First entry!

Hey guys!
August 30, 2005
I can’t believe I’m finally on the ship! My weekend in the Bahamas was amazing! It was in the 90’s the whole time and the water was too. We went on a Booze Cruise around the island and then went snorkeling on a private beach. I really felt like I was in a fish tank because the fish came right up to me. I was scared at first but then I got used to it. One of the tour guides went down a caught a huge lobster. After snorkeling everyone on the cruise ship took advantage of the unlimited drinks and really had a good time. We also went to Avagados zoo and saw all the flamingos. After a nice four-day vacation on the white sandy beach I finally boarded my new home, the MV explorer. Its really weird living on a ship that is always moving. Everyone looks drunk as they walk down the hallways because of the rocking of the ship and even the teachers loose their balance while teaching. So far I’m doing ok with being seasick but then again the water has been really smooth. All the teachers say that its difficult to teach because its like teaching kids who are about to go on spring break and then trying to teach kids who just got back from spring break. No one really has an attention span with all that’s going on. I can’t believe that in a couple of days I’ll be in Venezuela!!

September 5, 2005
Buenos!
Venezuela is amazing!! When I first got here I was a little nervous because we had a 2hr briefing by the US embassy about how dangerous Venezuela can be and that Pat Robinson is publicly announcing that the Venezuelan president, Huego Chavez, should be assassinated. So I wasn’t really sure how everyone would react to 730 American students walking around. But everything has been really great. The first day I arrived, I went to a local school and sat in one of their English classes. It was really interesting to watch people trying to learn English. It’s harder to teach than you would think. The day I went they were trying to learn when to use “too” vs. using “to”. The way the people live here is very humbling. The people called “squatters” are living in “barriors” in the mountains. The barriors are basically shacks made out of what ever materials that could be found. They are built directly on top of each other and right into the mountains. I have no idea how people climb up to the barriors or how they don’t fall down the mountain. A lot of the poor people don’t wear shoes or anything and there are stray dogs everywhere. We met a few Venezuelans at the school who were nice enough to spend the entire day showing us around the city. We took these cable cars up mount Avila and were able to see the entire city of Caracas. Caracas is a huge city of about 6 million people. The view at the top was absolutely breathtaking. They also took us to some local restaurants to try some traditional food like arapas and cachapas. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like the food but everything I tried was excellent. I also visited the Hogar Bambi Orphanage. The kids there were taken away from the parents either because they were abused or their parents went to jail. When I first arrived I was expecting the worst but it was actually a very nice place. The facility was great and all of the kids were so happy. We all brought toys, stickers and books for them. They were so happy to see all of us. All of the kids wanted our sunglasses and took them right off of our heads. They thought they were so cool. Because they were having so much fun with them I decided to tape them with my video camera. I turned the screen around so they could see themselves being taped and they thought that was amazing. I don’t know how often they get to see themselves in a mirror but when they saw themselves being taped they really started to show off for me. It was really fun. I just wish I could understand what they were saying. Most of the time the kids would just drag us over to what they were talking about since most of us couldn’t understand them. We played with them for a couple of hours and then we were given a tour of the orphanage. I looked to me like a fun day care except that the playground walls had barbed wire at the top. I guess it’s to keep parents from trying to steal the kids back. When it was finally time for us to leave the kids tried to block the door because they didn’t want us to leave. They really enjoyed us being there. All of the kids were so happy and out going. You’d never be able to tell that they’ve all had such hard lives.

I posted some pics on webshots.com my user name is: hgmeg4 or 444267370