Feed your roots

In response to "So Much Happiness" by Naomi Shihab Nye

2011-05-07T18:44:00.003-06:00

Words to images
Images to memories
Memories to smiles
Sneaking across my face and twinkling in my eyes
Happiness sneaks up like a mischievous wood nymph
Dancing through the glacier lilies
and pirouetting on snowflakes
While sun beams put a spotlight on this miraculous performance
that warms us to grinning.
Can everyone feel such happiness?
Can everyone afford tickets to the wood nymph ballet?
Does sorrow scare the dancers and shroud the spotlight in shadows?
Happiness and sorrow are eternal and we would not know one without the other.
The spotlight is only visible because of the shadows.
To let happiness dance maybe we just have to welcome the shadows and move them into a good stage position.

"So Much Happiness" -Naomi Shihab Nye

It is difficult to know what to do with so much happiness.
With sadness there is something to rub against, a wound to tend with lotion and cloth.
When the world falls in around you, you have pieces to pick up,
something to hold in your hands, like ticket stubs or change.

But happiness floats.
It doesn't need you to hold it down.
It doesn't need anything.
Happiness lands on the roof of the next house, singing,
and disappears when it wants to.
You are happy either way.
Even the fact that you once lived in a peaceful tree house
and now live over a quarry of noise and dust
cannot make you unhappy.
Everything has a life of its own,
it too could wake up filled with possibilities
of coffee cake and ripe peaches, and love even the floor which needs to be swept,
the soiled linens and scratched records...

Since there is no place large enough
to contain so much happiness,
you shrug, you raise your hands, and it flows out of you
into everything you touch. You are not responsible.
You take no credit, as the night sky takes no credit
for the moon, but continues to hold it, and share it,
and in that way, be known.

Dreams come alive with community!

2010-12-18T10:11:00.004-07:00

communities are support, companionship, human, felt.
when i meet people, to expand my community, i am excited to learn what makes them unique. van gogh style artist, hide tanner, one that speaks through quotes, amateur documentary makers, knitters.
The people of this month bring me new ideas, inspiration, a push to look inside and see what makes me unique. Then a push to bring the unique outside and let it be part of the community of inspiration!

and community need not be exclusive to people. inspiration is everywhere. A vine teaches many lessons- growing in it's own skin, rooted, reaching for the sun, light, truth, warmth, nutrients to make it grow.
it can't go up alone.
it can't complete it's journey on it's own.
it needs the support of it's community, a neighbor plant, a fence. Always remaining unique to itself, there is still recognition that it can't complete it's journey without the help of it's support system.

and at times when the journey seems tangled and impossible, when the warmth is out of sight,
it keeps trying, growing, searching, leaning, twisting, turning and

there,

back in the open, ready to push forward. to grow fruit. to produce a flower. to give back to the community after uniting all the elements within itself.

give and take.
healthy balance.

thoughts for this moment brought to you by the inspiration of my community :)

Well lived

2010-10-11T11:53:00.002-06:00

Waterton Lakes National Park is nestled in the south west corner of Alberta. It's a stunning portion of land, where the prairies of Canada meet the Canadian Rockies. Driving along the open sky roads of the plains, suddenly a wall of the most fantastic peaks soars to the very sun that guided your path. i live and work here and feel endlessly privileged at my luck.

Today however, it's raining. So i'm not outside enjoying the views (though i do think it's lovely to get all suited up and head outside in 'bad' weather!) Instead I'm inside on this computer, looking at things that are happening around the world and feeling my inspiration bubble.

today i visited these 2 sites:
jamghatfamily.blogspotcom
http://reconsidercolumbusday.org/

and now feel the burn to get out of my little house and make something happen! Cuz there are so many folks pushing for justice that's needed. Social justice makes my heart pound harder. I don't feel involved in anything right now, but when I am involved in pushing for something i believe to be right, i feel my day is well lived.

Knitting, hiking in these beautiful mountains and laughing with friends also makes a day feel well lived :)

What do you do that makes your day feel well lived?

loves
Lauren

The Guest House

2010-07-21T18:25:00.002-06:00

This is a current favorite by Rumi-

"This being human is a guest house.
Every moment a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows
who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture.
Still, treat each guest honourably.
They may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame,
the malice...
meet them at the door laughing
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond."

Loving each heart,
Lauren

Water! Wowter!

2010-07-13T18:55:00.001-06:00

Rolling with the river, around each stone and obstacle
The droplets gain momentum as more join in the journey
Through varied landscapes they pick up pieces
Of purity, pesticide, passion, and power
Moving through stories, carrying the past to the future
Feeding all the roots; growing evolution

A little poem I thought up with water on the brain :)
Flow On!

Clean Bin Project

2010-06-30T23:16:00.002-06:00

I just watched a documentary made by a Vancouver based couple, called the Clean Bin Project. They challenged each other not to buy any stuff for one year and not to produce any waste for the year. They replaced their 1 garbage can with 15 recycling bins for different items, expanded their compost, grew a huge garden and had fun discovering new recipes for deodorant, toothpaste, shampoo, crackers, cleaning supplies and all kinds of things we normally 'just buy'.

Producing no garbage meant choosing food items that were not wrapped in garbage/ non-recyclables. It meant buying cheese from the deli, cut off the block and put in the container they brought to the store.
It meant not buying chips and it meant giving up a few items they liked.

BUT

it meant gaining a sense of responsibility and connection to the worth of the items that sustain our lives. It meant discovering news ways to exist and it meant honing new skills to subsist.

After 365 days she had about 4.15lbs of garbage and he had 3.8lbs. not bad.

I've challenged some co workers to the challenge, starting July 1st, Canada Day.

Living a life of over-consumption and garbage production is Outdated. It's time to evolve to the next way of living. Creatively and responsibly.

Have fun!

Water words

2009-11-24T21:01:00.003-07:00

During a weekend of water words and flowing people, we were asked to write a question. i wrote this. it might only make sense to me!

burning need.
passion is fire
fuelled by water.
pulsating heart
is sunshine for my belly seed of change.
listen.
trust.
mycelium style growth for change

Water is passion!

This is food for thought

2009-11-23T15:19:00.001-07:00

Friend Ben spins poetic beats. Check out his latest blog entry and have a think.

http://foodgrows.blogspot.com/2009/11/it-was-violent-night-in-toronto.html

keep flowin'
Lauren

...and I'm feelin' good

2009-11-18T17:51:00.002-07:00

It's been a long time but I"m feeling alive and excited and ready to live to the fullest!

i had the best evening last night. My dear cousin had a major role in his highschool play Dracula and I, now living in Calgary for a winter, got to see it! The play was gory and fabulous and being in a highschool was hilarious again. i loved every minute. being around a different age group, feeling the energy from hormones!, seeing excitment for success after months of hard work and passion for friendship. Being with family: grandma, uncle, cousin and her son. awesome.

