From the festival streets of midnight Ramadan in Port Said, Egypt

Finally got a little chance to share a few more thoughts from this epic voyage...

It's been incredible so far, everyday filled with new realizations, inspirations, challenges and continued friendship with so many beautiful people, all part of our unique floating village...

Had a mind-blowing snorkel session on the white beaches of sunny Seychelles and then a dazzling two-day safari in Mombasa, Kenya. Among the incredible moments during those enchanted two days, approached a huge pride of lions, more than 15, with bellies full from a nearby water buffalo, and again jamming into the night with the drummers at the lodge, sweating off all of the stress and fatigue from the long days at sea under the Kenyan stars...

And now, off to the pyramids tomorrow morning with all of my new close friends, the team of international teachers and interpreters for another day of wonder...

On board the ship, the days just all smoosh into each other, with almost every minute packed with interesting and moving moments, a blur of concentrated life.

I'm getting more and more responsibility and have been able to focus on really meaningful projects. My emphasis now is on Global and Peace Education both as a subject in itself and as a focus within language education. I have become very close with a profesor from Canada named Kip Cates, who is a specialist in the field of Global Education and has been teaching for over twenty years in the discipline. He came onboard this voyage for the second time, working with me to provide lectures to the passengers and training sessions to the team of English/Spanish teachers, ranging from Developing a Global Identity, Causes of Wars and possible roads to Peace, and Strategies for teaching about the world in the Language classroom. He was one of the most successful guests the Peace Boat has seen, with all of his lectures packed to the gills, usually 200-400 poeple, and after his last lecture people even left in tears or joy and inspiration.

I was also one of hte three panel speakers on a panel discussion/lecture about the post 9/11 world, speaking of how I felt the US has changed since then and how I think we can take steps to make a better world and from the Americans' perspective how we can start to make a better relationship with the world. I used the US Peace Sign flag at the end of my comments (all of which was in Japanese) and people were really moved. There's actually a pic of me holding up that flag in the website report about that lecture (you can also see that on the peace boat website).

So, I guess as you can tell from all the things I have written, this voyage has been going incredibly well and i have really been having a wonderful time! All of the teachers in the team that we selected are totatlly cool and amazing people, so full of energy, friendly and appreciative. They have really helped to make my job and role on board a real pleasure and joy. Of course things are really challenging and especially during the last week, pretty full on non-stop days but above all else, it feels so rewarding ane meaningful.

I organized a prayer and song of peace yesterday at sunset on the top deck, for all of the people in Iraq. It was just as the ship past the closest point to Iraq, a little ways before we entered the Suez canal. Also, I have organized kind of like a Oceanographer project/study group, focusing on dolphins and whales and what we can see from the ship and sooo many people on board are really getting into it! I gave two separate lectures, one on ocean dolphins, the basic facts and strategies for spotting them and for determining the species. About 200 passengers came and really got into it. I made a slide show with many differnt dolphin pics and a bunch of pics and info from the marine mammal guidebook that i picked up last year when mom and I went camping in Pt. Reyes. I've actually become pretty good at spotting dolphins and determining their species. So far we have spotted dolphins almost everyday! Thanks to all of the people searching from all different points of the ship and at all different times of day.

I have seen striped dolphins, common bottle nosed dolphins and possibly rough toothed dolphins.

For the second lecture, I focused on whales first by how to differentiate whales from dolphins, the basic behavior and unique aspects of them, and the species that we are most likely to see. We saw, many many whales spotting on the two days before we arrived in Mombasa and then, two days after we left Mombasa and headed up the east coast of Africa I spotted a whale very close to the ship just drifting and spouting lazily. I could clearly see the shape of its back, dorsal fin or "hump" and the shape of its spout. I have no doubt that it was a Sperm Whale!!

Well, I'm going on and on but I have to wrap it up for now becuase it's creeping up on 1 am and I have to be up at 5 am tomorrow morning to help off load some luggage before I help to lead a tour for the teachers and interpreters to the pyramids!! Another adventure filled momentus day on the Peace Boat experience!!

Much love to you all...