Vida es un Viaje, No es un Destino

Tomorrow I leave Perú and head back to Canada. It has been three months of traveling through Perú and I have experienced a lot about the culture and myself. I have started to learn a new language and have made good friends along my travels. I have meet people from all around the world and made a lot of friends in Perú. I have walked ancient paths and seen ancient structures and technologies. I have rafted, swam and fished in the Amazon River and experience the hard work involved in running a farm. I have worked with the communities here to help them enter a greener future and learned much about the plants and animals of the region. I have felt the energy released here and learned much about the spirituality the people believe. Most Importantly I have learned a lot about myself and have strengthened my views and have learned to care more for others. 

After Tingana I started to work for the group Avitismo en San Martin which is a group working to change the city and department they live in. The founder of the group is Junnior who is only 20 years of age. He started the group with a fellow student named Dino and an English man who has been living in Moyobamba for 16 years named Richard. Together they went on a course in Lima teaching them the values and principles of permiculture. Permiculture is a way of life in which you live with unity with nature but also with society. You not only have to plant properly but also make sure society runs well. People need to be sustainable and permiculture helps with making sure people within the society are wealthy not only with money but in spirituality, health, community and overall well being.

Moyobamba has been an awesome experience but before coming here I did not want to come and work because I was too into traveling and doing what I wanted to do. In Lima I had to take a moment and remind myself the reason why I came down here in the first place. So I made the decision to come after traveling the Gringo Trial. I have not regretted that decision and wish that I could have come here earlier. It was awesome traveling to Cuzco and seeing all the sites along the way and meeting all the people in each city. You just got to remember that it is good to deposit your energy into projects that help others and not yourself. Everything does come full circle because the energy that I have placed into the projects with this group has had many benefits. 

Learning about permiculture and working with the group has fortified my friendships I have here in Perú and my friends and family in Canada. I have really valued friendships and caring more for the feelings of others on this trip. I have been getting excited to travel back to Canada to see friends and family. On the other hand though I wish I could stay longer here in Perú and work in the city of Moyobamba. For the past week I have felt like I am home and that it was normal walking the streets of Moyobamba and talking with people. I am torn with the decision of staying here in South America but remember that I can always come back.

Perú has also giving me experiences and hope for my return to Canada which I will share and make part of my life. I have found in Perú that anything is possible in life and that if you put your mind to it you can get it done. Many people that I have encountered here have started from nothing in their life but then took control of their lives and made it better. I have met a man named Nester in Lima who started from just selling sandwiches on a cart but now owns his own restaurant and serves a lot of people. In Moyobamba I met another man that sold juices on the street and now runs his own store. Even in the family everyone works and pulls their own weight to make sure that the family survives. When you get out of the cities you find communities working together and will go out of their way to help one another. There is so much inspiration and values that you learn. 

I find that Canada we have lost some of the values of community and connection with food and we need to reconnect. I know we have lost them because I had to regain those values and connections on this trip. We are given a lot in our country and I think that is the cause for us losing touch with reality. We do not have to struggle as much as others have and are. I know my grandfather had to struggle when he was a child; they valued so much because they had so little. They made sure that they had the essentials and valued the bond of community. My generation is more concerned about what phone we have, how we dress, what music we listen to, who said what on facebook, what car they have and etc. I say this because I have fallen into this trend because it is hard to get away from. We are so drowned by advertisements telling how to look, what to buy and how others should see us. We strive only for perfection and if we do not get it we are discouraged and allow our perceptions of perfection ruin the good things in life. Like I mentioned in Earthly Connections – Part 4 I had juice from an orange and from a lemon that did not look like quality for North America. The moment I had the juice I could not believe how well it tasted.

Myself I have in the past been not satisfied with imperfections and always got discouraged. To start to realize that perfection is not always good I stopped watching TV and stayed away from the advertisements. It helped but I believe that my years of watching TV have hindered my judgement on people or it could because I am a Taurus. Traveling to Perú I have dropped barriers and started to become more comfortable with myself and stopped look for perfections especially in people. We are in this world together and we need to start to let go a bit and accept connections with people and just go for it. 

