Kristin Smith
December 14, 1995 aboard Concordia
Faculty Journal: Life as the Director
To be the director onboard the Concordia you need to have number of things - a lot of energy, a sense of adventure, a lot of patience and a high tolerance level. The last few months have been a true experience for me, and I sometimes think that my learning curve is higher than the students.
My job is primarily one of coordination. I am responsible for 41 students and 3 teachers, and I also have to juggle these people with the professional sailing crew. At sea, my job is the easiest. We follow a very rigorous schedule and everyone has a place to be almost every minute of the day. My day starts at 0630. I try to wake up before the students in the morning so that I appear to be relatively coherent when they surface. Physical education is next on the agenda, followed by breakfast and then colors. Colors is a sea tradition of raising the flags. We use it as a type of morning assembly. From 0800 -0900 I supervise morning clean-up. From 0900 on, the ship is academic. I do not spend very much time in a classroom; I only teach one class. I didn't think I would miss teaching, but as time goes on, I miss it more and more. I do a lot of teaching but not in an academic sense. I find I have many different roles. I'm a director, a teacher, a business person, a confidant, a friend, a mom, and somewhere in there I try to be myself.
When we arrive in port my days become 12 - 17 hour working days. Each port is a new experience, as we are never 100% sure of what to expect. I start off dealing with port authorities, customs, and immigration. This job is becoming increasingly more difficult as a woman in my position is not always respected in this part of the world. Fortunately I have a very supportive Captain and First Mate. (Imagine going on a 5 month field trip.) I meet with guides, embassy representatives and school officials. I try my best not to lose any students and ensure that they are learning as much as they can wherever we go. On top of doing my job, I have seen and experienced some wonderful things.
Chantelle Styles
December 14, 1995 aboard Concordia
Dar es Salaam and Dr. Goodall
Saturday we arrived in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It was definitely a unique experience that taught us all how much we have taken things for granted at home. Economically, Tanzania is a very poor country, and it is totally different from any other port that we have visited. The minute we pulled up alongside, a crowd of men wearing no shoes and rugged clothing were eager to interact with us. When we walked in town, the main thing that was on our mind was the heat - it was almost unbearable. The Tanzanians were very eager to help us. They wanted to either show us where to go, take us in their cab, or sell us something. You could never miss the friendly call of 'jambo,' which means hello in Swahili, which was yelled out to us by almost every person we saw.
Yesterday afternoon, we set sail for Zanzibar with a very special guest onboard. Dr. Jane Goodall and four of her students joined us in Dar es Salaam and will leave us here in Zanzibar. Dr. Goodall specializes in the anthropological study of chimpanzees in Gombe National Park, western Tanzania (see December's edition of National Geographic). We are all extremely excited to have someone who is so prominent in our society living with us onboard Concordia.
We had an excellent sail to Zanzibar. We ended up setting almost every sail, and the sunset over Africa was breathtaking. We are looking forward to exploring this island for the next couple of days.
Michele Discepola
December 14, 1995 aboard Concordia
Long Time at Sea
The Concordia has traveled many nautical miles at sea bringing us to many different ports of call. We have sailed for many different lengths of time, some long, yet some quite short. Our longest sail before this one was nine days at sea. The sail from Saudi Arabia to Dar es Salaam should have been only fourteen days, but will extend to a total of sixteen days. To keep from getting anxious on a long sail such as this one, we have activities which are planned by the student council. So far, we have played the secret friend game and had a change your image night. Coming up on this leg of the trip, we will have an initiation ceremony of crossing the equator which should be quite exciting. This leg of the journey will be a great time to reflect on what we have seen and done since we first set sail from North America.
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