Title: Center of the World

Entry:

As the Mv Explorer gets closer and closer to Ghana we are becoming closer and closer to the center of the world. In less then a week when we leave Ghana we can actually say that we are at the center of the earth, talking about latitude and longitude of course. The zero degree longitude runs through Ghana near it's east border and zero degrees latitude is roughly seven degrees south of the Ghanaian coast. Which means.....


Neptune Day!


I am that much closer to shaving my head for the Neptune day celebration. Neptune day is the day we cross the equator. To celebrate we get classes off for the day and there are many major events. Most of them are much like the olympics where we compete to win an assortment of games but the one that I am  looking forward to shaving my head. I have been told that when sailors cross the equator they shave their heads as a sacrifice of sorts to Neptune the god of the seas for good passage. However there are a few avid sailors on the ship who have never heard of this but I'm gong to do it anyway. Not that I am superstitious, but I don't want to be the reason why our boat sinks. Not that it would happen anyway.

As of now we are passing Cote D'Ivoire getting ready to make port in Ghana tomorrow. We will be there for four days and then we are back to the sea for seven more days until we get to Cape Town, South Africa.

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An update on my mortuary studies

I haven't even been gone for a month and I have never been more confident about going into my career of choice, Mortuary Science. I had my doubts before, hints the big change call Semester At Sea. I have met many many people that have knowing and unknowingly helped me debate my foggy future. And become comfortable with the fact that it's still pretty darn foggy. I thought that on this trip I would be able to escape the field a bit to get an outside perspective of what I am doing but I never found that escape and I'm fine with it. I ended up delving into the field further. As we go to each port I have been studying the cultures and how they deal with death. I brought the book "Funeral Customs the World Over" by Habenstein and Lamers and have been able to prepare myself slightly for the port of call. When I am in port I have been trying to find out from tour guides or locals a first hand perspective of the customs. Oddly enough, this small bit of research has already made it's self into my poetry class and continues to find it's way in more areas of the shipboard life. I have been asked to help with a memorial service for a student that went on this trip and died some time after. His mother is with us as a professor and I believe the plan is to scatter the ashes in the Indian Ocean. Also, after a discussion with one of the counseling psychologists aboard we plan to start an Explorer Seminar discussing death traditions and culture around the world. So, even though I went on this trip thinking that there would be no mortuary connection, I have found more then I could have ever imagined. So, wish me luck and I hope to be able to explain more later.