I have learned to have confidence in everything that you do and when you make a mistake learn from it. Making mistakes is showing people that you are trying to be better and working hard to get there. We have to take risks in life because sometimes the outcomes outweigh the fear holding you back. And you never stop learning and you need to persevere and keep going. The only thing holding you back is yourself and not others. Yeah there are times where others will get in your way or try to put you down but letting them do that is your fault and not theirs. Go out and dance and have fun and even wear weird clothes doing so because you only got one life and you might as well have fun with it. Life is a Journey and not a Destination and we should care for every moment that we are in and not only ourselves but for others as well. Remember that others before us have sacrificed for us to be where we are today. We are in this world together and others problems are ours and we should take some time to help others. Also before you waste something remember what our parents always said at the dinner table “Others in this world do not have the food you have so do not waste” and how the statement is true. 

I hope one day everyone gets to experience what I have in Perú because it gives you so much energy. Remember to think of yourself and also thing of others and you will be just fine.

 

Earthly Connection – Part 4

I finished off my Tingana adventure by working with a small town just outside of Tingana. There I got to finally see some organization in Perú and see a nursery operation in the works. Being in Tingana has brought up some strong emotions and I have also remembered my time in Huancayo. In Huancayo I got to see firsthand the realities of animals being sold and the selling of mass amount of fruits and vegetables in the market. It showed me the close connection the people of Perú have to the land they live in and Tingana got me closer to that reality. In Perú you are upfront and personal with the realities of the harvest, growing and slaughter of animals, fruits and vegetables. All of which are celebrated and rooted into the families that live in the rural area and passed down to the generations. In the coast of Perú there is a growing trend of disconnection to these values and I believe it is caused by the envy of the Western World one of which I live in.

When I lived in Windsor I had pretty good respect for nature and had very strong environmental views and choose a career path that would lead me to working with and within trees on a daily basis. When I was in school in Toronto I read a book called Fast Food Nation and it is a book I recommend to read. It described the effects McDonalds, Burger King and other fast food restaurants have created within our food industry. Then moving to Vancouver I was introduced to living with 20 people within two houses and have learned some much from every one of them. When you live with this many people you have to overcome many obstacles and learn to deal with conflict and emotions of others. Also I have made some very close friends from across the Atlantic Ocean in which they have attributed information of how people think and live within the Euro Zone. All this information has informed me and connected me to the food and nature around me and now I really get to experience it firsthand.

Huancayo and Moyobamba are two very different cultures in Perú and have very different ideals. There is a lot of tension between the Andean people and the people of the Amazon. Even though there is a division between the two there is a common element they share and that is food. In both areas animals, fruits and vegetables are respected and even celebrated because the people know that without them we do not survive. Just after I left Huancayo the valley that Huancayo is located in was about to have a festival to celebrate the animals that they care for and have the animals all dressed up. Unfortunately I left before I could attend the festivities but it made me really think about the animals that we eat in North America. Here the animals are roaming around in a free range even walking through the city centre. In Canada most of our animals are locked up in houses and barns made sure to stay in one place so their meat will be tender. I do not know if I can eat meat again going back to Canada because of the treatment of the animals. Our system of food seems to be to industrialized and it has become to produce for not the quality of the food or the benefits that come from the food, it is how much can be produced, how well the food will taste and how well it looks.

