Peak experience – snorkeling in Turks and Caicos

Last week I had the pleasure of heading to Turks and Caicos (TCI) for work. Last weekend I was with my family and when I told anyone that I was heading from chilly Baltimore to TCI literally everyone started laughing uproariously. Hard to argue with that logic. I flew from Baltimore to Providenciales, usually called Provo, and the distance between those two places in December seemed a lot more than 3 hours of flight time.

TCI certainly delivered, the entire time there I kept thinking that it lived up to its up market brand. It all starts with the ocean, which somehow is even more clear than the waters off the Bahamas. I didn't even think that was possible. And to make the azure water even better there is a reef right off Gracie Bay. The water is complemented by impossibly fine white sand that is velvety to the touch and goes for miles.

My dad used the phrase peak experience to talk about travel moments that become transcendent moments in your life. He wrote peak experience in the context of returning back to Kenya 38 years after serving in the Peace Corps - http://livingthekoroldream.blogspot.com/2013_02_01_archive.html.

While we have been traveling Mu and I co-opted the phrase.

I had a peak experience while snorkeling in TCI in those perfect waters. First I was enveloped in a school of brilliant blue and yellow fish, at least a hundred, to more swimming lazily but keeping their shape as a group. After moving on from that school of fish I saw a turtle about the size of a coffee table book zooming around near the reef. Nice!

The turtle was so nice that I dove down to see it a bit closer and then to my surprise the entire floor of the reef moved. Whoa, there is another turtle here and it is seriously large! I had not noticed and would have missed it entirely with the shell blending perfectly in to the reef. The turtle was riveting, kind of hanging out on the ocean floor and not doing much. The baby turtle kept heading out and then coming back to momma. It was super cute and time kind of stopped.

Once the big turtle decided it had enough of this weirdo at the surface just watching, it headed towards deeper water. I followed the turtle as it swam away, and it took a moment to register there was something else on the ocean floor. Momma turtle swam over two black forms, which it took me awhile to realize were sting rays. These two organisms were the same as the turtle, one pretty large one and then an enormous one. A baby and its mom just hanging out on the sandy bottom. I would have NEVER noticed the Manta Rays without following the turtle.

The big ray was even more captivating than the turtles. It was seriously large, probably about 10 feet across and with a stinger as tall as a person. I have never seen any rays this size ever, nothing even close. It was so large as to be a bit unnerving, and reinforced that the water is a medium where people are out of place. How long has this Ray been alive? How much does it weigh? Could it hurt me? It could definitely hurt me, right?

Time stood still again and I kept talking and laughing to myself into the snorkeling gear. Amazed at this transcendent beauty just a few minutes swim from the beach. Wow.

Living up to its name - exploring Gold Rock

Mu and I had the pleasure of spending this past weekend on one of the other islands, Grand Bahama. On the Grand Bahama, we spent our time in Freeport/Lucaya -- The Bahamas' second largest city and quite a contrast from Nassau.

Nassau has tons of houses and streets from before 1800. These are right in the center of town and it is a fun part of walking around for lunch or something to think about -- a direct history that goes back a couple of centuries. On the flip side, the traffic can be quite bad with traffic patterns that go back at least a couple of decades. The balance is most certainly positive, but the congestion of Nassau has been a bit of surprise.

Freeport is a contrast, it is a planned city that is quite spaced out with grand boulevards dissecting the city of about 40,000. I was brought over to the city for work which was a fun reason for travel. Travel with a purpose has always been our favorite type of trip.

We arrived on Friday night.  I worked on Saturday and then we rented a car for Sunday and headed towards the east side of the island.   On the east side, we checked out the Lucayan National Park. This park is wonderful, it has a couple of the blue holes that are mesmerizing. It also has some nice mangrove swamps that are haven to tons of birds.

Those are both nice, worth a trip for sure. But the clear highlight of the park, and the island generally in our view, is the Gold Rock Beach. It is the leader in the pack for the nicest beach in the Bahamas in my limited sample. We walked through the mangrove swamp and came to this perfectly white sand beach with crystalline water of that special hue that seems endemic to the Bahamas. We were the only people on the beach, which made it even better.

The beach is littered with these massive driftwood stumps, all twisted and mangled and bleached by the powerful sun. Mu headed over to a sand bar and set up shop for some serious sun bathing. I think she must have been looking forward to this kind of relaxing for weeks.