From there i went to meet friend Leila who i haven't seen in years and we had So Much to Say! We talked til the cafe closed, then moved onto a bench for the next hour til our feet were so numb we hobbled to the car and kept on spinning dreams and passions and world views and ideas for change and for birthday parties and for keeping it real and never forgetting that the earth is not our stage it is our roots and life force and like a family member who is sick has to be given the best of care. Remembering where the heart is, how water brings the heart to life.

i'm so pumped and alive and feeling it and connected to truth again. There are such incredible people everywhere! i want to do street plays and paint the intersections with beautiful pictures on my birthday to remind people that a garden could be there if it wasn't concrete! there are so many creative ways to get the word out, the word to THINK and to REACT and to get out of the numb routine

YES!

pumped! loving opportunity again. and loving friends so much.

Friends sent me a cheque for Rajan's meds in India (a brother who just got through dengue fever) and included a note that said, "thank you for caring about people in India and letting us be part of it too!" and it made me smile a really big smile

it feels so good to care. To not be empty and living numbly. To not accept that everything is as it should be because they said so. to look for truth and seek out passions and listen with honesty.

big feelings of change and excitment after an inspirational few days.

yay!
lauren

25 year old child

2009-02-10T21:49:00.004-07:00

What thoughts would you have if a 9year old boy was leading you through the narrow lanes of his neighbourhood and instinctively pulling you to the side whenever a car passed?

Who usually looks out for who? Is what I was thinking.

9 year old Prasenjeet now lives with Jamghat but had been on his own for several years, living on the streets and taking care of himself. With no one to look out for him, he grew up really fast. When he walks beside me, a 25 year old foreigner, we both know who the experienced is at this life.

I’m the child in their world, speaking sentences like a 2 year old, making social mistakes like a 5 year old, learning endless amounts from my young teachers. Were I to live on the streets alone, even now at 25, I’d be terrified and completely lost.

These boys know where to find free food, where to get cheap or free clothes, who to go to for help (NOT the police!), how to survive in the invisible systems of street life. Essentially, how to fight for their life.

I’m amazed daily by their spirit and honest positivity after surviving through it all, alone. I’m sure glad my little 9 year old friend is such a dedicated teacher, looking out for me while I grow up in this daunting city.

"Undercover in Tibet"

2009-01-28T22:45:00.001-07:00

I’m outraged. And guilty. I’m outraged that cultural genocide IS happening in Tibet, that Tibet is silently being erased from history, that it quietly disappeared from our maps. I’m guilty that I have given the burden of this fight to a small number, feeling that the fight is being taken care of, that someone is on it, that it’s not so bad.

It IS so bad. It’s terrible. If the things that were happening in Tibet were happening to us in Canada, there would be war. Devastation. Lost trust and psychological damage. If a Tibetan woman has too many children, she either pays a hefty fine that she can’t afford or undergoes forced Sterilization.

Imagine, my female friends, imagine having the right to birthing literally ripped out of you. That which so many of us base our female identity on, torn from your body with no anaesthetic and no choice.

I’m outraged. I just saw a documentary entitled ‘Undercover in Tibet’. Tash Despa fled Tibet 10 years ago and has lived in Exile in Britain since then. He returned to his home for the first time in 10 years to find out why so many people were risking their lives to flee Tibet in India or Nepal, via the Himalayas. One escapee said he would rather risk his life hiking for weeks through the snowy peaks, risking such bad frostbite that amputation is the only answer, running out of food, being shot at by Chinese officers if spotted...he would rather risk this than live under Chinese rule.

This movie brought me back to life. We can’t sit in our comfortable homes and do nothing. We can’t. People are dying, traditional ways of life are disappearing, family members are disappearing, monks are under constant surveillance and are tortured if they have even one speech by the Dalai Lama in their quarters. It’s a silent, methodical genocide.

Get involved. Get involved in whatever issue makes your heart pound hard in your chest. Do something. We’re such privileged, powerful people in Canada. We have such strong voices. We were born into it and are now surrounded by opportunity and comfort. It makes torture and hardship seem like a only a nightmare, not something real human beings are actually enduring.
But real human beings with homes and families ARE suffering. I know you know this, but really KNOW it! People that laughed with their partners under beautiful Tibetan trees and enjoyed the sunshine with their children are torn apart and forced from nomadic lifestyles into police watched concrete ‘communities’, akin to prison.

And why? Because Tibet is one of the richest resources of: water, minerals, oil.

Sound familiar?

Oil. And China now has control of it. They kill and torture, take freedom and install fear, silently wipe a culture out of our minds, in the name of money and global power.

So truly this affects us all.

Read something. Write a letter. Find the time to care. If not about Tibet, something, cuz surely there is some injustice that speaks to your heart.

Remember that Tibet was on the map just a few years ago.

Just remember the pain people live with outside of Canada. And don’t live with guilt or heaviness. But Do Something.

A thrill for my senses, Old Delhi

2009-01-17T05:27:00.001-07:00

Living in India is certainly not the easiest thing I've ever done. The pollution of Delhi is horrendously draining, the noise is constant, the language barrier takes extra brain power that and the ‘un-nameable’ (is there a word for that) small differences take endless sorting out. It’s tough, but not impossible, and often the challenges, and those small differences, are what make it so delightful (on a good humoured day!).

I wish I could illustrate this city for you, in a way that would really give an understanding of this place. Old Delhi is the place to describe... or better yet, a huge market, the size of a small town within Old Delhi, called Chandni Chowk.

We went to Chandni Chowk to buy 200 blankets for homeless children the other day...it's still fresh in my mind, so let me try to paint a picture for you....

Old Delhi is the original Delhi. It used to have a wall around it, used to have a river running through it, used to be the center of Mughal rule in the 1600s right up until the British took over in the mid-1700's.

Old Delhi has the feel of years of history all rolled into the present. In every glance my eyes take in the old and the new, the traditional and the western influenced contemporary. They see buildings built on buildings built on old ruins. They see burkhas, salwar kameez, kurta, jeans, leather jackets, lungi, dhoti, turbans, barefeet, richly adorned wrists, glittering gold, torn pants on a child. They see cycle rickshaws, scooters, old bicycles, men pushing long carts stacked to the sky with merchandise of some sort and women in sarees elegantly weaving through the organized chaos.

My nose smells gulab jamun and jalebis, mutton kebab, curried everything, tandoori roti, chai, chai and more chai! Delicious smells mixed with garbage festering in a puddle of water, the stink of which is fighting to overpower the stench of urine from a wall designated as the men’s urinal.

Cars are honking endlessly, busses are ploughing through the crowds, to my right the nearby mosque begins its call to prayer, the 4th of the day, and on the left the Hindu temple bells are ringing to attract attention of the gods to the ceremony. Cycle rickshaws are ringing bells while the drivers call out 'hello hello, side side' giving us pedestrians time to jump out of the way so they don't lose momentum with an unbearably heavy load of cargo or people being hauled behind them.

And I'm trying to walk through this, following Amit, Abhinandan and Irfan as we venture to the blanket district of Chandni Chowk, on a quest to purchase 200 blankets for homeless children who live in this area.
"Hurry Lauren, a little faster, even I don't know my way around this part of the city", says the ship navigator Abhinandan. When he's not at sea, he lives in Delhi and volunteers with Jamghat.

