Ghana- Day 1

I LOVED Ghana. Aside from the accumulation of dirt and dust in my nose and ears, thanks Harmattan winds (and thanks, Chemester at Sea!), it was awesome. Our first day was absolutely nuts. We woke up and went to breakfast at 8, like usual, and it took us over two hours to clear customs. After the waiting two hours, I had to wait in line to get the currency, because I couldn't get any ahead of time in the States. We got off the ship, hoping to catch a shuttle from Tema (our port) to Accra but we had just missed one by like 5 minutes so we had to walk around a bit. There was a little market outside by our ship that we looked around and I placed orders for bracelets from some man whose name I still have trouble saying (although I never bought them, he was never there when I went until right before on-ship time. And at that point I had no money left. Sorry, dude. You'll find other Amanda's and etcs). So P, L, M, and I take a shuttle to the taxi stand and I don't think anything I learned in pre-port could have prepared me for this. Men came into the shuttle to try to promote their taxis and have us get on them. We found a nice guy who took us to a bank for P, L, and M to take out money and we decided it would be more fiscally responsible to take a tro-tro, the minibus system of Ghana.

 

Let me tell you, the trotro was an experience. There were literally 4 or 5 people per row and there were 7 in the bus, including the front row where the driver was. The man who worked with the driver to collect money stood and I was convinced that he would fall out, and he almost did once or twice. L made friends with the woman next to her and asked the way to Mokola Market, the one place we wanted to go. She told us we'd never find our way there on our own and she had us follow her. We walked from the Tema TroTro station in Accra to Mokola Market, weaving in and out of vendors and walking in traffic. When we thought we had finally gotten there, we hadn't. We continued to follow Tina on her errands, stopping at Western Union to pick up money that someone was wiring her from Australia and entering the back alleys of this market to pick up lotion and hairbrush. At one point, we genuinely thought we were going to be taken, not our only times we thought this throughout the day. We went our separate ways from Tina when we had had enough and it was not all we thought it would be. There was an exorbitant amount of food being fried, cooked, and left out in the hot sun so we were over it.

 

We left and made our way to the arts center and I got into my New York City mode. When I'm like this, I don't want to deal with anyone until I'm at the place I want to be. The girls kept lollygagging and I was getting so fed up and then another man selling items on the street said he would take us there because that's where he was going too. P & L said okay and told us we'd go with him and I just didn't want to deal with it at all. He took us to the backside of the market where they made all the items: thoughts of being taken and trafficked part II. He took us into his drum store at first and I said "no, I don't want anything, it's all beautiful, thank you" and they DO NOT TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER. Day 1 of getting fed up. I told him I didn't have money and walked away and he brought me back into the shop and then gave P, L, and I drumming lessons. Which I suppose was cool but then he wanted us to buy his drums. I wasn't buying drums in the first place so he was SOL. Another one of his friends came up to us to sell us his paintings, "the finest paintings in Ghana. Called travelers paintings. They're acrylic on canvas so you can bend them and they won't crack." He tried to offer me 80 cedis EACH for two. These paintings are literally two feet high by six inches. I only bought them because one said "Amanda" on the bottom and the other one was pretty. I bartered it down to 75 cedis for the two of them, still a CRAZY ripoff. Not the worst of the trip though.

 

We walked through the market after and they took us to the shops of their friends. When I'm shopping, I don't want to see that every place has the same merchandise. If I'm carrying a bag of something, I've already bought what you're selling in your store. Leave me alone. I understand they need to make their livelihood but on the other hand, you turn off customers. I bought a tribal shirt for FOURTY CEDIS. Another grandiose ripoff but whatever. I wound up really liking the guys we met though, although it doesn't really sound like it. It was an amazing experience and everyone should try it.

 

We got extremely hungry and proceeded to make our way to Osu, where the shuttle to the ship was and instead of eating in the restaurant we were advised to eat in, we ate at a "Chicken Inn", a fastfood restaurant of Ghana. It was interesting to say the least. We all ate the same meal: value burger with chips for 5 cedis. The chicken was so spicy and some of the rolls had mold on them. It was whatever, we ate around the mold and gave up eating. Dinner on the ship was sublime though. We walked around a little longer and went into the Koala Market, the most westernized supermarket they have. The prices were sky high, as almost everything was an American or British brand. I only bought a dairy milk bar because I've got to take advantage of eating those when I can!

