The Orriscope

San Diego - The Last Leg

2010-01-23T13:09:00.000-07:00

As we made our delayed departure from Honolulu, we expected to hit some big waves, and maybe do a little cruise ship surfing. However, we encountered nothing but smooth waters on our 6 day crossing to San Diego. The last few days on ship were filled with final papers and exams (for the students) and goodbyes for us.

We have plenty of people to thank for their friendship and help during our voyage. We won’t put a full list on here but between faculty, students, fellow Life Long Learners, staff and crew, we can’t thank everyone enough. It’s been great to share such a life-changing experience with so many amazing people.

Once we made it back to San Diego, we met up with Grandpa Milton and enjoyed some of the local attractions. Unfortunately, Legoland was closed, but we still visited SeaWorld. Jonathan and Marjan Greenblatt visited us from L.A. with their two boys, Ariel and Ilan. Thanks for driving down to see us!

Christy jumped right into a weeklong visit of ATEK’s facilities, the kids attended school the day after they returned, and Jay immediately met up with friends for poker night. The internal differences are slowly becoming more apparent. When we see friends, they say that it “seems just like yesterday that we left.” For us, it seems like a long time ago. On our trip, we experienced new cultures and beliefs every day. Time went by slowly for us and each week was memorable…even many of the days. We fear that we’ll just jump back into a routine and will miss enjoying the present – and experiencing each day for the unique experience it should be.

The other area that is hard to get used to is STUFF. We have so much stuff. Coming back just in time for Christmas has not helped things. We came back to a home with so many things we had not seen or played with for months. Then…Christmas descended and we accumulated so many more things…many of which we’ll never use. Many still sit in the boxes.

This is disconcerting after we went to many places in the world that did not have anything. We remember the village we stayed at in Ghana where the children wanted empty water bottles to use as a kick ball. They had nothing and could enjoy each new toy they created.

It will be interesting to see what parts of the trip the boys will remember. Luke remembers the most and has developed a worldly vocabulary and has a story to tell anyone who will listen. His new favorite game is Risk, since he wants to rule the world. He seems to remember the most impactful places we visited: Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, Angkor Wat, the Taj Majal, the Ghana village and the safari in South Africa. Ironically, he also remembers the quiet, beautiful beaches of Mauritius.

We thoroughly enjoyed our voyage around the world but are happy to be home as well. We look forward to getting back in touch with all of you over the next few months.

P.S. Semester at Sea is offering a two-for-one discount for the 2010 voyages!

Coming to America - kind of - Hawaii!

2010-01-01T14:33:00.000-07:00

During our uneventful 10 day crossing from Japan, we re-entered tropical waters on our way to Hawaii. The warmer temperatures allowed the boys to burn off some energy on the ball court and get back into the ship pool again. The return of nicer weather was tempered by the knowledge that our voyage was coming to a close.

On this second last leg of the journey, our classes finished up and the students began to turn their attention to final papers and exams. Jay was invited to join three professors on a faculty panel in the mandatory Global Studies class. The panel presented their viewpoints on the connection between globalization and Asia, and whether the coming century will be the “Asian century”. To hear his perspective, just ask him (but only ask if you really want to talk about it!).

Hawaii was a fun way to re-acclimate to US society. Although Christy and Jay had both been there before, we had forgotten how fun and beautiful Honolulu is. We started on an educational note, with a visit to Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona. Jay took some time out to play golf with two students from the boat, Chad and Mike. We spent that night and next morning at Waikiki, soaking up the rays and enjoying another day on the beach. We wrapped up our time in Honolulu with a climb up into the Diamond Head crater for the spectacular view back towards Waikiki.

After just one night on Oahu, the ship moved on to Hilo. We took full advantage of our two days and one night on the Big Island to visit the Volcano National Park and cross the island to Kona. Unfortunately (we think!) we didn’t get to see any flowing lava but we did get to see the steaming vents and walk through lava tubes. We arrived in Kona with no hotel reservation and were unable to escape the lure of the Hilton Waikoloa, with its seaside location, numerous pools and dolphin experience. We spent a great day there and the boys got to swim with the dophins and spend some time with them close up. We also got to feed some ravenous turtles, followed by a closer-than-desired encounter with the turtles in the water!

The adventure in Hawaii was supposed to end that day, as the Orris boys reboarded the ship and Christy stayed on shore to return to Colorado and business meetings. While Christy made her flight off the islands, the ship was delayed almost two days as we waited for the largest swells in forty years to subside. We got to spend a bonus day back on Waikiki, hear about 40+ foot waves for the Eddie Aikau surfing competition on the North Shore and see the ship churn out thirty knots to make up our delay getting back to San Diego. The surfing competition is only held when waves hit 40 feet!

The transition back to the US was very smooth, thanks to the gentle re-entry in Hawaii. One big irony was the realization that after visiting many different countries and cultures, our return to the US marked the first time since Spain that we felt more concerned about keeping the boys in sight.

Land of the Rising Sun

2009-12-20T18:04:00.001-07:00

Well, we have left the final foreign port on our voyage around the world. We now have 10 days at sea to look forward to as we cross the Pacific to Hawaii. We spent our last five days in Japan, porting first in Yokohama (outside Tokyo) and then in Kobe. Jay had been looking forward to returning to Japan as it had been 8 years since the last time he was there and 15 years since he had lived in Osaka. Although there is not much use for Japanese in Boulder, the language came back pretty quickly and we were able to make our way around Japan with minimal issues.

We spent the first day going into Tokyo to visit the Meiji Shrine and Harajuku. Harajuku is the “funky fashion center” of Japan, with lots of used clothing and cheap fashion shops. It’s where the young people of Tokyo (and Japan) come to be individuals together and wear Halloween caliber costumes every day of the year. Christy’s first taste of the district occurred in the train station when she saw a Japanese girl wearing an outfit including green hair and red devil horns – on a Friday around noon.

