Atlantic Reflections

We're 25 days into this endeavor! It feels more like 6 months, but the daily ship life is mellowing out, so I'm finding time to do more emails. The daily schedule is divided up into "A" and "B" days. The schedules are different, but all take place regardless of the day or date of the week. So we have certain things to do on A days and other certain things on B days. As student issues tend to be a bit scattered, we have meetings EVERYday that we're at sea. They tend to run a bit long.

I'm in charge of Sea Olympics (like Block Party), which is on October 9th. We're already announcing the events tonight because we have two ports to visit between now and then. In port, the whole of ship-life changes and then stalls out while everyone goes on a bit of a traveling vacation...more ambiguity, more new things, more unknowns about how and when and where and trying to negotiate simple tasks like finding the bathroom and getting into a taxi and not getting ripped off because I don't understand how to say 'twenty' or 'thirty' or whatever number in Portuguese or Zulu or Bantu.

On the ship we have to highly regulate the amount and nature of alcohol use on the ship for the students. It's really punitive, but from a health and safety standpoint, we really don't have the medical support on ship to keep the drunks from hurting themselves or others. As it is, students are allowed to purchase up to 6 drinks per night. They understand the concepts, and most individuals tell us they wouldn't over drink, but still, there is a low level of trust for a mostly U.S. population of college students. We found some students still sneaked on bottles of booze and come to dinner drunk or come to an evening event drunk. There are lots of ways to ‘escape’ and most students don't even bother with the alcohol, but all in all, it's a pain in my ass because I have to baby-sit the nights when we do serve alcohol. A small price to pay, I suppose.

I’ve heard and noticed too, a very distinct perception of class differences. Many students, especially students of color, have worked hard to obtain this sea-going opportunity and find it especially draining when other students take the same opportunity for granted. This is especially apparent when complaints about the food in the dining room or the frequency of laundry or the “lack” of alcohol are made by students with more means. I see the tensions building when this classism is expressed as racism and rightly interpreted as such. I have individual conversations about this all the time and I hope it’s making some of the whiter and more privileged folks aware of how their language and actions impact others on the ship.

The Middle Passage is being remembered today and reflected upon by the conscious shipboard community. We remember the forced passage across the Atlantic Ocean of many ancestors of our families.

Lately students have complained about the searches of their person, rooms and urine for illegal substances. All participants, myself included, signed an agreement to consent to such searches, so now students are complaining because they don't like the rules. As a result, I'm learning what the cliché means "to run a tight ship." Our captain is a great guy, very nice, but he doesn't F.around. There is no room for dissent when he makes a decision. And his decisions are fair and consistent with stated rules and practice.

On the less crabby side, Heather and I are taking a class together about the religious practices, traditions and cultures of all the places we're visiting. It's really fascinating! We learned about the afro-Brazilian tradition of Candomble (related to VouDun, not to be confused with Haitian Voodoo), where one of 23 spirits inhabit the body of an initiated member. We're learning now about the religious justification and religious resistance to the policy of Apartheid ("Purity") that was the tradition and then rule of law in South Africa from 1910-1994. I'm excited about India and what we'll learn going there!

There is a research scientist from NOAA on board and he is enlisting help in dropping weather and wave buoys off the back of the boat as we cross the Atlantic! It's a really fun process to learn about. These specific buoys are self regulating and submerge to 1500 meters of depth for 9 days at a time, take measurements, drift on the deep currents and record temperature, pressure, etc. They then re-inflate and rise up to the surface to send measurements and movement information to satellites, back to land. This happens for about 6 years of battery life until the thing eventually sinks to the bottom and disintegrates under the pressure. There are about 3500 of these buoys in the oceans currently.

Last night, we crossed the Prime Meridian, at Latitude 21degrees south of the equator, headed east to Namibia! As we get further east, we lose about an hour a day. We've had about six 23hr. days this week. The ship runs on a 24 hr schedule, so sleep seems to suffer for the community...ugh. The ship is a bit rocky lately too. To explain why, I've included a quote from an Oceanography professor on the ship:
"As we approach the coast of Africa, the ship will enter the Benguela current. This current carries cold water to the north. The current is associated with coastal upwelling that brings nutrients to the surface and supports high biological productivity. The waters once supported a rich fishery but over-fishing has greatly reduced catches. The cold water also causes coastal fogs that have contributed to shipwrecks along this "Skeleton Coast" of Namibia."

I hope we fare better:)
Much love and I miss you all,
Bill