She learned very well. four years later Irene returned to Belgium speaking five languages - French, Dutch, English and two African dialects.
“I’d discovered by then that I really liked language,” she said. “I wanted to train to become a translator.”
The only problem was Irene’s sweetheart back in the Congo. Not too surprisingly, she returned to Africa. The couple was married and bought a tea plantation in the hills. Once again, a movie script life, only this time a romance, filled with elephants, buffaloes and three children. It was a busy life - Irene taught hygiene and first aid to employees and nearby families - but an idyllic one until the Congo received its independence.
“Suddenly things got scary,” Boylson said. “Several of our friends were murdered. All around us people were running for heir lives. It was a sad time for me. I loved Africa. My husband, certain that things would get better, insisted it was only a matter of time before I could return. Instead it was he who joined me in Belgium.”
What to do next?
“My husband hated Europe,” she recalled. “Suddenly an agricultural co-op in Brazil looked awfully good.”
For Irene it meant learning another language - Portuguese - but by this time she was good at it. So good that she began working as a translator at the Netherlands Embassy in Brasilia.
Irene went on to translate at the Treaty of the Amazon countries in 1980 and founded a cultural institute.
“It was a wonderful, exciting time,”Boylson said. “I worked with heads of state, members of royal families, and all kinds of movers and shakers.”
During the same time Michael too, enjoyed a worldly, cultural life. In his case Boylson is an adventurer in his own right. He joined the Navy during WWII as soon as he turned 17, and started his varied career as rear-seat gunner in dive bombers. After 10 years he was commissioned an officer through the “Seaman to Admiral” program by demonstrating a “ Baccalaureate Equivalency” through self-study and graduated with the Naval Academy class of 1954. He then served on warships and admiral's staffs in both the Far East and the Mediterranean, where he lived with his family for more than two years. He retired in 1964, after 20 years service, in order to enter the first undergraduate class of the University of California, San Diego as a “Pioneer” Freshman, where he majored in philosophy. “By then I knew lots about technology, so I majored in philosophy with a minor in literature,” he remembers. After selling his business in 1977 (and after the “oil shocks” of the mid-70’s) Mike entered the field of solar energy and conservation. He was a Founding Director of CalSEIA (the California Solar Energy Industries Association) and later became it’s president. Major ill-health forced him to retire in 1985.
Irene’s life in Brazil ended with her marriage.
“My daughter, Magali McGreevy, was living in Glencoe with her husband, Patrick. Moving to the Gold Rush country seemed like one more adventure.”
Irene moved to Jackson, California in 2000 and started an alternative medicine business and remarried. After only eight months of marriage, Irene’s husband died.
He died April 2003
“I believe that somehow we were meant to meet, so that I could help him through that time.” Irene said.
Meanwhile Boylson and his family had moved to Manton, where he became involved in alternative energy. Eventually he wrote California’s laws, rules and regulations for energy-tax credits under Governor Jerry Brown.
In 1985 when a serious health problem prevented his traveling, Boylson took on a stay-at-home project, becoming the technology coordinator for the Manton Joint Union Elementary School District. “What that meant,” he explains “is that I was their computer guy.”
Boylson badgered companies into donating old computers, then went out and wrote grants to obtain new ones. As a result of his efforts, every child in Manton Joint Union Elementary School District now has a new computer and a CD with 120 programs.
He, also, suffered a tragic loss. Michael’s wife died August 2003. Having experienced a near-death experience himself, he was determined o live whatever life was left him as fully as possible. It was his that prompted him to join the music lover’s exchange.
The following November - on Veterans Day - Irene met Michale Boylson. The couple connected via the Web through a mutual love of classical music.
“Neither of us has to be reticent about discussing our previous spouses or the grieving process. We each understand perfectly,” she says. “Besides we have so much in common.”
It looked like a match for both of them - until Irene revealed she had to return to Brazil in December 2004 to take care of business.
“You can’t ;eave now. We just met” Michael protested. Then he considered, “I’d always wanted to go to Brazil.” So the next month he followed her there.
The two toured Brazil together for a month, came back home, as married in April
Just one more adventure for the both of them.
They returned to Brazil in November 2005. This trip was mainly for visiting family and friends, do some prospection for merchandise to be sold in our Mokelumne Hill store, and also for tourism and sightseeing.
But since we are always looking for a way to make our life meaningful, we decided to take a dozen of Solar Cookers to Brazil and demonstrate how to use, and principally how to make them, in order to help low income people, who have to buy expensive bottled gas, with means to use the abundant and free solar energy for their cooking.
To our surprise 2 TV channels wanted to make a program with the demonstrations. We did more than 52 demonstrations during our 3 month stay.
Our friends from the Rotary Club in Brasilia invited us for one of their meetings and put us in touch with several entities, amongst them the Boy Scouts.
We met with a great diversity of people and organizations such like the Sustainable Regional Development Plan of the Banco.
When we started our trip we could not expect to become part of something far bigger than imagined. The profound interaction between people, ecology and social welfare is a lesson in humanity. We didn’t know that bringing home objects for the gallery in Mokelumne Hill would have such an impact on the social issues of several needy Brazilian communities. But we are proud of being able to offer some help!
All the merchandise they purchased are part of social, economical and ecological in favor or all kinds of people.
I just saw in the Rotary Trails of this week that During our solar cooker demonstrations, we called the attention to the fact that with the solar cooker it is possible to pasteurize contaminated water and make it safe for drinking. The Solar Cookers International invented the Wapi, a very simple and cheap device for controlling if the water reached the pasteurizing point. This and the Cookit should be largely available in times of disaster like earthquakes, tsunamis, in refugee camps and so on.
“Sustainability requires courage” said a journalist in Brazil, “because we are talking about e new culture, new politics and a new model or management.”
July 29th 2008 they will conduct the project of Integrated Cooking Method, sponsored by the Jackson California Rotary Club, to be held in Brazil’s Distrito Federal which will start with Hands-on-Workshops in four different locations around Brasilia, teaching the participants of needy communities the use and manufacturing of he following solar and integrated cooking devices:
