Monday, Day 93

For the first time in this entire voyage, I stay on the ship for a complete day in port to get caught up on some work and—it must be admitted—to avoid the heat, which is overwhelming.  Favourite Foods Restaurant had provided a mildly-air-conditioned respite for our long lunch of yesterday with ‘Michael’ Fifi Quansah.   It was a great gift for him to spend so many hours of his Sunday afternoon with us and to tell us so much about his country.  We come back to the ship at the end of the day armed with all of his contacts so that we can recommend that the Semester at Sea people consider him for a post as inter port student in a future voyage.  He’s not sure what his future plans for higher education are but for now is working in a business that provides services to international conferences visiting the country.  I recommend to him the School of Sustainable Development and Tourism in Mauritius, some of whose graduates I spoke with while we were in that country.  They all had an exceptional appreciation for the value of tourism but also its costs and the need for a country to ensure a positive balance between those in safeguarding its people, culture and environment.

The luxury of our situation as Americans is that we can come back to the ship and take a quick shower after the hot day but this seems a guilty pleasure when I think of all the people in this country who have no access to running water other than what they haul by buckets atop their heads.