Squeezing between traffic, running to keep up with Amit on a mission, climbing up and over rickshaws because there's simply no other way to cross the road, we finally reach the blanket district, a street with thousands of people filling the street and dozens of blanket shops lining the sides. To get there we passed the tarp district, the car window district, the door district, the stationary district and the tent district.

I was amazed to watch the buying process. We entered the first blanket shop, with stacks of blankets lining the walls, the shelves and spilling onto the road side, and began looking at available items. Before I knew it, 7 different types of blankets were piled on the small counter, all being felt and checked for quality and warmth factor while the shopkeeper kept a constant explanation going about how each was the best possible choice and this was the price, but it could become this lower price if you buy this many etc etc.

After some group debate, we chose a style, and began to barter for 200 of them. The shopkeeper came down to 150 rupees/blanket but Amit wanted 120. He wouldn’t budge so just like that we walked out, leaving a pile of blankets to be sorted.
This is how it’s done! If the price is reasonable, the shopkeeper will usually call you back in saying, “okay possible”, at which point the deal is sealed.

This time however, there was no call back, so we continued the quest, door to door, walking for blocks, touching the stacks on the street, questioning shopkeepers until someone caught our attention with a good deal.

The final shop was tiny, and filled floor to ceiling with army style, woollen blankets. After a flurry of Hindi, we were all beckoned farther into the shop, which led us to a teeny tiny stairwell just wide enough for a large man’s shoulders. Up and up, twisting and turning, the staircase felt like it was built as an afterthought, and movedthrough any available space in the tall building. By the 5th flight we were guided into a large room haphazardly filled with thousands of blankets. The one we wanted was there in the quantity we desired, and so began the bartering.

Before I knew it we were marching down the stairs with Hindi angrily being thrown between the shopkeeper and Amit! No deal I thought, here we go again. We were part was down the stairs when the call-back echoed through the stairwell. Deal....

20 bundles of 10 blankets were thrown from the window down 5 stories to the road where workers quickly moved them out of traffic’s way and neatly stacked them on the side of the road. Soon another man with a long wonder push cart arrived and everyone started loading the bundles on board. For a mere 2dollars, that solo man would walk for an hour, pushing our blankets to their destination storage spot, through the crowds described.

For everyone I was with, this was a normal procedure. For me it was enthralling! I giggled to myself, marvelled at the process, the systems that I only know the surface of.

If I spent a few more days there, it might start to feel more normal. I’m always amazed at how quickly the absurd becomes the norm, like cows on highways or men making living by cleaning ears. But certainly this first visit, with our blanket mission, was a delight and thrill for my senses.

A Quarter Century!

2008-12-15T02:33:00.004-07:00

What an incredible birthday! 3 days of endless celebration, people in the house, sweets and treats and lots of musical beats!Dec. 6 we hosted a party with about 14 people. Guitars and drinks made the party last late into the night, with several people staying over. I love having an open home. I love waking up with a home full of people!
Dec. 7 One more was added to the bunch, Andres from Honduras came to couch surf. So 6 of us ate a delicious brunch together. More friends arrived and took Sunny and Andres to a fort somewhere in Delhi. I slept a glorious siesta until they came back and we cooked a stellar dinner.

That night, the clock struck 12 marking the start of my real bday day. Sunny walked in on cue with a candle lit chocolate cake singing happy birthday, while Andres (still on his first day in India) slept off the jet lag in the outside room.
Midnight cake! and so many thoughtful gifts! what a lucky girl!

10am the next morning, Maria, a Spanish friend living here until April as well, arrived with a cake she made for me! from midnight cake to breakfast cake, the sugar infusion had begun! what a wonderful way to start the day, full of friends and food.

We all took off for our respective jobs, Andres came with me to Jamghat where we met the website design team for a 2pm meeting. The kids had made several Bday cards for me, and each came and wished me happy birthday. Right then the other children ran in with more cake, Sunny, the secret creator of the surprise party, following close behind, and an impromptu party began, putting an end to any productive work that day! Quickly the kids decided it was a good idea to shove whole pieces of cake into Didi's mouth (that's me, didi means sister). So in a matter of 10 minutes i must have eaten about 5 squares of sickly sweet white cake, heaped with icing. the icing soon decorated the floor and our faces. The fun and giggles behind the chaos made the day extra special!To finish the bday, people invited themselves over that night as well. The whole group consisted of incredible musicians, and we sang the night away, in English, Hindi, Sufi and Spanish.Awesome.

Mixed in all this fun, were loving calls from afar, from those i think of daily and miss dearly.

So much love to you all! thanks for marking my quarter century with such thoughtful gestures!

Ins and Outs of Hindi

2008-12-15T02:31:00.001-07:00

wow, how did a whole month go by without me writing?
it's not that there's nothing to say, so much happens each day, it's just finding the time and the interesting things to write about. I"ll just write and see what comes out!

Jamghat has become entirely satisfying. I've been given so much responsibility and trust, i feel totally invested in it and love every minute. Everyday I go to the boys home, where 15 former street children live, and meet them, play games with them, work on the computer while they show me pictures they've painted. It's become a home away from home and I'm so attached to each of the boys now, I'm imagining a very teary goodbye in a few months!

These boys are my main Hindi influence. They don't speak much English at all so the necessity for me to learn Hindi is high. and it's coming, slowly slowly, dhire dhire.
The highlight of yesterday was that I carried out a conversation with Ali, all in Hindi! simple answers from my side, but i really understood what he was saying!

I think what has happened is that the children in Jamghat have learned my current vocabulary. So when they say something that i don't understand (evident from the blank look on my face and simple response "kya?", 'what?'), now they immediately slow down and use the words i know to explain their question to me. It's incredibly satisfying and our relationships are growing because of it.

so one interesting thing in Hindi: the word for yesterday and tomorrow is the same, "Kal". Do you think that affects people's concept of time? Sunny says no, because the verbs that go with the word are conjugated to imply past or future. So I suppose it doesn't make much difference to time perception, but i do enjoy the ESL mistake of confusing tomorrow and yesterday!
"You will go to home yesterday?" "Tomorrow was Sunday" :)

Another part of language and culture that i like here is that everyone is either didi (sister), bhaiya (brother), uncle or auntie. When I run down to the little corner store to grab 3 eggs (1 egg = 3 Rs, 1CAD=40Rs), uncle is there in his button up shirt, lungi (like a checkered sarong), and slip on plastic sandals, shyly and humbly selling small items each day.

Recently he has worked up the courage to ask me my country, "Madam, you country name is?" but looks away quickly after asking, seemingly nervous that his English isn't good enough.... "Canada, lekin abhi mera ghar India me, che mahina" (Canada, but now my home is in India, for 6 months), I respond with uncertainty, as my Hindi is much worse than his English!

When the language barriers remain, like with my cleaning woman, we find other ways to converse. Mostly we ramble in our respective languages and then laugh at the other person when they continue to stare blankly back! The maid started this, not me.

So the language is coming, and with this, more comfort in my surroundings. It's so satisfying to switch to simple Hindi with street vendors and see the surprised smile that comes over their face..."Oh madam! you Hindi speaking?!"

