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Carry On, Ghana!

By sam | Published September 30, 2010

Ghanaians are incredibly skilled at carrying things on their heads. We learned that they start doing this at a young age because it allows them to carry much heavier objects for longer distances than children can support with their arms. We saw children of all ages and sizes carrying everything–wood-framed glass boxes full of bread, huge metal buckets full of lobsters, woven baskets full of fried plantains, enormous jugs of water, cords of lumber, and more. The young men below are carrying pounding sticks used to make fufu, one of the Ghanaian food staples.

Quick side comment: A couple of my work study students found a t-shirt painting shop in Takoradi and had t-shirts created that said “Make Fufu Not War” with silhouetted images of Ghanaians pounding out fufu. Traveling with students is such a blast.

UPDATE: I got a comment from someone named Kwabena Boateng who runs a clothing company in Ghana called Kayobi Clothing. One of the things they offer are official “Make Fufu Not War” t-shirts. Check out their site and consider purchasing one: http://www.kayobiclothing.com

We also saw adult men and women carrying these types of items gracefully on their heads. They explained to us that they learn this skill from the time they are very young so that it feels completely natural to them. It promotes good posture and also conveniently frees up their arms for shopping, caring for children, etc.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Africa, culture, Ghana, SaS, Semester at Sea | 3 Comments

P90 Botwaeku

By sam | Published September 29, 2010

Another part of our village stay included a performance by a professional troupe of Cape Coast drummers/dancers/fire-eaters/acrobats called Botwaeku Dance Ensemble.

Drumming for a living creates some pretty impressive arm muscles.

Dancing/acrobatics for a living produces some pretty impressive muscles all over your body.

As with any performance art, sometimes still images do not convey the essence of the art the way that video does. What follows is a short montage to show some of the variety of dances and antics performed for us by the Botwaeku drumming and dance troupe:

Botwaeku Dance Ensemble from Sam and Shannon Bloomquist on Vimeo.

Posted in Fitness, Travel | Tagged Africa, Akwonde, Ghana, SaS, Semester at Sea | Comments Off

Kofi Baako and Esi Dadzie Come to Visit

By sam | Published September 29, 2010

On our second day in Ghana, Shannon led an overnight SaS trip to the village of Atonkwe for a Cultural Immersion experience. We arrived in the village early in the morning and were immediately greeted by Chief Na Na and his council of village elders. We all received Ghanaian Fante names in a traditional naming ceremony. During the ceremony we were each given a small taste of water followed by taste of Coca-cola. When they do the ceremony with newborn babies, they use a single drop of water and single drop of Schnapps (instead of the Coke). The symbolism here is key: just as the baby can taste the difference between water and liquor, he or she will be able to discern truth from falsehood as he or she grows up and becomes a contributing member in the community. My name is Kofi Baako, which means the first-born who was born on a Friday. The family I was originally to stay with had no children, so I would have been their first-born son. I ended up staying with the same family as Shannon (a.k.a. Esi Dadzie because she was born on a Sunday), but I retained my first-born name.

We were blown away by the warm and welcoming hearts of the people of the village. It’s amazing how intense experiences can form tight bonds in a very short time. The memory of time spent with our kind, welcoming, loving, teaching host Emmeline will travel with us through the rest of our voyage and lives. She opened her home and heart to us, giving us her bed while she walked to a nearby village to sleep at her mother’s house. She stayed up late into the evening teaching us Fante words, sharing with us Ghanaian culture and history, and telling us folk tales about Ananzi, the tricky and wicked spider man. She is a gifted teacher and now a good friend!

Emmeline got up early (we did, too, with a little help from the village roosters) and took us on a walk around the village. We saw the river used for washing and swimming, the sand used for making cement bricks, and the village school where she worked as a student teacher during her practicum semester at Cape Coast University. She will soon earn her Bachelor’s degree in education and hopes to be placed with the young children–Kindergarten 1 or 2 in Ghana–which would be Kindergarten or first grade in the States. Her future class will be lucky to have her!

After breakfast, it was already time to leave. We said emotional goodbyes to our new friends and climbed back onto the bus with smiles on our faces (and, in Shannon’s case, a few happy tears as well). There’s no question we’ll keep in touch. In Fante, the word medase means thank you. We have many a medase to say: to Emmeline, to Chief Na Na, to the entire village of Atonkwe, and to Ghana as a whole. Medase, friends.

