Ghana Day 4…and Neptune Day!

Just like the others, my last day in Ghana was interesting. Early on in the day some of us went on a trip to an African drumming and dance workshop, luckily it wasn’t too far from the port. The performances were actually really cool; its amazing how 5 people with drums can make such rhythmically pleasing integrated beats. As one of them taught us about each drum he was saying that each one answers to another drum. So if one type of drum has a low pitched slow beat, the drum that pairs with it will almost “answer” to it in a higher pitched beat.

We also had a dance workshop where we were taught the dance that tribes do when a child in the village is circumcised… how handy? The dance was fun to do though, I got really into it, I was able to sync myself up with the beating of the drums so I think for once in my life I was a “good” dancer! That lasted about 45 minutes; the rest of the time there we just watched a small group of drummers and dancers for about 2 hours… I think it would have been nicer if the performance was shorter, everyone was so tired and the dances were about 20-30 minutes each, so it got kind of repetitive. One kid fell asleep so the whole group of drummers walked up to him and drummed right next to his face, it took the guy over 10 seconds to wake up!

After that we had lunch and headed back to the boat. I had a few hours left before we needed to get back so I decided to do some last minute shopping and head to that internet café that I went to the night before. All of that was pretty much a fail though. The internet was slow, I got nothing done and shopping was so hard. The girl who I was with was stressed about getting back on the ship so she didn’t want to shop, and I asked the taxi driver to just stop somewhere real quick so we can grab snacks (I told him I would give him some extra money) he ended up not stopping and he still charged us extra! I was so mad, to top it off, the taxi dropped us off outside of the port where we need to wait for a shuttle to bring us in, I was swarmed by about 5 or 6 guys trying to get me to buy stuff from them. I was fed up with it because they pretended to be all nice, then they ask you to buy something, then if you don’t they get really mean and sooo pushy. I did see a painting of a fishing village similar to the one I went to and loved, so I bought it, but I accidentally left it on the shuttle and never got it back. That was one incident of many where I pretty much lost money or items in Ghana, well the losing money is from getting ripped off.

I really can’t complain, all in all, I got to go to Ghana!! Most of the Ghanaians were so nice, I understand that some just need to do business. think I was just cranky because I didn’t get much sleep the nights before, I was too busy enjoying my time in Ghana and then coming back and spending hours writing about it (I never went “out”, I’m not all that interested in doing so, I haven’t had one drink on this trip so far, so don’t worry mom). After we all got back on the ship, I had dinner and went to bed by 7:30pm…

This morning, I was woken up at 7:45am by a bunch of the ship’s crew and LLCs (kind of like RAs) all dressed in seamen outfits going through the halls, banging on doors, banging pots and pans and symbols and continuously blowing whistles…. I was surprised but I kind of expected something because I knew today is Neptune day! Neptune day is when we cross the equator, there are a few rituals and traditions that a sailor must go through to become a “shellback” instead of a menial “Polywog”. So an hour later we were all called up to the 7th deck by the pool area and a bunch of the faculty and crew came out dressed in royal sea outfits, the captain came out with his body painted green, and wearing a Captain Neptune outfit. We all had to kneel down to the royal court and pledge that we are worthy enough to be “shellbacks”. If we wanted to officially become one, we had to stand near the pool, get “fish guts” (they weren’t actually) poured on our heads, then we had to jump in the pool, get out, kiss a dead fish, kneel to the queen (one of the deans) and kiss Neptune’s ring. Some of the students even paid “the ultimate sacrifice to the sea gods” by getting their heads shaven. A lot of the guys did it, and even some girls, the girls donated it to Locks of Love if their hair was long enough, so that’s a good thing J Farrah shaved off her hair! It was so pretty and curly! She was planning on doing it since she got on the ship though, she wanted to donate it and follow the tradition as well, so naturally, Jimmy shaved his hair too. I just couldn’t do it, I’ve donated my hair before but never cut it bald, Farrah has a cute small head and she pulled it off so well! Me on the other hand, I would look like a monster.

We don’t have any classes today so I am using this as a study day; I hope I get all the work I need to get done! I need to write a paper, write one of my biweekly articles for Bentley’s newspaper, write about my time in Ghana for the 5th and 6th graders I am working with from a school in Lowell MA, study for 2 tests and practice my guitar and Chinese for my tutoring lessons.

At least I’m more awake now!

p.s I started posting some of these on the Semester at Sea Facebook group and I’ve gotten good feedback.. are the ones who are reading this going on a future voyage? If you have any questions at all or would like me to write about something specifically, reply or send me an email at jkfischer I’d be happy to answer you 🙂

Ghana Day 3…Today Was Pretty Much Perfect

I want to start this blog post off by saying today was the best day of this whole voyage thus far J Not only did I learn so much useful information, but I also had sooo much fun!

I started my day off nice and early, I got on the bus and we headed over to The City of Refuge. The City of Refuge is an amazing organization run by an American from North Dakota named Stacy and her Husband John, from Nigeria. Together they started a non-profit centered around helping kids in the Volta fishing region of Ghana. This region has a huge prevalence of child labor trafficking. Basically, some families in surrounding areas are so poor that they have to sell their possessions to make a living; many times their most valuable possession is their child, so they sell them off to the men in the Volta region. When they sell the children off, most are not aware that these children will never get an education and will be used as slaves to do hard labor in the fishing waters. Many of the children even die; they don’t even know how to swim. This sounds horrible, but many workers in the Volta region do not see the harm in the situation, they rely on the kids for help and its just part of their life, they don’t think about how a lack of education is hurting their future, the workers don’t think much of anything when it comes to the children, they are just assets to their business, that’s all. I think my explanation would be a lot better if you just watched this very short mini-documentary about both the trafficking problem and the City of Refuge organization, http://vimeo.com/23274012 it was created by some interns this past summer and its provides a very good explanation about what I’m trying to say.

So The City of Refuge basically does it all….

