January 14- "Bali Hai, It calls you..."

When I was a Sophmore at Principia High School, a giant world map that filled up an entire wall was donated to the school.  It was put up in my history classroom, and the desk where I usually sat was right next to it - next to the South Pacific, to be exact.  I was fascinated by the little countries I had never heard of, and whenever I finished a test early I'd spend the rest of the time writing down the names of islands, to research later.  Tuvalu was the country that most attracted my interest, and when we were asked in English class to give a persuasive speech about an issue of our choosing I spoke about our responsibility to do something about climate change to prevent the entire nation of Tuvalu from sinking into the sea.  As I recall, my speech was pretty different from the others in my class - which tended to be about things like the need for changes to the school dress code (an explosive topic at Principia in my day).

My interest in the Pacific Islands has been in the back of my mind ever since.  In college, as a Global Perspectives major, I was required to learn all the countries and capitals on the world map - including the South Pacific.  And from time to time I would go online and look for jobs on island countries.  But other parts of the world pulled at me too, and as this blog's avid readership will recall I got a fantastic job after college working for the Christian Science Church - complete with a work-trip to the Republic of Congo, DRC, and Cameroon!  I'd never been anywhere in Africa before, and the brief trip really piqued my interest.  A couple years later, I applied for the Peace Corps - my life-long dream.  For most of my life I thought the ability to join the Peace Corps was one of the main selling points for getting a college degree.  And so it was off to Benin, West Africa, to work as an Environmental Action volunteer - a wonderful* experience!   At that time you couldn't choose where you were sent or apply to specific jobs in the Peace Corps, but if I had been able to choose I would have asked for exactly what I got - a job focused on agriculture in French-Speaking Africa.

While in Benin, I got to know a former Peace Corps volunteer who was working for an NGO one town over from where I was posted.  She had served in Benin for two years, followed by another two years in the Pacific island country of Tonga . As I and the other peace corps volunteers in our area escaped the heat and dust of the "Chaleur" - the hot season - in her house (which had ceiling fans and a fridge with cold water) she would show us dazzling photos of tropical islands, ocean, beaches...once again, I started trying to think of ways to get to the South Pacific.

My Peace Corps service was followed by a few years in which I  went to Sitka, Alaska to join a Katy Perry ukulele tribute band, sea kayak with sea otters and whales, and play Sarah Palin as a bar tender in the town melodrama, then flew back to the lower '48 where I become a grad student with such exciting hobbies as "library hopping" (studying in different libraries!!!), entering my first ever swing dance competition (where I come in roughly third to last), and exploring the wonderful world of online (and offline)  dating.  In the middle of this I zipped off to Kenya for a summer, where I interviewed farmers, petted a live cheetah, got gifted a live chicken (which I proceeded to learn how to cook), and got a child named after me.  At the end of all this, I was lent a cap, gown, and hood and successfully  obtained a "Congratulations!" certificate from Cornell University for almost completing my Master's degree**.

At the end of all this, the logical question was "what next?"  In my life  this always seems to be the question- the longest I've spent living in one house since college has been my two years in Peace Corps Benin.  And while fully aware that working for free is a habit I will really have to kick some time soon, I couldn't help browsing the Peace Corps Response listings to see if there were any opportunities in the Pacific.  Peace Corps Response positions are short (3 months-1 year) Peace Corps assignments for former volunteers or experienced professionals.  Lo and behold, there was one - "Climate Change Adaptation Trainer" in Vanuatu!  I sent of an application one evening after work, not really expecting to be offered the position.  Certainly not expecting to hear back soon - applying to Peace Corps last time was a grueling, almost year-long process.  But within two and a half weeks I was interviewed, references were called, and I was offered the position!  For some reason I fail to understand, they were having a difficult time finding people who wanted to spend a year teaching young people about climate change on a tropical island.  I spent a few days agonizing over the choice, thinking about everything that was hard about Peace Corps last time..and then to no one's surprise I took the position anyway.  At which point all I could think about was how great Peace Corps was - what fun this will be!  Selective memory can be a very helpful thing.

So one week from today, I will be on a flight to Vanuatu - once again a Peace Corps volunteer.  I'll be posted on the island of Ambae, working on a project that involves teaching young people about climate change and helping them start climate change adaptation-related service projects and small businesses in their communities.  You really couldn't get a more quintessential "South Pacific" location.  In World War II, James Michner was stationed on the island of Espiritu Santo, which is next to Ambae.  From his base he could see Ambae, a hazy island in the distance, which looked magical - and served as his inspiration for the mysterious island Bali Hai in his book - on which  the musical South Pacific was based.  So I'm basically moving to Bali Hai! (Although the image of Bali Hai in the movie is based on an island in Malaysia, and the scenes in Bali Hai were filmed in Hawaii...but oh well***.)

All this to say that it's clearly time to dust off this blog again.  Like the dashing young Lieutenant Cable before me, I am being called to Bali Hai.

*By this I mean that during the two years I came face to face with my best self and my worse self, was inspired, humbled, literally bored to tears (which I didn't know could really happen), exhilarated disappointed, satisfied, grateful, sad, overjoyed...but for the purposes of this blog post, which is a peppy, excited announcement of another Peace Corps service, let's stick with "it was wonderful!". 

**Receipt of actual diploma hinging on the satisfactory completion of my Master's Project Paper, a kind of big deal, which is currently not exactly what one would call close to being finished...but what better place to write a paper than on a tropical island?  

***See the Wikipedia article on this