Ghana pt 1

To preface this, I <3 Ghana. Awesome country with awesome awesome people.

Everyone is just so friendly in Ghana, even if they're trying to nickel and dime you and you refuse. A guy who was trying to sell me stuff that I rejected explicitly told me it was their way to be super friendly regardless. Ghanaians also have a pretty sweet Fresh Prince-ish handshake that ends with a snap, its almost universal there. And, they smoke a lot of weed, freely offered (but not taken).

We ported in Tema, which is about 45 minutes away from Accra, the capital. First thing off the ship and on the bus is that many people were smiling, and everyone was waving at us and very accommodating. The roads between Tema and Accra were surprisingly modern and not full of potholes, but that isn't reflective of the rest of the country. Carter and I got a room at the Hotel Byblos, which was owned by a half Lebanese, half Ghanaian guy that was pretty cool, his wife was an American from either Minnesota or Montana. The owner guy, I'll call him Fred even though that's not his real name, was actually in some horrific car accident a few years earlier when his Ford (lol  Ford) SUV flipped over and sent him through the windshield, he broke his spine in the C5 and C6 or something like that, the Ghanaians doctor sucked and had in the hospital for weeks without a proper diagnosis, he was flown to Lebanon for treatment. And now, he smokes a lot of joints to ward off the constant pain. The Byblos was decent, for Ghanaian standards. The staff, however, were quite simply some of the most welcoming and warm hotel staffers, ever. Our first waitress there was Tina, cool awesome girl that made a lot of friends with fellow SASholes. Another waiter whose name I forget, but I'll call him Bob, was a pretty cool guy too. Actually everyone was friendly in Ghana once you introduced yourself to them, asked for their name, and did the handshake.

For the first day in Ghana, Carter, Yvette, and I went to the "cultural center", which is nothing more than a smallass souk full of Ghanaians that can't really negotiate. Everything inside was overpriced and crap. The rows of shops outside are a different story. It was a bunch of crafts and drum shops which were full of chill dudes. David, one of the owners of a shop there and whom I bought a drum from, actually met us outside and was helpful and not pushing anything on his, he gave us good advice about the shops inside and told us to stop by and played drums, and that we did. About half an hr or an hr of drum playing, which was awesome. I got myself a nice midsize drum and a sweet Ghanaian colored carrying case with it. There was another guy named Prosperity or something like that that ran a shop with his brothers, Prosperity met some girl from Philadelphia that was doing her masters from the U of Ghana and they got married, the guy was gonna immigrate to America in January, what a future. Prosperity wanted to trade my sweet Puma hat for a mask in his shop, but dude was too greedy and tried to get money from me for a small mask, that didn't happen at all. After our drum shopping experience we left the place but on the way out saw Andy and Joanna in the bar right outside so we sat down and had a drink. David joined us, so did Prosperity and his brothers. This dude name Louis came up to me and  told me that I spurned him earlier because I didn't buy his crap, but I got him a beer so it was all good.  Prosperity even got me a shot of palm wine, which is like freakin everclear, my mouth was numb after that shot. Speaking of alcohol, Ghanaian beer was actually good, I wouldn't mind having more, but it wasn't extra special.

Story to be continued, tonight we have the crew talent show going on, which may top the earlier SAS talent show we had.

The American Dream

Imagine  after a long arduous voyage across the unknown depths you see a shining beacon coming up in the distance. As you get closer the giant green lady holds that beaconing torch stands tall and strong to greet you. Her greeting bellows out to all who come:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Lady Liberty embodies all that is the American Dream, a pursuit noble and worthy of commemoration.

The American Dream itself is the biggest enticement for any immigrant yearning for America. It is because of this dream that millions have come to our shores, and millions more hope to do so.  Since the birth of the country there has never been a shortage of wanting immigrants, from persecuted English pilgrims to the starving Irish farmers to outcast Jews to the war bloodied Vietnamese refugees to those who want just a better tomorrow, the list has not been dry.
This is my speech commemorating the American Dream for my public speaking class with Mitnick.
*****


The American Dream is the ultimate culmination of all the yearnings and hopes that fresh immigrants have. It vindicates the decision to take flight and shelter in America, to walk and live amongst the foreign, to contribute part of American culture, to create a better future, to live free. After years of struggles, immigrants can look back and see how far they've come. Take Andrew Carnegie, Scottish immigrant turned business mogul or Barack Obama born of an immigrant father, now lead of the free world, two of many examples who have achieved and prospered.

The American Dream is a personal relevation for me. I'm a first generation immigrant in pursuit of the American Dream. The road has been long and not without its bumps, but I think I've made a good leg of the journey and the American Dream is within my grasp. I've avoided many pitfalls and went on to higher education to open more doors, I'm to be graduating this spring. I've earned and made my mark and post graduation prospects are bright. I've learned and experienced so much in my continuing pursuit of the American dream. Pursuing the American Dream has even lead me to be aboard the MV Explorer to sail the world. All in all I think the effort has been worth it.

Heralding back to Lady Liberty's greeting, her words are etched into my mind like glowing embers. I was tired and poor. I was the huddled masses yearning to be free. I was tempest-tossed. I am not anymore,  I'm living the American Dream.

shipfood

Curse the wretched ingredients that come into this sea food for it is bland and undistinguishing from a bottomless whirl of mediocrity and livid indignity.

