Mostly because you should all be hanging out with loved ones and eating the most delicious foods on earth.
I just now realized it is Thanksgiving! Normally I try to write blog entries ahead of time but I think I'll improv this one. I am writing this to say hi to my family on a day that they love and enjoy because it usually means being close to each other and bathing in the warmth of kind words and dangerously full stomachs. The years that I haven't been around my family, I try to call or send them a video (even though one year it was just all my friends singing tubthumping by chumbawumba) and this year I pretty much did nothing at all. Am I trying to say that this is an apologetic blog post? Yes.
When we sit at the table we do that thing where we all go "I'm thankful for blahblahblah" so here is my table-round family warmth turkey cranberry thing:
I am thankful that I potentially know more about myself than I ever have and understand that it will continue throughout my whole life. I am thankful for the constant change in roommates that I have and that my current one gave me a singing lesson while I laid on the ground about an hour ago. I am thankful to finally be able to speak properly with half of my ancestry. Throughout this experience I have talked with plenty of people who point out the total absurdity in social work and in the idea that I would continue trying to do anything for a world that is going DOWN. I am thankful that I skype-said to my mom "I have decided I am going to be a doctor" while I looked up the Social Inequality PhD Program at PSU. Why am I thankful for that? Because it means I am still dreaming way higher than any of my past has taught me is reasonable. This list could go so far right now. Every year I am thankful for my friends and my family because you know that when you say "it'll be fine" you mean that the entire world could disappear but if you had a few key people everything would always "be fine." But this year, it feels bigger. I think I have myself now and I am not sure I did before. So I am thankful that I exist and that after accepting a lot of shit about myself I still like what came out and am still willing to share it with everyone else.
I can't say "that's all" because it definitely isn't. I love you guys, have an awesome Christmas, New Years, President's Day, etc.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
“I don’t wanna do a blog post”
Fine!
This all may seem a little confusing to any of my truly avid blogpost readers. Like, did I leave San Francisco yet, or what? Why am I all of a sudden around internet all the time instead of in a jungle? Actually, I will be leaving my assignment the 15th of December. Right now I am exploring other NGO’s in Peru to choose our counterpart for next year’s project! It’s really fun, I get to travel and test how long it takes different people to realize that Spanish isn’t my first language! I just spent a couple weeks working with an organization called Soluciones Prácticas in Cajamarca. Tomorrow I am going back to my beloved San Francisco for about a week before heading off again to Lima where I may get to visit my family before going to Huancayo to observe an organization called Expand Peru. Get it?
Cajamarca was unbelievable. The city is gorgeous with a lot of old architectural reminiscence and friendly people that welcome me with pleasant faces instead of frowning at me when I say hello (Piura). I stayed with these two awesome women named Irene and Kathy (eerehneh and kahtee) from Spain and Trujillo, respectively. For two weeks we were roommates in an apartment complex where a lot of volunteers lived. Some from Spain, some from Peru, and one from Portland! Weird! The first week we made dinners, went out at night, and explored all the city had to offer. Then the second week I got incredibly sick and did almost nothing but lay in bed and go to the Soluciones Prácticas office.
Luckily, I did manage to pull my body together for long enough to visit a couple communities and observe some pilot projects. In one of the communities they were creating an “escuela saludable” with potable water, trash separation, and hot-water showers. It gets pretty cold in the mountains so they hope these will inspire better hygiene practices. I sat in on a tooth-brushing refresher course. It was basically like a teeth cleaning dentist checkup for 50 kids at once. The dentist lectured for a bit and then had one of the students demonstrate proper tooth-brushing technique. Apparently you are supposed to brush the 16 sections of your teeth (think about it) 20 times each! So this girl stood in front of the class and did exactly that. By the time she was drooling blood I was staring open-mouthed at the dentist with a look of “is this really necessary?” but I don’t think he got it. Then he explained the reason she “bled a little” is because she needs to brush more. Good thing I didn’t say anything… that would have been embarrassing. (does anyone get these written sarcastic tones, or am I just really confusing all the time?)
The hot-water showers they are installing will be run by solar panels. I also visited a site where the whole community runs on hydro-power from the waterfall nearby! Aaand, I visited a site where they are testing two different kinds of biodigestors to figure out which design is most efficient. It is so incredible that even though we can create energy from water, wind, the sun, and literally our own excrement we will never stop using fossil fuels.
On the personal front: things feel different when I am alone. I thought I was alone before but I actually I still had Brent. Now that we are doing our own things, this whole new exciting stage of “see what loneliness brings” has started. It’s awesome! And yes, some of my actions have led to “consequences” but they have also led to pride and even self-actualization! No one can tell me how I am going to feel, I have to make mistakes and repeat the exact same stupid scenarios that humans have been reproducing since the beginning of time. Or maybe, like, the 1920’s.