"Nahi bhaiya, sirf toda toda" (no brother, only a little)

Fun fun!

hugs

Today I helped a boy decide what day he was born

2008-11-14T03:09:00.006-07:00

Very rough estimates say there are between 100,000 - 400,000 street children in Delhi (children and youth under the age of 18 making a living on the streets without parental care). It's something people here have grown up with. At nearly every traffic light there are children begging for money. Some sell flowers or magazines, some drum a beat while their sister or brother does gymnastics on the pavement. It's everywhere. Some children are rented out to beggars for the day, to increase the sympathy and gain more money.
These are children with every capability of you and me, they simply don't have the support or opportunities to take part in society in a self sustaining way.
It's heart wrenching to think about and is at first heart wrenching to see. But the saddest thing of this whole issue is how quickly I've become desensitized to it. I can understand why the problem continues, because everyone is desensitized having seen it their whole lives.

Not quite everyone. There are a select few that devote their lives to these children, and it's these few that i'm getting to know by volunteering with a dedicated NGO.
JAMGHAT: a Group of Street Children, is a small organization that seeks to rehabilitate children on the streets. They approach this issue in 4 ways:

1. A Home for 15 boys where they receive shelter, food, clothing, education or vocational training (they choose their path through conversation and guidance), health care, counseling and a place to be a child in a safe community
2. A Day Shelter where 50 street children visit daily. Here they receive a meal, bathing facilities, counseling, health care, and space to be a child.
3. NightWalks are meant to sensitize the public to the realities of life on the streets.
4. Theatre is the means to create widespread awareness and to generate some funds. The actors are both college student volunteers and the street children, so it also serves to create memories and self confidence while giving a voice to those that have the experiences.

I've been given lots of responsibility while i'm here, which is an honor, feels like i can be useful, and is overwhelming. One task i'm working on with a couple others is to open a home for 10 street girls. Currently girls are only attending the outdoor project, there is no permanent home for them. So hopefully in just a few months, a few girls on the streets will have a place to be!

Most days i'm at the boys home, which is the office. They are so sweet! and so determined to teach me hindi. They range in age from 5-20, each with their own story. Most have run away from unfortunate or abusive homes. Before coming to Jamghat they were beggars on the streets. Several were addicted to drugs, some had limb threatening injuries that were treated immediately, all have emotional wounds and scars to cope with.

But it's not a sad place to be, not at all. The success stories of these boys are incredible. The boys choose to come to the Jamghat home, no one forces them. They decide, at the age of 6 or 15 or 10 to turn their lives around. And they do it. They break drug addictions, they go to school, they get training and jobs, they work through emotional damage with regular counseling, they play together and create trusting connections with each other as brothers, they smile and shine and many offer endless hugs. It feels like a healthy community.

I'm still new to it and only understand a fraction of what's going on, as it's all in hindi generally, but i'm getting into it and feeling happy about by role. The experiences are life changing.

Today I sat with an 18 year old boy named Anwar and helped him make a resume. We had to expand his experiences to make it fill the page - he's had a couple jobs, but no schooling at all. He has no contact info or references other than Amit, the founder of Jamghat. So we added in an objective, some hobbies, and other life experiences ...then we got to date of birth. i looked at him and he looked blankly back.
"When were you born?"
"I don't know"
"Well when do you want to be born?!"
"Ummmm December seems like a good month"
"Check, and on what day?"
"mmmm, maybe the 3rd?"

We now celebrate the birthday of Mohammed Anwar on December 3rd (1990)

love lauren

ps. google jamghat and you'll get lots of hits (from google india anyway)
or try this page jamghat.blogspot.com it hasn't been updated for awhile but you'll get a sense of the organization

One Week In

2008-11-02T08:34:00.002-07:00

i am getting partly settled here. it's taken awhile to get my sleeping on track and to get reacquainted with the Indian way. I was super reluctant to go out for the first few days. Wary of buying things, bartering with limited hindi etc.
now that i've been venturing out more, i've re-realized that i never have to go far to find the things i need! for instance, as i write this, there is a man walking down the street with his cart full of vegetables. i can't see him, but i know he's there because as he walks he shouts out what he's got for sale. all day he'll roam the neighbourhood. people know their veggie vendors and relationships are built. that's how i see it anyway.

i've been enjoying the old man who owns the little corner shop down the street. i learned that it's good and fine to call all older men, uncle and women, aunty. i love that about India; everyone is your brother or sister (the street kids i'm volunteering with all call me didi, sister), uncle or aunt. it's lovely. and makes this huge city a little more friendly feeling.

i've just started with an NGO called JAMGHAT. it's super small, which i like, and full of incredible, good hearted people. i've jumped in just as they are getting a play up and running for the next month. so i've met a lot of students who are volunteering as actors (incredible amateur actors, my god!) and i've started meeting some of the street boys, who are just lovely.
the day i arrived, one immediately took me by the hand and led me around introducing me to everyone! they are dedicated to teaching me hindi, so with any luck i'll be able to talk to them properly in a couple months. i hope!
Amit is the founder of JAMGHAT and he is wonderful. in our first meeting he told me of various projects he would love help with, one of them being to open a 24hour home for girls. there is a donor who has requested this and and has the money for rent and food, we just need to make it happen. so he offered that as a job for me. crazy. can you imagine giving that responsibility to someone you'd only known for a few minutes?!
exciting

so i'm just trying to figure all this out. and i think it will be good once i get into it a little more and feel like i have more of a role. i don't do well while floundering and finding purpose.

do keep in touch! post comments, they mean alot to me.

lots of hugs
lauren

Getting ready to go

2008-10-17T12:22:00.003-06:00

I'm off on the trail of living to the fullest again. In the way that I know how to do it anyway!
I have a place in Delhi, I have a couple NGOs that are happy to have me volunteer with them, I have people expecting me, i have more places to see ...but more on all that when i get there.
For now I'm saying goodbyes.
For now I'm packing.
For now I'm trying to live in the moment and Be Here.

I've had some questions about life and purpose and 'Right Choices' lately. It seems to me that an exorbitant number of young people in my generation are madly searching for meaning in their lives, myself included. We've got So Many Choices that we don't know where to begin. I begin by meeting people and trusting that my path will come from following my heart. Not an easy maneuver on the best of days!
I had expressed some of my own questions and concerns about this trip to a good friend, Carmen, at my goodbye dinner in Edmonton the other night. The next day she sent me a quote that puts the questioning to rest, or rather, makes the questioning Life Giving. The main purpose of this particular post is simply this quote, so read on, ponder and let me know where it sits for you.

Lots of love from me to you!

"...have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."

-- Rainer Maria Rilke

all over the map

2008-05-09T15:59:00.003-06:00

well i kind of fell off the blog wagon..so much has happened since I last wrote, i'm not even sure what to include now!
point form catch up: varanasi - Yamuna trip - amritsar -delhi - CANADA!

