INDIA DAYS 2 to the END!

India Where to Begin this undesirables 6 days.

Well I told you about the first day already. So I will start off with the second day.

                On Saturday morning I slept in because getting around in India takes a while and I had a trip at noon so I couldn’t go far.  I ate lunch and then headed to the union to meet for my trip.  The trip was a Rural Child labor Home stay with a program called RIDE India. This was a program that puts kids in a school instead of in child labor, they also do their best convincing parents and guardians that the children need an education. After our two and a half hour bus ride through Chennai we arrived at the RIDE home. They had a guest house where we dropped our stuff and then they gave us Tea and biscuits. After we finished they we headed over to the RIDE school. They introduced us to the kids and were welcomed with such happiness in the kids’ faces. They each had a flower for us and some gave two or three to the same person.  They brought us back to wear the kids play and they introduced us to the kids. Explaining that some of them do go to school but they work also as young as 12 years old and there are defiantly some younger.  We then got to play with the kids for about an hour. We taught them how to play ring around the roasy and Duck duck goose and Head shoulders knees and toes. Most of the kids spoke little English so the language barrier was difficult but we still had a lot of fun. Most of the kids spoke Tamil a local language.  When play time was over we went in to one of their classrooms that was actually 4 or 5 classes going on in one big room.  We sat down and the kids sang us songs in Tamil and also a song they knew in English.  They were all so very sweet and did not want us to leave. (Mostly because they loved taking our cameras and taking pictures!) . We headed back to the guest home for dinner. They made a local meal for us that were very good. I tried new things but there is a rule in India. You can ALWAYS say no to more but you CAN NOT leave anything on your plate.  So I had to stuff down all of my food and I was about to EXPLODE! After dinner we headed back to the guest house across the street for bed.  We picked the good room that had an Air conditioner unlike the rest of the rooms. They were explaining that water means nothing to them but electricity is VERY expensive for them.  We had two guides that were from Germany that were so sweet. They stayed up for hours with us telling us stories and laughing with us. Their names were Alex and Mattius.  Mattius said something that was really funny earlier in the day and he told us not to make fun of him but he didn’t understand why we were laughing. What happen was we were on the bus ride home and there were fireworks. Well he called them firecrackers and then  said  “look at those crackers on fire” and the whole bus laughed. Later that night we explained to him that in America sometimes a crackers is a bad name for white people and how he said it was just really funny because he didn’t know. Once we told him he couldn’t stop laughing and made it a joke for the rest of the day.  Eventually after a lot of laughs and jokes we headed to bed. The next morning we were up around 720 AM for breakfast and another long day.  We had toast which jam and hard boiled eggs for breakfast.  After breakfast we went to a local village to tour around and meet some more kids.  When we arrived at the village we were paraded through the village with music like we were important or something.  We were also welcomed with many flowers their too. We walked around and saw the villiage and oh what a shock that was. The things we saw the houses we saw. They didn’t have much.  We saw a silk weaving machine in someone’s house that was really cool to watch someone do. We found out that 1 sari takes about 2 months to make.  There were cows and goats everywhere roaming freely like it was no big deal.  After we were done touring the villiage the children were chasing the bus because they didn’t want us to leave.  We headed back to the guest house for Lunch. We had another Indian meal that was excellent but I knew to take a lot less this time haha. After lunch we went to a no child labor store and then headed back to the ship.  We learned a lot on this trip and realized a lot also. I realized what we have and what we take advantage of and don’t realize how much we really have.

On Monday I woke up quite early to go on an SAS trip to a local secondary school. When we arrived at the school we were welcomed by  the school band and a bunch of really excited kids. There was a line of students who each had necklaces of all different colors and we got the dots put on our heads to welcome us into their community.  There were only 8 of us but it made the trip that much better.  We sat in the principal’s office and he explained the day to us.  Then they took us on a tour of the school so we could see the labs (really old and dirty) and the classrooms (some very very small). When we were done with the tour the kids had their daily morning assembly.  At the end of the morning assembly we all introduced herself. The kids filed in straight lines to their classrooms. We waited until they were all in their classrooms, then split up and went to each classroom so they could ask us questions. We got some funny questions such as:

Do you like our country?

Do you like the food?