After most of the day in Tokyo we returned to Yokohama for the evening (great sushi!!!!) before heading off to Hiroshima on the bullet train the next day. After some difficulty tracking down the right connections to the correct train station, we hopped on the train for the 4 hour ride to Hiroshima at 200 miles per hour. Upon our arrival we threw ourselves on the whims of chance and tried to locate a hotel for the night – this was the Saturday of the Labor/Thanksgiving holiday in Japan and many hotels were fully booked. Lady Luck smiled on us and we managed to land in a hotel a few hundred yards from the station that included a tatami room so the boys could experience true futon sleeping.

We spent the next day around Hiroshima, primarily at the Hiroshima Peace Park and Atomic Bomb Museum. The museum presents a fascinating view into the events leading up to and beyond the world’s first atomic bombing on Hiroshima back on August 6th, 1945. It is a highly recommended trip if you get the chance. Modern bombs are more than 3,100 more powerful than the one that destroyed Hiroshima and resulted in 200,000 deaths. In light of the damage done to Hiroshima, the destructive capability of a modern weapon is truly inconceivable.

We spent another night in Hiroshima before taking a quick bullet train ride to Himeji to see the finest example of a Japanese castle (and a pretty poor zoo!). The castle was mobbed with people due to the holiday but the boys got to imagine how difficult it would be to lay siege to a castle. After a final day in Kobe, we have again set sail for the ten day trip to Hawaii. Back to the US!

Shanghai, China

2009-12-03T21:37:00.001-07:00

In Shanghai, our ship was docked in the heart of the city of 12 million people. The city has grown at an amazing pace over the past 15 years and is now one of the largest in the world. We were perfectly located to watch the nightly light show displayed on the downtown buildings and famously tall TV tower. We also enjoyed watching the steady stream of boats that passed off our balcony – most which were laden with building materials.

Unfortunately, the weather was cold and rainy so we explored the city under our winter coats and umbrellas. Despite the weather, we ventured out to the TV tower and city museum, stall markets, cheesy underground tunnel, and on a much needed date night.

Hong Kong

2009-12-03T21:32:00.001-07:00

Pulling into Hong Kong harbor, we were astounded by the row upon row of tall apartment and commercial buildings. For a city of 7 million people, HK is surprisingly livable city with manageable traffic and an abundance of green space. We understand why Jay’s brother, Loron, has made it his home for the last 15 years.

As our ship docked in the heart of downtown, we were greeted by Loron, Milton, and Ruth Campbell (Milton’s significant other). Milton was rejoining the trip after a brief detour due to some medical issues. All is well now!

We packed in a lot during our four short days. We visited Ocean Amusement Park, Stanley Market, the Cricket Club, the big Buddha, and Victoria Peak.

Jay’s highlight was golfing on the hardest course in Asia. The Norman Course is 1 of 13 courses at Mission Hills in Shenzhen, China.

Christy learned a lot about doing business in China by visiting a potential partner in Shenzhen. She also met with a young woman who runs a family toy manufacturer serving Mattel. Many opportunities exist in China, but so do the challenges.

Christy’s newly made friends in Shenzhen took her to a traditional Cantonese dinner (with chicken feet and pigeon heads) and to a foot massage that lasted for 2½ glorious hours.

Special thanks to Loron for planning the visit and arranging activities and accommodation. Also to Loron’s friend (and Ruth’s cousin) Loch for sharing his family with us and keeping our kids occupied. And finally to Loron’s business partner Dave for arranging Jay’s golf at Mission Hills.

Vietnam

2009-11-28T04:14:00.001-07:00

After two weeks of intense traveling in India and Cambodia, we took a needed “vacation” in Vietnam and headed to a fancy resort. Reverting back to our “traveler” days, we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City with no flights or hotel reservations but some ideas that we wanted to head to a beach resort either in Nha Trang or an island in Southern Vietnam. Since all the flights to the South for the day had already departed, we decided to go to Nha Trang and hoped that the resort we had heard of called Vinpearl would have some rooms.

After an interesting wait on the stand-by list (for a flight that was only 1/2 full) and an hour taxi ride through the rain in the dark, we arrived at the shuttle boat to VinPearl Island. Luckily they had room for us and we were able to reserve a room for a couple of nights.

The Vinpearl was a mini-Disney land with an amusement & water park, arcade, kid’s club, beach, and the largest pool in SE Asia. They had one of the longest cable cars in Asia and you could take that or the shuttle boats to the island. A typhoon had come through the area 2 days before we arrived, so the weather was not great, but we still had fun and relaxed. Luke and Ryan terrorized crabs on the beach, splashed in the pool, checked out the rides, arcade and water park, and played games at the kids club.

Before leaving Vietnam, we spent a day exploring Ho Chi Minh City. It is a modern city with great bargain shopping. With such a short time there, we only touched the surface of Vietnam during our short visit. After being away from the ship for 16 days, we were actually excited to see the ship again. It was amazing how much we missed our little cabin, friends and shipboard routine!

Cambodia: Exploring Angkor Wat

2009-11-25T06:40:00.001-07:00

From India, we moved on to one of our favorite countries, Cambodia. We flew to Siem Reap, home to the famous temples of Angkor Wat. We predicted that exploring these temples would be one of the highlights of our trip for the boys. When Jay and Christy had visited Siem Reap in 2000, there was only 1 large hotel in town. Many investors have identified Angkor Wat as the next big destination and have invested in over 50 large hotels. The Cambodian government is also making large investments in rebuilding and preserving the temples.

We felt like Indiana Jones as we explored the temples. Our favorite temples where the ones that the trees had overtaken and that were in ruins. They boys were little monkeys and climbed the steep stone steps without fear. They loved using their rock climbing skills and being free to be crazy boys.

One highlight was riding elephants amongst the ruins. We learned that horses are much more comfortable to ride. After our ride, we fed the elephants whole bananas that they grabbed by the end of their trunks and popped in their mouths.

