Day 51
We were without internet for over 24 hours. That meant no email and no wikipedia, which I use for entertainment. Not having email was torture, when we finally got it back it was a miracle.
We are only two days away from Ghana, which meant that tonight was cultural pre-port.
Right before pre-port I went to a drumming workshop where we made some awesome African music. Now I am super excited for my actual drumming and dance workshop on the first day in Takadori. It was moments like that that make me glad I have a sense of rhythm.
To kick off cultural pre-port our ship acapella group sang the Ghana national anthem. They have the coolest name: The High Seas.
Ba dum ch. So clever.
And they sang beautifully.
I learned about Kente cloth, which is a traditional hand woven cloth. It originally was only worn by royalty. They weave different symbols into it that mean different things and sometimes entire patterns will have meanings. The colors even have meanings. Red means blood or sacrifice, yellow is like a egg yolk so it means fertility, and grey is like ash and means healing. So some cloths can be very intricate and mean very specific things.
I learned that Akwaaba means "You are welcome" and is a common greeting. When you enter somewhere new or are meeting people in their home you should go around and shake each persons hand and greet them. It is traditional to greet people individually.
Obruni literally means "white people" but is used to describe all people who are not Ghanian. It is common for people or children to yell or chant it at you.
We were given some tips on food. They like starches and everything is really heavy because it is a culture built on not knowing when your next meal is going to be. They like to make dishes made of rice and beans and yams.
They also talked about bartering and how it is more of a game and should be fun. If you don't want something it is better to be polite and just say no thank you and don't make eye contact. People can be forceful but you shouldn't be afraid, they will let you walk away if you really don't want something.
After pre-port I met my shipboard family up on deck 7 and we ate cookies and talked about life and our plans for Ghana. I love my family. They are so much fun and non judgmental and supportive. We have great talks.
In the morning I spontaneously ended up talking to Ashley Epting, the alumni coordinator for almost an hour. I went to go tell him that my parents want to eat on the ship the first day in Cape Town and then I sat in his little nook and we just talked about old houses and ghosts and jobs. He's a really cool dude. I'm excited that he is coming on the parents trip with us, I want to pick his brain more.
Tomorrow I have two tests. Both of which I feel not that prepared for even though I spent most of the day studying. There was just so much material that we needed to know for each test. I feel like it was all crammed in and the test just came up on us suddenly.
It's impossible to feel out a pace on this voyage.
I feel like there are many more things that I need to tell you. But I am laying in bed and I really want to sleep and my mind is blank.
Or maybe nothing else all that exciting happened today and I just think that it did. The food was unexciting, except that there were nectarines at dinner and I ate 2 and they were amazing.
Chris and Shaleen told me they would meet me on deck 7 and teach me how to play guitar but I never saw them. That was sad.
In class we did this really weird assignment where we had to rewrite an authors passage into our own story, but using his format and sentence structure. That was awkward, but my piece came out pretty good.
That's pretty much it. Here, have the bridge report:
NOON BRIDGE REPORT FOR TAKORADI, Ghana 13 Oct
Miles Made Good Since Las Palmas
1561 nautical miles
Average speed of ship 13.5 knots
Sea Depth 2227 Meters / 7306 Feet
Air Temp 28°C or 82°F
Water Temp 28°C or 82°F
Sunset: 18:27 Sunrise: 06:15
Time for sleep? I think so.
