A7

Ahhh finally up to speed. Went to Mysticism this morning, and then skipped global studies. For the past three days the revenge of traveler’s diarrhea has made my life fairly miserable. Sorry if that is too much information for some of you, my beloved readers. I woke up for the announcement after Global Studies today: we are doing an apartheid simulation on the ship. The privileged class? Those who shaved their heads or got Mohawks within the past week. Well shit. All of my friends have hair. So..for lunch I could not go eat on 5^th deck because that was for the unprivileged class only. I went upstairs and found Perry and some other people which was fun.

We also found out that we were allowed into the faculty/staff lounge…so after we chowed down quicky, we all sprinted to the faculty staff lounge. At which point we sat down and started doing homework, but then it just felt so incredibly uncomfortable that we simply left. I went and napped until it was time for International Relations.

We covered all economic stuff in IR…it makes me ever so glad that I did not take Intl’ Political Economy with Dr. Wes too! I would have died a long horrible death! Brianne and I are going to have to review this stuff, especially because Dr. Wes made some board errors while writing so I am extra confused.

Immediately after IR, I went to day two of being a study buddy…as soon as I walked over to the kids, Sage Zimmerman yelled, “Work with me today LeeAnne!” haha So Maddie was a little tiffed, but all she had to do was tests. I helped Sage with her geography and daily oral language, and then she worked really well on her own with her English workbook. These kids are bright, and so dedicated. Sage and Maddie are both almost done with several of their subjects because they have been working ahead and are just bright kids.

We talked about apartheid with the students because some of them were already angry about the situation because they were not allowed to swim in the pool, with the exception of Mohawk-ed 6 year old Michael, because that was one of the off-limits areas for our simulation. Being 6 years old, Michael was not at all afraid to taunt his older sister and her friends about this fact. It was really interesting to hear what they thought, because they could still get away with a lot, but the pool was one of those things that they couldn’t weasel into.

After that, I was supposed to have my ship-family dinner, but the rest of them were haired folks, so I couldn’t join them in the 5^th deck dining room. Stacy, my ship sister, was angry, and she grabbed my elbow and said, “We’re protesting..this is family!”, and we walked arm in arm to the 5^th deck dining room to go sit with Granny Joan, but I was soon removed from the area. I went to go eat upstairs, and there was a protest blocking the way into our dining room.

People were yelling singing, doing whatever they thought good to stop baldies from getting into their dining room. I joined the protest, and then one of my haired friends from the Amazon and I decided we were going to go into the privileged class dining room and eat together. So we got up, again walked arm in arm, and walked to the serving line. She grabbed her tray and plate and began to put salad on it, and the crew took it away from her! So, she sat down, and I brought over food for the both of us. Finally, all of the protesters came inside the privileged dining room and stood in line, and all that jazz.

The baldies were all yelling, “Shave or Behave” and the haired people were all yelling insults back. Elise and Jen came to sit with us along with another baldie girl…two of them left, and then I saw Maddie outside alone on the 6^th deck, so I went to see if she wanted to come eat with me and my haired friends. I didn’t realize her dad was already in line for food, but at the rate some of these college kids were acting, I wouldn’t have put it past them to say something rude to the 10 year old about having hair and still being on the privileged deck. She grabbed Dr. Wes and they came down at sat with us.

At that exact moment one of the baldie guys came over and started yelling at the people with hair and cussing. Now…he definitely saw Dr. Wes, and while he may not have seen Maddie scooted low in her chair, there was no excuse. Dr. Wes calmly told him to stop cussing because his daughter was there, and he stopped cussing, but kept yelling, and finally said, “Do any of you know what Apartheid was about?”

WRONG person to ask that question to: Dr. Wes is our international relations professor, was there when the Berlin Wall fell, has been to South Africa many times, and is one of the most aware professors on this ship…the kid started to walk away and Dr. Wes followed him and gave him an earful. When he sat back down, he said in his Texas drawl, “I’ve got a long fuse, but you don’t want to light it.” And then we had a peaceful rest of our dinner.

Later, before watching the nightly movie, Dr. Wes saw me and asked me if anything had happened before he and his daughter sat down between us and the kid, and if we had provoked the kid, and to be honest. Well, we hadn’t. Dr. Wes had identified the kid on the board with all of our pictures and had already talked to his RD.

I studied in the library a bit, and then I went to watch An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore. No matter what you think of Gore, this movie was well done and humorous, but also drove home a serious point. Bryan was really happy, because he did all the publicity for it and everything and it filled the Union. After that I just read in my room for awhile and got Katie tea because she is sick and then went to bed.

B7

This morning Jen and I were going to have breakfast on 6^th deck together, but we forgot the simulation was still in effect…so I ate with Zeona and then a guy named Evan from Penn State. I went to the Union to get a seat, because Sage made me promise I would come sit by her in the Union. It was also the day that Desmond Tutu was speaking to Global Studies!

First of all, any day Dr. Dan isn’t speaking is a good day. When the Archbishop speaks, it is an EXCELLENT day. Or to use the word Tutu loved to use today, “fantastic!” with his little high pitched squeak!

He told many stories to convey his points about apartheid, but one of the most heartbreaking came when he told a story about his family. When he was a boy, he and his father went to the local grocery, and a young women called his father, “boy” and the Archbishop said he always wondered what his father felt like. He then told a story about his daughter, who was born in England, but then they returned to South Africa. She saw a playground and asked her daddy if she could go play. He had to say, “No, you can’t play there.” And then he said he finally knew what his father felt like. He wanted the ground to split right open and take him away.

However, he told many more inspiring stories too. At one point we clapped when he declared, “and apartheid was over!” So then he said he had a magic wand, and made the appropriate hand motions, and said he could turn people into instant South Africans…so he waved his magic wand over us, and said South Africans were much more raucous! He made his end of apartheid declaration again and we became the boisterous, raucous South Africa crowd. And then he turned us back into non-South Africans so he could finish his talk! Haha

One last point about him is that he made the point about the anger and hurt that is in South Africa, but he focused so much more on the capacity for forgiveness and reconciliation that we all have. It was beautiful. In a way, listening to him leaves me feeling slightly inadequate but also deeply inspired. Who knows what will happen with the rest of this voyage and the world is waiting for me.

And on that note, I have to do some real work. So mom…I hope you’re happy with the blog updates!