1. -They go into the fishing villages to build relationships and educate the “slave masters” about the importance of these children’s education and how detrimental it is to put them to work. Their goal is to get the slave master to give up the children he/she has bought and hand them off to the City Of Refuge children’s home. … I learned 2 very important aspects of this that would help me with my goal to do something similar to this in China. The first is that it is bad to provide any incentives to the slave masters to give away the children they bought, this would just make them go out and buy a couple more kids after getting paid for giving off the last, this could be a vicious cycle. Secondly, they educate the slave masters on other fishing practices such as fish farming and ponds, which would dramatically reduce their need for child laborers. This is so important to do, to make the effort to stop child trafficking sustainable over time.

2. -The City of refuge is also in the midst of making Children’s home on their new donated plot of land. These homes will house the orphans but Stacy and John have a great method to do so. Each children’s home will have a hired couple to be the house mom and house dad, they want each home to run like a family rather than an institution, a family with loving role models of each gender.

3. -The organization also just opened a school! This school is for both the orphans and children around the surrounding community. The Principal is also an American named Autumn who graciously agreed to move out to Ghana to teach, and basically run a growing school! Currently there are 120 students enrolled at the school and there is a 40 person wait list as well.

4. -Stacy and John along with some other volunteers to monthly community feedings in which they provide over 600 containers of food to the kids on some very poor communities in the area.

5. -Lastly, Stacy and John started a program in Tema called 7 continents, for women who would be most likely to sell of their children to a slave master. These women are given pledges to promise not to sell off their children in turn for a an education for sewing bags and making jewelry, which are all sold in California where they make enough money to get by without having to sell their children. I absolutely love this concept of avoiding an issue all together and empowering women.

I really look up to John and Stacy for a lot of reasons. Not only do they run an amazing thorough organization, but they also devoted their lives to giving back, to helping children and their families in communities that are often neglected. I truly hope to keep in touch with them, and Autumn to learn about how the expansion of the program is going. I really encourage you to check out their website (www.cityofrefugeoutreach.com) to learn more about it from the organization itself.

When we got to the City of Refuge, we were greeted by Stacy and a few smiling little children (all under the age of 4). Stacy brought us into her house to give us a presentation on the program and Edwin, a 1 year old decided to sit next to me. I tried taking notes on the presentation because I was learning so much but Edwin thought it would be more fun to take control of my notebook and scribble all over it, so no notes, just scribbles (all of that above is from memory!). After the presentation we were taken to the new plot of land where the school is, as well as the future site of a couple children’s homes and Stacy and John’s new home. Some of us had the opportunity to visit the school and teach a class and some stayed at Stacy’s to help prepare a email for the community feeding we did this afternoon. I got to go help the school and I ended up being assigned to a 5th and 6th grade class where I helped the kids with their math lesson, we practiced long division. It was an awesome experience to try and teach these kids the process of division; it comes so natural to me that it’s a challenge to have to break it down when teaching it. After lunch the kids in my class had a performance practice for an open house they are having Saturday, so I went outside to the newly donated basketball court to play with the younger kids during their recess.

Playing with these kids was a blast! They are all so energetic and fun! There were a few kids who played with me most of the time; Mary, Angel and Bryce. Bryce is a 6 or 7 year old and he just wanted to play with my camera so I showed him how to use it and for the next hour and a half, he was all over taking pictures of everyone and showing them the pictures as well (that’s why there ended up being so many pics of me, he asked me to take them). Angel was so funny, she was just bouncy and liked to jump on me, I taught her a hand clap game and we had a lot of fun playing that. Later on, a bunch of little girls thought it would be fun to braid my hair, so they had a field day with my hair for a good 20 minutes, I couldn’t help but just laugh as they pulled and tugged at my hair.

These kids truly wanted to be at school, they had fun playing with each other and they tried hard in the classroom. Education is the key to almost all of the world’s problems and it brings warmth to my heart to know there are people like Stacey and John in this world who dedicate their lives to making sure kids have the possibility to get one and that kids who have the opportunity to get one, value and appreciate it.

When John was taking us on a tour of the grounds, there was a moment when the conversation turned from practical to inspirational. I saw nothing but passion and true gratitude in his eyes when he told us about how thankful he is for everyone’s support and donations to make the whole organization possible. To this day he is amazed that he came from being a homeless kid on the streets, to being rescued by Christian missionaries, to giving back by helping several children in a community that is in need. I almost got emotional because I felt he was looking me right in the eyes as he went on and on about how we should always stick with our vision and stay true to the person we think we are. He said to never give up because like his story, the impossible happens, anything is possible. I think I had a moment during all of this, right then and there, I knew I need to follow his advice, no matter where life takes me, I will never lose sight of my ultimate vision to help children and need and my immediate goal to make the world a better place in as many ways as I can in the present.

The orphanage visit overall was actually more happy than sad. The kids were all happy and the outlook for the organization looks really good! It made me happy to see how much good was being done from just a couple of people’s vision. The only “sad” moment of the day is when we went into an impoverished village to give out some food; there was a group of 100s of kids waiting for us when we got there. Some of these kids seemed like they were in pretty bad shape health-wise and they all could have used several of the meals we were passing out. Unfortunately we could only give out one per kid and we ran out before all the kids got them. Having to turn away some of the kids from a meal hurt me a little bit, but there was nothing I can do at the moment. That experience was a nice reminder that not all kids have the fortune of being rescued, going to school and having a good meal. Us Americans especially, really need to appreciate what we have, because when you step foot into Ghana, you will realize right away that the whole world does not live like we do.

On another note, I had the opportunity to chat with Paula, someone who works in the field office on the ship and after telling her my vision and asking her about her life, she gave me some awesome advice on different options I have after I graduate. I am so excited about all of the advice but I think I’ll save it for another blog post.

My day ended perfectly as well, I finally made it to an internet café and spent a good amount of time skyping some of the people I love most back at home..

I have this permanent smile on my face J

Ghana day 2…. Treetop Bridges and A Fishing Village (Again)

I’ll admit, today, I played more of the role of a tourist. However, with my love of hiking and nature, how can I say no to Africa’s only Canopy bridge walking tour?! The tour took place at Kakum National park…and guess where that is?? It’s right around Cape Coast, the same town that Allie and I took a 4 hour taxi ride to yesterday! This time, we were on a bus though. Since about 4 Semester at Sea busses were heading toward that town at the same time, we had a punch of police escorts leading our busses right through traffic as we passed through the busy city of Accra, it was so cool!

