One Month Away

One month from today Jayne and I will be onboard the MV Explorer headed from Boston to Halifax, Nova Scotia where the students will board.

I can't imagine having done this without the summer months to get ready.   There has been so much to do.   So many forms to fill out; so many shots to get; so many arrangements to make.  This morning Jayne is cleaning out the refrigerator throwing away anything we think we won't eat in the next month!

I've been doing a lot of reading in preparation for the trip.  I recently finished a biography of Nelson Mandela and hope to be able to visit Robben Island, where he spent most of his prison years, while we are in Cape Town.  Earlier I had read a brief bio of Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of independent Ghana, and, a book on the history of the Methodist Church in Ghana.  That turned out to be an important book because I have made contact with the author and he put me in contact with folks at a Presbyterian seminary in Accra that will be hosting one of my World Religions classes while we are there.

The big thing we are working on now is planning some of in port trips.    SAS provides lots of opportunities and anything overnight we have to purchase now.  

Our biggest in port plans are from Antwerp and Cape Town.  We are planning to purchase a five day Eurorail pass and go from Antwerp to Heidelberg, Germany where we will rent a car and drive to the villages from whence Jayne's ancestors came to Madison as part of the 2nd Germana Colony.  We won't be far from where Heinrich Haller left for America, Mattstall, which is near Strasbourg, France.  We may be able to drive there too.

From Cape Town we hope to do a safari and see the Big Five wild animals.  It seems that the one planned trip our schedule will allow us to take also involves Victoria Falls. 

As to classes:  I had been worried that people wouldn't sign up for them!  I was wrong. All three are filled to capacity.  I typically have about 60 students a semester at SU.  This fall I'll have more than 90!  I may be working harder on the ship than I normally do.