Mauritius - an educational party?

Mauritius: being here is slightly perplexing.  I’m sure you’ve google image-ed this place, and I’m sure you are seeing beautiful beaches a la the Caribbean… trust me, the partying happened (a lot – consider yourself warned. read on only if you want to), but there was also some educational value to this little island.  I believe that the number one reason Semester at Sea stops here is for cheap fuel between South Africa and India, but I also believe that the administrators of SAS have us stop here because it is a good transition between Africa and India.  The major religion of Mauritius is Hindu and the biggest ethnic group on the island is Indian, so I think it is sort of a “warm-up” to India- major.  I am totally thankful for that, too, because the more I think about it, the scarier India seems.  I’m glad that all of my days in India will be with Semester at Sea trips and familiar faces within the chaos.  Who knows?  I might love India.

So, Mauritius.  On the first day, as soon as the ship was cleared, I had an FDP to go on.  It was called Traditional vs. Modern Medicine in Mauritius.  First, we went to the China Town in Port Louis and visited a Chinese Herbal Medicine shop.  It was pretty neat; there were all sorts of dried everythings that are elements in crazy medicinal concoctions.  For instance, there was a shelf about 5 meters high just covered in various sized bags of various species of dried fungus.  It was incredible.  There was a 5lb bag of dried shiitakes.  Five pounds of dried mushrooms is HUGE.  After that, we went to the central market of Port Louis, which is apparently very famous, and we saw an Ayurvedic healer.  He was the fourth generation member of his family to take over their business of herbal remedy teas.  I have amazing pictures of his stand… he had a tea mix for EVERYthing including cellulite to rheumatoid arthritis to gas to aphrodisiacs.  He gave us a tiny free sample of a tea for “stress relief,” and, as far as I can tell by just reading the package it’s made from verbena.  I’ll try it soon and let you know if I feel de-stressed, perhaps I’ll have it after India.  After that, we had lunch at an incredible place.  I’m not even sure what it was.  I think it was a little bed and breakfast/restaurant thing.  Our table was set up for us outside among papaya and mango trees, beautiful birds, and one hell of a huge spider.  It was pretty awesome.  Our appetizer was samosas and chili bites (lentil balls with chili, deep fried) with a really hot green chili sauce.  Delicious.  More excitingly, our main course was served to us on a banana leaf and it consisted of about six different things.  There was a veggie curry, a pumpkin puree, a potato and leek cold salad, and a green paste-y thing that looked like spinach, but was a plant related to the lotus (this one was totally my favorite).  We also had the most delicious white fish I’ve ever had and it was served with a fried bread and rice to eat it all with.  The greatest thing about these sorts of meals we’ve been getting is analyzing how complete and balanced they always are.  Americans eat like crap, and I cannot wait to get back into the kitchen with my pictures and memories and start re-creating.  For dessert, we had a pastry sort of thing that was made from chickpea flower and raisins and tamarind marmalade.  I LOVE TAMARIND, I will find it at home – I WILL!  After lunch, we visited an Ayurvedic hospital where we were told about some traditional medicines and watched a massage demonstration (my friend Joanna got to be the model).  We learned that all health care in Mauritius is government funded, which is awesome, not only that, but citizens can CHOOSE between going to a modern hospital or an Ayurvedic hospital or both.  I’m telling you – America has some serious learning to do.  After that, we got to visit a modern hospital that just opened and is one of those new “resort hospitals” you have probably been hearing about.  Americans or Europeans who need some sort of surgery are now going to these tropical places to get their surgery done WHILE being pampered at a spa like place, for the same price that just the surgery would cost at home.  It’s really not a bad idea.  This hospital was opened in July – so it was sparkly new, and they were very proud to show off their machinery.  We saw all the “scan” machines (ct, cat, mammogram…), and they showed us their trauma/triage area.  It was pretty wild, and reinforced in my mind how I do not belong working in such a sterile environment.  I’m sure working in a hospital is probably exciting all the time, but I feel the need to be a little bit more messy than a hospital can be.  Wowie.  It was cool though.