Can you sing your national anthem? (so with our horrible voices we sang it)

What part of the country are you from?

What are your parents names?

What is your favorite color and favorite subject?

So as we went class room to class room they kids was adorable asking questions. Asking us so many questions and they would laugh if they were nervous. It was such a wonderful day. After we saw all the classrooms we were presented with an AMAZING dance performance by one of the girls who was dressed beautifully. It was amazing the way she danced the India local dance.  Seeing the school it was pretty nice but it also lacked a lot. We had so much growing up and they defiantly don’t.  We donated a ball and school supplies to them and they had the biggest smiles on their faces! 

                Later on in that afternoon I went on a second service visit to a disabled children’s orphanage. The kids were amazing. They were disabled kids were dropped on the door step or just left on the side of the road and found by someone who brought them to them orphanage. It was very sad to see how little space they had for the kids. The orphanage was called Missionaries of Charity.  The kids were so cute to us and so happy that we were there. We colored with them and played ball. This one girl named Jasmine-Mary I colored with the whole time and also played catch with she was so sweet.  We also did some word searched.  We only got to be at the orphanage for about an hour because they had a church service.  Some of the kids were severely disabled and some were just minor, but they all looked out for each other. There were only about 10 of us that went well because the building was under construction so half of the kids were at school across the city. The orphanage all in all was an amazing experience and defiantly had a life changing experience.

                The next day I decided to go to a disable home. It’s very difficult for me to explain this place.  I have been sitting staring at the screen for about 20 minutes. Well we took a bus ride thru Chennai. When we got to the home it was actually an occupational hospital with a home in it. There were 80 children and a ton of adults with disabilities also. They gave us a tour of the hospital and of the living situations before we started our day. As we walked around I just was speechless at the living situations and just the place itself.  After she gave us the tour and we saw the kids and adolescents that lived there they were all so friendly.  She said every time Semester at Sea comes she has them do the dirty work in the morning because they never mind.  So when she said Dirty work she meant it. She had us cleaning things that had dust bunnys and grand kid dust bunnies. I don’t think it had EVER been clean.  We cleaned windows that you couldn’t see through and we were climbing all over things doing our best to make it look its best for her so she was happy.  There was dust everywhere. I was climbing on top of cabinats to reach up high to get spots that were pretty grimy but I took one for the team because I thought about the big picture of what was going on in this place. How they had a hole to pee in and dirty water and so much more. We cleaned for a good 3 hours before lunch.  We headed over to see how they served the home lunch, and oh boys did this hit home and make me want to cry.  The kids were very helpful to the younger. Some older less disabled kids were assigned to feed the younger disabled kids. But let me try to explain this so you can put yourself in this room for a second. Imagine this :

                You’re in a room about the size of a regular school classroom with furniture in it. There are little kids sitting side by side on the floor as close as can be about 45 on one side and 45 on the other. Then in the middle of the room there back to back are about 45 adolescents back to back so that’s another 90 people in the room all sitting on the floor. Now keep thinking you have the teachers with the giant pots of food and these little plates for the kids.  The outside gets fed first so they can help the little ones because there are not enough teachers to help all of them. The kids are screaming and its like a zoo because some of them just don’t understand. Now let me remind you that every person sitting on the floor in this room has either a mental or physical disability or both of all different severities.  I hope you are imagining how this room is with no AC 95% humitatiy and about 85 or higher degree day. Imagine that.

So now that you imagined that you can put yourself where I was. Guess how I felt. I felt small I felt like a nobody  because I think of how needy we as people in a first world country are. How we sit  at a kitchen table EVERYDAY or have the luxury of going out to dinner and getting WHATEVER we want. These kids eat mush and rice. They eat every bit of food with their hands because that’s the Indian tradition. With one hand at that their right hand. I had to walk out of the room at one point because I was so ashamed in what I have complained about before. I couldn’t believe  what was going on in front of me.  The teachers were amazing and you could tell they were more stressed out than ever. But they did their best and made do with what they had. But what I realized is we are never satisfied with what we have nothings ever good enough and that made me sick to my stomach.  Every single one of you that reads this blog thing about a time when you weren’t satisfied with what was on the table in front of you. Or when your mother cooked you a meal and you didn’t eat it. I am guilty to I do it all the time. But not anymore. We all have to be thankful that we have good food in front of us. If you had seen the food that was being ate by these kids your jaw would be on the floor. Well guess what guys its true. I saw it and oh man was it sad. I almost cried I couldn’t believe it.  The kids were so happy and that made me happy but to look at the big picture. These kids have never had their mom or dad make them food because they don’t have those. They have about 6 mothers that do their best but they will never have what we have. So as we watched them eat lunch and see what it was like and the chaos and people stealing food because they were still hungry. It just broke my heart. After a while it was time for us to go eat lunch at the nurses lunch room on the other side of the hospital. 

