Tuesday 30th March
We had been sailing within sight of the South African coast until this morning when we seem to have swung further out to sea. We passed Durban, East London and Port Elizabeth and tomorrow at 8 am we should sail into Table Bay with a breathtaking view of Table Mountain. But first we have to round the infamous Cape of Good Hope and I am thankful that we are not under sail for that bit!
There is an air of excitement on board for the majority of participants on this voyage have never set foot on the African continent. For me coming to Cape Town is always a little bit like revisiting an old 'home'. It really was where I grew up. Living there from the age of nine years to nearly fifteen years was a definite period of change and the struggle through adolescence. Being without my parents made it harder of course but the friends I had in my life then and their very sweet and hospitable families made it all bearable and at times wonderful fun. So that when I saw the British Isles for the first time and realised that I knew only my parents in that country I was shocked and depressed. It was then that the full impact of leaving Africa hit me.....oh my God what have I done?! And as those of you who know me well realise that feeling never really went away. So with great good fortune I shall soon be back happily on African soil.
We have sailed into the notorious South East wind for which Cape Town is famous. A South Easter can knock you down when in full force and make it difficult to walk upright or see where you're going. It can also churn up the ocean and produce enormous swells which is what is happening right now. Our lounge bar has lost more glasses and china on this voyage than almost ever before....only a couple of days ago piles of it crashed to the ground leaving the two bar tenders speechless and horrified. We shall soon be on to plastic if this continues! (Where do they get their continuous supplies from?)
We have our logitical pre-port tonight which ex-SASers will remember. They seem to get longer and longer...I know I've said that before...however no one has played Bingo with our presenters yet!! We are listening to some wonderful African music before all our Global Studies lectures which is such a pleasure.
We have a repeat performance of our Road to Mecca excerpt tonight in the lounge....somewhat scary but soon over is what I'm telling myself. I have half an hour to psyche myself up....why does such a short almost-reading terrify me so much? I think because no one knows us really and I feel rather exposed. The lounge is so big and open and people are drinking. Ah well, they asked for it
They really are a strange lot on this ship....we were all so sane on the 2009 trip....it certainly has not been to misquote ol' blue eyes, 'more comfortable the second time around'! Can't put my finger on the difference but it's there. I find a general lack of friendliness, some people barely smile as you pass them, even though we have now been on the ship for 70 days! I so much miss women friends who were on the same wave length the first time around.....Theresa, Beth and Nilo where are you?! I'm looking forward very much to seeing Jo, Chris and Jeannie over the next few days.
Later: 10 pm.
The reprise of The Road to Mecca went well, the whisky sour afterwards was great (!). I have arranged the taxi, as one must in Cape Town, to take us to the Fugard, pick us up afterwards, take us to Mama Africa for supper and later return us to the ship AND I finally found the address of the quay where we are to berth for Jeannie who is coming on board.
Hey guess what? 'Himself' is sound asleep....he has an FDP tomorrow and is taking students and friends to the Afrikaans Language Museum near Stellenbosch: the Afrikaans Monument which is rather lovely and has amazing views and then going to my favourite Dutch Manor house and winery, Boschendal for lunch. Meanwhile back at the ranch... Jeannie and I will be on the loose in Cape Town! We won't have had this opportunity since we were two "nursing sisters" (RN's) living it up in Nairobi...oh the pleasures of youth!
We have just been warned that the entry into Cape Town at 7 am tomorrow will be rough and to secure all loose objects in our cabins....this is getting boring!
There will now be a break in transmission for 5 days....au revoir, or in Afrikaans tot siens!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Between Mauritius and Cape Town
Monday 29th March
Here is the new Liz Inman. She had her head shaved when we crossed the Equator in a ritual ceremony. I was forbidden to publish until her family knew!
Apologies for not writing this blog for a few days. I think a kind of lethargy set in after the relaxation we all experienced in Mauritius at the Beach Club. It was so wonderful to be away from the hubbub of the ship and simply lie beside a swimming pool or go for a walk on the beach and eat different and very good food. Six of us went as you can see from the photos: Chris Hill (my British Empire History professor), Anne a Life Long learner of nearly 89 yrs old who is quite amazing. Lives in Salt Lake city but was originally British and has that sort of British spunk....wants in the worst way to sleep on the deck but also want to know the enthusiastic early morning cleaners and scrubbers won't wash her away! So i have offered her our little deck. Of course Liz and Audrey and us.
We had some quiet reading time and some hilarious meal time conversation. Just what the Doctor ordered in fact.
