Rio to Manaus

The journey to and the days in Manaus have been interesting and challenging.  First the journey.

Between Rio and Manaus we had a stretch of seven class days with one study day.  Barry's Liberation Theology class was challenging.  Our field lab in Buenos Aires wasn't the best and they surely let Barry know!   They were supposed to right a five page reflection on the experience and, as one said, "We didn't learn enough to write one page!"   While that was an exaggeration there was truth in it, so Barry "adjusted" and tried to add some additional "experiential" elements to the class to give them something to write about.  We watched the film "Romero" two days and he had a Jesuit-trained Catholic campus minister onboard lead a reflection a "stations of the cross" experience outside of class based on paintings by Adolpho Perez-Esquivel and a commentary intended to introduce Liberation Theology through this traditional spiritual exercise. Barry also told the class that any experiences they had in port along the way or previous experiences on service or mission trips could be an "experiential" basis for their field lab reports.    Barry has also enjoyed reading their last papers (on Leonardo Boff's study of the meaning of Jesus death from the perspective of Liberation Theology).  Most have shown that they are indeed learning something!

Here's one of my students working on his paper.

Another challenging part of the journey was the waves!   For some reason we experienced a lot of rough seas as we crept along the coast of Brazil. That ended when we started up the Amazon.  It is simply amazing how big the Amazon is and how for miles and miles we seemed to pass untouched rain forest.

We enjoyed lots of entertainment also along the way.  One night was the much ballyhooed crew talent show.  It was surely entertaining.  It began with a four-piece rock band that started the evening with a cover of REM's "This one goes out two the one I loved."  Barry remembered the band he was part of in the 7^th and 8^th grade and how grateful they were for some basic three-chord songs to get started with.  He found himself wondering how much Billy and the Blockbusters playing "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone" sounded like these four Filipino guys.   

After that the show featured a humorous skit mocking "Air Zimbabwe" by girls from the beauty shop and spa.  And then a series of dance routines by various parts of the crew.  There was also a stand-up comic and a video of a former member of the crew who used to sing a Frank Sinatra medley every voyage. He died tragically just before this one and the video was clearly emotional for the crew and brought Dean John Tymitz who had spent several voyages with the man to tears. 

We've also had the student and staff talent show (the highlights included former UVa Educational School dean Jim Cooper performing tricks with his Yo-Yo), the shipboard auction to raise money for Semester at Sea scholarships (where a student bid $3500 to purchase the official map of our journey-above) and a public performance by the class on physical comedy taught by our famous Big Apple circus clown, Barry Lubin.  A highlight of the latter was the skit about the global studies class.  Notice all the students asleep in the background.  As us sometime about the skit having to do with the random drug testing program students experience on the ship.

We picked the U. S. Ambassador to Brazil, Thomas Shannon, and several members of his staff at the beginning of the Amazon River (as that on Monday) and they have been with us since.   The Ambassador is a former William and Mary undergrad who has had a long career in the Foreign Service.  He gave an impressive presentation in Global Studies, some of it celebrating Brazil's achievements in lifting millions out of poverty while admirably protecting the environment and the rights of indigenous peoples by incorporating themselves into the global economy through freer trade.  It was masterful, but, in Barry's view, a very one-sided and overly optimistic assessment.   

We signed up to be part of a small group to help host the Ambassador, his wife, and staff for our Thanksgiving Dinner Wednesday evening just before arriving in Manaus.  Occasionally, there are special dinners onboard in a private dining room/classroom near the dining hall and that's what we were expecting.  Instead, we were eating in the main dining room at tables set apart for the occasion.  There was a head table with the Ambassador and mostly some select students.  They enjoyed table service while the rest of us, scattered nearby at four other tables, went through the line with everyone else.  It was so noisy that it was nearly impossible to carry on a conversation and the Ambassador and his wife weren't even brought around to meet the rest of us who were their to host him.   We were rather disappointed and not a little ticked off.    It was hardly an appropriate way to host the Ambassador and the idea of treating the two groups of people there so differently seems rude.   The worst part was not being in a separate room where it was possible to actually meet and greet.

Students really got dressed up for the dinner.

We have had multiple opportunities sense to chat with the Ambassador and he is a genuinely nice man.