Mauritius

We arrived in Mauritius off the eastern coast of Africa. Little known fact? It actually exists. It's a small island country that before the Dutch came in the 1600's was completely uninhabited by humans. Actually, it's famous for having had dodo birds.

Overall, Mauritius was a mixed bag.

We were scheduled to be in there from 6am to 6pm. So that's one day of fun. So, I went to a children's shelter for abused and neglected children. Fun. These kids were unable to succeed in a normal school setting, so were put into this place, where they were supposed to be getting an alternative type of education and a second shot at life. Personally, I was underwhelmed. The shelter seemed to have no method of disciplining the children, who were clearly troubled. It was a very "well, we can't FORCE them to behave" sort of environment. Well...neither can the schools. So exactly what good are you in helping them get better? Seriously, the kids who actually wanted to interact with me were frequently interrupted by older kids who cursed at us, shoot their butts at us, and ran through our talking circle. No one did anything but yell with annoyance. It was like a poorly-run classroom in Denver Public Schools, except there was barely any learning happening.

I think that was the part that disturbed me most of all. These kids could stay in the shelter until they were 16 years old. At that point, they were not given even some sort of certificate of recognition for completing the program. No diploma, nothing. So what was the point of them even going to this "school"? They still couldn't get a job at the same pace as a high school graduate. They weren't even really learning. Sure, they took classes like "shop" and "home ec". But these kids were practically illiterate. I sat in on a class of 14-year-olds who were trying to learn to write basic sentences. They didn't even learn HISTORY or POLITICS, for Christ's sake. How are these kids supposed to be valuable members of society without a basic knowledge of how they came to be where they are today? How are they supposed to care about anything bigger than their day to day lives? Worst of all, there was no way for them to get to college if they wanted to. I specifically asked the staff if they'd ever had a kid go off to college, and they said no, that'd be impossible. I asked what the kids did after leaving the program. The program tries to put the kids into jobs in specific trades, like woodworking. But, they prefaced, it wasn't up to THEM to secure a job for these kids. They had to do it themselves. I asked how the "graduates" did after leaving. They said they didn't know. They didn't even KEEP UP with the kids who left them.

 You know how non-profits are supposed to prove that they actually make a difference? What happens when one of the organizations seemingly has no interest in proving it? This place even had state support. Mauritius, dude. Come on.

After getting pissed off at Mauritius for screwing its neglected children out of opportunities, I left the SAS trip and went via water taxi to downtown Port Louis. I ate at a Chinese restaurant...because apparently Mauritius has a Chinatown. Whaaaaaa? Afterwards, I met up with a troupe of Mauritian girl scouts. They sang dirty Creole songs with us, and we serenaded them with Disney. It was awesome. They showed us a fantastic Mauritian drink to try. I forget its name, but it was essentially a combination of Thai iced tea, a milkshake, and boba tea. Oh. My God. SO good. We said goodbye to the girl scouts and proceeded to a Mauritian department store, where we were greeted by my favorite thing in the world: a 70% off sale. I bought designer-leggings for $8, where they used to be around $40. Also, they were the tackiest, most awesome leggings ever. Think...bedazzled. I can't wait to show them off in America.

Then, of course, things got sucky as HELL. So we start to head back to the ship around 5:25. We're required to be back onboard by 6:00 or face punishment by the administration. It should take about 5 minutes to get there by water taxi. Unfortunately, the taxi driver, in an attempt to make more money and while ignoring our angry complaints for him to MOVE HIS ASS BACK TO THE SHIP, decided to keep us all waiting an extra 10 minutes while he waited for more clients to show up and fill his boat. He proceeded to waste 5 more minutes of our time collecting money from each person individually instead of taking off and letting us pile our money together. I about punched him.

We got back to the ship at 5:45, where we were greeted by a line of, I kid you not, 100 people trying to get back onto the ship. Clearly, the catamaran cruise of drunkards had gotten back just ahead of us. Now, there was STILL a shot of me getting checked in in the next 15 minutes. But, wouldn't you know it? The staff gets a kick out of screwing us. First, they decide to let anyone who was on a SAS-sponsored trip CUT IN FRONT OF US to go inside. This was dumb in and of itself, since those kids would not get punished REGARDLESS of when they showed up since they were with SAS the whole time. Therefore, it was a clear showing of privilege to those kids who had the money/lack of creativity to pay for an SAS excursion versus independent travel. Did it matter that I'd spent a half-day on one of their trips? Nope. Only the full day kids got to cut. Then, of course, the hard-core drunk kids got to be pulled out of line, taken to the FRONT, and tested. First of all, why do the kids who are already gonna be kicked off the ship for policy violations getting the advantage of getting back onto the ship early? They're already in trouble. GIVE THEM DOCK TIME. Next, all this time spent pulling kids out of line could easily have been spent checking our bags, which was the most time-consuming part of the whole check-in process. There were, I kid you not, 8 people standing around shouting at the kids in line and pulling drunk kids out of it, versus 4 people actually doing work and checking our bags and, you know, actually helping us avoid getting in trouble.

You know what time I got back onto the ship? 6:03pm. You know my punishment? 2 HOURS of dock time. I have to be back on the ship 2 HOURS EARLY on our last day in India. Thanks a bunch, SAS. You guys are so awesome to the students who pay you exorbitant amounts of cash.

So, analysis of Mauritius? Great food and great people, but awful at providing equal opportunities for its residents regarding education. Also, F*** YOU WATER TAXIS.