Not only in North America we have our animals locked up, we also feed the animals and inject the animals with steroids, chemicals and hormones to produce great yields and to “protect” the animals from disease. I do not think that we realize what these chemicals can do to us when they are passed down from the animals or what it is doing to the environment. I feel this is where we lose the connection to the food that we eat because we are deceived by all the advertisement take is drilled into us through the television and on the products. We make our products look good on the box and safe for children to look at but are they really good for us and our children. I believe we need to see the realities of how food is processed in North America so that we can start to respect and change our ways of how animals are treated. I think that a lot of the animal abuse that happens is connected with the problem of disconnection to animals and produce. We do not see animals as life forms but as food on our plate. Though we do not want to see the realities of how the animal is killed and processed because I think most people’s stomachs would turn. I really felt uncomfortable of seeing the animals slaughtered and the body parts lying around the market. I am not use to it and the energy of the place seemed very dark but to the people and children there it was just a regular day for them. I like to describe the feeling as the saying “We will eat the cow but we do not want to see how it is killed.”

I do like some dark humour now and again and since I have been thinking about the whole subject of disconnection between humans and animals I thought of a good example. I like people to observe and think about the next time you go to a petting zoo in a park. We have made farming into an entertainment resource for our children but yet very little education on the work involved. I find it actually hilarious that we bring our kids to these parks where they can play with the animals and pet them. Kids enjoy it so much and what makes the event so great is that after the kids are done playing with the animals they rush over to their tables hungry for that pig that they just played with or that cow that they were able sit on and go for a ride. Yet they have no clue what the processes are involved in the production of animal products for consumption.

I believe that if we start to reconnect to the Earth and life forms that live on this planet I think a lot of our problems will go away. We are too concerned in our lives about the artificial things then the real and tangible objects. We are also to stress too much about imperfections and making sure that everything fits into place. For the first two months in Perú I was very comfortable where I was sleeping, what service I was getting and quality of food I was getting. Then I arrived into to Moyobamba and Tingana and I have been put into very uncomfortable situations. The bed I have slept on is not the greatest, bugs are everywhere, dogs run lose and you are never sure if the food is good to eat or not (the food is fine to eat but as a traveler you can have problems because you have changed your diet or you do not know if they have boiled the water). After two weeks of this experience you start to become adapted to your environment and you do not worry anymore.

This experience has been great because when I go back to Canada I will eat any type of fruit giving to me. I am no longer going to look for the perfect fruit and the grocery store and going to buy more from the local farmers market. In Tingana I ate oranges that did not even look like your typical orange in the store. They were partly green and more yellowish orange but they tasted amazing and probably some of the best oranges I have ever had. Same with the lemons here in Moyobamba, one of my friends made lemonade and showed me the lemons used for the drink and they did not even look like lemons. As well the people here choice to eat fruit that have had bugs eating them because they know that the fruits were not affected by chemicals and it is natural.

After my experiences so far I believe that we have it way too good in North America and need to take a step back and reconnect with the Earth. On this journey I read a book called green collar economy and it was about bringing green jobs to the USA. One part of the book that really inspired me was the part about a program that brought criminals and addicts into backyard and rooftop gardens. This program inspired these people to change their ways of life because they would enjoy seeing their hard work start to grow and reconnected with them to the life other than their selves. I think that if everyone started this trend we would see a drop in crime and animal abuse. There is no point of locking people up in a cell for a bit and then throwing them back into society. We should be helping each other instead of fighting one another. We are in this world together and we are not alone. Perú’s problems are Canada’s problems along with the rest of the world. Our country does not stand alone we stand with every other country in this world and we need to start helping each other out and if we do that I think a lot of our economic problems, environmental problems, health problems and education problems would start to decrease. That is my rant for this trip and I hope that inspires some of you. There is nothing wrong with change because humans adapt so quickly to our environments. It only took me two weeks too where some species cannot last even a day. So why not make change today and reconnect with a friend or go out connect with nature, we are part of it and should see ourselves within the web of life and not apart from it.     

Earthly Connection – Part 3

After another day of work in the coffee fields it was the weekend and we had company arrive the Friday night. The guys from the permiculture group arrived and I was going to have more of an in-depth talk about the farm. The family I was staying with was the parents of one of the member s and he has worked on the farm for years.