Posted in Family, Travel | Tagged Africa, Akwonde, culture, Ghana, SaS, Semester at Sea | Comments Off

Cape Coast Castle and Slave Dungeon

By sam | Published September 28, 2010

On our first day in Ghana, we hired a taxi driver to take us to the town of Elmina to visit the Cape Coast Castle and Slave Dungeon. It was a very moving experience for us. The injustice and evil of the whole concept of slavery is appalling in and of itself, but to stand on the concrete floor of the rooms where thousands of men and women were tortured and died over the course of many years; to open closed doors and breathe in air that–to this day–contains faint traces of urine and death; to pace out a 30′ by 12′ room where 250 of the largest and strongest black men of Africa were crammed and forced to live in filth and darkness for two or three months at a time; to learn that strong African women had their own dungeons with no special provisions made for them even during their menstrual cycles; to see the church built on top of the dungeons and imagine that while singing, dancing, and hallelujahs were heard above, down below human beings were weeping and dying; to walk through the Door of No Return and imagine the shackled slaves being shipped away from their families and roots forever. As if all that is not horrible enough, these men and women did not even understand why they were being held captive, nor were they aware that they would soon cross the ocean in a similarly inhuman condition only to be sold to another human being on the shores of the Americas.

Even as our hearts were heavy with the lessons and history of the slave trade, our tour guide, Frances, was a bright spot and ray of hope. Frances is studying tourism at the Cape Coast University, and he volunteers his time to give guided tours of the slave dungeons when he’s not in class. Like almost everyone we met in Ghana, Frances was welcoming and friendly, full of hope and promise, and excited about what the future holds for both him and the entire Ghanaian nation. He ended our tour by reading a plaque in the wall, quickly summarizing the whole reason that the slave dungeons are open to the public. We end this post with that as well, as we can’t say it any better using our own words.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Africa, Ghana, history, SaS, Semester at Sea, slave | Comments Off

Birthday Kicks

By Shannon | Published September 28, 2010

When you’re living in a tiny cabin on a ship with the birthday boy, it can be difficult to keep presents a surprise for over a month. In a small space where we share every nook and cranny, where can I keep anything hidden? I can’t! So, I enlisted the help of several people to pull it off. Mary, Kelly, and Courtney: thank you! Because of you, Sam received a fun birthday surprise.

He opened this package to reveal the gift of Converse All-Stars, custom-made online by yours truly to enhance his already considerable personal style. Here they are, size 13 brown and red canvas works of art:

The side of the shoe says j.k. livin’ sans punctuation. Have you seen the movie Surfer, Dude? If not, you may be unaware that Matthew McConaughey has a production company called j.k. livin’. You’ll want to visit http://www.matthewmcconaughey.com/ to learn more about Matthew’s awesome vision of surfer dude-dom for all.

Only then will you understand the shoes. Peace out.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Family, Travel | 3 Comments

Happy Birthday, Nam and Sancy!

By Shannon | Published September 28, 2010

On September 21, Sam turned 31. He joined the ranks of the lucky-ducks on the ship who get to have a birthday during semester. Celebrating is a big deal on the MV Explorer, so we had not one, but two parties for him on the ship. The first one was with our shipboard family, pictured below. Brian, Alyssa, Amanda, and Megan are our four awesome kids, and we are their mom and pops while we sail around the world. Many faculty, staff, and life long learners participate in the family program on board. We are each matched with students, and we organize get-togethers with them and create family bonds. We love our kids and can’t believe how lucky we are to have them in our family! Here is an extended family portrait taken with Pops on his birthday:

We reserved a classroom on the ship, ordered chips and salsa and cookies, invited several other newly formed families to party with us, and challenged them to a game of hamchunk. (Should I add that we won decisively? I just did. Boo-ya!) 🙂

Sam’s second party came later that evening. It turns out that our awesome friend on board, Nancy Carr, also celebrates a September birthday on the 22, just a day after Sam’s. Her husband Geno and I decided to go in together to buy the biggest ice cream cake the ship can offer and do it up right in Glazer Lounge after all of the preport logistics were complete. Geno teaches a comedic performance class on board…can you tell?

