There is so much going on I don't know where to start. The Internet has been having problems lately so it is going to be completely shut down and revamped while we are in South Africa. So I apologize if I have to keep you waiting for updates on the seriously exciting stuff I'm about to tell you.
1st off we are no longer going to Kenya. There is a civil war going on which has gotten mighty dangerous for traveling. There is especially a lot of piracy happening on the east coast of Africa right now so we were ordered not to land on that coast at all. So where are we going? No idea. Rumors are flying of course but the truth is no one knows. There's a lot to work out when you have to plan a new port. We have 5 days in South Africa, then whatever country we go to, and then India. We may know by tomorrow morning where we are going. People are taking up bets for Australia, which I doubt we'd go, but it's doable. I would prefer Sri Lanka and having been there I can assure it would be amazing. I also suggested Egypt to Dean John… "All you have to do is sail up the Red Sea." He didn't buy it, not that it's his decision unfortunately. All I know for sure is that we can't land in Iran, (funny in a twisted, twisted way, I'm sorry). Maybe Indonesia? Once before when the ship got redirected from Kenya they went to some islands and I'm guessing that's the most probable bet at the moment. Worse case scenario, we end up at sea for a loooong time because South Africa and India are fixed. It would be difficult to extend our stays there. Whatever happens, I'm sure it'll be amazing.
In other news, I've been selected as the Photo Editor for our picture book "Gangway." Gangway is the word for the entrance to the boat were you get on and off. Oophs, "ship." So we thought it was a fitting name since this book is the entrance into our voyage and the ship's gangway is our entrance into every por we are experiencing. Brilliant, isn't it? I'm also doing the Fall '05 website. We have to mail it as a CD to the office to upload so it'll be some time before it'll be up, but we've got a basic running site so far. The website team is only like 5 kids so we each have a lot of work to do. I'm really excited about these two projects. They are going to be really time consuming but what a great way of preserving the memories, experiences and learnings of our voyage around the world.
Ok, and maybe one of the most amazing things that as ever happened to me in my entire life… I am having dinner at Archbishop Desmond Tutu's house tomorrow night! YES, YES, YES! What a lucky girl I am. I was so bummed because I was suppose to be on the last student panel to ask him questions, but we didn't do it. Which is best because we've had the poor man on the hot seat for days and he must be exhausted. And this is way better than getting to ask him one or two questions. I'm not sure exactly how this all happened but it seems the Archbishop invited the Deans and the four of us who were suppose to be on the last panel to dinner. Sounds good to me. It hasn't hit me yet, but this is great. But you may have to wait five days to find out what happens. Let's hope I get a big kiss and a blessing! Is it wrong to say "Holy Cow?"
