South Africa

“Travel has a way of stretching the mind. The stretch comes not from travel’s immediate rewards, the inevitable myriad new sights, smells and sounds, but with experiencing firsthand how others do differently what we believed to be the right and only way.”    – Ralph Crawshaw

South Africa is a beautiful and complicated place. I was here less than two years ago, and struck by its beauty, the scale and the climate. On this visit, I was more tuned in to the complexity of post-apartheid life, which certainly complicates my feelings about the majesty of this part of the world.

Pulling into port is a beautiful experience.

The tablecloth on Table Mountain was in place, and the sunrise reflected in the clouds.

One of the directives from our Global Studies instructor is “Keep your feet on the ground.” Pulling into a port is such a different experience than a plane landing. It is prolonged, and three-dimensional. I wake early to watch the sun break the horizon, and I walk from port to starboard to see the full range of light.



In preparation of coming to South Africa, I did movie-watching. Two films, “White Wedding”, and “You Laugh But It’s True”, captured some of the lingering attitudes and challenges still intact in South Africa. Last time I was here, I was dining with the White South Africans who were talking about the increase in danger and threats they felt, and the exodus to locales such as New Zealand and Australia as safer options for their friends.


This time, it was so different, another slice of life. We visited the District Six Museum the first day and learned about the systematic relocation of entire neighborhoods for the purpose of redistributing the most desirable real estate. The man addressing this class of visitors was one of the relocated residents.

This was in our lifetime, so recent, with the memories perhaps forgiven but not forgotten. Very sobering, and the work of Bob and Alice Evans rings as more relevant given the world of pain a people goes through, One of the texts for their course was Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s No Future Without Forgiveness.

A lot of students, faculty and staff had trips to townships, schools and orphanages scheduled here as well. Post-port reflections had some excellent comments of the harsh awareness of wealthy on one side of the highway, and the tin roofs of the townships on the other. These same divisions are at home too, but how often do we all drive by and not notice the discrepancy, or separate ourselves with whatever thoughts and words erase or comfort us?

Shopping at the Pan-African Market and Ethiopian food for lunch. Dinner out that night at a place called Mama Africa’s. Live music, authentic food, savory flavors, and good conversation.


Ah, but the beauty too, and the people we meet along the way. Our guide Delia was mixed race and went off script, talking about her frustrations with the current government. We were a group of 30 who took the garden route out to a 3 day safari at a private reserve. These businesses are expanding in South Africa, more like the experience of the San Diego animal park. There is great respect for preservation of the natural habitat and working to combat extinction among rare species. It also meant an easier space to navigate and 5 very successful jeep rides over the visit.
















This second rhino shot is for the refrigerator. So many of the pictures were animals walking away, and I could do a full slide show of animal rears if anyone is interested.



I LOVED these guys! There was a family of four, and their gait is so interesting and reflective of prehistoric ancestors.

See the baby? There is a protective instinct that zebras have. They run in circles when a prey is near, and the colorblind predators have difficulty distinguishing them.

Our room was facing east, but I woke up before 6 and walked around to the other side with the first morning light. I watched the sky for at least 20 minutes, and these are but a sampling of the amazing vistas I had. I wish I could’ve recorded the sound of birds chirping everywhere, and the distinct differences between their calls.





These beginnings make my heart soar. I love the promise of morning light. Our last safari drive did not disappoint, and it was when we saw the baby zebra.

One of my best decisions in life was to “Say Yes Enthusiastically” when the opportunity seems right, before I overthink the details. This is how I ended up spending my last Cape Town day heading off to Robben Island. Some friends had to reschedule their shark-diving expedition (awesome!), and had reserved tickets for this day. I was debating the cable ride to the top of Table Mountain, or this trip. At the breakfast table, the ticket made itself available, and off i went. On my way, I mailed out the first two post cards sent on the trip, because blogging and emails curtail the need to struggle with international mailing. I went to the Post Office to mail my absentee ballot. Whew.

This is a boat that brought prisoners to the island, a place that used to be designated for lepers.

Looking back toward Cape Town provides the unique experience of being on one World Heritage Site while gazing at another.

This local jumped on our bus. He had been one of the guards who befriended Mandela and even snuck his grandchild in for a visit.

Here is the outside view of the prison.

Inside, we met our guide, a man who had served time in these cells and has both the historical and his personal story to tell.

This photo shows men breaking stones from the quarry to the left, and the men in the back row are mending prison garb in the row behind them.

This is a view into the room where Mandela spent 27 years.


There were quite a few rooms with names and narratives. This is where the parallels to Guantanamo Bay started to sicken me. Political prisoners had no due process, and prison authorities went to great lengths to ensure that political prisoners were confronted with a loss of personal control, disorientation and isolation, arbitrary punishments, discriminatory regulations and often-cruel prison authorities.



