Dreams of Service

Note: This was a post that I started writing when I came home from my trip to Tanzania but never finished. I was inspired to do so when a recent trip out to the center of Shanghai got me thinking about the time I spent in Africa.

The last leg of this Tanzania trip finds us in the winding through the beautiful Usambara mountains of northern Tanzania, up to the tippy top and back down again. As we leave the main highway and begin our ascent, I am reminded of so many places that I have been before. I am naming this place “Tanzanian Tuscany”- only it’s not wine they are growing on these green terraces framed by red earth. Just about everything else though.

We are far off the main tourist track, and for that I am grateful. It would be a shame to come and go from Tanzania having only done Zanzibar, Safari, Kilimanjaro and the conventional tourism route. Since the friend I am visiting is teaching in Arusha at an International school, and my visit happened to coincide with their yearly field trip to this area, I was fortunate enough to get join them. Having no idea what to expect, I was literally just along for the ride. This no-expectation thing has been working out for me quite well here in Tanzania, as every good experience has been heightened by that element of surprise. This trip was no different.

Tanzanian Tuscany

 

While I think the school chooses this region for it’s rich biodiversity and opportunities for outdoor education, it was the service aspect of the trip that impacted all of us the most.

Class field trip to the Usambara Mountains

The first thing that really struck me about Africa- besides the treacherous condition of the roads- were the sheer numbers of children everywhere. They lined the roads skipping along on their way to and from school as we drove around, Zanzibar, Arusha… everywhere. So many children.

But back here in the mountains was a bit different. Here I see babies carrying other babies. They weren’t coming or going from school. Big groups of small children peeked out at us or came barreling down the hillsides to gawk at us, this odd-looking group of outsiders- a sight that many of them have never seen before. There aren’t many adults around, and one wonders who is taking care of them? It appears that primarily, they are taking care of each other.

Children gathered along the roads to watch us as we road by the village on our school field trip

The picturesque hostel that we camped at, Mambo Viewpoint, is part of an NGO that is working hard to make change in this area. One day as I sat writing about all of these questions dancing around in my mind, the secretary of the NGO, Hoza, approached me, as if he knew I needed answers, and started laying them out for me one at a time.

High up above the billowing clouds and looking down on the surrounding mountains: Sunrise at Mambo Viewpoint

 

Hoza was born and raised here. When he was young, they would get snow in these mountains, he tells me. Not anymore. Too much deforestation of the land has changed the climate. Now it is very hot and dry most of the year. Although I already had a hunch what the main issue was, he confirmed it for me: Overpopulation in this area is causing all kinds of problems.

 

He explains that in this Muslim village, polygamy is still being practiced, and it is common for a man to have two or more wives, and by each of those wives, “as many children as God will give him”. So each of these women can sometimes have up to ten children in one home. As part of their religion, they believe that they are to have as many offspring as God will give them. But Hoza says it is meant to be as many children as God will give them and that they can take care of, and as more and more children arrive, the mothers are finding they can’t take care of all of them. They can’t send them all to school. Furthermore, Tanzania is a socialist country, and also a “poor” country (because the money it produces does not come back to the country the way that it is supposed to, as evident in the pitiful road infrastructure). Therefore, there are only 2 primary schools in the village: one with 800 students, another with 1300 students. There is also a lack of teachers, so you will often find a 100:1 student- teacher ratio in the classrooms. What kind of an education do you think they are getting with those odds?

So the children in this village, if they are lucky enough to get to go to school at all, emerge from it without much more education than when they went in. This leaves them with little possibility to leave the village and forge a promising future for themselves outside these mountains. And so the vicious cycle continues. People suffer, the land suffers.

The children from the village were so excited and happy to see us. They live their lives unaware of what kinds of opportunities the world holds for them outside the village. A dutch owned NGO at Mambo Viewpoint is trying to change that.

So this hotel-turned-NGO has stepped in to make change. They are doing it in 5 ways: the most important being family planning, but also bringing in European doctors and mid-wives to train locals to better administer healthcare in the community. They are also working in entrepenuership: training local business men skills like bookkeeping and accounting.