Yesterday morning I got back to my home-base city, Piura. I was standing on the roof of my home-base hostel last night completing my tradition of drinking a beer, watching the sunset, and listening to Women Year sing the part of that song that goes “this feels. riiiiiiight.” I was looking down at the now familiar street, the taxis and motorcycles almost running into each other, and the guests of the more expensive hostel across the street which I steal internet from. Whatever I used to say about wanting to “live my own life” kind of started to come together last night. It came together the same way as in the isolation chamber in Venice Beach. Except instead of 1,000 pounds of salt and a leathery beach babe named Crash, it’s just me and this world. It was me and this world and I felt like everything and nothing!
Great news.
I’ll try to post more often from now on! I have to remember I made this thing to write down my travels and not forget where I’ve been.
This all may seem a little confusing to any of my truly avid blogpost readers. Like, did I leave San Francisco yet, or what? Why am I all of a sudden around internet all the time instead of in a jungle? Actually, I will be leaving my assignment the 15th of December. Right now I am exploring other NGO’s in Peru to choose our counterpart for next year’s project! It’s really fun, I get to travel and test how long it takes different people to realize that Spanish isn’t my first language! I just spent a couple weeks working with an organization called Soluciones Prácticas in Cajamarca. Tomorrow I am going back to my beloved San Francisco for about a week before heading off again to Lima where I may get to visit my family before going to Huancayo to observe an organization called Expand Peru. Get it?
Cajamarca was unbelievable. The city is gorgeous with a lot of old architectural reminiscence and friendly people that welcome me with pleasant faces instead of frowning at me when I say hello (Piura). I stayed with these two awesome women named Irene and Kathy (eerehneh and kahtee) from Spain and Trujillo, respectively. For two weeks we were roommates in an apartment complex where a lot of volunteers lived. Some from Spain, some from Peru, and one from Portland! Weird! The first week we made dinners, went out at night, and explored all the city had to offer. Then the second week I got incredibly sick and did almost nothing but lay in bed and go to the Soluciones Prácticas office.
Luckily, I did manage to pull my body together for long enough to visit a couple communities and observe some pilot projects. In one of the communities they were creating an “escuela saludable” with potable water, trash separation, and hot-water showers. It gets pretty cold in the mountains so they hope these will inspire better hygiene practices. I sat in on a tooth-brushing refresher course. It was basically like a teeth cleaning dentist checkup for 50 kids at once. The dentist lectured for a bit and then had one of the students demonstrate proper tooth-brushing technique. Apparently you are supposed to brush the 16 sections of your teeth (think about it) 20 times each! So this girl stood in front of the class and did exactly that. By the time she was drooling blood I was staring open-mouthed at the dentist with a look of “is this really necessary?” but I don’t think he got it. Then he explained the reason she “bled a little” is because she needs to brush more. Good thing I didn’t say anything… that would have been embarrassing. (does anyone get these written sarcastic tones, or am I just really confusing all the time?)
The hot-water showers they are installing will be run by solar panels. I also visited a site where the whole community runs on hydro-power from the waterfall nearby! Aaand, I visited a site where they are testing two different kinds of biodigestors to figure out which design is most efficient. It is so incredible that even though we can create energy from water, wind, the sun, and literally our own excrement we will never stop using fossil fuels.
On the personal front: things feel different when I am alone. I thought I was alone before but I actually I still had Brent. Now that we are doing our own things, this whole new exciting stage of “see what loneliness brings” has started. It’s awesome! And yes, some of my actions have led to “consequences” but they have also led to pride and even self-actualization! No one can tell me how I am going to feel, I have to make mistakes and repeat the exact same stupid scenarios that humans have been reproducing since the beginning of time. Or maybe, like, the 1920’s.
Yesterday morning I got back to my home-base city, Piura. I was standing on the roof of my home-base hostel last night completing my tradition of drinking a beer, watching the sunset, and listening to Women Year sing the part of that song that goes “this feels. riiiiiiight.” I was looking down at the now familiar street, the taxis and motorcycles almost running into each other, and the guests of the more expensive hostel across the street which I steal internet from. Whatever I used to say about wanting to “live my own life” kind of started to come together last night. It came together the same way as in the isolation chamber in Venice Beach. Except instead of 1,000 pounds of salt and a leathery beach babe named Crash, it’s just me and this world. It was me and this world and I felt like everything and nothing!
Great news.
I’ll try to post more often from now on! I have to remember I made this thing to write down my travels and not forget where I’ve been.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)