Since sun bathing is not really my speed I got on my snorkeling gear and swam the half mile to Gold Rock. The swim was kind of dreary since the reef only started a half mile out. But man was it worth the swim, as the coral on the reef had spectacular colors and some crazy big structures. The complex arrangements of the reef were really impressive, especially when some of the lincoln log-esque coral arrangements had super heavy coral sitting on top of something that looked like it wouldn't support more than twenty pounds.

After a bit of exploring it was time for me to make the swim back to my lovely wife. We had both gotten just what we wanted from our day at this most perfect beach. The gold in the name is well deserved and I have a new standard bearer for best beach in the Bahamas.  

Slowing it down in Andros

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.  It was a great time of year here in Nassau, lots of sun and the pleasure of hosting a great friend. And then my lovely wife arrived for good the day after. So yes, it was quite the good week.

The week was made all the better with a work trip to one of the Family Islands – Andros. This island is by far the largest of the Bahamas archipelago, even if it is divided into three separate sections that are in effect their own islands due to the logistics challenges of getting between the regions. It is actually necessary to fly back to the Nassau to get from the south of Andros to the north or vice versa. Most of the island is desolate pine barrens growing on top of rugged limestone and vast mangrove swamps. It is the kind of place where that show 'Naked and Afraid' gets filmed.

For this work trip, I was excited to head to the north part of the island, which is not visited frequently by tourists.  I flew to Nichols Town (the biggest settlement, at 500 people, in northern Andros) and spent the Sunday exploring the island with my buddy.  Andros is well known for blue holes, which actually should be called black holes because there is not much light to get a blue hue.  These geologic features are deep caves that fill with a mix of rain water and salt water seeping in from the ocean.   These two types of water do not mix though. The first hole we explored was actually right off of a beach and was just salt water.   It was kind of choppy so the visibility was sub-optimal and with the huge sting ray chilling in it, it was pretty creepy.

Then inland we found a more classic blue/black hole.  This one, called Uncle Charlie's hole is over a mile inland. Driving down a random dirt track through pine trees to find the blue hole, it felt improbable to find something impressive.  Man was I wrong.

All of a sudden there was a little lagoon with 5-8 foot cliff walls. The water was black, and forbearing. We scoped it out and then it was time to jump in.  I went first and the water was actually quite refreshing.  Then with the snorkeling gear it became apparent just how bizarre this quirk of geology is. With the mask it was easy to see the cliff walls extending down maybe 10 feet max, then the bottom of the cliff cuts away like and it gets spooky. Swimming out to the middle of the hole was an exercise in trust --trusting that it all was going to be okay, because it sure did not feel certain. Especially since, the visibility should be excellent in this clear water. When snorkeling in the waters off the island where I live I can have visibility over a hundred feet. Here that same impressive visibility just tailed off to nothing.  This water cave extends hundreds of feet down and was explored by Jacques Cousteau.

After those adventures it was time to head north and track down some food, no easy feat on a Sunday on the family islands. Finally we stumbled on this dive of a sports bar which serendipitously had the Pats game on against Detroit. A beer, some chicken and football felt just about right to hang out with some of the dudes that live in the tip of North Andros and were just chilling.

Then it was time to head home, squeeze in a run on the deserted beach and hit the hay.  It was so quiet in our little corner of the island--leading to a feeling of peacefulness and deep relaxation. I got to finish my book, which had taken way too long to read.  No TV, no internet and such quiet. I slept like a champ and was ready for full and super interesting days of work.

If you are curious about the work part of my trip, check out this summary on Facebook from the US Embassy account: https://www.facebook.com/wilson.korol/posts/10152866389955930.

Learning to Dive in the Bahamas

For my open water certification class on the west side of the island, all had been going great -- lots of time underwater and seeing all sorts of pretty sights. But now it was day 2 of the practical dives and I needed to descend on my own. My ears were barking -- making themselves known loud and clear. Actually it was not really loud, rather the pressure building in the ears felt widely uncomfortable and unsettling. Was this going to the time when I learned that I couldn’t do this sport because of my past numerous ear infections as a kid? Perhaps. As the pain intensified my body screamed this doubt, that it knew better all along, and I shouldn't have even tried.

Thankfully, the pain receded when I ascended a few feet and slowly get some control over my ear pressure. Then I proceeded slowly down again. Just the way you are supposed to from the course work and what my excellent instructor, Gigi from Stuart Coves Dive Shop, had explained. The ears released the pressure and then I resumed heading down to the ocean floor 40 feet down. Slowly, slowly I edged down through the water until my knees came to rest on the ocean floor 43 feet below the surface. I was happy and so relieved, because everything else about this new to me sport was proving enjoyable.

