Sea Sickness and Spirituality

Jan 13


Friends and Family: Please do not envy my current situation.  It has now been around 40 hours at sea, and the rocking motion is all too noticeable.  I would not classify myself as someone prone to motion sickness, as I have spent a lot of my life on boats, but the constant pitch and roll is an inescapable force.  The effects on me have not been too bad; I would not say that I am sick, but rather uncomfortable.  Almost immediately after leaving port two nights ago, the rocking was noticeable.  It is funny watching a line of people walking in the hallways uniformly stumble several steps to the left and then back to the right.  Yesterday (Thursday), we had almost 12 hours or orientation meetings, all of which were located in the Union, a large auditorium style room on the sixth deck near the bow of the ship.  I am convinced that this room is perfectly located to magnify the boats rocking and enhance the effects of seasickness.  Drowsiness, slight nausea and an ever-present headache are my main complaints.  I spent a good portion of the orientation slipping in and out of sleep and trying to keep my eyes shut so as to not see the rise and fall of the horizon through the windows.  Other students have described seasickness as being intoxicated, a comparison I would guess to be correct.  Today (Friday) I had three hours of classes this morning in Union.  I missed breakfast, and the waves are a little worse then yesterday, so the nausea was pretty unbearable.  It didn’t help that a girl threw up in class a few seats away.  I forced myself to eat and drink a little while ago for lunch, and was excused by my boss to go lie down in my cabin and miss my work-study responsibilities today.
        When lying flat or sitting on an outside deck, I hardly feel any sickness at all which has made the past couple of days more bearable.  I’m certain that in the next day or so I will hardly be noticing any rocking motion, but this might be wishful thinking.  I also have to remind myself that I am dealing better than most other students, who have to take medications.  There was apparently a helicopter evacuation of a Life Long Learner (adults on the ship) last night, who probably had fallen.
        Yesterday I continued to meet and get to know a lot of students.  Several were from Maryland, and a few others shared some common interests; lacrosse, guitar, sailing, Christianity, etc… At dinner, I randomly got in a conversation with Andrew Briggs, a guest lecturer, former SAS student (he was a student around 10 years ago I think) and founder of a non-profit organization located in Uganda called Freedom in Creation.  After hearing about his organization and the work it does, it came up that he was a Christian and had actually majored in biblical studies at college and planned on becoming a pastor.  It was very refreshing and interesting to see how his faith played a role, and continues to play a role in his charitable work.  He explained that his foundation was purposely a non-religious associated organization in order that it could be more accessible to public schools and universities, of which Andrew spends a lot of time presenting and recruiting from.  However, his motivation for his work was rooted in his deep faith and an understanding of the Bible.  He said that SAS provided an incredible opportunity to grow and be challenged in his faith in a global environment.  I am embarking on a similar journey of spiritual development, and look forward to more conversations with Andrew, who is both incredibly biblically knowledgeable and in touch with the realities of hardships around the world.  I think he will prove to be a valuable resource until he leaves the ship in S. Africa to continue back to Uganda.
        Last night was also the involvement symposium where we had the opportunity to sign up for all the different activities on the ship.  I signed up for intramural sports (bball volleyball and possibly soccer I think), extended families, a program where students are “adopted” by the adults on the ship, and a bunch of religion and spirituality things.  There are “living learning coordinators,” (basically RDs) who each run a different activity; sports, leadership, service, religions etc… The LLC for religion and spirituality is Hindu which was cool, and basically had everyone who attended the meeting, around 50 people, go around and share their beliefs and what programs they want to occur on the ship.  It was incredible how many students identified as Christian and wanted to join bible studies, prayer groups and worship times. It was encouraging to meet other believers trying to live their life for Christ and excited about pursuing Him on our voyage.  I was able to talk to the LLC at the end and offered to help lead and organize any Christian gatherings, since he obviously might not be comfortable leading a religion he doesn’t associated with.  I really hope and pray that God will bless fellowship on this ship and trust that friends and family will also pray for our time.  I also had my World Religions class this morning, which is led by a professor from Winchester VA, who knew my uncle’s church, and is also an ordained Christian minister.  I spoke with him at the end, and he encouraged me to use this class as a way to better understand other faiths and how to minister effectively to them.  Needless to say it has been a blessing to meet other believers, and look forward to seeing how God uses this experience to draw me closer to Him.
        We are stopping in Puerto Rico tonight to refuel but are not going to be allowed off the ship.  Tomorrow we have our B day classes, which is only one class for me.  Sunday and Monday we will be in Dominica (which is pronounced in a Latina ghetto way: Da Mo nic ka).  After that we are at sea for around a week, during which I will hopefully be able to get into somewhat of a routine, as the past couple days have been a whirlwind of different environments, schedules and activities.

Enjoy America.
-Ben