Across the Atlantic:

Catch ya later, Brazil…So long, Amazon River… Hello, Wide open Seas…. And See you very soon, Africa!  We left the brown waters of the Amazon last night and entered back into the deep blue ocean.  For the students who get seasick, it isn’t the best of news… but I honestly missed being rocked to sleep at night! 

Our small group discussion groups meet after every port and last night’s talk brought some profound thoughts to my crazy mind.  I loved hearing about everyone’s experiences in Manaus, Rio, along the Amazon, and in the rainforest.  One thing my group leader said that I thought about a lot was that traveling does not really bring about any new informational knowledge.  If someone were to ask me six months ago if I knew that there are murder crimes in Dominica every day I would have said yes.  If I knew there is poverty in Brazil I would say yes.  If I knew there is child slavery in India or pollution in Japan… My answer to all of these questions would be “yes”,  What traveling does is broaden your emotional knowledge.  Seeing is believing.  It is experiencing the murdered individual’s friends and family, the poverty stricken children in Brazil, the slaved children in India, and the polluted air in Japan.  That is what makes someone a traveler. 

Side Note: One of the SAS trips in Manaus to a village had a little teething monkey running around… Turns out 18 students had to get rabies vaccinations, in total worth $100,000! No worries, though, we’re good to go!

“The real voyage of discovery lies, not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”      -Marcel Proust