Ali-G Afloat

Some of my relatives and friends wanted to know how my summer was… and I was actually just writing out a journal entry by hand when I decided to type it and post it on my blog. It’s been a long time since I posted, and my life is no where near exciting as the ship, but I am actually quite content with it… for now!

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I guess sometimes you don’t realize how great something is until it’s behind you. In fact, if anyone would ask me, I would probably tell them my summer was really tiring and just plain boring. These past few weeks I have been reflecting upon the last four months of my life and I’ve realized that it actually wasn’t so terrible after all.

I decided to head back to Ontario from May to August due to the fact that I had been offered a research position in plant agriculture with the University of Guelph. There was no way that I couldn’t take this position, as it is in my field and would give me so much experience. I left Nova Scotia and had to turn down the position I had been offered at the golf course there. Basically in my first two weeks of work I was given lectures by a prof with the University of Guelph and did the in-class portion before I could go out into the field. Most of that part was a blur and much of what I know now has come from being out in the field and getting the experience.

So, you’re probably wondering exactly what I do, because “plant research scientist” does sound fancy but it does not explain really anything at all. Well, I quantify and qualify different pests in the Holland Marsh. That is, I set out sticky traps for bugs and walk fields to identify any diseases present in onions, carrots, and celery fields. I tell growers once they’ve reached a threshold for a certain pest, and that tells them when they have to spray their crops to prevent further damage and provide themselves with greater economic success in their crop yield. This also relates to my environmental science background, as the growers do not have to just spray pesticides regularly when the “book” tells them to, but wait until evidence proves that the crop needs control. This saves the growers money, and reduces the amount of pesticides that are used in the marsh. The Holland Marsh is an ancient riverbed, just north of Toronto, and contains muck soil… not just your ordinary mineral soil. Muck is formed from ancient decomposed organisms on the bottom of a riverbed. Eventually through time, the water subsided and created a swamp that subsided further to the black soil we can see today. Very interesting to know, as I am a geology student too! Another cool fact… if you look up “Muck” in Wikipedia, the Holland Marsh is listed as well as the research station that I work for in the first paragraph!

The first month was just plain scary—I had to know how to identify bugs and disease in plants and then convey what I had found to growers who have been doing this for over thirty years! The growers frightened me a lot in the beginning because they basically watched me go into their fields and waited until I came out so they could quiz me on what I had seen. I was learning, but workdays frustrated me and I grew to dislike my job. Josh came to visit from Halifax where he lives and we traveled to Niagara Falls and did all the touristy stuff, which we quite enjoyed. The time I had with him here was great! I got a nice beach weekend in with my Mom and Ryan too!

June to August seemed to pass by so quickly. I became more confident when talking to my growers. I was able to identify most diseases and bugs that will ever make carrots, onions, and celery unmarketable (there’s a lot!).  I was able to become friends with the growers and be able to talk to them about more than just their farm. I got to know and love their dogs… and once I actually took a half hour break just to play with one! My workday started to get easier and easier as the time flew by faster when I didn’t just feel alone and I had people to talk to throughout the day. In a way, I went through a change myself this summer, as some of my personal views began to change and I started to see things differently. I always knew where our food in Newmarket came from, but I never quite understood the whole process of it all. I got to compare organic and conventional farming by going in the fields, talking to the growers, calculating the economic output, and learning about the nutrient value of each. My views definitely changed in this area. There are so many positives that I can bring from this summer. I am actually going to miss the job and the people (and the dogs… ).

Yeah, and the Foo Fighters concert was absolutely amazing. That’s another amazing thing about living here for the summer. I got to hang out with my best friends here too from high school which is always a good time.

So as I was getting excited and counting down the hours until I leave to go back to school, I stopped myself and reflected upon the summer I just had. Not so bad after all, was it?

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Just got my letter to self and yearbook! I wrote the letter on June 24, 2010 and just received it in the mail. Only four short months had passed since I wrote it yet I could not remember what I thought was so important to tell my future self at the time of June 24^th.

I thought I would share some of it with you.

Dear Allie,

What a great year I have just had. I think I’m ready to go home and bring what I have learned back to my old life. For me, I left a world that in my eyes was perfect—an amazing family, wonderful friends, and everything I ever needed right at my fingertips. My school was amazing and my life was amazing. I was happy with where I was and what I was doing but I always strived for something more. I found Class Afloat—something that definitely fit that category. Was I ever in for a shock. From completely hating it to believing my life could not be better, it was a rollercoaster to me.

I learned that life just throws things in your way and you have to learn how to fight through them. I learned that no matter how bad a situation is, there is always worse. I learned to not take things for granted and I learned what true and solid friendships are. I learned about who I am; my faults, strengths, and weaknesses. Nothing has taught me so much in so little time in my entire life.

So the ship sank. That doesn’t mean I haven’t completed my journey here in Lunenburg. I want to continue to be the strong and confident individual that I am. I want to take positives out of every situation. I want to give my all in any task that I endeavor. I want to continue to be excited about life and all it has to offer.

I am going to go back to that life I once called perfect and see it in a new light. I am going to appreciate everything around me and not take things for granted like I once did. Home is less that a week today. It scares me that that is all the time I have with these people but it also makes me happy that we love each other enough that our friendship will never change. I will keep these people in a special place in my heart for the rest of my life.

That was just a portion of my letter. I went on to list my goals, long-term and short, and what parts of my personality that I developed over the past year that I want to keep with me.

Let me just say I am so glad that I received this letter. It made me step back and think about how I have developed since September. Since September, a lot of things have changed for me. I don’t know what I want to do or where I’m going in life. I know that’s perfectly fine, but since I started high school I knew exactly what I wanted and how I was going to achieve that. It scares me now to think that I’ve strayed away from this. Like, when have I ever wanted to be a doctor? Microbiology is probably my hardest yet favourite class right now and makes me think. This is one of the many things that runs through my mind throughout the day. Can’t tell you if this is a good thing or a bad thing, and you probably can’t tell me either.

All I know is that we make and choose our own paths and if that path needs to diverge then so be it, just make sure you’re following what you want.

So anyway, thought I’d give everyone an update on my life thus far since I haven’t really done that yet. I made the Acadia women’s hockey team, which is a huge time commitment in my life right now. It is amazing nonetheless. I have my first game on Wednesday.

I joined a program called Best Buddies, which my brother Ryan is a participant of in Aurora, Ontario. My buddy’s name is Darcy and he has epilepsy. We hang out every week and have long chats about life. He is awesome and loves hockey.

I am doing very well in my classes but I still feel like I should be studying more. For those of you who don’t know, I am an environmental science major.

I also joined Amnesty International and I will be in Halifax for a conference at the end of November. Pretty excited for that.

Oh yes, and lots of partying east-coast style… meaning trying to keep up Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights of no sleep… no big deal, whatever.

So I’m not out traveling the desert or climbing a volcano on an island, but I am having a TON of fun here “staying still,” as I sometimes like to call it. But it’s going by way too fast!

