Balance ~Part 1~

Balance. It is a lot like oxygen; necessary for sustainable life, but taken for granted unless threat of deprivation is impending. Due to the nature of our program, we have had many conversations pertaining to perceptions of balance and discussions of hypothetical ways to achieve it. At face value, balance seems so simple; however its appearance is quite deceiving. To give you my imagery of perfect balance, you must first start by imaging a color scale with black on one end and white on the other. They are polar opposites, both physically and abstractly, but can also be seamlessly harmonious. For the sake of my description, the numeric value Ive given to black is 0 and white is 100. Now picture every color that would fall in-between the two, and don’t just think of 98 other colors, think of a color for every possible decimal point between 0 and 100. In my mind, perfect balance would be shade that falls exactly at 50.00. Would this color be what we call grey? Would it be something else completely? Would it be light or dark? To me, answering these questions is nearly impossible, solely because there are so many possibilities. The range of possibilities is another essential thing to consider in this situation, is perfect balance one thing, or made up of many things? Every person may choose a different shade of one color, due to the fact that people actually perceive color differently. So what seems absolute to you, may appear utterly wrong to me; yet another obstacle to declaring true balance. At the end of the day, creating perfect balance may be a task we have to accept is not humanly possible.

One of the first things that struck me (after I’d settled into Zanzibar to the extent that I could make somewhat accurate subjective observations, that is) is that people here are much closer. Interpersonal relationships are notably stronger and immediate social networks have a very wide span, typically across all of Unguja island and in most cases over to Pemba island. (These are the 2 islands that Zanzibar is made up of.) This strength can be attributed to cultural ideas about family and community, both from a religious and Zanzibari standpoint. The other main factor it can be attributed does stem from culture, but is also something in and of itself different; the value Zanzibari people place on technology.

The inspiration to compile all these thoughts in a post came to me in a dream, as it just so happens. Recently, I’ve been spending lots of time applying for various summer internships at different aquariums across the United States. On a day that I turned 3 applications in, I had a dream I scored an interview for an education position at one in California. When I walked in there were children everywhere, but they were all looking at real-time tanks on MacBooks. I think it was somewhat of a futuristic dream because the computers could bend; but the point is that even though they were in a building filled with marine exhibits the children were still totally hypnotized by the computers. None of the kids could take their focus away from the screens long enough to interact with me at all, even to the point of returning a hello. In my heart of hearts, I believe one of the driving reasons I became interested in working at an aquarium in the first place is their beauty, obviously.  But more than that, their power to detach people from their virtual world and make them want to live in the present. Living in the moment and being present among other things, helps you to form deep-rooted bonds with those around you.

In high school, I was glued to my phone constantly. When I started college that all changed, allowing me to truly expand my view of the world and really start to develop opinions about things bigger than myself. I generally don’t like to take hard stances on things because I think the world is ever-changing. To me, hard stances are a breeding grounded for close-minded-ness. Something I do feel quite strongly about however, is the ever-increasing trend of children being introduced to (and getting hooked on) smart products so early in their development. I have seen babies who do not know how to talk or walk be able to use an iPad better than I can. Comparing my childhood with the childhood youth these days have honestly makes me sad. My childhood is filled with memories of playing outside from dawn to dusk, creating games from random outside objects, and long conversations with imaginary friends. I know not everyone from my generation had this same experience, but a childhood similar to this among people my age seems to be more of a rule rather than an exception. Whereas today, it appears the opposite is true.

I realize it is taking me awhile to get back to the point of balance but bear with me!

In my Zanzibari family, I have a 6 year old and a 2 year old brother. The family owns a smart tablet; I saw it one time through out the course of a month for the sole purpose of looking at an old picture. Everyday when I got home from school I played with my brothers until they went to bed. Even though I don’t understand much of what the little guys are saying most of the time, they would always tell me long elaborate stories (and include illustrations in my journal whenever I let them get their hands on it.) My Zanzibari family is extremely close and tight knit. When I am at home, all my time is spent with them, both because I really love them and constant together-ness is the norm here.

