09.12.19

09.12.19

Good morning from the Baltic sea! The sunrise this morning was beautiful. I feel more and more blessed every morning I wake up on this beautiful ship. We have now traveled 592 nautical miles as of 8:50 am this morning. I started my morning with breakfast with friends and nice cardio session at the ship gym. I am also excited to let y’all know that I signed up for a community service field program in the Sanase Village in Ghana. I will be staying with a family there for three days. We will be walking the children to school everyday and helping with classes. We are also going to be helping the family with their daily chores and helping to restore the school with new paint and repairs. One of the days we also have a big football (soccer) game with all of the children in the village. This is the full description of the program if you are interested in more details:

Semester at Sea’s history with the village of Senase traces back to a fateful day when a group of SAS students asked Fred Benneh, a youth in the village, for a suggestion of a restaurant in Accra. Fred’s winsome personality led to another group of students asking him for more advice and for the next several years, word of mouth kept Fred busy whenever the ship came to Ghana. Soon he met voyager Barb Allison, who was so inspired by Fred’s story and his desire to invest in his own very rural community, that the two formed GodFreds Foundation. The GodFred’s Foundation then constructed and opened the Semanhyia American School (SAS), complete with a large wooden play structure in the shape of a ship and a Semester at Sea flag flying proudly from the mast! The name Semanhyiya means, “What if we hadn’t met…”, and is intended to share the acronym with Semester at Sea.

For this 4 day program, head 7 hours to the the Brong Ahafo Region. Upon arrival to the village, enjoy dinner with a local host family. In the evening, meet with the locals to learn more about the village under the beautiful star-covered sky.

Early the next morning, participants will either join the school bus picking up students from surrounding small villages or walk with the students that live in Senase to school. Participants will see where the children are coming from, how they get to school everyday, and the excitement on their faces as their school bus approaches! Once at school, the group will assist the teachers in serving breakfast to the students before attending morning assembly, dubbed the “SAS Fly”. Right after the SAS Fly, a couple of parents will be available to take measurements for a tailor-made local-style garment of the participant’s choice. Participants can feel free to even bring a pictures of their own style. Spend the morning in classes assisting with lessons (featuring music and dance). Voyagers will then visit a public school in the village to observe and compare how public and private schools in Ghana are run. Later enjoy a lunch of Red Red, a stew made from beans with plantains, a favorite dish of past SAS students!

Back at the homestays, enjoy some rest time before the big football match with the community. It will be a sweaty match. Before dinner, the group will meet to reflect on their experience, share feelings, opinions and ideas. After dinner, enjoy the beautiful night village sky.

The following morning, wake up early to help host families with chores (fetching water, sweeping, washing dishes, etc.), before heading to school for service work, which includes construction and painting; this is a great way to give back to this wonderful community and surprise the students. Later on, the village culture instructor will showcase the various cultural and drumming skills of the Senase village residents. Head next to the local market to explore and maybe purchase a gift for the host family. Basic necessities like soap, rice, and tooth paste are much appreciated. Spend one last evening with the families, where voyagers can say their “Thank you’s” and “Goodbyes”.

On the last morning, be ready to be up early for the drive to Takoradi. The group will share one last lunch together in Cape Coast and see one of its popular sites, Elmina Castle, before returning to the ship.

I am really looking forward to this adventure and indulging myself in a new culture. My first class of the day again today was Global Studies. This is the only class that all voyagers have every day. After lunch I had my very first Oceanography class! I was worried that it would be really hard and that my professor would be boring but I was relieved to find that I had a different professor and he is so cool! I am so excited to learn about things involving ocean life. I think the skills I learn in this class will be able to impress my dad which will be exciting. (its hard to do) haha! After Oceanography I had my first WWII in Europe class. The professor teaches normally at BYU so naturally I asked him if he knew Tasum Hill (i cant spell and don’t have google) – the saints player. He then proceeded to tell me that he use to be his neighbor and was a super nice guy. It made my day. The class also seems really interesting and I’m looking forward to it. It seems like all my classes require a lot of reading but arnt too too hard. Thank god. I am happy that I actually like all my classes though so I don’t have to worry about schedule changes. After class I grabbed dinner on the top deck with friends. The dinner tonight was something new and different…. Just kidding…. Pasta and salad. But there was some yummy steak that went well with my pasta. I have to say it is very repetitive but I’m not sick of it yet. Although I think all go this pasta is pretty much ruining all of my morning workouts. But if y’all know me, just a salad, is not gonna cut it for dinner. Haha! Following dinner I met up with some of the girls I plan to travel with in the library to book some stuff for Poland. The library has three computers that the whole school uses that actually has full internet. The problem is that we can only use it for class and travel planning for 15 min at a time. We had to work fast but we got it booked. 🙂 I’m really getting excited to port in Poland! I got a little homesick tonight but I got just enough service to call home and talk to Sebastian for a minute!, and that always helps ❤

I have attached some pictures of life lately aboard the ship. I write this blog from my email so I am not sure how the photos will look posted on the blog but I hope y’all can see them and get a better feel of the beauty I get to experience everyday. I attached a picture of my trivia group (the champions) and some photos of the ship lately. Enjoy!

Bon Voyage,
Christian