The Mambo Viewpoint NGO is doing a lot of amazing things to help the population of this troubled area, but the most amazing and particularly unique thing is one that I got to participate in first-hand with our students: A circus that brings hope for a brighter future to the village children. I think we all could agree that it was the highlight of the field trip.

The story goes back to about 5 years ago, when a guest of the hotel- a Dutch man named Yanis- came traveling through these mountains as a tourist and noticed the same problems that I did. He decided to stay and do something about it. Recognizing that these children were left to a fate of staying in this town and into the same cycle of the generations before them,he came up with a bright and creative idea to help break that cycle.

An imaginative way of “breaking the cycle” for these village children

He organized a circus club for the children come to after school where they can learn circus tricks to performs. They learn their different tricks, including riding a unicycle, walking on stilts, juggling and acrobatics. As the older children become masters of their tricks, they are assigned to teach the new, younger children that come into the club. They practice for their circus performances that they put on regularly for the guests of the Mambo Viewpoint Hotel. We were one such lucky group of guests- only we went one step further and got to participate ourselves!

I try my hand at stilts

The village children teach our private-school students circus trips from the top of Mambo Viewpoint, with the beautiful Usambara Mountains as a backdrop

The students of the group that I was with are international, private school kids. Their experience growing up has been the other end of the spectrum from what the children we met in the villages have lived, one of great privilege and endless opportunity for growth. To have these village kids teaching us tricks was a humbling experience, to say the least, and one that moved every single one of us and will not be easily forgot. 

Another facet of this club that Yanis has planned for the village children that participate are excursions to bigger cities in Tanzania like Arusha, Tanzania, Zanzibar, and Moshi, so that they can see with their own eyes that there is life outside of the isolated villages that they come from and how it is different. This has inspired many of them to learn new skills and work towards a goal of one day being able to leave the village to study or to work- possibilities that they never knew existed to them before.

Despite the corruption, overpopulation, and all the visible problems in Africa that I witnessed when I was there, good things are happening, too. A lot of conscientious people from around the world are here trying to do something to help, like the team at Mambo Viewpoint: a dutch-owned NGO that started when some tourists with a social conscience decided to come back and do something to help rather than just pass through and carry on with their lives. The city of Arusha is filled with foreigners working for non-profit organizations that are trying to do the same thing, bring hope and help to a nation that is wrought with troubles. They have been an inspiration to me and have re-awakened my own dreams of service that have lived in me since I was a child. Mambo Viewpoint was born from a dream of service. I hope that one day, I can return to Africa to help, and not just to observe, and finally bring those dreams of service to life.

Read more about the story of Mambo Viewpoint as told by it’s Creators (Warning: May bring a tear to your eye)

Read More About What’s Happening at Mambo Viewpoint Here

Mambo Viewpoint Projects

Welcome to Shanghai

My first week in my new home is complete, and I am bursting impressions to share and praises to sing.

First can I say that, never in my life could I have imagined that this transition could go so smoothly. Except for the jetlag, I’ve hardly felt the shock of being in an entirely new country and culture. When I go out on the street, it isn’t until I realize there’s a communication barrier (because I only know two words in Chinese at the moment) that I remember that I’m in China. So much of the time, it doesn’t feel like I am! This could be any big American or European city. Big, wide, clean, elegant-looking streets, sidewalks, and bike lanes. Beautiful parks, flowers, and greenery abound. Every day I have to remind myself again that this is Asia!

Beautiful, tree lined streets like this are all over Shanghai

Perhaps because I have been traveling through Southeast Asia, which was my first experience or traveling sub-developed countries, I expected China to be more similar to those places. And I have been told that in rural China, it is. But Shanghai and other big, tier one cities in China , are much more similar to Europe or the States than the other places I have visited in Asia. In fact, in some ways they’re even more advanced than we are. I am still in awe of the virtually cashless society they have developed here, and how beautifully it is running  They have proven it is possible now to live in a world without cash, and they make it look very easy. In many places cash isn’t even accepted! I have not been able to participate in this yet because you need to have a Chinese bank account linked to your phone and I’m still getting that set up, but once you do, you can pay for literally anything with your phone. You can have literally anything you want delivered to your doorstep or office: food, coffee, cars, animals; What they have here makes Amazon seem like kid stuff. There isn’t much that you can’t do with the scan of a Q code in Shanghai.