During the 4 hour drive, our tour guide was on the microphone for most of the time (to the dismay of the students trying to sleep). He gave us fun facts about a lot of the things we passed as well as Ghanaian environmental concerns, joining the armed forces, and politics. One thing that he mentioned that surprised me is that even today, Ghanaian men have the right and often do marry more than one woman. He went on about how the first wife would act as a manager for the other wives and he gave us a bunch of reasons why having more than one wife was important in the past and why it’s helpful now, (some of the obvious reasons being housework, farming labor, and child birth). I was just surprised that it was still a common practice today, personally I would rather not share my husband, but I guess I can understand the reasons within a poor developing country. This topic reminded me a lot about what we’ve been learning in my sustainable development class. We have been learning about the theory in which the world cannot have both a growing population and a growing welfare (both environmental and well-being) or else the world will end. We talked about how to deal with the earth’s issues and whether or not setting a child-limit would be helpful in reducing population growth but we came up with the answer that it wouldn’t be helpful. This is because in developing countries, kids are seen as assets and the more that are born (even into poverty) the better… it’s a vicious circle of growing population at or below poverty level. I can go more in depth on this subject but I’d rather not type another novel of a blog entry.

Right when we got to the national park, it started down pouring continuously. Although it was a lot harder to take pictures, it was kind of fun! Well, for me at least, because I came prepared with an umbrella, 2 trash bags (which I gave away as ponchos) and my Vibrem 5-finger shoes! We had a short hike up to the treetops and then there was a large circular path of small foot bridges sprawled across the open rain forest sky, above treetops, it was amazing! It was also a lot of fun to walk across the bridges, they were safe but they swing around a lot so its very hard to balance.

After that tour, we ate some African food (or what seemed like an attempt to make an American dish of BBQ chicken and rice, but in an African way). The food was decent, the dinner roll was the densest roll I’ve ever had, it was so heavy! After that our bus took us to that fishing village that I mentioned I saw yesterday! This time we were able to walk around more, and seeing all the small fishing boats, even the second time, felt surreal. We also took a walking tour around that community and I had mixed emotions… the neighborhood was very very poor, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the idea of Africa’s poverty… but on the same note, there were so many smiling faces in the village, especially from the kids. I think the poor villages have something we lack in America, and that’s a sense of community. Everyone was outside with their families and neighbors; everyone knew each other and still managed to stay smiling despite living with virtually nothing… So as poverty stricken as the area is, I still in a way, think it’s beautiful. I even made some friends with a group of kids who just loved getting their pictures taking (they loved it when I showed them the pics). These kids were so fun, they were always smiling and laughing and following us around, not to beg, just to be with us. I tried teaching them how to make a funny googly eyed face when someone is taking a picture and they found it hilarious, they tried doing it too, but they need some practice 😛 After leaving the village, Allie and I made friendship bracelets most of the way home, to give to kids we might meet in the next couple of days.

All-in-all, I did play a more “touristy” role than I would like today, but I thoroughly enjoyed everything I did and I tried to learn as much as I could. Tomorrow I am going to “The City of Hope Refugee center” which I believe is also an orphanage. I don’t know exactly what I’ll be helping out with there yet, but I’ll find out soon enough. I also know I’ll have the chance to play with some of the kids; I’m excited to do that and really learn about the world from their eyes. I’m also going to play games with them, and bring my friendship bracelets to give and make with the kids J

I’ll write about how it all goes tomorrow but for now I need to go to bed again, its 1am here and I’m waking up around 6….

Ghana Day 1….Taxi Rides and Slave Dungeons

Our ship arrived in Ghana this morning, to the welcoming of African drumming and dancing J My roommate Allie and I decided to spend the day going to Cape Coast (which ended up being a 4 hour drive with traffic) to see the Slave dungeons that the British used during the transatlantic slave trade to house slaves between the time they were sold to the British and the time they were put onto ships to head across the ocean. The reason both Allie and I wanted to go there was to get a true grasp on the hardships slaves endured during British colonialism. Growing up in America, we always learned about it but never from the point of view of Africans.

To get to the Cape Coast, we hired Edmond, a taxi driver in Tema, Ghana where are ship was ported to drive us there, spend a couple hours with us at the dungeon then drive us back to Tema, we had no clue how long it would take. Edmond was quiet but overall pretty cool, he had the words “Master Peace” stickered on his back windshield, he said it was because he doesn’t like conflicts and fighting (hence the word peace) and he is a master at driving and dodging traffic (which was so true, as scary as it was) anyways, I think it’s a really cool play on words. .. As we left the port and drove around Ghana, I immediately noticed a few things:

1) 1.) Many people in Africa (well, at least Ghana) carry things around on by balancing them on their heads, things both big and small, it’s amazing!

2) 2) There aren’t a lot of big buildings in Ghana, there’s actually not many buildings at all, there are a lot of very small shacks and tents where people sell things out of, Unfortunately there are also a lot of shacks and huts that families live out of

3) 3) Missionaries have surely hit Ghana… I have never seen so many religious sayings, references and names sprawled throughout cities and villages in my life!

Ed Edmond, Allie and I made it to the slave dungeons just in time, right before the last tour of the day was heading though the “castle”. The whole experience of being there was more than I expected, not only did I really feel for the slaves and the hardships they went through, I also learned a lot from our tour guide. He did a phenomenal job talking about the slaves experiences while in the dungeon in a way that illustrates everything almost too much. He brought us down into the very dark dungeons which were actually built under Ghana’s first British Christian church, a perfect example of heaven sharing its floor with hell’s ceiling. He brought us to a small, dark, cold stone room and told us that it was the same room in which a few centuries ago, housed about 200 male slaves at a time, there was barely enough room for all of them to stand, never mind sleep and “go to the bathroom”. Picture 200 men chained up, screaming and yelling and walking/sitting/sleeping in bodily fluids including blood and vomit. The British wouldn’t even come into the room; they threw food into it from upper doorways, the slaves would have to fight over it, picking up scraps from the layers of bodily fluids on the ground. The British would also throw sacks down every now and then for the slaves to put any dead bodies in to be picked up then dropped in the ocean…. The illustrations were powerful, an African American girl who was there started to cry, a lot, I felt pretty bad, the mental images were powerful enough, but unlike her, I couldn’t really associate them with my ancestors