The theme of the party? “Come as you are” in honor of Kurt Cobain’s influence over Nancy and Sam’s high school years: the grungy nineties. We shared cake with our shipboard colleagues, played lots of 90’s music (the Salt-n-Pepa/MC Hammer/Sir Mix-a-lot variety), and danced the night away to our friend Courtney’s extensive iTunes library. Geno and I managed to get a few minutes with the guests of honor for a quick photo opp:

The only sad part about an evening in Glazer Lounge is that the students can look in through windows at all the fun we’re having, but they are not allowed into the lounge to join us: faculty, staff, and LLLs only! So, we improvised. They wiped away all the condensation from the outside of the windows, and Sam celebrated a bit with them, too.

Everyone had fun, and the proof is in the photos. Happy birthday, Nam and Sancy!

Posted in Family, Travel | Comments Off

Guided by the Best

By sam | Published September 21, 2010

We need to tell you a little bit more about our fantastic guide, Mohammad, pictured with us and another great guide, Hossein, below.

Three guides helped us throughout our trip, but Shannon and I spent the most time hiking with Mohammad (the one with the orange hat). This guy was a walking, talking, joking encyclopedia of knowledge about history, culture, religion, the Moroccan monarchy, flora, fauna, geography, you name it. He seemed to be able to speak on nearly any subject we brought up. He was born and raised in a rural Chleh village on the other side of the mountains from our hiking expedition, the eldest son in a long line of civil servants. He eventually decided to follow in his father’s footsteps. Hoping to serve society, he earned a law degree, but he hated life in an office doing paperwork. He left his law office and enrolled in guide school.

Near the end of a grueling seven months of guide school, would-be mountain tour guides have to pass a physical examination as well as multiple written exams covering the flora, fauna, language, history, and culture of the people of Morocco. For the physical exam, candidates must run approximately 33 miles up and down the mountains during the hottest time of the year. The top 30 finishers in a class of 60-90 move on to the written exams. You can imagine that it’s a real bummer to run all that way only to finish 31st. This is why Mohammad says that good guides do not come from the cities. “People from the cities are too fat. They cannot keep up with the mountain people. You will only see skinny guides.” It came in handy for him on our trip, too. A friend of ours saw a discarded Chleh teapot sitting at the bottom of the ravine. She joked with him that she’d like to have it…30 seconds later he had bounded down the ravine and back up, teapot in hand. When we told him how impressed we were with his rock-jumping abilities, he laughed and quietly replied that he wished he were as agile as the mountain goats we saw higher up above us on the face of the mountain.

Oh, and one last thing just in case you’re not already in awe of this guy: he speaks a good 5 or 6 languages in addition to multiple Chleh tribal dialects and does hilarious impressions of nearly every English accent you’ve ever heard. His British accent was especially good, but it was his Scottish brogue that had Shannon in stitches.

We’ll leave you with some memorable quotes from Mohammed:

“People in a hurry are already in the graveyard.”

“There is no need to buy food. You can just wander around and pick things to eat.” — as he handed us some fresh figs, pomegranates, and dates he had just collected from nearby trees.

“Never take food from someone using their left hand to pass it to you. Remember: in Morocco, left hand is for toilet. Right hand is for food.”

Posted in Travel | Tagged hiking, Morocco, SaS, Semester at Sea | Comments Off

The Hotel of A Thousand Stars

By sam | Published September 20, 2010

After our time in Marrakech, we spent the next three days hiking and visiting Berber villages in the High Atlas Mountains. We learned from our guides that the term “Berber” actually comes from the word “barbarian” and was a derogatory term given to all non-Arabs in northern Africa. Most of the villagers themselves don’t know the term anyway, and the educated among them (like our guides) put up with it because it’s a recognizable term that is good for Internet marketing of trips. A less distasteful term for the Berber people is “Chleh.” It is pronounced something like shleh (although we never seemed to be able to pronounce it exactly as our guides did, causing them to chuckle and us to try again).

A mule train carried our Chleh cooks and some of our heavier bags and food as we hiked along from village to village. The mule train would take shortcuts and beat us to stopping points, and the cooks would have amazing feasts prepared for us at every stop. To us, meals in the wilderness always taste better than meals at home, and the feasts these guys were preparing knocked our socks off. We ate like royalty.

