SAFARI ? AKA THE BEST PRESENT I?VE EVER RECEIVED (thanks dad!!!) ... oh yeah and the rest of Capetown

We just left south africa yesterday! It was my favorite port!!! I squeezed in the major things i wanted to do but I DEFINITELY want to go back!!! I traveled the entire trip with my friends Eric and Thomas and then other friends came with us off and on to different things. Traveling with the boys was a blast - we had so much fun!!

The next morning we woke up early for breakfast and explored the waterfront area right near where our ship was docked. We met up with five other SASers at 10 a.m. and found our van that was meeting us to take us to the Aquila Private Game Reserve for our SAFARI!!!! It took about 2.5 hours to get there. It was a beautiful ride all through the wineries so it didn’t seem to long.
Once we got there I was shocked at how nice it was. The girl who organized this trip had basically told us the sleeping accommodations would be like military barracks. This was by far NOT the case!! We walked in to this beautiful little paradise with rooms that they called “chalets”. Now when a room is called a “chalet” it has to be nice right? These rooms were two person huts with thatch roofs and beautiful wood walls and bed frames. The bathroom even had these outrageous outdoor showers that you got to from inside and were huge, stone and all around fantastic.
While at the game reserve we got four fantastic buffet meals. It was incredible to finally eat delicious food continuously instead of only here and there like we normally do in port. When we first got there we were greeted with complementary sparkling wine and then shown to our chalets. After lunch we had free time until our first game drive at 5 p.m. which Thomas and I spent lounging by the gorgeous brand new pool they had built for the upcoming World Cup. The game drive was amazing!! We almost got charged by an elephant at one point. We drove up to close to it and it wanted to show us who was boss so it started running at us and picking up speed and we had to reverse away. Apparently we didn’t back far enough away because it started running at us again and we had to once again reverse. On that drive we also saw rhinos, a giraffe, spring box, a lion from afar and so many other things. We were all so excited!
After the game drive we had dinner and then hung out in the lounge / bar for the rest of the night. It was perfect – it had a huge flat screen TV and the most comfortable leather couches I’ve sat on in a long time. Until that moment, I did not realize how much I had missed sitting on couches – they don’t have many on the ship, only two hard ones.
The next morning each of our rooms received a personal wake up call at 5:30 a.m. for our 6:15 a.m. game drive. Unfortunately, Thomas and I must not have heard ours because our friends woke us up 3 minutes before we were supposed to leave. We basically threw gum in our mouth and clothes on, grabbed our cameras and ran into the safari car. The morning game drive was great! Since it wasn’t yet light out, it also was cool so the animals were just waking up and out and about. We went to the lions first and literally came within two feet of the main lioness. She stalked straight to the car and then made a square around it, coming closest to the back end of the car where I was sitting. If I had reached my arm out and then just leaned a little bit I would have been able to touch her! It was really cool but also kind of scary!!!
After the lions we went over to see what other animals we could find and found the water buffalo, rhinos, and zebras all laying near each other just waking up. I didn’t think the different animals would sleep so close together and thought that maybe it was just because they lived in the game reserve. When I asked our guide though he said that that actually happens in the wild as well! The animals do that to use the rhinos as protection. Since we had arrived right as they were waking up, we got to see their morning rituals as well. We watched the rhinos do their morning business which was quite funny. Apparently they like to use the exact same spot, day after day, so they kind of make their own toilet. Their toilet happened to be right near the zebras so the rhinos approached them until they moved. I swear each rhino peed a small river it was crazy. Also we found out an interesting fact that after the daughter rhino goes to the bathroom, the mother will go smell her feces and urine to see if she is ready to mate. At first we were all cracking up when we saw it but once we learned that it was actually a pretty neat thing.
The rest of the game drive was really neat. Afterwards we had the most delicious breakfast with real cantaloupe – the ship cantaloupe is nowhere near as juicy or fresh. Then we spent our free time lounging again by the pool until lunch. After lunch we went on our third and final safari. This one was unique because we got to go on horseback! I hadn’t been nervous at all until the other group of four of us who had already gone told me stories about how their horse misbehaved and one tried to roll over with her on its back. So as I walked over to the horses I have to say I got pretty nervous. When I was given my horse I was asking all kinds of questions about the horses and the guy laughed and asked if I was nervous. When I told him he was he told me don’t be because horses can sense it and when they sense you’re scared is when they act up. As soon as I heard that I left my worries behind and was determined to keep my horse in control. My horse ended up being the one who didn’t like to listen and wanted to always go its own path which was kind of funny. Thomas’ went super slow and always chose its own path and Brookes’ kept trying to bite my horse and at one point even kept trying to bite MY leg. That was really scary!
