Christmas Memories

12-17-10

Christmas is soon approaching…but honestly, it doesn’t feel like Christmas to me. This is the first time I will be without any family during Christmas, I’m a little sad-but still so grateful for all the wonderful Christmases I’ve been able to enjoy in the past, and I’m sure this one will go in the books as well. It’s funny that out of the three Dillette children, I am the youngest and only girl-but somehow I became the first to not come home for Christmas.

I was laying out on the deck the other night while we were sailing and I got to thinking about a few past Christmas memories, one in particular, our family trip to Disney world in…?? Not sure, but I was maybe 7 or 8. We visited all the parks…magic kingdom, universal studios etc. We kept going on all these kiddie rides you know-watching the little Disney movies etc and finally I decided I wanted to go on a “scary” big kids ride- Space Mountain. And can you believe, that no one wanted to go with me? My whole family was scared to go! My two big brothers, my dad and mom, they all thought I was crazy. Of course, I didn’t care-I was willing to go alone, as the ‘aggressive’ adventurer I seem to be, but Daddy wouldn’t let me go along & ended up coming with me. I was just reflecting on this story and how it was one of so many shaping experiences that have made me the person I am today. Without that strong support of my family, there is no way I’d be here today adventuring along the African Cape.

When I decided to apply for this internship, I didn’t even think twice about the support I would get from my family-nor did I think at all about the fact that I would be traveling through the most dangerous pirate waters in the world-but hey, what would life be like if we thought about eveeerryything before we did it right? Nope-I just called home one day and said, I’m going on The World! 

I will be missing you all! 

A few pictures from a late night of Christmas decorating on the ship...and a few pictures of great Christmas memories!

I guess we've grown a bit? 

Even though we talked bad about your pie...I'm gonna miss it this year mummy :) Eat an extra slice for me!

My first snowy Christmas! 

My two beautiful Grandmothers

Definitely a Daddy's girl

Christmas 2009 after an afternoon of kiteboarding 

Chef Alana~!

12-16-11

Part of my internship is to rotate through various departments in order to understand the entire operation of the ship, specifically the F&B department. The past few days I was transformed into Sushi Chef Alana! On my first night in the sushi bar-after a short lesson that morning, I joined the Executive Sushi Chef Cipriano in working on the sushi orders for that evening. At around 6 o o’clock, we got an order for 3 rolls from In Residence Dining. Cipriano pulls out a sheet of seaweed paper and starts on the first roll, while I proceed to do the same. I start making the second roll and he turns to me and says “What are you doing?” I say, “I’m making the other roll”…he smiles with a bit of a shocked look on his face and then says “wow, you’re aggressive aren’t you, I like that”-so, after a few laughs we proceed. As we get more comfortable throughout the night he tells me that he’s never had someone come in and just take charge so quickly, but hey I figured, I had learned in the morning from his Assistant, so now it was time to get in there & help. I was confused…but apparently, I’m out of the norm. I guess I have a few skills though, because I made rolls all night-the more simple ones of course-but still! He said it takes people weeks to be able to do what I did in one day-and that if I ever wanted to be a chef I would be a great sushi chef J I felt pretty proud J

I also spent a few days in pastry-which I absolutely loved! The one thing I miss about being at home is cooking! I can’t wait to come back & try all the new recipes and tips I’ve learned. Part of Christmas onboard is 30 custom made gingerbread houses which I was lucky enough to help with.

Here are a few pictures from my short lived, but very exciting days as Chef Alana. 

 A little gingerbread house action...30 in total! 

Some of the almost finished products 

Maputo, Mozambique!

MAPUTO!