Until next time… ALI-G is out.

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Finding Yourself. This is a concept we hear every now and then by many different people who tell us that a certain life occurrence made them know who they were, inside and out. University is a place to find yourself. That’s what everyone says. So far, I’ve found drinking, parties, and empty classrooms on Friday mornings.

Who makes this stuff up?

I believe I have found myself completely once in my life, and of course, that was on Class Afloat. The living conditions force you to be who you really are, and you can’t pretend. You cannot fake your personality. You learn to be honest with each other, to let everything go and to not keep anything in, and to show everyone exactly who you are, the good parts of your personality and the bad.

There was a time on the ship, about 3 months in, where I went out to the bow by myself at night and just laid down and looked at the stars. I was alone physically, yet I knew I would never be alone mentally. Those few minutes of alone time (which is rare on the ship) made me think about everything. I came to the conclusion that I had no worries in my life. Does that ever happen to a person? We are always constantly worried about something, no matter how small or stupid it is.

When you get to the point where you love yourself, love what you’re doing, love where you’re going: there is nothing to be worried about. Yeah, you’re nervous about the game. But you know that after all is said and done, you won’t get mad at yourself because of your mistakes or beat yourself up over something you can’t control after the fact.

That, I believe, is when you truly “find yourself.”

So, maybe university is the place where this can be done… I just have to make the right decisions in order to reach this state. Moving on from Class Afloat and the lifestyle is hard, but you gotta love where you are and what you’re doing while it’s there. I am here, I love the University, I’m with awesome people, classes are great, and I love my life. Everything else will come.

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This summer has been great so far and it’s already half over! I fly out to University in a month and I can’t believe how fast this is all going. I love it here in Newmarket but to be honest, I am extremely excited for September to come! I’ve registered for all of my courses and it looks like it’s going to be a hard year ahead seeing as I basically have no electives due to my choice in taking a double major.

I’ve finished Class Afloat. Grad weekend was amazing; my parents rented a house in LaHave and family came and went. It was great seeing everyone. The ceremony was amazing and all of the film crews were there. Afterwards we headed to the Lunenburg Yacht Club for dinner. I said my goodbyes and the next day headed off to Wolfville to see the place where I’m going to live come September. I absolutely loved it. We went and got a tour of the Environmental Science Centre, the greenhouses, and the gardens. That is where the majority of my classes will be. The building itself was so beautiful, with its high ceilings and modern architecture. I loved every minute of my time in Wolfville—seeing my room, walking along the dykes, cruising the main drag, and exploring the rest of the campus. Can you tell I’m excited?

The next week I spent in New Glasgow with extended family. We also went into Antigonish and then headed home in the car. Our new GPS, Glinda, took us in the wrong direction again and it made us all miss Charles, the old GPS.

Once I got home it was chaotic with work and seeing friends. I finally slowed down for a bit until Cam came from Calgary. Last weekend I picked Cam up from the airport and we went to Kirsty’s cottage on Lake Muskoka. Her cottage is beautiful and we all had a great time. This past weekend, Cam and Kirsty came to stay at my house. On Saturday we hung out with Steph on her birthday and went out for dinner with friends. On Sunday, we hopped in the car and headed to Peterborough for Sinker’s wedding! All of the teachers were there plus Sean and Sven. It was so great seeing everyone!! The wedding was travel themed and the floatie table was Brussels. The wedding was so beautiful, and I’m so glad I got to share the day with good friends. After the wedding we got back in the car and headed to Toronto. We took the subway downtown and I headed to the Goo Goo Dolls concert with Steph, Amy, and Liz, while Kirsty and Cam explored the city.  The Goo Goo Dolls were AMAZING in concert!

On Monday, we woke up early, had breakfast at Cora’s with my dad, and headed to Wonderland for the day. We went on rides and screamed, or rather, laughed, as Cam freaked out beside me. Overall, best weekend of the summer so far! Cam goes home on Friday and it’s going to be sad.

I’m so excited for the next month… there is so much planned and I can’t wait. I’m going to go see Down With Webster at Kirsty’s cottage on the 15^th and then I will hopefully get to see more floaties on the 16^th and 17^th!

Currently I am attempting to write down everything in a book about my life since September, compiling my blogs, journal, and memories. It helps me remember the amazing experiences while I move on with the next chapter of my life. I’m not sure how long it will take me. I’m trying to do this now while I remember everything. Anyway, just giving an update on life! Oh, and I will post the speech from grad that people wanted me to post. My good friend and teacher Ms. FP wrote it, and Terry Davies, the founder of Class Afloat, presented it:

The world is shrinking, not literally but figuratively. We are brought closer together in many ways. We have become dependent on people living on the other side of the world for certain resources and services. Recognizing and accepting our differences is important, but understanding our ‘sameness’ is essential for us to live as global citizens. If we do that from a humanistic view, it will allow us to see the humanity we all share.

‘Identity’ is the distinguishing character or personality of an individual. Truth be told, identity goes beyond that simple definition and extends to the far reaches of our psyche, our value systems, our environment and our experiences. This award is being presented to a student who embodies the identity of a ‘global citizen’.

I would like to share a quote with you by Aldous Huxley:

“ There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving and that’s your own self. So you have to begin there, not outside, not on other people. That comes afterward, when you’ve worked on your own corner”.

The recipient of this award has shown all of us ‘her corner’. She is immensely talented and has the capacity to make the world a better place. Every step forward she takes will be met with considerable challenges but they will be challenges worthy of her talent and potential. She possesses the intellectual tools to handle the complexity of world issues; the ethical values essential to the decision making process; and the compassionate nature to embrace and protect others.

The 2009-2010 Class Afloat Founder’s Award for Global Citizenship is proudly presented to Alison Grant. Alie, thank you for your awareness of the significance of culture and the environment, and to have the capacity of leadership and vision to make a difference.

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You run into a lot of adversity in your life. I feel like I’ve had enough, but then again, life doesn’t throw things at you that you can’t handle. It’s a test of strength and capability…this only happens to those who are tough enough to overcome it.

When I discovered Class Afloat I knew right away that it was more than anything I had ever imagined. I took one look at the price and told myself I could never afford it. Money stood in my way and I knew that I was halted from pursuing my dreams because I didn’t have the funds to do so. Just a few short weeks later my mom came to me and said that we were ignorant to think that I couldn’t do this, that I couldn’t do Class Afloat, that I couldn’t pursue my dreams.

We decided collectively that I would do this and we would figure out the money situation later, through working, borrowing, a student line of credit, and generous donations. I knew that if I could come up with the money now I could pay everyone back in the future. Not only that, but through getting this education, I would give everything back by paying it forward, by contributing to the world with my new found knowledge.