The horseback ride was so much fun! We got to get so much closer to the animals, especially the zebra and the hippos which was really something else. Afterwards our stay was over so we quickly showered and hopped back in our van to head to the ship. That night we went to a great seafood restaurant in Hout Bay with a large group of people and then headed back over to Long Street. This time we went to the Purple Turtle which was having a special deal for SAS students who were allowed free entry. This place was awesome. They sold us this great drink for 55 rand (less than $8) for a huge pitcher, which was a mixture of gin, vodka and I think lemonade. They were delicious! We spent the whole night there dancing, chatting and having a great time. I even met some local South Africans who I talked to for a good hour and a half that invited us to come to a BBQ while we were there. I would have loved to take them up on it but we just didn’t have the time – maybe next time I go there!
We didn’t end up getting back to the ship until about 4 a.m. that night and we all woke up extremely early to go wine tasting the next day. It probably wasn’t the best timeline to do this in but after awhile we all woke up and started feeling better and had a blast. We went to two different wineries, one that had wine and chocolate and another that had wine and cheese and even stopped at a place that let you pet cheetahs if you paid (I didn’t do that, but I watched my friends do it). We had a blast all day long and our taxi driver – Ursela – was really funny. I discovered during our wine tasting that I really don’t like expensive wine very much, just the cheap stuff, which I guess works out good for me right?
That night we headed to a casino and the boys actually won quite a bit of money playing blackjack. The next morning we went to Desmond Tutu’s church for the Easter Service. He wasn’t there, but it is neat to say that we were there!! After church Ursela (our taxi driver) picked us up to take us to Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope. On the way there we made a few stops to see a trained seal who kisses people, to see penguins, and even stopped to have a fantastic fish and chip lunch. After lunch we hiked Cape Point up to the lighthouse, which had incredible views. Finally, our last stop was to Cape of Good Hope. This was really neat because it is where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet! All in all it was a fantastic day and a great way to end South Africa. It was by far my favorite port and I cannot wait to come back here!

Capetown Day 1

           The first day we were the first ones off the ship and headed straight to Table Mountain. We didn’t hike it because we didn’t have time but we took the cable car up to the top and took pictures up there, grabbed some lunch, and then headed back to the ship. The view was absolutely incredible; it definitely lived up to the hype everyone was giving it!! It looked like you were right in the clouds, so pretty!
            Once we got back to the ship we left five minutes later for an FDP with my teacher to the Khayelitsha Township. This is the youngest and fastest growing township in the Capetown area. It is only thirteen years old and home to about 3 million people. We got to see some of the locals play music for us while we shopped for some of the jewelry / projects they had made. Then we saw the local pre-school and played with a few of the kids. We were only at the school for a short time before we headed next store to see the weaving shop. Here we watched the women weave these incredible tapestries out of extra t-shirt material a factory donated to them. It had taken the women three months to learn from their teacher. Behind each weaving setup was a picture that they followed that even showed which color t-shirt to be using in each section. After watching the process of how it was made we had the opportunity to purchase their work.
         After this we headed back to the bus and visited Vicky's B&B that was right in the township. This woman was incredible. She had started this B&B just a few years after apartheid ended - only ten years ago. Before this time, white tourists staying in Capetown would get bussed in by their hotel and told that they could not get off the bus but they were allowed to take pictures on the bus. Vicky said that this was an outrage for all the people with lived in the township. They felt like zoo animals and did not appreciate being treated that way.
Vicky decided that it would be a good idea to start a B&B and open her home to these tourists. Instead of having them come into the township and stay on the bus, she would allow them to eat and stay in her home and give them walking tours throughout the township. She did this to allow the tourists to have a better understanding of why these people lived like this and the hardships that they had instead of just taking pictures of their poverty and leaving. She admitted that when she first started this B&B, the neighbors thought she was in trouble. They asked her if she was going to jail and when she said no they said well what do all these white people want with you. Apparently, before this time, the only time a white person came to your house was if they were a policeman coming to arrest you. Vicky held a town meeting and explained to everyone what she was doing and the response was less than enthusiastic. They all told her she was nuts. But over the years they have come to see what a great opportunity it is for the whole community. Vicky also collects pens, pencils, clothing, toys, and more for the kids. She organizes these types of donations for Christmas time to evenly distribute to the kids as gifts. She emphasized that these kids do not mind getting a pair of underwear for Christmas. Her talk on this really touched me and I’m hoping to get my church involved in a donation effort to make these kids Christmas next year.
