At Sea - heading to the mouth of the Amazon River

Dec 29, 2011
At Sea – heading for the mouth of the Amazon River

• Julian Bond on “How I got into the Civil Rights Movement”
• Sun and wind on the deck
• Portuguese language lesson.

Late breakfast and skipped art class so I didn’t pass sore throat germs around. Met Joan at a presentation by Cliver Rioja, who lives in Peru near Iquitos Peru, who talked about living on the Amazon. Iquitos is the last major port of the upper Amazon Basin. This trip is Clive’s first trip to the mouth of the Amazon. From Manaus Clyde will continue another 1300 miles up the Amazon to his home. Use many different types of boats to get there.

Today is windy. Sky is blue. Ship is traveling at 27 knots I think they said. Pool is closed. I don’t know how much of the rockiness is caused by speed of the ship and how much is caused by the windy conditions outside. Joan and I read on Deck 7 for a while and then ordered hamburgers and diet coke at pool bar. That was a treat.

We moved down to the sixth floor deck. Some of the food was flying and some chairs blown around on the outer edges of the deck so we sat somewhat inside but still in the sun. I must have spent an hour in the sun, eyes closed, feet up on opposite chair and just enjoyed the water and the sun.

Margie, a fellow traveler, gave me some cough drops and Dayquil pills and I used saltwater for my throat. My throat is feeling better tonight. It woke me up at 5 a.m. and was hot and sore. The colds seem to be going through this place, including Julian Bond.
Off to take a nap in my room for a couple of hours and Joan and I met at Road Scholar 4:45 Portuguese lesson with Rui and Helena, two of our guides who live in Portugal. They did a great job of explaining the origin of the language. I was surprised to learn it is one of the top five most spoken languages in the world. Portugal, Brazil and I think it was about five African countries. Also they talked about the difference between Portuguese in Brazil and Portuguese in Portugal. A few letters are different with Portugal being more formal. Book are published twice – in both versions of Portuguese, Just recently Brazil and Portugal struck a deal to use the same language, the Brazil version.

Stopped at Piano bar for Harvey Wallbanger drink special (flash from the past). Then to dinner on the deck – steak night.

Julian Bond spoke tonight on “How I got in the Civil Rights Movement”. It was good and entertaining. He went through his first sit-in in Atlanta, GA where he was arrested but was successful in integrating an Atlantic lunch counter and then on to movie theatres, etc. He was in Selma in ’63 and in Montgomery in ’65. He talked about his lifetime in work in Economic Justice, Civil rights Movement and racial justice” and the shift from confrontation to Legislative work. He was elected to the Georgia legislature. He was one of the founders of the Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee in 1960. Mr. Bond is chairman-emeritus of NAACP and was instrumental in getting Benjamin Jealous in place as CEO and had high praise for the work Mr. Jealous is doing. When asked about the future of the civil rights movement, he said it will take “all of us, not just leaders, but all of us in everything we do”. PJALS has taken that philosophy too, keeping the work on racism in all the work they do.