raining, the other isn't… but we literally saw the dark clouds and the rain was ridiculous. We had to pause for a bit because they wanted to make sure it was safe to continue since it was hard to see what was right in front of us. When we got back, it was happy happy joy joy… I could barely contain myself! This brings me back to the beginning of the post when I originally started it…

The first two days of my 4 days & 3 nights in the Amazon

Monday- Woke up at 6ish am so I could have breakfast (it was held from 6:30-7:30 since the earliest pre-sales began at 8 am and I was one of them).  Gotta say I felt really excited but nervous because I still wasn't too sure what this trip would hold. I said bye to my roomies and Obai but they were all snoring and whatnot. Lol. Tiptoed out and headed to the dining hall. Ate and headed to the Union, signed in with my professor. The first thing I noticed was what I wearing versus what everyone was wearing… I saw lots of khakis, tee-shirts and shorts…I was wearing long sleeves, a scarf and some sweat pants. I had so much of that 100% DEET on it was like a bug perfume….Vastly different than anyone else. I started to think I was off but somewhere in my mind I thought everyone else had to be crazy so the only thing I removed was my scarf…hahaha. Saw some familiar faces who were going on the trip too so that was cool…we all were nervous and chatted a bit. The professor read some updated changes which didn't really help as much (mostly about our transportation and commute) because the image in our heads was still outrageous. We were going to take a boat (2 hours) to a bus (4 hours) to another boat (2 hours) then a canoe (15 minutes). Nuts. This village was tucked away and we were really heading into the jungle! We were missing two girls at 8 am and we were getting anxious. Their room phones were called and then they came down… we headed off to deck 5 to exit the ship. We didn't walk out past the bridge leading into the city from the ship…instead we made a left and headed to the boats docked on the sides. We could hardly contain ourselves. We walked very carefully and got on this ferry/boatish thing with two levels. Took a seat on the upper level… On our way to this Amazon Rio Tupana village where we were going to stay, the tour guide talked about the Amazon. En route we saw the crossing of the waters: Rio Negro and the Amazon River. Can you imagine seeing two completely different types of colors coinciding but not mixing? It's like oil and water. Rio Negro is the Black river…when I say black, you have no idea. Black as in you cannot see what is down below. It looks like flowing marble. It is beautiful to look at but certainly a home to all types of creatures. Caimans (or alligators), two types of dolphins, piranhas and a ton of other things. There is some bit of sediment in it so while some parts are okay for swimming (much closer to where land was) it was still very dangerous because it was like going in blind. The Amazon river is home to a lot of other types of things but obviously not a swimming type of environment. I forget which one he said has more mosquitoes at night or which one most people use for fishing, but there are stark differences between the two. With the rivers meeting, it makes the Amazon river the longest river in the world… next up is the nile. It is also very wide and vast. The meeting of the two waters goes for miles…. I still look at the pictures and gawk. They really do not mix! That's wild. We get off the boat after 2ish hours and have our first interaction with what looks like a marketplace deeper in the Amazon but not quite where we wanted to go yet. It was blazing hot, we were walking up bright red clay roads, and we were getting stares from people like we were space aliens. We trekked for some time until we stopped where buses were parked. Began loading our luggage and sitting down. The bus driver has got to be a little crazy to drive those things. This is my final conclusion after this entire journey. He started backing up and just like in the Bahamas or in Dominica, we were praying we wouldn't lose our lives. He was backing out and didn't appear to even look and see if anyone was behind him…he almost hit a bus while doing some unnatural turn….it was all an experience. Then we went ricocheting a number of times as we sped once we got on the roads. These weren't manicured paved roads. These were roads of uneven dirt, mud, or clay. There were ditches and weird undefined crevices the bus didn't handle very well since we all felt in our stomachs as the bus flew on…   We finally get to the point where we have to get off the bus so it can get on some barge  thing with a ferry attached so that we could sail to the other side (like one street to another) and there were no other forms of connection. That was a spectacle because it took forever. We had to get off because it wasn't the safest thing to do. The bus had to back up on the barge, and it also had to be where it wouldn't move while the boat was pulling the barge. We were all paranoid because we had never seen anything like it and we also had left our stuff on the bus so we were concerned about the bus tipping over…or some other catastrophe. We pull up on the opposite side of the shore (where we needed to continue) and wait for the bus to meet us. There are locals standing around and we all felt a little uncomfortable since they weren't looking very friendly. Fortunately, the bus revs up and charges up the hill, so we get back on and the commute continues. There are 2 bathroom breaks at gas stations during the course of the bus ride (since its 4 hours) and we take the liberty of using up Reals to buy stuff at the convenience store. It was funny because we were trying to understand the labels since everything was in Portuguese. haha, I ended up buying some cookies that were similar to Oreos but not quite since the filling was coconut. It was great =) Some people weren't so lucky haha. Random: I was sitting somewhat in the back next to Elizabeth during the bus rides…these two guys were sitting behind us with speakers and an ipod blasting RAP. It was hilarious… they knew more than I could ever know about it which was pretty funny. Anyhow, the bus had no stereo so the entire bus  was listening to what they were playing… it was a happy day when at some point their ipods died. I don't have anything against Rap…. just saying. Finally we got to the next area where we needed to get our stuff and wait for the boat that would take us directly to the village. It was another long trip and I dozed off and on during the ride. Something fascinating about Brazil is the difference in land mass. Honestly, you would be surprised if you paid attention to the landscape and the wildlife we encountered just driving through different parts. It is a huge country. We finally get to a few isolated houses and then my professor tells us we are getting off. We looked around like what??? Hahaha. So we get off and we are all confused because the other group rode on and we have no idea what's happening. One of the people came out of the houses and walked towards us and introduced herself. She was one of the very few English speakers and she was one of the owners of the lodge we would be staying, but she introduced us to the people of the school. The Headmistress was introduced and she did a bit of smiling, the cooks were as well. There was this sorta awkwardness because we had language barriers and didn't have a clue how to communicate anything. We had two guides for the entire trip- Simon and Nigel. Simon was from Guyana but had grew up in Brazil so his English was okay, but still limited. Nigel had a European parent but also lived in Brazil for some time so his English was cool or better than the other locals, but not perfect. He also understood some Spanish. Shortly after the introductions and learning that we were limited to 2 or 3 (I can't remember what she said) water bottles per person during the course of our time there, we got to work. Mind you we had had a long exhausting commute in the hot Brazilian sun and had no idea we would begin our community service that very day. We piled our luggage into the first classroom on the floor and got to working. We had to scrape or remove existing papers or staples off of the walls because we were going to paint them…white. They were already white but we figured okay cool we'll be painting over some of this stuff. Turns out the white was a watery paint or as we found out Francisco was diluting the paints and was putting too much water in them (at that). But I'm guessing he did it so that they could spread it out and make sure there was enough for all the walls. It kinda defeated the original purpose though because when we started painting the insides of the classroom walls white, you could see the writing on the walls and stuff underneath it. It also made us confused about which parts were already painted since there was a ton of us and we all needed something to do. Not being able to see direct results wasn't very gratifying either. We all complained about that paint hahaha. They didn't have as many supplies as there were students so we had to do a bunch of rotation. We were using huge knives to scrape little bits of paper that was glued to the wall…and a swiss army knife to remove staples. Some people were using pliers, and a few had staple removers… there were brooms to sweep off the cobwebs and other interesting signs of bug life. There was a gecko lodged in the wall we were trying to paint and we didn't know how to tackle it lol. At first we kept poking it with one of the nails we removed out of the wall, but Simon came along and just took his knife and poked it. It jumped out and disappeared up the wall and out the door hahaha. He told us that the poison is in it's tail and it could sting. Go Figure. Anyhow, Richardo removed the white board they had and about 6 slimy frogs went hopping…shooting in different directions. It was the weirdest thing to see. None of us knew what was happening since they went wild so fast… but that was interesting. Otherwise there was a lot of sitting around, staring and exchanges of awkward smiles…We tried singing while working a bit…didn't last very long hahaha. That was one of the things we missed especially while working basic power to plug up a radio….The school had gotten electricity just 2 weeks before we had arrived…made us wonder if that was just because we were there. The headmistress was apparently a well known woman around town and was an advocate for the school and the needs of the children. So that was cool to know she was the one who got things done around there. There was a public telephone outside of the school that she had fought for some time…and even though it didn't work, that was one obstacle she had overcame. It was also the only phone in the village so that was interesting. While we were painting, we noticed the types of material piled on the table the students were learning. They were completely outdated work and text books. The physical quality of the books was terrible and that just made us sad since there are plenty of folks up north or in the states who have access to books and just don't use 'em.  There weren't many kids around since this was their summer vacation so that was that… and we couldn't get started on taking apart and rebuilding the bridge just yet because we had to wait until they could get us the materials so that project was held off…Lunch came fast and you could see the fear on every one of our faces. We knew that we were taking a lot from them by there being so many of us and the number of water bottles we each devoured. They do not have clean, fresh water so they have to boil the water and then refrigerate it somehow… the bottled water was again, for our convenience. =( Knowing this, we wondered about the safety of the food and it's preparation in that water. John and Jeffrey (my professor) kinda gave this gesture as in what else can we do but to eat since it would be impolite.. We had been working and traveling for some time and we were all hungry. Plus, we wouldn't eat until dinner time at the lodge. They didn't have to tell us twice…we immediately filed into line. The food wasn't bad…and clearly I am alive =) We piled our bowls in a sink in the kitchen leftover food and all. I'm not too sure what they did with the leftovers on our plates…maybe fed it to the animals because the only garbage we saw was for our water bottles. We also noticed this gigantic barrel-like bucket filled with water to the right of the bathrooms which was where they washed the dishes…  finished what we could because the boat was coming to bring us back to the lodge soon. We walked with Nigel to the neighboring houses to ask them to send their children the following day…we wanted to teach them English and get to know them…we also checked out the "store" that up the road that was owned by a family. They were also doing "well off" according to Nigel because they had a tv and no one else in the area did. Shortly after, we left.  The lodge staff workers were diligent at night putting up 22 hammocks for us. The other SAS group who was staying at the same lodge (and relied on the same transportation coming and leaving the ship) had an entirely different itinerary. We did make fun of them (they weren't experiencing an authentic stay in the Amazon) by sleeping in beds. Nevertheless, we had designated breakfast and dinner times. We had the earliest breakfast times of the two groups, but the latest dinner time. Our lunch was prepared by the village whose school we would be fixing. During the course of the evening we socialized a bit. Had to get used to the whole community shower thing… the other weird factor was how it wasn't a solo activity. The monkey liked to perch on the ledge above your head and watch you shower….how weird is that? Mind you, she didn't do it for the guys so I don't know what that was all about….you wouldn't think that something like that would be a big deal…but trust me it gets weird really quick especially when you try to shoo her away and she stays…or she flinches and then comes back… mm mm mm. Anyhow, Nigel brought in a giant grasshopper that they had found outside. It was pitch black outside so you could find all types of things. It was disgusting to look at and I didn't even think to consider holding it. But there I was, one of the many crazy SAS'ers, lining up for photos with this monstrous looking thing. It was the size of a crawfish…maybe bigger. Seriously, you look at it and you almost couldn't believe that it was harmless because it seemed big for no reason. Nigel also came back in with a toad but he let it go really quick since he wanted it to live. Makes sense. The funniest pictures were of Abby and my professor who were terrified of the bugs to begin with…Moving on, going to sleep was difficult since we were all excited. But we would meet some of the children the next day at "work" so we tried to go to sleep as soon as we could. I personally knocked out after spraying some deet…. I had enough on the hammock… and had my hoody covering my face (didn't know of another option of not leaving my face uncovered). It worked for me!