There isn’t much you can’t do in China by scanning a Q code with WeChat

The advancements aren’t just happening in the realm of consumerism. I went to get a health examine the other day and it was not like any doctor exam I’d ever been to before in my life. It was like I imagine doctor’s visits will be in the future. Fast and efficient and using the most up-to-date technology. This goes for many other facets of society: transportation, infrastructure, etc, etc. Perhaps these advances came as the result of having to adapt to such an enormous population and the need accomodate and account for a society of over a billion people. I don’t know but, my head is still spinning. This is not how I was expecting China to be.

Sharing these fasinations with my new coworkers, who also came to Shanghai from the West to work, they nod their heads and say “Yea, you’ll see. It’s pretty hard to leave here.” I can see why already. One can live a very, very comfortable life here, the kind we are accustomed to in the West, but for much less money and without feeling like you are in another world. Especially on a teacher’s salary, which is one of the highest in the world for foreign language teachers. Apartments are new and modern, quirky, creative, clean and shiny… and affordable. The same goes with bars and restaurants- although you still have your hole in the wall homemade noodle, dumpling and steam bun joints up and down every street where you can eat your fill of delicious authentic chinese dishes for less than you would pay for a Starbucks coffee. Also, There’s a Starbucks coffee every few blocks as well so you can really get the best of both worlds.

The biggest Starbucks in the world is located in Shanghai. I like how the American flag stands on top in leiu of the Chinese one. Funny. No one in the world loves Starbucks more than the Chinese, so it is fitting that it would be here.

The best of both worlds. That’s what it is, that’s the magic of this city and part of what makes it, as my colleagues admit, hard to leave and so very, very enticing to me and over 300,000 other foreigners who have relocated here. The crazy juxtaposition of a society that has surpassed even the USA (from what I can see) in it’s enthusiasm for consumerism, economic growth and technological advancements, working alongside a culture rich with 1000’s of years of dynasty and tradition, and, let’s not forget, a Communist country living in a goverment state. Think about that. I mean, just try to imagine what that looks like, how does that even work? It is really and truly, mind blowing to think about and equally baffling to take in, and I find myself growing more and more in awe of Shanghai and China by the day. 

When I went into my phone to look for photos to accompany this post, I realized the only pictures I have taken so far are all of the food I’ve been eating! These are just a few of the beautiful, authentic and super cheap dishes I’ve sampled so far 

While most of the time you would hardly think about it or notice, especially with all the glowing neon lights of advertisements and enormous shopping malls gracing every intersection in the center, there are two things that continually remind me that we are living in a  “government state” here. One is good and one is bad. I mentioned how advanced society is here and how comfortable it is for living, but there is one comfort from home that is missing that could never go unnoticed: open and uncensored internet.

The hardest part about moving to China for a westerner will likely be having to say goodbye to fast and reliable internet. Not because the technology is not there, of course, but because the government makes it so. It doesn’t take long to figure out the Chinese hate Google, Facebook, and any of their affiliates, and they do not make it easy to use them here. Technically, it’s illegal. There are ways to get around it but in general, using the internet is a pain in the butt. The Chinese government purposely freeze it up, shut it off or slow it down… more or less to remind everyone that they are watching. You can download certain apps to surf anonymously but sometimes they even get into those. It’s kind of funny- if you go on to a Chinese website that has been goverment approved, it’s lightning fast. For us foreigners who don’t know Chinese, that doesn’t do us much good. So basically, say goodbye to reliable internet if you are coming to China and hello to WeChat and whatever other Chinese-made apps and internet services that are going to replace the beloved familiarties of home and become your new friends, whether you like it or not.

So that’s an annoying point but then, on the other hand, living in a government state means that one of the biggest cities in the entire world can also be one of the safest. Again, baffling to think about but, true. There is virtually no crime in Shanghai, and that is yet one more item on the long list of it’s many appeals, and another one of the reasons that makes it hard for people to leave.

It’s one of the most bike friendly cities I have ever been too, with beautiful bike lanes running along every road working cooperatively with the vehicles and pedestrians, and a brilliant bike sharing system to match. There is recycling. There is a club or group for anything you could ever want to try and you can find them on WeChat which makes it very easy to meet other like minded people in the city: Salsa dancing, martial arts, rock climbing, hip hop, you name it, you can try it here. There are so many new things I am excited to try my hand at in Shanghai! Starting with Chinese classes next week.

