It’s no secret that Michigan is full of natural beauty. One of the places in Michigan that definitely a natural wonder is the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
My friends, and fellow Blog It Home winners, Keith and Heather over at Sponge and Slate are back in the U.S. for a month before embarking on their third year extension adventure in China, and invited me to join them relaxing at a family cabin on the gorgeous shores of Lake Michigan. Of course I jumped at the opportunity.
I’ve been back Stateside for a week now and I’m still getting used to life here. (There’s so much space everywhere! Tap water is OK to drink! Toilet paper exists and is so thick!) But, in addition to getting my bearings here (I’m constantly reminding myself to stay to the right when I’m driving), I’ve also been answering the question, “So what’s next?” about once an hour. There are a lot of things that are next but this is a list of things that I know I will do next.
Michigan is a beautiful state, with the most coastline of any state in the continental U.S., wonderful National Forests, great engineering feats, a booming food and beer scene and a lot more. I’ve been away from my home state for just shy of a decade and I’m looking forward to reacquainting myself with the bounties that are here, and these are the things that are at the top of my list.
“So what are your plans for while you’re here?”
“I don’t know. I really want to do some diving, that’s for sure.”
“Oh man, go to Dahab.”
“Dahab is my favorite place in Egypt.”
And so went the conversation that set me off on a two-week stay in Dahab on the Sinai peninsula, where there was little more than sun, surf, sand and relaxation.
Yesterday was the first day of Ramadan, and as a non-Muslim in a majority Muslim country I prepared myself and set out to try and get a sense of what this religious fasting looked like here in Egypt.
I ate leftovers and fruit in my cousin’s apartment, filling up before I left as I knew finding food outside would be difficult. I pulled up a walking tour on my iPod that visited eight mosques and Islamic structures and ended near Al Azhar Park, where I intended to watch the sunset, listen to the call to prayer and possibly people watch families picnicking the breaking of their fast.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to visit all of the sites and I never made it to the park to watch sunset. Fortunately, I got to experience Egyptian hospitality and broke fast with a family in the back streets of Cairo, truly giving me an experience of what iftar, the evening meal during Ramadan, is like.
When most people think of the African continent, one of the first things that springs to their minds are images of the fauna that inhabit the continent: lions, elephants, hippos, rhinos and monkeys. All of these animals have a home in Cameroon, including a wide variety of apes than many people refer to as “monkeys.” Perhaps most prominent among the apes that live in Cameroon are chimpanzees.
Chimps are classified as an endangered species, with population estimates ranging between 170,000 and 300,000 and some of the biggest threats to their existence are habitat destruction and poaching for the bushmeat trade, the latter of which is a particular problem in Cameroon. I had the opportunity to visit a sanctuary for chimps that have been orphaned by poachers and the experience was truly exceptional.
Things have been quiet here on my blog lately, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been on my mind. I arrived in Cameroon late on May 10th, and 3G arrived only about a month before me, so connectivity is a bit sparse and pricey. I’ve also been going “up and down the country,” as they say here, and along the way I’ve seen and experienced a lot of things. And I still have a week left! For now, here is a list of some of my favorite things about Cameroon.
It was day 10 of 18 on the Annapurna Circuit and the day I began my two and a half day push for the highest point we would reach, Thorong-La Pass (5416 meters). I came down for breakfast and made eye contact with a couple that I had hung out with the night before; they were being ranted at by a guide who just had a falling out with his customers. My food came and halfway through my meal, the slighted guide had vented all he could and huffed off, rattling the tables and glasses of the dining area.
“I know it’s just the poor construction of these buildings, and the predominant use of wood, but whenever someone walks by, I can’t help but think it’s an earthquake,” I said to the couple.
“Is that a big thing around here? Do they get big earthquakes?” the husband asked.
“Yeah, that’s what makes these mountains. The last big one was about 80 years ago.”
“So then they are due for another one then, huh?”
“I don’t know if that’s necessarily how it works,” his wife said.
About four hours later, the ground shook beneath my feet, the windows on a newly build lodge behind me shuttered and the scrub brush swayed for what felt like at least a minute. Kumar, my guide, looked me in the eyes and said, “Oooh, earthquake!” When the earth had stilled beneath us, but still tumbled down the slopes of the mountains across the river from us, he said, “I’ve never felt one like that before.”
Say Nepal and what comes to mind for most people are the High Himalayas. Those iconic peaks of Everest and Lhotse, the Annapurna massif and Kangchenjunga, are just a couple of the more popular mountains found in the borders of this small country, which boasts seven of the 10 tallest mountains in the world.
But, when you arrive in Nepal and get your hands on some Nepali rupees, you notice that they are emblazoned with a variety of animals that are not found in the mountains: deer, crocodiles, rhinos, elephants. These animals aren’t on the money just because they are cool animals, but because they are actually found in Nepal, in the jungle-y southern border with India.
There are a couple of national parks along the southern border, but the most easily accessible and most visited is Chitwan National Park, near Sauraha, about six hours by bus from Kathmandu.
I love how the Internet has not only connected volunteers with life back home more, but also with volunteers in other countries. Hannah is a volunteer in Zambia and is trying to do interviews with volunteers in every Peace Corps country. Of course I volunteered to talk about Thailand.
I live in the poorest region of Thailand, the northeast, but in all of my travels I think that the people here are the best. Not many tourists or travelers come to this part of Thailand, and so when they do see me, they are genuinely interested in meeting me, talking to me, and helping me. They are so proud of Thailand and their region and want to show it off to me, and when I bust out the minimal dialect I know (usually I just say “I can’t speak Isaan!” in the Isaan dialect, which always gets a laugh), I have instantly made a new friend.
There are all kinds of lessons that you learn in Peace Corps. From your first day, you are learning a new language, to the lessons that are passed down through volunteer lore (top two being: “It’s not if, it’s when,” and “Never trust a fart.”) You learn the cultural norms and celebrations of your host country and how to navigate around.
I’ve been in Nepal for about a week now, and I’m realizing that some of the lessons I’ve learned from my Peace Corps service are showing up in my life traveling here.