One of the students reported that the father of someone she met had been imprisoned because as a taxi driver, he had transported both a black and white together. Punishment: six years.

Ironically, putting a bunch of critical thinkers into a closed system ended up facilitating a learning institute for the struggle against apartheid. Nelson Mandela was released in 1990, and the prison closed in 1994.

At the time of a Robben Island Reunion, Mandela revisited the quarry where he had worked, and was the first ex-prisoner to place a rock in this pile. The other returning ex-prisoners did the same. There are lots of other types of memorials, but the power of this representation really spoke to me.

I am glad for the opportunities to talk with locals who are passionate about their home and ache to see the changes necessary for economic stability and true parity. There exists both cynicism and hope in all of us. The next night, i was back on the ship for the presidential debates, and felt the same kind of feelings for our own political circumstances.

Ten days crossing to South America. Time hopefully for reflection. I am seeing a number of clients twice through this stretch, and addressing reactions to travel, acclimation to the shipboard community, and facing reality about the fact that we are on the down side of the voyage, 45 days to go.

Rites of Passages and Reflections

'Twenty Years from now, you'll be more upset with the things you didn't do than the things you did!'

                Mark Twain

Neptune Day

There is a tradition in crossing the equator at sea, that pollywogs become shellbacks, and bored sailors must’ve come up with hijinks at sea out of boredom in the past. What is delightful about this ritual is the crew’s enthusiastic involvement, from preparing the “fish guts” for baptism to prepping the deck and pulling out their costumes for the early morning wake-up parade. Pollywogs endure a plunge in the pool, kissing a fish, and revering King Neptune and Queen Minerva. I am the chamberlain to the right of the queen in this adventure. Quite a few guys and a smaller number of women also opt to have their heads shaved, added evidence of their new status.

I do see the value of ritual, of a community coming together in whatever the tradition is to celebrate. This one has its comedic features, but the pride of our new shellbacks, and the celebration when we did cross at the Prime Meridian, making them in more elite Emerald Shellbacks, has its benefits.

Post-Port Reflections

Before sailing, I knew Damian and I would be co-facilitating the mid-point session. The focus was to be on the emotional impact of the traveling to date, and we gathered together a group of students that we did not know, but who were recommended by their Residential Directors. We were not disappointed, and the two meetings prior to our session were so valuable. We recalled our initial hopes for the Voyage when we first signed on, and checked in with how folks were doing staying on track with those. We also talked about intentions for the rest of the trip. Upon regrouping after Ghana and in preparation for the evening, each person was passionate about their experiences, and very reflective about the visit and how it radically changed some of their knowledge, attitudes and beliefs.

There is a painful component of coming from a multicultural town like Los Angeles, and being in an environment talking about colonialism, slavery, and viewing Africa as “the exotic place”. I know the word is meant to reference something foreign, but I cringe at the talk of culture shock, poverty, and 3rd world locales. As Erica Patterson, faculty says, they were here first. Why aren’t they first world?

 

I opened up the conversation with a suggestion that we abandon the phrase Culture Shock, and instead, adopt an attitude of Culture Expansion. Instead of anxiety about difference, let us extend what we know about culture. The idea seemed to resonate with folks.

Experiences shared during the session included the need to not view Africa as a distant land in need, but to respond to injustice in our own backyards too. There were Black students who had never been part of a celebrated majority as they were here. There were students who were embraced by the warmth of the Ghanaian people and acknowledging that our own culture falls short of this by far.

Women who got little attention on their home campuses were celebrated as beautiful. There were students who challenged a practice of handing out toothbrushes, and an account from a local who said that it meant we thought that it meant they didn’t brush their teeth. Ah, the importance of context and accurate information. globalgrins.org has great information about the value of oral hygiene, a vital motivator of their mission. but once again, how does one distill something important into a concise enough message to be heard?

Contemplative Damian.

The psychologist in charge of these sessions is Bob Weigl, and we conferred after about how to assist students in understanding and engaging in what reflection is, not just storytelling, which happens in every kind of space throughout the ship. It involves thinking about the experiences, about how it affects our view of the world and our place in it. The conversation with the 8 students before Post-Port involved this level of dialogue, and the classrooms certainly encourage this level of engagement. Still, to convey ideas and influence behavior change is HARD!

The Archbishop Desmond Tutu was not able to join us as planned. We sang happy birthday to him on video, and the Spring voyage is blessed with him for the whole trip. We did get two facilitators from The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Bob and Alice Evans, who are doing an intensive course on mediation, and a 5-day field trip in the townships.

Ghana

We have an astronomer at sea with us (who also teaches Infectious Diseases) and he occasionally arranges the ship lights to be turned off, and the view of the stars is pretty incredible. Below is the sunrise that came up while I was having the last of my coffee before heading to Office Hours at 8AM. I love this first light.
                