Tuesday
Waking up to the Amazon was amazing. It was breathtaking. The colors, clouds and the water was unlike anything I had ever seen before. It was like watching the sunrise from a 360 degree angle. Better than any postcard pictures taken by photographers.. it was nice to see it for myself. The fact that we were somewhat suspended in this treehouse like environment, and could fall over the ledge if we weren't too careful wasn't an issue. It was an interesting night of sleep to say the least. We were so excited on The other cute surprise was the spider monkey, Conchetta who liked to curl up in random spots on the body and with unsuspecting people. hahaha. She was very cute and even though we were constantly warned about staying away from animals since  the ship doesn't carry too many rabies vaccinations, she made the experience what it was. She had been with the lodge for three years and was fairly young in monkey years. They told us stories about her and her dislike for bathing. They said she disappeared for four days at a time when they hold her down and clean her hahaha. Anyhow, she was a riot. During our stay there she devoured some medications like Ambien, ate toothpaste, shampoo and some other things. She was your friend just as long as you had something to give her or she helped herself and figured out whether she could eat something of yours…. she was almost like a baby or adolescent. We had to keep chasing her or telling people to "stop the monkey" hahaha. The other interesting thing is I am getting used to being "rocked to sleep." As I mentioned in previous posts, sleep on the ship has been the best I have ever gotten. The whole rocking to sleep is no myth… it essentially felt like that with the hammocks. With the help of the wind, we were all "rocked" and that was wonderful since it put me out like a lamp. I didn't have to worry about the physical hammock itself as being my means for sleeping or trying to get to that sleepy point. I just did it. Breakfast was great… and then we were off!

When we got to the village we worked on painting green. The headmistress had her mind set about a lot of things. She was adamant about how she wanted things painted and when she wanted it done. I think she kinda rubbed some of the SAS'ers the wrong way. It almost seemed like she was regarding us as though we weren't doing it out of the kindness of our hearts, but rather because she just thought we were extremely well off. It was interesting because someone else mentioned how she seemed a bit rude and had at some point grabbed a paintbrush from them so that wasn't surprising. The kids started trickling in. At first we were all shy and didn't know what to do… but then Jeffrey suggested we get in a circle and teach them the "head and shoulder's, knees and toes" song… You would be surprise at how that went. Hahaha. Not as simply as we thought, that's for sure. Richardo was translating what we were saying to the kids in Portuguese, so naturally they were repeating it in Portuguese. We kept trying to tell Richardo that while he was giving them the right body part in Portuguese, the song was meant to be in English. But he kept nodding at us saying yes Portuguese? You, English? And we were like yes, wait no! Hahaha. We went back and forth for a minute trying to convey that we wanted him to get the kids to repeat after us. That was the funniest moment of all… language barriers obliterate any awkward moments. We were all laughing hysterically afterwards. Seriously. Finally we gave in and Richardo ended up winning slightly. He would point to stuff and say it in Portuguese, and we repeated after him which was cool, but not what we planned for the day with the kids hahaha.  But anyhow we followed his lead and would give him the English translation. Finally he got the point and we sung the "heads, shoulders, knees and toes" song. Once he got the hang of what we were trying to do, we played "Duck, duck goose…" That game was easier to demonstrate and the little kids loved it. Richardo was funny because he is 33 years (as we all found out later), but he was so inquisitive that he was like another student. He kept asking us what a goose/duck was and it was hard to explain since he didn't understand much English to begin with. Brittany (the photograph for SAS) was flapping her arms trying to imitate a bird and make the simple distinction that one was bigger than the other. Hahaha. Anyhow, that game was a hoot because the kids liked running around… and while we let some of them win (jogging extremely slow), majority of us got tagged because these kids were genuinely fast. We moved on to Red Rover. We divided into two teams and stood opposite of each other. This one required another demonstration and Richardo also translated… soon we knew that they got it because they started getting competitive among each other and that was funny to watch. But the real game where we saw more of their personalities show was when we went ahead and played "futbol" or soccer. We divided into girls versus boys… talk about intense! The Brazilian girls playing were young but they were so skilled! Then we had the guts to do Brazil versus America…. lol… totally a joke. We got our butts kickkkkkked faster than we could open our eyes. Luckily no one was really keeping score. The hilarious part is that there were more of us than them… They also either took off their flip flops to play or were already without shoes. I noticed that about all the kids… We (Americans) had shoes and even our best players were still struggling. Go Figure. Anyhow, the ball kept getting kicked everywhere including mud… so many people got mud splattered on them it was a picture in itself. Then we had to get back to painting since there were a bunch of folks who painted through this incredible time we were having…

That night we had horse and a bunch of other creatures for dinner…It wouldn't be the Amazon if it wasn't any interesting food included…Plus the way it was prepared didn't make it seem weird...Somehow I felt comforted to know that it was common meal for them... Made the experience much different than let's say going somewhere it wasn't cooked all the time. Besides, it tasted and looked great. Sorry folks if that grosses you out.. I love food, and I enjoy trying new things... Everything I ate in the Amazon will stay in the Amazon =) I am 99% sure I won't find it in any American restaurants so I guess that should be fairly comforting. Moving on... Nigel and Simon also found a poisonous spider which he captured in a soda bottle. He put a fly in it and we heard the fly stop buzzing… kinda sad since we were all in on this poor thing's fate. He told us how it created fevers, hot/cold sweating flashes and some other things… we kept looking at this not so big creature in amazement. It didn't reassure us that one of those things wouldn't crawl into the hammock with any of us since we were sleeping in the open. I went to bed early though. Actually shortly after dinner… folks were swimming and I opted out. I started off sitting in my hammock reflecting and thinking about the strangest combination of people. What's odd is the timing of when people cross your mind. These were folks I hadn't even thought about yet…or while even on the ship. Well, they made their grand entrance and lingered in my thoughts for a bit… then I somehow fell asleep? For some weird reason, I didn't think to really load up on Deet so I slept without it. (I can think of one good reason: laziness). Plus I worried about spraying it and it seeping and inhaling too much of it while sleeping…

If you're wondering what ever happened when I arrived in Manaus...