 

Finally, we tried to find our way back and there was more harassment. There was a lot of street noise and some man just slipped a "Ghana" bracelet on my wrist and I said "no, I do not have money, it's beautiful"…like always…and he told me to take it. And then he changed his mind and started yelling at me so I started to talk loudly at him so I proceeded to throw the bracelet back at him. Just over it. Was so happy to be taking the shuttle back to the ship and then another man came on the shuttle as we were waiting to leave to sell us more stuff! It's all the same kind of merchandise that we get everywhere and P wound up getting a painting for 10 cedi. Ridiculous. There was no wireless on the ship due to 18 different reasons we heard so after our long day, we decided to stay in. P, L, and I watched Rat Race after dinner and just passed out. My next morning was to be early so I was glad to get some sleep! The day went from 800-2340, completely jampacked! But that was nothing compared to the following day…

 

PIX

Seriously, I get harassed to upload pix on the daily. I can't do it from the ship I'm sorry! I'm currently at a Vodaphone internet cafe in Ghana, awesome! Here's a few pictures from each place I've been! On ship time is at 6 pm today and we'll start to make our way to South Africa! YAYAYAY :) Love you all, email me! Will update from the ship!
(I don't remember what pictures I've put up... so there may be duplicates)

Dominica:

crew that went exploring on the first day!

graffiti on a church

statue on top of the hike at the botanical gardens

overlooking the Atlantic Ocean!

(me and the roomie!)

Brazil:

some of the girls

the gross Amazon water!

one of the Pirañas I caught!

meeting of the waters!

Ghana:

missin it!

Elmina Slave Castle

Me and some girls

picture taken by the girls above

A Queen Mother and her grandchildren

plaque at the Cape Coast Slave Castle

Cape Coast Slave Castle

means "You are Welcome"; put on the back of the "Door of Return"

Here today, Ghana tomorrow

Tonight was our infamous preport as we get ready to dock in Tema tomorrow! I wasn't so sure how I felt about going to Ghana because I wasn't sure what to expect but now I'm so excited! I'm especially excited for the markets seeing as I could definitely use some more clothes (yes, that IS possible!!) I've been thinking about my FDPs... I can't believe how well they worked out. All my trips are ones I would have wanted to do anyway. I have trips on Tuesday and Friday so the rest of the time will just be exploring Accra and Tema! Our port is about 18 miles from the heart of Accra but with Ghanaian traffic, that journey can take up to two hours!! It's also weird being five hours ahead of EST so i'm finally on the same page as some of my British folk! But it's 2240 here, somewhere off the shore of the Ivory Coast, or Ghana, or somewhere else, and I'd better sleep before this long week starts! I'd just like to end this by wishing a very happy birthday to the best big guy I know! I wish I could e home to celebrate with you! Hope and can't wait to see you in San Diego! Low you sososo much!

PS: will hope to find an Internet cafe somewhere where I can begin to upload pictures. I can't from the shop and everytime I send emails with attachments, I'm flagged in the server. I dont want to know what that means but I do know I've already run out of Internet time from checking old emails pertaining to SAS and this blog to make corrections... darn it. Guess I can't register for fall classes! And don't worry, SD (figured out the identity from the email 😃) no pix of me vomming will be included. Although I have not yet! My queasiness has been settled with ginger ale, crackers, pretzels, and Dramamine 😌

Just Some Info

SAS is totally on top of its stuff. Other than not telling us most of what we need to know, we're still on the homepage as "Apply Now!" I'm not sure if they'd actually reject you though... KMcG, get on this. Happy 21st to you/me?!

Shellback Status

Sup guys. I'm officially a shellback! :) Today was Neptune Day! It was actually a lot of fun. It's the ancient sea lore (or just SAS tradition) that as you cross the equator, you must ask King Neptune for his permission to cross... I think. We all knew it was happening due to professors telling us "Procedural Protocol Day" was actually Neptune Day so I felt privileged. I woke up to some distant rumbling and thought I heard people outside my room and I wake up and go "K! Did you hear that!" - to my roommate - and she was like "yes. Go back to sleep, it's 0715". I was SO excited, I was like a little kid (or a big kid/how I still am) on Christmas. They kept coming by and it sounded like a marching band. There were cymbals and whistles and drums and they kept knocking on our door to get us up. At 0745, the dean made an announcement saying King Neptune was angry that we had crossed the equator in the Amazon without paying proper tribute and we must meet on deck 7 aft to appease him. K, P, and I went and got breakfast anyway because there was no way the entire ship was going to be out there already so that was interesting. Corned beef hash for breakfast, I'd rather not...

We got up to the deck and music was playing and there were already so many people there! Somehow K and L had snagged us a spot in front of the fish guts (milk, water, food coloring, vinegar?), on the wooden deck around the kiddie pool. We saw the procession of stewards with mine, R, leading the way.......followed by Neptune's court and King Neptune and Queen Minerva themselves.

