Port Louis, Mauritius (a little late)

Dearest Brethren,
Mauritius is a place that many of you probably know little or nothing about. I knew absolutely nothing about it until I decided to do Semester at Sea, and even then I just looked it up on a map. It is a small island just east of the coast of Madagascar and it was colonized initially by the French and later by the British. The French culture is what has stuck around, and while most people did speak English the native tongue is a Creole mix of French and English. The first two nights I spent there I traveled to a beach house in a small town called Flic en Flac with some friends where a lot of the other Semester at Sea students were staying. It was fun to have a vacation time, but at the same time it wasn’t that exciting to see the same faces I see every day on the ship in a foreign country so I decided to come back to Port Louis where the ship was docked.
I spent my third morning on a service trip to an old age/disabled home and a small school for teens run by an NGO. The stop at the home was an eye opening experience to say the least. Our guide for the day told us that an average nursing home in the U.S. is comparable to a four-star resort in Mauritius. It was like stepping into a time capsule from early 20th century America because of the treatment that the patients were receiving and the conditions that they were living in. All of the people in the home had no family and that’s why they were there. The usual practice in Mauritius is for the family of the elderly to take care of them and keep them in their own home. The experience was overwhelming and very sad, but it was interesting to see how another country handles something that is a relevant issue in the U.S.
The school that we visited in the afternoon was a great change of pace. It is called the Teen Hope Project and the reason it got started is because in Mauritius after a child finishes primary school (equivalent to 5th grade), they have to take a test to see if they can move on to secondary school. If they don’t pass the test they can try one more time, but if they fail it again they are cast out of the schooling system and there is no way for them to get back in. The THP was set up to keep those kids who failed the test twice in school and off the streets. I had a about an hour long conversation with seven boys who went to school there about what they liked to do, their favorite sports and their favorite movies. Almost all of our conversation was done through a translator, because they spoke very little English and the extent of my French knowledge is “oui oui!”. I told them that I study film and they thought that was amazing. They asked me about my favorite movies and they also wondered if I had ever met Arnold Schwarzenegger or Rambo. After our conversation the school did a song and tried to teach us how to do the local dance moves. I was the first one chosen out of the group to try it out (probably because they saw a little Michael Flatly in my eyes) but their moves were far more advanced than the “broken lawnmower” and the running man, which are the only moves I have in my repertoire. The experience at the school was great and I got the email of the woman who runs it so I can send them the pictures that I took and keep in touch.
Speaking of pictures, the internet has been very slow in the last few ports so I haven’t been able to upload my pictures. I will continue to try, but I don’t think it will get much better until I reach Hong Kong or Japan.
I thought since I didn’t say that much about Mauritius that I would tell everyone a little more about my life on the ship. The ship community is unlike any other I have ever experienced. Everyone is very friendly and open to meeting new people. I have made friends with people from all over the U.S. I am part of the extended family program on the ship, where a group of students is “adopted” by either a faculty member or lifelong learners, who are retirees who attend the classes of their choosing and come along for the ride. My ship parents are Alvin and Lydia Foster, they are from Boston and are both retired lifelong learners. We meet once a week for dinner on the ship, and it is a good way to interact with the adults on the ship. Tomorrow is the ship-wide Sea Olympics competition. It runs all day long and consists of at least 20 different events. The ship is split into seven groups, or “Seas”, that consist of 60-90 people and we are competing for pride and also for the opportunity to leave the ship first when we get to Miami at the end of the voyage. I am a proud member of the Aegean Sea and I will be competing in basketball and the competitive eating competition. I will let you all know how it goes, wish me luck. Another thing that I did on the ship recently was a coffee house night where students who play musical instruments or write poetry could perform so I signed up and got to a play two songs, which was a lot of fun. I really enjoy the classes that I am taking on the ship. The professors are great and it’s nice to be able to get to know them because the classes are so small compared to CU.
I hope everyone has enjoyed the blog so far. Please feel free to leave comments or even ask questions if you have any for me about the places I am visiting or about the ship. I am now on my way to India, and I have a four-day trip planned to visit the Taj Mahal and the Ganges River. After I get to India on Tuesday, I have a 35 day span where I am in port for 25 of those days, so the blog might not be as detailed but it will be updated more often as it is the stretch of the trip where I will visit the most countries. I hope everyone is well at home and I love and miss you all.

Conor