Thinking back to the day after I arrived in Manaus....

its 16:13 pm. I am laying on the bed listening to my roomies recount their activities for the last few days. I just got out the shower…an hour ago I walked on the ship from my 4 days/3 nights in the Amazon. Early on in the semester (well when we first got on the ship and sat through orientation), the Dean of Students told us that we will come to love the ship and it will become a symbol of home for us. She couldn't have been more accurate. True we kinda rolled our eyes back then because we were anxious to leave the Union. I kid you not, I was soooo relieved to stand in the torrential rain, get my bags checked, walk up the gangway and swipe my ID into the freezing realm of the lovely, familiar Tymitz Square. I never felt so dirty in my life. We were muddy, stinky, exhausted, and excited to be reunited with more people. We were completely isolated. But let me retrace my adventure since I didn't post my reflections of my first complete day in Manaus. I started it that night but didn't feel up to finishing it because I was sooo tired and as you can see….never got around to it. So I will insert what I originally wrote for that day (Sunday):


The time is 17:14 pm and I am utterly and thoroughly exhausted. I just came back to the ship and can honestly say I don't mind if I stay in for the rest of the evening...or for the rest of the Brazil stop. It is so-freaking-hot. Like, it's driving all of us crazy. We have been irritated, hungry, thirsty, and antsy all day and none of us are good company right now hahaha. After breakfast, we all went back to our rooms and showered. Met up with Crystal, Kelly, Obai, Malachi and Kyle. We head out and I see Erica and Yohanna who asked if we had any plans. They were standing around in Tymitz Square so I was standing with them a bit and seeing if we were just gonna merge the groups... I turned around and everyone was gone. So I told them bye and walk off (swipe my ID, walk down the gangway) and there they are. I was thinking to myself, wow. So much for that. But hey, brushed it off. Man, that was a tiny glimpse of how the earlier portion of the day would turn out. Somehow Crystal was in control and we were.... following her??! Now let me explain this to you. We get off the ship, wandered into the Tourist center... took some time to withdraw money from the HSBC atm... the line was long but it was worth it. It was no fee to withdraw (into Brazilian Reals). The tricky part was understanding the machine and the transactions you were making since it was in Portuguese hahaha. But we figured that out...walked into one of the stores right next door to browse...started talking to Daniel, Cobie and Ian (Yohanna and Erica's group had caught up and were finalizing their plans)... next thing you know I turned around and see they were gone again. So I was like whatever, I don't stress stuff like that. I was going to hang with these folks because thats the loveliness of SAS. We all get along... and there are no set cliques...But then Obai comes walking back and leads me where they are so I follow. Man why did I do that. We come outside of the Tourist center and find ourselves in the heart of the city with tons of tents and marketplaces. Obai had stressed that he wanted to go “grocery shopping” since last night so naturally when we discovered a store we walked into it. Crystal gets impatient and says we can do it later...why get the snacks now and carry it all over the city... which makes sense at the time so everyone agrees. Mistake #32341. For whatever reason, she's blazing through the streets trying to get us to some Opera house which I didn't mind, I just didn't get why this girl was rushing us. We had all day. Plus we started so early in the day and from what we heard, due to it being a Sunday, most stores wouldn't be open until late afternoon. Marketplaces were everywhere though. But there we were... all of us following this girl who was equally as ignorant about the city as we were (we didn't know this yet though, regrettably). We asked some folks how to get to it and they laugh at us. Not surprised. Not everyone  like Americans. Kyle was feeling self-conscious because he felt like he really stood out and sadly he was getting a lot of rude stares. We kept having to stop and have “talks” with Kelly... she looked and walked like she was lost. Think of someone who looks like they stumbled out on stage by accident...well that was her. Hahaha. She couldn't help it though, she was scared and some people can't help that it shows. It was pretty intimidating I gotta say though. especially since the entire streets were dominated by markets so there was always a ton of people... PlusI guess people were trying to figure out my ethnicity because I didn't get too much negative attention and in fact, some random folks were trying to ask me stuff in Portuguese. I replied back in broken Spanish and English ahahaha. But back to this earlier venture. So yeah, turns out she was trying to meet her friends and we were being dragged and rushed around. Mind you, she's tiny in height and build. I'm guessing she was using us for protection haha. But seriously, we finally figured out where the Opera house is. We walk up the steps and there's a massive crowd of SAS folks... we take pictures... then we find out we can actually take seats because there is a free show starting soon. Naturally, since we walked so darn far and because she acted like it was a life or death situation, we thought it would make sense to stay. Right? No. Obai, Kyle and I walk in...This girl starts walking back out (and there was an ocean of people streaming in) so when she disappears it takes a minute to register. Malachi was kinda confused and finally shrugged like I don't know what's happening...his usual face hahaha. He went out there to “get her” haha... I bet you can guess what happened then. At that point I was like forget it. I didn't come here to waste any time nor be annoyed when it didn't have to play out that way. So we are in there with seats, we run into more SAS folks and I ended up sitting with Courtney.  Obai feels bad because Kelly had put her stuff in his bag so he goes outside to check on them (much courteous than they were I tell ya). He finds them, and gives it to her and they take off. He comes back irritated like we walked all over and its hot and this little girl..... hahahaha...Womp Womp. Yeah quite a start to the morning. The show was apparently the last? It was an orchestra and they played classical music. It was amazing. Found myself watching the Conductor a lot... he was so into it. I wonder why few people have an appreciation for classical music, it was amazing and I recorded one or two songs (they were long)…anyhoww, we did some wandering around. We weren't really sure where we wanted to eat or what we could eat since you get scared pretty bad about the bacterias and cooking differences in foreign food. We saw this square with some interesting writing and pictures symbolic of the slave trade and took pictures. There was also a shop called African Market I can't remember if it said Museum or one of the two. Either way it was closed so we didn't get to check it out. One thing that struck me about Manaus was the diversity of people. We barely saw any light skinned folks, most were brown or dark Brazilians. You really had to do a double take because of the representations you generally get of Brazil. There is a noticeable difference between North and South Brazil (which doesn't get depicted in the media we get back in the US about Brazil) and that showed in the types of people we saw. We also realized that the assumption that because we were still a part of South American so people spoke/understood Spanish was completely and utterly false hahaha. We tried on numerous occasions to communicate using Spanish but the official language of Brazil is Portuguese. I repeat, Portuguese. They responded to whatever words were identical in both Portuguese and Spanish but that was about it. We were stuck with hand gestures, drawing pictures, repeating Spanish words with an Italian or hopefully Portuguese accent…and that was interesting lol.  But moving onward we walked and walked and walked. We came across some restaurants but we weren't sure if we wanted to stop and eat there or if we could find something better. We ended up walking all the way back to the marketplace than ruling eating at one of the vendors out. So we walked all the way back to that row of Brazilian restaurants. We opted on one where we saw a table of SAS students already inside. We were given menus but we couldn't really read or make a decision about what to get (even though one of the menus had English translation). The only thing we could figure out was the beverage…and what did most of us order? Coca Cola. Coca Cola is a huge deal internationally… it apparently sponsors a ton of world wide events… so go figure. They even served it in the glass bottles. Lol. Mind you, I don't even drink it in the US. That stuff is lethal… ever heard about how it takes the paint off of cars? Or how it can be used to clean toilets? Exactly. But we couldn't trust anything else that wasn't carbonated… In the pre-port meeting they warned us about ice (frozen water that may not be purified or from a clean source) and fruits. The other folks ordered bottled mineral water. Courtney and I looked over at this Brazilian guy eating this whole fish with the head and all, rice and some sauce. We told the waiter thats what we wanted. Haha..talk about taking risks! The girls with us ordered a cubed steak and something that looked like chicken fingers but not quite. Either way, they got their order first and it looked delish. It came with a basket of rice and fries…Courtney and I looked at each other like, "hmm…maybe we shoulda gone with something familiar…" But then ten minutes later our platters came. I guess the entire fish was fried someway somehow because the entire thing was crispy… with our whole fish, came a side of white rice, a bowl of white crunchy something to sprinkle on it which by the way, we had been getting with every dish in Brazil (still don't know the name of it). There was a sauce kinda like a salsa-like vinaigrette? I mixed it with my rice because the fish was perfectly seasoned. Obai's pizza was the last to come so he sat for a bit watching us enjoy our food hahaha. He ended up not eating his pie but one or two pieces… it was supposed to be a pizza with different meats I am guessing? No actually, it was something like pepperoni with a few things he asked on it. Either way, he was disappointed and became a bit of a sourpuss. Naturally we looked at him and asked what did he expect…. People don't go to Brazil and order pizza… womp womp. As I learned in Bahamas, you stick to the things the country has plentiful and what they prepare well. You won't be disappointed. My fish (although I have no idea what type of fish it was) was gigantic and each bite was amazing! Hahaha. After we sorted out (after paying for our meals) we was still divided on what to do. The girls mentioned one of the major malls so we decided to go but needed to find a cab. There was a cab parked outside so we asked him if it was even open by this point on a Sunday he said it was. We found out it was at least 15 minutes away… Then he told us it would cost like $55 bucks…definitely ridiculous. Or maybe not… we just thought it was hahaha. Anyhow, I told him no bueno. We are so used to taxi drivers seeing us and seeing dollar signs. Discussed it with the rest of everyone and we tried to think of what else there was to do… not much so I talked to the guy again trying to toss some Spanish in hahaha. I told him we needed to get to that mall but we would only do it for $25 (everyone would just put in $5). After a few minutes he agreed and we squeezed the best way we could in his car. During the car ride we threw out some spanish words and had a fairly decent conversation going. He smiled a lot and we learned he liked to dance but was terrible at singing. He was very nice. The ride also gave us more of a glimpse at Manaus than we could have expected…When we got to the Mall we were shocked at how pristine it was once you entered. It went on for miles and there were at least four floors with a section that looked similar to a "dave & buster's", a movie theater (we recognized some we hadn't seen yet in the states…too bad they were in Portuguese haha), a very diverse and impressive food court. Too bad we weren't trying to eat again. When we got thirsty we had to really stop ourselves from getting a smoothie or ice cream. First off, it is Brazil and it was hot… secondly, there were more ice cream, frozen yogurt and smoothie places than we could handle at that moment. The temptation was just too great so we went to one of the stands where they were offering free samples… tried the black cherry ice cream… it was good, until the after taste. That little bit was enough to remind us that the milk or the cows were different and whatever conditions they were under were equally as different… so we didn't buy a scoop. Went to the McDonald's to get Coca Cola. Courtney freaked out once we realized that we hadn't told the girl no ice…. so she took a few sips and tossed it… I refused to do that hahaha. But I didn't keep mines much longer after she tossed hers. Funny story, we also didn't know how to say anything else on the menu even if we wanted to order something else so we just kept it short and when the girl asked us in Portuguese simply said "Coca Cola…media." Thank God for Coca Cola… haha. We ran into some more SAS folks (Aisha, Darlene, and some other girl) and ended up leaving with them. We split into two cabs and paid the same price, this time the cab driver we had didn't speak anything other than Portuguese… out of nowhere Aisha starts speaking to him… we all looked at her like what?? She apparently took a year of Portuguese a year or so ago and never got to use it… wells, she used it alright. We all were relying on her to get us back to the ship… and that she did so that was grrrreat! We got back and went our separate ways… it had been a long day so napping before dinner time was necessary.


