Day 17 Friday September 12, 2008 (Salvador, Brazil)
Hung out with Pedro all day, had some potatoes with butter for breakfast, played guitar in the courtyard with the crosses overlooking the lower city. Met up with his friend Tiago (another one) who works at Ritmo, the music store where I met Pedro. Pedro is in a few reggae bands, won’t get to see him in concert though, bummer. Walked around a bunch, went to an internet café and set up a facebook account for him. Ran into Steven (roommate) and went to go buy a Gilberto Gil CD. According to Pedro, Gil is the minister of culture in Brazil. His CD of Bob Marley covers, awesome, been listening to it all day. Said goodbye, went back to the ship, Captain’s barbecue, watched “Walk Hard: Dewey Cox story” in my room with a bunch of people, leaving Brazil, went out on the front of the boat and replayed events of visit in my mind, watching the immense collection of city lights slide away. Very windy, felt like my hair should look like a mess but I don’t have any.
Lat: 15º 31.43S Long: 030º 51.52W
Back to classes today. Read some Elizabeth Bishop poems about Brazil. I like them, simple, understated, complex moods come across through few words. Indian singing is really fun as usual, starting to sing some more in minor keys, really haunting. Friend and I did yoga on the deck. Losing another hour tonight. Writing a song on piano.
Day 18 Saturday September 13, 2008
English is the official language of Namibia. Not there yet, but learned about it in class. 1 percent consumes 50 of the resources. From what I hear, mostly desert. Should be interesting. Still meeting cool people that I haven’t noticed before. Need to write a poem in the next 44 minutes (midnight deadline). Losing an hour every night, doesn’t bother me too much. Haven’t gotten sick or anything, it’s been smooth sailing so far.
Day 19 Sunday September 14 2008
Found myself to be stressed out today. Decided to be a little less studious and enjoy the trip. Balance. Got a nice e-mail from Bernadette. Played trivial pursuit. Made progress on the song, wrote a poem last night for class.
Salvador Skip, skip. The off-beats pluck and bounce. The revelers cheer and dance into traffic. Blue plastic chairs idle, misaligned, startled by your chance, unexpected touch. Inside, an ancient ritual, with blessings from a plump man wearing a fedora. Incense smelling of roasted bark creates clouds sliced by his divining branch. He waves it and taps our faces, muttering nonsense, and I've no sense of what is required or if expectations will dissolve. I kneel beside your chair with urgency and you look confused. One, two, three, the room is pulsing decorated by my worthless, common, wonderful words. It was the incense, or the reggae, or maybe I was run over, not looking. Does it matter what it was? Our will, a blessing, or chance.
Day 20 Monday September 15, 2008
Smack dab in the middle of the Atlantic now. Open mic tonight, play a few songs.
Day 21 Tuesday September 16, 2008
Open mic was awesome, played a couple songs, well received. No classes today.
Day 22 Wednesday September 17, 2008
Boat rocking moderately today. Barely caught breakfast. I was craving for wings yesterday. I don’t even particularly like eating wings. Midterm for Race & Ethnicity class will be a 53-person play, professor (Kesho) just enlisted me to be the producer. I don’t really know what that means. Besides responsibility. Can’t seem to run away from myself.
Day 23 Thursday September 18, 2008
Listening to Ben Harper at work. Couldn’t get to sleep last night, caught about 4 hours before breakfast this morning. Time changes are getting to me I guess. I’ll be in Namibia tomorrow, visiting Peace Corps Volunteers. Maybe I’ll do that someday. Don’t really have any close friends yet. Talk to my roommate a good amount when we are both in the room, but he’s got his coterie of friends and I usually roam around doing my own thing. This seems to be a common pattern in my social history lately. Had dinner with two lifelong learners last night…forget what their names were but this is their 9th trip around the world w/ SAS. They told me about Crazy Harold, who holds the record with 22 trips. He’s since passed, but apparently he was an ex-merchant marine who only left the boat to buy a newspaper at each port.