The Cambodian people are warm and friendly and it was the easiest country to travel in so far this trip. They use US dollars and lots of people speak English. Entrepreneurship starts early and we met many young children who were expert sales people. We stayed in 2 small bungalows at a bed & breakfast only walking distance to town. It was great to get away from the large hotels.

India

2009-11-10T07:01:00.001-07:00

India was Christy’s most memorable country when she went on Semester at Sea in 1990 and it rates highly on our current voyage. We experienced India as tourists in Agra/New Delhi, business people in Bangalore, and through the eyes of our expatriate friends in Mumbai.

India is a country of 1.2 Billion people with extremes of poverty and prosperity; pre-industrial and modern at the same time; and facing some of the world’s biggest opportunities and challenges at the same time.

New Delhi/Agra

Our previous travel prepared us well for the vibrant traffic, sights and sounds of India. After flying from Chennai to New Delhi, we went to take the train to Agra. After a roundabout path that took us to the train station, a chaotic auto-rickshaw ride and a chance encounter with an Indian travel agent who lives half-time in Vancouver, we found ourselves with a driver and car for the 5 hour car ride to see the Taj Mahal, in Agra. The car ride was entertaining as we watched all the cows (which are sacred and roam freely), auto rickshaws, pedal and motorbikes, cars, trucks and pedestrians intermingle along the crowded streets. At home we only use our horn at most once a month. In India, hardly 10 seconds go by without blowing the car horn. The distance to Agra was not far, but the traffic was awful coming out of New Delhi and the pollution from the traffic and trash fires gave Christy a hacking cough.

We visited the Taj Mahal in both the evening and at sunrise. Its magnificence and grandeur are all the more impressive knowing it was built in 1653 by the Emperor Shah Jahn for his wife who died giving birth to their 14^th child. 20,000 people worked on the Taj for over 22 years. Their creation was a beautiful sight to see and admire.

Bangalore

Bangalore, the garden city of India, is the country’s Silicon Valley. Most internationally known technology companies like Google and Dell are there. We went to Bangalore to visit a Young President’s Organization contact of Christy’s. Dinesh Puri, his wife Geeta, and his kids Uday and Ankita helped us with hotel arrangements, took us around town and hosted us for 3 amazing days. Christy visited their medical company that makes pacemakers, the first implantable device being made in India. She also visited GE Healthcare and another Indian device maker. The Puri’s even threw a large party at their home so we could meet some of their YPO friends and other leaders in the community. A highlight was playing golf at the Karnataka Golf Association Club where Thomas Friedman got his inspiration for his book title, “The World is Flat.”

Mumbai

In Mumbai, we stayed with Brooks and Laura Entwistle and their 3 lovely daughters who are around Luke and Ryan’s ages. Christy and Brooks, who runs Goldman Sachs India, are in the same class of Henry Crown Fellows from the Aspen Institute. We saw a unique perspective of Mumbai though the Entwistle’s eyes.

A highlight for the boys was visiting the expat school. Luke got to join Kayla in 1^st grade for the day. It was the day they celebrated Halloween, so Luke got to make Halloween crafts and be in a holiday parade. That was followed by a Halloween party at the Entwistle’s house and then we went trick-or-treating at the teacher’s apartments.

Mumbai is the financial hub of India. It is the most densely populated city in the world with half the population living in slums that are interspersed around the city. We toured the Dhavari Slum, the one featured in Slumdog Millionaire. We expected to see a very sad situation. Instead, our experience was quite the opposite. The slum is a bustling community of entrepreneurs and families. They are the recycling center for Mumbai and sort, clean, and melt down the materials. They build their own chipping machines that cut up plastics. Then they wash, dry, melt and extrude the plastics into new plastic pellets that they sell to manufacturers. The same is true for metals, including an aluminum recycling operation!

In other sections of the slum, we found potters, cookie makers, seamstresses, and ladies making papadams. They even let the boys try rolling a papadam - the boys should keep their day jobs! Although the homes were small and simple, most were made out of cement and were clean. Narrow alleys with open sewers connected the homes and it was an adventure walking through the community.

In contrast to the slum, we had lunch at the iconic Taj Hotel that was the site of the Mumbai terrorist attacks last year. While he food was great, it was hard to imagine how 4 terrorists were able to kill so many people in the hotel. It is mostly rebuilt and fully back in business.

Overall our India visit was special because of the friends we visited and the new friends we made. The Entwistle and Puri families made us very welcome in India. It is a country with warm, friendly people who are striving for a better life. They have made amazing advances but now they must tackle their remaining challenges of sustainability (water, energy, pollution), building an infrastructure that can keep up with the exploding population, and living peacefully next to Pakistan.

Mauritius - an island paradise!

2009-11-09T18:44:00.000-07:00

Mauritius was a short stop for us, just two nights in this island paradise. We arrived at the port in the early morning and were greeted with spectacular view of this mountainous island.

Mauritius, Africa’s wealthiest country on a per capita income basis, is a honeymooner’s paradise, primarily for Europeans and South Africans. The population is half Hindu (from India) with a mix of other groups (Chinese, French, etc) making up the balance. As a result there is a mix of food, language and culture that is unique to the island. Along with the growing tourist trade, the Mauritians main industries are sugar cane harvesting and palm oil.

We ended up staying at a beautiful resort, where the boys could play unsupervised in the calm surf of the pristine beach. The ocean was so calm here that it took us a couple of days to realize that there was no sound you typically associate with a beach resort – no surf sound. We built sand castles, strolled the beach, chased crabs, swam and kayaked. Christy even got to take a few turns on skis – water skis of course!

