Thursday, November 29, 2012

Argentina - Big City and Cowboys


As we sailed across the Atlantic from South Africa, we were exposed to three sides of Argentina.  The old: the still beloved Evita, who served as first lady and worked on behalf of the poorest Argentines; and the history of what once was among the richest countries on Earth, with European influences and South American riches.  The ugly: the aptly named Dirty War, which saw military dictatorship and people “disappearing” on a massive scale, still unaccounted for.  The current: a failing President; an economy in decline, with pegged exchange rates and foreign currency controls; a disgruntled populace, looking for improvements in their lives.  We were also prepared for a country that has a serious love affair with food and fun – including the tango, Argentine beef and dulce de leche. 

Buenos Aires was the largest city on our itinerary and it showed.  It was a bustling crowded place with numerous shops and restaurants and the highest concentration of McDonalds we’ve ever seen on one street.  It also had the grand buildings you would expect from a wealthy European-influenced city.  Grandpa Milton learned first hand why we had been warned repeatedly about the pickpockets on the subway when a couple managed to jostle him and make off with his travel wallet.  The surprise of Buenos Aires was the dogwalkers, sometimes taking up to a dozen dogs on a walk at a time.

The highlight of our second day was “dinner in the dark”.  We joined about 40 shipmates and ate dinner in complete darkness to simulate the impact of being blind.  If you haven’t done it, it is worth spending an evening this way.  It certainly gives you a brief experience of what it is like to live as a blind person.  Christy wrote an essay on the evening so look for that at the bottom of this post.


Our third day featured a visit to a ranch in the pampas (grasslands), the home of Argentine gauchos (cowboys).  It was highly entertaining day featuring horsemanship demonstrations and a delicious BBQ lunch.  Jay wrote a piece about it for our travel class also posted below.



We only had the opportunity to scratch the surface of Argentina and will be sure to return sometime to explore Patagonia in the south and the rain forest in the north.







Christy's story is here!

Jay's story is here!




Tuesday, November 13, 2012

South Africa - A Magical Complicated Country


The lucky Orris clan returned to picturesque Cape Town, South Africa. Our second visit allowed us to dig deeper and discover a layer of South Africa that we didn’t see in 2009.   We added to our knowledge of South Africa’s history through our classes on the ship and our inter-port lectures, Bob and Alice Evans.  Desmond Tutu was supposed to have joined us on our voyage between Ghana and South Africa, but had to postpone the trip so he could receive some international prize.  The nerve of him! 
 
During our visit we tried to better understand apartheid and South Africa’s progress (or lack thereof) since apartheid’s repeal in 1994.  We struggled to understand how the South Africans could live so peacefully now with so much past oppression and so much current inequality.  If you want to learn more about apartheid and the current situation, you can read our essays in the next post. 

The highlight of our visit to Cape Town was our homestay in Langa Township. The townships are black and colored cities that were created by the Apartheid government to control the population and separate the white population from others.  Langa is the oldest township in Cape Town and has only 50,000 people.  The largest townships in South Africa have more than one million people.

We were apprehensive about staying overnight in the township and did not know what to expect.  Our fears faded quickly when we met our housemother, Mama Rachel and her granddaughter and great grandson.  They had a clean and spacious home and made us feel immediately welcome. 


The township had a huge disparity in income levels with expensive homes right across the street from shanty homes.  We spent the afternoon at Happy Feet, an inspirational afterschool dance project that kept kids off the street.  Read our stories and poems to better understand what we felt and experienced in the township. 

Another highlight in Cape Town was our connection with a group of Aspen Institute Fellows who just happened to be in Cape Town for their global seminar.  We joined old friends and some inspiring new fellows for dinner followed by a discussion on the future of South Africa.  Fellows from South Africa, Egypt and Nicaragua shared their personal experiences and enlightened us on the struggles that exist across the globe.    Our cheetah and bird rescue field trip that day ended with wine tasting that happened to be at the same hotel where the Fellows were staying!


In addition to these life-changing experiences, we did some more touristy things in Cape Town too.  We went to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was held for the majority of his 27 years of prison.  And we followed that with a full day trip with an insightful taxi driver who took us to see penguins and the picturesque Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point, the southernmost places in Africa.  We packed a lot into our 5 days.












Ghana Stories - Views from Christy and Jay

We have finally figured out how to upload links to word documents.  We had several assignments for our travel writing class and we linked them to this page.  See the documents below if you want to read more about Ghana.

Anticipating Ghana's Slave Dungeons - Christy

Expectations of Ghana - Jay

Anticipation of Ghana - Christy

Beyond the Comfort Zone - Encountering Ghana - Christy

Playing Fairly, Hard - Jay

Reflections of Ghana - Jay

Reflections on Ghana - Hell Dungeons - Christy

Ghana Reflections - Christy


Thursday, November 1, 2012

Ghana - Our Favorite Port - Again!!


Ghana is engraved in our souls.  In 2009, it changed us more than any other country on our around the world trip and it rocked us again on this visit.  It is hard to describe why Ghana affects our family this way.  In an effort to demonstrate why, we will include essays we wrote entitled Anticipations of Ghana and Reflections of Ghana.  These come from our Travel Writing class, which continually pushes Jay, Christy and Luke outside our comfort zone – just like Ghana did for us on our visit. 

Below is the overview of our visit to put our attached stories into perspective.  

We packed in as much as we could during our four days in Ghana and tried to experience different parts of the country than we did during our 2009 visit.  For our home base, we choose a beach resort near Cape Coast that is only 67 miles from Accra, but almost 4 hours away due to the unpredictable traffic.  Although we were often stuck in traffic, we were never bored because vendors swarmed the cars with baskets on their heads overflowing with items ranging from grapes to toilet plungers.  You could do your day’s shopping from your car!

The first day, we visited a friend from the Aspen Institute, Patrick Awuah, who left his job at Microsoft and returned to Ghana to start Ashesi University.  Patrick created what others thought would be impossible, the top university in Ghana.  It is producing the next generation of ethical leaders who are staying in Africa to change the continent.  Ashesi, and Patrick’s dedication, are an inspiration to anyone who wants to make a difference in the world. 

Ghana is infamous for its part in 400 years of the slave trade, where 60 million people were taken from Africa.  Of the 60 million people taken from their villages, historians estimate that only 12 million survived the trip across Africa, their time in the dungeons and the horrific conditions of Atlantic crossing to Brazil, the Caribbean and North America.   We were surprised to learn that most of the slaves were actually taken to Brazil, with only a tiny portion going to North America.  Read the stories in our next post to get a glimpse into what we experienced during our visits.  Warning:  it is not easy reading. 


Our favorite experience in 2009, and again this year, was visiting a local village and learning from the similarities and differences in our cultures and circumstances.  This time, we visited a school and orphanage in the village of Equafo.   Our photos and essays try to reflect the energy and struggles of the children. 

We took over 700 photos in Ghana trying to capture the vibrancy of Ghana’s people, markets and towns.  Here are a few more of our favorites. 




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