Safe, clean, affordable, advanced, and cosmopolitan. Old and new, open and closed; I’m fascinated by what I have found here in Shanghai so far, and look forward to calling this place my home and getting to know China more and more over the next 15 months.

 

Big Changes in the Big Sky

“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know that place for the first time” -T.S. Elliot, The Four Quartets

I could not have asked for a more beautiful backdrop to marvel at as I bumped along a gravel road heading into the Bridger Mountains for an afternoon jaunt in the woods. It’s one of those days when it feels like Montana is purposely putting on a show for us, the citizens of Bozeman, in all it’s Rocky Mountain glory. The sun beams down forever over the landscape- so puzzlingly dry and verdant at the same time- creating it’s own unique color pallet of dusty yellows, lilacs, sages, and, of course, the admirable blue atmosphere above it all that gave Big Sky country it’s name.

I remember a time when the world felt so wide-open and endless underneath this enormous sky, but I haven’t seen it that way in quite some time. So much has happened here over the last twelve years, and now it’s time to say goodbye. Stepping out of my car and into the mountains the way we are so easily able to do here, I wonder: Bozeman, what happened to us?

What happened to us?

I recall those first impressions. How otherworldly it felt to inhabit a place cradled by majestic mountain ranges in every direction as far as the eye could see. Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, I spent the first 18 years of my little life confined to the monotonous and suffocating urban sprawl of the American Midwest. Montana, with all it’s rugged, outdoor allure, was a freedom that I had never known before. Paths ran along rivers with water so clean and clear it was as if they were brimming with a billion crystal prisms, shooting light on pristine wilderness in a every direction, illuminating the world around me. Was there anything more perfect on Earth than this place, so untouched and undiscovered? I thought it would be my little secret forever.

It was all mine…

Montana is a special place. It is the fourth biggest state in the USA, with a population smaller than Chicago by a long shot, having just passed the 1 million mark this year. It’s always had it’s share of tourism, being located just an hour outside the nation’s first and possibly most famous National Park, Yellowstone. But in recent years, the word has really gotten out about Montana. I knew that when I was standing in Ogilvie Transportation Center in Downtown Chicago and saw several electronic billboards with those mountains I knew so well, inviting stressed-out and overworked city folks to come unwind in “Montana: The Last Best Place”.

The Last Best Place

In 2005, when I was 18 and getting ready to go off to college in Bozeman, friends and family would ask me “Where’s Montana?” Back then, Bozeman was primarily a University town where cowboys were still walking around, and mostly only local businesses operated. I was young and it was a new, enchanted world to me. Everything that happened to me here was profoundly meaningful, infused with the magic of this new place.

Untouched, Montana Magic

I’ve watched that quaint, little, off-the-grid, Western town grow into a legit city before my  eyes. Since I first arrived, the population has increased by over 10,000 people, with most of that growth happening in just the last few years. Now when I say that I live in Montana, people want to come and visit me. They know exactly where I am talking about. Perhaps they saw it on a big billboard in a big city, calling out to them as they shuffled through their crowded urban lives, prompting them to start thinking that maybe it was time for a big change of their own, under a big sky, with big opportunities to match.

Construction in the Big Sky

Now Bozeman is the fastest growing community in our country, and it won’t be slowing down anytime soon. Lately, it’s the rows and rows of new, cookie-cutter, developments- taking over what were once pristine fields dotted with deer and elk- that have grabbed my attention. The mountains try to stay stoic, looking on from a distance. Those luminescent rivers lost their luster and the trails where I found solitude in nature are now crowded with people. The construction and wave of growth have created jobs, and Bozeman, in true American spirit, has become a real land of opportunity. Everyone wants their piece of the idyllic paradise that is the West, where there is plenty of space to grow. It’s been in our blood since the pioneers.

What is it about having to share that diminishes the appeal of a place? I’m an outsider here myself; I don’t really have room to complain. Many locals and “lifers” I have talked to about this seem adjusted and even excited about the growth. “This valley could fit at least a million more people in it so, why not?” one friend who grew up here postulated. He sees the change as a good thing. I’ve never done very well with change myself so, maybe it’s my problem.