Some days I long to be back on the ship or to be traveling in a foreign country. I long to be on lookout at 2am and chatting with my best friends. I long to see the stars from the sea, because no stars compare to that now. I long to watch the sunrise over the water. I long to spot a ship in the horizon and report it as Voldemort. I long to travel in the desert once more and I long to wander in the streets of a place completely new to me. Sometimes I even long to be in the galley, washing dishes, while everyone comes along and says: “Thank you, galley!”

You do indeed run into a lot of adversity in your life. Even though I will not be able to finish my year aboard Concordia, I will get to finish it here in Lunenburg. We can’t long to be in places when we’ve got opportunity right in front of us. We can’t dream to be in places of the past when we should be living in the moment. Life leads us in strange directions. Whatever direction we go in, we should know that it is the right one for us in that moment in time and that we should make the most of it.

Yes, I will be in debt for the rest of my future in return for the wonderful memories, the knowledge learned, and a sunken ship. All I can say is that it was all worth it. I would not change anything that has happened, the good and the bad. The good things have left me amazing memories and the bad things have taught me many lessons.

After the ship went down I said, “Life throws a challenge in my way and I say bring it on.” Nothing has changed and nothing will ever change. I am stronger now than ever before and it all happened because of these challenges. I am ready for a new adventure. Some might call it being an adrenaline junkie. I like to call it high on life.

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Pictou County is the place of my childhood summers. It is indeed a beautiful place. I have just finished exams and am currently taking a break with my family out in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. It’s only 3 and a half hours away from the Burg so it was an easy trip over. I love time away because it helps me think. It helps me step away and observe rather than being continuously on the go. So far I have driven around the whole town many times, visited cousins, aunts, and uncles, and slept. That’s all there really is to do here…well at least that I’ve found. I get to attend my cousin’s wedding, which I’m really excited for because I will see lots of family on my dad’s side. Tomorrow is the big day and then I head back to Lunenburg on Sunday. I really miss being there with all of my friends. Only three more weeks and then back to the golf course to make some more money for school!

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**Read at your own discretion**

When I signed up for Class Afloat I never thought of the possibility of what happened on February 17, 2010 at 2:30pm. Sitting in the guidance office at my high school, thinking about my dream school out on the ocean, I didn’t stop to think about seasickness, homesickness, or even the fact that ships can sink. True, what happened was a “freak occurrence,” but I never thought of those rare things that could go wrong because I was too busy thinking of the travel, the sailing, the dream life. Despite what has happened to me and my crew on February 17th, I am confident to say that I am glad that I never had negative thoughts. Negative thoughts would have made me question my decision. Negative thoughts might have made me miss out on these best six months of my life.

I woke up on February 17th with a cheerful attitude and a good night’s sleep. I walked up the stairs to breakfast and noticed that the mess was fairly empty. Someone told me that fitness was canceled for starboard side that morning because it was too rocky and wet on deck. I lived on port side, so it wasn’t my turn for fitness anyway. This was nothing too peculiar because fitness was canceled many times last semester due to the weather. No big deal.

I went out for colours and we went through the usual: distance made good, speed made good, etc. It was time for announcements and Captain spoke out. He told us that he had informed Ashley the cook to make sandwiches for lunch (easy to eat when it’s rocky) because some squalls were coming through. He told us that they would be rough, but not the roughest we’ve seen or would see when we crossed the South Atlantic. I got excited–I love storms. Especially when I’m not sick.

We went to cleaning stations (seminar room for my watch) and then we cleaned our cabins before class. I remember I had double environmental economics in the morning but Professor Tugwell let us go early to read because it was hard to concentrate in the seminar room. The seminar room is located at the bow so you can get fairly nauseous in there if you sit for a long period of time. I tried to read and decided I was too tired because I had stayed up way too late the night before out on deck talking to friends. I fell asleep and awoke to people yelling in the companionway that it was Dave Dundee’s birthday and we all had to head out on deck. Dave failed to tell anyone it was his birthday. Tradition states that you get soaked with buckets of water at colours on the morning of your birthday. We weren’t going to let this one go just because it was past the time of colours. We sang and dumped extra buckets on him.

I ate lunch second seating and then I had day watch. Since second semester started, I loved day watch so I was really excited to get out on deck. I wore a grey tank top and my jean shorts because it was very hot outside. Once I got out on deck we braced, which means we changed the direction the square sails were facing by hauling on lines. I remember that we braced one point to port, but not completely square. Rob, the second mate and officer on watch, told Geoff, the bosun, that a squall was coming and that we should prepare. I looked in the distance and saw black all around us. There was no way out of this storm. For most storms you can see the dark cloud covering in one direction, but this was all around us. Geoff asked Maddie and I to come help him close the hatches, so we closed the Bosun’s locker and the paint locker in preparation for the squall. At that point Geoff left to go below decks to secure Rob’s camera because it was sitting in a place where it could fall and break. We were ordered to go below and get our foul weather gear on. I was upset about that because I wanted to just get soaked rather than wear a bulky coat that was way too hot. I brought the coat anyway.

We got out on deck and I remember the people I was with:  Erica, Maddie, Charlie, and Nicole. I remember Nicole and I were talking about gossip stuff. We were watching the storm as it approached beside the mess on starboard side. I was so excited. Minutes later, the ship keeled over once pretty far. The water came up into the scuppers and hit the railings. I have seen it happen before. No big deal.

The ship can keel over 90 degrees and right itself. No big deal.

I thought it would be cool to go down to the pin rail at midships (which is directly at the middle of the ship) and see the waves rush up first hand. Everyone else stayed on starboard side. Erica had her waterproof camera out at this point and was taking a video.

Then it came, the infamous “microburst.” A sailor’s worst fear. A rare occurrence where the wind pushes down on the ship instead of horizontally on her sails. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The ship keeled over pretty far, and I waited for her to come back up. The water rushed onto the deck and the railings became completely submerged in water. It kept coming. Soon, the port life rafts were underwater and I was hanging there, completely 90 degrees from where I usually stand at midships. I thought to harness in and so did my shipmates I saw hanging above me.

If this were last semester, I would have been in the water and maybe I would have even hit the mast below me. Last semester I would have never worn my harness out on deck unless I needed it. This semester, with Geoff, it was mandatory to wear your harness on day watch. That rule might have saved my life.

I am hanging off the fife rail (where lines are hauled for bracing at midships) and I look up to see Erica fall into the water. Her harness must have slipped off the rail, where she clipped into. I started screaming, “MAN OVERBOARD!” with the others who were around. I was about to jump in after her since I was closest when I heard someone yelling at me not to do it. I kept hearing “Don’t be a hero,” from above me. Erica got hold of the bridge and brought herself up.She climbed up to the top of the bridge railing. I heard the engine alarm go off and then I heard the sound I never thought I would hear for real: the abandon ship alarm.

