A Semester Later, She’s Not At Sea About A Career

Amanda Tomme’s last semester in college taught her more about life than any of her previous 14 years in school.

Her classroom was alive with heartbreaking poverty and unwavering faith, stomach-turning disease and eye-watering pollution. Her lessons took her to the world’s archaeological and architectural wonders.

Her teachers were the world’s people, and they left her with a powerful mission - to tell their stories.

“I have to get the word out,” 20-year-old Amanda says. “And journalism is the best way to do it.”

A year ago, a friend told Amanda about the University of Pittsburgh’s Semester at Sea. For $12,000 each, 600 students study aboard a ship that sails to ports of call around the world.

They earn college credit while they see the world. Amanda was sold.

“I always wanted to travel, but I didn’t want to miss school to do it,” she says.

Tuition was pricey, but she’d saved money while attending North Idaho College on scholarship. She borrowed the remainder and left her home near Rathdrum to board the Universe Explorer in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Sept. 14.

For the first 12 days, she attended classes on Middle Eastern conflict, religious traditions, world music, classical Indian voice and the cultures of each country in which the ship would dock.

At the end of September, the Universe Explorer reached Kobe, Japan, where students were free for five days.

“No matter how much you prepare, you can’t be ready,” Amanda says. “When we hit the streets, I felt like we’d stepped 20 years into the future.”

Waitresses took orders on computers. Bullet trains sped across the country. Doors were automatic. No one spoke English. Still, there was no better place to get lost.

“Someone was always there to help,” Amanda says. “One old man walked 2-1/2 miles to take us to a bus station, then walked his dog home and rode his bike back to the station to make sure we got on the right bus.”

A week later, the ship docked in Shanghai and Amanda was overwhelmed at the contrast between China and Japan.

“I felt like I was stepping back and forth in time,” she says.

She witnessed a desperation she linked to poverty in China and then in Vietnam. Students were warned about robbers who prey on tourists in Vietnam.

Despite the destitution, people in both countries shared whatever they had with the students.

A man in Beijing invited Amanda to visit his elementary school. Villagers in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta befriended her. Her heart ached two weeks after she left the delta when a monsoon killed 4,000 people there.

Her first few countries moved her to new emotional levels, but India left an indelible impression on her soul.

“Lepers came up to me with no noses or they had missing limbs, and I’d ask myself why they had to live that way,” she says. “India challenged every spiritual belief I had.”

India taught her that some people live with no hope of ever improving their situations, but still find joy. She saw poor pilgrims fueled only by absolute faith finally reach the holy Ganges River after days of walking.

She agonized over how to handle beggars, reluctant to promote their dependence but knowing it was their only hope for survival.

“I gave when my heart couldn’t take it anymore,” she says. “India makes you want to be the next Mother Teresa.”

Egypt reinforced Amanda’s faith in a higher being. She was scheduled to tour the Temple of Queen Hatsheput at Luxor the same hour terrorists killed dozens of tourists at the site. Fog had delayed her plane two hours.

When her bus arrived at the temple, soldiers turned the bus back. She found out about the massacre later in the day.

“All I heard on the news was that something had happened in southern Egypt,” says Debra Tomme, Amanda’s mother. “I raced to the phone and called Semester at Sea and they assured me everyone was fine.”

The trip ended Dec. 23 in Florida after stops in Cyprus, Greece, Spain and Morocco. Amanda returned charged to continue her studies in journalism. She leaves for the University of Oregon next month.

“I went on the Semester at Sea to challenge myself,” she says. “It’s good when you’re forced to consider life. I feel like I have an obligation now to do something with what I know.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo