I'll first share an abbreviated story about the student I referenced in my last post. He is very bright and from one of the largest slums in Kenya. He comes from a humble background (poor) and earned s full scholarship to do this program (scholarship is awarded to just one student in the entire continent of Africa). He flew on an airplane for the first time and navigated his way to California, and soon around the world. He has very few dollars with him and has found every opportunity to connect and be a wonderful community member. There was a family, who he had a lose connection with prior to the voyage, who bought him clothes, a phone, and shoes for the voyage. I see him daily and an reminded that we can do anything we set our minds to. He speaks English as his 3rd or 4th language and is often in the Writing Center. He will graduate next academic year and will be the first person in his family to earn a college degree. I'm inspired and hope you are too.
Jan 10
Another day at sea and the most beautiful sunset to date! Plus, my third day working out. There are two workout spaces on board. The gym has 6 treadmills, 3 ellipticals, 2 bowflex contraptions, free hand weights, and yoga mats for stretching. There is also an outdoor weight room that includes 5 stationary bikes. I find that running on the treadmill is easier the faster I go. The more in motion, the easier it is to stay steady. My goal for the voyage is to workout consistently throughout the entire voyage. 30 mins a day plus some stretching should do the trick ;)
Jan 11
Another beautiful day at sea with a lot of anticipation for our first port tomorrow…Hawaii! I'll tell you about pre-port in a little bit but first I need to recap Shabbat. As the Wellness and Spirituality Coordinator on the ship, I assist voyagers in creating their community, organizing services onboard, and arranging opportunities for worship for all religious and spiritual groups. Tonight was Shabbat with Jews on a Cruise. The group was 20 people deep and the students did a really good job of planning out the service. I had requested challah, grape juice, and salt, and water from our Hotel Director (dining) and they had brought their battery operated candles, a speaker to play music and prepared a powerpoint with the words of a prayer. We even sat in a circle and shared a moment of gratitude before digging into the challah and washing it down with grape juice.
Next, we moved on to pre-port meetings. These are the most important, in my opinion. This is where our administrative team hands out green sheets that inform you on the ins and outs of the country (language, currency, cultural practices, etc), port (location, phone numbers, etc), and local emergency information (how/who to call). This one was simple and straightforward. All students were getting off the ship only if they were on a field class or program, so there was no independent travel on this voyage and we knew no one would have had alcohol and everyone would be back before the on-ship time.
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