Now we are steeping ourselves in Africa, particularly South Africa and it has been fun. George and I acted a short scene from The Road to Mecca, one of our Bob Kemp Hospice fund raiser productions, directed by the incomparable Dia and with the incomparable Dana...we missed them both! I love this play but we couldn't find a copy anywhere on the ship so I emailed Dia who rushed off to the Oakville library, picked out the speech I wanted and a good one for George and copied and emailed them to us....what a friend! This was for Africa Day which was yesterday and we have been asked to do a repeat performance in the Faculty Lounge ....oooh nerves! Today in Global Studies Liz read out the testimony of an African woman who had lost her son. It was mostbeautifully done and so moving.
We have the CEO of the Cape Town Opera on board, Michael Williams, with his wife Ettie: George and I met them last year at the university theatre in Cape Town. He is a wonderful director (put on a musical show with 25 students for Africa Day after three rehearsals because he only came aboard at Mauritius!) and an extremely nice and inspiring man. He came to our performance class today and gace us a workshop in movement. There are only 6 of us and we did a wonderful scene of a rhino giving birth from a South African production. We did it with some of us assisting at the birth and chanting while three made up the rhino and the baby hanging underneath and ultimately emerging fron the mother's body. There were suitable grunts and howls of pain from the front of the mother, who was James, (who may never give birth again in his life!!) the hind quarters was Emily and the baby was a very agile Jennifer!
We are going to see a new Athol Fugard play at the very new Fugard Theatre in Cape Town on the night of the 31st, the day we arrive. This is soooo exciting for me because I love his work. Fugard directed it too so, who knows, we might see him. We're hoping that chrs and Jo might join us because they arrive in CT that evening but they may possibly be too tired.
We have an inter-port student Luzoku on board and I had a great chat with him. he has to work 2 years to get one year at University. His mother, who works as a domestic, is the only bread winner in his family , his sister doesn't work and he has a younger brother at school. So you can imagine how hard it is for him as te eldest son to save adequate money for his education.
We have been hearing lots of African music from South and West Africa. I have suggested that our performance class start a conga chain weaving round the ship doing traditional Highlife from Ghana/Nigeria. The rest of the passenger/students/participants can join in if they choose. I think it would be great fun! We did it I remember at the Benin Club on their first Independence day celebration which I organised. We had the Lagos Police band to accompany us which was fantastic. We danced to Highlife most of that night because their slow waltzes and quick-steps were painful to the ears! I think it was the first big occasion at the club for Nigerians and ourselves, it had been pretty "white" in Colonial days. It was a huge success, I had also made a ginormous curry for it which other people contributed rice and side dishes to. My friend Jeannie (who I'm meeting in Cape Town and who has come down from Kenya) and her husband Ian came to it. It was a HUGE surprise for me because John (my ex) knew but had kept it from me. They just walked in and Jeannie tapped me on the shoulder, I nearly fainted. The last time I had see them was in Kenya about two years before! She and I share so many memories. Ian died last year but we were fortunate to see them with my East African safari group in Naivasha in 2006. jeannie had organised a great last day in Africa for us in Naivasha, including Karen Blixen;s first African home now owned by friends of Jeannie's and a wonderful lunch overlooking the lake .. Ian who had lung cancer and alot of courage insisted on joining us dragging his O2 cylinder behind him.
You see what happens when we are at sea? I start reminiscing. i am so excited to be setting foot on African soil again the day after tomorrow.
Apologies for not writing this blog for a few days. I think a kind of lethargy set in after the relaxation we all experienced in Mauritius at the Beach Club. It was so wonderful to be away from the hubbub of the ship and simply lie beside a swimming pool or go for a walk on the beach and eat different and very good food. Six of us went as you can see from the photos: Chris Hill (my British Empire History professor), Anne a Life Long learner of nearly 89 yrs old who is quite amazing. Lives in Salt Lake city but was originally British and has that sort of British spunk....wants in the worst way to sleep on the deck but also want to know the enthusiastic early morning cleaners and scrubbers won't wash her away! So i have offered her our little deck. Of course Liz and Audrey and us.
We had some quiet reading time and some hilarious meal time conversation. Just what the Doctor ordered in fact.