After Vicky’s B&B we visited another B&B. This woman was educated and got the idea to start a B&B while she was studying at a University in Philadelphia on a scholarship. Like Vicky, her neighbors thought she was crazy at first but she showed them how beneficial this could be to the whole community. She cannot always accommodate all of the guests who want to stay there at one time so sometimes she sets them up in neighbors homes as well (getting permission from her guests first of course). She also got some women in the township who were interested in baking, baking lessons and now they make the pastries and food for her guests. Some of these women got so good that they actually cater events as well. By outsourcing work for her B&B, she has helped the entire community and it has really been beneficial to many people.
        After the township we grabbed a quick dinner on the ship and then headed out to Long Street (one of the big night life areas in Capetown). We started off at this awesome bar called Stones that was a bar and pool hall. It was so neat! I used to play all the time last year at school with Trevor and his friends and I’ve really missed playing this year! We played there for probably to hours before moving on other bars. The rest of the night was okay, but nothing compared to the rest of the day.

Mauritius ? Our Mini Paradise Spring Break

         Our plans for Mauritius were slightly different than what actually happened, but it ended up being an even better time than we had planned! When we pulled into port the first morning, it was raining, but it didn’t matter because the port was beautiful. It was even better than I had imagined, just like what I imagine a Caribbean island to look like.
        When the ship was given the all clear, 14 of us piled off the ship, rented a van and headed to the absolute other side of the island from Port Louis, Blue Bay. When we arrived at our hostel that Thomas’ mom found for us, we were pleasantly surprised. This was not the type of hostel that we were imagining. This hostel was part of a host’s home. It had four floors. We never saw the first or last floor, but the second and third floor were wonderful. The second floor had two hang out rooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a few bedrooms. Our rooms were on the third floor, which was just a floor of rooms, each spotless with air conditioning, bunk beds, and a bathroom. It was perfect for us! We headed immediately to the beach, which was a ten-minute bus ride away. Once at the beach, we had a delicious lunch at a beachside restaurant. I had been craving pizza for a ridiculous amount of time (pathetic right?) so this was perfect for me; I was so excited!! A few of us had also really wanted pina coladas, which they had as well. The pizza was delicious, yet the pina coladas are nothing like the sugary drinks we have back home, they are made of fresh fruit and are definitely not as good.
        After lunch we headed to the beach to snorkel. We rented a glass bottom boat, haggled down the price, and set off into the water. I was so excited; I’d never been snorkeling before! It was fantastic!! We went to two different spots and saw so many different fish! At one point I was snorkeling near the boat when all of a sudden fish swarmed me. It was a little nerve-racking at first, but then I calmed down and it was so cool! I had no idea why that happened until I came up from underwater and the boat driver asked if I wanted him to throw more bread in the water. He did it again and again and the fish were literally swimming right into my mask. After two hours we headed back to the beach and walked around a bit. We found a field where soccer practice was going on so we headed over there and watched that until it ended. I have never seen men that age in such good shape in my whole life. I didn’t even think it was possible for people to have abs like that, it was nuts! After it ended we headed back to the hostel to wash up before finding a place for dinner.
        Our taxi driver had recommended us a restaurant that we didn’t think was too far so we decided to walk over there. When we had been walking awhile, we stopped to ask a nice restaurant for directions and ended up completely lucking out. They were connected with that restaurant and had called a shuttle to pick us up and bring us there. It was incredible because it was a free service AND the restaurant was WAY further than we had thought – oops! The restaurant ended up being really good, they had great bread and even gave us a round of shots of this incredibly smooth rum. Right as we were finishing up eating, the Dutch people we had met at our hostel showed up to hang out with us. We had originally planned to go to the bar upstairs and hang out there, but it was a Tuesday and apparently the bar was only open on Wednesday. We had no idea what to do now and the restaurant told us nothing would be open on a Tuesday at this hour so we headed back to the hostel.
        When we got there, the Dutch people seemed determined to find alcohol so they talked to some locals on the street and before we knew it we were right around the corner from our hostel buying beer from a man right out of his home. I’m going to be honest, it was pretty comical. We were bargaining back and forth with this man to get a good deal and ended up filling a large box with way to many beers and walking it down to the beach that was right there. There was this cute little pier that had a gazebo at the end that we hung out on and talked with our new Dutch friends for the rest of the night. As it turns out, they too were on a ship going around the world. Theirs however was for a Dutch TV show and they were crewmembers of the ship.