So this lunch was my first traditional Indian meal that was ate on a piece of paper and with my RIGHT hand only. Now as you all know I am a lefty and that is VERY hard not to pick up that left hand and use it.  I had to sit on it. You have to pull things apart with one hand and mush it all up with one hand. Oh and clean your plate. So as we ate I just thought about how much I love forks and how they mean something different to me now. Sounds crazy but they are a luxury.  After lunch we headed back over for play time with the kids.   They were all separated into classrooms so we could go play with them. All of us split up and picked a classroom I walked in to see a kid napping on a concrete floor  and a bunch of kids running around him playing.  This one girl was sitting coloring on the floor she saw me and grabbed my hand and pulled me down to color with her. She had a speaking impediment so I couldn’t make out her name which makes me sad but I know its starts with a J. We colored for a while until someone handed out some balls. We played catch in 50 different ways haha for about an hour and a half and she couldn’t stop smiling and laughing. I thought her how to give high fives, and she would sometimes sign to me in sign language which I don’t know but I slowly figured out.  Whenever someone would come over and start playing with me  she would speak Tamil ( the local language) to them and tell them to go away shes playing with me. Well that’s what I believe she said because they would always walk away. But some of them didn’t understand much at all. One of the teachers came to check on us and she told us that the kid that was standing in the middle of the room was mentally fine but he was trapped in his own body meaning he couldn’t hear he couldn’t speak so most of the time he couldn’t understand. It broke my heart. It was so sad to see some of the things that were going on with the kids. 4 of them had wet pants because they had peed themselves but those were all they had for clothes, some were just sitting in the corner and wouldn’t respond or react to anything.  I thought the little girl I was playing with how to throw and catch the ball in every which way. She was really good and we couldn’t help but smile the whole time we were playing. It made me so warm inside to make these kids smile. When the time was up I melted because I did not want to leave at all. It was time to go but there was a group of kids that were coming with us back to the ship to get a tour of the ship which was awesome. The kids were all so excited and couldn’t wait to see where we lived but at the same time it hurt me for them to see how good we have it and what they can’t have, but it made them happy and that’s what made me happy. When we got on the boat the kids were all so excited. We gave them a full ship tour and they couldn’t believe it. They sat in spinny chairs. Said hello to everyone that walked by and held our hands as we walked around the ship. Oh man what a good time they had. Once we were done with the tour we took a group picture and said our goodbyes and they headed back to reality for them. I was speechless about the day. I went to dinner and just sat there thinking about everything that had happened that day. It was a pretty quiet dinner. Kayla and I stayed in that night and ended up playing with the little twins that are on the ship. They are 2 years old and their names are Sienna and Olivia. They are the cutest kids ever! After playing with them we headed to bed.

                On the last day we had just about enough of India because it is a lot to take in at once in 6 days.  So Kayla, Ashleigh, and I got off the boat  to run to the mall real quick. We had a nice rickshaw ride there the guy was a very gentle driver compared to everyone else. Didn’t use his horn even once. I was shocked. We got to the mall and got what we need and looked around. Then we took a group vote to get pizza hut because why not eat pizza hut while we were in India. We paid 10 us dollars for 3 waters and 4 individual pizzas and garlic bread. Pretty good deal huh! It was excellent they had Indian style pizza which was wonderful and very spicy just like the rest of India’s food.  After we finished our food we headed back to the ship on another rickshaw that was defiantly not as calm as the last guy. We made it back in one piece and got on the ship for good feeling quite dirty.