Everyone was talking about Samba something during dinner. My understanding was that there would be practice in the Union (6th deck) at 7pm… unfortunately this was wrong. Everyone was meeting near the Union (or it turns out more like Tymitz Square on deck 5) to get further instructions on how to get to the Samba event. Womp womp…it all happened so fast… I ended up not going because people were leaving and I didn't know that it would be happening when it did. Again, my introduction to Brazil wasn't a great one. Everyone came back that night (and the following days to come) raving about it. It was amazing they kept gushing. Picture a long street party. Add hypnotic drumming, brazilian dancers, chaos, drinks, and laughs. It was madness trying to find people and there was so many Brazilians. It was like their Carnival which I hear from natives (and also popular in the Caribbean islands)… I missed one of the main attractions, big events that Brazilians boast and brag about=( definitely dropped the ball on that one by missing it. Then those who I talked to for a bit went to sleep shortly after :( they said they kept dancing nonstop because of the drums… got to the point where people weren't even trying to "dance" anymore, but they just kept moving because the drums made you hahahaha. I definitely felt like a dum dum for losing that experience with my fellow SAS'ers. =( On the flip side, I did the responsible thing… I packed for my Amazon trip (had ample time thanks to being a loser that night). That also gave me more than enough time to overpack (as I eventually found out), but in that moment I used the packing excuse as a levy for myself. Obai was still feeling down and out about his girlfriend so he stayed back as well. We just walked around the ship…felt like a ghost town. Malachi and Kyle decided not to go either and were napping instead. Their flight for the overnight SAS Rio trip was scheduled at 11:30pm…mines to the Amazon wasn't until 8am the next morning…technically, we could have gone and came back because it wasn't that far and everyone left to go around 7pm. Anyhow let's move past this because I get annoyed at myself all over again lol. The fact that my other group of friends, Daniel, Ian, Erica and Yohanna told me they didn't leave until 8/9ish pm so I shoulda hit them up and knocked on their door may have a little to do with it as well hahaha. Urgh. Okay done with that. So my roomies eventually came back and everyone stayed up talking. One of Obai's roommates brought a girl back to the room. They were apparently very drunk as well and had gotten back from the Samba ordeal… Obai's not very confrontational so he didn't want to interrupt or say anything so he dropped by our room…Caroline got into talking about anthropology (her love) hahaha, and that was cool.  we all conked out around 4ish am…we offered Obai a pillow and cover to just crash over our spot. I was in the limbo stage. I wasn't sure if I should go to sleep or stay awake since it was past the point of return and I didn't want to oversleep and miss my trip… I gave in and slept of course…

Brazillllll Baby!

Good morning worlddddddddd!! It is 8:56 am and I just got back from breakfast. The guys woke me up for breakfast (called my room and waited even though they were doors down...how sweet). We were making fun of each other's morning faces hahaha. I came into this experience with no “older” brothers...now I... somehow have 3 adopted bros with various personalities (and backgrounds). As their “little sis” they can be pretty brutal (hahaha) but its been a blast thus far. Anyhow, what's even better is the fact that we are in MANAUSSSSSS!!! Helloooooo Brazil =) There was a welcome SAS dance/performance when we arrived. I know this only because everyone who was awake talked about it (and I watched it) on Obai's camera. But I walked out to deck 5 and looked out... its incredibly muggy, buggy that we are actually having a discussion about what to wear hahaha. The people welcoming us are still out there jamming and dancing so I can't wait to get off the ship and see up close. The first view of the city is kinda limited. We also pulled up next to some other boats that are docked and there are natives sitting out there, staring at the ship. I guess we should get used to this...showing up in a massive ship and people staring at all of us “Americans.” It's funny because in Dominica, all the natives would just come up to you or stare and say “Are you from the ship?” or stuff like “Are you Semester at Sea?” We create business opportunities wherever we land haha, and are amusing to watch I'm sure. But yeah it's the morning and I am wide awake (sorta) and ready to do big things! I didn't have anything planned today so a bunch of folks and I are meeting on the 5th deck (tymitz square) and are going to figure it out from there. I am actually going to focus on getting postcards and stamps while I can because I have that village overnight from Monday-Thursday. Catch ya folks later... going to see what Brazil has in store for us today!

We're so close to Manaus, Brazil -- yet so far...

It is 12:27 pm and I am just waking up. I was supposed to wake up in time for breakfast and meet some folks... but obviously that didn't happen. I definitely stayed up with the guys until 3:38 am just talking... well they did most of the talking. Hahaha. But I woke up feeling kinda frazzled and lost. Dunno why it took me a minute to get orientated again... I looked around and my roomies were gone too so I was almost questioning where the heck I was... Today is a reading day. We have no classes so after a long time, yesterday actually felt like a normal friday for us. No one wanted to go to bed early haha. After my two classes, there were a whole bunch of programs. “Ask the Sexperts” turned out to be a hoot. You wrote a question on a sheet of paper and it was answered (anonymously of course). So many people came than they anticipated that they had to get two amps and mics so everyone could hear. Hahaha. It was an interesting program... always interesting to hear what people are thinking. They did have to remind folks not to make some comments and snicker about certain questions asked because it came from people sitting next to us or somewhere in the room. Made sense to me, a respect thing. There was a “Managing Homesickness” workshop and some other stuff happening... didn't go to those though. I thought I was going to the Open Mic when I walked in the Union and sat down... turns out it would start an hour later, so I had to sit through this panel discussion about Brazil with the wife to the Ambassador of Brazil, some other folks and the folks that came on the ship when we stopped from Brazil. It would have been interesting if I didn't have to hear all of it again. The Ambassador's wife and the main lady doing all the talking had spoke to my International Perspectives on Family Violence class earlier that day. I didn't want to leave because if I went back to my room, I wouldn't necessarily get back early in time to grab a good seat for Open Mic... Open Mic, let's just get to it. So once that last panel ended, everyone piled in. I shot to the front row with Ross. It was a informal Open Mic. By that I meant there glitches, there was comedy, there was some talent but most of all, it was a fun event to watch. The first “act” wasn't an act at all. The girl they called up had in actuality signed up her sorority sister, so she was dragging her on stag. After we watched her struggle and get her there, we listened to them go back and forth. Home girl wasn't going to sing...finally Julie (LLC) stepped in and took the mic and gave it to the emcee to continue with the show. The second act was Mya who was the girl I met the day of work-study (she was the first on the ship, I was the second hehe). She sung and played her ukelele. The following acts were mostly duets- one of was an original for SAS with the melody from Grease. Hahah. Then there was a pair who sung “Lucky” (by Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat), another did a duet called “Fast car” and the dude played the piano. The girl had a beautiful voice but she held back a lot. One kid did a few lines from Shakespeare so he had some girl from the audience stand on the chair and be his Juliet hahaha. My friend Darlene (who is from Elizabeth, NJ close enough to NY hahaha) had everrrrrryone laughing. I took pictures but I wish I had recorded it especially since I was in the front row.  She did Lady Gaga “Bad Romance.” She had two guys (one on her left, other on her right). They did all the rolling around and she was all in character and stuff. They all had dark eye makeup.. Man, she sold it. It was freaking hilarious. I am telling you, everyone was falling out of their seats laughing. She got a standing ovation at the end... I don't think I cried that much from laughter in a while. (It is now 14:05 pm -I am continuing this blog after dashing to lunch. I got there by 12:55 and lunch ends at 1 so I was happy =) Had to get some food in my system and take this malaria medicine -Doxycycline and ended up running into some folks and eating together...) but back to yesterday...