Part of the enjoyment comes from the sights in this diving mecca. In two days of diving across 4 open water dives and 1 long skills dive at shallow depth we had seen 2 boat wrecks, 2 plane wrecks, The Wall, reefs, tons of fish. Many of these have been featured in movies and other shows, which is always enjoyable. My favorite was the DC3 plane and Wall combo on day 2 –http://www.divebuddy.com/divesite/1288/dc-3-wall-bahamas/. This plane was left on the ocean floor for a movie and has been broken up my the storms over the last decade. It has a bunch of fish and on the day we were down a HUGE crab was chilling under the fuselage. The hue of the old plane looked great in the light blue of the water.

Then twenty feet away the Wall starts cutting away. The Wall is a underwater geological feature that is also called the Tongue of the Ocean. This tongue cuts up to 6,500 feet down to the deep ocean. The lowered depth water is this light azure blue and then the deep water off the wall is this deep, dark blue that is ominous. A few of the other divers on the boat talked about the blue being scary, and I definitely understood that reaction The contrasting colors does make it seem like anything could emerge from the depths. A big shark? A huge octopus? Maybe something really cool that I don't even know about? It all seems in play.

This last weekend my lovely wife and a bunch of our dear friends were climbing in at my favorite crag in the US, the Red River Gorge in Kentucky. It is awesome there and they had rented some houses and have had a grand old time. I would have loved to have been there. But on day two as I swam along the Wall I was swimming along and enjoying the feeling of underwater exposure in contrast to the vertical exposure of climbing.

My wife and friends were enjoying the exposure of climbing and at that moment I very surprisingly didn't want to be in the Red. I was pretty damn happy being present in the underwater world, learning new skills and seeing new sights. The feeling of a new sport is exhilarating and it was such a joy to experience that feeling this weekend. It felt all the more satisfying because I had spent years telling myself, and others, “I didn't want to try diving, I am good with snorkeling. I have past ear and sinus problems, equalizing is going to be a pain. It is so expensive.” All while people raved about diving and and I sat on the sideline.

On the boat back from many hours under the surface and seeing all those sights and pushing boundaries of comfort and skill in the water I was pretty tired. A good tired. And hungry. Real hungry. But the sunset was spectacular and things were looking great.

Love yourself: multi-sport in Eleuthera

One of the joys of getting settled here in the Bahamas is trying to get a handle on the language of this culture. There are a ton of sayings that don't make much sense to me but are part of the very fabric of this life here. My favorite way to learn some slang is to listen to the most popular radio station, Jamz 100.3. They play Junkanoo, soca, hip hop and other caribbean of this moment hits.

By far my favorite phrase sprinkled liberally through the rush hour drive is 'love yourself', said in a slow drawl that somehow half splits the your and self. This phrase applies to anytime you are doing what you want. Heading to the bar - love yourself. Having a nice meal - love yourself. Going on vacation - love yourself. Its the weekend - love yourself.

I write this on the ferry from a love yourself kind of weekend. I took the ferry after work to the island that most interested me in the Bahamas, Eleuthera. I was drawn to it for its beauty, the number of sports i could hopefully try and the idea of seeing a bit more than the 80 square miles of New Providence and Nassau.

Eleuthera has delivered.

Beyond fun trail runs in the bush and yoga on an outdoor patio, three sports have been spectacular these last couple of days.

- Snorkeling: have been trying to get out and snorkel at least once a weekend, and have found a spot i really like back west of Nassau. I knew that the coral and fish life would be orders of magnitude better. I went both days - one on the Atlantic side about half way down the island and the other on the exuma bay much farther north on my way back up to catch the ferry home.

Both were much better than New Providence, my guess is that i saw 30 types of fish at the first spot for example. And i saw a couple of fish that had me thinking - 'what exactly do you do if that big guy starts heading my direction?' I also had the thought, that fish looks pretty tasty! A few of them looked to be more than thirty pounds and were clearly the boss of this little section of the Ocean. The second spot had fewer fish but more schools and i loved swimming amongst them and being enveloped. Also saw a fish with a huge chunk taken out of its back, which was a bit disconcerting. It did not seem to be bothered in the slightest.

- Climbing: snorkeling is kind of a new pursuit for me, while climbing has been a passion for over a decade. Coming to The Bahamas, i was excited to learn that the islands are made out of limestone, my favorite type of rock to climb on globally. However, the rock that i have found on my weekly forays to cliff bands around my house have been disappointing. Not firm enough to really crank on and crumbling most of the time. It is a whole new type of climbing for me, one that places a premium on control and precison.