                So India overall was an absolutely amazing experience. But a whole lot to handle. It was defiantly a culture shock times 1 million. A lot of people just sat and reflected for as long as a whole day.  My conclusion of India is an amazing place to change someone’s outlook on life.  I saw some crazy things this week that I don’t think I would see in many other places. How dirty the city was and how populated it was how many people begged for anything you could imagine and stuck babies in your face that were naked and you just had to say no. How many homeless people just laid in trash and on the side of the streets. The amount of animals that were wild around the city is crazy.

I’ll leave you with this. This about what you have subtract 95% of it and try to live a day. I promise you it won’t work. Stop taking things for granted and asking for too much because there are people everywhere that have nothing not just in India, it is just maximized here. I walked into India a changed person and left a totally different person as I walked in.  Don’t complain about the doctors you have and about the roads you drive one or just about anything because you always have to remember

  THERE IS SOMEONE SOMEWHERE THAT HAS IT 10 TIMES WORSE.. AND THAT PERSON COULD  

                  LIVE 20 MINUTES FROM YOU or 1000 MILES BUT THERE IS STILL SOMEONE.

 

 

On a positive note! I had a blast and this trip defiantly changes people if you get involved in the cultures and involved in the right thing.  Sorry this took me so long. I need time to think about how to put my thoughts on paper. It takes a lot sometimes to describe things I do.  I miss you all and hope you are all doing great. I will be home before you know it which I am sure your all happy about, I want come home but I don’t either.  Love love love you and miss you all

SINGAPORE IN THE MORNING ( oh ya and we are 12 hours ahead of home now)

Love

Amy !

INDIA Day 1

India wowwww....

So today was our first day in India we arrived around 8 AM. I will give you a quick run down on our crazy day.

Got split from our friends
Went in rickshaws ( they drive like crazy people)
Never can look at American's as crazy drivers! EVER AGAIN!
Went to 12 sticker places and they all had playboy bunny stickers but no flag stickers
Ended up at a place wear they gave me three 6x12 sheets of sticker so I could make my own ( actually hilarious)
When leaving the sticker place our rickshaw hit a walking person and drove away!
Went to see a movie ended up seeing Despicable me in 3D ( awesome)
The movie theaters were amazing and I wish I could have them at home.
There was an intermission in our movie. we laughed
Took a rickshaw home .. another adventure
This time my rickshaw hit a motor cycle and pointed and laughed as he drove away ( its like we were in a video game)
Driving around in Rickshaws is the craziest thing to do. You feel like your in a mini bat mobile.
They have pizza hut and KFC here! we didn't have it we tired local food!
We saw the richest and we saw the poorest ( really sad)
We made it safe and sound back to the boat in one peice.


My first day in India was defiantly a culture shock and a way to realize how good we have it. They are actually crazy drivers here and  It was probably the funniest but scariest day ever haha oh man. 

I will update you guys in two days after my Child Labor homestay.

(p.s I typed up a long blog for today and it all got lost so I couldn't type it again)

Love you and miss you all

Amy

ADOPTED

GOOD AFTERNOON EVERYONE :)

 

Sooo Today I was adopted by my extended family!  Sandy and Bob Smith! They are amazing and so sweet. I am actually going to apart of two families! But today was my first meeting with my new family I have 2 sisters and a brrother!

 

Its awesome to have a family on board! We are meeting in a few days to have dinner and play games again! They are just great. They are from Maryland!

 

hope everyone is doing great :)!

 

 

MAUITIUS!!!!! A beautiful vacation Island

Hey Everyone!!

