10/11/11 Mauritius

It's been a week since we left Mauritius, but I'm just now getting around to blogging about it. 

I was on-call the one day we were in Mauritius, so I had a different experience than many others.  I spent the day walking around the port area and seeing the market where the locals shop.  That was lots of fun and I ate one of the best veggie samosas I've ever had.  Most of the population here is Indian and the food reflects that with lots of curries and naan bread readily available.

The most interesting thing that happened to me in Mauritius was that I ran into an Indian man who wants to imigrate to the USA.  He had all kinds of questions for me, many which I couldn't answer.  Before we parted ways he insisted I give him my email address so that he could send me a copy of his resume to forward to someone who would hire him.  Somehow, I don't think it will be that easy for him.  I did email him back with information on how to apply for a job with V-ships, the company that staffs Semester at Sea with it's crew.

As previously mentioned, I was on-call this day.  I got back to the ship early for the clinic we hold prior to leaving each port.  I was warned that alcohol is a problem in this port because many of the students go out on snorkeling trips that include lots of alcohol along with the lunch barbeque. It didn't take long until some of them started staggering into the clinic, having failed the sobriety test at the gangplank.  There were actually only a few very drunk students, which is a big improvement from previous journeys, I'm told.  Those that got drunk enough to need babysitting in the medical clinic will start accruing bad-boy (or girl) points that can ultimately get them kicked off the ship.  It only takes 10 points to get booted, and a couple kids came quite close to that number for behaving poorly in addition to being drunk enough to require medical attention.  We sat there with them for hours until they were able to blow a number that allowed them to leave.  Despite that experience, I must say that I haven't seen nearly as many alcohol-related issues as I had expected, and have been VERY impressed with this group of students overall.  For the most part, they seem to be a thoughtful, hard-working, friendly group of kids that hope to make a difference in the world.