Ghana

Bungee Jumping

South Africa

Hi Guys sorry I been able to get on here for a while! We have been in South Africa for 3 days now. We lost a day and a half of our time here, because of the weather. We sat out in the cape waiting until the wind died down before we could port. We're sad we lost time here because it is seriously the prettiest place I've ever been in my life. All of you need to come here at some point...I want to move here!

I'm just going to write a short update so I don't use my minutes in port. We made it out alive from bungee jumping off of the world's highest bungee bridge, and cage diving with Great White Sharks. There were moments I thought I might not make it out....like when the Great White charged our cage, and bumped it about a foot from our faces, and then whipped around and hit us again with his tail. Probably the scariest and coolest thing all at once. We have some pics of that, but they're not amazing from underwater. We do have out of water ones, and a girl got a picture on my camera of the shark hitting us. I'll try and upload them.

Also, I know my last blog has no pictures. I've been adding them to facebook, and then Aimee adds them into my blog when I email it to her. Apparently facebook changed though, and you can't save photos. So I'm goign to try to start uploading them here, it just takes longer. So go to my fbook if you want to see pictures. And the two videos I made of us in the Amazon and Dominica. \

I also need to update my blog on the village stay. I can't say enough how amazing it was, and I promise I will get that up this week! I had three midterms and a project, so I spent no time on any blogs.  We leave South Africa on Tuesday-

Ok I'll tyr to get some pics of bungee, shark and ghana up on here

Sorry I haven’t updated about Ghana for a couple of days-

I have 3 midterms in the next two days, and have been trying to catch up on readings. I can’t check my blog to see what I last wrote about, but I think I left off with the Door of No Return at the Cape Coast Castle.

We left the Castle and went to buy a drink from the local bar. A couple kids stopped us on our way. They wanted to take pictures, and look at themselves on the camera. After a couple of minutes with them, the inevitable question was asked. Did we have money for them to use toward books for school. We know that the children who ask this on the street are beggars, and the money never goes to their actual schooling. We told them we wouldn’t give them money, but that we would give them something to use in school after we got our drinks. As we made our way into the restaurant, the teenage girl asked if we would get her food. We figured that was something that we knew would go directly to them, so we ordered 3 chicken and fried rice meals. The owner of the restaurant found out from our driver that the food was for the kids, and started yelling at everyone. The kids were sitting in the back of the restaurant, and he came over and said he didn’t want to see them in there ever again. I guess they had been getting meals from people for the last couple days, and he didn’t want beggars in his restaurant. The waitress assured us that she would pack the food to go so they could still get it. We didn’t have time to wait for it, so we can only hope that the kids still got their food. This was the first time Catherine and I experienced poverty in Ghana, and it was really hard for us to leave without knowing whether the restaurant had upheld their promise to us. We did have time to stop the kids on our way out and give them stickers, which they loved. Thank you to Carissa Harris and Grandma for your sticker donations; they meant a lot to the kids outside of Cape Coast Castle.

After the Castle tour, we made our way to Accra. It was after dark by the time we made it to Accra. Our taxi driver couldn’t find the Pink Hostel, so we took out our info to call Neil, the CEO of Village by Village. We thought we were calling Neil, but we had accidentally called his recommended taxi driver, Peter, instead. Peter ended up meeting our current driver and taking us to the Hostel. We were so happy to have Peter as our driver. He was so incredible and nice, and we felt very comfortable with him. He brought us to the Hostel, waited for us to unpack, and then took us back out to dinner. It was a Sunday night, and he doesn’t work on Sundays, so we felt very lucky to have him helping us out. He took us to a local fast food restaurant that had pizza and chicken and ice cream. We invited him in to eat with us, which definitely surprised him. We got chicken and pizza for all of us to share, and he told us about his family. When we had finished, we had a tiny bit of chicken left. He asked if he could bring it home to his seven-year-old daughter. It was little things like shy Peter wrapping up chicken that we would have thrown away without a thought that reminds me how lucky a lot of us are to always have food. We had our sticker bag with us, and asked Peter if his daughter knew the Disney princesses. Her favorite is Cinderella, so we gave him a pack of Disney princess stickers to take home to her. Peter was so happy, and told us that she was supposed to bring stickers to school. She had gotten hers stolen, and he couldn’t pay for a second pack. So thank you to Courtney for you stickers-you made Peter and his daughter very happy.

