Approaching Africa...

We are less than 24 hours away from reaching Ghana, and I can hardly contain myself.  My first time being on the African continent, I am bracing myself for what is sure to be an intense and amazing experience.  So far our plans include a Cape Coast historical tour, which includes a visit to the Kakum National Park, and some of the forts, castles, and slave dungeons along the coast.  We also have plans to visit a women's organization at the University of Cape Coast, called: Leading Ladies Network.  I'm so excited to visit this women's empowerment organization, it sounds like they have a lot of programs and offerings for their participants, and a good group of students are all planning to go.

It's a kinda crazy contrast because this past week we had the 'Sea Olympics' on the ship where the different 'seas' (areas on each deck that are separated into groups and assigned a color), competed in a series of events with the goal of building community and spirit onboard the ship.  My role on the ship is an LLC, aka Living Learning Coordinator, and there are 8 of us who are in charge of each of the seas, along with a specialty area.  My sea is the Baltic Sea, (go light blue!), and we actually placed 3rd in the overall competition!  The prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place are that they get to be first, second and third off the ship when we dock in San Diego at the end of the voyage. 

As for the actual work here on the ship, I love our LLC team!  Everyone has been great to work with, has offered creative ideas/solutions and we really work well together (while having fun), which is pretty great for only knowing each other for a few weeks now.  Here's a photo of all of us right after the opening ceremonies (thanks for the photo Bianca!)....

We have an all-star staff of motivated, creative, socially conscious, talented, individuals, and I'm so happy to get to work with them on this huge adventure.  It's been interesting to not only navigate the adventures of travel along this journey, but also navigate life on board a floating university with different folks from different places and institutions.  We have interport students and lecturers who join us for different stretches of the voyage to share their experiences from their home countries.  It's been great (but not without its challenges).  Overall, I continue to feel blessed to be here.

Now... onward to Ghana, let the adventures continue!