E-mail Kathryn sent Wednesday, October 31, 2001, on the ship en route to South Africa

Hello Everyone!!!!!

Sorry I havenĖt written in such a long time!!! ItĖs been quite a busy time out here and see. I am more and more convinced that spontaneity is the only way I can possibly to anything in my experience, and it seems that Captain Ryan is running this ship the same way, out of pure necessity. But, he is doing a fantastic job. About a week ago we woke up to see that the ship was moving in the opposite direction as we were supposed to be going. They announced in our CORE class in the beginning of the day, that the Consolate in Nairobi had contacted the Pittsburgh office which keeps all of our actions in order, that they had changed their minds about our ship docking in Mombasa, and they said that it was unsafe for us to dock, so we had to turn around, and instead of going to Kenya, the ship sailed in the direction of the Seychelle Islands!!! Now, I had never heard about these islands, but the more we heard about them, the more we were blown away that our ship was actually going there!!!!! The Seychelles is sort of like the Bahamas for Europeans and Asian wealthy people! It also just happens to have the best snorkeling and scuba diving conditions of coral reefs in the world. The Marine Biologist on the boat was QUITE excited to tell us all about it. So, the next day after the announcement, we arrived in our little tropical paradise. Now, I urge you all to go to the nearest World Map and look off the Eastern Coast of Africa, about 300 or so miles, and look for the Seychelle Islands. Now, if you want to go somewhere that is as out in the middle of nowhere as you can go, the Sechelles would be it! It was BEAUTIFUL!!! The Islands towered out of the Indian Ocean in Rolling faces of rock and palm trees, and the water was as turquoise blue as water can possibly get. 3 friends and I hopped right off the boat and traveled to the tourist agent on the island, and found the place where we were as far from the other 700 Semester at Sea people as we could get and were directed to Praslin Island. The trick about Praslin, is that, although you could sometimes get there by a 3 hour ferry, the only way we could reach it was to FLY! So we hopped on a little island hopper and reached the place which was as real as a tropical paradise and peaceful escape as you can get. We quickly adjusted to the pace of the island. V-e-r-y- S-l-o-w!! We checked into our Ïout of a magazineÓ resort rooms which were surprisingly reasonable, and headed out to the white sand beach to take in the rest of the sun of the day. We splashed around in the perfectly warm water and marveled at the little fishies and other sea life that were darting around our ankles in the water. Our next day, our full day on the island (we were only in the Seychelles for 2 nights, 3 days) we woke up early and caught the morning on the beach, and then headed to the Octopus Scuba Center and quickly learned about our scuba equipment and safety tips (donĖt worry mom, totally safe!!!!! ) and then went out in a boat, got thrown off backwards with all my gear on, and then descended into the reefs below for 45 minutes of swimming with fishies and snapping picture after picture with my underwater camera!!!! It was one of the GREATEST things IĖve ever done, and our scuba instructors quickly became friends! So much so, that after we ate an amazing 3 hour buffet dinner of fish straight out of the sea and filets that were more tasty than I ever could have imagined, we went out to the beach and spent the evening looking at the stars in the Southern Sky where absolutely no lights obstructed our view, and talked to our new friends about living on the islands and answering their questions about life off the island. Amazingly they had never been off the island, they had grown up in the same village and dreamed of seeing other parts of the world, despite us telling them that they were stuck in the most beautiful place in the world. Our last day we said goodbye to Praslin and flew back to the main island of Mahe. I finished my time in the Seychelles by going to another beach with some other friends and playing in the water, throwing a Frisbee and reading. Then we shuffled regretfully back onto the ship and watched the islands disappear as we ate dinner on the back deck.