We were then taken to the women’s dungeons which were just as bad; some women became pregnant from having sex or being raped by the British. They were allowed out of the dungeons for a few weeks to give birth but after having the baby, they would be put right back in. The baby, who would normally have much lighter skin, was treated more favorably, usually raised by the British to work as a domestic slave around the castle. After that, we were brought out “the door of no return” this is a very sad symbol of the last door a slave would ever walk out of and it lead right to the ocean and the slave ships that would await them. Many slaves would even jump into the ocean at after going through the door, because drowning seemed like a better solution. 80% of captured slaves died before getting to the final buyer in America or Jamaica. When we walked out of the door today, we walked right out to an amazingly beautiful fishing village, it was surreal, I can only attach a picture to show you… After slavery was abolished in 1807 and after Ghana became independent and got control of the castle for tourism, they added a sign to the other side of the door of no return, this sign read “the door of return”. Now, a lot of African Americans will come to this castle to go through the other side of the door (the door of return) as a way to symbolize and overcome the end to their ancestor’s hardships. Just when I thought the tour was over, we were brought to one more dungeon room, the room of no return. This is the place where slaves who tried to escape or who put up a fight with the British would essentially go to die. Small groups of these slaves, chained together, would be put into this closed small, hot, dark room guarded by 3 doors and be left with no food or water and they would be in there until the whole group died of starvation, then they would be dumped into the ocean.

After the tour, we were lucky enough to have our tour guide share a taxi with us for part of the way back to Tema. We were lucky because I was able to ask him more questions about what we just saw. You know how we all learned about the slave trade growing up in school? I don’t know about you, but our lessons were always from an American perspective and it focused on what us Americans did with the slaves after coming to America. In my opinions, the lessons also made me feel kind of guilty as an American, they made me envision the British going into Africa and snatching up random people to call their own and use as slaves. Maybe I was very naive or maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention in school, because that’s not the case at all. African slave masters would go into villages around Africa and buy war criminals and people in debt bondage off of the villages and then act as the middlemen and sell them to the British in exchange for guns, gunpowder, mirrors and other items (menial compared to the “value” of a human life in my opinion). I asked the tour guide how Africans, more specifically Ghanaians feel about this now, and he replied that sadly enough, most Africans don’t feel much at all about the dungeons and the slave trade, they actually feel pretty removed from it, they see it as a tourist attraction. The remembrance of the trade seems to be more of a pan-African thing, even President Obama and his kids came to that dungeon on his first official trip to Africa during his presidency. The only Ghanaians that keep the slave trade close to their hearts are the ones that live in a small village outside of Cape Coast, it turns out, there is a village called Swordpoint where the biggest African slave master/middleman lived and kept slaves until selling them to the British. When slavery was abolished in 1807, he had to let the slaves who he recently acquired go, those lucky almost-slaves settled in that area so the ones who live there now have a very close ancestry to both slaves and the ones that got away. ..So yea, this whole trip was so interesting to me, It was so great to get the opportunity to hear the story from the opposite point of view, I’m excited to get the same experience when I go to Vietnam and learn about the war from the Vietnamese perspective.

On a lighter note, the tour guide told us a couple more interesting facts… during our drive, we passed a small fort on a hill which he told us was called Fort Amsterdam, the Dutch named it this after taking it over from the British, when the British had it, it was called fort York. The reason why the Dutch renamed it Fort Amsterdam was because it was there way of retaliating (or at least their version of a slap in the face) after the British took over present day New York in America, which was colonized by the Dutch and named New Amsterdam.. I laughed after hearing this. He also gave told Allie and I our Ghanaian names (based off of which day of the week we were born on), my name is Abena J

I hope you found some of this interesting, again, I love the comments and insight I’ve been getting (especially from you Becca!) It shows me that my blog really is working in a way that sparks thought and discussion J

Time for bed, I need to wake up in 4 hours to go on a treetop canopy swinging bridge walking tour in the morning!

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I Feel Like the Luckiest Person Ever!

"Do a little bit of good wherever you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world"- Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu (of South Africa)

I wanted to start and end this blog entry off with a quote… they are both self explanatory, and I love them equally.

Do you ever get that feeling that you are as happy as can be? That you are unstoppable? I’m sure you have sometime in your life, right now, it’s my turn.

I know I’ve mentioned how grateful and lucky I feel for having this opportunity to sail around the world but I want to mention it again. If it wasn’t for the generosity of complete strangers, I wouldn’t be here. I love my parents so much, and they’ve given me so much support, but unlike a lot of kids here, I can’t say my parents paid for this trip, or even for college. I really can’t say I did either though. ..Complete strangers, they are the ones (for the most part) who have provided me with an education. I’ve gotten several scholarships from individual donors and for this voyage, Sovereign Bank and the Santander Universities Study Abroad Scholarship Fund took some part in supporting me as well. Complete strangers have had faith in me solely based on my grades, involvement and an essay here and there. How can I not consider myself lucky? I’d have to say that’s one of the biggest motivators I have had to give back. I did community service in high school, however it wasn’t until college that I learned how much of an impact an individual could make, it is also in college that I learned some of the harsh realities of the world and about the many people who are not as fortunate as I am.

These past few years, I have become very interested in the topic of human trafficking. I first learned about it while watching Slumdog Millionaire (when the kids were taken and were purposely beaten to the point that they became disabled in order to make more money when they were sent out to beg). I didn’t believe that was reality, but I soon learned it was, all I could think about was how unfair that is. Later on I learned about sex trafficking after doing some research and after watching Taken, that particular type of trafficking is so disturbing to me, I think trafficking a child for sex is worse than any crime possible. Last summer is when I became completely passionate about the issue, I spent the summer in China and during a trip to Beijing, I saw firsthand, multiple incidents of groups of malnourished children begging on the streets for one man, I also saw some incidences of prostitution deals in clubs, which I later learned was most likely trafficking as well. After last summer, I knew for sure that I would like to do something to help the issue, but I didn’t know what I could do. I envisioned myself going into brothels and just rescuing as many girls as I can first hand, but of course the danger behind that would be pretty much pointless seeing as how I’m a girl myself.