The highlight of our visit was the afternoon with Greg and Veronique, close friends of Christy’s friend from YPO. We had a wonderful Indian lunch at their home on the beach and enjoyed letting the boys run around while we had great conversation about life in Mauritius. We finished the day at Greg and Veronique’s bar, Banana Beach Club, where a jazz band was playing. This club is the party place of Mauritius and as the night went on, we found ourselves hanging out with more and more students from the ship. Although many offered to buy us a beer (as a “reward” for actually making it out to party!), we managed to head home by 1 am, about 3 hours before the students shut the place down!

A second highlight was our mini-submarine trip. We managed to end up in our own submarine for five and took it down to about 110 feet. We saw lots of fish, some less than spectacular coral and a really cool octopus. We also did some snorkeling so the next step with be to take the boys scuba diving!

We enjoyed our time in Mauritius – a nice beach holiday between Africa and India.

South Africa -- Our favorite port so far!

2009-10-13T13:08:00.001-06:00

South Africa, with its friendly people, spectacular scenery, and comforts of home, was our favorite port so far. Luke has declared that he will live there someday and that it is better the US. Time will tell, although we would certainly be happy to visit if he decides to spend some time there. We are not sure what prompted such a definite statement, but we guess it was because he got to go on safari, hang out with cheetahs, climb Table Mountain, visit the aquarium with grandpa and meet many kids in the townships.

The port in Cape Town could not have been a nicer location. We harbored at the main waterfront with 5-star hotels, restaurants, shops and entertainment right at the end of the pier. It was very convenient to sleep on the ship and be at a coffee shop within minutes in the morning.

We spent six days in South Africa and did our best to see the different sides of the country and learn as much as we could. It is a country of extreme economic disparity and it is confronting an almost overwhelming range of challenges. One of our friends described it best when he said, “South Africa is like a microcosm of the whole world. If we can change things here, it will pave the way for the world to change.”

From the photos you can see that part of Cape Town is as advanced and wealthy as any city you’ll find in the world. The Townships, which were created during the Apartheid-years as places for “blacks” and “colored people”, are a sharp contrast to the wealth of the formerly white areas. The homes are made of every imaginable material, ranging from sheet metal and wood structures to more permanent concrete dwellings. The government does a lot to subsidize the poor and has a massive home building program. Most homes in the Townships have electricity, running water and trash removal. The Township we visited was the largest in Cape Town and had more than 2 million people living in it. Despite the size of the Townships, unofficial shantytowns are forming around the edges and in other places as people migrate to the cities from the countryside and other African countries. Our pictures cannot convey the vastness of these poor settlements.

Through connections that Christy has with the Aspen Institute Global Leadership Network, we arranged a lunch with Karl Flowers and Ralph Freese. They shared their views of what was happening in South Africa and talked about the NGOs they founded or are part of that are making positive change in the country. They were so inspiring we wanted to move to South Africa and help them with the many changes they are trying to implement.

In addition to learning about the country, we also had lots of fun on safari at the Inverdoorn Game Preserve and saw lions, giraffes, rhinos and lots of antelopes. The highlight of the safari was interacting with cheetahs that had been raised by the hotel owner. They licked and drank from our hands and when we scratched their necks, ears and heads they purred like Harleys. They are beautiful and awesome creatures. The drive to and from the Reserve took us through some truly spectacular country, even by the standards of Coloradans!

Towering above Cape Town is Table Mountain. Everyone we spoke to said Luke and Ryan were too young to climb up to the top and that we should take the cable car instead. When we got there, the cable car line was very long so we decided to try the hike. 2 hours and 45 minutes later, the whole family arrived on top hungry and happy. We were so proud of the boys.

We left Cape Town wishing we had more time to take in the natural beauty of the area and continue to learn about the past and bright future of this wonderful country. We know we will return sometime!

Comments are now enabled!!

2009-10-12T00:19:00.000-06:00

We've had several questions about comments and I have fixed the problem we had. You can now make comments. We'd love to hear from you.

We have departed South Africa and are on our way to Mauritius. Look for another post in the next couple of days.

The World's Friendliest People!

2009-10-08T13:40:00.001-06:00

Luke and Ryan’s Perspective

For us, Ghana was an exciting and different place. There were two things that were really weird – people carried tons of stuff on their heads (platters full of things they wanted to sell, water, anything), and that people stood in between cars on the road and tried to sell things during stoplights! Some things were the same – pizza, chicken nuggets, kids played soccer – but mostly we saw things that were very different. The roads were very bad and bumpy and it took a long time to drive anywhere. When we got to the village, everything was different. Some people just slept in the grass, some houses were made of mud and the toilets were holes in wood over big pits in the ground. But the kids were very happy, and we had a lot of fun chasing tons of goats in the village and playing soccer with an old soccer ball on a dirt field. Except for the soccer ball, they had almost no toys. We are really lucky to have so many more things than they do. We gave the kids crayons, coloring books and Lego’s.

Jay and Christy’s Perspective

Well, we are six days out of Ghana and are just finishing digesting it (literally and figuratively – lots of tummy trouble aboard the MV Explorer!). We had a wonderful time and leave with very favorable impressions of this country and its people, although it’s not without its challenges. This is a very complex country. On the one hand it is the success story of West Africa, independent since the 1950’s and the poster child for democracy in the region. On the other hand, this is a very poor country, with abundant natural resources but virtually no infrastructure, with the wealthy shopping in Western style malls but the poor living in mud hut villages, and the world’s friendliest people but petty graft among its police force. Of course the real test is whether we would return and the answer is a resounding “Yes!”

We spend four days here. The first day we visited a private school in the capital city and shopped the stalls of the main market street. The school visit was impressive and provided a stark contrast to things we saw later in the trip. Shopping and bartering were entertaining and we will arrive home with numerous Ghanaian souvenirs and memories, including new "football" jerseys for the boys. The Ghanaians are proud to be the first African team to qualify for the World Cup next year in South Africa.