Eleuthera is made out of firmer rock, and genrally hillier, so there are some intriguing options. There are a bunch of sea cliff bands that look pretty good and i found two different areas that can be climbing spots for our future. One is more of a bouldering location, and was fun to check out. I topped out one problem maybe 20 or 25 feet feet off the deck and realized that i should probably hold off doing that until I have partners/spotters. Then today i found the most promising spot i have found thus far, two big boulders off the break so it can be climbed all the time. Jackpot!

- Surfing: the waves were garbage on Saturday during the day, chopped up and unrideable. So it was a pleasure to see regular sets with some heft and kick as i ran on Surfer's Beach, which juts out in to the Atlantic. I would get to surf after all! Picked out a board and walked back down to the break, feeling the nervous energy that i get before surfing. I think this comes from my mediocre ability on the waves and the fact that i sometimes get into spots out there that i am not comfortable.

Today I paddled out through the break and got used to the rental board. Then i started trying to figure out how the wave worked, trying and failing to catch several rides. Finally i worked up to catching waves and getting little pops on the board. This wave was taking a bit longer than usual to break and gave nice long rides. After finally getting some good rides, I was kind of tired and called it today - content in the knowledge that we will be back soon.

Asside from the joys of discovery and pushing it, there has been another unintended pleasure from the weekend. Being in this place as felt like a microcosm of our Dream. It reminds me why we quit our jobs, why we traveled widely, why we wanted to join the Foreign Service. I have fallen back on the tricks we developed through that experience, to great positive impact. The preferences we had during that travel are the same, so the results are the same.

One example of this comes from last night, while i read a book and loved myself some rum on the veranda overlooking the Atlantic. On the horizon a storm rolled through, lighting up its host cloud many miles out to sea. It reminded me of another magical night in north Malawi, when the same thing happen with a storm on massive, sea-like Lake Malawi. The lighting was captivating, a delight when it explodes in energy and then instantly followed by a burning desire to see the next flash. Where will it come? Will there be a next one?

 

 

 

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The Bahamas: coming home for the first time

I arrived at the Bahamas at noon last Tuesday afternoon and by the time I left the airport 15 minutes later, the country had already lived up to its reputation of an easy-going, fun place -- there was live-music in the security line and no unsolicited offers for taxis or bag carriers or the other barrage of people that can sometimes greet you when you land in a tropical place.

Bahamas with its GDP per capita of $32,000 isn’t a poor place (compare to Madagascar’s GDP per capita of $1,000) but neither is it a rich place (compared to Norway’s GDP per capita of $55,400). Especially when you consider that folks often buy food at NYC prices. One example today was my terrible lemonade (really it was sugar water) for $3. In contrast, Wilson and I shared a huge plate of food (spicy grilled grouper, macaroni, plantains, beans and rice) with an order of conch fritters for $18 last night. Thus, you can get good food – it is just important not to rely on the vegetables or real lemonade.

I think the food situation is analogous to what our life will be like with Wilson in the diplomatic corps – it isn’t always going to be perfect but it is going to be good and remarkable. I noticed that with our housing. For the next two years, we live in a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom townhouse. This is remarkable for me because it is probably triple the size of our former San Francisco apartment. This week, I sometimes took the wrong turn going to our bedroom – that has never happened to me before.

But the bigness of our house doesn’t mean it is perfect, the housing doesn’t have the same high end finishes that a house in the US might have and the furniture is not as chic as that found in our loved ones homes. But it has plenty of room to host our loved ones, and in addition to that, Wilson has done a fantastic job moving us in. It was so comforting to enter the house on Tuesday and see pictures and kitchen items that I hadn’t seen since we moved out of our San Francisco apartment in August 2012.

The noteworthy part of life in the diplomatic corps showcased itself last night when we ate the overflowing amounts of food and ran into a practice for "Junkanoo". Junkanoo is the Bahamian holiday that occurs on Boxing Day and New Years Eve/Day and practice for it was loud, exciting, and impressive. It was loud because they have about 100 drum players – some played percussion on standard drums while the majority used (and carried) huge barrels made into drums. The barrels are 50 gallon oil drums and they look very heavy and pack a powerful beat. It was exciting when we saw it begin with just one guy and his drum and his whistle then all the other drums and whistles built, then these metal triangle rattle instruments kicked in, then the horns. Now it was a party!