I hope you all are doing great! Today we arrived in Mauritius and it is BEAUTIFUL!! It is more than great here. home of the DODO BIRD hahahah :) love it.  We got off the boat around 10 and headed over to the city center. They drive on the wrong side of the road so its a little scary but just got to pay attention.  We took a taxi to a set of waterfalls that you had to hike too! OH MY was it beautiful. When we got to the trails we started walking then decided it is steep and we might want to pay 1 dollar a person for a guide(very expensive) haha. We went back and got a guide and started our adventure. I met up with my friends Ashleigh and Collin and their friends and hiked with them.  Their were some steep points to get to the top of the waterfall. Once we got to the top we took pictures and saw the most breath taking beautiful view I have almost ever seen in my life! I looked down and got just a little scared! Then we started our walk down the side of the waterfall. It was VERY steep and smarty over here wore flip flops. ( I know i'm bright!) I bet you were all wondering if I made it without falling... No I didn't I did slip and luckily grabbed on to a branch and caught myself from not slipping all the way down. But I am alright. Typical me! ( my clumsiness will never change haha). The guide took us behind the waterfall so we could take pictures from the underneath. He brought us down to a place we could place our stuff. He then took us IN the waterfall. We climbed up some steep rocks that was very very fun but slippery. It was amazing we stopped under the waterfall and took a "shower!" oh man it was amazing! We continued our climb to the other side were you could jump off a 25 foot cliff into the water! There were about 25 people who had jumped before me. But of course I was still scared. But the guide said it is a lot of fun and not dangerous if I followed his directions. I was the first one in my group to go and it was just a little scary. I was just shaking a little bit(that is a lie I was really shaking!) I figure if I stod there too long and thought about it I would never go. So I said here goes nothing and jumped (my friend got a hilarious picture)  I screemed the WHOLE way down. They told you to go in like a pencil but that didn't happen for me haha. I went in as if I was sitting in a chair and it made a reallllyy loud noise. OUCH ! That hurt! but I was soooo glad I did it! I swam around in the pool of water for a little bit and then we started our hike back. I made the whole hike back without falling :)! yay me! We took a taxi back to Port Louis, got some lunch at a local restaurant. I had a pizza that was amazing. they love hot stuff here so I was extremely happy! The pizza had pinapple peppers cheese chicken hot sauce and tomato sauce! yummmyyyyy.  After that we walked around for a little bit and then went back to the boat.

The next morning we woke up and headed out to Grand Baie on the bus. The buses were interesting but it was a great experience. We made some new friends. Jules, Chris, and Sam. We spent the day with them. We went to  a public beach on Grand Baie for a day which was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL! IT was to die for! We laid in the water and on the beach for a while before we decided to head back to Port Louis. Before we headed back we we stopped and had a fresh mini pineapple which was soooo good and juicy. Then we found a SPURS!!!! which I never thought I would see again. We stopped their for lunch. Then jumped back on the bus and headed back to port. When we got back we went to the market for a bit, grabbed some souvenirs and headed back to the boat early so we wouldn't get caught in the crowd racing back to make on board time.

Mauritius was amazing and beautiful country and a nice break. It is a vacation island so it was nice and relaxing. A lot of students ended up going out and being really stupid. On board time is 6 Oclock and if you are not on time then you get dock time in the next country. At 430 we decided we were going to go sit on deck five and watch the people running for the boat or stumbling because they were so drunk.( the deans were not very happy)  There were so many people who were so stupid waiting till the lsat minute to get on the boat. Over 100 people got dock time after Mauritius.  The captain is not very happy with some people on our voyage which does not make me and some of my friends very happy.  We have noticed that this trip to some people is all about drinking and I just can’t understand it. This trip to some people is a joke. They spend TONS of money in each port on drinking and getting drunk.  Now mind you by no means is that how my trip is. One of the groups of my friends loves to do that  and I go out with them and stay completely sober.  Some call me crazy but I know that I don’t have the money for that nor do I want to do that.   Although I am very happy that we got to go to this port and I had an amazing time. We are going to sit down with one of the deans and explain that this is defiantly somewhere that should be considered about coming back to with future voyages. It is very much looked at like a spring break because it is a vacation island with tons of bars beaches and booze. Its half way through our voyage and some students apparently don’t know how to control themselves.  So a couple of my friends and I are taking some initiative to make it known that something should be done about this and people need to open their eyes to how lucky they really are and try and forget about booze for 5 minutes.  Some people have been drinking so much they are forgetting there ports which is absolutely ridiculous.

Well sorry about my ranting and raving about this but it is a huge bother to some of the shipboard community of how a lot of student’s mentalities are.  I am so glad I am not part of that and that I am taking full advantage of this trip in every aspect.  I hope everyone is doing great at home and I hope to hear from  you guys because people have been slowly forgetting about me and I barely get any emails anymore : -( . 

Don’t forget you can always send me a card or a package : -) If you look at my very first blog it will tell you how or ask my mother she knows how to . She sent me a package and I got it in Mauritius! It made me very happy!

LOVE AND MISS YOU ALLL

NEXT STOP: INDIA!  I hear its life changing . I will let you know.