The second and third days provided the true highlights of the stay. We joined a Semester at Sea trip to a rural village called Tormonge for an overnight stay. This post will be a little longer than most since there is so much to record about that visit. When we arrived, hundreds of villagers welcomed us with drums and dancing that continued for over 3 hours in the stifling heat. Through various ceremonies, songs, dances and recitals, we were each given our African names (first name dictated by the day of the week you are born and the second name selected by our hosts). To help us with our short term memory issues, we each received a locally made pot with our new names written on them.

Luke and Ryan were huge entertainment for the villagers. We later learned that the village had seen about 20 tour visits over the last ten years – always by classes of university students. We were fairly certain that the village children had never seen white children before so they were very curious about Luke and Ryan. They wanted to touch them and followed them everywhere. When Luke and Ryan saw the baby goats in the village, they started a game of goat chasing. They would chase the goats and the village children would in turn chase Luke and Ryan. This provided hours of entertainment and thoroughly tired out our kids and their goats. We asked one dad whether the kids always chased goats and he paused, cocked his head and said “Not until your boys came here”. So Luke and Ryan have created a new sport, although one that we think may have been heartily discouraged once our bus left the village.

Tormonge was a fishing and pottery village. Their homes were mostly made out of clay – the same as their pots. While there were electrical wires strung throughout the village, it appeared usage was quite low. Grain was milled at the communal milling hut. They had very little and their way of life was a mix of space age and stone age, as one of our profs likes to say. They wore T-shirts with Western logos but wove their kente cloth by hand with crude looms, made their pots without pottery wheels, and fished from boats carved out of trees. In contrast to the school we saw in the city, the school here was bare – only desks and a blackboard in a concrete building. They had a library started by an African American but it appeared to be little used despite having children’s book in their native language. There were two flush toilets by the village center but it appeared they were reserved for visitors or leaders, as most of the village used the outhouse erected over a deep dark pit. The school kids played with a half deflated soccer ball, while the village team players each had their own ball.

In the afternoon of our visit we toured the village and saw everything in action. The boys continued their goat chasing, which resulted in a visit to the clinic for Ryan after he took a tumble. Then off to our family homestay, where we believe we may have had the nicest accommodations in the village. We had two rooms for the five of us, fans in the rooms and an open air shower in a detached structure. The highlight of the trip for Jay occurred in the shower as he stepped in with Luke. Luke spontaneously looked up at him and said “Daddy, we’re really lucky that we have so much - these kids have so little”. And so in a nutshell, Luke has already internalized what the highest goal of the entire trip is – we are very lucky to live in the place that we do, with the things that we have and none of us should lose sight of the advantages we have that most people in the world can never even aspire to.

That night we enjoyed a traditional Ghanaian dinner, accompanied by drumming and dancing. The slightly uncomfortable part of the evening occurred when we sat down to dinner in the center of the village and most of the villagers sat around the square watching us eat. While no one in the village seemed to be lacking the basic necessities, it had hard not to feel the huge divide between what we would consider a typical meal and what might be the usual dinner for most of those in the village.

On our third day, we ate breakfast with the villagers, and then returned to the ship. On the way back, we made a pit stop in a national wildlife reserve, climbed a small peak, visited some caves, and saw two baboon troops and a herd of antelope. A highlight was climbing through one of the caves to pop out the other end through a narrow opening. The second highlight of the day was pushing our bus in order to get a rolling start after it refused to start! The Shay Reserve is only about 2 hours drive from Accra and provided a lot of entertainment.

Day four was a new adventure as we arranged a car and driver and headed to the beach. Ghana’s target is to multiply their tourism business in a matter of years and we got to see first-hand what they will have to work with. The natural setting was spectacular, although a little rocky for a swimming beach. The chief issue they will have is cleaning up the beaches and the water, as it was obvious that there is a very limited effort to do that at the current time.

All in all, we leave Ghana happy to have made the trip there and encouraged by possibilities of the country!

A Day in the Life Aboard our Ship - The MV Explorer

2009-10-01T02:57:00.001-06:00

We love our life on the boat. The days go by quickly and there is always something to do.

Learning
We are learning a lot from classes, reading books and visiting the different cultures. Everyday on the boat we ALL go to classes. Luke and Ryan do their schoolwork in the morning. They get one-on-one tutoring from the college students, mom, dad or grandpa. A child coordinator books the room, snack, student volunteers and provides general supervision. From 2-4 pm every afternoon the kids play in the ball court, swim, make arts and crafts and have snack time. There are 12 children under the age of 14 on the boat.

Jay, Christy and Milton attend classes with the college students. They are taking classes on global studies, sustainability and terrorism. We are often called on to guest lecture in the classes. Soon Jay will be lecturing on organic food and Christy will talk on supply chain management. Milton puts on seminars almost every night on subjects ranging from Meditation to creative writing.

Whenever we can find some extra time, we read books and watch movies on the regions we are visiting. Christy is also trying to learn Spanish by using the Rosetta Stone software.

Exercise

We do not get much exercise in the ports, but we workout almost everyday on the boat. There is an exercise room with treadmills, stairmasters, elliptical trainers, and weights. Students and faculty also put on yoga and strength training classes. The boys place kickball, volleyball and soccer in the ball court.

Eating

They have 2 dining rooms and a snack bar on ship. They boys love the buffet style food and always talk about the “free” food. We are getting a little tired of the food, but overall it is good. On special occasions we’ll buy a hamburger from the snack bar or book a table at their “fancy” dining spot. We are trying not to gain too much weight – which is hard with all the yummy croissants and sweets.

Other Activities

There is always something going on. Before dinner the Life Long Learners (that is what we old folks are called) get together for a glass of wine and to hear guest lecturers on the upcoming ports.

Special events include the talent show (no --we did not enter), Neptune Day (when we crossed the equator), Captains’ dinner, social hours, ice cream parties by the pool…

Fun times in Morocco - and a little craziness!

2009-09-19T04:50:00.003-06:00

Morocco From Luke & Ryan’s Perspective (Jay’s & Christy’s commentary is in quotes):

What is different?