VARANASI
- ancient, narrow winding that are hard to walk down cuz they're so full of people and still scooters somehow get through
- many sets of stairs down to the Ganges (Ganga) River (called ghats) where people are bathing, praying, making offerings and burning bodies.
- yep burning bodies. at the burning ghats. fires have burned continuously for thousands of years, day and night cremating bodies. if you die in Varanasi you're freed from the cycle of rebirth. so it's a popular place to die.
- visited an amazing university and the hospital, where my travel partner was checked in with malaria...he recovered...but i had to leave him there while i took off for a scheduled group trip starting in Delhi

YAMUNA RIVER TRIP
the group trip was with an enviro organization called Swechha, based in Delhi. They do many amazing things, one being education on pollution of the Yamuna River.
Yamuna is as sacred as Ganga, and equally if not more so polluted once it goes through Delhi. In a short stretch, Delhi pumps out 80% of the total pollution of the whole river. They call it black Yamuna...and it's literally black with bubbles of methane burbling up. Delhi kills the river. There is no dissolved oxygen in it when it leaves...and there are many many millions of people downstream that rely on the river for survival. Unbelievable.
The trip was 12 days long. It started in Yamunotri ( origin of the river in the Himalayas) where the river is pristine and beautiful, and ended in Agra (Taj Mahal) where the river is severely polluted. We travelled in 3 cars (16 of us), stopping to camp beside Yamuna for a week through the mountains, visiting villages and religious sites that are all situated near or on the banks of the river, pairing up with a US circus troup that toured India for 6 months doing an environmental circus show in slums and small villages (DreamTimeCircus), and generally found a connection with the river that is impossible without spending time bathing in her and paying close attention to the relationship between landscape and human use and her ecological changes.
Quite incredible.
It's alot to describe in written form, but do ask questions if you're interested. or even good swechha...they do awesome work in Delhi.

AMRITSAR
This is where the Golden Temple is...the most important Sikh Temple in the World
- Met up with Dylan..to see his blond streaked, lungi wearing, ears pierced, moustache twirled self in fine standing!
- enjoyed the laid back, most welcoming of all people atmosphere of the golden temple
- ate in the langar - an enormous hall with endless quantities of food for anyone under the sun that wants a meal. it's the largest volunteer run service in all of India. Quite something to see! and tasty to eat!
- one night i went to eat and MR. Paul Singh appeared in front of me, as if he was expecting me, and proceeded to show me around the whole temple grounds. He took me to a small Sikh ashram (him barefoot, me in his sandals...he'd have it no other way) for another meal, and there an incredible woman revealed the beauty of Sikhism to me over about an hour. Her passion and devotion was so inspiring....the whole experience answered questions I'd been having and prompted new thoughts about how to act in the world.
Everything happens right when I need it to.

DELHI
I ended up here for a long time because I made a few friends on the Yamuna trip that I wanted to spend time with. One of them being extra special and worthy of me returning to India in September to spend more time with him! Following my heart. And it feels great!
So I'm looking into volunteer options in Delhi and all kinds of opportunities are popping up.
I'm devoted to living an exciting life ans making it into exactly what i hope for it to be! No 'givens' or 'shoulds'. That's where I'm at. To make every day full of learning, loving, and truly living to the fullest.
This decision feels like the best way I can live to the fullest. It feels Right. and that's exciting!

CANADA
I"m home now!
Arrived in Calgary to the warm hugging arms of mom, dad and grandma, on the 19th of April.
SPent time with family in that city..headed up to Edmonton to catch up with friends for a few days, then moved out to Dinosaur Provincial Park (near Brooks Alberta) where i'll be living and working for the next 4 months. It's an awesome job...guiding people through the badlands, pointing out amazing plants and dinosaur fossils!
Since being home I rid myself of: lice, Delhi belly, parasites, and a canadian cold i caught on arrival. Still have to deal with the cavity i created ...i think on indian sugar chai.

Ahhh the joys of travel.

Dylan and I figured out that in 3 days we landed in 5 countries and spent enough time in each to eat a emal and drink the water...so it's no wonder the ol' body was a bit confused once i got home. (from India - Bangkok for 2 days where i played with dear cousin Teyana. Then up to Korea for 8 hour layover where we had time to meet 2 friends teaching english, take public transit, eat kimchi, and get back on the plane. Next to Seattle for a couple hours, and finally Calgary.)

So i'm quite settled back into Canadian routines. It took awhile to want any food other than daal, roti and curd...but i'm regaiing an appetite..mostly for sweets unfortunate for my health!

happy and healthy and hopeful to hear from you when ever you get a chance!

Thanks for following my travels. it meant alot to know you were thinking of me and with me in some way.

Be well and try to have a little dance in the streets now and again, it really livens up the day!

Lauren

Correction

2008-03-12T01:49:00.002-06:00

Wow, this place is phenomenal.
Kutchi people are just incredible.
So giving and so warm.
Last night I ended up in village 2 hours from my hotel at 6pm. The sun was about to set and I would be driving alone on a moped through the desert. NOt ideal.
This was all discovered while sitting in the home Sufiya, a Mutwa woman, drinking chai. Her brother (english name is Aladdin) came in and learned of the predicament and started offering options...i was most welcome to stay there of course, or he would ride with me and come back that same night in his brothers car.
I opted for option 2 and we off into the desert. Me driving, Aladdin on the back.
As darkness fell, the wind started and a good ol desert sand storm whipped sand into our faces. Fat rain sporadically splatted down..at which point Aladdin stopped predicting what turns in the road would holdfor wind and weather because this was too unusual. Rain doesn't start until June here.
Needless to say I was sure glad not to be alone.
It was safe enough. Though there was lightening in the far distance, Aladdin was singing Kutchi folk songs into the night, so it eased all worries and made for a mystical, memorable night!

The wedding was also memorable. I was taken under the care of several rabari women for the whole night. WHOLE NIGHT> the wedding didn't start until about 11pm, then continued for many hours into the night. I was taken to a bed at one point...and gratefully took the chance to sleep a few hours.
I learned chapati rolling and had hindi/gujarati/kutchi lessons from a young girl who would tell me the name of my simply drawn picture..tree, flower, foot, house etc.
in the morning i was woken up by Vanka Rabari, the man that invited me, so I could watch the goodbye. After a night of ceremony in the woman's village, it was time for everyone she grew up with to say goodbye before she was taken with the men to her new husband's village where she will start a new life in his mother's home.
seems difficult to me.
and apparently for her too as the goodbye consisted of women singing constantly, I think verbal support for the bride who was hidden under a thiick black shawl the entire night, and the bride wailing in sadness as one by one her village said goodbye. Many women were crying also.
Not the 'happiest night of on'es life' like we hope for at home eh?

The correction I wanted to make from my last entry is about the rabari being nomadic. SOme are, but they are to the east of here...noted by men wearing all white, white turbans too , and women wearing all balck. Thesee rabari are settled in villages. The men wear white clothes but dark turbans (red for weddings). The women have elaborate embroidered tops and more colorful shawls over their black embroidered skirts.

Many memoreis from amazing Kutch. I must come back some day. But for now, onwards to Varanasi!