        The next morning I got up ridiculously early and caught the end of the sunrise and then went downstairs to use our host’s computer to Skype. I had came online to try to Skype my dad because I had missed him the night before but he wasn’t on so instead I got to Skype Laura for over an hour!! It was awesome and made my month!! I think that is the longest I have ever gone without getting to hear her voice or see her face. I was definitely having some withdrawals from her so that was an incredible way to start my day! After the computer died and I came out to find the cord, I found there was line of people waiting to Skype so I couldn’t keep talking to her. Instead, the host’s sister cooked us breakfast of eggs and bread with jam. It was so delicious! After we all ate we headed back to Blue Bay. We had planned on splitting up, a couple people were going to scuba dive, a couple were going to hang out on the beach, and a couple of us were going to go wind surfing. As it turns out, the boys missed the time to go scuba diving and our wind surfing guy Ben stood us up! We were all a little bummed but decided what the heck, let’s just go snorkeling again since we all had such a blast. A blast it was for sure! This time I snorkeled at the first stop and then spent the whole second spot just jumping off the boat like a little kid. I had the best time ever just playing around and even having a cannonball contest with the boys! It was a great way to spend the day.
        When we finished with snorkeling we grabbed some ice cream and got onto the public bus to head back to Port Louis. It took a bit longer than we thought so once we reached Port Louis we needed to book it to the ship. The quickest way there was to walk to the water taxi and take that to the ship. On the way we stopped twice to get post cards and then for someone to get a flag. We hopped onto the water taxi, which was filled with SAS kids. Everyone was freaking out because it was after five and nobody wanted to get dock time (the penalty for being late to on-ship time at 6 p.m.). The kids were being so rude to the driver, yelling and screaming at him to hurry up and get us back, it was really embarrassing. When we saw the line to get onto the ship, we were really nervous that we were going to get dock time, but we got on with ten minutes to spare and all was well. Mauritius was so much fun, I really wish we had at least one extra day there! I would have loved to shop and spend more time on the beach.

India Day 5 - Kochin

         The last day in India, Deirdre and I spent shopping and exploring the area since we hadn’t done that yet. We had planned to take the ferry, which was by far the cheapest to the other side of Kochin where the shopping district was. However, on our way there, one of the auto rickshaw (autos) drivers told us the ferry was closed. Now you need to understand that when you walk out of the port here, the auto drivers would swarm you the second you walked out of the port gate. These guys were persistent too! Each time a few of the huge pack would choose you and follow you a ways down the road trying to convince you to take their auto and out-compete the other guy who was also following you. I had to admire their persistence because we hadn’t encountered much of that in the auto drivers previously. Once you walked a quarter of a mile or more away from the port, the drivers following you would generally turn back and you were free to keep walking to the ferry. At the time when the auto driver told us the ferry was closed we were well away from the swarm of auto drivers and were slightly annoyed this man was using this tactic to get us to hop in his auto. I think our hesitation was quite apparent because he finally told us that he would even drive us to the ferry free of charge to show us that the ferry was closed and that he really was only trying to help. When we still didn’t give in, he threw us a deal we could resist. He told us he would take us around Kochin and show us different areas and take us to the shops we wanted and back to the ship later for only 50 rupees each! That was an offer we couldn’t pass up, that was barely more than a dollar for each of us for this man to take us for the entire day!
        Our driver ended up being hilarious! He called his pimped out auto his Ferrari and would constantly turn around and yell Obama! When it was quiet in the car. We couldn’t help but laugh along with him the entire day as he made these funny remarks.
        He also let us drive his auto. This was nuts because the people drive like maniacs there!! For example, there is NO possible way you could text and drive there because it would be a sure death wish. People are constantly driving on the wrong side of the road and swerving in and out of each other. It was rare to even see a car without scratches on the sides or back of it! When we first mentioned that we could drive the auto, we laughed thinking it was a joke. But he kept asking and eventually we figured what the heck, why not? The steering wheel for the auto looked like bike handles instead of the traditional steering wheel. When I got behind the wheel, the driver kept telling me that I was a good driver, that he was going to pay me for driving, and that he was going to take a nap and then he’d start pretending to sleep. Deirdre and I were cracking up!
