|
Dispatches from the Field:
A Military Coup, a Cyclone, Conservation Work and a Wonderful Job
By April Deibert
July 16, 2007
 |
| April Deibert poses with some native Australian wildlife. |
|
“Why can’t you?” A simple question from an Australian friend helped me decide that it was at last my turn to move overseas. I had made many close friends over the years while living in International House and working as an adventure counselor at a ranch in Northern California. Adelaide, in South Australia, seemed like the perfect place to land – not only did I have friends there but it was 180 degrees different from my hometown of San Diego.
Little did I know that studying abroad would take me on the adventure of a lifetime – experiencing everything from wine tasting in the Barossa vineyards, Australia’s best-known wine region, to doing conservation work in the Outback, to being flooded in by a cyclone near the Great Barrier Reef, to witnessing a military coup in Fiji.
Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean during my flight bound for Australia in early January, the pilot announced over the intercom that Fiji, our stopover, was in the middle of a military coup. If violence occurred near the airport, we would be diverted to Tokyo, he said. “If you have a long stop-over period in the airport and violence occurs,” he went on, “all non-Fijian citizens will be evacuated immediately to one of three Australian warships off the coast. We thank you for your patience and for flying with Air Pacific.”
The Fijian man sitting next to me rolled his eyes and kept eating his roast chicken dinner. “This time it isn’t that bad, but they have to take precautions because we have seen bloody coups in the past,” he reassured me. I joked that I should make the best of my stopover and get some proper photos for CNN -- the ones I had come across in the news had been so vague. Thankfully, we weren’t confronted by violence. Instead, we were greeted by helpful and smiling Fijian soldiers with M-16 rifles, standing next to traditional meke dancers in beautiful tropical outfits. Still, I was glad I followed my mother’s advice and got travelers’ insurance that included natural disasters and military coups.
After I landed, I spent time visiting friends in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Then I headed to a tropical town outside of Mackay, on the southernmost tip of the Great Barrier Reef, where a friend of mine had just been hired as an environmental engineer. He works on a new portion of the Hay Point Coal Terminal -- the largest coal port in the world.
 |
| Deibert wades in flood waters near Mackay. |
|
A few hours after I got there, the weather took a turn for the worst when a cyclone made its way on shore. The small, company-provided mobile home where we stayed rattled in the wind. After night fell, we lost power. To pass the time, we read old newspapers, did the crossword puzzles and swapped embarrassing stories. We tied down what we could outside. But the cyclone’s winds still found a way to blow random items into the door right next to my bed all night.
After two days, we were able to drive to the coal terminal during the first lull of rain and wind. We used the office’s dial-up Internet connection to check the local weather and found out that the tail end of the cyclone had passed over the area. So we drove into town to get more food and supplies. We worried when we saw townspeople wading through knee-high water. Crocodiles, snakes and other unfriendly creatures had been washed out of their homes and into flood waters.
Meanwhile, my study-abroad program orientation in Northern Queensland was one day away and flying was my only way out of Mackay. I called Quantas and was able to book a seat on the first post-storm flight. The 72-seater jet was leaving in four hours, so we rushed home to pack my belongings and get to the airport. Flying over an entirely flooded region and seeing whole neighborhoods of houses underwater was incredible.
In the Northern Queensland town of Cairns, I met the people who would become my fellow study-abroad friends and adopted family. The ten of us went to the Outback to perform environmental conservation work for the South Australian government. Our driver, Mick, was much like a character out of a Crocodile Dundee movie. Our excursion leader, Dale, was an older, brilliant and passionate ex-Greenpeace volunteer who tried to stop whaling ships after working as a fisherman off the coast of Japan. He had once been in prison for armed assault in his youth, but his hard time showed him a path to enlightenment. Dale taught us how to navigate the Southern Hemisphere by the stars, the importance of protecting Australia’s wildlife and how to cook the most delicious Aussie bush-tucker (food) of your life.
 |
| Deibert practices driving on the left. |
|
He also taught us about the Murray River environment. Our mission was to map the width and depth of various parts of the river to find possible locations for fish sanctuaries. We’d rise early and Dale would drive us to the project location. Then we took turns wading, and sometimes swimming, across the Murray River. We took depth and distance readings and GPS coordinates. At the end of each day, we went back to base camp and spread our laminated satellite maps out on the hood of our old Land Rover. We created data sets for the South Australian government’s land records. After the work was done we’d go swimming in the river, cook up dinner for camp and stargaze on our way to sleep.
However, much of my time wasn't spent in the Outback, but rather here in Adelaide. Here my friends taught me the motor sport of drifting the South Aussie way -- just like in the 2006 hit movie “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.” Oh yeah -- and I am taking classes on international politics and aboriginal culture at the University of South Australia. I also went to work for a South Australian Senator as a counterterrorism and foreign affairs advisor.
My job is perhaps my most incredible experience so far. I work on the Senator’s foreign affairs portfolio contributing research and articles on issues ranging from Australian counterterrorism, to privacy rights and security. All of which fits in perfectly with my International Studies degree with an emphasis on regional security issues.
Senator Stott Despoja was the head of the parliament campaign to bring back to Adelaide for trial David Hicks, an Australian man who had been held at Guantanamo Bay and pleaded guilty to providing material support to a terrorist organization. On June 29, the senator threw a cocktail party at a local hotel. The guests of honor were Hicks’ parents. One of the Attorney-General’s advisors had wanted to introduce me to them. So imagine how nervous I was to be introduced to Hicks’ father as “April – the American working on terrorism legislation issues in the Senator’s office.” We had a wonderful chat – ironically – about how much Hicks’ father, Terry, loved visiting Washington, D.C., and New York (minus the reasons for going there) and about much I am in love with my study-abroad experience in Adelaide.
The next few weeks are going to be busy as well: camping in Flinders Ranges near aboriginal lands and sailing along the coast. All of which makes studying abroad in Australia for a mere eight months an extraordinary adventure rather than just an ordinary trip to another university.
|
Deibert works and studies in Adelaide |
|
|