After dinner we went over the driving details for the rest of the week. Peter had work the next morning, but he would have his friend drive us around Accra. Neil would be taking us to the village after, but we would need a ride back to Accra on Wednesday. Peter said he would ask his boss if he could switch days so he could bring us back to Accra, and then he would ask his friend to drive us back to Takoradi. We really lucked out in finding such an amazing person, and we didn’t have to worry about taxi drivers for the rest of the trip. It cost us two hundred US dollars to make our way to Accra with a driver we had found on our own, and we paid less than that with all the trips combined after meeting Peter. With all of the taxi drivers who try to jip foreigners, it was so nice to become good friends with many trustworthy drivers.

When we got back to the Pink Hostel, we were still the only ones in our room that fit 8 people. We played cards and listened to Waka Waka, and got ready for our three days in the village. Some girls from Norway and Switzerland who are starting long term volunteering in another village came in around midnight. What we had wanted to be an early night turned into a late night, and we finally got to sleep around 1. We woke up around 6:45, and brought all our stuff downstairs. The hostel provided breakfast, and our new driver, Mouse (moosay), was meeting us at 7:30. He took us to banks to take Cedi (Ghanaian currency) out, and then we went on a futbol jersey hunt. We ended up at the Art center, which is basically a big market. Since it was still early, we were the only people there, and everyone went CRAZY when we got out of the car. We were begged to look at everybody’s things, and talked into buying a lot of it. We did all of our shopping in Ghana at this market, and got some pretty cool things to take home. I also bought my African outfit, which I love.

We stayed at the market for over an hour, and then made our way to the Accra Mall, where we would be meeting Neil and Ana, founders of Village by Village.

When we got out of the car, we heard someone yell, “Are you Bridget?” We thought it was so funny that Neil knew that was us, when he had no idea what we looked like. I guess we really stood out in the crowd. We knew that our village experience was going to be amazing within minutes of meeting Neil and Ana. They are two of the nicest people ever, and they gave a quick overview of how the day would go. They had to do a couple things, so we had an hour to catch up on email and go shopping before meeting back up. Ana was going to be staying in Accra for a couple of days, but she really wanted to hear about Semester at Sea. So we met them while they ate lunch, and told them all about the program. Ana is from Ireland, and was excited and surprised to hear that my name is Bridget because I’m Irish.  After lunch, we said goodbye to Ana, and got into the Land Rover to make our way to Gboloo Kofi, our home for the next 3 days.

            I forgot to add that WE FOUND DONUTS!
It was the best thing ever! It was so yummy because it was like a little part of home in Africa.

Quick update from Takoradi

I only have a minute left on internet, but we are about to leave Takoradi and sail down to South Africa! The village was so amazing, and I've fallen in love with all of the people. I'll write my blog in the next two days~B

Ghana, Africa

We are in Ghana!
We got into Takoradi yesterday morning, and found a driver right way. We need him for the entire day, which ended up bring pretty expensive. Tony took us to Accra, and we stoppped at St. George's castle in Elmina, and Cape Coast Castle in Cape Coast. The castles and slave dungeons were so amazing. Listening to the tour guide tell us about the torture that the African slave endured during their time in the dungeons was really hard to listen to. At the same time, I feel like I learned more about human trade than I've ever learned in school in America. It's such a huge part of our history as Americans, and it was something we'll never forget. The last part of the Cape Coast Castle that we saw was The Door of No Return. This is at the end of a tunnel, and leads straight out to the ocean. Millions of African slaves went through this door, and had no idea where they were being sent, and that they would never return home. It was incredible and heartbreaking at the same time. As we looked out the door, there were hundreds of Ghanhians swimming in the water, and playing in the sand. It was definitely a moment neither of us will forget.
That's all I'm going to update for now. The rest of our day was awesome, but we only have 5 mins left on internet.
We are leaving for a village about 2 hours away right now. We have already met Neil, the CEO of village to village, and his wife. They are so nice, and we feel completely safe and excited to meet all of the people.
It only cost of 30 cedis this morning to get a ton of school supplies, and we have some other things for the kids as well.

