And there are all the commercials, such as for medications for people having bowel problems and a cartoon character guiding a woman to the ladies room and giving her advice.

Come on, are we that stupid to have to have a cartoon character showing us the way?? And now for the big advance — it is unbelievable!!!!! Or is it being treated like morons for years, with a few good programs thrown in and what do we get for watching, eight or nine commercials for every one hour of supposed entertainment. The programs are not that good to begin with. Instead of progressing to something worthwhile, like what we see on PBS occasionally, we get programs and commercials that appeal to or sicken.

I do hope there are other people out there that are as disgusted as I am with the current state of television.

One of the courses that I took and enjoyed a lot was on community health and holistic healing. This course explored the forces that shape the health of both the individual person and the community. The class involved experimental, hands-on learning, field trips, class discussion and healing arts practitioners. The goal was to learn to sustain ourselves and become healthier in an ecological context. In the course of holistic health, we practiced hands-on learning in giving a massage as well as other forms of healing. We also explored green politics and urban agriculture, with evening lectures given by activists and faculty in their chosen fields.

The meals in the dining hall were great, and the ingredients came from the large organic gardens taken care of by students in land management. All of the students had to take part in the preparation of the food, cleaning up, etc.

As I stated earlier there were students who were in college, some who had degrees in different areas but all of us had the common interest in wanting an ecological society dealing with social solutions to ecological problems with a strong critique of anti-ecological trends and visions for a new society based on social ecology. My time in Vermont was spent in learning concepts that I had never dealt with before.

In conclusion I can only say that the whole experience was interesting, and as the oldest member of the group I felt that for me it was a huge challenge and that I had only a taste of what was and is involved in land use alternatives and sustainable technologies.

My stay at ISE was too brief for me to really be able to discuss all of the projects involved but I feel it was an experience I remember with good memories of all the people I met there and also learned from.

In the summer of ‘85 I signed up for classes with the Institute for Social Ecology in Plainfield, Vermont, and connected to nearby Burlington College. I was looking for some college hours. The school is located in the Green Mountains. In registering for classes, everyone was required to take the course that was given by Murray Bookchin, founder of the school. The required course was an overview of social ecology — there were speakers who shared their expertise on social ecology in agriculture, feminism and holistic health, to name a few topics. The material was integrated to provide a coherent analysis through a series of talks by Bookchin.

There were around 50 students from various places. Some were college students while others were college graduates. It was a varied student body living in very basic housing. We all ate vegetarian. Our classes included intensive gardening, composting and growing small fruits and berries.

My course of study after the required course given by the founder included feminism and holistic health. I stayed in a women’s dorm equipped with bunk beds and only the basics. In the main building were the institute office, bookstore, library, classrooms, and kitchen and dining hall.

I have tried to give a short preview of the institute and the grounds in the Green Mountains. Next time around I’ll try to give a little more info on some of the activities that took place in this rural setting. — Genno

Of course, there are so many good-looking casual clothes but no, they come dressed for what??? Anyway, the players huddle during the time-out calls, dripping wet with sweat from playing their game to hear the advice from the coaches dressed in their suits. Now we all know that when you work hard at what you do, you are going to sweat. The coaches are giving advice to the players, who are using towels to dry themselves off. So what is the point of these coaches dressing up? Perhaps to indicate their position of authority.

You may think this is a dumb comment and perhaps it is, but tradition seems to be the answer and no one seems to be willing to change the custom. However, for the most part, the people watching the game are dressed in a variety of clothes; the coaches, for the most part, follow the traditional role of how to dress for coaching basketball.

2-1-92
Today is the last day I will be writing and when we arrive in New Jersey we will be stay overnight in New Jersey near the airport. I will close with some statistics that might be interesting for some who read this account.

Manny, the second mate, gave me the total miles of the trip and it has been 13,545 nautical miles or 15,587 total statute miles. Berore we leave the ship the customs people will come on board to check our luggage.