• Women cover their hair/head. (Although it is not a law, most women wear traditional clothing and covered their hair with scarves. They always covered their legs and shoulders. Morocco is one of the most liberal of the Islamic countries and women can choose what they wear --- to a point. We never saw a Muslim woman show her legs and usually their arms were also covered).

• The money is different. (7.5 Dirhams / $US)

• Donkeys pull carts to the shops. You can’t get trucks down the narrow streets. This poor donkey was pulling a huge cart!

• We can walk in the street (there are no sidewalks in the old city and the streets are the size for one-way traffic, but they function as two-way streets. Outside the old city there are “normal” sized streets with sidewalks.)

• The Moroccan people could not eat or drink during the day. (It was Ramadan, an Islamic religion holiday that lasts one month.)

• They don’t speak English. (The official language is Arabic and the second language is French. Our knowledge of French helped a lot!)

• There are lots of little stores. (We only found one big grocery store. Most people buy things from different small shops.)

What is the same?

• They have orange juice

• They have cars (when we first pulled into the port in Spain. Ryan told me that he was surprised they had cars too. Before our trip we had stressed how poor some of the countries would be. Seeing cars made him feel that the places were not so different.)

• They have McDonalds, Pizza Hut and KFC (Because Ramadan was occurring during our visit, all the restaurants were closed during the day – except the US fast food favorites. )
• There are lots of friendly and well cared for cats around.

Overall, the boys had fun being in a country so different than their own. They really adjusted well to traveling in Morocco and seem excited for Ghana. Luke told me that he did not know we were going to get off the boat during our trip around the world. I think this is an extra bonus for him.

Morocco from the adult perspective

Morocco. A conflicting land that embraces you in its mystery while casting you aside as a lowly outsider. We leave Morocco, not knowing if we want to go back.

It is a country where the people smiled and lovingly patted our boys’ heads while others cursed us and swore at us us for not buying their goods or agreeing to their unreasonably high taxi fares. Where a modernly dressed woman may walk hand-in-hand with another woman completely cloaked in black from head to toe except a strip exposing half her eyes. Where Islam is so important that everyone must pray five times per day, yet women are only allowed in the mezzanines of the mosques behind trellis’. Where fancy beach clubs and elegant mosques sit next to sparse concrete homes and trash heaps.

There were many things we loved about Morocco. We had interesting conversations with Moroccans who welcomed us into their homes for dinner or with taxi cab drivers who we communicated with in our broken French. Marrakesh was our favorite location – especially the Medina (old city) which always seemed to be bustling with life. If we go back, we will go to the Atlas Mountains and trek amongst the Berber (local) villages. Or to the sparsely populated Western Sahara.

Journey to our Riad (Bed & Breakfast):

Our most memorable time on the trip so far was getting to our riad (B&B) in the Medina (old city) in Marrakesh. After a 3 hour train ride from Casablanca to Marrakesh, we negotiated a fare for the taxi to take us to our riad. We had made reservations that morning on-line and had the address and a rough idea of where it was, but little else. The taxi driver started down the ever narrowing streets of the Medina. It was pouring rain and we crossed our fingers that he knew where he was going. We pulled over once as he started some lively discussions with people who gathered around us. We were worried someone would take our bags so we got out in the rain, only to find out that we were not near our riad. We piled back in the taxi and drove around for several more minutes.

Then our driver pulled over, got out and after a conversation pointed to a bicycle with a cart behind it. He started unloading our bags and putting them in the cart. He pointed down an alley and we had no choice to go with our new driver (the bicyclist). He signaled for Luke and Ryan to get in the cart on top of our bags. We were happy to have them in the cart so our bags could not easily be stolen and so the boys would not get stepped on. Before we knew it, off went the bicycle and we ran to stay with it. We did not run long since we came to a standstill as soon as we entered a souk, a narrow one-lane market with stalls selling meat, shoes, eggs, clothing, and everything else you can think of. We had entered utter chaos. We have traveled extensively, but agree that this was one of the strangest situations we have been in.

Several cars had driven into the one lane market from either side and were at a complete standstill. The cars (and a donkey cart!) couldn't pass by each other and they certainly couldn't back out as the rushing crowds of motorbikes, bicycles and pedestrians swirled around the stationary cars on their way to break the Ramadan fast. Everyone was yelling at everyone – especially the cars - as they tried to snake their way through the crowd. We immediately got separated, but Christy desperately hung onto the back of the bicycle cart and kept telling Luke and Ryan everything was ok. They were wide-eyed, but remained composed as they ducked under hanging slabs of beef and were lifted around cars and motorcycles. The bike and cart kept rubbing against the cars and even smashed a head-light of one of the cars as we moved from one side to the other. Our bicycle cab was intent on getting us through this mess.

Milton tried to take a picture and was cursed at by a nearby woman and then by another man near him. She later apologized that it was Ramadan and that this was not how Marrakesh usually was. Thanks to the relentless effort by our bike cart driver, we made it out successfully.

Next we turned down a smaller alley with no traffic and soon down an even smaller alley that continued to narrow as we proceeded. We had no idea where we were since there were no alley or “hotel” signs. We stood in front of a little wooden door in amongst tall cement walls. We knocked and the door was finally opened. We stepped in and after a few moments realized we had found a beautiful safe haven. It became our beloved riad. Riad Djebel.

Marrakesh:

Our two wonderful in-keepers, Miguel and Sylvan, made our trip to Marrakesh for us. They welcomed us with the customary mint tea and sweet treats. After we got settled, they led us through the maze of narrow alleys in the Medina until we reached the famous square, Place Jermaa-el-Fna. We took photos through the maze so we could hopefully retrace our steps back to the riad.

The square was filled with vendors selling orange juice, nuts, dates, wooden carvings, clothing and other crafts; performers doing acrobatics or making cobras dance; and people, bicycles, motor bikes, cars and donkeys. It was a festive place and fun to explore.

