At Sea

            Tuesday, 6 Feb 2018 – At breakfast, we sat with Lois and Bob, another dancing couple.  Both retired now, Lois was a nurse who worked in the new born area; Bob was a chemical engineer.  Although we wanted to swim, the cold wind was coming from Antarctica, and the pool was sloshing wildly back & forth, so was soon closed.  Before dinner, Jesse sat for a haircut in the spa area.  The stylist had a very steady hand, which enabled her to do a great job, even though the ship was rocking under us.  After dinner, we colored each other’s hair – very carefully because we didn’t want to create stains in the bathroom.  Actually, we surprised ourselves with our neatness!  Today was about midway in our cruise, and the time had come for some personal upkeep.

Ship passengers have been asked to conserve water as much as possible.  Cape Town is suffering from a severe water shortage, and water is now rationed.  Because of this, the Insignia will not be getting more water there.

Today we also watched the movie “Cry of Freedom,” a 1987 movie in which Denzel Washington played Stephen Biko (1946-1977), a South African anti-apartheid activist.  Movies on a topic relating to the places the Insignia visits are shown on one TV channel for us to watch.  Biko was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign in the 1960’s and 1970’s.  Following his arrest in August 1977, Biko was severely beaten by state security officers, resulting in his death.  More than 20,000 people attended his funeral.  In the movie, the military is shown gunning down children in a peaceful demonstration, killing 700 children and wounding over 4,000.  Until 1994, our marriage would have been illegal in South Africa!

Incidentally, if we had been home tonight, we would have attended the first Iowa caucus for the 2018 election.  We were sorry to have missed that!