Avjo,
Lauren

There are No Doors in India

2008-03-10T01:09:00.002-06:00

What an open, generous country this is. I realized the other day that there really are no doors in india. all the shops are open to the street closign only at night when a garage door comes down to lock them. If there is a door it's usually propped open (unless they have AC). Many guest houses have doors (of course) but often the windows don't have glass so it's all fresh air, or I sleep with the door open because it's just too hot.
so it feels like there are no doors.
no barriers.
everywhere and everyone open and welcoming.
Now i'm in bhuj, Gujarat, where this generosity has been multplied 3fold. I'm meeting the most hospitable people in all of india i'm sure. the owner of the hotel/restaurant i'm in (annapurna) named Vinod, is overwhelmingly giving. the first day i ate there i asked him some questions about travelling into the desert and meeting some villages etc. he gave me so much info and offered to lend me his moped within 5 minutes of talking. then he gave me a ride to his home where his family gave me tea and biscuits, lent me the moped so i could take myself to the police and get a village permit, came back an he took out the car and took me and his family to a neighbouring village where they sell handicrafts and embroidery. it's livelihood around here and quite a few fair trade projects exist...you MUST get in touch with these groups. the embroidery is exquisite and High Quality.
so that's the hospitality of Vinod. everyone at his hotel has been taking such good care of me, like family. amazing. today he lent me his moped again for the day saying i'm like family, like his child!
last night we were talking about shops and costs etc. and he mentioned how 1000Rs is alot for him (about 30 dollars), i said yes for me too while travelling. i have a tight budget!
immediately he said, if you have money troubles please tell me, i can lend you money and you send it to me from canada whenever you can. no problem.
wow my heart swelled with appreciation for this man.
Vinod starts working in his restaurant at 7-9am and stays until closing at 11pm with one rest in teh day sometime when he goes to eat his wife's cooking and visit a bit.
i said, you must be tired Vinod! you work so hard! to which he replied quite seriously, it is hard work here because times are tough. my daughter requires medication every day costing 3000Rs per month., his wife had thyroid trouble. After the earthquake of 2001 (that flattened many villages around Bhuj and caused immense destruction in the city as well, killing upwards of 25 000 in all of Kutch area), they lost so much and had been recovering , as have many others, since then.
so he tells me this, how 1000rs is alot, how he must spend 3000 every month to keep his disabled daughter functioning, and then offers o lend me money while giving me a moped for the entirety of my stay.
this is generosity like none other i've experienced. such a kind man.

today i will be attending a rabari wedding. rabari are nomadic people that move with their herds of goat and sheep through the Great Rann desert/ salt flats. some have settled into villages now, but it's quite an honor to go to this wedding because where they happen depends on where the peopl are. and often weddings for many happen all one day, the birthday of Lord Krishna. It's becasue of Vinod taking me to that handicraft village that this invitation happened. So my thanks again to him.

EVeryone is helpful, everyone offers their mobile number in case i need some help ever. Many will leave what their doing and walk me to the place i'm asking directions for...no fear of strangers, no barriers, no doors.

This is truly a special place!

Get in the River!

2008-03-05T02:58:00.000-07:00

I’m in and out of the flow you know.
When I’m in the flow, guided by the river, supported by the water, swimming with the fishies that nibble the dead skin off my toes...everything works so beautifully I can't even understand it.
When I get impatient and fight the way things are moving, the frustration escalates, nothing works, I wait forever for nothing to happen, I feel alone and annoyed.
So get back in the river!
That’s what I keep telling myself.

The other day I was walking through the streets of Bangalore singing to myself. I was singing part of a chant that Fede the Argentinean from Sadhana taught me. When he sings it, eyes closed, beautiful voice, by the 4 and final line a peaceful contented smile comes over his face before he swings back to the beginning of the song.
Now I feel that contentment when I sing it...because it's beautiful and because it has so many memories attached…people who sing it, places we sang it….
So I was singing to myself and feeling utter peace and happiness. Singing keeps an incredible lightness in each step. Feels like a ball of positive light around me.
‘Madam, what do you want?’
‘I want to be happy! Mai kush hu!’
‘Oh wonderful madam! Hindi speaking!’
‘no no, tota tota!’
Such a pleasing interaction. SO uplifting. Break through the selling relationship. Their faces both went SO Bright! Eyes came alive... bursting out of the mundane.
Everyday this must happen. All The Time!
Don’t answer with the expected.
Don’t ask the expected. Cut to the core.
What else is there? What else is important?
Perhaps I will go home and meet friends again for the first time. What do you dream about? What do you long for? What makes you happy?
How awesome to ask, What makes you happy friend? And Really want to know the answer!

I think without realizing it I’ve been finding myself every day on this trip. On a search for truth and happiness…I’m finding it.

Always learning. Always teaching. All of us.
Everyone is a student and everyone is a teacher. Every ‘social position’. Every age. Every religion. Every person.
And that feels incredibly satisfying to breathe every day.

After the singing walk I sat in the train station with Assaf bubbling about the experience. Listening to his walk and his thoughts (we had separated for an hour or so). Learning and teaching.
I got up to go to the train and a woman radiantly called me over by the name Ranjeeta. It took me a few minutes of broken English/Hindi to understand that she was giving me an India name, beaming smiles the whole time. Ranjeeta means smiling face, she said. Or open flower.
Wow. What a treasure moment.

What I put out into the world I get back. Actions are asking the universe for reaction and answers. Exude positive light and I too will be bathed in it.

I still find frustrations and extreme challenges of patience. But it’s all part of the experience. And so far, there has always been someone special to whisk me out of the heavy mood, back to the newly appreciated light mood!

Get in the river. It’s such a great way to live!
Open
Trusting
Ready to find a lesson in every teacher around you
And confident, trusting that you are a teacher too.

So much love
Lauren

"May there always be forests to grow people!"