Now we are steeping ourselves in Africa, particularly South Africa and it has been fun. George and I acted a short scene from The Road to Mecca, one of our Bob Kemp Hospice fund raiser productions, directed by the incomparable Dia and with the incomparable Dana...we missed them both! I love this play but we couldn't find a copy anywhere on the ship so I emailed Dia who rushed off to the Oakville library, picked out the speech I wanted and a good one for George and copied and emailed them to us....what a friend! This was for Africa Day which was yesterday and we have been asked to do a repeat performance in the Faculty Lounge ....oooh nerves! Today in Global Studies Liz read out the testimony of an African woman who had lost her son. It was mostbeautifully done and so moving.
We have the CEO of the Cape Town Opera on board, Michael Williams, with his wife Ettie: George and I met them last year at the university theatre in Cape Town. He is a wonderful director (put on a musical show with 25 students for Africa Day after three rehearsals because he only came aboard at Mauritius!) and an extremely nice and inspiring man. He came to our performance class today and gace us a workshop in movement. There are only 6 of us and we did a wonderful scene of a rhino giving birth from a South African production. We did it with some of us assisting at the birth and chanting while three made up the rhino and the baby hanging underneath and ultimately emerging fron the mother's body. There were suitable grunts and howls of pain from the front of the mother, who was James, (who may never give birth again in his life!!) the hind quarters was Emily and the baby was a very agile Jennifer!
We are going to see a new Athol Fugard play at the very new Fugard Theatre in Cape Town on the night of the 31st, the day we arrive. This is soooo exciting for me because I love his work. Fugard directed it too so, who knows, we might see him. We're hoping that chrs and Jo might join us because they arrive in CT that evening but they may possibly be too tired.
We have an inter-port student Luzoku on board and I had a great chat with him. he has to work 2 years to get one year at University. His mother, who works as a domestic, is the only bread winner in his family , his sister doesn't work and he has a younger brother at school. So you can imagine how hard it is for him as te eldest son to save adequate money for his education.
We have been hearing lots of African music from South and West Africa. I have suggested that our performance class start a conga chain weaving round the ship doing traditional Highlife from Ghana/Nigeria. The rest of the passenger/students/participants can join in if they choose. I think it would be great fun! We did it I remember at the Benin Club on their first Independence day celebration which I organised. We had the Lagos Police band to accompany us which was fantastic. We danced to Highlife most of that night because their slow waltzes and quick-steps were painful to the ears! I think it was the first big occasion at the club for Nigerians and ourselves, it had been pretty "white" in Colonial days. It was a huge success, I had also made a ginormous curry for it which other people contributed rice and side dishes to. My friend Jeannie (who I'm meeting in Cape Town and who has come down from Kenya) and her husband Ian came to it. It was a HUGE surprise for me because John (my ex) knew but had kept it from me. They just walked in and Jeannie tapped me on the shoulder, I nearly fainted. The last time I had see them was in Kenya about two years before! She and I share so many memories. Ian died last year but we were fortunate to see them with my East African safari group in Naivasha in 2006. jeannie had organised a great last day in Africa for us in Naivasha, including Karen Blixen;s first African home now owned by friends of Jeannie's and a wonderful lunch overlooking the lake .. Ian who had lung cancer and alot of courage insisted on joining us dragging his O2 cylinder behind him.
You see what happens when we are at sea? I start reminiscing. i am so excited to be setting foot on African soil again the day after tomorrow.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Tuesday musings
Tuesday 22nd March
The sun is shining brightly, the sea is a white capped blue and we have a strong head wind. All around in the dining room buzz one hears the word 'Mauritius'.
Are you snorkeling? (no, not as far as I know) Is it good for swimming (a resounding yes!) do they speak English (yes some, but mostly French) What are the beaches like? (fabuluous), How is the shopping? (fabulous I hear) are you going to be near a beach? (yes!) Is it far from Port Louis? (yes 30 kms) Is it isolated? (yes from the reviews) Do they have a shuttle bus to take you places? (yes!) Are taxis expensive? (yes! 16.00 US per person to get to Pointe aux Pimentes where the Club is.) What time will you leave the ship? (Don't know for sure but hopefully about 10 am) Any complaints? (Yes the laundry have lost my green safari pants!!) Can you rise above it? (Well, I guess....!) What are you going to do now? (Sit on our deck reading my book and drinking a mug of coffee) Are you lucky or are you lucky? (I guess....!!)
Talk again on the 24th or 25th....with photos. In the meantime have a look at
http://www.oasisbeachclub.com/
The sun is shining brightly, the sea is a white capped blue and we have a strong head wind. All around in the dining room buzz one hears the word 'Mauritius'.