Depending on the reader, either situation above might seem more ideal than the other. Ideality is another topic altogether, so to get back to balance, there must be consideration of the pros and cons for each. In what has become the norm in America, meaning people being so deeply invested in their virtual worlds, they are sacrificing lots of interpersonal bonds. We often are not attached to our communities in any way, I would venture to say a lot of you have never had an actual conversation with your neighbors. Our nations youth place more value on the amount of instagram followers they have than getting to know their aunts and uncles. On the other hand, being so technologically savvy can be invaluably beneficial. It gives us grand opportunities to be global citizens from the comfort of our own homes, to become aware of small scale (but important) crises going on all over the world, to be connected to people at opposite sides of the country/world, to learn about political unrest oceans away, to keep entire parts of our personalities hidden, etc.

To contrast, Zanzibari people are connected to the point they do not typically mail letters or packages domestically. The main form of public transportation here is called Dala-Dala, They are fundamentally like a transit bus. Anyways, if some one in Stonetown (Central West coast) needed to get a parcel to someone in Paje, (East Coast) the sender could give it to a dala-Dala driver in the morning and it would for sure get to the receiver by noon. Another intriguing product of the tight-kittedness of the community is informal crime watch. Homes here are rarely broken into because it’s common knowledge that some one will always be watching. Anecdotal stories Ive heard around town also make it seem like in the rare case of theft, things are reclaimed within a day.

People on the island grow up with a strong network, giving them lots of familial and communal support. They value family relationships, and usually maintain very close relationships with their parents through out their entire lives. A possible con of the tight knitted-ness is strict parental obedience, I have talked to so many women here who despise their husbands but are essentially stuck with them because doing anything else would be disrespectful to their parents. Such strong relationships through out the island also perpetuate a very local viewpont, which indirectly make conservation efforts somewhat of a challenge. Family, by nature has a tendency to force unconditional love between incompatible people; the unspoken mandatory together-ness norms can cause potentially toxic relationships. Introverted personalities here, do not really exist or at least function well because individuals are constantly surrounded by people.

Lets refer to them as “extremes”, either side has a wide skew of pros and cons. A perfect balance would need to contain elements from each situation, but in this case, various elements from one place are not feasible in another. For example, the internet’s potential to enable people to become global citizens simply is not possible in Zanzibar due to bad connection. Shifting the values of young people in America away from being so technologically centered would require a massive compliance and all around total change in culture. More often than not, when balance comes into question, it is when a problem has breached the point of being controlled. When a large-scale problem becomes apparent, things have often gone too far to restore even a semi-balanced state. If balance could be a state of being that people strived for on a daily basis, I feel it would keep a wide variety of things from being “problems” in the first place.

This post was quite challenging for me to write. As I wrote it, a continuum of perspectives about this dynamic idea flowed into my mind. In addition, there are a multitude of situations I wanted to write about to help illustrate my point, but I did not expect this seemingly small point to necessitate so many words. Now that I have gotten this post done however, I hope to write about my other observations and thoughts in reference to this post! I strongly welcome any feedback and further conversation :]

                                                       ~Until Next Time~

An Update!

        One of my avid readers suggested I complement my introspective posts with a quick update in conversational Grace tone about all the spectacular things I have gotten to do in Zanzibar thus far. I thought that idea seemed reasonable enough, so here it goes! (sidenote: if you are friends with me on facebook, chances are you have already seen most of these pictures, but now you can read the descriptions that go with them!)

     

       

The following is a rooftop view from the guest house the entire group stayed the first four or five nights after arriving in Zanzibar, it is called Garden Lodge. Through out or trip, we will be spending nights at Garden Lodge here and there periodically. There are many times we are scheduled to travel out of Stonetown for a week or so, return for a night or two, then depart again! For each night we stayed there we got to enjoy a lovely rooftop breakfast around 7 am in the morning, so these photos were taken about an hour after the sun rose. Having the entire group together for the first week and a half was a great bonding experience. Prior to arriving, I thought we would go straight into our homestays. Now, I have lived in my homestay for a week and I can retrospectively say how thankful I am that we all got to go experience the initial culture shock together, orient ourselves to our new African lifestyle as a group and get to feel each other out a bit before our academics became super involved.

