Stealing from Garrison Keillor, it's been a quiet day on the MV Explorer. We have an interport lecturer, Michael William from South Africa, who joined the ship with this wife and two girls in Mauritius. Mike runs an opera company and has already started training the students for a musical presentation on Africa Day.
We also had sign-up day for the Alumni Ball, and that was a little chaotic as everyone had to figure out which table they want to sit at and who they want to sit with. It was a little like choosing sports teams in elementary school when someone got chosen last or who was going to go to the prom with your group. We get around this at dinner every night by just pulling up another chair. The Alumni Ball dinner has two seatings and will be pretty formal.
Speaking of formal dinners, the dining services has something called "special dinners" where a group of people can go together and and reserve a room off the main dining room to have a sit-down served dinner like the captain's dinner but without the captain. There is an extra charge, of course, but it's great food. We attended one last week for a faculty member's birthday. I had seen students dressed up on the ship and taking pictures on the deck, and I finally figured out what was going on.
I forgot to write about the post-port reflections from Mauritius, so here are a few:
People found the Mauritians to be wonderful people. One guy serenaded a bunch of Living Learning Coordinators (LLC's) with songs from "Grease" when he heard they were from the U.S. Others learned that the Mauritians live in good harmony even though they represent different religions, and ethnic cultures. They all contribute to the whole of Mauritius.
Several people spoke about meeting with church groups or making service visits. One person made necklaces for the "mothers" who work in the orphanages. Another group of students had a church group take them in and feed them and then take them around to a school on the next day. One student reflected back to India where he had spent the best birthday of his working with kids and learning that everyone spoke the universal language of love.
Another spoke of the unreality of this voyage since there is so much beauty. I came away thinking that the connections people are making are the most meaningful parts.
The sunset was stunning enough to bring a group out onto the 8th deck to watch.
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