The Life Of Katie

Hey everyone! I know it’s been forever since I updated this thing. Time is flying by faster then ever and between school work and traveling I haven’t really had time to sit in the computer lab and tell you about what happened in each country. So I’m finally making time to sit down and let you know what’s going on with me.

Mauritius was okay. It is by far my least favorite port to this date. Yes, it is beautiful, but I think Hawaii or the Caribbean is much more beautiful then Mauritius. All the students called this our “Spring Break” port. We were there for 3 days and all people did was drink, drink, oh ya and drink. Yes, people explored the country a little but it was more of a fun spot.

The first day there I went on a city orientation/service visits. We explored the city a little but I was able to participate in visiting some pretty interesting places. The first place we stopped at was a home for the elderly. Most of the people here were brought by their families because they couldn’t take care of them anymore. Most of the people were there because they were old, but there was a good amount that was there because of being mentally or physically handicapped. The families really don’t visit either. The elderly go on living and their family becomes the others living with them. Their living conditions were pretty horrible. I kept on thinking about Grandma and her process of finding a “home” that would suit her needs and wasn’t horrible and how she was so picky. The people here were living in one room with like 20 beds or more in it and having little to no space. It was absolutely horrible. The second place we went was another elderly home but only for women. This one was probably worse then the first. The cool thing was there was a woman who was turning 98 the next day so that was pretty cool. The third place we went was a school. In Mauritius, when students finish elementary school they must take a test and pass it to move on to secondary school. If the students do not pass (they get two chances) then they cannot move on and they end up doing bad things on the streets. Mauritius has created a numerous of privately funded schools for those students who want to continue their education but cannot. The place we went was one of these schools. There were about 25 students ranging from 12 to 15. The school was in one small room with white walls. The students sat at large tables. They explained the whole system to us and about their program and then we got to interact with the kids. Most of us didn’t know French and they knew little English so it made it difficult to talk to them. But we were able to communicate a little bit. They sang for us which was beautiful and we sang to them. Then we played a game where we walked in a circle holding hands singing a French song, and then the teacher would yell out a number and you had to get in groups of that number of people. It was a ton of fun and we all enjoyed it very much.

Then I headed back to the ship. My friends had left that morning and I didn’t know what they were doing. I found out later that they were going to get a bungalow in a city nearby for the 2 nights and then I was supposed to call one of their cell phones to meet up with them. I called numerous times but was unable to reach them. So I hung out on the ship pretty much the rest of that night until Danielle called me. The ship was easily 20 minutes away from the city and I didn’t want to go out by myself and everyone else had left to rent a bungalow. Danielle and I went out with the guys. We ended up going to the Waterfront and just hung out there; we got some dinner and drinks. Then Elliot, Eric and Andrew decided they wanted to go to Flic en Flac, which was a beach, to go meet people and drink. So I decided to tag along because I had already spent a lot of time on the ship that afternoon. I don’t think I have ever laughed as hard in a long time as I did in the taxi ride there. The guys were hysterical (and drunk). We got to flic en flac, and nothing was really there. But we found a bar, had a couple of drinks, went to the beach, and really just hung out around that area. That night was probably the best time I had in Mauritius.

The next day I slept in and then went to another SAS trip to another children’s place. This place was called Terre de Paix. Terre de Paix was a place for students ages 12 – 16 who lived with domestic violence. A large number of these students have been taken out of their houses and put into new ones or they live on the property. We were able to watch and see how their literacy program was used and how their music is taught. It was very interesting to see how the school uses domestic violence to help the students learn. For instance, for the literacy center, they had one of the girls read her story about domestic violence to us (with translation from another person). They do a fantastic job showing the students that they are special and even though they live/lived in horrible conditions, they can do something with their lives. I was able to buy a cd that had children’s stories in English/French/and another language that I cannot think of right now. It’s a native language to Mauritius. They are also written in the three languages so I was really excited about that. I think Mauritius does a great job of helping students who are struggling and I think the United States could look at Mauritius to help some of our struggling students.

When I went back to the ship, everyone was till gone so I hung out around the ship until Danielle got back from her SAS trip. When Danielle got back she really wanted to spend the night at Grand Bay (a beach) and hang out there. Since no one was really around, I went with her because I wanted to get off the ship. We ended up running into Courtney, Dani, Sarah, Rachel, and Anthony, which were the people I was supposed to stay with for the 3 days. It was good to see them and hear all of their stories.

The next morning I woke up early, took a taxi back to the ship to meet Court and Dani to go shopping and explore around Port Louis, which is where we were docked. We went to the market and explored.

Overall Mauritius really wasn’t that great. I don’t really want to go back. There’s a lot to see and it’s beautiful. But I would recommend people put more money into going to Hawaii then Mauritius. Another reason why I don’t think I enjoyed it that much was because I really just wanted to go to India. Mauritius was a great transition between South Africa and India because it had a ton of India culture and customs, but changed a little.