I decided the best way to figure out how I can help is to educate myself, so I took a business consulting class at Bentley on Human trafficking and consulting a non-profit that works with raising awareness about the issue. During this class, we watched a lot of films and read a lot of cases to become familiar with the specifics of the problem and what other organizations are doing to help it. Did you know , the average global estimate of human trafficking victims is between 1.5 and 1.8 million per year. Out of this range, it is estimated that 500,000-600,000 of these trafficking victims are part of the sex trade. To put this in a different perspective, at least one woman or child is being trafficked for sexual purposes every minute!

I actually became discouraged throughout the course of the class because I learned more and more about how complicated the overall problem is. It turns out, a lot of the girls who are trafficked are sold by their own families and community members who need the money to live off of. Others, (especially in India) are born into slavery from a simple debt the family acquired long ago, as little as $3, but impossible to pay off with added interest. By the end of the course, our class figured out that the only way WE can help the issue is by spreading awareness, but I didn’t like that. I wanted to do more, I did some more research and learned that the only solution to the problem as a whole is education. The problem is, these kids cannot get an education because they need to work to support their families. However without an education, these kids will never make enough money to get out of poverty or even worse, they won’t know the warning signs of traffickers, they won’t know that a foreigner coming up to them, promising them a good life and a good job in a neighboring country is actually someone who will later on dehumanize them and just sell them off like a product off of a shelf.

Since taking the class, I decided I want to find a way to open up a boarding school for girls in villages in China (China would be my first focus since I know the language and it’s an unrepresented area in terms of trafficking awareness). In order to get these girls to attend my school, I would need to find a way for these girls to safely make money to keep and send back to their families. This has always been a thought, but I never came up with a solid solution until this voyage! I was just sitting down outside on the deck the other day, staring off into the ocean and thinking, I do that a lot here… I thought about this dream of mine, and I thought of a reasonable idea for a business that would enable me to open several sustainable boarding schools over time! It needs a lot of work, but this is my idea:

I want to start a non-profit web-based business that has 2 functions. The first function is to recruit big companies from around the world to take part in socially responsible outsourcing. I would like to essentially have one or 2 companies sponsor a boarding school by outsourcing production or service tasks to the girls who would be living at the boarding school. In turn, they would pay each girl slightly at or below the minimum wage in the country they are based out of. This would save the company in labor costs but it would still be a lot more money than these girls could be making doing anything else in their area. The girls would then have to take their money and pay some to the school for education and boarding, they would save some for themselves and they would send some back to their families who would be relying on them. This business model would obviously have a lot of issues to solve such as which job functions to allow the girls to do, distribution, and finding the right directors/teachers for each school. Throughout these girl’s k-12 education, each boarding school would provide a safe learning environment as well as instruction on basic living and family skills and equally as important, leadership skills. When these girls leave the school at 18, they will be ready to start a life in which they will have the skills to support themselves and their future families.

This is my dream, it may not be something I do right after college though. Realistically speaking, it would be more beneficial for me to move to china for a bit, learn about non-profits and business functions there (as well as being fluent in Mandarin) and then come back to the US and get my masters degree in either intercultural communications or non-profit management. I will probably work for non-profits in America for a while then when I am ready and credible (in the eyes of the businesses I’d be working with) I can turn my dream into reality.

What do you guys think? Is it realistic? Do you know any other organizations with a similar business model? I would research it myself but my internet is limited.

Aside from that, I want to finish this blog post off with the other reasons I feel incredibly lucky right now. It’s because of you! I think most of you reading this are my friends and family… I have never realized how much support I have in my life for the things I am doing and It makes me so happy that you are all enjoying this blog and what I have to say. I love getting your emails and comments J I hope through this blog I will inspire you to give back as well…

I’m so excited to be on this trip but I can’t wait to get back and spend time with my incredible friends and family… oh and I can’t help but mention my amazingly supportive boyfriend as well 😉

I’m sooo lucky!

I love and miss you all!

"Live not in dreams but in contemplation of a reality that is perhaps the future"-Rilke

I love this story

I found this in my International Marketing text book and I absolutely love it. Its so true, many people, especially Americans have this never-ending quest for improvement and for making more and more money, but that may come with the price of decreased happiness and/or less time with the ones you love. First of all, choose a career you love, secondly, prioritize your social life/happiness over any work that is excessive beyond need.

Just thought I’d throw that out there to you all, especially all my friends who are unhappy with their accounting and finance majors 😉

Just like at Bentley….

Just like at Bentley, I managed to get myself involved in more than I probably should. I tell myself every semester that I am going to try taking on less so I can put more energy in the things I’m most passionate about, but I think I’ve finally realized that’s just not me. I guess it’s just in me to do as much as I can all the time, and realizing that, makes me ok with it. I’ve learned that just being involved and taking on as many opportunities as possible is a passion of mine, so I’m all set!

Before I go on about what I am excited about on this ship, I forgot to talk about something I did in Morocco. I went with my marketing teacher to visit Richbond factory, a leading Moroccan furniture manufacturer. During the visit I learned all about how the company is run, it turns out they use a localization strategy (plants in each country they are established in, only cater to that country’s market) paired with a perfect vertical integration strategy (they own/operate all parts of their product life cycles including raw materials and retail outlets). Despite its risks, I like this strategy a lot because they are more in control of each step of production and selling ethically (meaning they know for sure that their all workers involved in making their products are not exploited) and they are able to take in cultural considerations when marketing in different countries by tweaking their products/marketing to match the needs and desires of the consumers they are selling to. While I toured the factory, I observed that they treat their employees with respect. They were great hosts and I even got to eat in their cafeteria, which was served by Sodexo, the same food company I work for back at Bentley (hahaha).

Ok so I want to jump back to the things I’m very excited about! First of all, I am very close to finding out if I can switch my work study job from campus store to the assistant to the director of community outreach (a position just opened up). Doing so would enable me to get more out of my work study. I would not only get to learn a lot about community involvement and help run the Vicarious Voyage program (the program that partners up SAS students with classrooms in America) but I would also possibly get to implement my own project idea into the program, which I’ll talk about in another post…I need to find out if I get the job first!

Another thing I’m excited about on the ship is the students of service club I’m actively involved in. We’ve only had 2 meetings so far but I’m already co-heading a 9/11 remembrance day coupled with a “I will” campaign that goes off of a national campaign in America that encourages community members to promise to give back in some way to their communities and the people who have made a difference to them. For this I will be helping the service work study student Karolina, make a wall of remembrance in which students can write their own stories and “thank yous” relating to 9/11 as well as their commitment to do something to make a difference. Karolina and I are also finishing up a “do-something” bingo chart which has squares that are filled with things such as “Participate in a service trip” or “regularly tell crew and maintenance members thank you” or “ Write a letter of appreciation to someone who has impacted you” (my personal favorite). Students will have from 9/11 until after we leave China to fill out as many rows of this board as possible, each row they fill out will give them a raffle ticket toward prizes, I proposed the grand prize be a Kobe beef and Sake dinner in Kobe Japan with the captain, hopefully that will work out 🙂 Other committees I have joined within that club are Women’s rights initiatives, a coming out day, and a human rights awareness campaign. Lastly, I am really excited to head a project that I am continuing from a member of Circle K (Liselle) which involved making friendship bracelets for kids in orphanages we will be visiting, I’m going to change it a little though and get the dependent children on board involved with it too, this is something I’ll talk about in another post. I am also heading a human trafficking awareness initiative/seminar which will be done around the time we get to Southeast Asia, this is something I’m particularly passionate about raising awareness for, so I’m super excited.

This post is getting so long already but I still have more I’m excited about! I was thinking the other day about Halloween, and how much I liked trick-or-treating and it made me wonder if the 24 kids who live on the ship will get a chance to do something like that this year. So I emailed Kristen, the children’s activity coordinator to see if I can work with her to set up a ship-wide trick-or-treating effort and a Halloween party for the kids and she was super excited about it! So now I am planning that too! It’ll be so much fun!

So yea, like usual I managed to make myself super busy. I even forgot to mention the fact that I set up private guitar lessons with a fellow student and mandarin tutoring/practice with a Life Long Learner (one of the older people who are accompanying us on the voyage to learn as well) named John who is a native mandarin speaker, I start that tomorrow! I might not be able to sleep as much as I’d like but I am only on this ship for 100 more days and I am happy that I am making the most of it 🙂

Gahh theres another thing I want to write about, which involves my long term dream of starting a boarding school in China but that would make this post waaaay too long so I’ll have to wait. As passionate as I am to save the world asap, I need to remember that I should never stop focusing on the little things I can do now (like the things I am doing on the ship) that can make a difference. These little things I can continue to do as I map out my long term goals and I encourage you all to do the same. Even the tiniest things you today can make a huge impact on someone else. So go ahead,

*tell the maintenance workers and cleaners at your schools and work that you appreciate them,
*give a stranger a compliment
*Switch over from disposable water bottles to a nalgene bottle *write a letter to someone who has impacted you
*smile! Yes smile, because even a sincere smile can brighten anyone’s day just a little bit; they will then return the favor to someone else and bam! You just made 2 people’s days a little brighter 😀
Its easy right!?

Goodbye Morocco…

I left Morocco yesterday; I can’t decide whether or not I am happy about that. Don’t get me wrong, I loved having the opportunity to go there, but certain things were a little exhausting, and I am very much looking forward to moving on to see Ghana!

First of all, language. In Morocco most people speak Arabic, however not just any Arabic, a Moroccan dialect of it. So even though I tried really hard to memorize certain terms that would be helpful, it didn’t matter because no one really understood me anyways. The official language is Arabic but businesses use French, in fact, most people spoke French and they most people assumed I was French too, since a lot of French tourists come to Morocco due to its proximity. I took 3 years of French in middle school/freshman year of high school, however after learning Spanish and Chinese, I forgot most of my French. Good thing I remembered ‘Je ne parle pas Francais.’ (‘I don’t speak French’) ! Thanks to my mom, I also remember the words cheese (fromage) and house (Maison). So if someone were to ask me, do you have cheese at your house? I’d be able to answer! Unfortunately I was never helpful in that case. My new friend Justin D’Angelo (another student here from Bentley) was very helpful though, he lived in France for 2 years and was a great translator for us when we needed him most. In fact, I spent a good 4.5 hours with him riding back to Casablanca from Marrakech where he helped translate for our driver and he was nice enough to share his ipod with me (since mine died earlier that day). He had a lot of good music but we didn’t listen to a lot of it since we pretty much talked the whole way back, I even sold him on the idea of applying for a Target Internship, he’s very excited about that J

Anyways, communication was difficult, but doable, especially on my last day in Casablanca when I ventured off on my own. Yes, I was stupid enough to walk around on my own, despite getting groped and hearing about muggings. I really wanted to take pictures of the mosque in Casablanca and then find an internet café but I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to do that too. I hate being restricted so I dressed up in conservative clothes and put on a head scarf. Apparently that didn’t work because I got yelled to by countless people driving and walking by, wondering if I spoke French and where I was from, usually I would just ignore them. The Mosque was beautiful, it was huge! When I was there, a few women and their children approached me, they were so nice, they wanted me to say hi to their kids and they wanted me to take a picture with them, unfortunately in the picture, the kids didn’t look too happy though lol. When walking out of the mosque to find an internet café, a guy kept following me asking to talk to me, his name was Hassan. At first I ignored him but he still followed, laughing and telling me he is risking getting arrested because it looks like he is harassing me if I’m ignoring him. He told me that he studied undergrad business in California and he just wanted to walk with me to practice English and he didn’t think I should be walking alone. After a while I gave in and talked to him, only because he told me he promises we’ll stay on a main road. He turned out to be very helpful and interesting. He helped me find a nice internet café then bought us some mint tea (which is absolutely amazing in Morocco). I asked him how it was to be in America and he told me how hard it was at first because he didn’t speak English going in and he was there shortly after 9/11 so traveling was hard for him. I thought about how much courage that must take, to decide to move to a different country for school despite not knowing much of the language. That would be like me moving to Morocco right now, I’d have such a hard time! My friend Joker came to California from China to study too, and I have a lot of respect for him as well, I heard all about how hard it was to adjust. Anyways, it was interesting to hear about how 9/11 affected Hassan. Personally I don’t think it’s fair that Muslims have been discriminated against just because of their religion. The US government discriminates for security reasons depending on nationality but they often mix that up with religion, we talked about this in class and I can go on and on about this but I’ll spare you the details. I enjoyed learning about Hassan’s experiences but I also didn’t have a lot of time to use the internet, so after telling him I wanted to Skype my dad and boyfriend he left, which was nice, he wasn’t trying to be pushy, he was just friendly. After I Skyped real quickly I rushed back to the ship and got there just before our designated time to be back. I’d love to skype you all sometime when I have more time, add me (fischer_juli1) .