Casual, this all happened on a Wednesday. After hearing we would "have to undergo a test" to be deemed worthy, the fish guts pouring happened. I obviously did it and had to convince P to as well. We jumped in the pool and for my first time in the pool, it was really fun! We witnessed some head shavings and some other fun stuff, it was just really interesting. I know people who slept through it and that's just silly to me; it's a SAS tradition, you never have the opportunity to do it again. 7 girls shaved their heads on my voyage, apparently the record was for 30 girls on Spring 07? That's just crazy to me! I kind of thought about it and then I reconsidered, remembering how much I hated cutting off the meager 13 inches before Christmas. Which is already growing back! Hello, Rapunzel Status by the birthday.

Other than that, the reading day was relatively fine. It started to POUR so I couldn't lie out. P and I watched Step Brothers and then we had a discussion for Global Studies where we discussed our paper topics. Global Studies was cancelled for the last two days due to rough seas, they actually think we had thought about our paper topics? I liked mine (for the 2-3 page double spaced reflection paper! SERIOUSLY?!) but the smartypants in my group had to tear it down. I only shared it because the professor made me...

Now I'm going to hit up a music session with the visiting Ghanaian musician about Bob Marley, so excited! I'm excited to see what I learn differently from ENG106. Will post with a picture of me from Neptune Day when I get them! Only 5 more days until land in Ghana!

--sorry if some of this doesn't make sense. I'm not nearly as careful as I am on land :)

The Ocean

We still have about 3,000 nautical miles to go before getting to Ghana. The sea swells were about 10 feet today, rough sea conditions. They "cancelled" global studies and broadcasted in our rooms, and will tomorrow, so we "can throw up and attend class at the same time". Aren't they just the best? Chem was rough this morning as every time we would hit a wave, the doors would slide open. Oh well. Mucho Dramamine esta noche. Sometimes it feels like I literally FLY out of my bed...

Cold Showers, Black Tongues

So, given the last post and its background, I'll just jump right into this. It also might not be english because I'm racing the clock to post it before we start broadcasting the super bowl. P and I walked into Manaus and were walking around alone but we found a group of people and wound up being fine. We saw the opera house and walked around a bit. The opera house was absolutely gorgeous, I wish I had the opportunity to tour it and go see the Philharmonic while it was in town. That would have been amazing but there just wasn't enough time in Manaus to do all I wanted. The gelato was interesting to say the least and trying to communicate with the people in the restaurant, and everywhere else, was so difficult. When P went on her FDP at midday, I came home to get some reading done for my Law class but Tarzan was on so I got nothing done. A bunch of us went out to dinner and we were a big group. We had to take more than one cab because of the number of us and I swear, the cab drove for so long. There was traffic but still, he was terrifying. He would speed up and then hit the breaks on turns to give us a jolt. We sat at dinner and the waiter said "Bom noche" or whatever it is, and I just responded "Hi!" We all laughed because we realized it would be super difficult but there was a waiter who spoke English! It was pretty cool and we got to play on the playground J We all came back and went to sleep early because we had a lot of stuff to do!

 

I got up for breakfast the next morning at 7:30 and my trip was leaving at 830. I packed the night before so I thought I was pretty well put together but I really wasn't. Everyone was wearing pants and I just didn't realize it. So that was great. We went to the rubber museum and I kind of liked it, it was really interesting. It wasn't like a real museum but it was more like a simulation of the way a rubber plantation was like. We saw the store where they sold the rubber and other assorted commodities, the house where the rubber baron lived, the bath houses, how they harvested the rubber, the rubber smoking shack, the cemetery, and the church.  

We then checked into the hotel and pulled up there in a boat and were greeted with tropical juices. It reminded me of Casa, an open room with a thatched roof and lounge chairs. The lobby doubled as a bar and restaurant as well and all meals were served buffet style. I'm rather sick of Brazilian food by now so I'm happy we're on to a new port. We stopped at a village which was pretty cool but wasn't the most interesting. We came back and went piraña fishing and caiman spotting. I had never caught a fish before as I was scarred from fishing when I was a little girl but I caught 3! I guess if all goes wrong, I can be a fisherwoman. I caught the most out of the group and our boat had the most as well with 15. People were getting angry with me but hehehehehe I won. The caiman spotting was cool; I can't imagine how people could spot them in the water. The one we found had a piraña bite out of the tail, I felt so bad for it :( We returned to the lodge for dinner and I started to feel sick so I took a pepto so I didn't vom. I woke up the next morning with a weird taste in my mouth and I looked in the mirror and MY TONGUE WAS BLACK. It's not a myth!!! It actually happens!  After complaining the night before about our original plans (a 3 hour hike and then relaxing until we would return to the ship), our day now read as a hike for an hour from 8:30-9:30 and we'd check out by 11 to go to a floating restaurant and market, the water lilies, the meeting of the rivers, and we were supposed to go to the igapós but didn't. So I wound up really enjoying it at the end. The hike was so hot; of course I FORGOT JEANS TO HIKE IN THE AMAZON. I had to borrow a pair from a man on the trip, who was super nice, so that was worth it. The hike was interesting though, one of the guides made me a crown out of a palm frond, cause i'm a princess, and I love it :) We then came back and I took yet another cold shower because our shower didn't get hot. 