Room to Grow

Maybe it’s me, Bozeman. I’ve reached the top of the trail I was hiking, which terminates at an open, mountain meadow showcasing views over our new metropolis below. Of course, Bozeman has grown. I have grown, too. That is as natural as the scenery before me that I was so captured by all those years ago. Now, as I prepare to leave, I am finally able to see it again in all it’s glory. The rivers sparkle. The valley is wide with possibilities. This could be the most beautiful place on Earth. I recall some lines from a T.S. Eliot poem I read in one of those college courses years ago that inspired me so, lines I didn’t even know that I remembered. Something about how at the end, we will return to the beginning and know the place for the first time. There are always flashes of the beginning at the end.

So things have come full circle, they way they tend to do. An end gives way to a new beginning, and so on and so on. Our past is present in our future. Bozeman will always be a part of who I am. I will leave this place trusting that one day it will be for some new pioneer what it once was for me. I will leave this place with new eyes; eyes that can discern that life itself is change, and see that in every change is opportunity.

 

 

 

The Girl on the Bus: A Story About Privilege

“Do you need help with something?” she asked as she walked up beside me, noticing the lost look on my face as I stood at the entrance to the bus station of Pisco, Peru.

“I’m looking for the bus to Lima,” I replied turning towards her, happy to see a pretty young Peruvian girl that looked to be about my age.

“Well, you have two options” she explained. “There is a direct bus that is more expensive but faster. It leaves from over there” she pointed. “Or you can take this one which is cheaper but stops at the villages along the way and takes an hour or two longer.”

I thanked her and headed over to the direct line, where the attendant informed me the next direct bus wasn’t leaving for another hour and a half. Realizing that both buses were going to arrive to Lima at more or less the same time, I opted for the one that didn’t require an hour and a half wait in the bus station, and got on the slower, cheaper bus to Lima.

As I settled into my seat, pulling my headphones and laptop out in preparation for isolation, the young girl boarded. We made eye contact and smiled at each other as she walked down the aisle towards me.

“Well, why not?” she said, taking her backpack off and motioning towards the seat next to me. “May I?”

“Of course,” I said, moving my things to the floor to make room for her.

“Thanks,” she replied. She situated herself and pulled out a bag of pastries she had brought with to snack on during the journey. She offered me one, which I accepted gratefully. She explained that food is her job- as a food engineer she is always well-equipped with good snacks, wherever she goes.

“I’m surprised you didn’t take the direct bus,” she said. “The tourists usually take the direct buses because they are safer. The problems occur on these buses that frequently stop to let new people on. Burglars enter all the time. It happened to me…”

She went on to recount an incident that had happened to her just a few months earlier on the same route. She was traveling home to the small village where she grew up and her parent’s still live when a group of delinquents boarded the bus and robbed everyone who was on it. She was forced to hand over her purse and laptop, and only managed to keep her cell phone because as soon as she saw them stand up with guns, she discreetly sat on it.

I listened empathetically to her story. I told her I had heard about these bus robberies being a problem in Latin America, specifically on night buses, but had been lucky enough to avoid such misfortune myself. Considering the fact we were driving primarily through hours and hours of pure desert with nothing and nobody for miles around, it would be pretty easy to get on a bus and rob it. 

This led us into a discussion about the problem of corruption in Latin America and how this long-standing issue has kept them from moving forward in the world, which escalated into a discussion of corruption in politics, environmental awareness, and beyond. The time flew by as we passionately discussed these issues together, as if we were longtime friends who shared the same dreams and ideas. Our lives had been so different but, there we were, laughing and smiling together, interested in talking about the same important topics on the bus ride from Pisco that day.

“So where have you been traveling in Peru?” she asked, curiously.

“Well, right now I’m just coming from Huacachina and Paracas” I told her.

“Ica?! How beautiful!” she beamed.

“Have you been?” I asked.

“No, not yet,” she smiled. “I hope to one day. Where else have you been?”

I explained to her that I was actually at the end of my trip, and how I’d spent the last five months traveling through Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. “Now I’m on my way back to Lima to get my flight home tomorrow,” I sighed, those mixed feelings about going back home arising in me as I said the words.