     
  Our class schedule is ever-changing due to the fact that most of our field work depends on the tides. But typically we begin at 8 am with a 2 hour Swahili course. Immediately after our lesson we walk to the Institute of Marine Sciences for a lecture; everyday the topic changes. My favorite so far has been about water pollution and waste management, generally and specific to Zanzibar. When the speaker is finished we get a 2 hour lunch break, which is a complete necessity because we usually spend about an hour of it lost or asking people directions. (LOL) When we get back to our headquarters we have a guest lecturer. These lectures have seemingly been more about familiarizing us with Zanzibar than specific to marine life, which is totally important and a nice break from Science-y things. I was extremely worried I would not be able to keep up with the academics here since it is an upper-level science program and almost everyone else is an environmental science or biology of some sort major, but I can proudly say it has not yet been a problem for me! :] (knock on wood) Anyway, after the lecture we have another 2 hours of Swahili, so our usual school day has proven to be like a full time job, 8 to 5 everyday that is. And I am not kidding when I say everyday, we do not get weekends off! Our first free day is February 29^th, I believe, and if I am correct I have a theory that we only have that day free because they forgot it was a leap year and did not plan anything for it!!

     

  These pictures are from a town on the East Coast called Paje, and its surrounding villages. To bring our orientation week to an end we headed to Paje. The goal of this was to expand our understanding of Zanzibar as a whole and to explore the various effects of tourism and visit a couple conservation areas. Zala Park, also known as Snake Park, is a zoo, for strong lack of a better word, that was started by an environmental education teacher to educate school children and townsfolk about their natural environment. Although it is an area dedicated to both plants and animals, I found the animals much more fascinating. Most of the enclosures he’d built housed animals that were at risk of becoming endangered, mostly due to superstition and folklore deeming them negative. The animal that stuck out to me most were land crabs, for 2 reasons. The first being how much of a nuisance people consider them to be in the Keys. I don’t know if they are considered to be over populated there, but there certainly is not a deficit. The 2^nd is the reason behind their endangerment. The townspeople believe that if you find one in your house you will soon become divorced, and if you are the spouse that finds it, it represents your being the one to cause the marriage ending chaos.

     The day we left Paje, we woke up at 4:45 to go to a town called Kizimkazi, specifically to Menai Bay to go to a "live" fish auction (i say live like that because all the fish were dead, clearly) and dolphin watching. Boy was dolphin watching something else. I was extremely curious about how it would actually go down, after they described what we'd be doing; which was looking for the pods then jumping out of the boats when we got close to them. Having previous experience with dolphin behavior I did not think this plan would be as good as it sounded and sure enough it was not. Our teachers clearly knew this and were in part, trying to demonstrate to us the way the tourism industry in the area functions. Above are pictures of the fish auction! 

    On our drive home we stopped by the Zanzibar Butterfly Center. It was basically like an aviary for butterflies and was purposed to help conserve butterflies in the surrounding area. With over 200 new butterflies hatching each week, I deemed them to be doing a phenomenal job at that! While the netted area was not that big, it contained an astounding amount of beauty. I was lucky enough to have a monarch land on my hand, as you can see below! 

    

     After Paje, we stayed in Garden Lodge for two additional nights preparing to be born into our new Zanzibari families!!! (aka moving into a homestay) Now we all have a Swahili birthday of February 7th, those of you who know me know I have loving reasons to celebrate so I was over joyed about this! My family is formed by Mama Talha, her husband Issa, and my two little brothers named Nasso and Muhammad, and now me :] The house part of our home is located on the third floor of our building. The first floor houses the shop that my Dads half of the family owns, they sell jewelry and fancy furniture, such as gold plated chests. My Dad (with help, I believe) makes the products while his sisters are the face of the shop. The second floor is a workshop where said things are made! The home is beautiful, but does not resemble an American home whatsoever. It is not fully enclosed, there is a big open sitting room that funnels into the kitchen, but other than that every room is concealed with big, beautiful, double wooden doors. There also is not a table, we eat every meal on the floor using our hands! This took some getting used to at first, especially when consuming foods that were soupy, but now it feels really odd to use utensils. (We use spoons to eat ice cream.) I have my own room which is super nice and sometimes makes me feel like an island princess. (hehe) You can see it pictured below! I do not have any photos with any of my family members yet, but once I do I will definitely upload them! They are a beautiful family. 