Day 24 Friday September 19, 2008
Latitude 22º 46.12S Longitude 012º 57.59E
1:41 AM We are just off the coast of Africa, cruising at 14 knots, pretty slow so that we get there at the appropriate time I assume. I’m eager for this temporary reprieve in time loss and class. Big day tomorrow! Visiting Peace Corps at 1300.
6:14 AM Got up early to see our approach to Namibia. I can see the first lights from the coast, and sunrise should be happening in about half an hour. Hi there Africa!
Day 25 Saturday September 20, 2008
Walvis Bay, Namibia.
Yesterday I was exhausted after getting barely any sleep, getting up to see sunrise, and staying up. Eventually went into town with a bunch of friends, then came back to meet w/ Peace corps volunteers. Talked with Lucy and Megan, work with local NGO’s, work with kids, very cool people. Makes me want to do peace corps. Visited kids that Lucy works with, at Catholic AIDS mission nearby. Awesome kids, singing, dancing, playing soccer, drawing. Played a round of fire on the mountain. Made a friend named Marlene.
Went to see Lucy’s flat. Spacious, has a cat, they are coming home in December, both lonely. At night went to Bonaroma, nice restaurant here in Walvis Bay. Felt like a high roller. 1 us = 8 namibian dollars. Great dinner, one of the girls got sick, went back to ship, it was a great night all in all.
Today hung out with Julien and her Namibian friends, Martin and Thomas, dock workers and nice people. Showed us around, met them in Swakopmund, beach town about 20 minutes from here. Eventually went to the beach, watched beautiful sunset,
went to a couple clubs. One was a small bar “Casablanca sports bar”, “shabeen” felt very out of place, Enigma was the other one, more like a normal dance club. Lots of dudes, few ladies, lots of dancing, some SAS kids, fun but wiped out now.
Day 29 Wednesday September 24, 2008
Back on the boat. Conflicted about Namibia experience. In a constructive way perhaps. Troubling through the luxury of privilege. Not so much guilty, but maybe the alienation of feeling like an outsider. I didn’t travel with a group very much, so I felt like an observer most of the time, enlightening experience but lonely. Most dudes I met were hard working, desire education, think gov’t is corrupt, seemed to be happy that Americans were in town. Afrikaaners seemed like mostly nice, spoiled rich kids from the states.
L-R: Thomas, Julien, Martin, Tien
Martin was my favorite, I am so glad I met him, he drove us around and was just a genuinely nice person. He liked my t-shirts and wants to send me some money to send him some from the states. “They are nicer material and you can see muscles”.
Went four wheeling and sandboarding yesterday.
Leaving Namibia
Day 30 Thursday September 25, 2008
We get to Cape Town tomorrow morning. I have to wake up bright and early, I’m going to a local school to build paper rockets with kids. Going through a strange phase, feel like keeping to myself, when you introduce yourself to people enough, you start to lose track of who you really are. You can only describe yourself in the tangible things that obscure your actual personality…what you do, where you are from, what you are studying (how much money are you going to make? –indirectly perhaps). So I’m trying to reconnect with myself I guess. To worry less about the impression I’m making, enjoy my own rhythms and perspective instead of worrying about others’.
There is some strange expectation that everyone is going to date someone on Semester at Sea. Suddenly I find myself worrying about it, whereas I’m usually very live-and-let-live about the whole dating situation. There must be something in the water though because there are some romantic situations afoot that have emerged unexpectedly. Really strange the way I interact with women after I know that they are attracted to me. You can tell by the scientific manner in which I describe such things that I’m far too cerebral about matters of the heart, but in any case, I feel like I become a cross between Kermit the Frog and Inspector Gadget whenever I have a crush. I don’t know what that means, but something in my gut tells me that it’s true.
I’m trying to convince myself to stop thinking about such nonsense, and just refocus on savoring this ridiculous journey while it lasts.