12-16-11

We are now in Maputo where there are hurricane force winds, but no worries…the captain turned up the engines so we would get here a few hours earlier and avoid the open sea once the winds picked up. I went for a run this morning, the city is pretty nice, a bit dirty and congested, but that was to be expected. The water is brown so I didn’t go in this time around. However, I did go out this afternoon to the local market where they had small shacks selling amazing woodwork, fabrics, bags, paintings, jewelry etc. It was very art inspired, there were so many things I wanted to buy there…but then I thought of how much they would collect dust and probably get put into a closet eventually. So I took my mothers wise advice and went for a painting. As you can see from the pictures, there were a few hundred of them flying freely in the wind for us tourists to select from. As soon as I entered the market, one of them caught my eye and I kept thinking about it my whole walk through, but decided I would take a look around before choosing that one. First of all-it was massive, extremely colorful and had a pretty unique look to it…but I loved it! Not quite sure where I will put it yet…but I have this vision of having a room one day with a wall full of paintings I’ve bought all over the world-kind of a creative inspiration board-just a thought, but for now they will have to be happy in my little auburn apartment. I was also lucky enough to meet the artist himself Jhamba-(or so I understood him to say it that way-but we had a little trouble communicating).

Here are a few pictures from the market below.  

The many many beautiful paintings to choose from!

With the artist himself...and the painting that caught my eye! I know-I have weird taste, but I love it :P!

I resisted buying yet another bag... but they were also beautiful!

A few more pictures...

the friendly neighborhood lemur 

just chillin

A friend of mine from the ship-Sabena 

Working on shore 

the kiddies playing :-)

view of the ship 

Coming up...Maputo, Mozambique! 

A tiny piece of heaven

12-9-11 Tolognaro (Port Dauphin) Madagascar Expedition 

Unfortunately, this story has no pictures to go along with it…so I’ll try to use a few big words to brighten up the images in your mind, but I make no promises, just use your imagination. I must say though…it is definitely worth a read.

It’s funny how so many little things happen in order for an end result to occur. We usually think of this only when trying to map out a path to reach a certain goal, decision or end point. But this happens every single second of every day. Today for example is an unusual day because we are docked in Tolognara only until 4 p.m. which means that most crew will not get to go out all because that is exactly when our break usually falls. I on the other hand got conveniently called after my morning meeting and asked if I wanted to go for a run around 11 (which I usually don’t finish work until 2:00-but of course, my running partner is the F&B Manager…and seeing as he makes my schedule-well, you get the picture, I went for the run.

This comment is kind of irrelevant-but just a note to anyone who plans on running 10k in Madagascar anytime soon-11 a.m is not the best time to go running…for various obvious reasons that I chose to ignor.

To say the least, coming from a Bahamian-the heat here ain nothing to play with. I literally had to will my body to keep going. Anyways…because it was so hot, and because Ludovic was about 15 mins behind me-what did I decide to do? Duhhh-go for a swim on a beach where there was nobody except for a few old wooden canoes! I hesitated for about .5 of a second contemplating whether or not an empty beach should signal danger, or just a quiet place-I opted to go in-and luckily for me I did, or maybe it was just meant to be. It was amazing, and absolutely needed after that run! I dunked myself under a few times and then went to sit up on the beach for a few minutes before heading back.

The next moment I turn around I see three little girls walking cautiously towards me smiling, but a little nervous to come closer. I smile and beckon them to come to me; they start running, laughing and screaming on the way. Immediately they start going on and on in broken French/Malaganese and pointing to the water, while simultaneously stripping down to their birthday suit. I may not speak a word of either of those languages, but I got the point, they wanted to go in the water with me. So, off we went… communicating between French, Malagansese, English, a few hand signals and the famous strategy of speaking louder when the other can’t understand (I always find that hilarious-I mean, if you can’t speak the language, the tone will make absolutely no difference-right? LOL), we played and splashed in the shallow waters on the coast of Madagascar.