     Living in a homestay has been a complete 180 of what I imagined, but it has been very rewarding and a remarkable experience that I wouldn't trade for the world, nonetheless. I must admit, the first night and following day, were very hard for me and shifted my mindset to a somewhat odd and unfamiliar state. The following were the influencing factors: To begin with, the entire time we have been here there has been a list posted on the main bulletin board in the SIT Office with each students name, their Zanzibar phone number, the address of their homestay, and the name of their host mom. In Swahili, the word Bi is similar to madam and can denote age, as well as status in some cases. 5/6 of us had moms whose names began with Bi, mine did not. This fact, in combination with hearing the stories of my cousin Jordan's SIT homestay mom, and all the other students speculating about what my Mom would be like led me to believe that my mom would be some young single woman who was ready to take the town with me! We were also oriented to our homestay life would with the knowledge that some Moms would speak perfect English while some Moms would not speak any. I was second to last to be picked up from our headquarters but every woman that had come in to claim a child before I left had spoken perfect, or very close to perfect English. My mom barely speaks any English. So after my first day completely misaligning with my expectations, I was definitely offset a bit.

     I have now lived here for a week and I can not imagine leaving! Last night, my Mom told me I was her best friend. She has proven to me that even though language can, at times, be a barrier to connection, there are a multitude of ways to build bonds and form relationships with people. Everyday I come home and tell her about my day using as much Swahili as I can muster, filling the gaps with actions and English when necessary; pictures from the day, old pictures of friends from home with stories behind them, and my favorite American music have also been go-to's for helping us get to know each other. We also spend a considerable amount of time teaching each other our respective languages, and she uses the index cards I made to study Swahili, to study English. My brothers are 2 and 6, so as long as I'm willing to play with them all night long, they don't really mind that I can't fully understand what they're saying. Right now, Muhammad, the youngest one is very sick with the flu, but Mama Talha lets me help take care of him and there is no better feeling than making him smile when all he's been doing for the past hour is crying. I genuinely look forward to coming home after class and spending time with them each day, and although my homestay is not what I expected nor is it always the easiest, it has been a priceless experience thus far. 

     Above are all the biggest updates, but each day here is truly an adventure and I learn hand-fulls of new things by the hour. I can not reiterate enough how grateful I am for the opportunity to be on this once in a lifetime trip. Below are some underwater pictures from an unprotected reef off the coast of Stonetown called Bawe. Although having class everyday of the week can be quite strenuous, doing things like this makes it totally worth it! I hope you enjoyed my update, but get ready for another thought provoking post, cuz' I've got one a brewin'! 

                                               ~Until Next Time, My Friends~

Hakuna Matata

My original vision of keeping this blog was that it would be a slight variation of a diary, less personal of course, but I had planned to essentially compose posts that were in a list-like format of what I had done that day/week/what have you. I have only spent six days here so far, but in that short time it has already become extremely clear to me that I have much more insight to offer through this blog than a fun-to-read list.

            So far the goal of most of the discussions we have had and activities we have done is to get us oriented to living a Zanzibarian lifestyle. Here is a short list of the things most prominent in my mind that feel like entirely new experiences: a traditional, but delicious, dinner at a remarkable lady named Mama Abla’s house (and almost all the other food we have eaten); yesterday, we were split into groups and each group was lead to a different area of town where our instructors left us with a list of tasks to be completed, and afterwards having to find our way back to our headquarters; intensive Swahili lessons, and driving through the rural areas surrounding Stonetown. I should also mention that until today we have been staying in Stonetown. Traveling to Paje today, a smaller, more rural town on the East Coast of Zanzibar, was our first introduction to the rural parts of the island, and I must say they are quite a sight.

            Although I could tell you many great things about all of the above, I have chosen to focus on the element that has been stirring my emotions and shifting my thoughts and perspectives the most. As some of you may know, when I was in high school I pursued a quest to become fluent in both Spanish and French. Career plans I had were heavily based on the language skills I had acquired at that point. I also planned on studying in Paris for a semester in college. However on a somewhat rebellious quest to discover my “true passions” I lost all of my lingual skills as well as the compulsion I once felt for becoming tri-lingual. Introduction to Swahili, in a sense, has re-awoken that intrigue. For that, I am very thankful. I enjoyed learning language so much because I had a gift or knack for them you could say, they came easily to me. But school is school and the rebellious phase I previously mentioned caused me to feel disdain towards anything anyone who was in a position of authority told me to do. I can not honestly say I regret bringing my studies of these languages to an end, but now I can retroactively see the ways in which continuing them could have been beneficial to me. I have become hyper-sensitive to the enormous capacity language has to act as a bridge, to break down walls, to become keys to open doors, and to create doors you could not have previously been aware existed.