Hung out with Pedro all day, had some potatoes with butter for breakfast, played guitar in the courtyard with the crosses overlooking the lower city. Met up with his friend Tiago (another one) who works at Ritmo, the music store where I met Pedro. Pedro is in a few reggae bands, won’t get to see him in concert though, bummer. Walked around a bunch, went to an internet café and set up a facebook account for him. Ran into Steven (roommate) and went to go buy a Gilberto Gil CD. According to Pedro, Gil is the minister of culture in Brazil. His CD of Bob Marley covers, awesome, been listening to it all day. Said goodbye, went back to the ship, Captain’s barbecue, watched “Walk Hard: Dewey Cox story” in my room with a bunch of people, leaving Brazil, went out on the front of the boat and replayed events of visit in my mind, watching the immense collection of city lights slide away. Very windy, felt like my hair should look like a mess but I don’t have any.
Lat: 15º 31.43S Long: 030º 51.52W
Back to classes today. Read some Elizabeth Bishop poems about Brazil. I like them, simple, understated, complex moods come across through few words. Indian singing is really fun as usual, starting to sing some more in minor keys, really haunting. Friend and I did yoga on the deck. Losing another hour tonight. Writing a song on piano.
Day 18 Saturday September 13, 2008
English is the official language of Namibia. Not there yet, but learned about it in class. 1 percent consumes 50 of the resources. From what I hear, mostly desert. Should be interesting. Still meeting cool people that I haven’t noticed before. Need to write a poem in the next 44 minutes (midnight deadline). Losing an hour every night, doesn’t bother me too much. Haven’t gotten sick or anything, it’s been smooth sailing so far.
Day 19 Sunday September 14 2008
Found myself to be stressed out today. Decided to be a little less studious and enjoy the trip. Balance. Got a nice e-mail from Bernadette. Played trivial pursuit. Made progress on the song, wrote a poem last night for class.
Salvador Skip, skip. The off-beats pluck and bounce. The revelers cheer and dance into traffic. Blue plastic chairs idle, misaligned, startled by your chance, unexpected touch. Inside, an ancient ritual, with blessings from a plump man wearing a fedora. Incense smelling of roasted bark creates clouds sliced by his divining branch. He waves it and taps our faces, muttering nonsense, and I've no sense of what is required or if expectations will dissolve. I kneel beside your chair with urgency and you look confused. One, two, three, the room is pulsing decorated by my worthless, common, wonderful words. It was the incense, or the reggae, or maybe I was run over, not looking. Does it matter what it was? Our will, a blessing, or chance.
Day 20 Monday September 15, 2008
Smack dab in the middle of the Atlantic now. Open mic tonight, play a few songs.
Day 21 Tuesday September 16, 2008
Open mic was awesome, played a couple songs, well received. No classes today.
Day 22 Wednesday September 17, 2008
Boat rocking moderately today. Barely caught breakfast. I was craving for wings yesterday. I don’t even particularly like eating wings. Midterm for Race & Ethnicity class will be a 53-person play, professor (Kesho) just enlisted me to be the producer. I don’t really know what that means. Besides responsibility. Can’t seem to run away from myself.
Day 23 Thursday September 18, 2008
Listening to Ben Harper at work. Couldn’t get to sleep last night, caught about 4 hours before breakfast this morning. Time changes are getting to me I guess. I’ll be in Namibia tomorrow, visiting Peace Corps Volunteers. Maybe I’ll do that someday. Don’t really have any close friends yet. Talk to my roommate a good amount when we are both in the room, but he’s got his coterie of friends and I usually roam around doing my own thing. This seems to be a common pattern in my social history lately. Had dinner with two lifelong learners last night…forget what their names were but this is their 9th trip around the world w/ SAS. They told me about Crazy Harold, who holds the record with 22 trips. He’s since passed, but apparently he was an ex-merchant marine who only left the boat to buy a newspaper at each port.