Are you snorkeling? (no, not as far as I know) Is it good for swimming (a resounding yes!) do they speak English (yes some, but mostly French) What are the beaches like? (fabuluous), How is the shopping? (fabulous I hear) are you going to be near a beach? (yes!) Is it far from Port Louis? (yes 30 kms) Is it isolated? (yes from the reviews) Do they have a shuttle bus to take you places? (yes!) Are taxis expensive? (yes! 16.00 US per person to get to Pointe aux Pimentes where the Club is.) What time will you leave the ship? (Don't know for sure but hopefully about 10 am) Any complaints? (Yes the laundry have lost my green safari pants!!) Can you rise above it? (Well, I guess....!) What are you going to do now? (Sit on our deck reading my book and drinking a mug of coffee) Are you lucky or are you lucky? (I guess....!!)
Talk again on the 24th or 25th....with photos. In the meantime have a look at
http://www.oasisbeachclub.com/
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Sunrise monday 22nd March Indian Ocean
These sunrise photos are to remind me when I'm back in our apartment in Dundas that there is a great big beautiful world out there and we'd better protect it!
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Neptune Day and performance Mask
Saturday 20th March
Today we celebrated crossing the Equator. I should say that while the students and others were enjoying them selves around the swimming pool and being dunked and heads shaved George and I were enjoying the privacy and quiet of our cabin! Dreadful I know but I have been through this ceremony so many times and I am getting more and more in need of space as the voyage goes on. George had alot of work to do correcting papers etc.
Today we celebrated crossing the Equator. I should say that while the students and others were enjoying them selves around the swimming pool and being dunked and heads shaved George and I were enjoying the privacy and quiet of our cabin! Dreadful I know but I have been through this ceremony so many times and I am getting more and more in need of space as the voyage goes on. George had alot of work to do correcting papers etc.
It has been a beautiful day, very hot in the sunshine but perfect for the celebration. I have been considering my 'Performance class' project and have almost decided on doing a Samuel Beckett play called Rockaby and involving some of the older women on the ship....if they will corroborate! It will mean that I direct their voices on tape and then record my own voice over or under them and actually in performance sit with my mask on in the middle of our acting area while the voices 'swirl' around me. My mask is very white, with peacock blue eye lids, high black eye brows and tears on the cheeks (see above). I suddenly felt I wanted to represent older women somehow and as this is a play about a woman 'declining' and then just fading away alone and isolated I thought it just might work. David I. any suggestions gratefully received! It's not at all what Beckett had in mind but then he's not around to protest...
I spent part of tonight watching students performing at their Talent Show: there is alot of talent among the 580 of them....and some are still in the development stage! The Union was so full I couldn't get a seat so finished up watching it on TV in our cabin, but one loses the atmosphere which is half the fun. The next show is the Crew's Talent show and if last year is anything to judge by it will be fantastic.
We're all looking forward to Mauritius: we arrive there on the 23rd March. Liz, Audrey, Chris Hill ( a man for George!) George and myself are going to stay at the Oasis Beach Club for one night and day. It is pretty reasonable in price for Mauritius, a three star only but for one night on a beach who cares? I think India was petty draining for many people and so relaxing on a Mauritius beach seems a good idea.
Just discovered today that there was a terrorist threat in Kochi while we were in Kerala. There certainly were alot of police and uniformed people around but I thought nothing of it. I'm glad that we didn't realise it might have taken the gilt off the ginger bread a bit. The world is a scary place when you start traversing it...
On that pessimistic note I shall retire to bed with my Tami Hoag book and see what terrors go on in the Louisiana Bayou!
Friday, March 19, 2010
sunrise clouds
Saturday 20th March. I sit on the deck, feet up on the railings, at sunrise each morning. This what I saw today, these are the sunrise clouds on this Indian Ocean morning a few degrees south of the Equator.
Always look from the bottom photo up.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Thoughts while Indian Ocean sailing
Friday, 19th March
We are sailing along at 13.8 knots just south of the Equator, past the Maldives and towards Mauritius. The sea is a calm milky blue. the sky is gently clouded but mostly blue and the temperature is in the eighties. Our deck will now get the sun in the morning (and the moon at night!) and shade in the afternoon...perfect. We are rocking but barely perceptibly.
I keep saying to myself 'Here you are on the Indian Ocean, on a wonderful ship, with a huge cabin and deck, you can choose what you want to do for the rest of the day, you have your food cooked for you and a good book to read. How fortunate can one person be?' We all saw poverty and dirt in India: small hot dwelling places without even a fan: people working hard under the hot sun, men and women: not even owning a kitchen sink to wash dishes and clothes: sitting selling their wares for hours a day and making pitifully little. We can step away from it all, the heat, the dirt and the poverty, heave a sigh of relief and get on with our very comfortable lives. What an enormous discrepancy! There has been a huge impact on many students: I believe that whatever their feelings: empathy, delight, affection, respect, disgust or discomfort, they will never be quite the same again. None of us will. India gets you in the gut....and I'm not discussing "Delhi belly"!
