Oh Brazil, you were certainly an adventure. From commercials to capoeira, piranhas to not catching the Amazon virus. It was crazy.

Salvador, Brazil: Day One

Bea was turning 22 on the 26th, so this was the only free day and night we had to celebrate her. It was a good one.

We left the ship and were immediately greeted by a youth drum corps. There were drummers, jugglers and kids on stilts. It was a pretty sweet good morning.

We had a tough time finding a working ATM because it was a national holiday and apparently ATM fraud is a huge issue in Brazil. We ended up walking ten minutes to a huge local market and getting in line behind about fifty other SASers at the lone ATM. Everyone elected one friend from their group to run downstairs and return with giant Brazilian beers to tide the line standers over. It was hilarious to see so many people disappearing, and then returning with six enormous sweating beers in their arms. Victor made the run for us.

When we finally had money (real) we started to explore the market. We hadn’t planned on spending too much time there, but it started pouring (this turned out to be pretty common) and we stuck around for a while.

The market itself was amazing. Everything was so colorful and they speak Portuguese, which is close enough to Spanish for my 4 years of high school Spanish to kick in. I had no idea how much I remembered and had a great time awkwardly communicating and bargaining. I ended up buying a couple paintings and necklaces and one queso (cheese) empanada, which was delicious. The guy I bought a necklace from had a crush on Bea, so he gave us free candied cashews, too.

After realizing that the rain wasn’t going to stop anytime soon, we decided to grab lunch outside the market under an awning. I’m not quite sure what we ordered, but like most Brazilian food, it had something to do with rice and beans. While we ate, we got to watch a capoeira performance, which was incredible. After lunch we ended up talking to the group’s teacher, Jonathan, and set up a meeting time to take a lesson ourselves.

We had a few hours to kill, so we took the elevator up to the Old Town District of Salvador. It had gorgeous old buildings and cobblestone streets. There were also tons and tons of cats. Some guy was breeding them and keeping them in their weird hole in the main square… I don’t know… We explored for a while and then hung out in a coffee shop to avoid another downpour.

After the rain finally slowed down we wandered down the street and stumbled upon the filming of a commercial. It was for the 2013 FIFA World Cup, which in being held in Brazil. We spotted a few SASers dancing in the background and hopped in. Long story short, the commercial is going to be nationally and perhaps internationally aired and we got to meet the musician whose song they were using. Apparently he’s one of the most famous Carnival singers in all of South America. I don’t know his name, but he was super nice and we took pictures with him.

After the commercial, we continued on our adventure, wandered around a little more, and then met a few local guys back in the main square. At 6 we met up with Jonathan and he took us to this tiny room that we were told was a popular dance club. The floor was a little bit damp, but he gave us an hour and a half long capoeira lesson. It’s hard to describe without pictures, but it was incredible. Difficult, but incredible. Later that night Jonathan took us to a great local restaurant where he had a few drinks and watched live music. He and a few of his friends met up with us again later that night and we stayed and talked for hours.


The second day was spent traveling from Salvador to Manaus/the Amazon. Let’s just say that I had a lot of time to catch up on reading that day… We didn’t get to the riverboat until midnight and we stayed up talking/watching the remnants of a meteor shower until 3AM.

The next couple days were spent on an Amazon riverboat, but this blog is ending here because we’re docking in Ft. Lauderdale in 8 hours and I want to go hang out with people.


This semester has been an incredible adventure. I have experienced more in these fourteen short weeks than I could have ever imagined; my eyes, mind and heart have been opened in ways that I never realized they could be. I am the luckiest person in the world for having family and friends that have supported me on this adventure and in life. I love semester at sea and I love you.

Ghana Day Three- April 13th

This was Helen’s 21st birthday! She already wrote a long, passionate blog about our experience at the Cafacayo Children’s Home, so in the interest of time, I’m going to leave that one up to her. This is not, however, the end of Cafacayo for me.

There are 35 kids at that orphanage and Helen and I are going to get them sponsored (aka into private school and eating regularly). I don’t think that $50/month for 35 kids is too big of a goal for us to accomplish. We’re going to start some sort of a student org or non-profit to get this orphanage and these kids sponsored.

They deserve a real education. They deserve to eat regularly. They deserve mosquito nets and a enough beds so no one has to sleep on the floor. We’re going to figure out a way to get this organization the money it needs to properly support these amazing kids. I can’t wait to share my pictures/stories with everyone at home.

We spent most of the day at Cafacayo and then went out to a small local bar to have a couple drinks for Helen’s birthday. A good time was had by all.


Ghana Day Four- April 14

The next morning I had a trip to the OSU Children’s home in Accra. We left at 8AM in a bus packed with SASers. Within thirty seconds of stepping out of the bus at OSU, I made a friend. Her named was Victoria, she was five and she wanted nothing more than to be carried and hugged. I carried her until I truly couldn’t lift her any longer; it was the only time I can remember ever wishing lifted weights and I had stronger arms.

OSU was fun and I’m glad we got a chance to play with the kids, but it is sponsored and structured and truly contrasted with our Cafacayo experience the day before. All orphanages deserve our time and support, but at the end of the day, the OSU kids get three meals a day and a bed, not to mention a decent education. My visit to the OSU Home made me even more motivated to support Cafacayo.

One of the other differences, however, was that the OSU Home has babies. The youngest Cafacayo kids weren’t any younger than five or six. OSU had three-month-olds. They had an entire building for infants and children under 18 months. We got to hold the babies and some people even got to feed them.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love babies. I remember being jealous of the girls who got to hold and feed the youngest babies, but then I noticed a little boy sitting on the blanket all alone. He was surrounded by people, but they were all holding other kids or talking. I don’t know his name or how old he was, but he was tiny and he didn’t make a sound when I picked him up. He weighed next to nothing and promptly grabbed one of my earrings, didn’t pull it, but just hung on to it.

I pushed the thought of feeding newborns out of my mind decided that I was meant to hold that little boy for as long as he needed it. I walked around and held him for a long time, singing him songs that my mom used to sing to me when I was little because I didn’t know what else to do. The only time he made a sound was when I tried to put him down and he started to cry; the second it stopped trying to put him down, he stopped crying and just quietly hung on to my earring. Eventually, the caretakers came to put all the kids down for their afternoon nap and I had to let him go. I’m going to remember that little boy forever.

After spending the day at OSU, we drove to lunch, then back to the ship. We had to be onboard at 6PM to leave for Brazil by 8.

End of Ghana.


Love,

Molly