Day 14. Flexibility; the only ?F word on the ship?

I said it in one of my first posts: when you travel around the world, you should expect to run into some bumps in the road. I mean, lets face it, we’re in a very large ship with many people aboard traveling large distances. If we wanted everything to run exactly as planned, we’d just have the program in some no-name city like Witchita, Kansas.

Pirates was the thorn in our side last time.

This time, it’s gas.

The ship needs some gas! We left Spain yesterday and headed south overnight to the small UK territory of Gibraltar. It is literally a rock at the very south of Spain and guards the Strait of Gibraltar that separates Europe from Africa. It has been owned by the British for all of modern history, despite claims by the Spanish that they should be the owners.

Anyway, we were to anchor outside the port, and a fuel ship was to pull up beside us and pump gas into us by way of a stretched tube. Everything was running to plan until this morning, when our entrance to the harbor was delayed by heavy fog in the area. When we finally reached the harbor, the weather changed, but did not do so for the better. In the fog’s absence (it became beautiful and sunny out), wind and waves prevailed, and we were rocking like crazy waiting for the fuel tanker. It finally pulled an amazing maneuver, turning around with little more than a few meters to work with. Finally, it pulled up along side us, huge inflatable bumpers hanging from its side to prevent impact.

Our crew threw them ropes and we tied together, and the announcement was made that fuel pumping was to begin, so access to the 4th and 5th deck was restricted for safety reasons. We went about our day, thinking nothing of the process.

Little did we know, the fuel never flowed. It was deemed too dangerous due to the waves, and they won’t try again until the morning. Once we’re refueled, its on to Casablanca where we will make the best of the situation. Best estimates put us in Morocco tomorrow evening. Spirits are high, and everybody realizes that there is nothing we can do about it. We’re using the day tomorrow to relax, work, and plan trips for our future ports. What can you do!? We’re traveling a lot!

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Logistical Pre-port

Morocco is a monarchy, ruled by the same royal family for the past 400 years who claim direct descendants of Mohammad the prophet. Though they are an Islamic country, Morocco has progressed far greater than most other countries claiming the same faith. As such, they have paid dearly for it, suffering multiple terrorist attacks in its cities in the past few years. The most memorable was in 2004, when a market was the target of a terrorist attack. Morocco has used the opportunity to separate itself from the extremists, saying that this type of exploitation of the Qu’ran should not be tolerated. When 9/11 occurred, for instance, the King and his cabinet, all of the Islam faith attended Christian a Christian memorial mass in solidarity with American-Moroccans.

Still, there are a few more things to worry about then in Spain, and a few are pretty comical. We took the time in logistical P-P tonight to talk about them, among other things, here are some highlights:

- Food: Boil it, Cook it, Peel it, or Forget it. Stomach diseases and travelers diarrhea runs rampant with tourists.
- Water is generally not clean. It should be bought from bottles or boiled.
- Schisto- a disease that’s picked up from brief contact with non-salted water. It’s nasty, that’s all I’m going to say about it.
-Animals carry some pretty nasty stuff. Touching them or feeding them should be avoided at all costs. The ship’s doctor made a good point: don’t try and pet the scorpions
- A woman making eye contact with a  man is equated with extremely heavy flirting. Girls on the ship were told to avoid eye contact with strangers at all costs
- Lines in Morocco are non-existant. Where westerners would remain in an orderly fashion, Moroccans adopt a ‘the strongest survive’ mantra. Pushing is considered commonplace and not rude in the least.
- Travelers diarrhea is considered 3 BMs in 8 hours or more than 5 in a day. The doctor made a point of saying that if you call due to “one runny stool” he will tell you to call back after two more. Haha.
-The Dirham is the Moroccan currency. It is about 8:1 to the dollar. Yay.
-In case of emergency, police can be reached by dialing 19.

- On Wed., 70 members of the Moroccan press and educational system are boarding the ship for a conference. We were featured in a Spanish Newspaper (pictures and link will be posted tomorrow), so hopefully we will make the news again in Morocco!

That’s about all I got. Morocco is described as a mix between conservatism and liberalism. We should dress much differently, but I’m excited to see at what degree the country has accepted beliefs and faiths other than their own. Here’s our plan for the trip:

Mon: Arrival unknown
Tues: Travel to Marrakech by train, stay in Bed and Breakfast
Wed: Marrakech
Thurs: return to Casablanca. On ship by 1800.

I have a great group of friends traveling with me. Except for Lia, who is reading this blog over my shoulder while I type. Just kidding, Lia’s mom, Lia tells me you frequent my blog!

Feel free to call, or e-mail while I’m on land. I’d love to hear from you!

p.s. An essay I wrote about Spain, much of which is in the Spain blog entry, will be featured in the Semester at Sea official blog along with some pics from Spain. It will probably be posted tomorrow. Again, the link is http://semesteratsea-spring2009.blogspot.com/ . I hope you enjoy it.