She asked where my favorite place was that I had seen in Peru. I told her of the places I had been so far, it would be Huaraz and the Santa Cruz trek, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to see as much of Peru as I wanted to this trip. “I ran out of time before I could make it to Macchu Picchu,” I lamented to her. “You must have been,” I assumed out loud.

“No,” she answered, to my suprise. “I would love to travel one day,” she gushed, that dreamy look in her eyes. “But it’s not possible right now. I have to work.”

She went on to explain to me that her parents are no longer employed, so she has been supporting them. Her sister is also unemployed and recently was forced to leave her husband with her two daughters and move back in with their parents. Since she was the only person in her family with work, she was currently supporting herself, her mother and father, her sister and two nieces on her salary.

“Someday,” she smiled, looking off.

I know from my travels around Peru that the average Peruvian salary is around five hundred dollars per month. If I were only making five hundred dollars a month, I wouldn’t be smiling as I talked about having to support my family or my laptop being taken from me. Yet there she was, radiating positivity as she talked about some heartbreaking parts of her life. Where there was positivity to be found in such circumstances, she found it.

This girl hadn’t even been able to travel around her own country, and it seemed unlikely that she will get to anytime soon. But was she upset about it? Hardly. She was well-adjusted and accepting of the situation, and was in no way complaining about her lot in life. Instead, she smiled. She felt blessed that she did have work and happy that she was able to provide for her family.

She was born in a notoriously dangerous neighborhood of Lima- La Victoria- but when she was only a small child, her parents decided to move to the small town a few hours away where she was heading at the moment. They wanted to raise her in a better place, give her a better future.

I grew up in a white, middle-class neighborhood in the United States- which means rich by the rest of the world’s standards. The hardest things that I have had to deal with in my life have been my own inner demons and emotional problems that I have struggled to understand and overcome. No outside oppression has made my life difficult, but yet, it has felt so hard so often. But this girl smiled as she recounted the adversity of outside circumstances in her life that she had to face, as if it was all okay. And I thought of how often, despite my privileged upbringing and lifestyle, I just do not feel that way.

I’m supposed to be “privileged”, due to the circumstances that I was born into, but am I? Or am I at a disadvantage in terms of life satisfaction? When you have everything, when do you have enough to be satisfied? In a society where success is measured monetarily and materialistically, how do you find happiness on the inside? And why is it so much harder for me, the world traveler, than it seems to be for this lovely human being beside me?

Some question how it is that people in less-privileged countries with so little can be so happy. To me it is simple: when you have less, you are happy with less. There are certain basic needs that we need to have met as a human being, like food and shelter for example. People who are focused on meeting those needs don’t really have room to worry about whether or not they feel fulfilled in life. They’re just trying to make it through the day. But for those of us from places where we have all of our basic needs more than accommodated, where do you draw the line at what is satisfactory? What is enough to be content in your life?

It’s always fascinating to me to go to poor countries and meet so many happy souls like this girl, and then come home and hear of so many that are struggling with things like depression and anxiety, myself included. The US has the highest rate in the world for mental illness, and it seems to be climbing every year. I am not in any way trying to say that these aren’t real problems. On the contrary, I know that they are very real. In fact, I think it’s something that needs to be addressed more seriously in our country and around the world. What I’m pointing out is that having too much opens up a whole new set of problems, and that people with less, despite the problem of having so little (if you would call it that), are often much happier inside.

She pulled out a little bag with some makeup in it that she had just purchased, unwrapping a small bottle of hair serum, squeezing a bit into her hands, and rubbing it into the ends of her hair. She looked at me. “You have very curly hair, you know your ends could use some extra moisture.” She handed me the bottle. “Try some of this. I just got it”. I mimicked her actions, applying a small amount to my ends.

I breathed it in. “Mmm. It smells so nice.”

“Keep it,” she told me.

“No, please!” I protested. “You just bought it. I don’t want to take it from you!”

“You like it,” she said. “I insist.”

While I felt bad taking her brand new hair product, I knew that she wasn’t going to take no for an answer, so I tucked the cream in my backpack and thanked her profusely. But I was floored by this girl’s natural inclination to give: asking me if I needed help, sharing her food and her new makeup, not to mention completely supporting her entire family. Would I be so generous to a stranger? If we were to trade lives, would I ever be able to handle what she is going through right now? If my privileged life seems this overwhelming sometimes, could I handle hers?

