Show update and Neptune Celebration

Well, I missed a day…pardon my craziness on board the ship. I spent the time I would have been writing yesterday reading the massive script I received for the show I’m going to be in. But first, my location:

03 degrees, 14 minutes N – (inching closer and closer to the equator!)
041 degrees, 29 minutes W
Average Speed: 21.2 knots
1270 NM until Salvador
Sea Depth: 8987.2 feet
Water Temp: 80.6 degrees F, 27 degrees C
Air Time: Same
Swell height: 5-7 feet
Moderate seas with cloudy skies; Good Visibility.

We’ll be crossing the equator at 0330 (local time, I’m going to be two hours ahead of the east coast come 0200 hours). Tomorrow we don’t have any classes in celebration of Neptune Day. We will be abruptly woken at around 0700 to begin the wild and crazy events of the day. From head shaving to being covered in fish guts, there will be adventures and activities to please all types. More on that later.

As for the play…it’s called Ganesha. It was performed off-Broadway back in the 80s’ in NYC and it was a total flop. Some say part of that is because the original was 3.5 hours. Thankfully, our wonderful director has done a fair share of editing and chopped it down to a comfortable hour and forty-five minutes or so. With a cast of four and a very basic set, this show is going to be quite something. I’m scared to death though. Of course, the title of my part is very basic, Man. However, in playing the role of Man, I have to be about 12 or 14 different characters throughout the show. Only one of them is repeated and the rest are memorable and important aspects to the show. This makes matters much scarier for me. Not only will I have to play all these different characters, but, they will all have to be distinctly different from the one I just walked of stage playing. There are times when I’m two or three different characters in one scene! Thankfully, I have until April 9th to get ready for this show…sorry Mom, Dad, and Betty, no performance in ‘Nam!

The show mostly takes place in India and Ganesha is an Indian god created by a woman in need of a child. He has the body of a man and the head of an elephant. He is not your typical god; he is always happy and can be anywhere he wants or you need him to be. He cannot answer wishes, nor is he a god you pray to. He is simply there to hold your hand, guide you through, and be by your side when you might need someone. Ganesha also takes on the role of several other beings throughout the show, though not nearly as many as Man does. The two other characters, Katherine and Margaret, are best friends from Greenwich, Connecticut. Both just decided they needed to get away from home…clearly far away considering they choose India as an escape. They both go through a series of personal and physical changes throughout their journey. Anger and joy, sadness and frustration are just some of the obstacles these crazy ladies have to overcome. They do so by the random people (mostly played by Man) and encounters they have along their two-week stint in the great, vast nation that is India. From a sarcastic ticket agent at the airport, to an hotel manager, and from a hate-crime victim to an ignorant American tourist, these are just a few of the types of people Kitty and Maggie will meet along the way.

Now, as for tomorrow’s HUGE CELEBRATION! It is tradition that those passing the equator shave their heads to prepare for the change in climate and also a way of cleansing the body (head) of past experiences and impurities. Now, I’ve been pondering and toiling over whether or not to shave my head and go along with tradition…frankly, it is still up in the air but this is what I can tell you: I purchased a raffle ticket that entered me in a drawing, in doing so, if my ticket is drawn I will have my head shaved by the Capitan of our great ship, along with four other raffle winners. I’ve been saying that this is the only way I will shave my head, however, as most of us know, I do tend to buckle under peer-pressure (why do you think I have two piercing?), so that’s not to say I won’t end up doing it regardless of whether or not my ticket is drawn. My roommate is definitely shaving his head along with several other friends of mine, including a few ladies with some lengthy-locks. I just keep telling myself how much of a freak I’m going to look like with a shaved head, but hey, by the time I get back to the States it will be back at the length I left with it…so we’ll see. What I will say is look forward to future blog posts because there might be a telling story about my experience under the razor…or maybe not. Who knows?

As part of an ongoing shipboard program, the community college classes, the Ethnomusicologist is going to be putting on a performance in the Union tonight. He is a renowned Cellist and will be performing music from the great country of Brazil. I can’t tell you how excitied I am to visit this great country. The city of Salvador (the port we’re going into) has a population of about 2.5 million. It is in the province of Bahia in the Northeastern region of the country. This region is also one of the poorest in the nation. As the fourth largest country in the world (land size), Brazils population mostly lies within its urban locations. Because it becomes so difficult to live in the rural, country areas, citizens have been flocking to the major cities for decades. In fact, with a population of about 180 million, 80% of this population lives along the coastal cities of the great Atlantic Ocean, kind of coincidental when you think about population distribution in the United States. A common misconception about the country is that people think it is of Spanish decent…FALSE. The national language is Portuguese because that is who colonized this great country back in the mid to late 1500s. An amazing aspect about the colonization of this country is that by the 1600s’, most of its boarders and contours were set without any wars or major conflicts. Brazil shares a boarder with every South American country except for Chile which boarders Argentina on the western-shore of the continent.

Well, that’s all for now. Looking forward to tomrrow!