Life at Sea Part 6: New Beginnings

As with most schools, we started in a rush from Barbados. We went to Dominica, then the Dominican Republic, and I am writing this from Cuba. The major difference with our restart is experience. We know the ship now. We are trusted to do much of the ship's running without much oversight. This trust is lovely, but it also reinforces the routine for better or worse.

I want to think through in writing how we perceive the people and places we visit. This is largely spurred on by the 7 hours of cleaning enforced by our captain for his fears of our reception in Cuba. The narrative that was disseminated amongst the crew was that the Cubans were harsh on ships in their ports because of all the sanctions the world put on them. This was not the case. We were told they were bringing dogs on board to inspect the ship for any contraband, and we were led to believe that the smallest amount of dirt would result in a heavy fine. They didn’t do so much as walk into a cabin, let alone inspect it with any level of rigor. This limited level of inspection has been the case at every port. Still, whenever we visit a less European or economically developed country, we go on high alert, wasting hours of time scrubbing the minutia from the ship. It is good that we clean with fervor, but the framing is all wrong. Clean when you gotta clean, but don’t make it about the places we are visiting because it becomes racist very quickly since that appears to be the only difference in the ports. We had more intense security for getting on and off the ship in Morocco than anywhere in Europe, but we were required to post double the number of people to watch the gangway because of our fears of the country. Whereas in Tenerife, part of Spain, we had very little awareness, only posting at most two people to watch, and we had random people walking onto the ship. There was no port security there. My favorite ports have been the ones less in the sway of Europe. The “post-colonial” cultures that have uniquely developed in the wake of plantation-based slavery are rich, happy, and flourishing. They do not have the same economic conveniences as much of Europe, but that only emphasizes the impotence of much of what we consider important. This is what traveling provides us. We gain perspective and understanding of our situation through a glimpse of another country, another people. If you are looking to travel to a place that will provide you with all the conveniences of your nation, then stay home. I’m certainly guilty of this exact thing whenever I see a Taco Bell or when I spent a day in Barbados looking for a 5TB hard drive (I went all over the island skipping over every 4TB I saw, but I did eventually find what I was looking for). We love what we know, but we grow in the unknown. I greatly enjoy Europe. The people are very different from Americans, and there are kind people everywhere, but we need to stop looking at anywhere else as dirty, dangerous, and other. There is too much denigration on this planet already.