After only three days in Liberia, two of which were hiking in the rain forest, I was painfully made aware of my physical unfitness to be an explorative jungle butterfly researcher. My body can’t handle the heat and humidity. It’s like my pale Nordic skin doesn’t know how to deal with this intensity of stimuli, and as a protest breaks out into an aggressive, itchy red rash.
I wouldn’t have made much of a butterfly expert, not being able to spend more than a couple of days at a time in the rain forest without the constant need to apply cortisol to all areas generally covered by clothing.
Maybe it’s lucky I didn’t choose that intro course in biology when I was deciding what to study, and took the bachelor’s program in geography instead. It doesn’t require me to spend too much time in the jungle. And, to be honest, the chances of me being able to make a decent living doing what I’ve been trained in is far greater with GIS and resilience assessments, than with being able to name butterflies in Latin. Even if the latter is more poetic.
Katja Malmborg 