So after we got back to the ship, I was able to call Daddy!  A friend of mine has an iPhone, so she let me use it.  It was great.  Then I had a little bit of ship dinner, and then I went out with some beautiful people for Indian food and wine.  I went out with Eric (he’s been in a few of these stories.  He’s from Arizona), Alex (he’s a wonderful guy – we do yoga every morning and talk a lot of philosophy and psychology.  He’s from NYC), Liz (she’s in my pictures from Morocco – she’s got the dreads, and is such a good soul.  She’s from Maryland), and Anjuli (who I just recently started hanging out with.  She’s from Venezuela/Boston, and quite a lovely lady).  This was an excellent dinner.  We talked about everything.  Each one of us is totally different, but completely open (open to new experiences and new ideas, but also open in talking about ourselves and our feelings).  We also housed two bottles of wine, while eating not much more than naan (whatever. Don’t judge - it was Mauritius).  We talked about everything from Alex Grey (an artist – check him out), to psilocybin, to homosexuality, to open relationships, to money, the state of the economy, poverty… everything.  After dinner, we went to another bar where we met up with another group of excellently cool people had some beers, and then went down the street to another bar.  When it was time to go, the 14 of us all piled into a water taxi (that’s right!!) back to our ship.  I filled up my water bottle upstairs and took a few laps around the ship before bedtime.  It was a pretty fun night.

The next morning, I had a trip to an orphanage.  It was called the “Terre de Paix Children’s Center.”  “Earth of Peace.”  This place is home to just a few kids, while the rest of the kids who go to school there live with foster families.  It’s a pretty neat, grassroots organization.  They have a preschool as well as a school for kids between the ages of 6 and 18.  The kids take classes like art and music, as well as sex ed.  Most of the kids who go to school there or live there do so either because the government removed them from their parents who were doing drugs or involved in prostitution or because they were doing so poorly in the mainstream schools.  Partly the reason these kids were doing poorly in the mainstream schools was because school is taught in English, and these kids don’t speak English.  They don’t speak English at home with their families, or they don’t even have families.  So, Terre de Paix teaches mostly in Creole (the language everyone speaks) or French.  I was able to attend the sex ed, music, preschool, creativity, and sculpting classes that day.  It was pretty excellent.  And… a boy picked me flowers.  One of the students saw me taking pictures of some of the neat flowers, and also saw me admiring the mango trees, and a little bit later I felt a tap on my shoulder, and this kid who couldn’t have been older than 13, handed me a tiny little bouquet of mango tree flowers.  aw.  I totally got a picture of him with me.  It was cute.  This was only a half-day visit, and so we said our goodbyes and went back to the ship.

After lunch on the ship, I went with some magnificent ladies to the beach!  But first, we went to the central market to grab us some tropical fruits to munch on the beach.  We got papaya and lime, tamarind, coconut, pineapple, and some grapes (I know, not tropical), and we also went to a supermarket to pick up some beverages.  We took the local buses to the beach for a whopping 60 American cents (awesome!), and then had a party on the beach!  It may or may not have included some dancing, some [topless] swimming in the INDIAN Ocean, and lots of snacking.  We also met some really awesome locals, but that is a story for real life, not typed in a blog.  Remind me when I see you, you will love this story.  When it suddenly got dark (how did that happen?!), our new friends called us a cab and gave us the local price for the ride all the way back to the port.  It was an incredible cab ride…oh man.  That’s a story for real life, too.  So, when we made it back to the waterfront safely, we went out to one more bar before heading in for the night.

The next and last day in Mauritius, I slept in until about 9, and then Kirra, Katie and I wandered around the town.  We went to the central market for a fruit breakfast, and then we pretty much just wandered.  I found my fabric and a wonderful outfit that I can wear in India.  And we also found one hell of a street vendor sandwich.  It was this chicken that is roasted on a stick (kind of a like Greek gyro meat), but it had this red, spicy marinade, and sliced really thin and then chopped in with some cabbage, carrots, onions, and pineapple.  It’s all loaded into a toasted baguette with green chili sauce.  We got one, and devoured it, and had to go back for seconds.  This is something I WILL spend the rest of my life re-creating.  After lunch, we made our way back to the ship so that we could get there with plenty of time to rest and relax before on-ship time.

So, Mauritius was quite the party, but it was nice to have the break and crazy fun before crunch time.  We will be in India for five days in two days, then we have about five days on the ship, then five days in Vietnam, then about three days on the ship before China, and same between China and Japan.  It’s going to be insane.  I really thought it would be easy going between port and classes, but it is NOT.  After ports, I could really sleep for about 3 days straight.  But instead of sleeping, there are classes, and real college work.  Some of the classes I’m taking on Semester at Sea require much more work than some that I took at SUCO.  That’s alright though.  Knowledge is power.

Now would be a great time to tell you all more about ship life, except that today was Sea Olympics (I know, you have no idea what that is), and tonight there is a BBQ for dinner – which is in about fifteen minutes.  I hope life back in the States is good for all of you.  I gave a commemorative speech in my public speaking class yesterday on autumn.  I hope you are all enjoying it.  I really, really miss it.