My next instinct is obviously to start teaching them proper swimming technique. I was completely in my element. Even without being able to verbally communicate to them-I managed to teach all three girls freestyle breathing and a little bit of backstroke. I felt like I was on cloud nine. They were amazing too…I would just swim a little bit and motion what I was trying to show them, and then they would mimick me. It took a while, but eventually they all got it and the look on their faces afterwards was priceless I every sense of the word. In between time we played chicken fight and I let them jump off my shoulders like I used to do with my daddy when I was little. They were so comfortable in the water, I threw the smaller ones out of my hands flying into the water. They loved it. Before I knew it there were three more girls that had joined the crowd. We played and swam for about an hour before I realized that the ship would be leaving soon!

I was so sad to leave, and that I had nothing with me to give them. Before I left, one of the little girls-Meriana, gave me a ring made from palm tree frawns. She slipped it on my right ring finger and kissed my hand before I walked away. I’m sure my story writing skills have not done this justice, but I was seriously at a loss for words during this experience. On my walk back I kept thinking I wish I had something to leave with them, some money, food, clothing-something. But then I realized that I had given them something so invaluable- I had empowered them. The difference in the demeanor of the group before and after our time together was huge. The look on their faces after accomplishing those strokes was heavenly. It was more than I could ever ask for in an afternoon. It gave me hope, that I can make a difference, somewhere, somehow-you just have to open your eyes and your heart. I mean, who would’ve though I would end up teaching swimming on the shores of Tolognaro to children who don’t speak English?

And this, this story is definitely just the beginning… 

A little insight...no one cares!

12-7-11 

I’m starting to like this blog thing a little-honestly, I have no idea who is reading this, if anyone is, but it’s sort of become a mini personal journey for me, and blogging makes me feel like there’s someone out there who may get a little something from my thoughts and stories and if not, well that’s the beauty- I never have to know!

This place, or rather-this journey and these places have a way of making you realize how completely insignificant you are in this world. I mean, seriously-no one cares, no one cares about where you grew up, who your parents are, what school you went to, what you ate for breakfast, who your best friend is- I mean, maybe I’m being dramatic-yes, people care…but not really. As soon as you step food out of your little world where people know you and care about you, no one else does. You are only what you present yourself to be-nothing more, nothing less. You could have all the education in the world, you could have been to the Olympics, shit-you could be an Olympic gold medalist and there are still millions of people who will never know your name.

For so long, I’ve been wrapped up in my little swimming/school cocoon-thinking that in order for people to accept me, for people to think I’m a good or even great person that I had to accomplish certain things, certain tangible things during my swimming career. Eventually I let those feelings get the best of me and I stopped enjoying the sport that I loved so dearly as a child, the idea of failing to accomplish goals that I thought would help me gain recognition and acceptance completely consumed me and started to make me hate the sport. I mean, some of you know what I am talking about--the famous Bahamian saying “oh you went to the Olympics-you win da gold?!” I don’t know about you-but I find that hilarious, people always trying to downplay what you did. And if you did win a medal, they’d probably say something about how you cheated LOL

And it’s true-in some extremely small circles, those things do matter a lot-like say, on Auburn swim team-well it would matter a lot, but after those 4 intense years, that gold medal will do nothing for you if you haven’t developed as a person and can’t impress people with your ability to pursue life passionately in whatever you chose to do. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not downing the gold medal-I’m just realizing that everyone can’t be that, but that doesn’t make you less of a person, less of an athlete, less of anything, it just makes you-you-and it you’re being the best you can, people notice that and that is a worldwide language. I’m finding it more and more important to be passionate about what you’re pursuing, no matter what it is, because at the end of the day you can only be one very tiny person in this gigantic world. So that is my lifelong goal, to maintain passion in everything I do-to search for that passion, to empower others to show the same-to use the things I love to help others. Trust me, it’s not about you or me-no one cares. 

An eye opener...