Also the sea Olympics are this week so I will blog about that in a few days!

LOVE ALWAYS <3 AMY

SOUTH AFRICA!!

Hey Everyone,

TIA : )!   THIS IS AFRICA!!!!!

I hope everyone is doing excellent! I am doing more than Fabulous! Happiest I have ever been in my whole entire life!  Kayla and I are doing great out here. We Spent a lot of time together by ourselves in South Africa and enjoyed the amazingness of this port (I know that’s not a word but I don’t care lol).

We arrived in Cape Town on Sunday the 8^th of October.  We woke up at 5:30 AM to watch the pull in to the V & A Waterfront. A beautiful view, you could see Table Mountain and Lions Head Peak along with the beautiful city.  We went through customs around 7:30, the ship got searched for stowaways but we didn’t have any! GOOD THING lol!  Around 9 AM we got cleared to get off the ship.  The adventures began!  We headed for Table Mountain to Hike up! It was a long walk just to the entrance of the trail. We started our hike up and Kayla didn’t feel very well so we decided to take the cable car up instead.  That was a lot of fun! It went pretty much straight up! On the way up the floor rotated so you could have a great view of the mountain on your way up.  When we got to the top it was breath taking.  The views from every angle were absolutely beautiful.  We got some amazing pictures while we waited for our friends to get to the top (they Hiked) eventually everyone got up to the top and we all had some lunch together. I had salad and pizza that was amazing.  After lunch we walked around a bit until it got cold so we headed back down on the cable car.  The way down was really steep and a little scary ride.  When we got to the bottom we decided we were going to go to the beach for the rest of the day. We went to Camps Bay which is a very very beautiful beach.  Which restaurants all down the strip, reminded me a lot of South Beach in Miami.  We walked around for a bit then decided to go grab a drink. We sat outside of a restaurant and had a beautiful view.  After everyone had a drink we decided to go down on the beach but when we got down there it was so windy the sand hurt when it hit you. This was a cold water beach so the water was FREEZING.  In Cape Town they have Cold and Warm water beaches but they tell you that a lot of people hang out at the cold water beaches to tan but don’t go in the water. Which I found pretty funny.  After hanging out at the beach we headed back to the ship to lay low for the night.

The next morning we got up semi early to exchange our money over before we left for our overnight trip through SAS.   Around noon we went and met our group for our trip. I found out then that the first day was a tour of a winery and then we would sleep at the camp.  We got on the bus and drove about an hour and a half till our bus broke down. The tour guide told us that a new bus would come in 20 minutes but in South Africa soon means 20-80 minutes. So an hour later a bus came to pick us up.  We went through the longest tunnel in South Africa that was around 2.5 miles long.  We finally arrived that the winery for a tour and wine tasting.  The tour of the winery was really interesting and cool I got some great pictures!  Then we had a wine tasting.  We got to try 9 different wines, my favorite was the Rosé. It was very tasty.  After the tasting we went to the camp site where we were spending the night.  We got a nice tasty dinner and I tried Lamb. It was alright haha.  We had marshmallows and crackers over the fire for dessert.  Then we hung out with all of our tour guides before bed. They were awesome people.  All of them were very friendly and welcoming.  Around midnight we went to bed.  We were woken up quite early for breakfast that was TO DIE FOR! It was eggs bacon sausage and toast all cooked over the fire!! I had three servings that are how good it was!  Bacon in Africa is so much better than bacon at home.  After breakfast we took a 15 minute ride to where we got on the river for the start of our river rafting adventure!  OH WHAT A DAY WE HAD!  There were only 14 of us which made the trip even better. I made some great new friends named Collin, Ashleigh, Jack, and Lexi. They are great!  Within 5 minutes of being in our little boats in the water (2 people per boat) everyone was splashing each other laughing and having a great time.  Kayla was my boating buddy.  She didn’t really have paddling experience but she did well for the day.  I was in the back and got to steer which was a lot of fun.  We went through some class one rapids which were fun to go through but sometimes a little scary.  We got to jump off our boats and swim in the river too which was fun except for I am scared water that you can’t see the bottom. So we had quite a funny thing happen. I was swimming and something touched my foot well let’s just say I have never pulled myself into a boat so fast in my life. I screamed hahaha oh man it was so funny.  For lunch we stopped right after the dam which was really fun. We got to climb on the rocks into what they call the river Jacuzzi. You had to climb on a bunch of rocks and you could sit under were the water was coming down.  It was super cool.  Then we had some nice sandwiches for lunch before we continued on our journey down the river.  After lunch till we made it back was fun just really tiring.  Seeing the camp site was one of the best things ever because we were exhausted from being in the hot sun all day long paddling since about 9 am till 4pm with an hour break.  We headed back to the ship for a bit before we headed out to dinner. We ate at this place called Spurs which was AMAZING! They had thheeeee best cheesy garlic bread I have ever had in my life and I am so sad I can’t have it again.  I had a steak and Kayla had a burger. Then we split a brownie Sunday.  Our whole meal came to 241.00 Rand which comes out to around 30 dollars (talk about a cheap dinner). After dinner we went and found some internet and then headed back to the ship for the night.