        That day we ended up seeing a Hindu temple from the outside (only Hindu people were allowed inside), a laundry place, and many shops. The laundry place we got to see was so interesting! It was a community place where hotels did their laundry and it was really neat to see. Unlike our local Laundromats, this laundry place was all outdoors. Each section of the area had its own workers doing their own job. One section was there for washing. In this section, it was divided into cubicles with only three walls, and a ledge on the wall-less side, and a corner that had a large rock in it. The cubicle was filled to the level of the ledge with water. The washer would then soak the sheets in the water and then beat it against the rock. When they were done with that area, it was brought to the next section, the hanging area. Here, the sheets were given to other workers who would hang them on the clothesline. When the sheets were done drying, they were brought to the third and last section where they were ironed by a different group of workers.
        When I saw how the laundry was done, it made a lot more sense why the sheets seemed to always be stained in the hotels and on the train and also why the sheets were damp both times we were on the train. This may have been naive of me, but it never crossed my mind before this point that businesses such as the train station and hotels would not have some type of mechanical laundry machine like a washer and dryer. However, once I saw this and thought about it, it made perfect sense, why would they have these machines? I was very glad that our driver took us to this spot because I never would have thought to ask to see this and it was very eye opening.
        The rest of the day we spent going from shop to shop. We had asked our driver to bring us to cheap places. He told us “yes, yes, very cheap, I’ll take you to very cheap places”. However, he would not bring us to cheap places, he kept bringing us to these expensive places “to look”. After awhile we figured out something was up and finally asked. He told us that when he took us to these expensive places he got a new shirt to wear to work and occasionally small cakes from his son and daughter. Once we knew that, we felt bad so we allowed him to take us to look at more shops. Finally, after going to a few more of these expensive places, we stopped to get some ice cream. We went to this small shop and sat with our driver and a local student who happened to be working in there. We bought each of them a shake and just chatted with them finding out about the students school, etc. It was a nice break from all the looking. When we got back into the auto, we asked to go to Jew town, which we heard was a great shopping district, and spent the rest of the day there. The day all in all ended up being really fun, a great way to see Kochin and end our stay in India; although I have to admit, I was ready to leave the port for the first time. It was just a bit to hot, muggy, and dusty for me.

India Day 4 ? Kochin

        Customs went much quicker than we had all imagined which was great. We got back to the ship around 9:30 a.m. and waited for maybe ten minutes tops to get back into the ship – it was so hot that we were all drenched in sweat in that short time. It was ridiculous. 9:30 a.m. for fifteen minutes and your dripping. That is how I am always going to remember southern India. When I go back to India, I would only go to the North because it was just too damn hot in the south. Heat definitely takes a toll on you, but in Southern India, it is not only the heat – it’s the dirt and dust too! By the end of the day your face is basically brown because you’ve sweat and then the dirt sticks to it. Any time you wipe your face on your shirt or anything, whatever it is turns brown. It was quite disgusting! I have to say that those conditions kind of put a damper on my thoughts of India. Although I had so much fun, the heat and dirt combined wore me out pretty quickly.
        After showering and putting our stuff down on the ship, we met up with some other friends and headed to Viper Island. We took the ferry over to the island and then had to hop on a bus or take a taxi. We were told in pre-port to never use the public transportation but the cabs were expensive and the busses looked fine, so we just hopped on. I am so happy we did that because it was such a fun experience and absolutely no reason that we shouldn’t have been on the bus! The bus was crowded! It was so much fun! We started off all standing but eventually each of us got to squeeze into different seats. I was the last one to sit. A seat opened up in front of me next to this young woman and she looked back and smiled at me as if to gesture that I could sit, so I did. At the very next stop, the woman stood up and gave her seat to an elder woman. I looked around nervously to make sure there wasn’t anyone else who was older that I was supposed to give my seat to but didn’t find anyone. The old woman who sat next to me had maybe four teeth left, she was very petite, her head only came up to my shoulder when we were sitting. As I sat there, I felt her staring at me so I turned and glanced at her and was surprised to find her smiling widely at me. Every so often I would feel her stare so I would turn and she would once again be smiling so I’d smile back. As we took the bus, it started to drive faster and take sharp curves and at one point I had to throw my arm across the woman to rest my hand on the window so I wouldn’t fly across the seat and crush the small woman. I got nervous after I did that because I thought I would have angered her, yet when I hesitantly looked over she was chuckling and smiling even wider at me, so I relaxed. The ride continued on in this manor until finally it was our stop. When I stood to get off the bus I felt a tug on my arm and then some pats. I turned thinking I had left something on the seat or was stepping on one of the women’s saris, but found it was the older woman smiling waving goodbye to me. It was such a small interaction, but it made my week. I thought about that moment for the rest of the day and even still think of her from time to time. I’m not sure why, but it took me by surprise for this older woman to be so genuinely happy to see me.
