A posting from the Ships NP

Hi All – Johnnie has been doing such a great job tracking our voyage thus far that I haven’t felt the need to write! It has been more than we could have expected thus far and we haven’t even gotten to our first major port – Cadiz, Spain. We arrive there on Saturday morning at 8am. We got a glimpse of land today as we passed the Azores – it was nice to have a break in the monotony of endless seas…!
It’s hard to know where to even begin recounting our journey thus far. It is difficult to articulate how amazing the shipboard community is. I guess it starts with the staff of Institute of Shipboard Education / Semester at Sea (ISE/SAS). It is a tremendous group of people who are extremely enthusiastic (with good reason!) about this program and its mission. The faculty and staff which we also get to interact with on a daily basis are also quite amazing. Among us are a “Spanish Knight”, Delegate to VA Congress, two ordained Priests, a former career Secret Service Agent (who is incidentally a gorgeous blonde woman from So. Cal), a former career State Department employee, several returned Peace Corps Volunteers, and of course, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his wife Leah. I am fortunate enough to see them periodically in the health clinic where they stop by every few days. The kids and John have been able to interact with them in the dining hall which has been beautiful to see. He truly embodies goodness. The students are also amazing – extremely enthusiastic, optimistic, open, motivated and fun! In many respects, they are the ships’ greatest resources. We have been so fortunate to have them interact with the kids in the Dependant Children program where we have volunteers daily to assist the 23 children in the program, with homework: reading, writing, math; they give gym, music, and art classes to the younger children (5 and 6 year olds), and they even babysit for the families – all on a volunteer basis! You can imagine how excited all of our children are! Even Declan gets some one on one time in the morning to give Johnnie and I a break, and to minimize the distraction he causes in the “school”.
Quotes from the Kids…
“Are we going home now…?” today is the first day that Declan didn’t ask this!
“I like everything about living on the boat. My favorite thing is the college students because I like when they tutor us and play with us! Desmond Tutu gave me a high five yesterday when I was leaving the cafeteria, and he gave Daddy a fist pump! My least favorite thing is the pool water, because it’s salty. Oh, and I also don’t like getting seasick…!” Anna
“I liked seeing land today! I’m getting excited to see the rhinos in South Africa. I liked when Desmond Tutu tickled my chin. “ Layne