Yeah, then some other group did the titanic song (it was comical) she was doing some mock ballet moves and this dude on stage with her was equally as funny. One of my professors for Music & Cognition performed two fiddle pieces (one from someone in Texas, another from Kentucky). That was cool and people started line dancing in the aisles haha. Another kid played and sang an original song he had just wrote a day ago. Let me just say he is an amazing guitar player.... and that's it...That should cover it. Haha. Everyone was supportive though. It takes a lot to get up there. A girl named Rosa did a phenomenal original piece of poetry which made you question the world and stuff.  She had great stage presence and it was captivating. Had goosebumps! She was also the only person who did poetry and/or had actual “talent” hahahaha. Everyone who signed up for the Open Mic was doing in the spirit of jest... so I definitely woulda been a buzz killer too. Hahaha. Uhh, let's see who else...I think that just about covers it... Oh wait, we had a rapper in our midst. This kid (whose birthday was also yesterday) decided to recite a rap he wrote earlier. He put this really funky fast techno beat on and was having trouble keeping up with it hahahahaha. He kept starting over and cursing in the mic hahaha. Finally, he gave that up and just recited a rap he knew off the top of his head. Very amusing, but that's SAS for ya. So yeah, that concluded the first official “Open Mic.” Minutes afterwards, “Club Union” started. Let me tell you, it was wack. Hahahaha. I guess that should be comforting to those who think this is a party ship. You can't really have an amazing party on a moving ship... especially when there are so many different types of people and the source of music was one random dude's ipod... hahaha. He had some good songs, but SAS is diverse in terms of musical interests... so after sticking around for a bit, lots of folks left.. It was only from 10-12 pm anyway. So yeah, folks milled around the piano bar and sat playing games. I went up to the main dining room and ran into some folks playing spades. I went back to the LLC office to grab some games (Swap and playing cards). Swap is similar but different than Uno...the goal is to have less cards... with certain cards, you have the luxury of taking someone's hand and/or changing the direction of folks passing their hands. There is a slap card which was a funny card to throw down because it creates a spirit of panic and paranoia for future slap cards. Hahaha. By the way, the slap card is intended for everyone to slap the pile, last person has to take a card from the person who tossed it down. Again, the idea is to have less cards. So yeah, here we (myself, Abbie, Maria, Elsa, Elisabeth and two other folks whose names escaped me at the moment), playing this rowdy game with foreign looking cards. The circle kept growing and folks wanted in on this game. It seems the whole ship was wandering around or waiting around for what was next... No one wanted to go to sleep because it made little sense to.... Saturday we had a free day (well a “reading day”) and Sunday we would be in Manaus so no class until sometime next week or after port!!! Haha. So we started playing other games like Egyptian something, blackjack etc. Ended up walking around a bit. Chatting with folks and playing Swap again in the rooms. All around a cool day although I was mostly withdrawn verbally so unless I was doing stuff, Obai and Ian kept asking if I was ok. I felt I was. I mean, I didn't know what else to say...

Random thought: While in the dining room for lunch we were watching a ton of girls walk out onto the deck in bikinis to tan. I never really got that... or understood it. One of the girls at our table told us she does it to get a little “golden” but burns easily so it never works well for her, but that she wouldn't mind being browner like a caramel... Kayla and I just looked at each other... like hmm. Hahaha. I can't relate haha. She also said that some of these girls are used to doing it back home (tanning salons) that I guess its a psychological thing. I guess we are entitled to our own things... I just found it interesting... Skin cancer is prevalent but ehh, what we would do just to get a little browner hahaha. No but it created a fascinating conversation. We started asking her questions trying to comprehend. Anastacia was just shaking her head and kinda laughing. I mean, as Kayla pointed out. We will be in Brazil for almost a week, and let's not forget we are not only going to Ghana but to South Africa as well. Those places, you won't have much control. Everyone will get darker. It's inevitable. So while we are still sailing the Amazon and looking out at the jungle and brown muddy-like water. Add the fact that it is muggy outside and difficult to breathe due to the humidity... and add the huge beetles and moths flying around.... why anyone wants to tan is absurd but that's what its all about. Learning and letting people be. Haha. Yesterday, Obai said that the guys went out to play basketball on the deck and he saw a big mosquito already playing, so they said they got next and waited indoors 'til it left. Hahahahaha. Some other folks have had stuff land on them and they freaked out. Anastacia said a moth the size of her fist sat on her shoulder and she was screaming til it flew. Went back to her room sprayed bug spray then went back out on the deck hahahahaa. There are a lot of dead bugs scattered especially near the pool but it's only a small intro to the creatures of the Amazon! I can't believe I am going to be spending 4 days and 3 nights in a village and sleeping in a community longhouse. The fact that my professor doesn't know much more than we do and he's the one who set it up is kinda alarming... but hey its an adventure... and since I am going with him...he's responsible for getting me back in one piece! LOL.  He told us we are going to bring some construction stuff so I am assuming during the course of our stay we will be helping build something for them. We are bringing 3 “in destructable” soccer balls as well. By “in destructable” I mean just that. It's a new campaign (google it) happening across the nation. It is in efforts to give children the means to practice soccer as much as they want (and for those who can't afford it in indigenous communities) to always have it. It deflates if ran over by cars/trucks/ or whatever vehicle.. but quickly regains its form from what I hear. Isn't that amazing? I tell ya, we are quite a society. Anyhow, we'll be bringing some of those since soccer is the pastime of the Brazilian people... it's also because right now the kids and teens are out of school (this is their summer) so we will be the spectacle and surrounded by a ton of folks with more than enough time to make us feel uncomfortable hahaha. It's gonna serve as a gift (for staying in their respective village) and as a conversation starter... But to get to this place we have to drive 100 miles or 3 hours into the jungle. Mind you, to get to Manaus from the Amazon River, we have been traveling 1000 miles inland. So talk about pure isolation... we will literally be in the middle of nowhere and living in the jungle with these folks for 4 days. I'm terrified but excited. More terrified though. I keep looking at my 100% Deet and silently thanking God. Hahaha. It smells terrible but I pray that it protects me from the wilderness. This isn't like Stockton, which was 1600 acres of pinelands... with some bugs here and there. This is the freaking Amazon. Common people, experts, historians STILL don't know the names and species of everything in the waters or jungles here. There's a reason for that!!!!!!! Technically, we would be in Manaus already, but we are so much earlier than anticipated. We weren't scheduled to arrive until tomorrow at 8 am. The ship has dropped down to moving less than 10 knots. It's ridiculous actually because we are creeping and the diagram clearly shows how close we are. They are going to stretch it out. I am assuming it's because docking costs an obscene amount of money??? I don't know but we definitely should be there by this afternoon. Let's see how they work this out... I am the only dork in my room (I think) so I am going to go find folks and mingle!

(yawn) (yawn) Still in the Amazon (yawn) (yawn)

Just got back from the Union. I had to sit through a “drink responsibly” workshop. I couldn't remember whether or not I had completed the mandated alcohol questionnaire prior to boarding the ship, and the consequences were pretty steep so I decided to sign the sheet and be safe than sorry. It was a waste of time, but amusing. It consisted of the very familiar ice-breaker where we came up with terminology to describe levels of drinking. Then we had to put them in the order of intensity....then it all centered around the notion that being responsible and drinking would differ among each individual but we could agree on some characteristics. (Yawn). Again, I was just attending this workshop because it was the last call to fulfill that requirement. Plus, if you hadn't taken the quiz/attended, you could get dock time in the next port. In case I didn't mention it in previous posts, you absolutely do not want dock time. Dock time is a killer. Before each port we have a pre-port meeting where we are briefed on everything about the culture. It's critical that we attend (actually who am I kidding, it's mandatory). But trust me, you wouldn't want to miss it with the amount of information circulating in that moment. So anyhow, there is ship time and there's disembarkation time. Ship board time is always two hours earlier than actual disembarkation. However, as you may suspect, you technically should be back earlier than ship time because of the number of folks on this ship. The first time you are “late” 1-10 minutes you get a warning. Now “late” even consists of those folks who were standing in line, but swiped in their ID's a minute/10 minutes after the scheduled “ship board time.” Anyone from 11-15 minutes get 3 hours dock time. 16-20 minutes is 6 hours dock time. 21-30 minutes is 9 hours dock time and so on and so forth. Dock time has got to be humiliating...especially since there is so much that goes into planning for this once in a lifetime experience. It is also costly because many of us fight to get certain pre-sale activities so you don't exactly get a refund if you miss out on your scheduled stuff just because you have  “detention.”