The fourth Morning we woke up and we went to Robben Island. We walked down the water front and got on the ferry that went over to the Island. On our way over we saw dolphins and penguins swimming in the water which was really cool.  Once we got over to the island we walked down and god on buses that took us on a tour of the island.  We saw the different prisons and where people lived and learned all about the island. Our last stop on the tour bus was at the maximum security prison. It was really interesting and cool to see. The guy talked to us about the prison and he actually used to be a prisoner in the prison.  We saw a community cell and then they took us and we saw Nelson Mandela’s cell where the stuff he had was still in there. It was really awesome.  Then we took the ferry back to the harbor. We got on the boat and snagged some free Wi-FI and then we went to dinner at Spurs. We fell in love with this place if you didn’t notice.  After dinner we headed back to the ship for the night.

The second to last morning we got up and we went to breakfast at Spurs because we heard they had good breakfast and they did!  After we ate breakfast we headed to the Aquarium that was right in the port.  It was really cool because they had all different fish. Also their Penguin exhibit was so cool and the penguins were just so cute.  They have a huge tank that has tons of sharks and giant fishes in it!!  After we finished the Aquarium we headed back to get a taxi to go to Green Market Square. When we got to green market square there was so much to pick from!  We walked around and tried bargaining with the different places and getting things for good deals and not so good deals. I bought my first beanie that I feel in love with.  When we were done shopping we headed back to the port where we looked around for a little bit more before we headed back to the boat for dinner.  Then we went out to this bar called Mitchells that everyone had been going to all week.  It was a lot of fun but I chose to come back to the boat around 9 to save money. But it was a lot of fun while I was there.  I came back to the boat and got some free Wi-Fi then headed to bed.

The next morning my friend Carly and I decided to go to Spurs for breakfast again. It was again so so good.  Then we headed went to a market nearby but it was quite expensive.  So we decided to just walk to Green Market Square to save some money.  IT was a nice walk with some great views except a little scary because they drive on the opposite side of the road here so every time we went to cross the street we looked the wrong way!   But we made it safely to the market did some shopping and then headed back for some lunch with one of Carlys friends. After lunch we said good bye to some locals that we had made friends with and then headed back to the ship.  On ship time was 600. At 500 we decided to get off the ship to go grab a coffee really quick before on ship time.  The executive dean asked us to get her a coffee to so we did. We ran and got one then came back and were on the boat for good.

So in conclusion South Africa was absolutely beautiful and amazing. I would love to come back here sometime. It is just great you just have to be aware and smart.  This place that has had so many problems and still does was such a gift to be able to come to. I love it here. This is defiantly one of my favorite ports. I learned a lot and realized a lot while I was here.  I would recommend anyone to visit here if they can it is beyond amazing!

I hope everyone is doing great at home.  I am doing wonderful and made it thru the sun with no sunburn on my head! My hair has actually grown a lot since I cut it.  I love it and wouldn’t change my decision for the world. There are pictures on Facebook if you want to see what I look like.

So now we are at sea for 4 days on our way to MAURITUS!!

LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!

 

Amy :)

South Africa

HEYYY everyone !!

 

Its around midnight your time !  6 AM here!!  We just docked in Cape Town South Africa! Can't wait to share all the stories with you guys about what happens here!

 

 

Talk to everyone on Friday!

 

Love you all

 

Amy