I started crying and couldn’t stop myself. I cried because I was confused. I was confused by the fact that the ship had not righted itself yet. I wanted it to be over already so I could stand up straight and go back to day watch. I finally kicked into gear. I saw people above me and I knew I had to get up there too. I pulled myself up to the starboard side of the fife rail so that I could stand on the pins. I didn’t know what to do next and I was scared out of my mind. I saw Geoff and immediately started crying and pleading for help. He told me it was going to be alright and we were going to be fine and told me to stay there. Only 15 seconds later, he jumped down to where I was standing. He lifted me up to the top of the mess, which was really the wall, and Maddie and Antoine were there to pull me up. I started crying in Maddie’s arms but knew I had to stop being emotional and start thinking about survival.

Once I stood up, I clung onto the railing above me, which is what everyone else was doing. We were asked to locate our roommates and I found all of mine easily. I now tried to look for Kirsty and Hector, and my watch and anyone else I could think of. I tried to count everyone by going through the rooms, counting forward to aft. My counting stopped when I was asked to lift myself up to the side of the ship, which was now the top. I never thought I would sit on the lower deck port holes before.

I stood up and finally saw them. I saw two life rafts inflated. This was actually happening. We were actually abandoning ship.

I got in the line we were trying to make: get up onto the starboard hull, follow the person in front of you, get down from the starboard hull, put either an immersion suit or life jacket on, climb down the mizzen shrouds into the life raft.

By this time the engineers’ and Rob’s raft was long gone. We were the last ones on the ship and we had to get off. There was water rushing up onto the top of the deck now and the classroom was completely submerged in water. Concordia was tipping faster and faster now and soon she would be 180 degrees flipped over. I jumped onto the 20-man raft, the closest one, and immediately went to the side to throw up my lunch.

I watched her hull go further and further downward and finally, completely underneath the water. She wasn’t coming back up. Not now. Immediately we started to paddle away from the sinking ship.  There were two paddles supplied in the rafts. We didn’t realize until we paddled for 10 minutes that we were still attached to the ship. We had to cut ourselves loose and paddle towards the closest raft, which was Captain’s raft.

We met up with Captain and Geoff’s rafts and tied ourselves together. Rob’s raft was still in sight but there was no way that we could paddle towards them because they were way too far. We could only see them when the swells went away. We lost sight of them at 3am that night.  We had 44 people and the far away life raft had 20. That’s what we hoped.

We were given seasickness medication right away. I threw that up. I puked, I puked, and I puked. I puked so much that white foam came out and then green liquid. After that I puked out the 5mL of water we got every hour and just dry heaved for the rest of the time. I felt good for about 10 minutes after I puked but after those 10 minutes I felt nauseous for another 10 minutes until I had to do it again.  Not much different from the first week sailing with Concordia.

I was chosen to look after the medical officer, Dave, at one point while people bailed. He already dislocated his shoulder and popped it back in once he got onto the life raft. He told me to look under his shirt and I found a huge bruise radiating into his armpit that told us he had broken his ribs.

We switched up the person on watch every half hour or whenever the person on watch was ready.  We bailed every so often, about once every hour that night. I tried to sleep as best I could but I sat on the side of the life raft that was open to the cold air. I tried to huddle with Maddie and share body heat. It was hard to sleep when we were shivering. We were soaked from head to toe from the waves splashing over the sides and bailing. I never thought I would be so cold so close to the equator. I got through the night thinking about home and what I would do once we were saved. We were losing hope after that initial 6 hours so people started to show in their expressions that they were scared. Even the strongest of people looked scared and that really scared me.  We were told that the air force should have been in the air within six hours so everyone hung on to that.

The next morning I heard a popping sound and consequently our raft deflated on the bottom tier. There were two tiers to the raft and the top one stayed inflated but the floor and sides of the raft all deflated. Now when we looked out on watch we were so close to the water that half metre waves could rush onto our raft. I thought we would have to get out and start treading while clinging onto the other rafts. Kim, the first mate, told us we could stay on this sinking raft but we would just have to bail constantly. There was a leak on the bottom somewhere, so water was coming in there, but also the waves were rushing in because the raft was so close to the water now. We took turns bailing constantly. We used everything we could think of to bail because the bailers the life raft supplied us were pretty cheap and very small. We got through the day singing songs like “Happy Birthday” (to Dave of course), Disney songs, and the Beatles.

Since our floor was deflated and now more of a tarp underneath us, we sunk down pretty far wherever we put our weight. We tried to put lifejackets underneath us so that we could sleep without the water in the raft coming up over our faces.

That night was pretty hard on all of us. It had almost been 30 hours at that point and we thought the EPIRB might not have sent out signal and that maybe no one knew we were out there. The salt-water chafe was really kicking in and people were starting to moan in pain. Our life raft was the worst for the chafe because we were always in salt-water up to our chests. We had the sinking raft, the overcrowded raft, the piss and vomit raft (8-man) and the loner raft.  I just so had to be on the sinking raft.

We saw the planes at about 30 hours from when the ship sunk. We set off flare after flare and saw Rob’s life raft’s flares too. The planes circled us a few times to tell us that they were there BUT DROPPED NO SUPPLIES, despite what the Brazilian newspapers say.  It was one of the happiest days of my life. I never thought the sound of the engine of a plane would make me so happy. They knew we were here. They were coming. We started cheering and we heard Captain shout from the other life raft “Bring out the wine and cake!” Our wine and cake was a small power bar each and 10mL of water. We finally broke out the rations.

I wasn’t hungry. I wasn’t thirsty. My body went into fight or flight mode, the mode of survival. I was preparing my body for the worst. Even after everything I threw up and was still throwing up, I couldn’t do it. I tried to secretly give it to one of the guys who said they were starving. Kim and Geoff yelled at me to eat it and that they would watch me eat it until it was gone. They basically shoved it down my throat. It tasted like a mixture between a Ritz cracker and sugar cookie.

I threw up that later. Not so bad coming up. I couldn’t keep my seasickness pills down so I didn’t expect that one to stay down either.

Maddie and Gavin kept me warm the rest of the night and we all tried to get some rest. We got a little bit of rest in twenty-minute intervals.  We kept bailing and I kept puking. I decided I would serve watch because I was freezing and I couldn’t sleep anyway. I find it’s ironically not cold when you serve watch because just your head is poking out of the hole at the side. I first thought something was very wrong. I saw that our lights stopped working on the top of our rafts. I decided I would take the initiative to take off our life jacket lights and hold them outside our windows to provide light. The other rafts followed and did the same.

Then I did something I hadn’t done in a long time. I prayed. I am not very religious. I think after all of this I know someone is out there, I don’t know who, but I know someone is there looking over us. I prayed for our safety. I prayed for Kirsty, Hector, and their raft, and for our loved ones at home who were probably notified by that time. I prayed that someone would come soon.

Just 10 minutes later I saw it. By that time I had no food for about 40 hours and I had puked up the contents of my stomach. I was weak and I was tired. I looked many times before I made a decision to take action. I saw two white lights. I didn’t want to get it mixed up with stars because our raft was bouncing all over the place and the waves were pretty high. I tried to whisper to the lookout on the other raft so that I wouldn’t get anyone’s hopes up. Apparently I can’t whisper very well because the entire raft heard me and started to ask questions. Ms. Braedley was the lookout and she wasn’t situated in the right direction to see it. Geoff was on the 8-man and I asked him if he could see it. He did. I wasn’t delirious. To make things even better, once Mrs. Braedley’s raft faced the right way, she said yes, she could see it too. Hokuetsu Delight to the rescue!