So you now get the picture why I decided to sit through it. Then while inside, I found out that there was going to be a movie night. So I sat in the Union for the last 3 hours – 1 for the alcohol thingie, and 2 for “Eat, Pray, Love.” I think that's the right title. Definitely was a chick flick with a cutesy message. Was loving the free popcorn we got =) Then afterwards, we had to get readjusted to the lights and the slightly moving ship. It's been creeping. At some point earlier, it was at 3.4 knots and then shot down to 0.0 knots. Who woulda known that to move so slowly also meant the ship would be rattling and make so much noise! We also stopped at some point because someone from the Brazil embassy came on the ship to help us navigate from this point forward and get us where we need to in Manaus. Also because he would have to have all of our passports (and see our yellow fever vaccination cards). Speaking of earlier, I brought up the pirates with my roomies and Caroline said that one of the girls in her class said her parents got kidnappers' insurance for her. Hahaha. (Don't ask me why that is funny...it just is... ). Moving forward, we left the Union and went to the Main Dining Hall in search of some livelihood. Seems everyone has been going to bed around here a lot earlier. There was a host of people in there because it was snack time... we were hoping we could grab some of those delish fudge brownies with chocolate chips around during dinner but we were out of luck... actually the real story is we rushed to the dining hall and grabbed some other stuff because we didn't see any out. No soon as we got out of line, they had brought out the remainders and the lucky chickadees behind us grabbed them =(  Oh well. That's a good thing I guess. I don't need the junk. Now if only if I remember that... haha

There was another announcement over the PA system about an Open Mic tomorrow. I don't know whether to sing or read/recite a poem. Maybe I'll concoct something and do a blend. The Dean of Students also said that tomorrow will be the first “dance” of the semester and referred to the huge auditorium/Union as “Club Union.” Soooooo after laughing really hard with some fellow students, we are interested in seeing what that would look like or what type of music will be played. We all be in attendance of course because SAS is notorious for entertainment, and it'll be fun either way. But I think I am going to retire (pretty early) it's only 23:40 o'clock. But tomorrow are my long days (B). Got 3 classes, my usual meeting with my boss, as well as all the fun stuff to attend! TGTIF – Thank God Tomorrow Is Friday... although days of the week really become irrelevant unless we are at Port.. but we will be on SUNDAAAAYYYYYY so no classes!! Hallelujah! Oh and Saturday is a reading day so we won't have any classes as well =) Happy sleeping folks!

AMAZON RIVER AMAZON RIVER! How many of you can say you sailed the Amazon River???

We are in the Amazon.... We are sailing the Amazon River. Right now I am looking out and staring at this muddy, brownish... ever-stretching flow of what looks like chocolate milk. It is surreal. At one point we were going at 26 knots-- no wonder everyone was flying and bumping into things. It seems we blazed a trail into Brazil. We've been in the Amazon for a night so far. We entered by 10 pm last night. We were soooo excited once the captain announced it. After dinner and talking with Daniel for a bit, Obai and I went up to the pool bar for a bit. Geoffrey was hilarious with his “swiping problem.” I tell you, it is real! A lot of people have been having the same problem including myself. We all never knew how addicted we were to junk food until we saw it and realized it was not included in our dining meals. He admitted to swiping and spending up to $35 just yesterday alone. I don't have it that bad, but I indulged in a vanilla ice-cream cone and thennnnn 6 (which I shared) delish chocolate chip cookies that had just came out of the oven/easy bake. I haven't purchased any more twizzlers so that's a pat on the back for me. It's something about all junk food though. Psychologically, it's a comfort sort of situation and reminds of home in the states. I can't imagine how much SAS rakes in from the pool and piano bars alone...Strategic. We ran into Aisha who was suckered into getting ice-cream too hahaha... it was kinda muggy outside on the deck. It's funny how the temperature from the air conditions throughout the ship doesn't prepare you for whatever the case may be when you go out on a deck. It was one of those humid, no-air type of a night. But folks were scattered around the pool at tables playing cards and other stuff. Anyhow, we went downstairs and end up at Malachi and Kyle's room. There were 3 other females and we introduced ourselves and got to talking and playing music. After a while they trickled out so they could sleep through the Amazon entrance. For some reason, a lot of folks were afraid and wanted to already be sleep. I mean, considering the circumstances, I guess if I wasn't a weird person I would be too.

Every voyage is unique. While there are routine countries to some degree, the ports are always different (for both experience and safety reasons). With that being said, the ship has never sailed the Amazon River before. I am assuming that the captain has done so with other cruise ships he's done in the past... but who knows. Why doesn't that make me nervous? I would hope that the captain and his folks would have assessed this before taking us through it. He did announce that once we entered we would have to slow down immensely because it is very shallow (for a ship of this size) and that we would have to be careful because it would be a tedious thing. What he didn't mention out loud (but what we discussed in the room) was if it wasn't done strategically, the ship could tip over. We also watched the moving diagram on the ship's channel. At one point it noted that the ship had dropped down to 9 knots. That was excruciating to watch because we were so excited and just wanted to be in it already! They also advised us to stay in our cabins because going out to any of the decks especially while entering...and it was dark... and there are bugs and other creatures... wouldn't be a great equation at this particular moment in time. Made sense for me so I stayed put. Haha. We kept running to the window though because we wanted a glimpse at the water. It was too dark to make out any alligators/sea life but the water looked really velvety and we could see the brownness. We got to talking about the animals. The Amazon is home to hundreds of thousands of species. Some we have yet to discover. What was happening with those beneath the ship, we had to be offsetting their normal balance of things... would they retaliate? Obai kept making these jokes about monster-sized mosquitoes lifting SAS'ers and dragging them overboard ahahaha. Just gotta say, I'm glad I got that 100% Deet. I'll create a halo for me and a few selected friends. Seriously that stuff is so strong they didn't sell it in stores. I went to Home Depot, Walmart and a few other spots and looked in their Home/Lawning sections where other insecticides were listed. I asked the specialists and they all gave me a strange look when I asked for more Deet percentage... So I went to Amazon.com (very fitting hahahaha). The label said that if the substance isn't used as intended, I could be subject to fines and some other stuff. It has to be applied carefully so as to avoid numbing and some other stuff. Sounds lethal right? Welps, I wanted to be extra bug free. I am doing an FDP with my professor and some other students. We are going to be staying 4 days and 3 nights in the Amazon Rio Tupana village. Apparently the (very brief I might add) description said we would be staying in a community longhouse in the middle of the jungle and learn how a particular village lives by participating in their daily routines/community service. Because of our proximity, this stay would encompass the ecological and natural aspect of the Amazon...You know what that means... our skin will be like sweet treats to the creatures we encounter. And a longhouse? I don't know what that is... the tidbit about being in the middle of the Amazon was enough to convince me to pay the extra money and risk numbing my fingers just to stay alive and make it to the rest of the ports post Brazil. Hahaha...

So many questions and not enough time to get answers since classes are still in effect until we port in Manaus. I heard that tonight we will do a stop in Coppa? But that's ship life. So many rumors floating around. Haha. So yeah we talked about the Amazon, we ended up talking about the pirates... Yes, you heard correctly. Pirates. The first time I heard I laughed because I immediately had an image of Captain Hook from Peter Pan. Well, these pirates look very much like us except they are equipped with AK-47's, Bazookas and other assorted weaponry. In 2005, the SAS'ers were escorted into the National Coast Guard of the Waters boats (from what I heard) because of range of the pirates. Naturally safety first, and unfortunately when this stuff happens, the itinerary is shifted and you go to every country minus those within that fortitude. The Atlantic Ocean is huge as we can all imagine, so one of the reasons we are stopping in Mauritius after Brazil isn't just because Mauritius is a great spot, but to refuel so we can haul *** and sail the maximum speed limit to Ghana. Hahaha. Yep, that appears to be the recognized truth around here. In some weird way, I want us to be safe, but how cool is it to encounter a pirate? Google it. Pirates/Somalian Pirates... I am sure it is a bunch of mixed race ones... I just have been hearing mostly about those. I don't want us to experience it just for the sake of an amazing blog entry & pictures (hahah) or at the expense of our safety or miss out on any of the countries on our list. The pirates are not your average kidnappers, so they have been strategic in the past and have taken over cruise ships. Once we leave Mauritius I was told there is a military airplane that shadows us as we enter the Atlantic. I wondered how the captain goes about deciding routes in anticipation of pirate-infested waters. As I mentioned, they take different routes and stop in different ports. But either way, entering through the east of Africa is a risky brigade. So much I have learned in such a short period of time. To think that I have only been here a week + a day (today) is staggering. Definitely feels like I've lived here for months. Let alone the fact that the Amazon & Brazil will only be our second official port. That makes me excited to think that there are so many more countries and things to come. I am looking out the window and there are random twigs and branches floating. I keep running to take a picture because from a distance it looks like it could be something else. (me wishing it was haha). Anyhow, it's 11:25 am. Lunch was changed to 11:45 and I am happy about that... right now, getting ready to get my day started... or maybe not. I have that luxury today =) I don't have my first class until 4:15 – 5:30 pm :) Be safe out there folks!

