Soon I will not be off the coast of Africa

Monday, September 28 – off the West coast of Africa
14:27
Since I was sidetracked from writing about Ghana before, I’ll try again. 
Day 1:
The first... 5 hours of the first day in Ghana was spent waiting for the shuttle and traveling to Accra. When Terrance, Ryan and I finally got there - we asked the inter-port student where we should go eat. I don’t remember the name of the place, but it was delicious! I had fried shrimp and a Star beer! A BEER and I didn’t hate it. Ryan is definitely one of my best friends on the ship, if not my best friend. Terrance, like I’ve mentioned before, is held in high regard as well. After lunch the three of us took a taxi to one of the only ATMs that accepts MasterCard for me. Hit up the post office, then bought some over-priced art before going to a Chinese Restaurant and having three small bottles of ¢12 wine and fried chips. We ran into other SASers. One was a girl who knew me from facebook, but was always too afraid to come say hi to me. Cute.

Tuesdays, September 29 – Southern Atlantic
15:43
I had a really good birthday overall! I ate dinner with some pals (Terrance, Matt, Ryan, Jackie, Annie, Chelsea, Kristin, Anna) and a few of us played Balderdash. Which, I lost at - cause I always do. OH AND I had a Dr. Pepper (the word on the street is someone [I don’t know who] has another DP for me)!Then we went out to this place called Two Above 5 (the 7th deck), where I had my three Tinto de Veranos. There was this one girl, who’s birthday it also was, wearing a blinky tiara. I couldn’t believe the nerve of her acting like it was her day. I made Ryan go ask her how old she was turning... 20 was the answer. SO, It was my day. I then had Terrance go to his room and get his District of Columbia sash for me to wear. My friends also surprised me with a little gift and they sang Happy Birthday to me - using Peanut m&ms as my “cake” (they were out of chocolate chip cookies. wtf). Matt made me a CD, along with a “life is good” picture. Terrance, Kristin and my lifelong learner made me happy birthday cards! Pictures can pretty much tell my birthday story.


Let me just tell you how ridiculous the waves are today. Everyone is seasick. Of course the seas would be terrible the day after I drink. Everyone is falling over in the hallways. The swells are massive! I’m wearing my bracelets and I took some meds! 
Let me try AGAIN with Ghana:

Day 2:
Jackie and I had a filed program (Castles and Slave Dungeons) which involved us getting up at 5:30 in the morning. The four hour drive wasn’t that awesome. Let’s just say the roads aren’t legit in Ghana - as in they aren’t paved usually. Especially on the ride to the Cape Coast. Cape Coast is amazing. I got some of the best shots of the trip thus far from this field program.

Friday, October 2 – 29° lat 015° long
14:40
I fail at writing about Ghana. I really did love it! But apparently, I also love to do lots of other things than writing in my journal. The seas have been wicked the past couple of days. I actually got super seasick yesterday and... threw up! Yay! It’s really tough on my heart and breathing sometimes. It’s kind of like in an elevator when gravity lightens up on you a bit - well, the ship does that but it also does the exact opposite of that which sucks. It’s really fun to stand up or jump during the “less gravity” part of the wave/rocking.
I’d also like to mention how much I love life, especially on this ship. Let’s start with my room. I love the layout of the bathroom, it’s so convenient. Second, my room gets PITCH black, which mom would love. And there’s light switches RIGHT next to your bed - so you don’t have to walk from the door (which is only about 12 feet away) to shut it off. No, you shut it off in the comfort of your cozy bed. Which brings me to my third point, the beds are actually quite comfortable and they move when you rock - like it’s rocking you to sleep. Fourthly (hehe), the closets are awesome - shoe rack and all. The mini-fridge looks like drawers, which is awesome. Moving on from my room, I have to walk up one or two floors (depending on what cafeteria/lounge I want to eat in) to get food. Food is made for me every day three times a day plus snack time. Although I 9/10 (sometimes they’re too fast for me) get my own drinks, there’s waiters there that bring you drinks and clear off your table. And classes, let me tell you about classes, they’re great and they’re RIGHT THERE. Oh, and if you ever forget anything at “home”, your “home” is RIGHT THERE, too. Oh, and if you want to see a friend, you just walk a flight of stairs or two to get to their room or the majority of the time you just run into them in the hallways. Yo ho yo ho a sailors life for me!
I had my first test today. I don’t feel too hot about it. But, we’ll see. Matt and I exchanged music, so now I have more than 10 gigs of music that I’ve listened to over and over again! My music collection is going to be so awesome by the time I get home. Did I mention Music Matters? I’m in a Students of Service group and our group is called Music Matters. We’re going to collect everyone’s (on the ship) favorite song (that’s appropriate) and make CDs from them and give them to orphanages. We will also supply CD players and such if they don’t have those types of things.
Ghana:
Day 2: Castles and Slave Dungeons, Day 3: Habitat for Humanity with Jackie and Ryan. Day 4/last day: Spending the rest of our Ghana Cities. More after class. Hopefully.