We ate some wonderful meals made with diverse spices. Our favorite was the 10 different Moroccan salads that usually kicked-off the traditional meal.

Casablanca

We spent the last 2 days in Casablanca where our ship ported. It is the largest port in Africa and Moroccan’s financial center. The 3rd largest mosque in the world is in Casablanca and it has a powerful green light that shines towards Mecca every night. We found that, although it is the financial center of the country, there is not much to do for tourists in Casablanca. Our most enjoyable time was having dinner at a Moroccan family’s house. They had children who were 4 & 6 so Luke and Ryan had lots of fun. They watched The Incredibles in French after chasing each other around with big Nurf guns.

Next Up
Next stop is Ghana, the first time that Semester at Sea has visited the country. It was the site of Obama's African visit a few months ago and is one of the most stable countries in West Africa (and the continent). We will also be posting "A Day in the Life on Board the MV Explorer" in the coming days.

Crossing the Atlantic...and Spain!

2009-09-11T02:50:00.000-06:00

Well, some of you might be wondering if the MV Explorer is resting on the bottom of the Atlantic! We are safe and sound, currently crossing out of the Mediterranean on our way from Gibraltar to Morocco. We had a very cushy North Atlantic passage, with clear sailing the whole way. No big water anywhere around us and no sleep (or lunch) lost to wavy seas. The ship has been fantastic – good food, great staff, very interesting and entertaining fellow passengers. Our room is a little smaller than our Boulder house but it’s well organized and everything has found its place.

After 5 days crossing the ocean, we arrived in Spain, eager to stretch our legs and see the sights. Cadiz is a great old port town – possibly even the earliest settlement in Europe. It was a critical port in Roman times and was even blessed by a visit from Julius Caesar himself. It boomed again during the Spanish conquest of the Americas and was the main port for ships returning from the New World (as well as the port from which Christopher Columbus began his historic voyage).

We spent our first day wandering around town, enjoying the old town, the very tasty food and stocking up on a few critical things like chocolate bars, juice and Spanish wine. We ended up eating dinner at 10PM in a square with loads of children running around. The Spanish have figured out how to live life – get a late start to the day, take a nap in the afternoon, work late and then stay out until midnight! And of course we stopped by the huge market in the center of town and went to the grocery store to look at the numerous legs of Spanish ham that hang from the wall!

Day two was a train adventure to Sevilla and back. The notable events were the cathedral (largest in the world, according to the book Milton bought there) and the bullfight we went to. The bullfight left us with those timeless questions we have about traveling and whether it’s right to attend events that conflict with our own cultural norms. It was interesting to watch the elaborate dance that is the bullfight, but tough to watch the treatment of the bull and the eventual, and inevitable, result. Nonetheless, we did attend a quintessentially Spanish performance and the boys saw firsthand how cultures react differently to things.

We rented a car the next day and drove along the coast through numerous and large windfarms on our way to Gibraltar. The farms were well placed as we encountered winds that rivaled what we see in Boulder! Gibraltar itself was much calmer and we experienced a bit of Britain in the Mediterranean before heading up the cable car to the top of the Rock itself. It has a fascinating history and incredible views. We wrapped up our time in Spain the next day with some time by the beach in the cute coastal town of Conil.

And we are now in Morocco, having ported in Casablanca yesterday. We have already had several adventures in our first 24 hours in Morocco and will expand on that in a few days.

Full days at sea - long way from anywhere!

2009-08-31T08:33:00.001-06:00

For Boulder Country Day

Ryan and Luke say "hi" to all of their classmates back home and wish everyone good luck in their first day back at school. We started school yesterday, even though it was Sunday. One good thing about being at sea is that the school day is shorter, one bad thing is that Mom and Dad are teaching us.

There is no jungle gym here so we can't climb and play like at home. But there is a pool - it is very small - maybe 20 feet by 10 feet and only five feet deep. There are two little pools on the sides. Here is a picture. We thought the little pools were kiddie pools until the ship started to go through big waves today. Then we saw that the mini-pools catch all the water that comes out of the pool when the ships rolls. When the ship rolls a lot, they catch some of the water and rest spills out! The pool is full of salt water from the ocean and right now it is very cold. We also have a sport court with a net all around it and even a net roof. It keeps the balls from going over the side of the ship.

We saw dolphins today when we were eating lunch but we didn't get any pictures. We also have a small bird following the ship. We are hundreds of miles from land so we are not sure where it came from. Since we are so far away from anywhere, we can't see any land anywhere. But we did see another ship today. It was a container ship going from Europe to North America.
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Day 2 comes to a close. We've had two full days on the ship and two days away from port. It feels like we have been on here for longer than that but we are chalking that up to all the time we have to do things on board - as opposed to the scarier concept that we are starting to get cabin fever already!!!

If anything, the days should be feeling short since we are now about to lose our second hour to time change in two nights. It makes for interesting times getting the boys to bed.....or awake after a short night's sleep. And we have hit some rougher seas - nothing horrible but much more apparent than our first day at sea. Having the first day be so gentle was a good thing as we managed to adjust more slowly to the motion of the ocean. Today we did have more people bouncing off the walls!

We settled into a few courses. We all take the core Global Studies course, which is based on Thomas Friedman's book, "Hot, Flat and Crowded" and will feature lectures from several different professors. It promises to be an interesting look into globalization and revolutionary technology, and how we are all affected by it. There is an underlying theme of sustainability in many discussions and part of the focus here will be on how the rest of the world can reach Western standards of living without decimating the planet. Beyond that, we are all auditing various electives - in a few days we will have a quiz posted about who is taking which courses.

The kids actually got into the pool yesterday, despite the water and the air being in the 60's at the most. The water and air temps here in the North Atlantic are suprisingly similar to one another. Since the pool water is straight from the ocean and was recently pumped in, it hasn't had a chance to warm up much. The pool is in the middle of the "social deck" and the weight "room", so the boys were splashing around with a whole bunch of college students.