Funny story- I woke up today thinking it was a "B" day since today is Tuesday the normal day for my "B" classes. Long story short, I followed my B day schedule of my and went to the wrong global studies class earlier. I also just back from circling classroom #6 and 7 thinking that everyone else was skipping out on class including the professor haha. I thought because add/drop was today the professors cancelled class…. clearly not the case. My roomie Mandy just told me that last night she was worried about me and Caroline. As I mentioned earlier, the ship has gotten wild and crazy to walk/function. I find it funny because that's just me. Always finding humor in something. As for other people, they've been heaving and popping motion sickness pills. Most have skipped out on class for the day hahaa. So back to what Mandy was saying, she woke up and looked down and she looked over at me and Caroline. We were sliding up and down the mattresses. She was afraid we would fly outta the bed and on the floor. hahaha. I remember waking up around 11ish because I set my alarm at 8ish. My goal was to nap then meet up with some friends (if i could find them). But the wonders of ship sleep…I was knocked out and didn't wake up. I rolled over at 11ish thanks to my roomie's alarm (she set hers for the same purpose). But she got up haha. I ended up sleeping until this morning.

Mandy just convinced me to sing up for the Indian Singing Ensemble class. I thought about taking it originally when I was scheduling my class load, but it was only one credit. However, once you get on the ship, you can register for 15 credits (the last class is at no additional charge). I looked at the syllabus she had for the class and it looked like so much fun. The final report was 2-3 pages. There was no textbooks, or experience in singing needed. All we needed was "our throats." We would be evaluated based on perfect attention and participation. We also would learn about the Indian culture, philosophy in music. I am excited (as a singer) to learn the 12-note scale that their music operates from. Add/drop doesn't begin online until 5ish so I have to remind myself to do so….. 

Sweet Little Island: Dominica

Sunday:
i am in the room. what's amazing is this feeling of the down in the dumps when i had such an incredible day. Maybe that's why petty things can still affect me. This entire experience feels too surreal at the moment. Today, I woke up tired. I had a very intense conversation last night with Obai in the Union. It was nice that he felt that comfortable to confide in me (especially considering our brief acquaintance). A listener is one of the best types of friends to have in your corner and I am blessed to possess one myself. We sat talking for hours and left by 3 ish am. It made me miss my friends back at home… those late night/morn conversations in random parts of the campus. Those were the very ones that remains as the strongest and fondest moments of my entire college experience. I set my alarm for 7:15am but completely ignored it as expected. My pre-sale trip didn't start until 10 so I guess me leaving out my room by 8ish wasn't all that smart. I guess I was paranoid. Yesterday it was a long line to disembark once we were cleared by customs. It also was because Dominica was so new to us. It is hard to think we were only here for two days and am setting off to sail tonight by 8pm (we had to be back on the ship by 6 pm). We ended up having thee most spectacular introductions to the island. I started out with no plans. It turned out that none of us (my roomies nor I) had anything scheduled for Sunday. We figured we would play it by ear, walk around and see the things in immediate proximity. We were approached by a lot of taxi drivers once we left the ship. There were so many tours they were trying to sell us. Dominica is a lush green tropical rainforest with over 200 rivers, and some notable waterfalls, gorges, springs and volcanic areas. One guy named Gus tried to get our business and was almost unsuccessful since he was trying to charge us 20ish-50ish dollars per person. Mind you, $1 US is equal to $2.67 Carib dollars or Cedis. He was making twice the rate already. He knew he was losing us once I started walking away. We hadn't even decided that we were even interested in using the taxi services and the pre-sale SAS trips to Champagne Reef (natural bubbly pond/river hence the name with beautiful coral reef etc and best suited for snorkelers. Then there were the other sites like Emerald Pool which was because of the location: in the middle of the rainforest and when the sun hit certain plants it creates a radiant green therefore transforming the water into a green opaque like color. Quick digression: just before we arrived in Dominica, there was a massive volcano on our left. It was so random for us and completely unexpected. Everyone piled up on the decks (I chose my room window) and took pictures. Nature in its most natural form is unbelievably spectacular. Okay back to what we decide to do. So we got Gus to only charge us $10 a person and decided on just the trip to the Trafalgar falls. Next it was a matter of when we were going to go since half of my friends had stuff planned from 11ish-1ish via pre-sale. We told him later then walked across the street to the Visitor Tourist information center so we could think clearer and talk it out without the input of the taxi drivers. Decided to take a walk to the cafe down the street, grab some coffee and use the internet if we could. There was a KFC sign further down the road (which we didn't walk) but it was interesting to see it. Inside the cafe, we sat and talked. A few folks brought danishes/muffins and coffees/teas/waters. I admit I was a bit paranoid after our pre-port meeting about what not to eat or drink that I opted not to. We got to talking about music and did a little bit of the chicken dance, cupid shuffle and cha-cha slide. Random indeed but always amusing. Decided to visit the church (there were mannnny) but the closest one was a little ways up the road. Majority of the shops was closed since it was Sunday and some wouldn't open until 1ish so we wanted to go where the people were and also experience the culture. But that raised issues regarding respect and whether or not we would be received well due to some of our clothing or lack of I should say (it was pretty hot and some folks had tank tops and shorts). Then we asked the employee of the cafe shop and she said for visitors like us it would be okay but no for them. So we started walking in the direction of the church but when we got there, we could hear that the singing portion was over and there was something like a sermon happening so we thought it would be rude to walk in especially since we would be a spectacle anyway. So instead, we continued walking. Ended up taking a trip around the city by foot. It was sooo hot but we were too excited to stop. Walked through neighborhoods, up and down hills. Saw a Subway as well as a Pizzahut. Haha. Ahh America, America. Always marking it's influence on other civilizations. We past the walking tour group which was a pre-sale trip sponsored by SAS and was glad we didn't pay for it. We got the same experience minus the extra slowness in pace (it was hot so to walk so slow wouldn't have been a great experience for us) and information by the guide. We went through the marketplace behead the tourist center which had lots of beautiful jewelry and souvenirs. We were also looking so that we could find food or beverage. Saw a little stand with some meat patties but decided since we were so close to the ship we might as well save money and go back. We grabbed lunch then split (those with pre-sales stayed behind) and went to find Gus. We couldn't find him. I guess he had to make money (which makes sense) and had found other folks to drive around. This guy asked us if he could take us instead we said sure but that Gus had already told us it would be  10 bucks. He frowned (haha) and was like it wouldn't have been 10 but because we had already negotiated the price with Gus he would do it. He just hoped that we would tip him him a lot. This guy name was Roland and he turned out to be amazing. We drove through the city and he explained things in detail from the basic architecture (influence of the French) to the rich history of the things in proximity (former Slade trade quarters). As we drove up the mountain to Trafalgar Falls he told us it would take us 10-15 minutes to hike up the mountain (which is short compared to some others on the island) but it would be worth it.  He also told us that he would wait until we were done. When we got to the site, we had to pay for a day pass ($5) and we had a very pregnant tour guide. Actually, we were worried for her throughout the entire hike. She had no water or anything. Plus we were having difficulty climbing and avoiding slipping on massive rocks en route to the waterfalls… and we didn't want anything to happen to her. But she assured us she did it hundreds of times before and that she was used to it. She also said that it was no different than from having a "Fat belly." She proved to be graceful and made it safe and soundly. She was hauling us up over rocks and whatnot. We mutually decided not to get too close to the waterfalls because we just didn't want to take the chance with her though (haha). We hiked close enough and took pics. Some folks around us were bathing in the water. There were two types of water streaming in between the rocks. One was the sulphur (iron) which was warm to touch and the other was the spring water. The sulphur she explained was great for the skin but couldn't be consumed (diarrhea would result). The springs were drinkable but with plenty of folks bathing or drinking and doing whatever else, it was advised not to do so anymore. The sad point of the day was when we were heading back, we heard  a plop sound. Meghan's camera had dropped and was completely submerged in water. She got down in the water and grabbed it out but mm mm mm. That sucked. Once we completed the hike back to the beginning of the site, we tipped the tour guide for her service, brought some things from the women with tables outside of the site and hopped into the taxi. He was adamant about showing us more. He took us to the Sulphur Springs. We hopped up out the taxi and trekked up the stairs winding up near the springs. The first thing that we heard as we walked was a hissing, popping sound. Yes, the springs were boiling and it was a stench so smell it resembled hard boiled eggs and farts. It was fascinating to watch though. The steam rising from the boiling mix of iron was captivating. It had a brownish tint to it. After posing for a few pictures, we decided we would gather our money together and figure out the tip (instead of doing it in sight of the driver). We rounded up some bucks and handed it to Obai who would give it to the driver at the conclusion of the trip. Then we got into the taxi. Roland insisted on driving us around some more. We had already decided on the sum of money so we knew we weren't going to change or add anything. But Roland didn't know this. He drove us to the Botanical Gardens and other sorts of places. We even drove up near the President's house where the view of the island was breathtaking. Finally after a long day (invaluable), we got back to the ship. Roland gave us his number and told us to call him if we wanted to use his services on Monday. He kept telling us to bring more friends next time in hopes that we or them could tip him more. Naturally. Anyhow, we got back and split up to shower and meet up again for dinner. Had dinner and then lounged around for a bit (library). A bunch of folks were talking about going out to JR's which was a bar/club that was closed (since it was Sunday) but they were opening it up since they were aware that they could make a ton of money while SAS was in town. I debated between going and sleeping as did most of my friends. Half of us decided to go. Danced for a bit then walked back to the ship. By the way, the ship is open 24 hours while in port. So yeah, walked back because the club was really packed and hot. Not to mention some people were going to Crazy Coconut which was another club that they opened for SAS. The thing was it was on the other side of the island (about a 20 minute ride) and had a cover charge of $4. The taxi drivers were going nuts trying to make money and remind folks of the heat and limited room in JR's. That's how I ended up in the library talking to Obai for a slight bit, then we went to the Piano Bar with a few other people and people-watched. It's always amusing watching intoxicated folks. The conversations we overheard (particularly this one guy about tattoos and his clover on his butt) had us laughing sooo hard! Then this random drunk girl who apparently also lives on Obai's floor was slurring and touching Obai's locks. She kept saying they were beautiful and such art and how she wished she had some… He had one wrapped around to keep it all together like a pony tail… she unwound it and started freaking out like oh no I broke it. How do I put it back like you had it? We were cracking uppppp! Obai was worried that she would throw up in his hair so his face was hilarious, definitely shoulda took a pic. Anyhow, they left and most folks who came by afterwards was in search of food. Fortunately, when I got back from JR's I ran into Obai and Andrew in the library and we found food. We were seriously searching because we hadn't eaten since dinner and the late night snacks aren't offered during port. We all ran up to the Pool bar once we found out from Kayla and a group of folks studying and snacking that it was open. It was also my first time finding out that we had a grill part of the bar because Obai ordered a double hamburger. I looked through the menu and was surprised at all that they offered. Funny story, by the time Meghan and I was ready to order the woman had swiped Obai's order and then said the grill was closed (but everything else was open). We were like nooooooooooooooo. The lady let us go ahead and place our order so that was nice =) The hamburger was delish! Anyhow, Meghan dipped off as did Andrew and that's how Obai and I begin talking as mentioned earlier in this post.

