By SASHA ENGELMANN Special to the Palisadian-Post The Cape Coast castle stood stark white, bleached by centuries of equatorial sun. I sat on layers of red rock while a throng of small Ghanaian boys played ahead on the cliff. One of them I recognized. His name was Ebenezer, and I remembered how busy he was that morning, selling peeled oranges in the town’s market. Soon, the game took the other children away from the cliff and Ebenezer was alone, facing the dazzling blue of the ocean. Suddenly, he turned his head and his gaze met mine. Ebenezer’s eyes, usually downcast or shifting, searched my face. He balanced an almost empty glass-paned box on his head. Through the box, I could see the ocean and open sky next to the last, peeled orange left inside. The sun highlighted the collar of the oversized shirt he was wearing as a dress, but gave him no shadow. Behind him, sea foam danced on the rocky beach while small yellow flowers nodded their heads in the wind. Standing against the sea and the sky, Ebenezer was beautiful, but his face was pained and worried. The incongruity between the majestic scenery and his serious expression startled me. I realized that this contrast had existed for ages along the West African coast. Earlier that day in the seaside town, a local guide had taken us inside the Cape Coast castle and showed us the dungeons where slaves were held during the colonial era. The dirt there, he said, was known to contain high levels of blood and other human traces. Inside the cramped stone chambers the only light came from slits in the high rock walls. A heavy sense of despair and agony emanated from the darkness within. Outside on the rocks, the spell was broken by the brilliance of sun and stone, until I almost forgot the landmark’s significance. The day I met Ebenezer was one of the last days that I would spend in Ghana, along with a group of twelve other high school students from across the United States. For five weeks we lived and breathed West African culture while helping to construct a school in Gomoa Achiase, a rural village in Ghana’s Central Region. Together we learned Twi, an ancient language commonly spoken across the country, and acclimated ourselves to life without running water or electricity. We carried buckets of water and dirt on our heads from pools in nearby groves of banku trees to the construction site where mortar was mixed and bricks were laid. Despite our constant struggle with heat, humidity and hungry mosquitoes, the walls of the structure grew higher each day. The primary-school children, who loved to hold our hands and guide us in long chains through dense palms and grasses, inspired us to work even harder. Back at the compound at dusk, we took bucket showers and scrubbed the red soil off our pants. The nights in Achiase were as haunting as the days were vibrant. Wandering through the maze-like heart of the village after dark, we found another world of candlelit faces and food cooking over low flames. We heard busy footsteps pounding in narrow passages between simple wooden houses as vendors yelled out ‘Obruni!’ (white man) when we passed. Through the smiles of my friends Abena, Ekua, Kwame and Kofi, the blistering sunshine and the feel of sticky clay-like soil beneath my feet, I discovered new qualities in myself. I found that running in the rainforest through sheets of warm rain was oddly fulfilling, and that I could teach math across a language barrier with nothing but a stick and a flat space of dirt. I learned that I had natural skill in haggling with marketplace vendors and that I loved dancing to the rhythm of drums. I had never felt as intricately connected to a single community or project before Achiase, but it was only after we had returned to the Ghanaian coast that the core of my experience in Africa was sealed by a chance meeting. No other moment defined how I felt then as clearly as my encounter with Ebenezer. Though no more than 9 or 10 years old, he simply smiled and bounded over to talk to me. I explained ‘Me ye skuuni’ (I am a student) and mentioned the rest of my group. With excited gestures, Ebenezer described his own primary school and pointed out his friends in the distance. As the sun was setting and we had to part, he took my hand and whispered ‘Madamfo, efe paa’ (Friend, you are beautiful). Before I could say anything, he placed the last peeled orange in my hand. I stood there motionless while he slowly disappeared into the shaded town streets. I could still see the empty box bobbing in the distance even after his small figure merged with others. Our conversation lasted only as long as the fading light, but I realized that it had brought me closer to Ghana than I had ever felt before. I found Africa in Ebenezer’s steadfast brown eyes. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sasha Engelmann, 18, a longtime resident of Pacific Palisades, is a senior at Palisades Charter High School and will graduate this spring. As a sophomore she became interested in environmental science and has led several community service projects aimed at rehabilitating threatened habitats in Temescal Canyon. Last summer, Sasha traveled to Ghana with the nonprofit organization Experiment in International Living to build a school for a rural village and develop a better sense of obstacles facing global sustainability. This experience deeply changed her views on international relations and the connection between poverty and environmental health. This April, Sasha’s Envirothon team at PaliHi won the California state competition and will compete in the national competition in New York in July. Sasha will be attending Stanford University this fall and plans to double-major in science and international policy. She said her greatest dream is to someday return to Africa and work with local people and governments to solve the challenges that face the peaceful coexistence of society and environment.