Sharing hair products, talking about world issues, giggling and smiling at each other: we were girlfriends from completely different worlds. And just like that, two and a half hours had gone by and we were pulling up to her village. If I had gotten on the direct bus, I never would have met her. I was sad to watch her walk away—my kindred spirit. Some ugly part of my American identity had been exposed over the course of that bus ride, and she left me sitting alone and uncomfortable in my privilege. Like something wasn’t right. I can’t seem to shake the feeling since.

 

 

 

Things Traveling Has Taught Me

It has been said that “travel is the best education a person can give themselves” and I will second that. I think the things I have learned about myself and the world through traveling the last couple years have been infinitely more valuable than the knowledge- much of it long forgotten- that I acquired through years of formal education.

We all experience things uniquely, and everyone will come away with different things from their travels depending on where they are at in their life and what they are looking for. A lot of people travel to learn more about or “discover” themselves; this is inevitable and a huge part of the allure of travel. An entire industry has been built on this romantic notion of travel with the popularity of books like “Eat, Pray, Love” and “Wild”. Of course, self discovery is important too, but I think the things I’ve learned about other people and cultures has been even more important; humbling me and giving me a realistic impression of what this planet that we inhabit is really like.

We are constantly learning, and this list could go on forever and ever for the rest of my life, but, here are some of the most important lessons that I personally have taken away from traveling so far:

The World is Safer than You Think

I’ve been traveling and living abroad for a decade now, but my trip to Southeast Asia last year was the first time I ventured into third world countries. I admit, since I do most of my traveling alone, I was apprehensive about going to countries like this by myself. I’m sorry to admit that I really let the media and those misconceptions we have about such foreign places get to me. Sure, there are the initial culture shocks and things you have to get used to, common sense is always going to be your best friend, but underdeveloped countries aren’t as run down and dangerous as we are often led to believe, and are worthy of a visit a million times over. If you don’t see places like this, you simply don’t have an accurate portrayal of what the world is really like, because way more people on this Earth are living in these kinds of conditions than in the cushy comforts of the first world- things that we most often take for granted.

When I got to Asia, this big step for me, I was astounded at how many nineteen and twenty year old solo backpackers- mostly European and Australian- that I constantly was running into. Many of them were obviously traveling on their parents dime. I would have never been so brave at nineteen or twenty to go to some of these locations on my own, and if I had been, my parents definitely would not have approved. But nowadays, it doesn’t seem so scary, since with the internet one can easily stay in touch with their family and friends every step of the way in their journey, and they don’t seem as far away as they really are. Also so many people are traveling now that, like it or not, you end up on a tourist trail with other travelers, and you are never actually stranded alone.

I wish that we could all just accept the fact that the media wants us to be scared, because it’s in their best interest to keep up feeling that way. With all this bad news, they end up putting us against each other by promoting fear and stereotypes about people and places that are different from us, when what we need to be doing is working together. However, while their business seems to be based on manipulating our perception of the world to keep us in fear of all the danger and the “bad” people out there, I have to say that traveling has shown me the opposite is true: there are more good people out there than bad, and the world is safer than you think.

The Power of a SMILE

I am certain that friendly interactions with people are highly determined by the friendliness that you put out. Nine times out of ten, if you start off any interaction with a person with a smile on your face and a friendly tone, that is what you will get back, and both parties will walk away feeling good about the exchange and happier in general, because friendly, nice exchanges with people- friends and strangers alike- make us feel good and reassure us in the good of humanity.

When traveling, you are quite often put in a position where you may feel helpless (out of your comfort zone) and need to rely on other people for help. In these moments, a smile is everything. People are much more willing to help and more receptive to you in general if you are nice to them. Even besides the fact that you are asking for help, it just feels good to smile and be nice to people. It’s in everyone’s best interest to smile and be kind to each other- for yourself and for the people you meet along the way.

In contrast, I have found the absence of a smile or a scowl to also be quite powerful, and I’d say there is a time and place when this kind of attitude can be used as a tool (as I talked about in my post about traveling alone as a woman) in moment’s when we do not want to talk to someone.