            All that being noted, what has been the most thought provoking to me is the way our lessons began. Granted all of what I am about to say could simply be a product of our course being an intensive language course, or due to the fact that in 3 days we will be placed in a family and need to know the most basic of basic communication skills to keep from becoming socially isolated; but nonetheless it has made a profound impact on my views towards this culture, my culture, and Western culture in general.

            Our first lesson we were, what felt like, bombarded with the wide array of greetings used in the Swahili language; more importantly, but unbeknownst to us at the time, in Kiswahili culture. The importance of greetings can be found through tradition and longstanding culture, so our “walimu” said, but the explanation given to us about why greeting people here is such a necessity is beautifully simple. When you greet some one, fundamentally what you are doing is acknowledging their presence, vocalizing that you know they are there and that in some way or another their presence is important to you.  

Here is a practical application to demonstrate this point: You are walking to the market and on the way you pass by many shops, some may house storeowners who are preoccupied with customers, others have people just sitting around but you walk by all of them without a word. You take a wrong turn and after a couple minutes of walking you realize you have gone the wrong way and are not headed toward the market. You decide to retrace your steps and when you arrive back at the familiar stores you had already passed, you see numerous shops with people in them who appear to not be busy. So, you ask them for assistance to your final destination. In Zanzibar, the streets are not like streets in the states. They are narrow winding alleyways between buildings and churches and are very easy to get lost quickly in. This, for one of many reasons, is why people do not tell you directions. Instead they will walk you or find some one else heading that way to walk you where you need to go. But why should some one give you their time, if you could not even give a little bit of yours to acknowledge they were there?  It may seem silly at first, but with deeper thought this unspoken required balance/way of interacting is very reasonable and may explain on some level, the willingness of people to do things for you in your own culture.

Greetings we learned were phrases we would consider in the states to be small talk. We learned to ask people how they were, how their parents were, how they slept the night before, how the last meal they had eaten was, etc. All of these questions begin with the word “habari” meaning what is the news? So direct translations come out to be questions like “what is the news about you?” somewhat equivalent to the way we would ask “how are you?” Consequently, the norm is to answer any question beginning with “habari” is to say “nzuri,” meaning good. In the words of our intelligent Bi Asia, “If some one asks you “habari” and you are about to drop dead, you answer with “nzuri” and then you can die.” The time I have spent here so far seems to reflect that this is a widespread and deeply ingrained mindset in most Zanzibari people. That is, even if something bad is happening life is still good.

            Our next couple lessons were filled with vocabulary to teach us how to tell people our names, where we were from, where we were staying currently and to ask of them the same. It was not until our fourth or fifth lesson that we started learning possessive pronouns and verb conjugations, grammar and structure. But right now, in Swahili I could tell you where I am going, where my friends are staying, that I will help my mother with house work when I am home from school, what the teacher tried to cook for dinner last night, even so we still have not learned to verb to have nor has it come up in any of our exercises. Initial instruction in the other languages I took immediately delved into learning to talk about what we have and placed the utmost importance on writing and saying everything correctly, even if it meant sacrificing the ability to form some sort of a relationship. Grammar and structure seemed to be far more important to learn than how to carry on a simple two or three minute conversation with some one.

            In my opinion, the order of what we are learning in Kiswahilil speaks immensely about the values of the people here, and vice versa for the Western values. The way in which the language has been taught to us seems to dictate that the ability to form relationships with others is priceless compared to anything else. I will leave my explanations of learning European languages and my opinions about Western culture up for interpretation.  I must reiterate that all of this could be the function of something completely different than the culture and its values and all the above could be a bunch of bologna. Either way, it is something interesting to ponder :]

~Until Next Time~

THE TIME HAS COME

Let me open with this: embarking the plane, knowing I will be in Tanzania in approximately 10 hours, is overtaking me with a feeling so powerful that is nearly impossible to convey through writing. Discovering what Africa has in store for me has been in the forefront of my mind since about mid November. Not to say it is the only thing I have been thinking about, but I have spent countless hours day dreaming about my host family, the friends I will make, the native people I will meet, the food I will eat, what species inhabit the bordering island waters, etc. If I were to list everything I have fantasized about it would be several pages long and might potentially bore my lovely readers.