A few more statistics for anyone who’s interested:
o Lenth of the Almeria Lykes ship: 664 feet
o Crew: 34
o We carried two subway cars in the hold on the way back to the U.S.
o The gangplank has 43 steps

I believe that now the ship does not take passengers and I know not if it is still in operation, probably not.

I have left out quite a bit from my journal but tried to relate some of the more interesting places and how it related to me. Thanks to all who read the story of my trip.

The ship had a washer and dryer for the crew, officers and passengers which made it very handy. When we were docking in Livorno the chief steward invited me to go into the city with him, taking the bus but it was raining and I had a cold so I didnt go. Charles has told me that I was the favorite passenger of the crew and officers.

Steve told me that he is 32 and makes $32,000 a year, which is very good considering that the meals and a place to stay onboard are included. We have now gone throught the Straits of Gibraltar. We are out of the Mediterranean now and on the Atlantic Ocean. The ocean continues to be calm. I hope the good weather continues as evryone is anxious to get back to Port Elizabeth. It has now been over 40 days since the trip began.

Mount Tabor, near Nazareth is the traditional site of the Transfiguration. The Dead Aea (in the area of the Sea of Galilee) is 1,450 feet below sea level, making it the lowest point on earth. On our way to the place where Jesus performed his first miracle at Cana, we saw three countries: Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. The well where Mary went to get water is still in Cana. There is a church where the miracle of the water turning into wine occurred. It is called the Wedding Church.

When you are on a freighter like the one I was on if you aren’t there at departure time, you had to get some way to the next stop. Now we are on the way to the Aegean Islands. And this morning we arrived in Izmer, Turkey. The radio operator and I had planned to go together but Irene, one of the other passengers tagged along went with us when we went to lunch by the sea (although she didn’t order anything). We had such a god lunch — Steve and I had a large stein of beer with steak, mushrooms, rice and vegetables. I will continue later — really tired
now!!!

1-10-92  I stood up on the bridge watching our ship being maneuvered into port.  It is a huge port and as we came in four flags were flying — Egyptian (red, white ,black), pilot’s flag (red and white), quarantine,(yellow) and Lykes. It took several hours after we were within a fourth of a mile of the dock to move by inches to the berthing space. A pilot comes out from the port in a mall boat, comes aboard and guides the ship in with the help of tug boats on either side of the ship. 

When we were cleared through customs a tour guide came onboard and two of the other passengers and I arranged to go to Cairo with a driver.  The cost was $137 each and that included dinner in the evening and admission to a sound and light program which gave the history of the Pyramids and more.  Before leaving Alexandria we had to stop and get money changed.

Alexandria was a city of 4 million at the time I was there, much poverty and many people walking the streets wearing long robes. The buildings in the downtown area seemed to be housing for many people, building six or seven stories, balconies with clothes hanging over the balconies to dry.  The trip to Cairo lasted a little over three hours.  Our driver spoke very little English. The roads were not good and along the roads there were many walls, several feet high and each had an entrance gate. As we neared Cairo there were many palm trees that reached up high into the sky.  About half way to Cairo we stopped for refreshments and the driver ate a hot meal. The driver was very considerate and I walked with him.

The other two people on the trip usually stayed together.  Cairo at this time was a city of 14 million and many people (mostly men and boys) walk in the streets. I saw little boys riding burros, men also and some on bicycles and in Alexandria and Cairo there were many open markets with oranges, bananas, huge cabbages, radishes, olives, dates and figs.

The driver took us out to the Pyramids.  Camels with their drivers hustled the tourists but our driver looked after me and got angry with one of the drivers who tried to get more money from me when our driver knew I had already given him more than enough. We visited a bazaar where there all kinds of perfumes and oriental rugs.  I paid $20 for a litttle bottle of perfume and still have it.

At 8 p.m. we had dinner at the Khan El Khalalili, an elegant restaurant which also had a night club and rooms for overnight guests. We were tired with all the activity of the day and glad to get back to the ship. The driver left us at the gate.  It was long walk back to the ship and we got lost but called to someone who showed us where to go.

Tomorrow we head to Turkey.