A Day in Halifax

We docked in Halifax, Nova Scotia this morning at 8 am, as planned. Soon thereafter Canadian customs and security officials boarded the ship. Going through customs on the ship the firsts time was very simple. Especially if you follow the directions over the announcements. As always, there is a pecking order. The visiting Reserve Officers group that is convening on the ship from Boston to Halifax was sent through first. Then the SAS folks on decks 7 and 5 and finally those of us on decks 4 (us) and 3. Yesterday we signed a simple document saying we were going to Halifax and declaring that we were only carrying personal items. Today our passports were attached to that form, we gathered that from the ship officials and were then sent to see a Canadian customs official who asked a few questions and then stamped our passports. The passports were then handed back over to member of the ships staff. We board the ship using our id – which is also our key to the room.

Before we left, we signed up for a couple more trips before the students get on – one we had not signed me up for that Barry is leading to churches in London. And for the both of us a trip to the Cliffs of Moher in Galway, Ireland, an evening with a Moroccan family in Casablanca and a service visit to a the Morning Star school in Accra, Ghana. At the school we will compare and contrast the educational systems of Ghana and the US. Glad we were able to fit that in. We have something planned for each day we are in Ghana.

Once we got off the ship, we took t taxi to the Halifax Public Gardens and spent a half hour walking around there. See the attached picture. We then walked our way back toward the ship stopping along the way to visit the Citadel or fort on the top of the hill overlooking the port. (We were told it's the most visited historical site in Canada.) There were lots of museum inside, but it was rather expensive and didn't seem all that interesting unless you already knew a lot about Canadian history. We did go into the Maritime Museum which features exhibitions on the Titanic (it was headed from Southampton to Nova Scotia; we're going in the opposite direction!) and the "great explosion" of 1917 when a ship carrying munitions collided with a cargo vessel laden with relief supplies for Belgium. The explosion destroyed a large portion of the city and killed several thousand. (It is claimed to be the largest manmade explosion prior to the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima). We heard a very informative presentation on the explosion and the events leading up to it. After that we had lunch at a pub in the Alexander Keith Brewery.

Before heading back to the ship we went to a grocery store to pick up a few items. We had given the cab driver a twenty and he gave us $10 Canadian in change. Our bill was $12.05 and the cashier said he'd take the $10 in Canadian and the rest in U. S. dollars, but he had no U. S. change. We were going to have to give him an extra $10 until the lady behind us him line gave in a coin. Barry thought she had given him a nickel to make the process easier, but the coin was so large. He said, "What did you just do?" "I gave him $2," she said (and he must have canceled the nickel.) We was shocked by her kindness and generosity (or was it worth $2 to her to get through the line more quickly!) In general we've found the people around Halifax incredibly friendly and helpful.

Barry and Jayne