2008-02-16T04:08:00.003-07:00

I've settled into a comfortable community life in a place called Sadhana FOrest where I'm wwoofing for 2-3weeks. here are 50 volunteers here and everyone an inspiring, musical, intentional, wonderful human being!
the project here is located outside Pondicherry, part of a village called AUroville. Auroville is an international community, kind of an experiment started in the 60s by a woman referred to as the Mother. It's a strange place, i'm not yet sure how i feel about it (2thirds foreigners, 1third indian). But the forest is exactly what i wanted!
\this area once had a tropical dry evergreen forest covering it. The forest was important for local medicines, sustenance, and preventing erosion (soil with lots of roots is held together beautifully in strong rains). WHen the British came, they clear cut the area and started cash crops like cashews. trees gone, roots gone = monsoon rains start to erode the topsoil making it difficult to grow anything (like cashews) and thus many pesticides started to be used. Furthermore,all the water from the monsoons started to runoff directly into the ocean, making this already dry place even drier and threatening the water source.
4 years ago Aviram and Yorit started to fulfill their dream here. THere was not a single tree except for the 3 that were left standing around an old temple (the british realized that if they cut the temple trees they'd really have a riot on hand). Now I write to you from 70Km2 of beautiful native forest trees4 years ago there was not a single bird to be heard, now they counted 25 species in the last bird count!
another major part of the project is water conservation. so our work right now (in the non monsoon season) is going to the forest to dig holes that catch monsoon rains and allow the rain to sink into the depleted water table. we use the dug up soil to build 'bunds' or small walls that help contain the water as well and guide it to the holes. In just 4 years they have raised the water table 6 meters!
this is seen very positively by the local villagers who can now access water through wells again.
Aviram and Yorit believe strongly in maintaining friendships and involvement in the local community. they go to to every wedding they are invited to, they get local children to help plant trees and take care of them, adding a sense of responsibility in the larger community.
there are no fences anywhere and in this way it is everyone's land and for everyone to use and enjoy.
so i'm quite pleased to learn from this incredible Israeli couple
another positive experience is that after just 5 days in this community, Yorit gave birth to their second daughter! it really brought everyone together as we sang and felt an incredible energy vibrate in the air all around us.
so it has been especially fulfilling. Aviram, Yorit, Osher and new Shalev are certainly enhancing the growth of amazing people in this forest.
i hope to do a radio feature on them when i'm home. They have no income and are always open to donations to keep the place growing and comfortable. Aviram says with his next donation they will build a grass roof on the kitchen hut. This roof will last for 22 years, it's completely sustainable and made from all native plants in the area. Some of the huts already have this type of roof (the rest are banana leaves woven together), but it takes several a hundred dollars to fund it.
So i'm thinking of ways to fund raise a bit for them when i get home. But i'm realizing that right now might be an opportunity to ask if anyone has a few dollars to spare. If yes, please email me with the amount and I will donate it before I leave, and hope that your amount will get to my bank account somehow!
i am leaving in 3 days i think, so please act fast!
\there is no obligation to donate, i think it's most valuable that you simply know incredible projects are happening in the world.
Be inspired,
act local,
think global
and challenge yourself to a bucket shower (when it gets a little warmer!) to see how much water you can save.

lots of love from the forest
Lauren

Backtrack- A few from the beach

2008-01-31T23:32:00.000-07:00

I'm battling the computer to get some photos online to share with everyone...so here are just a few more. These ones were taken in the state of Orissa, mostly in Puri where Dylan and I spent New Years. It was really a nice break! We met up with some Kolkata friends for a few days, made friends with some young fishers and even found some macaroni and cheese! How exciting that was!
This is the 'Empty Beach'as it's called. At first it seemed beautiful and wonderful, but aftera few days of roaming around, the garbage became more apparent and the feces (dog and human) definetly took away form the environment. These became particularly noticeable after a dead turtle (caught in the big industry fishing nets {from the big cities, not so much the local fishers}) washed up on shore beside us.
Nonetheless, it was a nice place to get away from the crowds for some sun and swimming!
Sideways, sorry! This is how we brought in the new year! Dancing on the street of Puri with about 20 young men! It was hilarious and so much fun! Indian men really have some incredible dance moves!

At another section of the beach I sat alone and watched people for awhile. This man was selling chapati with a dal or something veggie like and delicious, and samosas.
From Puriu we rented a scooter and scooted over to Konark for the day. Konrak is home to the Sun Temple, a World Heritage Site . DIP enjoyed it too...had to!

ANd one of the main reasons we ended up going south to Orissa from Kolkata was to visit a dinosaur museum in Bhubaneswar! not quite what we were expecting, more of a physics and math science centre, but there certainly was a giant T-Rex model!

I've run out of patience for uploads, but I have some delightful photos form the ashrams i just spent 2 weeks at. They'll be up next I hope!

hugs and more hugs
lauren

ashram amazements

2008-01-17T02:09:00.000-07:00

am learning so much with every conversation in this community i've found.
Ashrams
i suppose it could be called an intentional spiritual community. something like a monastery. many of them following a different schedule and philosophy.
I am in the middle of India moving between Gandhi's Ashram in Sevagram, and Vinoba Bhave's Ashram in Paunar. Both incredible places full of amazing people.
I first went to the Vinoba Ashram in Paunar. It is run by 30 women who practice rural sustainability, non-violence, daily prayer, and a consensus community. Following the philosophy of Vinoba Bhave.
Vinoba was a brilliant man who is known for starting the Bhoodan Movement. Bhoo means Land, dan means gift. the Land-Gift Movement.
He walked all of India for 14 years asking rich people to give a sixth of their land to the poor. In total he, along with many others who walked with him, got 4.5million acres of land donated. THis benefitted 1.5 million poor families.
It's amazing to be at the ashram and meet women (and one man) who walked with Vinoba for 7, 10, 13 years,
It's humbling.
Here are some journal thoughts after conversations with various sisters:

*After dinner Sheila took me to talk and watch the sun set over the river where Vinoba was cremated. Wise woman.
Letting og of the ego, Seeing self as part of god. she described bowls of water reflecting the moon. we are the bowls reflecting god..but no so much reflecting as beaing part of god. i like the imagery of Self as bowl of water holding and reflecting that which draws near.
Our outer body is not us. This hair, fancy glasses, eyes, even ideas and thoughts are the the true me. When looking in a mirror to see the reflection it might be dirty and we must wipe it cean to see properly., The mind is like this (the mind being true self). we must wash it clean to properly see ourselves. How? By letting go of the physical that shadows sight. By being in direct communication with god, which means with yourself, as we are all part of this god and god is part of us.
And get rid of the ego.
Thoughts and ideas change. Must find the person beneath all that. Who am I if not defned by my values and thoughts? Where else do I look?

*We are all one with each other and with everything around us. Because ultimately when we're put in the ground the same thing happens to all of us. We are part of the same cell they say. An imporatnt philosophy for respecting our impact in the world.

*When one bends to touch the feet of their guru or god, it is an ext of removing the ego.

* I am enjoying having routine and a discipline to follow. Christianity certainly encourages one to be a better person, love they neighbour as yourself etc. but it doesn't instruct clearly on how to deepen personal awareness. No intention in action. No routine or practice. (not in my christiantiy anyway).
Laws and rules governing what you eat -I used to think them to be overly strict and depriving ones enjoyment in life. But now I see that they put intention in every part of your day. It alerts your belief system everytime you 're hungry or see food. It teaches control. THe ability to say no. Mastering the mind.

*The Gita describes 7 powers immanent in women:
Kirti - honour
Shri - fortune
Vak - speech
Smriti - recollection
Madha - prudence
Dhriti - firmness
kshama- forgiveness

* AFter speaking with Gautam, a brother
Science is material. Science for the sake of science has no directio. it cannot determine righ from wrong. Good from bad. THis is thus potentially dangerous. It needs to be paired with spirituality to give direction. It's like an auto. The accelerator without a steering wheel is dangerous. Science is the accelerator. Spirituality the steering wheel.

Those are some thoughts from the first cuople days.
It's long, so i'll write other learnings later.

Breath with intention and think about where your food comes from. Who grew it? who made it? how far did it travel? is it worth it?

lots of love
lauren

Delhi Belly

2008-01-12T05:12:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it's important to delay travel plans when there is a new relationship to pursue. That's the beauty of living in the moment, and travelling without a set itinerary.