11-9-12

Today was my first day in Africa. We’ve been in Madagascar for a few days but only to remote places, jungles and beaches etc. Today we docked in a city called Toasmsina and I got off during my break to look around. It was so sad, I had to hold tears back. I was walking through town and some markets and there were children everywhere begging for money. The city was filthy and so were these children. One little girl followed me for ten minutes as I walked down the street. Another little girl (about 5 or so) was holding a new born baby and begging for money & food. I know that this place probably isn’t near the worst off on this continent…but I just couldn’t take it. I felt so helpless because I couldn’t do anything to help them-when I looked into their eyes, I saw so many different personalities that could become something great-but they won’t, they’ll never see the success that they have the potential for. and I got so mad because some of the others that were with me were just stopping and taking pictures like they were a spectacle. I so badly want to help, want to do something meaningful-something I’m passionate about because I have the chance, the abilities, the means.  I’m afraid though, afraid that I will end up like the rest of them-seeing the poor underprivileged people and feeling bad about it, but then just moving on with my life as normal. I so badly want to be able to do something, I know I can’t do everything-but something. We are so easily wrapped up in our own life and upward movement that this kind of thing is much easier said than done.

Anyways…just some thoughts I wanted to share. I can’t stop thinking about those little children, it seriously broke my heart, it makes me never want to want anything ever again-because I have so much more than I need already. It makes me never want to cry or feel sad about anything again, because in comparison I have nothing to feel that way about. 

Madagascar Expedition 12-1-11

We are now in full expedition mode in Madagascar until Dec 14^th. If you’re wondering what “expedition mode” is, basically it means that we travel from day to day around the Island of Madagascar to remote areas where we have to anchor. Once we’re anchored, residents, guests and crew go ashore in zodiacs (those little dingy boats) for various overland tours, hikes… ‘expeditions’. We have a special team onboard during this time leading most of the tours and as crew, our only way to go ashore is to sign up to help with life jackets and beach landings of the zodiac boats.

Strangely enough, most people don’t want to sign up! More space for me! I try to get off every break I get, or even sometimes during work if they need help. Yesterday was the first day and I went ashore a few hours before my shift and I decided to just casually follow along one of the hikes with the residents. Weeks before arriving to Madagascar we were warned time and time again about the malaria problem and dengue fever problem with the mosquitoes there and to wear loads of bug spray and clothes to cover up. I mean, there were announcements, notices, emails, you name it…there was no way you couldn’t know….or so I thought. The three member band, who is onboard for 5 weeks came along the hike as well… the sole girl member showed up in booty shorts, a tang top and strappy sandles! Oh-and did I mention her sole mean of taking pictures was a blackberry?

Let me just give you a quick visual of this hike… this was no nicely laid out path with signs or water breaks. I mean we were trekking up a mountain, no trail.. no steps, no nothing. It was pretty cool, we saw leemurs which are native to Madagascar one of the only places that have them. Camellions, snakes, spiders…don’t remember the scienftic names of all these things-(sorry).

Anyways, half way through the hike I realize that it’s almost time for my shift…so yes, I turn around and venture back alone. A little scary, but definitely worth it…of course along the way the leemers decide to fight/play and make extremely loud noises…

After we got back, i started helping with the beach landings and hanging out with the locals in between. It was amazing, in between time we just sat on the beach watching the sunset eating one of the juciest pineapples I’ve ever tasted-even compared to Eleuthera pineapple which is sayin a lot! I got to go for a swim too-how many swimmers can say they trained in the beaches of Madagascar huh?

It reminds me so much of home…it’s weird how you can travel so far and feel so close to your roots. The only sad part was the little snorkeling I got to do, it seems that these areas have been so over fished that all that is left area a few small fish and sea urchins. Soon there won’t be anything left! 