Hi Guys-
We are sailing off the coast of Africa right now, about 7 hours away from port. Catherine, Matt, Gavin and I are lying on lounge chairs on the top deck, counting down the hours until Africa. I have loved every part of this trip so far, but I think it is finally hitting me. I have been waiting to go to Africa for soo long, and I can't believe I'm hours away from being there~
Catherine and I are hiring a driver tomorrow to drive us to Accra, which is about 2.5 hours away from Takoradi. We're going to stop at the Castles and Slave Dungeons on the way. They are some of the major landmarks that were involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and I've heard that being there and seeing a huge part of our African and global history can be really incredible. Afterwards, we're heading to Accra, where we'll go around the city. We're staying in a hostel that night, and will be picked up by the CEO of Village to Village, a NGO that focuses on helping rural, poverty ridden villages. We'll be there for 3 days, working with the children in the village. I've organized all of the stickers I got from you guys, and they add up to over 100 packs and even more individual sheets. We are so excited to stay in the village, and they're really excited to meet us too. There are 5 volunteers working there right now, all from Europe. We're leaving on Wednesday, and heading back to Takoradi. We'll stay on the ship Wednesday night. I have an FDP (like a field trip) on Thursday for my Psychology class. We're going to a Women and Childbirth clinic, which is going to be so legit.
We leave Thursday night, and then have a couple days of classes before we arrive in Cape Town, South Africa!
Just wanted to keep you guys updated-hope everything is going well in the USofA
<3 Bridget

January 28, 2011

We took a canoe back to the other side of the Amazon, dropped off some of our stuff and put on bathing suits, and went back in the canoe for our next adventure. The day was a lot cooler than our first day, and Almodo was taking us to a cool waterfall. We took our canoe, which is motorized,  but moves at a turtle’'s pace. We went to another part of the river, and stopped at a family'’s floating shack. We stayed for a couple minutes while our guide said hello, and then we made our way to the waterfall. It was part of the river, but not the main part. The water fall was really cool, and there were a couple local kids swimming in it too. The water was cold, but it was hot outside so we all went in. Catherine and I jumped off of it while everyone watched us. We'’re doing all we can to prepare ourselves for bungee jumping in South Africa.








We didn’t stay long because it was already 1 o’clock and we hadn’t eaten since before our jungle walk at 6:30. We headed back to what we considered home for 3 days, …our floating “lodge”. We were surprised to see that Spencer and John, two of our SAS cabin neighbors and good friends, had found the same company and were doing the one night version of our trip. They looked very relieved to see us, because they weren’'t sure if they had chosen an Amazon scam (very common).
We had the same food we had for every meal, fish that groups had caught the night before, rice, beans, and vegetables. They also had watermelon for us, which was almost always gone by the time I got to it. Today was going to be a busy day for us because we were leaving right after lunch to go to a beach, go piranha fishing, and alligator hunting.

There were about 10 of us in our canoe, plus our motor driver and our guide, Joshua. Joshua really liked me and Catherine, and since we were in the front row, he was really more of just our guide (much to the dismay of the rest of the canoe). We had a LOT of fun. He took us to the Rio Negra, and as many times as we were told by everyone that we should NOT swim in the water…, we did. It was so warm, but the color makes your body look like you have iodine all over it, and we probably have hundreds of diseases now. But it was fun and we got video of all of us in it. Joshua said we we’re fine, but he also said it was fine for us to swim next to the lodge on our first day, the same place they caught piranha on the last day. We took jumping pictures on the beach, which are amazing of course.
After we went swimming we went fishing for piranha, which was so boring. Catherine and I just sat in the canoe, eating snacks while everyone else tried to catch fishies. We didn’t even get one bite. But!- There was a baby pink dolphin swimming behind our canoe, which had my attention for the rest of the fishing trip. No one caught a fish big enough to bring home and eat, so we didn'’t stay that long. Joshua told me and Catherine that he had a surprise for us. I thought it was going to be more dolphins, but it was actually way cooler. First, we took our canoe to the middle of the Amazon to watch the sunset, which was so amazing.