I told my raft and they all started cheering. We got out the flares. Captain set off rockets, Geoff set off rockets, and then Kim set off rockets. Next Geoff set off the hand-held flares. They knew we were there. They were coming towards us.

The whole time, all up until we were beside the freighter, two guys were asking me every minute how close we were. They had bad salt water chafe and had such a bad rash that they moaned every time they moved. One guy was swearing constantly in French. A couple of hours later we were next to this massive freighter ship and blinded with lights. We saw people out on deck and one guy had a mega phone and told us to turn our radio to a certain channel. We tried to shout that we didn’t have a radio (only an EPIRB) and I think they heard us because he then said they would throw the heaving lines. The guy on the megaphone had a thick accent. That voice on the mega phone runs through my head over and over sometimes.

They threw the heaving line once we got close enough and they missed horribly. They brought it back up but by that time we had drifted far away from the merchant ship. Once we got close enough again, about 20 minutes later, they threw the heaving line once more. Steve jumped into the water to catch it. We pulled him back in. We had a 15m climb up the Jacob’s ladder and it was tricky to get on because we had to move with the swells. Steve and Charles went up first because they had a bad rash but after that Captain deemed the situation too dangerous to continue. We waited for the weather to calm. I passed out from the time Steve and Charles went up until morning. I was in an upright position and I wasn’t leaning on anything. I don’t even remember falling asleep.

Apparently while we waited for the weather to get better Charles and Steve were up there drinking hot chocolate with blankets around them. They watched us from up on the bridge for a bit but then went inside to watch Jet Li. We were suffering in a life raft on the water while they were inside warm and comfortable watching Jet Li. We always tease them about that.

I didn’t get up onto the merchant ship until about 730 that morning. Some didn’t get up until 8. It was the hardest climb of my life because I had no energy whatsoever. The Filipino man had to carry me and put blankets over me inside. They gave me soup and hot chocolate. Once Captain got up he announced that all 64 people were accounted for. I cried.

I had a shower, put on some Filipino guy’s clothes, and went outside. Elysha and I went up to the bow and cried for an hour. We cried for the ship, what could have happened, and for our special things that were lost to the deep blue. We cried for the ending of a wonderful thing, the ending to the best thing we have ever done in our lives. We cried for everyone who had to deal with this trauma in the coming days.

The Filipinos gave us their clothes, fed us, and loaned us their beds.  The ship was Japanese but the crew was Filipino. They are the heroes. They are our rescuers. They deserve the honour and credit.

We decided to be rerouted to Rio de Janeiro, instead of the ship’s destination, Paranagua. The other raft was on the Crystal Pioneer and that ship was also rerouted to Rio. At that time we heard that the Captain had been air lifted from our ship over to the Brazilian frigate (navy ship). He thought that he himself was going to the frigate but without his permission the navy airlifted 12 students from the Crystal Pioneer to the frigate. The Captain finally found out once 12 people were there and demanded they stop transferring as they had no permission and it was a dangerous situation to pull them up by a sling. What I have heard from Captain and Kim, the first mate, is that it was all a publicity stunt. The Brazilian navy knew they did something wrong when they left us in the water for 41 hours when they got our distress signal within an hour of our ship sinking. They wanted to show the world through the media that they saved us, not the Filipino merchant ships. They wanted to show everyone that they were the heroes so that we wouldn’t investigate into their, for lack of a better word, pitiful response.

We anchored in the bay of Rio de Janeiro and a navy transport ferry picked us up and brought us to the Naval base. Our consulates were waiting there for us. We met up with the loner life raft, which had already been on land for 3 hours, and cried and hugged for our safety. We signed a million papers and ate a lot of food. We met up with the Cleland’s and cried some more. I called my mom for two minutes and we cried together.

We got to the hotel and there were many cameras there.  We leaked the wrong information of the hotel we were staying at but apparently some media sneaked around that. The media bombarded us the entire time we were there.

The five-star hotel was a little too much. I think the Brazilian government wanted to show everyone that we were well cared for. That night we had a meeting with doctors and psychologists and then we went up for a shower and sleep. I called my family and told them my story and then hung out with some of the crew until late that night. Ryan had a room all to himself so we ordered 50 beers and pizza to his room. We all ate and drank, professional crew included, and it was a blast. I finally went to bed.

The next day we were clothed. Captain gave a speech and then made us muster into our watches for an abandon ship drill. Everyone just lost it at this point. Every person, girl, boy, faculty, pro crew had tears in their eyes. We all hugged each other one by one and said goodbye. We didn’t know Lunenburg was happening at this point.

We had a five-hour drive to Sao Paulo. There, we had a secluded VIP room to hide us from the media and McDonald’s hamburgers waiting there for us. The embassy officials also brought homemade treats for us to eat. We got on the Air Canada flight to Toronto where our parents awaited us. I’ve never been so happy to see my parents.

The first week I was bombarded with media. Most were annoying but I understand that it’s their job.

I am now back in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, where I will be going to school for the next 4 months. I love it here and I am so excited for all of it. It is seriously the next best thing to the ship. We just had our “Wellness Weekend” with a mental health crew and it actually really helped. Everything hit me all at once. I am glad that it hit me sooner rather than later.

During the “Wellness Weekend,” Kim, the first mate, told us some things that terrified me. First he put it out there that our raft was the worst off, that we had the worst time because we had a hole in our raft. He said that he didn’t say it when we were on the rafts but if help hadn’t come sooner we would have been dropping off like flies in a couple of hours. We were battling hypothermia, chafe, and lack of energy. People were just too weak to care for themselves at that point. Kim said that within hours there would be people dead. I didn’t realize we were as close as hours to death. That scared me because now the situation finally became completely serious in my mind.

Fortunately, we were saved by the Hokuetsu Delight. We didn’t have to face what Kim was all telling us. We are here, and it is important to think about what did happen rather than what could have happened. I am so thankful to be here in Lunenburg with all of my best friends. Again, I am confident to say that Class Afloat is the best thing that ever happened to me despite what has happened. If I could go back in time, I wouldn’t change a thing. That might sound outrageous to you, but you don’t really know unless you’ve experienced it. My home is at the bottom of the ocean. I now need to begin to make a new home here and it will definitely be an uphill battle. It will be hard from here on in, but I know I can do it, just like I got off Concordia, just like I battled that seasickness, and just like I climbed that ladder up onto the Hokuetsu Delight. I can now face the world knowing that if I can do this, I can do almost anything. Life throws a challenge in my way and I say bring it on.