Saturday Dino the member of the permiculture group and the part of the family I was staying with showed me around the farm. In Tingana there are about fifteen families that live on the reserve. His family is the only family that produces coffee that is organic and the rest use forms of pesticides on their crops. We then talked about the coffee beans themselves and where the coffee is sold too. In Perú there is not a big demand for coffee in restaurants and barely anyone drinks coffee. In restaurants you usually find they serve instant coffee. So with such a low demand all the good coffee that is produced on the farm is sent out for international sale. Perú is stuck with the bottom of the barrel coffee that is picked out of the good batch. It is a very interesting industry and I have much more respect for coffee and will be more informed on where my coffee is coming from.

After the tour of the farm we headed into the field of coffee to harvest the last of the fruits. It was coming to the end of the season of coffee and there was not much left on the plants. It was nice this time working in the field because I was able to talk to group as we worked. The group is made of three guys that are in the university at the moment studying environmental engineering. They are 19, 20 and 24 years of age and it was fun hanging out with them. I have not really hung out with guys my age and never really saw into the world of guys in Perú. There are a lot of similarities to the structure of guys down here is Perú as in North America. In Moyobamba though the culture is heavily surround by motorcycles and every guy in town seems to have one. Actually everyone in town rides motorcycles instead of cars even women. It was interesting the first time seeing a woman riding a motorcycle with her purse of to the side and heading to work. There are barely any taxi cars here; they have three wheeled motorcycles that bring the people around the town. It has been fun riding on the motorcycles around the town but has been very insecure as well because there is a lack of safety with not wearing protection. The upside is that everyone is riding motorcycles in town so people a very aware to motorcycles on the road. In North America it is the opposite where people drive cars a lot more then motorcycles and do not see or pay attention to motorcycles on the road. So yes I am taking a risk with not wearing protection though I have felt comfortable with this situation.

After a good lunch break after the coffee picking we headed to the river to go fishing. Also going up the river was a chance to see monkeys in the trees and more wildlife. Though we had to make sure we caught fish because if we didn’t we would not get supper. We got our supplies together and headed into a dugout canoe. As I said before the river seems calm but the current is very strong and we had to go up stream first. It was not bad with three of us paddling but there were some tricky parts to the trip. Paddling through the river was amazing and very scenic with the trees hanging over the water and birds flying around. The river here is much tighter then the part that I entered Tingana and nature is in your face. The river is a lot darker and when we stopped paddling to start fishing the forest came alive. You could hear the birds from far away and just the sound of the water and trees moving could be heard. You could hear a leaf drop from the top of the canopy of the tree and hit every branch on the way down.

We found out who were the good fishers on this trip up the river. By the end of the trip I caught three fish; Sandro caught one fish along with Junnior. Dino on the other hand caught fifteen fish and we joked about that this is the reason why he is the one with the girlfriend and not us. It was a good bonding moment for the group not only for me but form them. They will be starting an organization from nothing and will need a strong group to change the minds of people here in Moyobamba.

On Sunday it was not a day of rest for us. We headed into another coffee field that needed to be cut down. With saws in hand we started to remove the coffee plants that were in decline and left a stumping hoping for shouts to come up the following season. After we headed back up stream to fish some more in the river and this time around I got to see monkeys swinging from the trees. As we approached an open part in the river we could hear the tussling of branches near the edge of the river. You could also see the movement of plants swinging side to side. It was hard to see the monkeys at first because of the darkness of the river and the colour of the monkeys. Then you could see the white faces move and then I got to see them leaping from one tree to another. It was exciting to see them and we got to see more upstream a little bit more and they were closer to the boat. As with seeing the monkeys it was a good day of fishing bringing back a lot of fish once again.

That night we made a bonfire outside and roasted the catches of the day. I got to try a fish that is similar to the catfish but with an exoskeleton. It was like eating lobster because most of the meat was in the tail of the fish and you had to crack it open. It was good to have the bonfire after a good day of work and fishing. It was a good bonding moment with the guys of the group even though they had to go through a little of a struggle of communication problems. Though they resolved it and the day still turned out great along with the weekend.