A main street in Takoradi, the city in which the ship ported.
In our canoe, on the way to the "water village," with our tour guide.
The fishing village at Cape Coast.
Cape Coast Castle: This was the largest of the "Slave Castles."
At Elmina Castle: Through this door, slaves were led to small boats that took them to ships awaiting to take them to the Americas.
Being in Ghana was an eye-opening experience. We hear about poverty, but it's hard to really understand it until we see how poor people live. I have seen poverty in Latin America, but here in Ghana it seems to be everywhere and at a worse level. Ghana has many natural resources - like Cocoa, Gold, rubber, manganese, etc - that are valuable on the world market. However, the country doesn’t process these things, where their value is greatly enhanced, and thus gets very little for its resources. So, despite their resources, they are mired in poverty. We also went to visit two “slave castles,” Elmina and CapeCoast, where the Portuguese, Dutch, Swedes, and British kept slaves until they were sent to the Americas, including of course the 13 colonies. Over 60 of these castles existed along the “Gold Coast” of Africa where an estimated 10-12 million Africans of many tribes were enslaved, kept for about a month, put on ships, in chains and stacked upon each other, and then sent to the Americas to be sold principally to plantation owners. Many of the slaves did not survive the journey. We also went to a "water village," where people live in very “primitive” conditions, perhaps even poorer than most Ghanaians. No doubt, corruption and mismanagement exists in Ghana but, if they were able to process their own resources, they would surely be better off than they are now. Colonialism and slavery are over but the conditions that they created are still found in Africa. The oddest thing I found (perhaps more insane than odd) was that while people are living in poverty, there is constant advertisement all over Ghana (in the form of nicely painted houses and stores) by three cell phone companies. Cell phones is perhaps the last thing that people in Ghana need, but they are being bombarded by cell phone ads. In a few hours,. we'll leave Ghana, where people were extremely friendly to us despite their poverty, and head for South Africa.
The Union: where we have large meetings and where I teach the Global Studies class
The Computer Lab
The Library
Our cabin and deck
We are now heading for Ghana after having stopped for fuel at Las Palmas, Canary Islands. Being on the ship is hectic but there are lots of things to do and places to go. In addition to classrooms, the ship has a pool, a spa (with exercise equipment, massage rooms, and a beauty salon), a piano bar, a library and a computer room. For faculty, staff and the life long learners (about 65 of them), there is a Lounge that has a panoramic view of the front of the ship. The cabins are very nice as well. Since I’m teaching the global studies class, that all students take, I have the luxury of being assigned a cabin on the 7th (top) deck. Archbishop Desmond Tutu is just two cabins down from us! In addition to the three meals we are served reach day, there are two snack bars and for those who are up later at night they have sandwiches in one of the two dining rooms. This isn’t a cruise since we are all here to teach and learn, but the ship was built as a cruise ship and is thus a great place to be.
Me, Kathleen, Danielle, Grandma Denise and Grandpa Gerry at the Alhambra
Danielle at the Port of Cadiz
Approaching Cadiz (Cathedral in background)
It’s been 12 days since my last entry! We spent 5 days in Spain (in port at Cadiz), one day in transit to Morocco, and then another 5 days in Morocco (in port at Casablanca). When at port, everyone goes off to do different things in each country. Semester at Sea organizes a lot of trips but many of us simply do trips on our own. In Spain, we spent two days in Cadiz and then rented a car to drive to Granada, stopping a few hours at one of the so-called white towns, Arcos de La Frontera. The drive was very easy, since the roads in Spain are excellent and very well marked. Granada is a beautiful small city that is home to the Alhambra, the beautiful remnants of Moorish castles and palaces. In 1492, the year Columbus sailed east and “discovered” the Americas, the Catholic Kings, Ferdinand and Isabella, re-conquered Granada and helped to create what we know as modern Spain. We then left Cadiz and sailed to Casablanca, a less than 24-hour voyage. There we saw Casablanca (the largest city), Rabat (the capitol), and then spent three nights in well-known Marrakech, taking, yes, the Marrakech Express … all aboard, the train … (if you remember the song). After we left Morocco each faculty member spent one hour with a group of students sharing our experiences. It is of course very interesting to travel but even more interesting to hear how different people experienced the same country. For the most part, however, we had good, enriching experiences.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu saying a few words at the Captain's dinner
Since Halifax we’ve been advancing the clocks on the ship one hour almost every night, since the time difference between Nova Scotia and Spain is four hours. It’s been a bit tiring but now we are nearing Spain and we won’t advance the clock for at least 12 days (while in Spain and Morocco). Last night Kathleen and I were invited to dinner with the ship's captain, where the faculty and staff get to have dinner with the ship’s captain and some of his officers. We were lucky that in the group was Archbishop Desmond Tutu! Kathleen and I were able to have about a 20-minute discussion with the archbishop about politics and economics in South Africa, which was of course a wonderful thing. Tomorrow we arrive in Cadiz, where we will stay on the ship for two days to tour the city, and then we will rent a car and head for Granada for two nights.
I haven't mentioned that I am teaching the class that all of the students have to take. So, I have about 600 students! It's great fun, though, since I get to give an overview of global problems and briefly go over the politics, economics and history of the ten countries that we will visit. In addition to the students, the rest of the faculty, staff and the life-long learners (passengers on the ship who are not college students - about 60 of them) also sit in on the class. Today I covered Spain and Morocco since we'll reach Spain tomorrow, spend five days there, and then go to Morocco for five days as well …
Fog is all we saw when we approached Halifax, Nova Scotia
The next day was perfect in Halifax
As soon as all students were on board the ship, we had a life boat drill
These past ten days have zipped by in a furious frenzy. We arrived in Halifax in complete fog. The students got on the ship while we spent two days looking around Halifax. We then left Halifax toward Spain and had one day of orientation with students. It was all quite stimulating and things seemed to be going at a relative steady pace. Then, classes started and time seems to have sped up. The students are very interested in the voyage and are quite serious about what they are doing but the pace of the classes is frenetic since we have no weekends and teach pretty much every day. The first day of my Global Studies class went well but the ship was skirting the remnants of hurricane Danielle and the seas were even rougher than on the trip from Norfolk to Halifax. As I lectured, trying to keep my balance, I could see students here and there running out of the room! After a couple of days of classes though, the seas turned calm, the sun came out, and in the last two days we've had remarkable sunsets from the back (aft) of the ship. While we were skirting the bad weather, they didn't even let us go outside because of high winds (and rain of course), but now we can dine outside and feel almost like we are on a cruise (while you don't have classes, or meetings, or are working on your next class). We are now less than two days for arriving in Cadiz, Spain and everyone is looking forward to exploring Spain for five days. More to come ...