And it was impressive because the music sounded so good and the 50 or so dancers in front of the 100 musicians were talented energetic dancers whose body weight differences of 90-300 lbs didn’t affect the athletic choreography. We’ve heard that the actual Junkanoo is even cooler with the costumes, adrenaline, etc. Much to look forward to.

Food, housing, Junkanoo....I was only able to be "home" with Wilson for 3 nights and 4 days but it made me look forward ever more to the day when I will move home with him for good.

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Being Helpful From Afar

During our travels, Mu and I often talked and thought about contributing to the places that we were experiencing.  That proved harder than we anticipated for a bunch of reasons as Mu wrote about here, here and here. Broadly, we moved pretty fast so there was just not the kind of deep engagement in a specific place that would have allowed us to volunteer or help out. Secondly, we did not want to partake in the volunteer tourism market place because the impact did not always appear to match with the price tag.

What we have done recently in the last couple of days is micro-lending via Kiva and some micro-giving through GiveDirectly. We did donations or active loans of fifty bucks per country that we visited during our 20 months on the road. It is a small gesture to the many countries we came to love and the wonderful people we met along the way.  In this small way, we gave and we wondered if people might think about the stories from the blog that struck you and consider matching our contribution for your favorite place.  Doesn't have to be on Kiva or GiveDirectly, those are just the platforms that resonate with us. 

Did you like reading about being in awe while on safari and Tanzania? That would be a great place and there are tons of projects on Kiva for that country. Perhaps you enjoyed reading about our harrowing night bus ride in Colombia or getting turned around at the Bolivia border? There are lots of projects in both those countries too. Or maybe you liked my posts from Indo? Lots of projects available there too.   

The countries we donated to today

GiveDirectly (http://www.givedirectly.org): Kenya

Kiva (http://www.kiva.org/about/where): US, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Indo, Turkey, Jordan, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Israel

What kind of people did we select for micro lending?

The range is pretty big – there are a lot of choices. Some are education loans to attend school or get the necessary supplies. Others are in the retail sector to buy stock for small, informal businesses. Still others were for farmers or others in the agriculture sector, getting new equipment such as water pump to get better returns from the field. Some were for individuals while others were to woman collectives. As I wrote, there are a lot of choices.

A bit of background on Kiva

Making a loan on Kiva is so simple that you may not realize how much work goes on behind the scenes.Kiva works with microfinance institutions on five continents to provide loans to people without access to traditional banking systems. One hundred percent of your loan is sent to these microfinance institutions, which we call Field Partners, who administer the loans in the field.
Kiva relies on a world wide network of over 450 volunteers who work with our Field Partners, edit and translate borrower stories, and ensure the smooth operation of countless other Kiva programs. 
Stats$1,931,600 lent this week.4,352 borrowers funded this week.98.77% repayment rate to date.

Give Directly – how does it work?

Step 1: identify poor households in Kenya and UgandaWe do this using modern technologies including electronic data capture, digital mapping, and remote sensing. To date this process has located exceptionally poor households: our average recipient lives on $0.65 per day and only 15% of households report having enough food in the house for tomorrow.
Step 2: We transfer your donation directly and electronically to recipientsWe move money from our US bank to our account with an electronic payments provider via a foreign exchange broker. We then transfer money directly to the recipient's account.
Step 3: Recipients use the transfer to pursue their own goalsRecipients use transfers for whatever is most important to them; we never tell them what to do. An independent evaluation of our work in Kenya by Innovations for Poverty Action found that recipients use transfers for a wide variety of purposes that on average generate large income gains. Common uses range from buying food to investing in tangible assets such as housing and livestock to investing in children's education.

It is weird that we ultimately felt better about being helpful upon our return and through orgs like Kiva and GiveDirectly. There are some of the same opportunities for nefarious actions in their ecosystem, but both orgs have great reputations and have been doing good work in the places they operate. I trust the platforms. That comfort was not obvious while we were on the road but we hope that our donations (and hopefully some of yours) will have the sort of positive impact that we all seek.

Landing in Nassau

It has been quite some time since our last post, but that is going change because I am back on the road. Well sort of. I have arrived at my first post here in Nassau and will live in this delightful city for the next two years. It is nice, to say the least.