Today's observation number one came as Christy and I tried to get in our weight workouts: working out on a moving floor is not easy. It is really hard to describe how difficult it is to do any exercise involving balance when the floor is moving. And most exercises seem to involve keeping your balance. I can imagine this is what it's like trying to work out at the tail end of a very successful New Year's Eve party. It is pure entertainment to watch people doing lunges and core stability exercises while the ship is rolling back and forth. Even more entertaining is watching people play basketball when the hoop is swaying back and forth to the motion of sea. There is some interesting physics going on there.

Observation number 2 is that we must snack a lot at home. Breakfast is cleared at 8:30 sharp. (In a side note, apparently the 8:30 sharp part is now crystal clear as there were lots of students talking about how hungry they were after missing breakfast. We can now commiserate since we also managed to miss breakfast this morning.) Lunch is at noon and dinner around 6:30. By the time we get to any of these meals, our stomachs are growling, despite eating full meals (with dessert!) and being confined to a ship. Either a) we snack a lot at home or; b) we have already picked up tapeworms or; c) maybe Chinese food rules apply to shipboard meals too - the natural law that is evident when you walk out of the Chinese restaurant 7 pounds heavier, having removed your belt, and yet less than three hours later you feel like going back in for round two at the buffet. We'll keep you up to date as to whether it's a tapeworm, the natural law of Chinese food or whether we are constantly eating at home.

In Halifax - leaving in two hours!

2009-08-28T11:01:00.000-06:00

We have now arrived in Halifax, and are about to embark in about two hours. We made it out of Boulder and found we kept finding more things we need to bring. Finally we had to stop since the car was full! We finally loaded up the car, and with the help of Tracy, made it to the Denver Airport.

The boys got a whirlwind tour of Toronto, spending a lot of time with family (including the boys' great grandfather!) and visiting all the important stops, including the zoo and the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE - think state fair). We managed to consume not one, not two but three bags of mini-donuts, among other things.

We also helped Jay's Dad move out of his place. It's been a multi-month process and he is now the proud owner of a lot of boxes - and we do mean a lot. And several booksellers, libraries and foundations have been the proud recipients of parts of his book collection.

Thanks, Mom and Spencer for the hospitality. We hope the next visit can be less chaotic and longer. Cam, Matthew and John, it was nice to see you all, however briefly.

We had the very early wake up call for the airport trip (4:30 Mountain time) and the trip began in earnest. We arrived on ship this time yesterday and have now explored it fairly extensively, with Ryan's energy (and our desire to expend it!) leading the way. We've had some of our orientation - mostly just enough to find out that our internet time is much more restricted than expected. As a result, we will likely be posting pictures in port and therefore will be updating a little less regularly than we had hoped. However, we will do our best to make at least text posts regularly.

As for the ship, our rooms are small but comfortable and we have already met a number of our fellow lifelong learners and even some other kids. We'll have more in a few days. Au revoir from Canada!

Approaching departure day!!!!

2009-08-22T21:44:00.010-06:00

The calm before the storm has descended upon our house. We have renewed our passports, received the critical visas, been punctured multiple times to prevent disease, filled prescriptions for huge quantities of malaria medication, sent boxes ahead to the ship, discussed the boys' curriculum with their teachers, arranged for house and pet sitting, put most of our bills on auto-pay, upgraded our electronics, said goodbye to many friends, packed three bags (two more to go), selected DVD's for the trip, bought gifts, picked our seats on the plane and planned our carry-ons - what more is there to do? For now the boys are in bed, and I am beginning the critical task of chronicling our adventures. Tomorrow should be a relaxed day finalizing the packing (hard to believe that this will cover the kids for 108 days!), downloading e-books and loading up the car for our morning departure to the airport.

The storm before the calm - Hurricane Bill - appears to be wandering his merry way into the North Atlantic and shouldn't have any impact on our trip. For those new to our plans, Christy, Luke, Ryan and I are leaving Boulder on Monday (August 24th) for Toronto to visit family and friends - and pick up Grandpa Milton - on our way to Halifax. In Halifax, we will board the MV Explorer and travel around the world as part of the Fall 2009 Semester at Sea voyage. We depart Halifax on August 28th and visit Spain, Morocco, Ghana, South Africa, Mauritius, India, Vietnam, China, Japan and Hawaii before returning to the US Mainland at San Diego on December 14th. For more information on Semester at Sea go to http://www.semesteratsea.org/.

Part of the fun of this endeavor so far are the conversations we have had in the last few months. First, people wonder why we are going; then they find out more and wonder why we are going with two 5 and 6 year old boys; then they find out more and wonder why we are going on a ship with 700 college students....and finally they ask how they can go along! Well, we fall into the lifelong learner (LL) category (despite Christy not quite meeting the age requirement of 40). While there are LL's on every voyage, we are among the first to be bringing along young kids.

As for why we are going, there are too many good reasons to list them all but here are five....1) we really do believe in lifelong learning and a semester in an academic environment is a good way to foster that; 2) while the boys are pretty young, they are never too young to see the world and begin to understand how privileged a life we live in North America - life is not all about LEGOs; 3) having a floating hotel as a home base for an around the world trip seems much more manageable than moving everything from country to country; 4) Christy did this as an undergrad and it literally changed her life and perspective; 5) most importantly, for 108 days we will connect as a family and focus on one another in ways that are tough to do in day-to-day life.

So, we will be using this platform to communicate our experiences back to our friends, family and classmates. You can expect to see relatively frequent updates, depending on how interesting our days are and how good the internet connection is where we happen to find ourselves. Photos and maybe the occasional video will be part of the package. Keep in mind a pre-school and a 1st grade class will be tuning in part of the time, as I am sure some of you out there will have comments (you know who you are!). We look forward to sharing our adventures with you!!!