We went to a floating restaurant where I had the best food of the whole trip and went to a little market where I bought a painted thing and a wooden leaf bowl; I wanted to buy wind chimes but I wasn't sure where I would put them and if they would make it back home safe. As we were pulling up to the restaurant... MY CAMERA DIED. The lilypads were gorgeous and I made other people take pictures for me. We saw a monkey too! It was too cute and I wanted to cuddle with it but I didn't want the rabies. We were driving through the creeks, I guess? and we saw a boat of people holding a caiman, an anaconda, and a sloth. It reminded me of being in Mexico but I found out what happens to these animals and I wanted to cry. Apparently, they harpoon the anacondas and hold it where the wound is so no one will know and they disrupt the sloths habits and it usually doesn't survive more than 5 days in this captivity. As much as I wanted to see these animals (NOT THE ANACONDA, well kinda), I wish I could have seen them in the wild and not injured. When one of the guys was putting the anaconda in the boat, it slithered and must have been a yard long; our guide said it was a baby. It was so close to me, I was so nervous. We went to the meeting of the waters after and it was amazing. It was so cool to see these two bodies of water, coming from two different places, and just not mixing at all. I put my hand in the water and felt the two different waters, one was warm and the other cold. They don't mix because of the difference in temperature and density, so cool! We then went back to the ship to drop our stuff off to go to the mall where I called some people. P & I went to grab something to eat and we settled on McDonalds. I tried to order chicken strips and I asked for a menu and the woman pointed behind her to the pictures. I tried to order a "quaterrão" which was a quarter pounder and she didn't understand so I just said "BIG MAC" and she got it. I tried to get a water with it and a combo but I wound up with two waters, a Coke, and a big mac. I just wanted hot tasty french fries. Rough life.

 

We went into the port and sat at the pub and C and I realized we forgot to take our malaria meds and to put on bugspray so we made our way back to the ship. We came back and found people to walk with and made it to Crocodrio Club, where R had been raving about. It was a lot of fun, it reminded me of the RokBar in Tallahassee. 

 

The next morning, we did breakfast and walked around Manaus to end the trip. We all wanted to spend our last dollars so I bought a bracelet and a watch that says "Alarm Chronograrh" instead of "alarm chrongraph". Love buying things on the street. We tried street food and P and I got chicken in hotsauce and jalepenos with peas. I'm convinced they were in mashed potatoes and deep fried but no one else thought so. L got something that was cheese-y and flakey and then P and L thought they had gotten cheese balls but they were deep fried, hard boiled eggs. Weird. We went into the "Lojas Americanas" store and I wanted to find crayons or makeup and I found neither. We came aboard because we were dead and didn't want to deal with the line to get on for onship time at 3 pm so P and I watched Sabrina and she slept the whole time. I was so tired that I napped after and we went to the Brazil reflection (notes are below) and tried to go to sleep at 1030. I liked Brazil but I feel as though I didn't have nearly as many moving experiences as others. I just really want to get over to Africa. I'm more excited for the end ports than the beginning...

Some words people used to describe Brazil: 

magical, majestic, obrigada, colorful, surreal, daring, enriching, community, beautiful, acai, awesome, stupendous, adventurous (mine :)), breathless, humid, "i will be back to brazil again", eye-opening, "not one word", unforgettable, vibrant, memorable, pig swimming,, unreal, spontaneous, never-ending party, exhaustification, immense, returning, futbol, sublime, Manuel, peaceful, juxtaposition, sleepless, special, itchy, "written on my heart", natural beauty, surprising, love, rugged, super, heaven, opportunities, faces, complex, Skype, pure, whirlwind, silver beak tanager, awake, outlandish, piranas, smelly, sweaty, janky, epic

PS: we're watching the superbowl in the union and we don't get commercials. this is a joke. my friend A and I are rooting for the Broncos and the Jets, respectively. D would be proud that I'm associating myself with Broncos fans.