Since the previous blog post, the last two+ months have passed quickly -- time escaped us with training/work while enjoying DC and the surrounding area as much as possible.  I think we did a pretty good job of that between exploring the District with friends, getting out to the VA mountains and trips to Annapolis/Balto, NYC, Maine, Minneapolis, and CA.  So busy times indeed, and I imagine most anyone reading this has had a pretty busy summer as well.
Then about a week ago it was time to head out, which was made exponentially harder because I left DC on my own. Mu stayed in the District for the next several months with her job so we said goodbye at the Reagan Airport departure curbside. Wow that was hard. Stepping back this time will be much easier than if I had been posted basically anywhere else that is farther from DC. We will get to see each other every three or so weeks, but future logistics did not make it any easier to say goodbye.
From DCA, I flew on to Miami for an overnight of work.  This made leaving DC so much easier because I got to see some good friends who live in South Beach. We hit up a rooftop bar and watched a squall come through from the tenth floor overlooking the city. Then a yummy Haitian dinner further confirmed how much I enjoy South Beach.
The next day I arrived in Nassau, the culmination of the last 4 or so months. I was greeted by a colleague and started a whirlwind tour and intro into the city (Nassau) and island (New Providence). I had a couple of days until I could move into my place so stayed in a hotel right in downtown a hop, skip and jump from work.
My time out of work through the weekend has been split between checking out the city and the larger island.
- First, I want to talk about this city with its lengthy colonial history going back over two centuries. Amazingly, the water is clear as can be even along a really busy stretch of water where multiple cruise ships have docked daily thus far. That blew my mind. I got a good feeling about the city watching a grandiose sunset from an open air bar on my first evening, with clear skies from an afternoon rain and big clouds making for a memorable sunset.
Also everyone I have met in and out of the embassy community has been very welcoming. There have been numerous meals and happy hours, not unsurprising in a place famous as a vacation destination. All much appreciated for a guy living apart from his wife.

- Second, it has been the pleasure of exploring the island. It is roughly 7x21 miles, so 3x the size of San Francisco proper. Prior to arrival,  I perceived the island as small, but it feels much larger. Some of that comes from the slower speeds you use when driving around the island, so the effective distance is larger. Also the density of the island is concentrated, which means that there are still large swaths of land that are undeveloped and remote.

The nature highlights thus far have been concentrated on the western tip of the island, with stunning beaches and cliffs dropping into crystal clear water of a hue that I don't think have yet seen in my travels on this great earth. The water kind of surprises you while driving around, peaking out of some pine barrens, popping out of the forest or around a bend in the road. It will be fun to spend more time in the water moving forward. I got to snorkel on Saturday which was enjoyable and have been swimming most everyday thus far on-island.

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Enjoying DC: a great home for a bit

It has been quite a while since Mu and I wrote on the blog, about a month in fact. Some of that has been being really busy and some comes from being in the US and not having as many experiences that feel special or abnormal or worthy of sharing. We all watched and loved the world cup, for example. And followed the evolving, sad and terrible news from Ukraine this week. That said, we have been enjoying DC and all that is on offer in the summer in our nation's capital with festivals, museums, live music, farmers markets and farm shares, great outdoor stuff, and fun bars/restaurants.

We recently hosted a couple of Mu's siblings and their respective families across two different weekends, which made me realize one of the joys of living in DC for a bit – being in a city that has so much history and iconic images/vistas. It is cool to walk from one meeting to another and realize that you are going to pass by the White House or to bike into the District for a night out and pass the Washington Monument and the Capitol or go for an early am run and see the blood orange sun rising next to the Lincoln Memorial across the still Potomac.

We have seen so many wonders across the world these last 2 years, and been in many of the world's capitals across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South America and Asia. It is fun to be in a city that I felt I knew pretty well before we got here and realize that it reveals itself differently over months versus the quick hit visits we have enjoyed in the past. I am constantly finding little gems, be it a cafe in an area that seems kind of dead or a museum that I did not know existed.

In essence we have applied many of the techniques we picked up and refined over the last 2 years. One example was a walkabout where we went through about 8 neighborhoods over a weekend day that added up to about 16 miles. Great day. Another was checking out a great hole in the wall restaurant we learned about via a local blog, something we tried to do while on the road. Lastly we have been using the capital bikeshare like crazy to get around, saving some money and getting in a bit of exercise to boot. We tried to use these networks of the mesh economy as much as possible in our travels and I wrote about them back in September of 2012 when we were just starting our journeys.

It is cool to me that so many of our strategies from traveling have carried over to our life in a more normal living situation. I figured that would happen, but you never know how much carry over will happen when you move from one life situation to another. It reminds me of a realization I had a few days ago that my preferences and choices tend to be dominated by those that have occurred during our travels. For example, when I get introduced to someone new, I tend to steer the part of the conversation about me to this adventure.

