First and foremost, my apologies for dropping the ball on this blog in my second year of Peace Corps service; year two turned out to be extremely busy with girls’ camps, latrine construction, hand-washing station implementation, Dogon country exploration, advisory committees, getting caught in Malian coup d’états, microfinance womens’ group profit development and a moringa plantation; the blog took a backseat, and eventually was left alongside the road somewhere
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Guinagourou Girls at
Camp GLOW 2012
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| Handwashing station implementation |
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| Latrine Construction |
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| Girls doing yoga at Camp GLOW |
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| Guinagourou Girls' Soccer Team |
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| A healthy baby |
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| My Beninese family |
However, after many subtle
suggestions from my mother, I have decided to return to this blog, only this
time on a new adventure. My Peace
Corps service in Benin ended after 29 months of service in September 2012. After a bit of exploring and WWOOFing
through Europe for 2 months, I returned to the States just in time for the
warmth of Thanksgiving. I remained
in the States, job searching to no avail, until March, when I took an
internship with a private foundation working to eliminate malaria in Namibia
via a cross-border initiative involving Namibia’s northern neighbor,
Angola.
I spent the first month in
Namibia observing the intricacies
of the program and how it all worked
efficiently. The second month was spent working on the program in Angola, where
program efficiency was not its’ strong point. I worked to increase efficiency via program structure
revision and communication.
Following this second month was a one-week, malaria elimination themed conference
in Zimbabwe, with an emphasis upon cross-border initiatives. After the conference, I spent a brief,
but exciting, weekend in Livingstone, Zambia at Victoria Falls; I canoed on the
Zambezi River amidst hippos and crocodiles, explored both the Zambian and
Zimbabwean sides of the falls, then bungee jumped off the historic Victoria
Falls Bridge, precisely between Zimbabwe and Zambia. It was a fatuous pursuit, but I knew I would regret not
doing it, much to my mother’s chagrin.
I returned to the United
States on May 15, then started my long-time dream job: working on a tall
ship. I boarded the beautiful
Windjammer Angelique out of Camden, Maine on May 18 as the assistant chef. I
originally applied to be a deck hand, but without experience, it is a hard
position to fill. Captain Mike McHenry took a leap of faith in hiring me as an
assistant chef, whose primary responsibility is making desserts. It is easy to romanticize the idea of
working and sailing upon a windjammer, especially one as bewitching as the
Angelique, painted an elegant green with evocative red sails, but the work was
as real as the sting from a barnacle cut.
Learning to bake lemon squares in a lunge while heeling at 9 degrees to
the horizontal then acting as if it was your true and original intention to
give people the option of lemon squares or lemon crisps was one of many lessons
quickly learned. And amidst the limited
space, green faces and baking blunders, there were still the star-saturated
night skies, the fantastically craggy Maine coast, first-class crewmates and
the unbelievable satisfaction and sense of harmony in harnessing nature, the
absolute epitome of the great wild, to your advantage; an enchanting
experience.
After the second week
aboard, I received an offer from the foundation that sponsored my internship,
for a permanent position stationed on the border in Northern Namibia,
coordinating the Angolan program and crossing as frequently as possible. It was an offer I could not refuse and
involves many long-term potential opportunities. Sadly, I told Lynne (the Angelique Admiral) and Mike of the
offer, to which they could not have responded in a more positive, supportive
manner. On July 15, I left the
Angelique. My experience aboard
the Angelique, no matter how fleeting, was invaluable, in large part due to the
genuine and sincere couple that ran the ship. If you are looking for a truly extraordinary experience and
an incomparable adventure, I can promise you will find it aboard the Angelique.
http://sailangelique.com
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| Our salty crew. |
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| Captain Mike performing one of his sundry talents, marrying two passengers on the shore of Babson Island |
Following a hectic 2 weeks
involving a speedy trip to NYC to charm the Angolan consulate employees into
giving me a visa, a perfect camping trip with my favorite people on
Mooselookmegunitc Lake, and emergency q-tip and fruit snack runs, I boarded a
plane to Namibia and arrived July 31 in Windhoek. I am currently in Angola working to improve program
efficiency and helping with a study being conducted by Harvard researching
cost-effectiveness of cross border malaria initiatives compared to efforts
conducted from one side of the border.
I hope this provides a
general update and overview of things as they stand now. More information will soon be on its’
way.