Morocco, way back when

Moroc, Al Maghreb, something in Arabic I can't type…

We ported in Casablanca…. The city isn't very white/clean. Just ugh dirty. Traffic everywhere, taxis everywhere. Actually went to Rick's Café, the recreation from the movie Casablanca. It was apparently true to life but very touristy and kind of a waste of money and time, but I can say I've been there. Also went to the Hassan II Mosque, which apparently cost $600 million to construct. It's grand and huge, and shoots out a green laser beam at night calling the faithful to prayer. It's quite opulent and grandeur, but also a complete waste of money consider how much it cost and how dilapidated the adjacent neighborhoods are.  We spent a day in Morocco then went to Marrakech.

I took the train to Marrakech with Andy, Tina, Linda, and Travis. We couldn't get 1st class train tickets so got 2nd class instead…. That was an experience, our AC didn't work too well and it wasn't the best of conditions (check out the video I put up). Of course we got 1st class on the way back, and the only improvement was there were curtains and there were armrests on the chairs, but all in all the same quality/ safety. Oh how I love creaky trains. Also, the toilets for second class were a literal hole in the train.

Marrakech…. The Vegas of Morocco. It was much much cleaner than Casablanca but then again it was so touristy. The souks (bazaars, outdoor markets, money traps, whatever you want to call it) were designed to accommodate tourists, whom were mostly French due to Morocco's ex-colony status. The shopkeeps in the souks are vicious, and dicks. They're very aggressive in trying to pull you in, sometimes even physically grabbing. They're also very aggressive with bargaining, I'd say a general rule of thumb is go for 1/3rd of their price, don't budge twice, then walk away. Always walk away, if they want to sell at that price then they'll pull you back, but don't budge up. I made the mistake of listening to someone once and upped my price but what a waste. They're also douches, I kept getting "konichiwa" from everyone, it was pretty fucking aggravating and racist. However, there were some genuinely nice people in Marrakech's souks, I met this really cool kid that learned English, German, and French from just listening to tourists talk. Casablanca's souks were radically different, it wasn't geared towards tourism there so shopkeepers were a lot less pushy and annoying, and I met more cool people there, one shopkeeper actually lived in Minneapolis, and another lady that was shopping was on vacation from Pennsylvania (both native Moroccans). On a whole I enjoyed Casablanca souks much more, people were friendlier; I met a guy in there that had a friend from SAS from like 2 decades ago and showed us around the place offering to be our tour guide, he owned a fabric shop that he wanted to bring us to at the end but the group I was with wasn't feeling it so I guess that was an opportunity passed to meet a friend and learn more about his culture.

We also went to the casino in Marrakech…. What a joke. Their dress code was retarded, they required pants on guys but not specifics, I was wearing shorts so I actually traded my shorts for pants with a girl in our group, the girl wore my shorts with a pashima (scarf) wrapped around as a skirt. Went inside, the casino was extremely small and expensive, with $25 minimum bet for blackjack. I didn't gamble, just had a drink then left.

We tried a lot of local cuisine, and actually stayed at a "four star" (supposedly) hotel outside the old city in the new city. Other SAS kids were there, but they were on actual SAS trips. It was a cool place with a swimming pool, we "borrowed" a roll away bed every night since it would have cost extra to put 3 in a room, which is an offensive charge. Went to the hookah (shisha) bar every night and smoked hookah and had some beers with fellow SASers, it was a chill time. On a side note, I found a Vietnamese restaurant in Marrakech, but it was closed for all of Ramadan, blaaagh. All in all we stayed in Marrakech for 2 days, went shopping in the souks, smoked good amounts of hookah, and I bought a cowboy hat that I sported the rest of the time in Morocco. It was just an oddity for me to find a cowboy hat in Morocco, it was only 30 dirham (30/7 = $4). I also learned some cool hookah smoke tricks too.

Ok back to Casablanca. Even though Marrakech was cleaner, I met a lot more locals in Casablanca. One of the coolest people I met was actually a worker/manager of the hookah bar near our ship, Brad had met him the night before I got back. The guy's name was Mohammad (lol surprise), he didn't speak much English, or at all, but Brad and him communicated through hand signals and such. Guy was a baller, I don't think they liked the other loud typical American SASers there since they kicked them out early, but they let me and Brad stayed for as long as we wanted and even sat down and chilled with us, the guy even lit up a joint while we were smoking hookah. There was another dude that worked there also named Mohammad, he used to be a merchant marine with pretty good English and friendly. The owner's son (I assume) Hassim also stopped by, he spoke broken english but was also very friendly. So moral of the story here: people in souks aren't there to be your friends, meet them on the outside and take some time to communicate even if you don't speak the same language.

I forgot to mention it was also Ramadan the entire time we were there, so none of the locals at or drank during the entire day. We were told it'd be disrespectful if we drank or ate infront of them, but they were completely cool with it (the shopkeeps and restaurant owners at least). Also Mohammad said he only smoked 2 joints a night in observance of Ramadan, instead of the normal 7.

I feel like Morocco warrants more indepth exploration, and probably speaking French or Arabic would help greatly. The younger generation speaks fluent French because of the colonial ties, although the middle aged ones don't, but the grandparents also speak French, I guess they tried anti French sentiments but it didn’t work out so well. Something to note is that with Arabic French you have to hock some of the pronunciations with a harsher sound to be understandable to Moroccans. I kind of miss Morocco, but not Marrakech souks.

The Food

The Food is really really really bland. It's like cafeteria food with 1/10th of the selection. I may be losing a ton of weight from the food on the trip, I have no appetite whatsoever. OF course the exception is theres an ala carte bar on 7th deck by the pool, they have great burgers that are delicious but even that only lasts so long.... Let me get on land and get some real food already!