It is variable. When we pulled into Ghana, there was another great morning sky.

Our closest neighbor today is a ship full of Argentinians. A Ghanaian court has refused to free the Libertad, the Argentinian ship docked aft of us in Tema Port. The Libertad, on a tour of Africa, was seized in a debt dispute involving Argentinian creditors.  At mealtime we would watch them in full military uniform doing formations.

One of the most striking first impressions driving out of port was the way Ghanaians carry stuff on their head. The mat below is not shot at the angle to show you that it is longer than she is tall.

We walked to Jamestown, south of Accra, and looked over the wall to a very congested section of town down by the fishing boats. A local walked us through and showed where the tunnel came out of the fort where slaves had been held, and the waste would flow out to sea. We were greeted by joyful kids in the most impoverished setting I had experienced on this trip, as we respectfully passed
through. Fried plantains looked amazing, but we were walking with the ship doc who had cautioned us against buying street vendor food. :(.

The next morning we went on our adventurous day, and saw the Adome bridge, considered the most attractve in Ghana.

We got to the Volta Region and ascended our hike up Afadjato, the highest point in Ghana. No real switchbacks made it one of the more challenging climbs for me.

If you look in the center of the green photo, you see a waterfall. After descending the mountain, we headed over there next, and hiked into the woods to see this gem and stand in the spray. Most of the group stripped down to bathing suits to wade in.

Dinner in the village of Tafi Atome, and then drumming and dancing with the locals. These small villages are relatively self-sustaining with raising animals and vegetables, collaborative work, and reaching out for tourism dollars to provide money for school books and town projects.

Goats are everywhere, the way dogs or a cats might be in other countries.


We visited the mona monkeys in their sanctuary the next morning after our home stay.

On drives through Ghana, we would often see these bright strings projecting out toward the road. In Tafi Atome, I had a chance to walk in to see what was happening.

Here, a couple of young men were efficiently working on creating the kind of cloth sold prevalently throughout the markets.

One of the most fun parts of the village visit was the friendliness of the children. These kids were in a pre-K of 3-4 year olds, and came out to greet us and hold our hands and play.

On the way back to Tema and the ship, we stopped by a”resort” for lunch by the sea. This place has rooms for about $80USD, and is one of those sharp contrasts to the villagers’ lives. The serenity of this lake and watching a rainstorm come across while sitting under a secure roof, highlighted one of those amenities I usually take for granted. Back at the village, living quarters, while meticulously raked or swept out, were now mud, and when dried, would be raked or swept again.

A personal goal for this port was to be present and see it with fresh eyes, without having to compare or contrast it to other experiences. With that intention, I slow down, and when experiencing beauty, or challenge, or novelty, would end each thought with “in Ghana”. Look at these beautiful blooms I saw in the downpour, in Ghana!

More amazing carriers. So much small vendor business sustains people, as folks would carry their wares through traffic and the walkways. I was telling my fellow travelers about wanting to buy Black Soap here, but had not been in a market to see it yet. A woman walked by with cakes on her tray. Quick-acting Menseh, our guide, jumped out of the van and brought her back to us.  We bought her entire tray of big blocks, at 1cedi each (less that $1). That windfall made her day.

I was group leader to a panel with three very regal Queen Mothers. These women fulfill a role in the villagers as the wise ones, the social workers, mediators, and family planning experts. They described the experiences of being selected and groomed for the position. Character is the most important factor, over lineage or education. In fact, with the selection of Kings, a Western education is seen as a deterrent for these top positions. There is too much potential for corruption and self-interest at the expense of the village needs when influenced by an individualistic educational system. The Mothers are fundraisers and distributers for the sake of all residents they serve. In these modern times, they also hold day jobs, as a caterer, a Cement dealer, and a sales rep. The youngest on the left is texting and if you look closely, also has keys to her SUV. These are the garments they wear for official meetings. Even in more casual dress, they always wear a special chain on their left ankles.

I liked this experience a lot, because i felt like the conversations this morning got beyond the canned presentation of tourism guides, and I was able to ask about the experience as women in positions of leadership, its impact on them, and their personal families and careers They live with the same pressure of western celebrities, like foregoing stops for street vendor food and being aware that they are always a role model, whether they want to be or not.

Best of all about Ghana, is that the conversations back on the ship were very different than after the European ports. Ghanaians are genuinely warm and welcoming. More students did homestays, school and orphanage visits, and arranged couch-surfing visits with locals. A lot of people went to see where the slaves had been held, and got a piece of history that went so far beyond the textbook experiences that never present the kind of details they were exposed to here. Students stood in the spaces where men and women had been retained for months, before exiting through the Door of No Return. It is these types of experiences that push the conversations deeper, that challenge us to confront feelings that don’t have an accurate name or place. It is because of these types of being stretched experiences that I am glad to be part of this shipboard community and in the role I have.