Former Palisades resident and mountaineer Dr. Scott McIntosh recently returned from six weeks in Nepal, where he conducted high-altitude medical research on Mt. Everest. The research centered on two record-breaking Sherpas: Apa Sherpa, who has summitted Everest 17 times (more than any other person) and Lhakpa Sherpa, who holds the speed ascent record, having raced from Base Camp to the summit in 10 hours, 56 minutes. McIntosh’s role was to collect medical information for a documentary. ‘The Sherpas are the ‘guts’ behind mountaineering expeditions,’ McIntosh said. ‘They fix ropes on difficult sections, carry heavy loads, and guide climbers on the mountains of Nepal. These special people are often taken for granted. Our expedition was put together to help raise awareness of their contributions.’ During the climb, Dr. McIntosh evaluated the Sherpas’ physical condition and analyzed their performance and blood chemistry at levels up to 26,000 feet. They wore physiological monitors to record heart rate, respiratory rate, blood-oxygen saturations and other parameters. McIntosh also took blood lactate measurements at certain points in the climb. ‘The Sherpas are amazingly suitable to function well at these high altitudes,’ McIntosh said. ‘They do not need the typical three to four weeks of acclimatization that a Westerner requires.’ With the Sherpa team’s relatively short acclimatization period completed, it was time for their final push to the summit. After climbing on oxygen for 10 hours through a nighttime blizzard, six of the entire team successfully reached the summit on the morning of May 16. In a remarkable feat for a Western climber with minimal acclimatization time, McIntosh also summited with the team. Equally important, all team members safely descended to base camp at 17,600 feet three days later. ‘I had planned to follow the Sherpas as high as my lowlander lungs would take me,’ McIntosh said. ‘As it turned out, my Park City, Utah, living and an aggressive acclimatization schedule allowed me to follow the Sherpas very high on the mountain.’ With the success of the expedition, a documentary film and book will be completed to publicize the Sherpas’ story and to provide funds for school programs in the Mt. Everest region and support for families of ‘fallen’ Sherpas. Many children in the Everest area do not get the education that they should because they are lured by immediate money from working. ‘Both record-holding Sherpas have always said they would have traded anything, including their records, to provide their children an education,’ McIntosh said. ‘I definitely have been proud working with and supporting this endeavor.’

I used to try to convince my mom to come see serious movies or dramas with me, but she would decline because she wanted the laughter and happy endings that usually came in comedies or musicals. No matter how I argued, I usually went to dramas by myself. Now that I’m older, I understand the escape she sought, but I still argue that a drama like A Few Good Men is important because of the questions it raises about duty, honor and loyalty. The Theatre Palisades production opened last Friday at Pierson Playhouse, and runs through July 15. Two marines are charged with the death of a comrade. It appears to be a open- and shut-case, but Lieutenant Commander Joanne Galloway (Heidi Brook Myers) feels that the pair are innocent and asks to defend them. Because of her dismal track record in court (six cases, six losses), a recent Harvard Law School graduate, Lieutenant j.g. Daniel A. Kaffee (Rico Simonini), who is known for settling cases, is assigned. Galloway manages to become the lawyer of record for one of the men and must work with Kaffee. There is a great deal of friction between the two that is eventually overcome as they challenge each other to reach the truth. Surprisingly, there are moments of levity in the play, unlike a Eugene O’Neill drama in which the unrelenting drama doesn’t give you that release. Since the U.S. has soldiers at war in Iraq, the issues of duty, dependency, patriotism and the rule of law that playwright Aaron Sorkin raises are age-old questions that can be re-examined in a current context. This is a play that will always retain its relevance. Near the conclusion of the play, Lieutenant Colonel Nathan Jessep (W.A. Steele) says, ‘We use words like honor, code, loyalty…we use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending something. You use ’em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it!’ A Few Good Men was originally presented at the Heritage Repertory Theatre at the University of Virginia. It moved to the Music Box Theatre in New York in November 1989 and in 1992 was made into a successful film starring Tom Cruise, Demi Moore and Jack Nicolson. The Theatre Palisades production is uneven. Two standouts are Heidi Brook Myers and W.A. Steele because they understand the correct tone, movement and posture needed for the military. Steele’s voice is a marvel, his acting sparse and we believe who he is and why he has acted the way he has. Myers is also a no-nonsense kind of actress who lights up the stage. She plays a character who would sacrifice friends because it is more important to have the truth than worry about someone’s feelings, and her interpretation is perfect. Unfortunately, that role has been double-cast, as has Dawson and Downey (the two men suspected of murder). Although I didn’t see the other actress (Isabella di Donato), I would argue that it would be hard to top Myers. I would also prefer to keep David Shackelford, who plays Dawson. There’s no reason to replace him. Another man I believed thoroughly in the role of Kendrick was Jerel Taylor. I was happy every time he came on stage, because I knew it would be interesting. The joy of theater for a reviewer is that no two nights will be exactly alike, for good or bad, and I believe that some of the more irritating flaws of this production can be fixed by this weekend. The music at times was too loud to hear the actors–or maybe the actors weren’t loud enough, because I couldn’t hear some of the dialogue. Given the size of the stage, that is inexcusable. One of the actors needs to re-evaluate ways of showing anger–constantly shouting is one choice, but perhaps a more subtle hushed tone with the anger simmering out of the actor’s skin could also be an alternative. The play takes place in various locations in Washington, D.C., including a courtroom, a jail cell, an apartment and offices on the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which left the set designer Lewis Stout with a real challenge. He came through brilliantly. The sentry tower in the rear center of the stage helped set a military zone and the minimalist ways of adding a chair or a few props was an inventive way to use the small space. Showtimes are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m., through July 15. Tickets for Friday and Sunday are $16 for adults and $14 for seniors and students. Tickets for Saturday are $18/$16. Call (310) 454-1970 or go to www.theatrepalisades.org.

If you’re old enough, you’ll remember these suntan myths: a tanned body is a healthy body, using baby oil will help you tan faster, and everyone needs to burn once before they can tan. People are much more aware today, but selecting from an array of products with different Sun Protection Factors (SPF) and options (spray-on or lotion, water-resistant or not) can be frustrating. Pacific Palisades resident Nasreen Babu-Khan, a local dermatologist, shared her knowledge about sun-protection tactics with the Palisadian-Post. Two types of sun radiation affect the skin: ultraviolet A (UVA) and ultraviolet B (UVB). The UVB rays affect a skin’s ability to tan or burn. Sunscreens with high SPF means that people ‘are staying out longer in the sun because they’re not burning,’ Babu-Khan said. ‘But this doesn’t address the UVA rays, which are more damaging than the UVB rays, and may be why we’re seeing more skin cancers.’ The UVA rays are the ones that cause changes in the skin DNA and can result in skin cancer, Babu-Khan explained. Unfortunately, the SPF in most sunscreens is specifically for UVB rays and there is no standard measure for UVA rays, so even if the sunscreen lists UVA protection, there’s no way of knowing what you’re actually getting. Even though people think they’re protecting their skin with high SPF’s, what they’re actually preventing is burning, not skin damage, Babu-Khan said. She offers some common-sense solutions for safe skin: 1) stay out of the sun during the hottest hours of the day, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., 2) wear sun-protective clothing; the tighter the weave, the better the protection. Rash guards fall into that category and one company that specializes in sun-protective clothing is Solumbra. And 3) use sunscreens or sunblocks, which brings us back to the dilemma of which product to choose. Sunblocks that contain zinc or titanium dioxide are Babu-Khan’s choice. ‘Physical blockers reflect sun rays, so it’s like putting clothing on,’ she said. ‘The sun’s rays hit and reflect off.’ She recommends blocks like PreSun sensitive sunblock or Skinceuticals. L’Or’al has developed a sunscreen with Mexoryl, which does provide UVA protection, but it has only been available in Canada, Europe and on the Internet. In addition, many people also want a water-resistant sunscreen. However, as Baby-Khan noted, ‘The more things you want a sunscreen to do, the more chemicals you put on your skin. The more chemicals, the more likely you’ll get a reaction.’ To be most effective, sunscreens should be applied 20 minutes before going into the sun. They should also be reapplied during the day. ‘I don’t like spray-ons and aerosols because of the possibility of irritants and because people don’t know how much to put on,’ Babu-Khan said. Sunblocks, which are also water-resistant, can be applied as one is walking out the door. In addition they don’t have to be reapplied. ‘You’re lucky if you have one chance of putting it on,’ said Babu-Khan, who has five boys. ‘Sunblock gives me peace of mind.’ She also makes two other common-sense recommendations. ‘One, wear sunglasses because the rays affect the eyes. Two, use hair-care products that protect against UV radiation.’