It hit me all of a sudden while making dinner and listening to music I learned about after we started this adventures (DJ Pumpkin), on a service that I started using a ton after we left (Soundcloud). I am wearing jeans bought in New York and a shirt in Cali, Colombia. Again, both bought after we started traveling. On my wrist is a bracelet given to me by a nice woman who spoke basically no english on a ride mu and hitched in southern Thailand. Basically everything on my body is from these last 2 years.

I find myself wearing the stuff that has become familiar, just like always. It just so happens that all of this stuff is from our travels. So even though we have a full wardrobe now for the first time in 2 years, I tend towards things that came into my life/possession along the way in our travels. There is no longer a travel Wilson and States Wilson. They are the same with hardly, if any, variation between the two and their interaction with the world.

Part of me wonders if this means I have left that old stuff behind forever. Should I just get rid of those boxes and move forward with what is near and dear to my heart now? What about those things that I don't even remember but have strong emotional ties? But these new things have strong ties too from our stops along the way and you can only wear or listen or do one thing at a time. At least that is all I can manage at the moment here in DC.

This process of reinvention and discovery is a life long one and it is good to be reminded about that dynamic along the way.

 

 

 

 

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Globetrotting: safety and security tips

Today, I attended a safety and security training at the Department of State and it made me realize that (1) Wilson and I built up some great safety & security skills during our globetrotting; and (2) there is more to learn -- found out some new security skills today. Because safety is so important, I wanted to share tips from today, other courses, and years of travel to sixty-plus countries.

EVALUATE YOUR ENVIRONMENT

-- Scan the situation & be prepared to act

Scanning the situation means looking behind, in front, and around you, noting the people, the exits, and even potential escape routes if someone attacks you. In a comfortable environment, we aren't often focused on our surroundings but it is important to stay focused. Staying focused helps you avoid crime and allows you to proactively avoid potential threats.

-- Assess strangers

Avoiding potential threats may require assessing people and planning escape routes. Assessing people means evaluating whether people are paying too much attention to you, doing something strange, or just don't fit into the situation.

-- ATM machines

ATM machines are a high risk zone because it is a money machine -- either because someone can beat you up and take your money or use technology to scan your ATM card for use at other ATMs. So tips for ATM machines are (1) use ATMs inside of banks rather than street ATMs; and (2) have a buddy/traveling companion stand behind you and scan the environment to make sure that no one is going to come up behind you.

BE A HARD TARGET

-- Keep a low profile

It is important to try to blend in as much as possible so people don't pick you as their target. Blending in means wearing culturally appropriate clothing and potentially even wearing a hat to hide hair that stands out from the local community. Blending in also means not carrying too much stuff. Backpacks and purses are accessories that often scream "Valuables in here." Wilson and I like to travel with a shoulder bag when necessary so that the shoulder bag can be swung in front of our stomachs with our hands folded on top of the bag. I have heard many stories of backpack straps being cut from behind right off a tourist's back. The ideal is to not walk the streets with a bag at all.

-- Separate your money and valuables

There are a couple of different ways of separating your money and valuables. One of the ways that I find most useful is to keep a limited amount of money in an easy to access location such as a zipped front pocket. That limited amount of money can be used to buy items on the street, or in the case of a robbery, easily given to the robber. The majority of my money and passport, I like to keep in a money belt under my pants or around my back under my shirt. You never want to flash a lot of money or a valuable like an iPhone in a crowded situation.

-- Be confident

15 years ago, I took a self-defense course where the instructor told us that one of the most common traits of women who were brutally attacked were women who had their heads down -- reading a book, not looking around, etc. A lack of confidence tells a potential predator that you will be easy to target.

Confidence can mean different things in different places and it requires judgment. In some regions of the world, I have stared down potential threats and they have retreated. In other regions, I have given a quick rude glance and then tried to escape the situation as soon as possible.

-- Don't be afraid to be rude

One of the wonderful parts of travel is engaging with new cultures -- enjoying new people. This wonderful part also requires judgment like confidence -- sometimes you need to be rude. You need to assert yourself, say no, and establish boundaries. You don't have to talk to everyone who strikes up a conversation with you. In fact, you should discern who you choose to engage with. Finally, never give information about where you are staying and your travel plans/route to strangers or discuss that information loudly in places where that information could be overheard.