Then he took us to this island that only the natives know a lot about. We sat in the canoe, not too far off the island, as he told us about the swallows that migrate here. He was telling us that they come back to the island right as the sun is going down. He said we would wait a couple minutes, and then millions of swallows would swarm above us. Sure enough, within minutes of the sun setting, we heard this “whoosh”, and the entire sky turned black. Down side? They pooped everywhere, so you didn'’t want to look up with your mouth open, which was hard because it was so cool. They swarm went backwards once, and then they swooped down into island. The big black cloud of them lasted about one minute, but more continued to fly in for about 20 minutes. Dad, you would have been so proud of me for actually listening and wanting to learn about bird stuff. I got the whole thing on video, with the sunset in the background. I have so many videos I’m hoping to upload when we find fast Internet. Brazil was way too slow, and we'’re worried we won'’t get high speed Internet until China in April.

        As soon as the sun set, we went back into one of the side rivers to go alligator hunting. They call it that, but we don'’t kill any of them. Just catch them. We had to be completely silent, while Joshua used a tiny flashlight to search for alligator eyes. He had our driver pull up to the side within a couple minutes of starting the hunt. The trees and bushes go into the river, so they were pulling us through all the brush. Finally, they had us stop and they both got out. While Catherine and I really enjoyed being in the front of the canoe for the whole day, I definitely regretted that by nighttime. Both the natives had gone out to find their alligator, and those of us left in the canoe were definitely prime alligator meat. I thought I heard something, and in a matter of seconds I went from the first row of the canoe to jumping in between Spencer and John behind us. They'’re pretty big guys, and I figured they would get eaten first. Joshua got mad at me for making noise and letting the gator get away, but we heard him wrestling with one in the water right after. He brought the little guy back to the canoe and sat with us while he held it. It was a small one, and we got to touch it’s belly. He opened the mouth for us to look inside. It was pretty cool, but I was definitely happy when we let him go back in the water.









As we made our way back to the lodge, Catherine and I put our heads back and saw more stars than I think I have ever seen in my life. I wish they had an Astronomy class on the ship, so I actually knew what I was looking at …but they were still really pretty. The lodge has no electricity, so we had to use our flashlights for the rest of the night. They had beds for us in little rooms, but Catherine, Marna and I wanted to sleep in hammocks again. They have the center of the lodge area made for people who want to sleep in hammocks, and we actually slept that night.









 I still woke up around 5, and waited for Joshua to wake us up to go watch the sunrise. No one came until 5:45, and the sun rises around 5:50, so I was kind of bummed. I had heard from the people before us that this is when they saw the most dolphins, so I was really excited. We did go out to the middle of the river to watch part of it, and we did see one pink dolphin jump up in the water a little. But it definitely wasn'’t as cool as the sunset the night before. Afterwards, they took us on a little canoe trip through a side river, where we saw lots of baby monkeys that were adorable. I wanted to bring one home with me so badly. I named one of the pink dolphins Pinkie, and one of the monkeys George, and even though I couldn'’t take them home with me, I know I have some long lost pets in the Amazon that I'’ll need to go back and claim soon.
We didn'’t do much more on our third day. We packed up our stuff, and got everyone'’s emails so we can keep in contact and share pictures. We had so much fun in these three days, and were so glad we decided to do this trip (thanks mama c for planning)
*We already miss our three Italians-Sylvia, Lucia, and Ana
*Our amazing friend from Switzerland, who stuck with us for the whole trip-Marna
*Our German friend-Lars
*The most urban Brazilian we have ever met-Lorenzo, who was having a difficult time living without his Subway for 3 days..He was so excited to find out I worked there once
And all of the other people from Russia, Canada and other countries that made this trip so much fun.












Thursday
Thursday was a short day for us. We had eaten dinner on Wed night with Marna and a girl from SAS at a cherascaria (sp?), a Brazilian steakhouse. We were all so tired, and didn'’t want to do much on Thursday. We met up with Marna once we got off the ship, and found an internet café. We ended up staying there for a while, and getting some pictures up. Catherine and I tried to find stamps for our postcards forever, and when we finally did. We didn'’t have enough time to wait in the line. We got back to the ship with about a half hour to spare, and cut it pretty close. I didn't get to spend all my Rais because we didn’t have time, so I came back on the ship with an extra 20 dollars in Brazilian money. But we had an unforgettable five days, and we are so proud of ourselves for not only making it out alive, but actually enjoying it so freaking much.