Although I have only been traveling for about a day total, and all of that time I have spent either on an airplane or in an airport, I can feel that my thought processes are already beginning to alter in order to navigate unfamiliar situations, adapt to new environments, notice things I would typically be unaware of or consider unimportant. Catalyzing this transition in thought, was a total doofus mistake I made about my flight time! To everyone who thought I would be sitting on a plane for 23 hours straight, my apologies, that was not the case whatsoever.

After I got through security at O’Hare I was walking around, browsing through the duty free shops, hittin’ the loo, stockpiling H2o in my nalgene, you know, taking care of all the pre-flight necessities. As I was filling my bottle an interesting man that I had noticed in the same check in line as myself, came to fill his bottle at the neighboring fountain. He had long blonde curly hair with a dread on either side of his face, to hold the mass of the rest of his hair back I assume, he was wearing an intriguing pair of silk pants with intricate designs, a beaded necklace embellished with feathers and stones, and to top it all off he had a murse (man purse) draped across him. He was the epitome of a mad chill hippie man, so of course I could not let the opportunity to strike up a conversation with this guy pass! (1^st friend, WOO) We chatted for a while and he informed me he was a jewelry designer. When in the states, he lives in Northern California, but each year he travels to India for 5-6 months collecting stones and searching for new forms of inspiration for his pieces. This expedition will be his fourth time traveling to that neck of the woods. For this trip he has decided to change things up a bit and become a nomadic traveler through out South Asia for the duration of his stay.

Anyway as the time to board drew closer Mr. hippie man asked me if I knew how long the flight was. Over-confidently I stated 23 hours then expressed my deep dismay for spending that many hours confined to a seat on a plane. Thoughts of blood clots and unfathomable boredom had been haunting my ability to mentally prepare for the flight for a solid week at this point. He gave me quite possibly one of the oddest looks I have ever received then informed me I was laughably wrong. As it turns out, the longest flight you can take just about anywhere in the world maxes out around 18 hours. It did not occur to me whatsoever to take the time differences into account when reviewing my itinerary. altering thought processes example a

In this case I am glad I was prepared for the worst, but I also expected the worse; one of my mantras for this trip has since become the popular saying: ~prepare for the worst, but expect the best~ Although I didn’t expect the best this time, my first leg ended up being only 12 hours and the kind man sitting 2 seats away from me offered me the middle seat to lay down so I got to sleep almost the entire time. I was very grateful for this small act of kindness, and my flight exceeded all of my expectations by a longshot. YAY. Being so hyped for so long wares a gal out, so the rest was much needed! The plane was the biggest, most luxurious plane I had ever seen, and I can say the same for the Hamad International Airport.

After exiting the aircraft I had to retrieve my boarding pass for my next leg, they could not give it to me in Chicago due to the length of my layover. It was about 15 hours in all, so the ticket agent suggested I get a hotel room for the night. Due to the facts that I had not reserved a room when booking my ticket and the city hotel partnered with the airport being at capacity, a room was not an option. So I spent the next hour and a half or so walking around aimlessly pondering what my next move would be, altering thought processes example b. Unable to connect to wifi, therefore being unable to book any accommodations period, I decided to camp out in a quiet room for the night. Thankfully I lead to this option via the advice of the very kind ticket agent who gave me my boarding pass and probably began to feel sorry for me after the fifth or sixth time I passed him doing circles around the airport. (mega s/o to him)

The entire airport culture in Doha was completely different than any American airport I have ever been in. Every staff member seemed to be warm and welcoming, every area was pristine, including the bathrooms, and it did not feel over crowded at all. Somewhat of a taboo compared to American airports I felt. These things could have been a product of the rather odd hours I was there, nonetheless I was both shocked and impressed. At one point when trying to connect to wifi I sat on the ground by a row of full chairs, a man got up and offered me his seat. Although I tried to kindly turn his offer down, he simply would not let me, it seemed very courteous. Two things that did seem unusual to me however were the lack of eye contact and of smile exchanges made between strangers. People watching is at the top of my list for ways to spend leisure time, especially in a new place, but after a handful of unreturned smiles I tried to be subtler about it and avoid direct eye contact. I have a cloudy recollection of reading somewhere that in some cultures direct eye contact can be disrespectful, so I stuck with that inkling. altering thought processes example c

After a night of restless sleep I allowed myself to get up. I freshened up in the bathroom, ate a toasted sub and drank a delicious latte for breakfast, walked to my gate to board my flight for Tanzania. And that is where I am now, I will be boarding in about ten minutes so that is all for now folks!