        When we got off the bus we walked the mile and a half towards the beach and spent the rest of that day there. We met some more friendly people on the beach who were happy to talk to Americans. Lindsay and I even put our feet in the ocean, even though it was full of diseases and germs and who knows what else because it was so damn hot out. But let me tell you, the ocean there is even warmer than in Mexico, it is not refreshing at all!! That night we had dinner at one of the resorts along the water. I got so excited when we sat down because the only thing on their menu was burgers, pizza, and sandwiches. It was perfect because I had just been complaining that I was sick of Indian food because I felt I ate the same thing at every meal. Don’t get me wrong, I love Indian food, it is so tasty, but I felt like it was so monogamous. Needless to say I was pumped to see that menu! I ordered a veggie burger, thinking that it would be really good in India where many of them were vegetarians. To my surprise, it was just a big fried ball of all the foods I’d been eating, potatoes, spices, etc. and tasted exactly what I was trying to get away from. We all got a nice chuckle out of that one. That night we went to two different low key bars along the beach where we hung out and chatted and just relaxed until we all got tired and went back to the ship.

Village Homestay Erode ? Day 3

        After waking up to the gorgeous sunrise, we packed our things, had one or two more cups of the delicious coffee and tea and jumped back into the busses to head to the next village, a much larger one, Erode. First we went to a local boarding school called BRV. Here we were able to put our things in a room for the day and then were escorted outside to have breakfast in the courtyard. After breakfast, we went to play with the kids for a bit. At that time it was the little boys time to spend outside and play. They were all involved in different sports games so we all just jumped into different games. We weren’t out there long before we were called to get back into the vans.
        We saw the Erode village’s temple like the one we had seen for Jayaramapuram and then we went to one of the large Hindu temples. The temple was packed of people. Before entering the temple we had to take off our shoes. As we walked around, I noticed a few of the locals pointing at our feet and laughing – we all had socks on because we had been wearing sneakers, which must have looked funny to them. As we walked around, we got to see their rituals, hear more about the temple and why so many people were there. We found that many of the people there were there to honor their dead loved ones. They come back every year on the anniversary of a death to feast with their family, etc. Next we got to enter the temple and do the prayer and ritual Hindi people do when they enter. As we were touring the temple, I was beginning to feel bad about our presence there. It seemed rude to me for us to be there staring at them and taking pictures. One of the other members of our group must have felt the same because she inquired about it and the tour guide answered that this was not the case at all. He said that the Hindi people enjoyed and welcomed our presence; they wanted us to be there, we were not intruding at all. The reason they felt this way was because they wanted us to learn more about their culture and spread our knowledge to people around the world. It was interesting to hear this remark because I would not have imagined this to be the answer to our question.
        We ended our tour of the temple with what everyone was most excited about – seeing the elephant. In part of the temple there was a trained elephant there that if you gave it money would “bless you”. Of course all of us wanted to do this! We handed the elephant our money – it took it in its trunk – and then you bowed your head and the elephant curled its trunk and donked you on the head. Now I chose this word ‘donked’ carefully. It was neither a light tap nor a smash, but it definitely had some power behind it. After all of us had done this, we got back in our vans and headed to a local market to spend just a few minutes there before heading back to the BVC school to have lunch. After lunch, we were able to play with the kids for a bit before heading up to their auditorium for a performance. The kids had prepared a traditional dance for us, dressed in three sets of costumes: two different eras of traditional clothing and one set of clothing that was mocking western attire. After doing the dance for us, they asked us to do a performance. We didn’t know that we were going to have to perform and therefore had nothing planned. After a few minutes we decided to go up there and sing our national anthem – which was not in key at all and sounded terrible. Then we did the hokey pokey. It was nothing compared to their performance but they got a kick out of it, so that is all that matters. After we completed our “performance” the kids came back up on stage and taught us how to do their dance. This was quite comical since none of us could do it. This whole time was pretty entertaining; we cracked up for most of the time.
