Mar. 07, 2002 - 15:48 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Cyber Cafes

Our youngest progeny, a lady with husband and two kids are on a Semester At Sea trip. Semester At Sea is an ongoing program for education on board ship and at ports of call. Administered by a university in Pittsburgh. Each place on shore presents a facet of education dealing with that locale. Its a neat program.

They left here in January and will finish in May. Heather and I dreaded those months they will be away from being able to communicate with home and family. By telephone to their home in Eugene, Oregon doesn't cost so much that we usually talk about twice a week. But we do know just how expensive communication from the ship is and figured that we were in for a long spell of silence.

Not so, so far. Up to this time they have found a Cyber Cafe at each port they stopped. Due to time differences there is no actual real time communication. They do pick up our e-mail when in port at one of those places and send us a short accounting of their experiences and continued good health.

We have a big world map on our dining room table with their ports of call numbered in order. They are on their way now to India from Mauritius. We have access to their itinerary and position via the web also. All in all we don't feel as out of touch as we feared.

But of course Heather and I still feel lonesome for them. We miss talking to our grandkids as well. The boy is old enough that often he will answer the phone, that gives Heather and I a chance to talk to him before we talk to his parents.

There is education K through Twelve there too, so the kids are going to school on board ship. As well as experiencing things like a safari in South Africa, fun on shore in Brazil, swimming in Mauritius and more yet to look forward to. There are structured learning experiences for them on shore also. To my way of thinking the kids will get more education in less time than if they stayed ashore. It is an experience that I would have given an arm or leg for when I was a kid, I am even sure that I would have done my homework and paid attention in class.

Our daughter will be quite an accomplished world traveler when they get home. A good portion of her traveling has been with two kids too. With her Mom and I on a Carribean cruise and a time in Puerta Vallarta, Mexico. With her Mom, Hawaii, some of Europe, England, Italy. With her husband, the Greek Isles, Spain, Italy and Scotland. Guess she will have been most every where except the north and south icecaps and Australia by the time Semester at Sea is over for them.

On their return they will be with us for a while before they have to return to Eugene. Time enough for Heather and I to hear the tales of travel from the grandkids and look at the huge amount of photos I am sure they took while on walkabout. I imagine that there will even be a bit of video tape as I think he took the cam with them. So, in May we will have vicariously been on the Semester at Sea with them. All but watching sea birds, inhaling the salt breeze and seeing the shimmering moon path on the sea at night.

Every e-mail we get from them is forwarded to family members here, we sent an e-mail to them on the birth of David which was a time for daughters rejoicing as his Mama is pretty well bonded to our daughter.

Thank God for their will to communicate and Cyber Cafes . . . . . . . . .

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