Happy Birthday :)

12-2-11

So I mentioned the my people thing… and it’s weird, a month ago I was crying about you guys…and in about another month I may be shedding a few more tears as I leave-who woulda thought? Just a short story about how much a simple thing can change your whole day and outlook on an experience…

The crew mess-where we eat everyday is run by the extremely chipper, singing and kind Manny from the Philippines. Since the very first day I arrived, he’s known me by name and told me to smile every time I walked by (which by the way-is an automatic mood changer) we quickly became friends and now I look forward to going to the crew mess just to see him smiling, or singing…he sings a lot too and is pretty good, that always brightens my day. Not only does he sing, but he finds me bananas and yogurt from a secret hiding space in the back because he knows how much I love them! The night before my birthday, I walked into the mess around 10 after work and he reminded me that I would be 21 in a few hours (I had actually forgotten that my birthday was the next day-but I did remember that I was 23 and NOT 21-I am so much more mature than 21 haha)…I corrected him with the fact that I am turning 24! But anyways…we talked a little, and out of no where he pulls a bottle of 2003 Shiraz and hands it to me as my present. I forgot my birthday was even coming up and someone had the heart to give me a present… this just made me really happy, so I thought I’d share-happy birthday to me …and to Levar, my birthday buddy J

A little bit of WORK...

11-20-12

Work…

Everyone reading this blog is probably starting to think that I am a resident on the ship rather than crew! So… I figured I’d let you guys in on a little bit of my daily stuff and the people I work with.  Turns out…that eventually, you find people, that slowly become “your people” everywhere-all different kinds, and people that hold a different purpose in your life…but nevertheless, I’ve found a few of them ;) (if you have no idea what I’m talking about, refer back to the “my people” post)

I work mostly in F&B (food and Beverage) Administration….with 3 extremely entertaining bosses- Ludovic the F&B Manager from France, Executive Chef Peter from Germany and Bruno Senior Restaurant Manager from Portugal…along with them I semi report to the Beverage Manager Marinela from Bulgaria and Hotel Stores Manager Mateo from England/South Africa- so as you can see there is a pretty wide cultural range here. It’s been quite interesting getting to understand the different cultural quirks and personalities…morning meetings are sometimes very entertaining. My job-along with Kari who is a former Auburn grad as well (War Eagle!) is basically organizing, communicating and running the F&B show lol. No-but seriously, anything and everything that goes on behind the scenes in our department goes through the F&B Admin-so that’s all restaurant reservations, special restaurant events, private events, last minute orders (which we get a lot of), monthly onboard calendar-this is my “baby”-I am in charge of making sure this it is always correct and updated for all events going on in the ship whether that be in enrichment, conferences, f&b, bars, youth, spa, port of call-you name it. I handle a lot of the planning that goes on before these events can ever happen or be approved to happen…and then I’m in charge or creating all special menu designs. I also work alongside the editors on all the daily, weekly and monthly newsletters that go out to the guests…so I get to do a little creative writing too J It may not sound like a lot-but somehow your days fly by full of things to do-and my bosses, well I also do whatever they ask/tell/want/need for that day at that time-which can also change at the drop of a hat. A really fun part of my job is food tastings J before all new menus or interviews with a chef-I get to taste food that I could never afford…I’m just sayinJ

One morning before work... 

Me & my roomie after morning meeting! (It was a little sunny) 

After a food tasting in Tides on Deck 12 

I’m loving work, it’s extremely detail oriented and I get to make lists! Some of you know my obsession with making and crossing off items on a list. So that’s it…in a nutshell, there’s a lot more, but I don’t want to bore you. but yes-besides all my adventures which I literally squeeze into my day, I am working, jussstt incase you were wondering. 

Sorry about the repeat of one picture in the previous post!

A Seychelles Adventure

Seychela adventure…

Now cu’mon, you didn’t think I was going to leave without having an adventure did you?? I HOPE NOT!

A few friends of mine and I decided we wanted to see the national land and sea park which is famous here in Seychelles. We start work earlier so we can have more time during our break for the day to enjoy the park. We start off walking in the direction that we think the ferry leaves from…stop to ask the port agent and find ourselves around the corner at the marina only to find out that reservations have to be made one day in advance and that the boats don’t run on Sunday (being an island girl-I definitely should have known that)-but no fear, I found us another way. One thing you learn traveling all these places is that you won’t know until you ask… So that’s what we did, after a few across the water exchanged in creole, a man named michelle comes over and offers to take us for 100 euros! (My Chinese bargaining skills seem to really be coming in handy these days) of coruse we bargained down much lower and in US dollars. “A few of my friends are coming along, you don’t mind do you?” He says, “of course not” I say-being my trustworthy adventuresome self.

