On January 14, I arrived at a dock, waiting for a boat. I
looked at the ships that were coming and going, my skirt flapping in the wind.
The boats were bigger than I was used to. I was used to small fishing boats and
what were passing by me were large ships, cargo ships, carrying things from one
side of the world to the other. The boat I was waiting for arrived, and I
stepped on, forgetting to pass my things to the waiting man. Not because I
wanted to be rude, or even seem self-reliant, but because I wasn’t used to this
being what you do.
The boat was to take me to a yacht carrying over 60
Americans collected from all of the country. I finally realized what the man
was waiting for and I passed him my backpack, holding onto my other bag for the
moment. He took me into the transport boat, for once, under a roof on a boat.
We sped off and I began to feel sick. I stood to look out the window.
Before I knew it, we were alongside the yacht. The huge,
imposing yacht. Crowds were gathered along the edges of each of the 3 levels
and I stepped to the outside of the small boat. What was I doing? For the
second time in two years, I walked into a situation that was completely out of
my element. I walked aboard the ship, my feet sure despite the lapping waves
beneath me and everyone smiled and cheered. I looked behind me to see if I
could back out now, walk away and return to my small town, my small fishing
boats, my small life. I was welcomed with open arms, for the second time in two
years, into a place I was completely uncomfortable in. I reminded myself that I
adjusted to my small town, and I could adjust to this as well.
The President of the Oceanic Society welcomed me first,
seeing in my eyes the complete ill-ease I felt. He helped with my bags,
introduced me and told me to calm down. I laughed and sat. He had invited me
onto this ship more than a month before to speak on my project and to help him
raise awareness of our oceans.
The next day, we spoke. He began, explaining the work of his
organization – aiming primarily at research and community development. He
showed maps of the world’s turtles and explained the connection between sea
turtle populations and ocean health. Turtles are becoming the flagship species
of cleaning our worlds oceans – water is the key of our own health. Everything,
from the mountains of the Himalayas to the forests of the Pacific Northwest of
North America, is connected to the oceans.
And then it was my turn. I talked about my projects and
those around me. I talked about the problems we encounter regularly, from
poaching, to agency intervention and community disinterest. I talked about the
successes we had, from using tourism to create another source of income to youth
education. I talked about my surf club, creating a relationship between local
youth and the oceans. And then we started taking questions.
For the first time, I spoke and presented in English on a
subject I have spent two years studying. And I was well received. Whereas
before I thought questions after a presentation were because you did not
explain something clearly, it became clear to me that questions were a result
of interest. And the attendees on the cruise were interested. For the first
time, outside of Peace Corps, outside of my small town, I actually felt like a
turtle biologist. I finally feel as though I am on my way to where I want to
be.
No comments:
Post a Comment