AFRICA IS IN SIGHT!!!

So we have finally gotten to Africa!! Well not officially, but we will be in port by 8am tomorrow morning! So the plan is to get up to see the sunrise and have some breakfast before planning out our day that we will spend in Walvis Bay. We don’t have legit plans as of yet, but we will just walk around the city and see some sites and eat some apparently good German food- so that will be nice. We are all just so excited to get off the ship! It has been a long haul from Brazil…
Namibia as a country only has 1.8 million people, and 44% of the population is under the age of 14. So it will be quite different coming from Salvador, Brazil- a city whose population is more than the entire country of Namibia. Plus no one on the ship has ever been here before, so we all don’t quite know what to expect! It should be a fun experience though, I am really looking forward to seeing all of the beautiful landscapes. As of now, tentative plans include hiking to Dune 7 (one of the most famous Sand Dunes in Africa…which I’m not too sure how a sand dune gets recognized….guess I’ll find out), possibly going Sand Boarding and spending a night or two in Windhoek, the capital city. So we have 5 days to explore this beautiful country, and then we are only on board for three days before arriving in South Africa- so this is a very exciting part of the journey! It has also gotten significantly cooler out, rumor has it the high in Africa will be around 68 degrees, which is a little chilly, but more pleasant than 95 degrees for traveling.
As far as ship life goes- everything is going well. Classes are OK (I actually enjoyed the past few days because the history of Namibia is very interesting and something that I knew NOTHING about) and I had my first exam two days ago which wasn’t too bad. Sleeping has been a favorite of mine lately. We are now I believe 6 hours ahead of East Coast time…we have lost an hour every night for what seems like forever, so we have all been napping a lot. Speaking of, it’s about that time to get a good night’s sleep as I prepare for AFRICA!!! Love and prayers….Ari