Observations

Originally, I started this email/post on the 31^st of January while waiting to go out, chronicling all the stupid things I had done on the first day, nay, first four hours in Manaus, Brazil. And I guess I should also say that as I'm writing this, Hot Mess by Cobra Starship, is on. Just kind of sets the mood. Also: I'm not going to enjoy going back home and to school and sitting in my bed to get stuff done. This little spot I've got next to my door on the Deck 3 PS nugget hallway is so comfy. There's a high possibility that as you walk down this hallway, I'll be out here emailing someone or pretending to get work done. There's this one guy, A, who is convinced I live out there.

 

But I digress. Here are 10 general rules that one should follow when traveling in Brazil and the Amazon. Look forward to more posts like this I will do when I, inevitably, do stupid things around the world. Will update with what happened in Manaus tomorrow after classes!

 

1) Don't forget to put on deodorant. I'm pretty sure that in my haste to get out of my room on the first day, I forgot deodorant. Seriously, we're south of the Equator. WHO DOES THAT. I honestly don't think I've been so hot in my entire life as when we were trekking around Manaus. P and I left

 

2) Don't walk around Manaus without a male friend. P and I thought it would be a great idea to brave Manaus alone. We made it through the terminal, across the street, through a few vendors and into a park next to a church where we tried to ask a woman where we were by pointing at a map. She then proceeded to show us how to get back to the ship. Not really helpful. Language barriers are tough, but even worse when you're alone.

 

3) Understand the exchange rate BEFORE you get off the ship. The amount of times that we went back and forth about the USD-Reales conversion was crazy. At first I thought US$2 was $R1 and I kept confusing myself every time I tried to buy something. Then I realized that 1 Real was about 2/3 of a USD. That made it easier, but I don't remember fractions. I just went with the 2-1 ratio like Dominica.

 

4) Read your instructions for a money belt. I thought this was like a fanny pack! I wore it around my waist and couldn't figure out for the life of me how to get money out without having to take off my shirt. I ran into my friend, J, and she had it as a belt around her hips and was taking money out where the buttons on a pair of pants were. So I tried that, and because of the weird zippers, I wound up having to unzip my pants to get my ship ID out to get OFF the ship. Casually unzipping and rezipping my pants in Tymitz Square, y'all wish you could have seen me.

 

5) Think long and hard about what to pack on an overnight. This is twofold. I thought I had packed everything I would have needed but, nope. The whole missing ONE flipflop from my ONE pair I brought with me made it difficult to wear anything other than gross sneakers that I've had for years. And I. HATE. SNEAKERS. Also, I was hiking in the Amazon. Did I think to bring pants? NO. Because I didn't have them sitting out, I didn't think to pack them. Guess who almost couldn't go hiking because of this? *this girl*

 

6) Make friends with other people because they'll help you out in times of need. This wonderful man on my trip, R, lent me probably the most comfortable pants ever. They were like linen resort pants with ties on the bottom. I also got terrified that a spider would fall on me so I wore long sleeves. Bad. Decision. Again, when people say the Amazon is hot, they mean it's hot. Also: Make friends with everyone. Our tour guide brought us to the mall (yes, I needed stuff that I could only find at a mall, but I didn't find it) to make sure we didn't get ripped off by cab drivers.

 

7) If you're going to walk home at night, make sure you're surrounded by men. I guess this goes with #2 so I'm technically doing 9 rules but I have never walked faster in my entire life than walking home on Thursday night. With a man to my right and left holding my hand. I don't like the dark and I don't like being scared. People should know this by now. The end.

 

8) Not everywhere has pizza or hamburgers. After all the Brazilian barbeque, all I wanted was a good hamburger. SO at the mall, I settled for the Golden Arches. Attempting to order a medium quarterpounder meal with an aqua didn't work out so well. I got a Big Mac with two waters and a medium coke.

 

9) Monkeys ARE cute close up. No, I did not get bitten by one and I didn't get close enough for it to even cross its mind thanks to the advice by my lovely advisor. But that didn't stop me from wanting to take one home with me. Oh, and a sloth.

 

And last but not least…

 

10) Be prepared for anything. After not finding the right restaurants, not getting to the interesting part of Manaus until an hour before P had to be back on the ship, smelling the funny smelling city, paying R$5 for 4 bracelets when they were R$1 per bracelet (purely my fault), and someone accidentally buying a deep-fried, hard-boiled egg: go with it. Your plans normally won't work out the way they're supposed to. You're in the country to learn and learn you will.

 

PS: to make P happy, yes, I did point at pasta and ask "IS THIS PASTA?" accidentally. I was confused in my mind. But whatever, you win some, you lose some.