                                                 ~Until Next Time~

T-Minus 8 Days!!

Colorado Bend State Park, Lampasas, TX

As I mentioned in my previous post, I know I would not have had the confidence to spend a semester 8,547 miles away from the place I consider my second home, had I not spent the summer in the Keys. The concept of living in paradise for an entire summer seems great to an outsider, and while I was completely excited and incredibly grateful to do so, before I left I had some reservations. These feelings lead me to occasionally consider if I had made the best choice of how to spend my summer, and romanticize the summer everyone else would be having while I was gone. Shamelessly I’ll admit my main hesitation was rooted in the FOMO I had about being away from my friends for so long. I was slightly nervous about other minutia of what lied ahead, such as potential problems I might face with crews, but no force was holding me back quite like the FOMO. All that being said, my tensions were close to relieved in their entirety within a week of being there. I am working towards a point here, I promise!

The realization that three months a little over a thousand miles away, had the ability to prepare me for four months over 8 thousand miles away is groundbreaking but simultaneously quite simple. I spent the last ten days in Austin visiting my boyfriend, and while it was almost purely a vacation, I covertly doubled my time there as practice for Africa. I tried to the best of my ability to transform my mind into an empty vessel, for lack of a better word. My intention in doing so was to truly adopt the mindset of an “Austinite” (as they jokingly refer to themselves) to fully appreciate all the things I got to do. This was not my original plan of action however, and it took one small experience to show me that this was what I needed to do. The following is a mundane example, but I feel it illustrates my point.

Trey, (my boyfriend) is obsessed with everything Austin, ranging from the religion of football to the unique cuisine. Being completely clueless about sports, the tangible aspect of Austin he aimed to sell me on the most was the food. After picking me up from the airport we had burritos at a local chain called Freebirds. While he likes to say they have the best burritos evaaaa, after eating one I was somewhat underwhelmed. After listening to him rave about it, my expectations were high. I have had great burritos (maybe even better burritos, hehe) in Iowa City, but that’s not the point. Trey loves this restaurant and to genuinely appreciate it the way he does, I had to take a step back and look at the bigger picture as well as release my predispositions about what this dining experience should be. The restaurant in its entirety is what makes the place so great and very special to many people. All of the workers had awesome personalities, there was fun music playing and supa cool art all over the walls. And to be fair the burritos were pretty tasty, I just overloaded mine with too many tomato products LOL.

I did not face this inconsistency, so to speak, with expectations and reality in Florida because I went as a metaphorically speaking, open book. I cherished the memories of all the family vacations spent in Florida when I was younger so I was fully prepared to love everything about it. Everything I did there was carried out with a completely open mind. I went out of my way to engage in activities I usually would not have, such as eating fish (another LOL) solely because of the culture there. And much to my surprise, I am now a seafood fiend. In Austin, when I let go of all the predispositions I held upon arrival my time became much more meaningful. Another quick example: Trey is fascinated with the UT Tower, it was his background on his phone when I first met him and he brought it up numerous times in conversation through out the semester, before I ever visited him and had a chance to see it myself. He gave me a tour one day and it was exquisite. Almost every night, from whatever our location through out Austin was, we could see it. Each time I looked at it thereafter, it became more beautiful. That being said, I probably would not have even noticed it had it not been important to him.

Considering the insights I gained from both of my somewhat recent trips not only about the places, but about myself, I have a hard time putting into words the importance of embracing new things, experiences, places, people, etc. with a lens tailored to the culture. The ability to do this warrants the power to make any and every experience exponentially more meaningful with an added component, in most cases, of self growth. All of this reflection has provoked me to share what I have learned with you all as well as offer some advice. Live in the moment! This is easier said than done, but take opportunity you have to function with an open mind and offer yourself to the experience at hand. When things make you uncomfortable, let go of your inhibitions and take the opportunity to learn. And do not feel you have to travel a continent away, or even to another state; everyday life can instantaneously become much more interesting when you look at it from a new perspective.

~until next time~