        Before we left to visit the disabled children’s center and training school, I ran up to the bathroom real quick. The bathroom was upstairs in one of the unoccupied room. When I came out I noticed a larger room next door with the door open and kids’ voices coming out. I popped my head in to see what it was and found myself looking at the younger boys’ room. They spotted me immediately and started yelling, “hi, come in, come in!” so I did. The room was large, with tons of bunk beds and kids. Half the boys were in towels, which I found out quickly was because the others were in their bathroom in the back of the room showering. I hung out in the room for awhile, more SAS students came in too and we talked with the kids. The boys were so excited for us to be there, they wanted to know everything about us, where we were from, what we wanted to do (“what are your ambitions” they would ask) and many other questions. The more of us that came in, the sillier they got. They began trying to rip off each others towels and were giggling constantly. Eventually we were told we had to leave because we needed to leave to see the disabled kids, but I couldn’t help but think that was the best bathroom trip I’ve ever taken.
        When we arrived at the disabled children’s school they did a ceremony for us before we entered and then we came inside and watched a few different dances by different groups of kids. After we were welcomed with a speech and told a bit about the school – all of the kids there were in some way affected by polio and were receiving therapy for it. Then we were given some time to play with the kids. This was my favorite part. We each sat down with a group of kids. I sat down with a group of younger ones. Only one could speak English, but it wasn’t a problem because he translated for all the others. I sat there for the hour and a half that we had with them and taught them games and gave them stickers and let them take pictures with my camera. They were all so excited about the camera, stealing it out of each others hands to get a turn and becoming so excited when I would say yes they could use it to take pictures. We had given each of them a pencil and one of the kids had even gotten a notebook. Using the pencil we’d given him and the notebook I taught them how to play tic-tac-toe which they all loved. When that got boring, I tried to thumb-wrestle with the boy who could speak English, only to find that he couldn’t use his thumb. Before he could get discouraged, I made up finger wrestling which he could do and cracked up as we played for awhile. When we got sick of that and the others sick of tic-tac-toe, I played Bubble Gum, Bubble Gum with them which is a hand game. Everyone puts in both their hands and then you sing, “bubble gum, bubble gum in a dish, how many pieces do you wish?” Whomever you land on when you say wish picks a number and then whomever you land on for that number has to take their hand out. It was such a simple game but they kids loved it! The time flew by and before I knew it the kids had to leave.
        Once they left, the director the school led us in a meditation – which of course I fell asleep in, oops. After meditation we headed back to the boarding school for dinner. The kids were eating inside so we ate outside. After a quick dinner, (and ice cream!) we had to get back on the bus and head towards the train station. That night we took another overnight train that would take us to Kochin (where the ship had moved to). This time our train was earlier, so we all hung out on each other’s bunks for a few hours before getting to sleep. We slept for about four hours before reaching Kochin where we transferred to a bus that took us to a hotel to sleep for a few more hours (it was 3 a.m.). The hotel was great, two people to a room with extremely comfortable beds. We got a wake up call at 8 a.m. and headed down for a surprise breakfast. I had the best cereal there, it was like their version of coco puffs (I actually just bought a box in South Africa to eat on the ship!). Then we checked out of the hotel, got back on the bus, and headed to customs before returning back to the ship. On the bus I found out that the section of the train where Deirdre stayed had cockroaches and at one point she woke up with 3 on her blanket. Yuck! I was happy I didn’t have that section!! This just made it clearer that first class in India was nothing like the standards of first class in America!

Village Homestay Erode ? Day 2

        We arrived in Erode – a town halfway between the ships’ two ports, Chennai and Kochin – around 7 AM. Once we all piled off the train, we waited a couple minutes until it left before making our way across the tracks. Yes, you did read that correctly, we walked right over the tracks – nerve-racking right? After making our way safely to the other side we made a pit stop to the restrooms. We were once again surprised by what we found – the bathroom had two stalls: one was a toilet, the other a shower. Next we hopped into two vans and took a forty-minute ride to the small of town Jayaramapuram. We arrived at this house that didn’t look like anything special from the outside, just a rural home. However, we walked in and found the most charming home! It reminded me of the homes out west, with lots of porch space, except most of the porch space in this house was inside. It’s kind of confusing to explain here but I’ll try. Basically the house was square and in the middle of the house was a smaller square cut out. Across this square there were two covered porches going from one side to the other making a cross, which they called verandas. Only the verandas were covered which left four smaller spots in the porch area where you could look right up to the stars. It was so neat! The man whose home this was later told me that they used to put their crops in those spaces to dry and if it began to rain they would just pull them into the covered veranda.
