Welcome to the AESOP blog! I’m so glad you found your way
here.
I’m one of three head coordinators for AESOP this year (my
two co-coordinators are the most wonderful humans all you could ever ask for
when planning 51 outdoor trips of varying difficulty) and we also have three
stellar assistants. This post is comin’ to ya from Casino Beach in Cape
Elizabeth, Maine (my hometown) where I’ve come to soak up some beautiful Maine
summer sunshine before AESOP planning goes from a summer job to planningalldayeverydayandnight
job.
This is what I’ve been up to for the past six months and how
it all relates to AESOP (because, ultimately, everything relates to AESOP):
I spent the winter semester in
Indonesia doing a Where There Be Dragons program. I had the credits and time to
take a semester off (still graduating next year) so I figured time away from
schoolwork would be good preparation for my thesis (maybe the opposite?) and a
great way to immerse myself in a totally different culture on the other side of
the world. I also wanted to live in different communities, speak a different language,
get out of my comfort zone, and explore.
I spent the first month on the Island of Java (Indonesia is
made up of over 17,000 islands) in the city of Yogyakarta. I did a weeklong
bike trip around the city through rice paddies, past the largest Buddhist
temple in the world, up the world’s most active volcano, and along the southern
coast of the island. I spent the next three weeks living with a homestay family
in the city. I learned to speak the language, and about the history, culture,
customs, politics, and people of Indonesia.
From the city, I traveled to the Wakatobi Marine Preserve in
southeastern Sulawesi where I lived with sea nomads on the ocean. Historically,
sea nomads facilitated trade and culture across Asia, but as colonialism,
capitalism, and globalization spread across the globe, governments forced the
nomads living on boats to settle in homes. They built their homes on stilts
over tidal flats and there are now sea nomad ‘neighborhoods’ scattered across
the seas of Asia. In the modern economy,
they are an extremely marginalized population. After three
weeks living in Sampella, I had no desire whatsoever to back to land. Living in, on, and off
the ocean was way more fun and rewarding. I snorkeled over quickly dying coral
reefs everyday, went spear fishing with my host papa at 4am, saw dolphins
jumping at sunrise, had several encounters with sea snakes (the most poisonous
in the world), and fell in love with the sea nomad way of life.
Next, I went to the island of Flores where I lived up in the
mountains and in the jungle with another host family. I ate avocados,
pineapple, papaya, guava, passion fruit, corn, and cassava everyday picked
fresh from the garden. We harvested, dried, and roasted coffee, the third best
in the world (I drank several cups per day and didn’t sleep for weeks). We
climbed an old cinder cone volcano, watched sunrises and sunsets, went to three
wedding dance parties, bathed in hot springs, weaved sarongs, and participated
in the harvest festival ceremonial dances.
Throughout the trip I thought about and struggled with
issues of wealth, health, religion, culture, and development. Knowing that I
had unlimited access to clean drinking water from the tap back in Maine but also knowing myself and everyone else in the county had to purchase several plastic water bottles a day was frustrating. I watched most
people burn their plastic waste or dump it into rivers, which is essentially what
western nations do just with more oversight. We are very quickly collapsing the
ocean’s ecosystems through overfishing and carbon emissions. Indonesia is the
largest Muslim country in the world, but five other world religions are well
represented and all religions exist harmoniously.
I am so grateful to have been able to spend a semester in
Indonesia, but was also thrilled to see my family again and spend time in New
England. I came home and picked right back up working on AESOP. AESOP was therapeutic
in a lot of ways as I struggled with reverse culture shock and assimilating
back into western society. AESOP is something that has very tangible and
exponential positive benefit to the Bates community—coming home and knowing I
was helping a community I care so much about made me feel like I wasn’t leaving
so much of Indonesia behind.
I’m spending my summer working on AESOP—answering a whole
lot of emails and planning meetings, which has been awesome because I feel like
I already know a lot of students in the class of 2019. I’m trying my best to
make AESOP 2015 the most innovative, engaging, and rewarding round of
orientation trips yet. Let me know if you have any suggestions! I’m also an
intern working on the Maine YogaFest (a super fun and soulful long weekend of
yoga, meditation, lectures, concerts, and events in Portland, ME), as well as
working part time in an art gallery in mid-coast Maine.
Sorry this was a long one, but that’s what I’ve been up to
for six months! I hope you all enjoy your summers and are looking forward to
the next year at Bates. It’s gonna be a good one!
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