Lets get to Monday:
Woke up and headed out to wait on the pier for the Dominica State Beautification Project. I was so scared of getting off the ship late and missing it, that I ended up getting off and waiting for an hour outside haha. It wasn't too bad though. It was a lot happening so I just people-watched some more. I didn't see too many folks signed up for my group so I was kinda worried I would be the only student. I mean, the list of things to do in Dominica mostly consisted of "fun" stuff. In my wait, I met a faculty member who was coming along. His name was Bill. He was a former Peace Corps member. We had a delightful conversation and we made some connections. He was surprised about my viewpoint on service and (blushing) said it was refreshing to meet someone so young with my mindset. Needless to say, I was glad I met him because he is a great resource and not only was a psych major back in college but a counselor and advisor for implementing service in needed communities. Actually, he wanted me to go to a dinner that is held for those who were former Peace Corps members since he heard about my acceptance into the AmeriCorps program. But fast forward, we pulled up to the college which was brightly painted in neon green, yellow and some portions, pink. We bustled into the Hospitality and tourism section (which makes sense that those were the students we met). Introductions were a bit silly. We said our names, majors, why we liked service, our favorite tree and tv show. Many of the girls liked "The Game" which I do as well so that was cool. It's amazing how media connects us all. The next ice-breaker was geared towards getting a tour of the school and getting acquainted before starting the service activities. We had to "look up, look down and lock eyes." If the person we locked eyes with also looked back at us, we became a pair. Upon doing so, I got Taneka. After everyone had pairs, there were a few more students from the college than us so the girls were free to join any existing pair. Two of the girls immediately ran over to me so I felt cool hahaha. Guess what, one of the girls name was Candace as well. How odd but cool as well. The other was Ameka. Their ages were 18, 19 and 20. We began by walking outside. It kept raining sporadically then stopping. (Dominica gets 350 inches of rain per year) so it made sense, it just kept throwing us Americans off though. We could have done the generic tour around the campus as most folks were but I wanted to take a different approach. The best way to get acquainted was to get down and personal by talking about what matters. I told the girls I was a singer and poet and asked what did they enjoyed doing. It turns out I had the coolest group of girls ever! Ameka was a poet and had won the Dominica State Poetry competition. Taneka loved singing, and Candice was a dancer. Naturally I got all excited and asked them where could we go so I could record them. We came to a clearing in the academic building and Ameka performed her poem first. It was amazing and I could hardly believe that she wrote it. I had goosebumps. The girls then got together and another girl came along so that she could join them in a song. Once they started singing, several of the other groups started crowding around us. After they sung, Candice did some dancing. I asked the girls to show me a few dances and one of the SAS'ers recorded my attempts to learn with them. They asked me to sing since I told them I was a singer so I did "When you believe" (the song Whitney & Mariah sings in The Prince of Egypt). My body was trembling because I was so nervous but the applause at the end made it worth it. The amusing part was the faculty member running the trip and some of the SAS'ers responses regarding the idea of doing all of that. I guess it could have gone the generic route and none of us would have made any deeper connections. I guess I am in the right field after all (psychology). I am glad I got those clips on my camera… It died shortly after :( I hadn't charged it the night before!! We got back inside the building to snack. Snack consisted of a blend of all of our boxed lunches from the ship and the food from the girls. I think it was a great idea to have everything laid out so that we could share and experience each. Then we got to splitting in two major groups. One would plant palm trees and the other would paint tables and murals. I opted to plant (of course since that was where all the action was). That was very cool. We had a blast, and I quickly got a quick crash course in agriculture haha. Taft (the oldest male 20 yrs old) was very helpful. We all planned out where we should plant the big and smaller palm trees, then got to digging. There was only one shovel and 5 or 6 machetes. Gotta say, digging with a machete never would have crossed my mind, but hey, it proved useful. After we took pictures of each other and completed the process we got to cleaning our hands for lunch. What immediately took the foreground was those who came out to the pump to wash their hands from the paint. Turns out the paint was an oil based one so it wasn't coming out. Picture this: 13 girls or so (both the SAS and Dominica State College girls) , vigorously rubbing their hands trying to get paint off… then resulting to picking up dirt/mud and rubbing their hands together… some rubbing it on the pavement, making handprints on the tires we placed over the new planted palm's (to indicate they were new), and a few girls who made handprints on the neighbor's dog who'd wandered over <- that was funnnnnnny. The dog shot outta there shortly after, guess she was confused poor thing. Anyhow, people started using stones/rocks to kind of sand it off. Talk about getting creative. Then the girls from inside of the kitchen, brought out some oil or kerosene and they started rubbing it on their hands. Still had difficulty getting it off but it was lifting some. I wish I had taken a picture… hahahahaha. We got inside, had lunch and kinda had a talent show where Ameka performed another one of her poems. Some more of the girls sang, and I wish I had my camera on to record this particular song. It was beautiful! Definitely gonna bring my spare camera with me or be sure to charge up before I step out the door. I didn't even get to put my camera in the stack for a shot of us during the group photo. Now I have to wait till folks add me on facebook/later on in the semester when they upload and tag myself. Womp Womp. Overall, it was amazing experience. I am glad I had the opportunity to see the beautiful parts of the island that tourists come to the island for, but I am more appreciative of the time I spent with these amazing students and making the trip a well-rounded and eye opening one more than anything. I couldn't have asked for a better trip. Dominica was our first official stop/port and after this one, I can't wait for many more. Did I mention that all of them asked to add me on Facebook?? ahahahahahahah! =) They hugged me so tight and gave me their email addresses so we could keep in touch. I plan to do so.

It is Tuesday morning and I am sitting on the floor in the back of the Union. Global Studies is taking place. This is a lecture class and there are a ton of folks in here. Right now the ship is rocking sooooooo much that stuff is shaking. It feels like a roller coaster to be honest. The waves have gotten intense which makes sense since we are sailing the Atlantic ocean. You can feel it in your stomach. People are leaving (most likely going back to their rooms to sleep). Some people are laying out on the floor (guess they are struggling with motion sickness). Speaking of which, it's funny. I was expecting the worst in that category since I've never been on a moving ship/boat before. I have been fine in comparison to others. Gotta say, more guys than girls have been punks about the motion. Haha… Anyhow, it's always a struggle to walk without falling over, but that's the funny part. Especially while in class. Hahaha. Or just all over the ship…even more so while in breakfast, lunch or dinner. Juggling a plate and walking back to a table suddenly becomes a challenge, a funny one of course depending on your humor. There was just an announcement to the ship crewmen regarding a "code black." The professor doing a presentation on the women and girls of Nepali (also my professor for Social Justice and Altruism) just made a joke about that. It didn't sound that serious so I am sure all is well…. they also said it was an exercise so I am assuming a practice drill of some sort. Class just let out and I am back in the room since my next class isn't until 1:35 and lunch isn't until 11:45. The ship seems to be blazing in speed because it has become even more hilarious trying to walk. I kid you not, people are walking so cautiously, and holding on to random people that it was hard not to laugh. Class ended but folks were treading so slowly there wasn't that sense of urgency as it usually is. There were a few old folks (life-long learners) who had some sort of hand holding system and were trying to wean themselves off the wall that it was both cute but still funny. Going down the stairs was a riot. The ship was swaying to the left so we drifted that way, then it steered right and we shifted that way too. Once I got to my floor and headed through the corridors it seemed a lot easier. Or I was just walking faster haha. Either way, the day has started off on a comical note. Time to nap though. SAS = best sleep ever!