        When we first got there, we split up between the boys and girls, to go to our rooms. The boys slept in the guesthouse and the girls slept in the main house. Our room consisted of three rooms, two smaller rooms on each side, which could sleep three, and then a large room in the middle, which slept 6 of us. The six of us slept on mats on the ground (which was much more comfortable than its sounds).  After putting down our things we met back on the verandas for coffee and tea. I had the most delicious cup of coffee I’ve ever had. I thought it just seemed that way because the coffee on the ship is so terrible, but it was confirmed when those who had tea began raving about how good that was that I knew the coffee was good. Those who drank the tea continued raving about it, so I finally caved and tried that as well. It was DELICIOUS!!! It didn’t even taste like tea it was so good! I was so amazed at how great it was that I had to ask our host how it was made. They let the water boil, then they added the tea – called dust tea – and brewed it for a few minutes, then milk was added to the mixture until it boiled, then they poured it into cups and added sugar. I couldn’t believe that was it because it tasted like a dessert!
        After relaxing and having tea and coffee, we were given a tour of our hosts’ farm. The farm was unlike we all had thought, it was a fruit farm. We saw coconut, papaya, and guava trees. We even got to see one of the workers climb the coconut tress with this contraption and then cut down the coconuts for us to drink! This man was so thin yet had the most muscles I’ve ever seen, his body was ripped from the rigors of climbing these trees. After he took down the coconuts, he cut them open with his knife so that we could drink them. I have to admit, I am not too fond of coconut milk, and they’re much to sour for my liking.
        After coming back from the farm, our host’s had prepared lunch for us. We ate off the traditional banana leaves and had various chutneys, dosais to dip the chutneys in, rice, vegetables, soup, and a pumpkin fritter for dessert. To drink we had a few choices, but my favorite by far was the mango juice. It was so good, I must have drank four or five in the time that we were there!! After lunch we had a few hours to relax or rest until the next activities. I spent some of this time relaxing on the verandas with our hosts but then went to join must of the others in a nap. Our host woke us all up about fifteen minutes before we had to leave and offered us all coffee and tea, which we all gladly accepted.
        Then we were off to explore the neighboring village of Gobichettypalayam. Here we saw how sugar cane was made by the locals and how they husked coconut shells and used that to make rope. Next we saw that villages local school, temple and shops. At the shop, one of the students gave a full bag of M&Ms to one of the older kids under the condition that he would share with all the other kids around him. He promised to do so but once she gave him the bag he was about to sprint off until our host spoke to him in their tongue and insisted that he share. It was one of the cutest things I’ve seen on this trip, the look on all the kids’ faces as they got their share of the M&M’s. It was nothing like giving candy to a child back home, these kids were beyond grateful and so happy! As continued our walk through the village to see the homes the children happily followed us. The walk was really neat, we even got to see the inside of one of the homes!
        Next we saw the local temple of our hosts village, Jayaramapuram. This time we got to go inside the gates. This was really neat because it wasn’t just a Hindi temple but a temple designated specifically for that village. The purpose of this temple was to protect the village. None of us had heard of a temple such as this so we were all eager to see it and learn more about it. Our final stop before heading back to our host’s home was to the local market. This may have been my favorite stop of the day. This was the first market I visited in India that looked as I expected. It was not spread out all along a busy road or inside as I had seen in Chennai, instead it was just off the road in a big dusty area. This market was not for tourists but for the local people of that town. It had everything from fruits and vegetables to local clothing to jewelry that they wear on a daily basis such as bangles. All of the people there both shopping and selling were so nice and smiled these wide smiles at us. One of the women whom I bought something from saw my camera and excitedly pointed to it and then to herself and her child and seemed so thrilled when I took several pictures of them and then showed it to her. It was small experiences like this on this trip that made it really worthwhile.
        Right as the sun was setting we headed back to the house and were able to see the very end of it as the sun sunk below the horizon. We all hung out playing cards and chatting on the verandas until dinner, had dinner, and then spent time with our hosts before we called it a night. I had a great time just enjoying the company of our hosts, especially as it got later and there were only a few of us left out there. That night, Deirdre and I slept outside between the verandas under the stars with the host’s niece who told us she did it all the time. We dragged our mats out there and stared at the stars until we fell asleep. It was a bit scary at the beginning with all of the bats but you got used to eventually. The next morning, we woke up as the sun rose, which was really neat.