Aaanyways, another thing that was slightly exhausting in Morocco was bargaining. Luckily I was used to it since living in China last summer, but nonetheless, its tiring, especially when I don’t have the advantage of knowing the local language like I did in China. Man of my classmates were complaining about the bargaining system in general, saying it’s just a way to take advantage of tourists, and that’s how I used to feel about it too. After this trip however, I think I’ve gained a new perspective, bargaining can be a good thing for both the buyer and the seller; for the act of bargaining gives a more personal interaction for every sale. It also enables shopkeepers to give cheaper prices to people who take the time to get to know them or people who look far more disadvantaged. It’s kind of like Robin Hood, Shopkeepers can get more money from the people who have it and then in turn have enough money to help the disadvantaged people (including themselves). When I work in retail, I never even bother to ask about the background story of my customers (or in Target terms, guests), however when I shop in other countries, shopkeepers like to find out where I’m from, why I’m here, what I’d like the product for etc. It’s so much more personable, I like that J

Lastly, I want to mention service. I have the goal to do service in every country, however, unfortunately, I didn’t have many opportunities in Morocco. I tried working with the field office to set one up, but they were so swamped with work from the first week that they couldn’t really help me. The only thing I managed to do in Morocco (to go along with the swap program) was to buy a big bag of traditional Moroccan biscuits and give it away to a group of child beggars near the Sahara desert. The little girl that I handed the bag to was very very happy, she continued to beg for money from the other students around me but every time she came near me she gave me a big smile and even shook my hand. I don’t know if she was malnourished but she did come from a poor neighborhood, I can only guess she didn’t get sweet treats that often, so at least I made her and the other children’s day, I hope.

As for the next countries, I have a solid plan for each in how and where I will be doing service. I am also doing/initiating some very exciting volunteering events on the ship, which I will save for a later post because this one is becoming way too long. (Thanks again for taking the time to read it if you did). I love getting all of your replies! I get them through email and the emails say I can respond by hitting reply, but none of my responses are posting correctly, so I’m trying to work on that. I really do appreciate them though, I hope my blog can continue to interest you as time goes on J

Morocco…from Casablanca to Marrakech to the Sahara Desert…

Wow. That’s all I can say about my weekend in Morocco so far. I have so much I want to write about but I don’t want to make this too too long, I’ll try my best.

We arrived in the Port de Casablanca on Saturday morning. Farrah and I are student ambassadors for the ship so it was our job to wake up early and be at the gangway to greet the American diplomat of Morocco (Alan Krause) when he came upon the ship to give all of us a diplomatic briefing before we were clear to get off. During his briefing he told us that Casablanca is a big dirty city, and that we need to be careful, he also suggested we travel outside the city to experience all the good that Morocco has to offer. Boy was he right!

During our first 4 hours in the city, we managed to get ourselves kind of lost after refusing to get ripped off by another taxi driver. During the walk, we passed by many stray cats and dogs, a huge rat and a big dead cat L , not much else. We still felt very accomplished by the time we finally got back to the ship. However when we got back, we learned that our friend Andrew was mugged by 5 men on the same street we were just walking on. Let’s just say, that afternoon, we were happy to get on a train to Marrakech and get out of Casablanca.

Oh yea! So Farrah Nikki and I learned a lesson real quick while walking around in Casablanca that morning. If you are a girl and you have a guy amongst your group of friends, you all of a sudden don’t matter. Every time we hailed a taxi or asked for directions, the person I tried talking to would never answer to or listen to me, he would only talk to Jimmy. To an independent girl like me, this would really annoy me after a while, but I found it more interesting than anything (for now) because I understand that patriarchy takes precedence in this culture. I’ve just never experienced it firsthand until now.

The 3/5 hour train ride to Marrakech was also interesting, Sam and Kevin (2 other friends who came with us) went to go walk around the train at one point and they saw a guy try to set up a bong in the corner and all of a sudden a guard came over, had the train stop, he took the guy with the bong, threw him outside, beat him up, and left him there. Besides that unpleasant story, we met a young couple in our cart, they were cute, they taught us some Arabic, and we learned the woman was pregnant. I know public displays of affection are not appropriate in the Muslim culture but she still subtly held his hand a lot and leaned on his shoulder, it made me smile.

When we got to Marrakech, we were lead down sketchy back alleyways before reaching our hostel. I was worried for a while that we were not being lead to our hostel after all, but luckily I was wrong. When we got to the hostel we went upstairs to the roof and looked over the marketplace with thousands of people, both locals and tourists, we also were up there during the call to prayer which was really cool to witness. We then went to find dinner (where we ended up at a very sketchy place) and after waiting 4 hours to get our meals we went out to the market. Farrah, Jimmy, and I didn’t stay out long though. Jimmy and I got live monkeys thrown onto our arms for “pictures” despite us telling the monkey man no. After that ordeal, I was groped by some guy walking by, and then it happened to Farrah too, Jimmy was very very mad so we just went back to our rooms, where I got to skype for a while J

The next morning we woke up early to meet up with about 100 other Semester at Sea students for a camel trek through the Sahara Desert. When we got out of the city and drove through the Atlas Mountains, I was amazed. I fell in love with those mountains, I have never seen anything so beautiful in my life, no picture I could have taken could have accurately portrayed the surreal beauty of this mountain range….We stopped a couple times along the way but in total, it took us over 12 hours to reach our destination. Here’s some exciting news though, when we stopped for lunch on a mountainside restaurant, the shopkeeper next door offered my friend Justin who I was with, 20,000 camels to have permission to marry me. Justin just couldn’t refuse, so now I have a mountain husband (shh don’t tell my boyfriend)! I forgot his name though lol. Even though it was a joke, the shopkeeper mentioned that he feels bad because he doesn’t have a house to offer me, which made me remember what I learned in my intercultural communication class last semester. In a lot of countries, men must have a house to provide in order to get married. I kind of felt bad for my “mountain husband”.