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This last sail before semester break was crazy, and I mean CRAZY!  It started off really slow, as everyone was always studying for upcoming exams.  I wrote my business, seamanship, and discovery exams to finish off my semester.  They were really easy and I was really excited to be done with studying.  I started to stay up late with some good friends and spend time with people that were only on for one semester.  We crossed the equator into the southern hemisphere on January 15^th around 4am in the morning.  We sure knew we hit the equator as we were sweating like crazy and wearing just our underwear to bed.  The day of our last exam we anchored outside of the island Fernando de Noronha, Brazil.  It was breathtakingly beautiful.  It is a port next semester but it was a surprise to see it early.  We definitely had good winds across the Atlantic to get us to Brazil 4 days early.

We had a Miss Concordia pageant during exams.  This included guys getting dressed up as women and flaunting their stuff.  There were 4 categories:  eveningwear, swimwear, talent, and question period.  Each contestant needed to have personal stylists so the girls took part in the show as well.  Kirsty, Cam, and I dressed up Mr. Tripp, our new shipboard director (who is awesome by the way!).  Mr. Tripp joined us for the last sail to get to know us before he started for second semester.  Anyway, we took a different approach to the pageant.  We dressed him up as an old granny rather than a model, like everyone else was doing.  It was hilarious; we got so many laughs.  We dressed him up with huge saggy breasts and a unibrow.  For swim wear he wore a towel and told everyone he was wearing his birthday suit and shouted, “Does anyone want some of this?!”  It was quite funny.  The whole night was hilarious.  The other contestants were Marc, Chase, Lachie, Hector, Jesse, Stu, and Gavin.  Jesse and Marc could actually pull off being girls.  Check out my pictures after—they’re hilarious.  For the talent Mr. Tripp did a stand-up/sit-down comedy (since he’s a grandma) and I acted as his granddaughter in it to help him with his jokes and stuff.  It was really corny but really funny just the same.  Hector ended up winning!  He sang and danced to “Halo” by Beyonce for his talent.  Funniest thing ever.

The next day we passed customs and got shore leave!  We were allowed on the island for a few hours.  We went in by zodiac in our bathing suits and we ran to the nearest shop for food right away.  I got a popsicle and I loved it so much that I had to get another one.  Kirsty, Sam, and I wandered around the town and found this cute little bar-restaurant on a cliff.  We ate sandwiches and chocolate cake and even got internet in the restaurant.  It was a short stay but we weren’t sad because we knew we’ll be coming back in May.

Okay, now on to the Equator crossing initiation.  I didn’t realize this was a hazing event until it happened.  The conversion of a pollywog into a shellback.  The night of the 14^th (night before we actually crossed) we were yelled and screamed at and we were brought out to mid ships and sprayed constantly with water.  Neptune came to talk to us and told us that it wasn’t the end.  The next night we were woken up to banging and clanging pots at 2am.  We had to come upstairs and they wrote “filthy pollywog” all over us.  By the way, “they” are people who have already crossed the equator (shellbacks), so the returning students.  We then were stamped with Poseidon’s sword on our foreheads and told that we had to protect it and not let it rub off or we would be punished.  People were standing downstairs trying to rub it off afterwards.  In the morning we were locked in the Bosun’s locker for two hours sweating like pigs.  They finally called us up one by one and first we had to scream one by one, “I am a worthless pollywog!  I need to be cleaned!”  They pushed me through the fenders and I had to crawl on my stomach while I got soaked and sprayed with water.  When I got out I found out that I had yellow fever and all these other diseases and I needed to be cleansed.  I first visited the doctor, where I got all kinds of slops thrown over me, like mustard and hummus.  Finally, when I was drenched with disgusting slops from head to toe, I visited the cook.  I had to eat this disgusting concoction and drink Neptune’s blood.  Next I had to visit the barber, where they cut a bit of my hair off.  After this, I had to swim through a pool of slops (blown-up zodiac) and rub my face in it.  That was lovely.  I finally got to visit Neptune, where he made me kiss the mahi-mahi that the engineers caught on the lips and then he made me lick his wife’s foot.  I still wasn’t done though—I had to solve the riddle, “Why do pirates wear earrings?”  I had no idea so I had to run around asking people.  I found out from Ashley, the new cook that it was so they could pay their passage back home.  I finally was dubbed a shellback and I got my new fish name—the Red Shiner Fish.

Boy, was it a day.  It was so disgusting but I’m so glad I went through it because now I can say that I’m a shellback!  Some people shaved their heads—including girls!  It was freakin’ awesome!

We are now docked outside Recife getting ready to fly home tomorrow.  We packed, did a captain’s clean, and did one-on-one’s with each person on the ship to tell them things we admire about them and things they should work on.  It made me realize how I admire each and every person on this ship and I accept everyone for his or her differences.  I originally was drawn to Class Afloat for the traveling and I decided I wasn’t really here to make life-long relationships, as mundane as it sounds.  Being here has made me realize just the opposite—that traveling is only a small part of this experience.  I have made those relationships that I will keep with me forever.  I can’t even explain how much I’ve learned here and I’m only half way!

Toronto in less than 48 hours!

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This port proved to be very eventful and tiring.  I originally had signed up for every activity I could possibly sign up for during our stay, but that quickly changed.   Out of visiting the orphanage, observing a prayer, going to a national wrestling match, going to dancing and drumming, visiting a microfinance NGO, and attending two projects (distributing malaria nets and building a vegetable garden), I could not possibly do it all.

The first day we got here, on December 27^th, we got shore leave for the afternoon.  We docked in a place that is so far from any of the bustling human activity because we wanted to be the safest possible.  For shore leave I went with a group to go get money, food, and Internet.  We quickly discovered that many people like to show tourists around for money.  We just wanted to wander though and this guy was really upsetting everyone.  He followed us, even for the hour and a half that we were in the Internet café, so we had to pay him to leave us alone.  People were getting on their last nerves and started to be rude (me included) so we decided we should just pay him before we say something stupid and get mugged or something of the sort.  The guy was calling us racist and white supremacists even after we paid him.  We were told before getting here that people would definitely try and use that technique on us and make us feel bad for them calling us that.  We found this bakery called “La Gallette,” and it was amazing.  I’m pretty sure I went there for lunch just about every day I had shore leave.  By the end of the night we were so exhausted from all of the people trying to sell us stuff we clearly didn’t want.  Our first impression of Senegal was not very positive.

It all changed when we met the SYTO students.  These students are university age that live and go to school in Dakar.  They are absolutely amazing; they speak many different languages, including Wolof, French, and English, and they are very educated in geography and politics.  We met up with the SYTO students at the Centre de Formation.  We watched them do some cultural drumming and dancing and put on a drama presentation about the history of Senegal.  We then got pretty embarrassed after watching their presentation because we knew ours was no where near as good as theirs.  It was still good though; we did a presentation on the different cultures on the ship and how we are so different from each other.  We also showed a typical day in the life of a Class Afloat student as we showed the different cultures.  We showed the Canadians, the Mexicans, the Germans, and the Americans.  Unfortunately, we didn’t show Bermuda, St. Bart’s, or Holland, because we only have one person from each of those places.