16:21
Well, I guess I will resume my reflection of Ghana after that lovely class discussing suicide notes...
Ghana continued:
Let’s begin with part IV... just kidding. The general feel of Ghana was extremely different than Morocco. I instantly felt welcomed and happy when I stepped foot into Ghana. The people there are also in your face, trying to sell you things, but it’s different than how they were in your face in Morocco. I didn’t feel harassed. I felt like they were happy to have us there, happy for our possible business. Yes, we were still “ripped” off in a sense, but again it was different. The people are very friendly.

17:49
Matt just mapped the itinerary on my  back, so again I was sidetracked! Then, I decided to upload Neptune Day, birthday and tattoo pictures. And then I watched a bit of Emperor’s New Groove that’s on our TVs. I’m sure I’ll get sidetracked here again any moment, so here goes:
Ghana Part VI:
Cape Coast is absolutely beautiful. Life is booming there. I have some really wonderful pictures of the Cape Coast, but very few of the resort we ate at. It’s a place you’d go for a honeymoon. It’s a resort I want to go back to. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to ignore the real parts of Ghana, but the resort was really something! I’d love to come back, stay in Ghana for about a month (in this particular resort for about a week and in a village for the rest of the time).

19:01
I just ate dinner with one of my professors and his wife. It’s so neat that we get to do that! I love this close community. Jackie and I are currently watching Emperor’s New Groove - which is fun because we both know every line and Jackie cracks up at Disney movies and any funny movie in general.

The 7th installment of Ghana:
I liked the Habitat for Humanity project, but I wish it was a little bit more organized so we could of gotten more work done. It was awesome driving out to their village, which was basically in the middle of the jungle! It was really nice to be able to do this project with Ryan and Jackie. There were chickens just walking around the village, and a few dogs, too! They made us a really delicious lunch and we’re really happy to see us there. I don’t think we did enough. It sure was hot, though. I finally got to lay brick, which I’ve always wanted to do for some reason. It was just as cool as I thought it was going to be.

The three of us got back “home”, grabbed some dinner and quickly got ready to go out. We met up with Terrance, and two bus loads of us SASers headed out to Accra. Side note: there was a very naked man washing himself in the car wash  We ended up at one bar, to switch to another, to switch to a club. I had a blast! Matt ordered some tasty drink at the second club that I wish I knew the ingredients to. I stuck to my trusty tequila and shared a beer or two. I very much like the music they were playing that night. I’m really upset that I didn’t get any Ghanian music! Maybe I can find someone on the ship with some...

Moving on, Jackie left earlier in the night with some other SASers - so I went back with Ryan, Terrance and Matt. When leaving the club we were instantly bombarded with taxis. We decided to walk down the street a bit, so we didn’t get the jacked up price - which ended up being a bad idea. The second we walked away from the club we were all torn in different directions by Ghanians who were basically trying to mug us. It was pretty scary. They were grabbing at me and pushing the guys. We quickly got into a cab, and took a very long ride back to Tema.

But, that doesn’t end our crazy night - no. We were then pulled over by the cops (which apparently is normal - for our safety, whatever). That didn’t put me at ease. The cops have wrist bands that flash blue and red that mom would love (he wouldn’t give it to me - sorry mom). I heard some other SASers had to deal with some corrupt cops, held at gun point,  asked to give up their money etc etc. At the gates of the port, we were then escorted by security in a truck back to the ship. I was very happy to get back to my room that night. I did have a blast, though.

The last day included Jackie and I shopping. Since the last day always involves a very strict time limit, and we had the crazy 45 minute shuttle from and 45 minute shuttle to Tema, we were a bit rushed. We took a taxi to one of the very few MasterCard ATMs since I spent all of my cities (¢) the previous days. Our taxi driver waited for us, took us to get stamps and took us back to where he picked us up. Along the way, I talked to him about how he liked Ghana, President Obama (one of their favorite subjects), deviance in Ghana, and he talked to me about the buildings we were passing, futbol and other random things. It was great! Deviance according to my taxi driver: stealing anything is terrible. He told me if you are caught stealing, you would get stoned if the police don’t get to you first. He explained that a few years ago you could leave your bag on the side of the road, come back a few hours later and it would still be there. He also said the Ghanians are really nice people, that it’s not the Ghanians that steal. He blames the Nigerians for that.

Jackie and I made it to an internet cafe for 30 minutes. Then we hit up Global Mamas. We were supposed to meet up with Ryan earlier in the day, but it didn’t happen - but we randomly ran into him - just in time! He was at the shop he was supposed to show us, so it all worked out. He became friends with this shop owner, John, and we ended up becoming friends with him, too. He gave us all necklaces! Then, back to the ship on a very full and very hot shuttle - that ended up getting pulled over due to the amount of people. Alas, back to the ship and on our way to Cape Town!
I forgot to mention that English is widely spoken in Ghana, which made things so very easy. I also would like to add... THEY ARE CRAZY ABOUT OBAMA! There are billboards EVERYWHERE with his face on it. There are some with him and the president of Ghana. There are some with Michelle. They hold him in such high regard! They truly like the USA. It was great being so welcomed. I ate so much in this port - yum!

Logistical Preport:
I continued writing this Ghana update during my preport - and I have to stop and say... Dean Nick just walked out with a CONDOM hat on his head. Yeah, that just happened.