Peace Corps

I was a volunteer from 1998-2000 and I served in the Solomon Islands with my husband Mark Barry. We were both teachers there and we loved our village of Gizo very much. One memory that I have of the experience is waking up to the sound of loud chattering in the banana tree outside our leaf and stick hut. As my eyes adjusted to the moonlight, I saw an eagle eating the sap from the "bulb" at the end of the bunch of bananas through my bedroom window. As I woke up my husband to share in the experience, I realized that I was not seeing an eagle, but a HUGE fruit bat (also called a flying fox because their heads look identical to that of a fox) sipping nectar from the banana tree. As I sat in awe of this enormous winged creature (not more than 3 feet away from me) another one came to stake claim to the tree. They began chattering and beating their leathery wings against each other to claim their territory. In the end, my eagle won and settled back in to a good nectar treat after scaring the other fruit bat away. This happened so often that I got use to the sound of squawking and chattering- a kind of lullaby as I drifted into dreamland. On my first night back I realized how cities and towns in the US are void of night-noise. Sure, we have loud cars that "boom boom" their music, or police sirens, or "outside-voiced" college students making their way home from the bars at 2 a.m., but not nature noise. I couldn't sleep for the first month upon return because it was entirely too quiet.
I am the campus representative at CSU. I get paid to talk about Peace Corps all day- it is a wonderful job.