2009.01.18: January 18, 2009: Headlines: COS - Malawi: Obama: Inauguration: Third Goal: Northwest Arkansas Times: Malawi RPCV Brooke McNeely to march as Peace Corps Volunteer in Obama Inauguration Parade
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2009.01.18: January 18, 2009: Headlines: COS - Malawi: Obama: Inauguration: Third Goal: Northwest Arkansas Times: Malawi RPCV Brooke McNeely to march as Peace Corps Volunteer in Obama Inauguration Parade
Malawi RPCV Brooke McNeely to march as Peace Corps Volunteer in Obama Inauguration Parade
Farnum will march in the Presidential Inaugural Parade on Tuesday, one of 200 marchers selected by the National Peace Corps Association and the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. Marchers will hold flags from countries the Peace Corps has helped throughout the years. There are close to 160 countries that will be represented. Farnum said he learned he was going via e-mail in December from the National Peace Corps Association. About a week before that, he was notified about the chance to go, and it was a lottery system to be selected. He said he supported Democratic President-elect Barack Obama, noting his presidential campaign was grassroots-based, "which was a lot of what we did in the Peace Corps, empowering people." Farnum has to pay for his airfare and other expenses. He decided to bring his girlfriend, Abby Fanepluw, with him "for her to be able to experience something like this." She is from Yap, an island that is part of the Federated States of Micronesia. They met in Hawaii. The two will fly out of Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport today and plan to stay until Thursday. Farnum said he plans to do some sightseeing while there. He has been to D.C. a couple of times, but this will be Fanepluw's first time in the nation's capital. A native of Tyler, Texas, Farnum said he decided to join the Peace Corps after graduating in 2000 with a bachelor's of science degree in natural resource conservation from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. "It'd always been something I wanted to do," he said. "After college, I kind of needed a break, but I wanted it to be a rewarding experience."
Malawi RPCV Brooke McNeely to march as Peace Corps Volunteer in Obama Inauguration Parade
Witnessing history: Former Peace Corps volunteer to march in inaugural parade
BY TRISH HOLLENBECK Northwest Arkansas Times
Posted on Sunday, January 18, 2009
Little did he know as he volunteered in a small African village in the early part of the decade that someday he would march in Washington, D.C., for a new president.
But that is how things have played out for Jake Farnum, 30, a graduate student of Kelly Loftin, extension entomologist and associate professor of entomology at the University of Arkansas.
Farnum will march in the Presidential Inaugural Parade on Tuesday, one of 200 marchers selected by the National Peace Corps Association and the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers.
Marchers will hold flags from countries the Peace Corps has helped throughout the years. There are close to 160 countries that will be represented.
Farnum said he learned he was going via e-mail in December from the National Peace Corps Association. About a week before that, he was notified about the chance to go, and it was a lottery system to be selected.
He said he supported Democratic President-elect Barack Obama, noting his presidential campaign was grassroots-based, "which was a lot of what we did in the Peace Corps, empowering people."
Farnum has to pay for his airfare and other expenses. He decided to bring his girlfriend, Abby Fanepluw, with him "for her to be able to experience something like this." She is from Yap, an island that is part of the Federated States of Micronesia. They met in Hawaii.
The two will fly out of Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport today and plan to stay until Thursday. Farnum said he plans to do some sightseeing while there. He has been to D.C. a couple of times, but this will be Fanepluw's first time in the nation's capital.
A native of Tyler, Texas, Farnum said he decided to join the Peace Corps after graduating in 2000 with a bachelor's of science degree in natural resource conservation from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas.
"It'd always been something I wanted to do," he said. "After college, I kind of needed a break, but I wanted it to be a rewarding experience."
From 2001 to 2004, Farnum served in Chulu village, Malawi, as a parks and wildlife volunteer.
"I chose Africa because I thought it was one place I'd probably never have a chance to go to, and if I did, I probably wouldn't get the experience I was seeking, which is being immersed in the culture," he said.
Becoming immersed in the village life and culture did happen, he said. He lived alongside the villagers. There was no running water or electricity.
After a year there, Farnum said he was pretty fluent in the Chichewa language, spoken in Malawi and eastern Zambia. It is one of the Bantu languages spoken throughout subSaharan Africa.
He worked with his Malawian counterpart to help decrease villagers' dependence on resources from a nearby national park. He also educated young people on sexual health issues, primarily because of AIDS.
"I basically visited the other villages bordering the national park," he said.
His mission was to find out what resources they were obtaining from the park illegally and try to work with them to find sustainable alternatives. For instance, if they were cutting down trees, could they learn to grow an orchard? Or, if they were killing for game meat, they might be able to raise guineas domestically for their meat.
The national park was composed of forest and grassland, and Farnum said he saw several different types of wildlife, from elephants, to hippopotamuses, lots of bird species, vervet monkeys and baboons.
Farnum recalled an incident in the village when six or seven people were killed by an older male lion, although he was not there to witness it.
There were other tragic events, such as people dying from AIDS and tuberculosis, he said. But he described the people as some of the happiest people he has met.
"With all the pitfalls, they just live life to the fullest," he said, adding that they make relationships a priority.
To illustrate this, he said although it was a five-minute walk to the market each day, it became 45 minutes to get there because people stopped and visited. People banded together despite tough times, he said.
"In times of hunger, oftentimes people would help out each other," he said.
Malawi is known as the "warm heart of Africa." It is landlocked in the southeast part of the continent, bordered by Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique. The population is dense, and the economy depends largely on agriculture. Tea and tobacco are its main crops.
Farnum attributes the country's nickname to the friendly people.
"It's also said to be a good introduction to Africa, a place for tourists," he said.
After two years of service in the village, Farnum signed up for a third year. He took a trip to the United States between the second and third year.
"Really, when I was in Tyler, all I wanted to do was go back to Africa," he said.
He said there was very little crime, and he felt safe in the village.
"They really took me in, took care of me," he said.
When he returned to Texas, for good, from Malawi, Farnum spent several months talking about his experiences in schools, which he said helped him through the adjustment period of returning to the U.S. He worked as a substitute teacher in 2004 prior to moving to Hawaii.
After moving to Fayetteville from Hawaii a couple of years ago, he worked for the entomology department at UA during the summer. He then decided to take advantage of a graduate opportunity.
His master's thesis research is on the population dynamics of the phorid fly, which is being widely introduced as a natural enemy of red imported fire ants in Arkansas and other states.
As for his Malawi experience, he said, "I don't think it changed who I was. It just kind of reinforced what I want to do in life."
And that, he said, is to help people.
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Headlines: January, 2009; Peace Corps Malawi; Directory of Malawi RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Malawi RPCVs; Presidents - Obama; Inauguration; The Third Goal; Arkansas
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Story Source: Northwest Arkansas Times
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Malawi; Obama; Inauguration; Third Goal
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