-- Vary your routine & routes

This tip is useful for domestic, as well as international life. If a predator knows that you run the same route everyday at 5am, then you are at risk. Unpredictability creates safety from those who would want to target you.

TOOLS

-- Door stopper

Traveling with a door stopper is a great tip that I learned today. You can use the simple rubber door stopper to secure yourself safely in the hotel room and not worry that an intruder may enter while you are sleeping.

-- Your instincts

The class today emphasized the importance of trusting any intuition that you feel about a situation. And that is the basis of a rule that Wilson and I created when we set off on our "dream". Our rule was -- if either of us feels funny or strange about a situation, then we get ourselves out of that situation without hesitation. That rule served us well because during the dream, we were never the victims of violent crime. And the only time that we were the victims of any crime (electronics stolen from a bungalow in Thailand), Wilson had a strong antipathy to that bungalow prior to the burglary.

IF YOU ARE A TARGET...

--Give them the stuff

If someone tries to violently rob you, then give them everything you have. It is not worth it to get hurt. Also, while you are giving them your belongings, you can take a couple steps back to increase the distance so you can escape as easily as possible without bodily harm.

--Never go with them..go CRAZY

I have heard many stats about how if you allow someone to take you, you probably won't come back alive. This course today re-emphasized that probability and they said -- fight like crazy and even go crazy. You want to make your abduction as painful as possible -- try to poke out their eyes, smash in their groin, anything to get away. And if you can't get away, then defecate, urinate, anything to make the attacker think you are crazy and give that predator pause.

Please let me know if I missed anything in the tips above I hope we all continue to stay safe in our globe-trotting adventures.

 

 

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Our new home - Nassau

Big news!  Muriel and I found out where we are going in our first post and it was quite a surprise to be placed in the Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas.  Wow!  Island living here we come. 

To get there, allow me explain the process a bit.  My class of Foreign Service officers got a spreadsheet list of posts that were available to our group.  We then bucketed them in to high, medium and low and submitted that spreadsheet several weeks ago. '

Flag Day goodness

After submission of our post preferences and in a highly energized ceremony called "flag day", our postings were told to the class as a group along with a couple of hundred of our closest family and friends.  This happened yesterday afternoon and it was a special atmosphere for sure.  To my knowledge this is the only time we will learn of our future postings in a group, and one that has become very close over the last 5 weeks.  Also our family was there to support us, which made it great.  There is some palpable tension in the ceremony, which goes by surprisingly fast, since these postings determine up to the next 3 years of officers’ and their families, lives. 

When it was time for the Bahamas flag to be announced, I honestly did not expect to hear my name.  I ranked the Nassau consular post as a medium in our bid list, with the thought that I would love to live there but that our latest and past travel adventures would steer us farther afield.  My general thought about the several Caribbean posts boiled down to them being cool experiences but ones that other people would enjoy.   And enjoy very, very well.

Instead, it was announced like this – ‘And of course Wilson Korol is going to Nassau, the Bahamas.’  Wow, I was pretty stunned.  The ‘Of course' didn’t make sense until much later when one of my buddies pointed out that there is a ton of coral in the Bahamas.  Which I will greatly enjoy exploring by the way.

So now what?

I am slated to get to Nassau around the first of September.  My summer is devoted to trainings here in DC.  Mu and I are expecting tons of visitors, you should make Nassau your Caribbean vacation sometime over the next two years as I can assure you we will be living very well and would love to host. 

I did not know tons of about the country until yesterday and will spend a lot of time getting onboard with its unique history, the special relationship it has to the U.S., and the culture.  My initial online forays into this late last night were really encouraging.  Also, while Mu and I have wandered freely around this great world we have never traveled together in the Caribbean and she has never even been to that part of the world.  So there is much exploring to be done regionally.

Lastly, one of our priorities in life is clearly outdoor sports and adventure.  While there are not ski mountains in the Bahamas there are miles of beaches and tons of water sports for us to try out or refine.  That is really really exciting.  I am hoping we get a little sailboat, for example.  And re-try diving.  Maybe fall in love with kite surfing.  You get the drill; the main idea on this component of life is that there are several things we already love on the islands (a bit of climbing, biking, trails for hiking and backpacking) and many sports for which we can develop a love. 

Here are some cool pics and links that have me VERY excited about the next two years.

- Outdoor adventure

- Pictures

- A sampling of life

- Embassy website

In sum, the next 2+ years of our life are decided and that is an enormous relief.  We feel very fortunate to have landing in our situation and start our Foreign Service adventure with Nassau.  See you there!