After the presentations, we listened to a professor in Senegal speak about the history of Senegal and all the cultures within it.  Most people speak Wolof, but there are many other cultures as well as Wolof in Senegal.  A lot of people have a different background than Wolof, but grow up speaking Wolof because it is the first language of many of the other people.  Dakar covers only 0.28% of the country’s surface area but accounts for 22% of its total population.

For the rest of the day, we got to explore the town with the SYTO kids.  We went to the markets but I could hardly buy anything because there were too many people in your face.  They think it is a good way of marketing but really they turned me off from buying anything even though I liked some of the things they were selling.  I ended up getting a few things in some quiet secluded shops.  It was nice to have the SYTO kids tell us what the real prices were and to barter for us because the people were charging us as much as five times the actual price.  The SYTO kids took us back to the ship at 7 o’clock curfew and we got back just in time to do our cleaning stations (companionway) and fitness.  Fitness all port was dancing.  I didn’t really like that because all I want to do is go for a run and do some cardio but I can’t really do that on my own time because there are too big of group sizes and too many other things to do.  I did end up having fun with the dancing though.  We stayed up way too late that night and really regretted it later.  In fact, I am regretting it now.

Tuesday was very hectic as well, as I had to organize a microfinance project in the morning.  I woke up and right away I had to arrange some taxis and groups and meeting spots and all of that.  I am so glad that it ended up going well and we all got to the same place at the right time.  We went to this NGO base called SEM, Senegal Ecovillage Microfinance.  You can find out more about this NGO at www.sem-fund.org.  There were people from all over the world coming to see this presentation given out by the founder of the organization.  Kirsty and I had to do a little introduction of Class Afloat to everyone beforehand.  Since many did not speak English, we decided that I would just talk and Kirsty would translate in French.  It turned out very well and many interested people asked us questions.  The presentation was very informative; we learned about the history of the organization and how 85% of people pay back their loans within one year.  It seems that people are very keen on starting up their business and paying the loan back as soon as possible.  SEM has helped to start many local businesses all over Senegal.  We had a coffee break and then listened to another presentation from a woman who is involved in promoting ecovillages.  What she does is goes around to subdivisions and teaches them how to be sustainable and environmentally friendly on a local scale.  These villages that put time and effort into doing so are called ecovillages.  She is working on making all of the subdivisions of Dakar more eco-friendly.

Around 2’oclock we headed back to the ship to meet and all head over to the ferry that would take us to Goree Island.  I had previously heard about Goree Island from history books.  I knew it was used as a slave base for the Africans being transported over to North America, Europe, and Asia.  It was so cool to go somewhere that I had heard about through school but had never seen.  The island was first occupied by the Portuguese in 1444, and then following this was Dutch, English, and finally French.  The Dutch made a slave house on the island and we got to go in and experience what it would be like to live there.  We tried to shove 20 people in this small cell because the guide told us that they fit that many in there.  You could hardly breathe.  The SYTO kids were silent the whole time and when they did speak, they spoke about how horrible it must have been.  I have never felt so ashamed for something I have had no part in.  For the first time, I felt uncomfortable by the colour of my skin.

We walked around the whole island, got something to eat, and then headed back on the ferry to go back to the ship.  Again, we had cleaning stations and fitness.  I went to bed at 11 only to wake up from 12-2 to do gangway watch with Hector.  We had fun doing pirate checks and scaring each other every time we came back from a pirate/fire check.

I woke up the next morning exhausted, but I had to suck it up as we had a speaker talk to us about human rights and another speak to us about journalism.  The human rights speaker was very monotone and it was very hard to keep up with what he was saying.  I really liked the talk on journalism though.  The whole project I’m doing with Media for Change is all about reporting what is happening and documenting the truth.  Satou, the journalist, told us about how the truth cannot be reported in Senegal because the President censors everything on television, radio, newspapers, and even the internet.  The topic was raised that Satou could start an online blog but she quickly told us that it would be tracked down and she would be punished for it.  There are two types of journalists out there in Senegal—those who fight to report the truth and those who decide to report what the government tells them.  It is hard to think about it; the option is food on the table for your family but reporting lies, or reporting the truth with no money to back you up and having that constant fear of persecution.  This is really a dilemma and my one solution would be for countries like Canada and the U.S. to go in and try to talk to the government seeing as without intervention it is a never-ending vicious circle.

On New Year’s Eve Day we went back to the centre to edit photos we had taken so far and discuss how we were going to go about making the documentary and the photo book.  We discussed with the SYTO students what was important to include and what we shouldn’t miss.  In the afternoon, we went to Empire Dakar, a street kids centre where kids go who don’t have anywhere else.  There were three kinds of kids; those who were lost, those who were sold, and those whose parents were deceased.  The kids ranged from 4-18 years in age.  We gave them soccer balls, cleats, Canada souvenirs, and money.  We ended up buying a bag that they made so that we could use it for the end of year auction.  So all of the proceeds were going towards funding the centre and we also bought a bag to help fund our project for next year’s Class Afloat students.  I thought I would come out of there feeling horrible for those children with no homes but actually I felt so awe-inspired.  The kids were so happy and so were the volunteers.  They were setting up for a New Year’s Eve party and everyone was so excited.  I felt grateful that there are places out there where these people can go instead of living on the streets.  We got back to the ship just in time for a quick shower before the New Year’s celebrations.  Everyone got dressed up in African theme.  In the mess, we had a cocktail party going on with all of the food you can imagine, in the classroom we had games, and at midships outside we had a dance.  I ate so much food and then I danced most of the night.  We had a Class Afloat slideshow that we projected on the ceiling of the awning and we were just in time to count down to midnight on the bow.  We went on the dock and all lit sparklers.  It was actually so much fun seeing as I predicted it to be kind of sad.  I thought that I would be thinking about home and the traditions we do but I didn’t really have time to think about it because of all the fun we were having.

On New Year’s Day we had free time.  You could either go to the infant orphanage, prayer, or wrestling match and I chose the wrestling match.  In the morning I got Internet at a hotel and woke my parents up in the wee hours of the morning to say “Happy New Year!”  We went back to that bakery and got some good food and headed back to the ship.  I studied for a bit seeing as I still have one more university exam (my correspondent course).  At 3:30, I left with a group of people to go and see a wrestling match.  I had no idea what was in store.  It was a massive soccer (football) stadium filled with people in yellow, green, and red, the Senegalese colours.  It was a riot; there were fights everywhere, people throwing things, and crazy fans.  It was crazier than a Leafs-Habs hockey game.  I know.