Day 24 Friday September 19, 2008
Latitude 22º 46.12S Longitude 012º 57.59E
1:41 AM We are just off the coast of Africa, cruising at 14 knots, pretty slow so that we get there at the appropriate time I assume. I’m eager for this temporary reprieve in time loss and class. Big day tomorrow! Visiting Peace Corps at 1300.
6:14 AM Got up early to see our approach to Namibia. I can see the first lights from the coast, and sunrise should be happening in about half an hour. Hi there Africa!
Day 25 Saturday September 20, 2008
Walvis Bay, Namibia.
Yesterday I was exhausted after getting barely any sleep, getting up to see sunrise, and staying up. Eventually went into town with a bunch of friends, then came back to meet w/ Peace corps volunteers. Talked with Lucy and Megan, work with local NGO’s, work with kids, very cool people. Makes me want to do peace corps. Visited kids that Lucy works with, at Catholic AIDS mission nearby. Awesome kids, singing, dancing, playing soccer, drawing. Played a round of fire on the mountain. Made a friend named Marlene.
Went to see Lucy’s flat. Spacious, has a cat, they are coming home in December, both lonely. At night went to Bonaroma, nice restaurant here in Walvis Bay. Felt like a high roller. 1 us = 8 namibian dollars. Great dinner, one of the girls got sick, went back to ship, it was a great night all in all.
Today hung out with Julien and her Namibian friends, Martin and Thomas, dock workers and nice people. Showed us around, met them in Swakopmund, beach town about 20 minutes from here. Eventually went to the beach, watched beautiful sunset,
went to a couple clubs. One was a small bar “Casablanca sports bar”, “shabeen” felt very out of place, Enigma was the other one, more like a normal dance club. Lots of dudes, few ladies, lots of dancing, some SAS kids, fun but wiped out now.
Day 29 Wednesday September 24, 2008
Back on the boat. Conflicted about Namibia experience. In a constructive way perhaps. Troubling through the luxury of privilege. Not so much guilty, but maybe the alienation of feeling like an outsider. I didn’t travel with a group very much, so I felt like an observer most of the time, enlightening experience but lonely. Most dudes I met were hard working, desire education, think gov’t is corrupt, seemed to be happy that Americans were in town. Afrikaaners seemed like mostly nice, spoiled rich kids from the states.
L-R: Thomas, Julien, Martin, TienMartin was my favorite, I am so glad I met him, he drove us around and was just a genuinely nice person. He liked my t-shirts and wants to send me some money to send him some from the states. “They are nicer material and you can see muscles”.
Went four wheeling and sandboarding yesterday.
Leaving Namibia
Day 30 Thursday September 25, 2008
We get to Cape Town tomorrow morning. I have to wake up bright and early, I’m going to a local school to build paper rockets with kids. Going through a strange phase, feel like keeping to myself, when you introduce yourself to people enough, you start to lose track of who you really are. You can only describe yourself in the tangible things that obscure your actual personality…what you do, where you are from, what you are studying (how much money are you going to make? –indirectly perhaps). So I’m trying to reconnect with myself I guess. To worry less about the impression I’m making, enjoy my own rhythms and perspective instead of worrying about others’.
There is some strange expectation that everyone is going to date someone on Semester at Sea. Suddenly I find myself worrying about it, whereas I’m usually very live-and-let-live about the whole dating situation. There must be something in the water though because there are some romantic situations afoot that have emerged unexpectedly. Really strange the way I interact with women after I know that they are attracted to me. You can tell by the scientific manner in which I describe such things that I’m far too cerebral about matters of the heart, but in any case, I feel like I become a cross between Kermit the Frog and Inspector Gadget whenever I have a crush. I don’t know what that means, but something in my gut tells me that it’s true.
I’m trying to convince myself to stop thinking about such nonsense, and just refocus on savoring this ridiculous journey while it lasts.
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