We got to the site where the camels were waiting for us around 9 or 10 at night. I immediately found the camel I’ve been waiting to meet. I named him Humphrey Gofar, he was an exceptional camel. We trekked across the sandy desert for about 45 minutes before reaching our campsite. A few of us took some blankets and found a spot outside of the site to lay down and look at the stars. Like the Atlas Mountains, the sky was phenomenally beautiful. I have never seen so many stars before in my life, I even saw about 10 shooting stars during the time I spent out there. This morning I woke up in the desert camp, and got ready to get on Humphry and trek back to the buses. When we got back, I was very annoyed because I heard some Semester at Sea student’s camel guide ask him for a tip and the guy rudely said “no, get over it”. I can’t believe how rude some of the people have been during this trip. Some students were complaining the whole time, about everything from food, to money, to time. We are on a cheap camel trek in the Sahara desert!! How could you possibly complain about anything!?

I refuse to complain. I just had a once in a lifetime trip, I am a happy camper (haha literally) … a happy camper with a sore butt from both the camels and two 12 hour bus rides. A tired happy camper… I’ll probably finish this blog for now and write another one tomorrow. All in all, the diplomat was right, Casablanca may be a big dirty city, but the rest of Morocco was breathtaking. I wish you all could have seen it for yourself….

Got My Swim Trunks and My Flippy Floppies….

I’m writing this as I’m being rocked to sleep in my bed. It’s still not quite the same as the bed I sleep on back home but hey, between the rocking and the bumping I like to pretend it’s a massage. Being a true optimist, I must also comment on how well the swaying works out for me at the gym. As I’m on the elliptical, the boat sways side to side, but the elliptical is facing the port side of the boat so I am actually swaying back and forth…. When I sway forward, it works out my thighs just a little bit harder, and when it sways back, I get a little bit of an extra workout for my glutes! With that and the fact I never actually got sea sick, how can I complain!

Another advantage of being on a boat, the sunsets, they are breathtaking. Its funny to me that I am searching the world for beautiful sights but I actually have that sunset every night back home, I just have to look for it.

Living on a boat also gives us students the advantage of living with our professors. It takes some getting used to when you walk into the main dining hall, and you see your professors and some of their families eating either at the table next to you or even with you. I just came back from a trivia night that we had in the main auditorium tonight. The teams were made up of five people, so I got three of my good friends on my team then we got the dean on our team!…and guess what, out of about 25 teams, we won! Where else can you just chill with your schools dean, dance to hit music, and just play trivia for a couple hours late at night? I kinda like it here J

The classes are great too, they are all so interesting because what we learn is so relevant to what we are doing and where we are going. I’m taking International Marketing (which so far is review from when I took strategic management (gb 401) last semester at Bentley). I’m also taking Anthropology (just for fun), Global studies which is a requirement for everyone and lastly, sustainable development, which is a lot more interesting than I thought it would be. Today in that class we were talking about the preservation of culture and our professor was talking to us about a village in China nicknamed “The Kingdom of Women”. In that village, women never marry, if a guy shows up and he is good looking enough, she will let him in HER home for the night but she will kick him out first thing in the morning, if she has a kid, the biological father has no rights to it, the woman’s brother will instead play the fatherly role in the kid’s development. I’m trying to look at this culture without being ethnocentric and I actually think it’s a pretty cool culture, it goes against the norms of most other culture but who am I to say if its right or wrong. Here’s another cool fact my roommate Allie learned in her finance class….Do you guys know what the most printed US form of money is? …… don’t keep reading until you guess…… it’s the hundred dollar bill, which was surprising to me, but I guess most of it goes over seas so we never see it. I don’t think enough Americans realize how important it is to learn about the world, globalization isn’t our future, it is our present.

I know this blog post is dragging on but I have to share another thing I’m pumped about. I had my first community service club meeting tonight and we were sharing a lot of ideas on how we can do service on both the ship and in ports. We broke our ideas down by categories (such as women, health, children etc.) and I sort of became the head of the human trafficking category because that’s what I’m most passionate about. We were talking about having a human trafficking awareness day and putting up “did you know” posters around the ship, maybe even have a mini film forum about the topic. We are also going to try to visit orphanages and women’s centers in some of the ports that are dedicated to helping trafficking victims. I’m really excited to do this because ultimately I would love to open a boarding school for girls in china who would be highly susceptible to becoming trafficked if they stayed in their living environments and if they weren’t educated. I hope I will learn a lot about the topic. I also chose my marketing project topic to be on international non-profits and I plan on choosing my sustainable development project category (in which we need to create a service or project) to be the boarding school that I am envisioning. I’m trying really hard to get a lot out of this trip J

I lied, one more thing. I found an amazing book! It’s called “Change the World for Ten Bucks”. I fell in love with the book after reading just a couple pages. It’s basically a fun little book of 50 ways you can change the world today. They are feasible little things, like change a light bulb, smile at someone, and write someone who has inspired you a letter about how they inspired you. The book was created by a company called We Are What We Do (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Are_What_We_Do). I am such a firm believer of doing little things every day to improve the environment around you, and this organization hits it home very well. I don’t have much internet but if any of you want to find more about it for me, like if they have any offices or programs in America, can you please let me know? The book kind of inspired me to think that maybe I can do something like that, but instead of just a book, I can make commercials, books, posters, and most importantly set up a program that visits classrooms and offices, encouraging them to think of the little ways to be a positive change. Of course I would do this internationally J It’s a scary thought being a senior, I have to stop dreaming and start taking action on what I’m going to do after I graduate!

First thing first is Morocco though….. Saturday!!

I miss you all, sorry for making this so long, if you read it all, thank you! I hope you enjoyed it 😀