New Orleans

I'm 100% set on Tulane Law School and very excited about the whole thing. I found a garçonnière attached to a beautiful family home in the garden district, and my lease starts on May 1. I'm going to be looking for work in New Orleans from early May until school starts in August.

Update about Perdido Bay, the Florabama, and life in general to come.

New Computer

That comes with Photo Booth... Got the same Mac Powerbook I had, loaded it with a bunch of music, some software for Law School, and a bunch of pictures.

One of these was taken unintentionally while trying to figure out how to work the photo booth, the other was taken this morning pre-haircut...

Back On The Horse

By popular (2 separate requests) demand, I'm bringing back occasional updates on the blog.

Heading to NYC again this weekend, going to eat at Peter Lugars, stay out all hours of the night, and crash with an old friend on the Upper West Side. It's great getting out of VT on the weekends, especially when I'm doing a lot of skiing during the week. We've had a ton of snow, which makes the uphill touring tough, and the downhill skiing that much better. Telemark bindings, touring skins, and tele boots are the best investment of my winter.

I had a tough break to rebound from, but hanging out with people who really care about me, spending time with good friends, and getting outdoors to tele makes the time I have left in Vermont less of a prison sentence, and more of an opportunity. Having New York and Boston so close has put me back into going out like I used to in SF, something I definitely need at 25. I really feel like I've got a new lease on life. Trips in the next few months are going to be weekends in nearby cities, multiple stops in New Orleans, 4 days at the Florabama with the entire pledge class and some other folks, probably another weekend in South Royalton, 7 days in Baja California, maybe Houston, and if all goes to plan, a multi day romp through Knoxville. Compared to my old plan of hanging tight in Vermont, helping on a farm for a while, it's a major change.

At this point, I don't know where I'll wind up down the road, but wherever it's going to be will take some hard work to get there. I'm thrilled with the choices I've got for school next year, and as more decisions come in, my perspective seems to change daily. Financing my education so I can graduate with no debt is going to be a big determinant of it all, but I've also found myself withdrawing from some of the places I applied based on sheer incompatibility. I don't belong in Waco Texas or Chicago. I don't want to pigeonhole myself someplace without a lot of mobility. For the time being, I'm happy with what I've got, I've learned valuable lessons about people and trust, and I'm ready to throw myself into whatever's next.

Teaching at the mountain academy is a peach. Half days with built in prep time all to keep kids who naturally work really hard in line is about as stress free of a job as I've had. I'm enjoying teaching Math a lot more than I thought I would, which is a huge relief. History is obviously my favorite subject, and moving up to the Civil War is about as good as it gets. I'm even liking the cafeteria food, they make this homemade hummus that I could eat with every meal.

As usual, drop a line, shoot a call, or let me know what's on deck over the next months. I'm sure I'll be seeing half of the readership at the Florabama, and the rest in the months leading up to August.

Cheers,

- Jeff

Back, Safe, New Journey

I made it back, according to the good folks at Dartmouth Medical it was Malaria and Dengue simultaneously, and after a gamut of tests and treatment I feel a lot better. With work starting soon and law school apps starting today, I'm going to help my sister move cross country by driving her car from VT to FL going all the way to Miami via the Universities of Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, Florida, and Miami.

It Was Malaria

The doctor was wrong. I'm undergoing treatment and am doing really well. I caught it early and am on good meds. The owner of the guesthouse I'm in is an RN who has been checking up on me regularly.

To the Doctors Office

I've been having sharp pains in my legs and getting chills. Obviously this made me really nervous so I went to a good local doctor who did his residency in the US, he said it wasn't malaria or dengue, it was normal to have these symptoms if I were overexerting myself and that I needed to take a bunch of anti-inflammatory meds and get a lot of sleep. Hopefully I feel better!

Work, Work, Work

I'm safe and set up in Cape Coast, work is great so far, I feel like I'm getting a lot done and adding a lot of value to the projects I've started. I got out to Kakum in the back of a pickup the other day and met the staff there, and am about to start working closely with an accountant named Prince on how to segment park pricing to maximize revenue. Even though western foreigners make up only around 20% of the visitors to Kakum, they are responsible for the overwhelming majority of its revenue. By catering the business to Western foreigners and offering prices in between Ghanain and "foreign" entrance prices at the park for ECOWAS residents (non-Ghanain West Africans), I think the park will earn 10 - 30% more revenue on entrance fees alone, and attract more high margin clients who will pay a premium for western services. For western tourists, the entrance fees are a pittance, and can easily be raised, few if any who brave a $1000 flight are going to not go to a national park over a dollar or less.

Once we get them in the park, a basic example of "western services" would be selling candy bars. If you charge 1 GHC (around 70 cents) for a candy bar, no Ghanain in their right mind is going to buy one, and no western tourist would think twice if they were hungry and didn't want to sit down for a big meal. 1 GHC for a candy bar is somewhere around an 80% markup for the park. That money can go toward....

Removing litter. Nothing of what I've seen at Kakum has driven me more off the wall than litter. Ghanains litter. Everywhere. Even in the middle of a beautiful national park. Everybody tolerates it, and all of the westerners I've spoken to are appalled at the litter situation. If you remove the litter, you remove the issue, you employ someone locally, and you improve the quality of everything while creating another much needed job. My boss and I are convinced that the changes I'm suggesting are going to bring more money to the park. My only request so far is that part of that money be spent on cleaning it.

Another major problem facing the park is the dearth of information available online. Before this week there was no easily available information on Kakum National Park on the internet with correct prices, contact information, or maps to get there. By contacting a few websites, re-writing and completely re-linking the Wikipedia, Wikitravel, Google Maps, and other pages to Kakum, we've already begun to make the park more visible on the internet. There are two or three sloppy sites out there with mediocre information, but now the good stuff is rising to the top of major search bars.

Beyond the actual work, being downtown during the day is great, I work in the old Colonial Administration building and am figuring out where to go for lunch, how to act in an African office, and when I'm doing too much. Even compared to working in Madrid, this is far and away the most relaxed office environment I could ever imagine, and while having everyone come and go as they please isn't efficient at all, its really, really nice from a lifestyle perspective.