The bottom line is that there is so much power in your smile, facial expressions and attitude, and no matter how bad you might be feeling its worth it to just smile anyways to attract more positivity into your life.

Staying in the Moment and the Value of Slow Travel 

I used to try and have everything planned out before I left, but a trip to Southeast Asia last year changed all of that. In just a little over two months, I traveled to five different countries in Southeast Asia- Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand. I remember prior to the trip thinking about the time frame I had and all that I wanted to see and being faced with a decision: to try and see just a couple of places and come back later for the rest, or try and do it all.  I foolishly chose to try and see it all. In the two months I was there I didn’t sleep more than two or three nights maximum in one location, oftentimes just stopping for one night before moving on. I barely got a chance to put my things down and relax. It felt like the whole time, I was just trying to get to the next place instead of enjoying where I was, instead of exploring and getting to know and fully appreciate each place and what it had to offer. This is the beauty and the gift of slow travel.

In hindsight, I would have done that trip differently. Maybe I would have picked two or three of those countries and just a few places in each one. I still feel like I didn’t really get to know Asia. But I learned from this mistake and since then when I plan a trip I plan as little as possible and see what happens. That’s how I ended up spending almost three months in Colombia and consequentially, did not get as far in South America as I originally thought I would. But I don’t regret a second of it, because Colombia was so good there was no reason to rush out of there. That’s the kind of freedom you want to have when your traveling: to be able to stick around longer if you really like a place and soak it in.

This way of travel is contingent on staying in the moment, which is another thing I am learning to do through traveling and is a really important thing to learn to do in life, albeit a difficult one, as we seem to be programmed to worry about what’s next as human beings. But the practice of centering yourself and trying to stay in the moment is a liberating one, just as is having the freedom to stay and enjoy where you are instead of fixating or worrying about where you’re going next.

Stay in the moment

Whatever you Choose, It Will be Right for You

I used to be a huge sufferer of chronic FOMO- that is, Fear Of Missing Out Disorder. There are always times when traveling (and in life in general) when choosing to do one thing requires us to miss out on another, and I couldn’t bear the thought of missing out on something good, and so, decision-making was intensely stressful for me. Like it or not though, we do have to make a choice, and most choices come with their set of potential loss, potentially missing out on something else.  As much as I  wanted to do it all, see it all, not miss out on anything, the reality of being a human being is that we can’t do it all. We have limits. We have to make choices.

I would stress out about decisions that I had to make to the point that it made me sick. But ya know what? Things always worked out. Wherever I ended up going and whatever ended up happening once I made my mind up after all the angst of indecision, I wouldn’t take any of it back now. I was always able to see later on why it had to happen the way that it did and find meaning in the outcome. So the lesson is this: whatever you do end up choosing, you have to trust that it will be the right thing for you. All decisions come with some inherent regret for the lost possibilities of what you did not choose, that’s just a fact of life. But ultimately we can only choose one thing, and so we have to boldly detach ourselves from the could-have-beens and move forward firmly and confidently in the decision that we do make.

I will continue to expand on this list as I continue to live, learn and travel, and I would also be interested to hear reader’s comments on things that they have learned through traveling as well so, feel free to comment!

 

The Urge to Compare

As I settle into my seat for my third overnight bus ride in the two weeks I’ve been in Ecuador, I try to start brainstorming what I want to say about this new country, but nothing comes. I find myself still only wanting to write about Colombia, and I can’t help comparing it to Ecuador. Didn’t Colombia seem way more developed than this? Weren’t there way less sketchy characters walking around? Is it just me or are the happy, uplifting interactions with people starting to feel fewer and further in between?

I can feel my heart is still in Colombia, so much so that I don’t even feel motivated to talk about this new place. But I know that that’s not right.

I remind myself that exploring these differences between cultures and countries is the reason why we travel, and what makes travel so thrilling, worthwhile and valuable. Being different doesn’t have to be a negative thing. The differences are what push us to keep going, to keep exploring this big, diverse, amazing world.

A good traveler will resist the urge to compare and judge, which inevitably leads to disappointment and dissatisfaction, and that’s not what travel is about.  We travel to appreciate, enjoy, and live each place for what it is; to take in the infinite uniqueness of the world.