A Los Angeles Woman Leaves Her Heart in Africa

Amanda Wash wanted to go to Africa so badly that in the early ‘70s she quit her job at Hollywood Kaiser Permanente hospital, joined the Peace Corps and was sent to Niamey, Niger, in the Sahara.

She was a nurse there for two years, part of the time during a devastating drought.

“After returning, I wanted to keep my ties with Africa,” she says, “so I joined the mayor’s volunteer corps at City Hall. Immediately after that I became a member of the Los Angeles-Lusaka (Zambia) Sister City committee, the only African sister city that Los Angeles has.”

Wash now works as a manufacturers representative and has formed her own company, Amanda Wash and Associates. But her passion for Africa remains. She has been to the Central African nation of Zambia four times, mostly at her own expense, once leading a delegation. She has organized shipments of vitamins, clothing and was instrumental in sending a retired fire chief there to give technical assistance on “fighting high-rise fires.”

Earlier this month, she arranged the airlifting of a rush shipment of sorely needed medical supplies donated by Operation California to Zambia. The airlift was aided by the mayor’s office of Small Business Assistance and BARAC (Black American Response to the African community), with whom Wash is now affiliated. According to a Zambian official, medical stores in the country were so low there was only enough to supply three or four hospitals in the region.

Wash is now organizing a shipment of emergency-room equipment to Zambia, prompted by a call this week from the deputy chief of missions in the American Embassy there.

Zambia is one of the front-line states in support of the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa, says the Rev. Frank Wilson, president of BARAC. “Due to underdevelopment and the disruption of essential supplies created by the regional war, an already fragile future for the children of Zambia is deeply threatened,” he said.

As to her present feelings for Africa, Wash says: “I love it. They are a peace-loving people. Once you’re over there, you’re hooked.”

(Those wishing to help or desiring further information may contact Wash at (213) 629-1700.)

Don’t Mess With This Little Pepper or She’ll Belt You One

At the age of 5, Gina Horton, a pupil at the private Pepper Street School in Rialto, enrolled in the school’s tae kwon do course. Not that she was enamored of the martial arts, or even in any particular need of defending herself. Mainly, she signed up “because my Mom and Dad said I had to.”

Five years later, Gina has just won her black belt in the sport, one that will be introduced into the Olympics during this year’s Seoul Games. “I had to spar with a 10-year-old boy and another who was 12,” she says. “Sure, they were bigger than me (Gina stands 4-feet-10 and weighs 70 pounds), and they didn’t really take it easy on me, but it’s only light contact. . . .”

“I’m extremely proud of this young lady,” says Mary Grooms, Pepper Street’s administrator. “She’s well rounded: good grades, drama club, chorus. Sure, she works hard on her karate, but she’s a normal little girl--boy crazy and, you know, the whole nine yards.”

“I love the sport now,” Gina says, “especially ‘forms,’ a whole bunch of moves put together: blocks, kicks, punches. I plan to continue, and to be in the Olympics some day.”

Has Gina resorted to Tae Kwan Do in a fight? “I’ve never been in a fight.” But if she did get in a fight, would she use her new skills? “Well,” Gina says carefully, “only if I was forced to.”

Finding a $3-Million Cure for Seasickness

At $3 million per copy, give or take, it’s not exactly the kind of craft you’d buy for weekend cruises to Catalina. Still, the Army is interested, and the Navy, and so is the extremely well-heeled would-be yachtsman who’s cursed by seasickness.

Seakindliness is the word for SWATH Ocean Systems Inc., of San Diego. The acronym derives from Small Waterplane Area Twin-Hull, and it refers to a boat that positions an operating platform above the water’s surface, supported by two submerged “submarines” or “sponsons” or “pods”--”We still don’t know what to call them,” admits marketing director Robin Brackenbury. Whatever, the water’s a lot calmer 10 feet below, where the pods are positioned, and it is said that you can balance a cup of coffee on the rail and never spill a drop.

“True,” Brackenbury says. “Recently, we crossed the San Francisco Bay in 15-to-17-foot cresting seas, and we had a formal lunch going on with wineglasses on the table. . . . Not a hitch.”

One prototype--Halcyon--has been leased by the Army Engineers for hydrographic work. Another--Chubasco, which sails out of Coronado--is equipped with three deluxe bedrooms, bathrooms with showers, worldwide satellite TV, washer/dryer, microwave, Jacuzzi, rooms with individually climate-controlled air conditioning, cedar-lined closets. . . . Who owns it? “The owner of the firm,” Brackenbury says. “He prefers anonymity, but sure, he’d sell it if someone just couldn’t live without it--and build himself a bigger one.”

SWATH is building boats from 60 to 144 feet. The smaller, “depending on its purpose, will sell for about $1.3 million. The 144-foot vessel? About $9 or $10 million”--which would buy a lot of Dramamine.