Ten minutes later we’re on the boat sailing away saying goodbye to The World

Before....

Michele and his friends Emmanuel and Maxwell are great tour guides on our way to the park…a few pictures below…please note-beauty is only captured at about 15% here…so use your imagination, because it was breathtaking.

About twenty minutes in…we a re crusing along, the water is beautiful…comparable to Exuma if you’ve ever been there, and it’s low tide so very shallow and you can see straight to the bottom. So what did I do? Ask the captain to stop so I could jump in! It was so refreshing, except for when they started to drive away as a joke...that was a little scary, I must admit. Unfortunately-no pictures of that yet, they were taken on a friends camera. 

We get to the national park and anchor close to a sand bar where we leave our tour guides and start our adventure…

Upon arriving on the sand bar, one of the girls says “you know…we left all of our belongings on the boat, what if they just drive away?”… I figured, we’d come this far… if they’re gonna steal them, well they’re gonna steal them…but I deem myself as a pretty good judge of character, and I know my island people. So off I go, with my Swedish goggles and leave the others on the beach sunbathing…my first encounter with a huge sting ray scared me a little, so I thought a bit of rock climbing might be a better strategy.

The tortious... 

As you can see from the pictures, all the islands are very mountainous. I climbed a few here and there…took a few pictures, then moved on to what I thought to be a public national park. We walk through and up some stairs next to a little house with some dogs on the porch… there’s a sign kari reads “please do not feed to tortoises”- please do not feed the tortoises-what tortoises? Then we look around, and what we thought to be large rocks were tortoises!! It was really cool…and like a bunch of girls, we’re laughing, screaming, taking photos until we hear a loud voice “hey!” “hey!” the others start running…but I stick around, wanting to see where and who the voice was coming from. As I turn around an old british man walks out in his yellow bikini bottom and yells at me for being on his private property without paying the tax…

Paying the tax I say, I thought this was a national park. Well, apparently it’s not…and there’s a tax…and unbeknownst to me, our boat captain told the ocean patrol that we were locals, and that I was his sister! See the resemblance…

After...

So we evaded the taxes…but still got yelled at by an old man in the process-but hey, what’s an adventure without an old british yellow bikini wearing man right?-oh and tortoises, they were pretty cool too. Needless to say, it was a pretty awesome afternoon-working 10 hours days, 7 days a week-totally worth it for a Sunday afternoon like this one!

Bon voyage! The ship is now in expedition mode until Dec 14^th, more stories to come!

Love always-Alana ;) 

Seychelles FINALLY

Arriving into Seychelles

I now know how the guy in castaway must have felt when he got stuck on that island…except I got stuck on a ship! Sailing was nice for a few days-but then when you start to feel sick from all the recycled air along with the constant motion from wind and rough waters, it’s not so glorious anymore. The dolphins held me over for a little bit-but they started to wear off the last few days.

Finally, we arrive on the main island in Seychelles Mahe. It’s a country of about 80,000 with 115 different islands-also the home of the new royal couples honeymoon J  Apparently there was a shark attack here a few months back- a great white that killed a honeymooning couple, so now all of a sudden everyone thinks they will get attacked by a shark I find that interesting…when there is a car crash, people don’t stop driving around? Anyways…needless to say, of course I still planned to go swimming.

As soon as we get in people start leaving the ship in packs… I’m itching to go but have to wait for my break at 14:00. Finally, I get outside-on land, that isn’t moving! We took a walk into town, nothing special-just took in the scenary. It reminds me a lot of home-of downtown Nassau, the people, the smells, the churchs, the traffic, the back yard bbq’s. It’s nice-also I blend in a little more-except for the fact that I don’t speak Creole.

A night out in Seychelles...my roommate from Austria Vera & I