Each evening upon arrival in a village, an elder welcomed us. We didn’t speak the same language, but we had no doubt of their warm feelings as trays and trays full of tea and homemade donuts were dispersed with smiles and greetings. Each night after dinner, many of the village men would join with our own cooks and guides for drumming, singing, and dancing. As we settled down for the night with bellies full, tired from hiking and dancing; we couldn’t help but reflect that while some nut job in Florida was making a spectacle of planning to burn copies of the Koran, we were being welcomed into the homes of devout Muslim villagers and sharing songs, joy, and laughter. The feelings we felt are hard to describe in words and won’t soon be forgotten.

Dancing in the Gite from Sam and Shannon Bloomquist on Vimeo.

We spent our nights sleeping on the flat roofs of the gites (the traditional square houses built in all of the villages we visited), looking up at a million stars (including multiple shooting stars each night). Our guides fittingly called this “The Hotel of A Thousand Stars”, and we never wanted to check out. The nights weren’t super restful as the mules and roosters would set each other off periodically, but it didn’t seem to matter to anyone in the group. We were all quite content to fall asleep with the Milky Way in our eyes (never before have we seen so clearly why it is called “milky”) and to wake up to beautiful mountain sunrises and the melodic sound of the Muslim call to prayer. It was an awe-inspiring trip with wonderful people, and we are very thankful to have had the whole experience.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Atlas Mountains, Berber, gite, hiking, Morocco, SaS, Semester at Sea | Comments Off

Good Luck, Long Life, Good Baby, Good Sex

By sam | Published September 20, 2010

The bulk of our time in Morocco was spent on a 4-day Semester at Sea trip to Marrakech and then into the High Atlas mountains, and we loved every second of it. We were a little anxious about the logistics of leading a trip with 60 people on it, but a combination of fantastic Chleh tour guides and respectful and well-behaved students helped everything to run smoothy.

The first day and night was spent in Marrakech, a bustling little city with something much closer to a foreigner’s movie-inspired vision of Morocco than the reality that we found in the big metropolis of Casablanca. A visit to Marrakech’s medina put us in touch with the local snake charmers, orange juice salespeople, and literally hundreds upon hundreds of small merchants selling everything from shoes to lanterns. One of the snake charmers touched a (thankfully) non-venomous snake to Shannon’s forehead, chin, and two cheeks while he chanted, “Good luck, long life, good baby, good sex.” For the record, we are not expecting, but that still seems as good a well-wish as any.

Snake Charmer from Sam and Shannon Bloomquist on Vimeo.

Exploring the maze-like alleyways and roads of the medina is quite a trip. The shopkeepers are constantly trying to entice you in to have a look at their wares by saying things like, “Small shop, small prices; big shop, big prices.” If you give them a second glance they’ll continue: “Come in and have a look. I make everything myself. Just have a look…if you like, you buy. If you don’t like, no problem. Just looking doesn’t hurt.” And if you don’t find anything you want to purchase in your current location you’ll get something like this: “Ah, do you like spices? I bet you do. Come with me. I’ll take you to my brother’s spice shop. It’s very nice.” The next thing you know, you’re being led down another alley to a huge spice shop where the selection, colors, and smells of walls and walls of jarred spices will blow your mind. Some shops practiced extremely high pressure sales tactics, but others were just gently insistent. The high pressure sales were difficult for a few of the students, but we found the whole experience to be fun and exciting.

Our day closed with a visit to a fabulous hidden Moroccan restaurant with live music and belly dancing. We enjoyed Marrakech very much and hope to return to Morocco someday to visit Fes, another city with a world-famous medina.

Posted in Travel | Tagged animals, Morocco, SaS, Semester at Sea | Comments Off

Skype-ing at the Cathedral

By sam | Published September 18, 2010

One of the students’ favorite things about Spain was the fact that less than a 5 minute walk from the ship, the city of Cadiz offered free high speed wifi in the plaza of the cathedral. During academic voyages, crew and students pay a hefty fee for Internet usage on the ship, so this plaza was a popular site throughout our stay. It’s both strange and fun to look up at the beautiful neoclassical architecture of a gorgeous cathedral, and in the next glance look down in its shadow and see all this modern technology. The big question: what kind of technology will people be using in the shadow of the cathedral 20 years from now?

One of our favorite things about Spain was mojitos and sunsets on the beach with friends. Â¡Viva EspaÃ±a!

Posted in Travel | Tagged beach, SaS, Semester at Sea, Spain, sunset | Comments Off