We (George and I) had a relatively stress free holiday, in beautiful surroundings and mostly in great comfort. It only takes a few hours of sailing down the backwaters or walking the streets of Kochi and Munnar to realise how privileged and 'cosseted' we are. Some of our SAS students jumped in at the deep end and took off travelling in the trains, walking the back streets, talking and receiving help from unknown Indians who invited them into their homes and even cooked for them, sharing the little they had. Now this is education! None of us will ever look "through" a visitor or stranger in our own home towns again in the same careless way, we shall see them!
I have asked one of my Performance class mates to let me have a copy of a poem she wrote after India and which she read most beautifully at the Post Port reflections. I would like to print it in my blog for you all to read. Her name is Emily. I'll give her a blog to herself.
9 pm Same day: Just been to the Union to watch a story telling session given by my 'Performance' teacher. She was good! Told us about being a deck hand in Panama and Costa Rica and holding the wheel on a boat with no radio, sexton or compass in a dreadful storm. While being terrified and alone she promised the powers that be 'up there' that if she got out of it she'd go back to school. She got her PhD and here she is! (to cut her long story very, very short!)
Although we crossed the Equator today we have no classes and celebrate with first time 'crossers' tomorrow. On the last voyage it meant being pushed in the swimming pool and having heads shaved! Fortunately for me I have crossed it many times so (touch wood) I'm safe.
Jo and Chris leave Toronto for Johannesburg today......bells, whistles and booming cannon roars! Bon Voyage and see you in South Africa....!
We are sailing along at 13.8 knots just south of the Equator, past the Maldives and towards Mauritius. The sea is a calm milky blue. the sky is gently clouded but mostly blue and the temperature is in the eighties. Our deck will now get the sun in the morning (and the moon at night!) and shade in the afternoon...perfect. We are rocking but barely perceptibly.
I keep saying to myself 'Here you are on the Indian Ocean, on a wonderful ship, with a huge cabin and deck, you can choose what you want to do for the rest of the day, you have your food cooked for you and a good book to read. How fortunate can one person be?' We all saw poverty and dirt in India: small hot dwelling places without even a fan: people working hard under the hot sun, men and women: not even owning a kitchen sink to wash dishes and clothes: sitting selling their wares for hours a day and making pitifully little. We can step away from it all, the heat, the dirt and the poverty, heave a sigh of relief and get on with our very comfortable lives. What an enormous discrepancy! There has been a huge impact on many students: I believe that whatever their feelings: empathy, delight, affection, respect, disgust or discomfort, they will never be quite the same again. None of us will. India gets you in the gut....and I'm not discussing "Delhi belly"!
We (George and I) had a relatively stress free holiday, in beautiful surroundings and mostly in great comfort. It only takes a few hours of sailing down the backwaters or walking the streets of Kochi and Munnar to realise how privileged and 'cosseted' we are. Some of our SAS students jumped in at the deep end and took off travelling in the trains, walking the back streets, talking and receiving help from unknown Indians who invited them into their homes and even cooked for them, sharing the little they had. Now this is education! None of us will ever look "through" a visitor or stranger in our own home towns again in the same careless way, we shall see them!
I have asked one of my Performance class mates to let me have a copy of a poem she wrote after India and which she read most beautifully at the Post Port reflections. I would like to print it in my blog for you all to read. Her name is Emily. I'll give her a blog to herself.
9 pm Same day: Just been to the Union to watch a story telling session given by my 'Performance' teacher. She was good! Told us about being a deck hand in Panama and Costa Rica and holding the wheel on a boat with no radio, sexton or compass in a dreadful storm. While being terrified and alone she promised the powers that be 'up there' that if she got out of it she'd go back to school. She got her PhD and here she is! (to cut her long story very, very short!)
Although we crossed the Equator today we have no classes and celebrate with first time 'crossers' tomorrow. On the last voyage it meant being pushed in the swimming pool and having heads shaved! Fortunately for me I have crossed it many times so (touch wood) I'm safe.
Jo and Chris leave Toronto for Johannesburg today......bells, whistles and booming cannon roars! Bon Voyage and see you in South Africa....!
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