The fights got bloody, fireworks were set off in dangerous places, and a car was lit on fire outside.  There were probably about 100 policemen there and they came up to us after the match and told us to wait until everyone was gone.  We went down to the inside of the stadium (as opposed to the stands) and we waited.  I looked around at the other people there other than Class Afloat and it was all white people, probably all tourists.  I guess the police had issues in the past with tourists after wrestling matches.  The police shooed crazy people out by threatening to hit them with their batons or in some cases, actually hitting them.  We didn’t leave until about 9:30 from the stadium and it was the sketchiest yet coolest night I’ve had yet in Senegal.

The next day was project day!  I got to follow along with the Health group and document our students interacting with local people in the slums.  We gave out malaria nets and asked them questions about what they knew about malaria.  Many said they already had the nets or had had them in the past, but they never used them.  That was what was really sad about the project, the fact that people had the means to prevent the disease but didn’t use them.  Many of them said it prevented breathing and it was very hot to sleep with.  Nevertheless, it was great to hand out the nets to those people who do use them but don’t have the financial aid to do so.

We also went to a container garden behind the health centre.  This was probably the saddest moment I have had since I got to Senegal because the garden was not a garden.  It was a large area of dirt and weeds.  Mrs. Cleland said that in the past 3 years there had been a large garden there with many different kinds of vegetables.  It was used to feed the poor people in the Colobane area.  This year, there was an infestation of rats and the Italian NGO stopped the funding because the rat infestation was not involved in their contract.  See, if the garden was funded, the money would have to go towards clearing the rat infestation as well as supplies to make the garden.  The women who volunteer their time to maintain the garden said there was no way to keep it running and they closed it down.

In the afternoon, I came back to the ship and edited photos for a while and had a nap.  It was my first nap of this port and was it ever amazing.

The next morning I got up for galley and immediately after we headed off to the SOS Village in Louga (the middle of nowhere).  We drove for four hours outside of Dakar and when we got there about 100 kids were waiting for us.  For the rest of the evening, we saw the kids’ houses and played games with them.  I had a girl named Sasha (I think…she pronounced it “SHAWSHA”) and she was completely adorable.  I spoke with her with the few words I know in Wolof because she couldn’t speak French or English very well.  We got along just fine with hand gestures though.  Let me tell you, these kids weren’t shy and by the end of the night I was so worn out from all of the kids hanging off me.  We had a late dinner outside in the dark with no lights and it was very weird.  We couldn’t really see what we were eating but apparently it was fish.  We kind of figured at that point that everyone on the ship would get diarrhea.  So many people already had it anyway.  Everyone went to bed right after dinner because we were so exhausted.  We slept under malaria nets and gave them to the kids the next morning.

Yesterday at the SOS Village we planted a micro garden with tires and other reusable items.  They had already tried to plant things in the sand but the results weren’t too good.  We made sure to elevate the garden with soil and manure that we bought in town.  We also wrote a reflection for our humanitarian credit we will be receiving and we had a debrief session on the trip so far.  I then went with a few students to pick up the kids at the local school (also built by the SOS organization) and we got a tour of the school.  The atmosphere was so peaceful and euphoric.  I find it weird how we call this country one of the top 20 poorest countries in the world and these people don’t even know it.  Our definition of poor is completely different from theirs because our definition of success and happiness is completely different from theirs.  Have we ever stopped to think that we might have it backwards, that we shouldn’t be pushing countries like Senegal to boost their economy, but that we should be behaving more like the Senegalese people do?  Again, our definition of success is way different.  Our definition of success almost always involves money.

Today, I did an hour presentation by myself on climate change to all of the Class Afloat and Senegalese SYTO students.  Mrs. Cleland asked me to do it as part of the university project.  It went very well and we had a lot of discussion made by the Senegalese students.  It was sad to hear that many people in Senegal don’t even know about climate change in the first place because there are too many issues at hand that come first before the environmental crisis.  I did learn though that Senegal is making an effort towards sustainability.  I was very nervous to present to all of these students but I am happy to say that it turned out very well.

I am sailing out across the Atlantic tomorrow! I am so excited to get to Brazil and come home! My flight will go to Sao Paulo from Recife and then Sao Paulo to Brazil.  That should be fun.  I’m so excited!

p.s. Canada for the win in the world juniors!!

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It’s Boxing Day at we’re at anchor in the bay in Dakar.  It is so beautiful out and we’re all in shorts and tank tops.  Christmas, I have to say was a good one.  We had the most beautiful weather the entire sail.  Many of us are burnt but I managed not to! I am the only one out of four gingers on this ship to not get burnt!

My geography TA project is going well; I am giving the students articles to read and getting them to respond on this moodle chat site we have on the ship and we’re having pretty good discussions.  The unit is economics but mostly we are talking about environmental economics, which is my thing.  I have to give them a mark out of 5 on their effort and ideas.  It is great so far because I get to present my ideas of conservation to this entire class and see what their ideas are on the matter.  Most just agree with me though but at least I know now that these ideas sound good to other people too.

The other day Tori and I were out on the stern and we looked around us.  It was basically a sea of red.  There was an algal bloom so we ran to the bridge to ask Captain if we could sample.  In order for us to sample, the ship has to be going under 3 knots so Captain slowed down the ship for a few minutes for us to do so.  We found copepods and some long transparent stick plankton under the microscope and it was freakin’ awesome.  I emailed Dr. Daborn to see if we were right on the naming and stuff like that.

It was so sunny and hot out on Christmas Eve.  At watch on Christmas Eve night, there was phosphorescence in the water.  This occurs when the plankton gets agitated by our movement through the water and produces a chemical that gives off a greeny-blue glow.  Just when things couldn’t get any better, a pack of 25 or so dolphins came swimming along the bow and there were jumping fish, all with this phosphorescence glow.

We woke up on Christmas morning at 10 o’clock (our only sleep-in of the year!) to have Christmas bags taped to our door full of kinder surprises.  We went up to the mess and the teachers had breakfast prepared for us.  There were all the pancakes we could ever imagine, yogurt, applesauce, syrup, whipped cream, bacon, potatoes, and cinnamon buns.  It was the best breakfast ever (even after the crepes we had in Mallorca, Spain).  We had activities going on all day outside and in the mess and we did our secret santa exchange for everyone to see.  We did it so that each person opened his or her presents separately so everyone else could see what everyone got.  Carly had me and she made me a beautiful card.  Her present to me was a hand-knitted toque that has “Class Afloat 09” embroidered on the front.  It is amazing.  I was Ryan’s secret santa and I made him a huge card with a picture of him sleeping on it (he sleeps with is eyes open).  I went around and found the top ten things that people love about him on the ship.  I also made him a winter headband (yes, I knit it!) that has “Ryan” embroidered in hot pink on the front.  He loved it.  I also got him two chocolate bars.  Christmas night we all watched the movie, “Love Actually” in the mess.  That was very relaxing and fun.

Today we also had the day off but most of the day we did West Africa Initiative stuff seeing as we are starting our projects tomorrow in Dakar!  I just finished presenting a port slideshow on “everything you need to know about Senegal,” in the mess to everyone for my Discovery project.  I am so excited to learn about the cultures and experience what it’s like to live in a community like the SOS village.

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