I wish this new relationship was as romantic as I would imagine it to be upon reading that sentence..unfortunately it is a relationship with the squat toilet like I have yet experienced on this trip. Suffice to say it is sure nice to have a travel companion who graciously seeks water and crackers and abandons his own plans to stay an extra day in Raipur keeping a weak stomached Lauren company. Thank you Hayden!

Raipur is a bustling little city in the state of Chhattisgarh, same state as the last town of Jagdalpur. It is an area that seldom sees foreign travellers we have discovered. Apparently Jagdalpur had only 200 of us in the whole 2007 year! For this reason everyone is extremely friendly, that is if they can bring themselves to talk to us. As our young friend on the bus ride (another Santos) said, most are too shy to try their english on us because they never get a chance to use it here! So they are either too shy or simply stunned by us walking by and not sure how to react. Those that do approach us have been nothing but helpful and hospitable...eager to ask questions and answer any of ours. Santos spoke about the mysteries of the caste system here, marriage, relationships between muslims and Hindus, different laws for each and much more. very interesting.
The typical questions asked of us are: hello what is your name? from what country to you belong? you are married? no? when will you be married? (usually i'm with a male traveller)
not everyone asks these questions, but of those that are asking, these commonly come up.

And the english used by many is so delightful! A man in a Kolkata market had a stream of smiling, smile inducing sentences during his attempted sale interaction ..."oh but madam it would be my pleasure for you to buy this kulta"..."no this is not just pink, this is dirty rose and it is most becoming on you".
The woman's voice on the train station intercom was equally polite when announcing a delayed train.."The inconvenience caused is deeply regretted". These are a few examples, but they are everywhere everyday.

Tomorrow, assuming sound bowels, I"m headed to an ashram that is focused on rural sustainability and run by about 33 women. Then, perhaps, I will actually be going south, as I've been meaning to do for a month now!

Cheeriloo!

Welcome 2008!!

2008-01-09T23:21:00.000-07:00

9 days relaxing on the eastern coast of India, state of Orissa, city called Puri.
FRESH fish and crab
pasta! toast and jam...some home delights
fires on the beach
dancing in the streets
being dragged into the water by Appana, a hilarious young guy from the fishers village
cows meandering past our hotel door
puppies eating a dead cat (mmmm)
the Sun Temple in Konark and a scooter ride to get there
a monkey that pinched my bum!

some initial memories from Puri

Dylan and I got to Puri on the 31st with just enough time to lie in the sun, eat some muesli with fresh curd honey and fruit, nap and get ready to bring in the New Year.
It was quite a memorable night...mostly spent wandering the streets looking for other people who all seemed to have found the party to be at but were keeping it a secret from us! so we ended up making fun wherever we ended up...which is always the best way!
the night was basically spent between the beach having a few beer around a fire, eating delicious thali in the middle of the night, and dancing in the street at the stroke of 12 with about 20 young guys!
Wow can Indian men dance! their hips move like no woman's hips i've ever seen! and there is nothing funnier than when Dylan tries to imitate this! It was a hilarious, wonderful time because no one was paying extra attention to me or Katie (the only females), everyone was just dancing with everyone. and it was awesome

Puri is an interesting place of mixed people. There are a few foreign tourists who all stick to one area of town. Here there are many 'western catered' restaurants and shops of beach clothes. There are many Indian tourists who mostly stick to a different part of ton with more fancy hotels. then there are the Hindu pilgrims that stay together, coming here to worship Lord Jagarnath and an elaborate temple that I wasn't allowed in. Then there are the locals of Puri and the fishermen from the fishers village...which is in Puri but quite separate.

Our part of town was a place to be comfortable and recharge. where everything is easy...internet, food, english, transportation, meeting people. compared to where I am now it was a breeze (more on now in a minute).
It was a fun place to be because we had friends to meet up with everyday. Local Puri guys and local fishermen. The fishermen (Santos, Appana, Sam) were quite remarkable. SO much energy, joking with us all the time, buying us chai and coconuts, making fires on the beach for us with burning material that seemed to appear out of nowhere (Sam would disappear into the darkness towards town and return dragging half a tree, someones roof [i'm pretty sure] and a bamboo pole), taking us through their village to the 'empty beach' where we could swim without dozens of watching eyes, and inviting us to their home to have a real dinner....with the freshest fish possible in Puri. Endless hospitality. and they never asked for money, they just called us friends.
good memories.

Now Dylan and I have split up for a bit. He's gone north and I've ended up south west of Puri in a town called Jagdalpur, in the state of Chattisgarh. I came here with Hayden of Switzerland who is on his way to Mumbai. A smiling, cheery, delightful guy who is easy to talk to and much appreciated company for this next leg of the journey. Helps with the Dylan withdrawal!!
Things are much different here than 'easy to live in' Puri. It took 24 hours to get here on 2 trains where our train car was either not where it should be in the train order and thus difficult to find or it just didn't exist and we chose a seat a random.
in the town there are dozens of hotels but all of them are instantly full when they see us glowing white and foreign. apparently some places aren't allowed to have foreign guests. after about an hour of walking in circles through town we found a place way out of our budget...but the only option!
today we set out to check emails and got sent down nearly every street, backtracking, turning left right left -back again- round the round about- into a computer shop- out with a map- in circles...for 40 minutes! everyone seems to have a different idea of directions. but we found it and soon will start the food finding adventure...then hopefully to a market and an anthropological museum. This area has many 'tribal people' or adivasi who (we're told) are at the markets and are written about in the museum.
It's funny to have such an interest in these 'minority people'. Many places offer 'Tribal Tours' where you go for 5 days or so and visit different groups. I have an instant, strong aversion to this. I can't bear the image of sitting in a rich 'pod' (tour bus) and pulling into a little village, filing off the bus and looking at people. For what purpose? and to whose benefit?
I am curious, absolutely, for whatever reason...but i'd rather be invited to join a family by the family and learn that way. Still i wonder why i'd want to, but do..
or apparently i don't mind learning from a museum..which hopefully uses present tense at least and doesn't freeze people into a lifestyle of what we expect from 'tribal people'. we'll see.

Otherwise people seem very friendly (A guy Hayden met on the train walked everywhere with us last night helping on the hotel hunt, just to be nice!) and, as usual, eager to talk to us. There is less english here which makes our tasks that much more fun to achieve! but all in all is a good place to stop over as i head south towards Pondicherry slowly but surely.

Seems like I had a whole bunch of thoughts and learnings to write about a few days ago but they've already been absorbed and feel normal now, so I can't remember!

2 months of 6 down, a birthday, a new year done, many more languages to learn and people to meet...the trek continues

Lauren

Colour and sights delight in India!

2007-12-30T01:14:00.000-07:00

I find it easier to post photos on facebook and then send the site to everyone, but here are a few to fancy up the blog! Some sights from the past couple weeks, since we landed in Kolkata on Dec.6th. They are somewhat out of order, but I think the descriptions handle it.
Tomorrow we head south to Puri to find a beach for New Years! More stories to come...
Enjoy!
From Kolkata we went way north to the state of Sikkim...capital is Gangtok. Walking distance from Gangtok we found a Zoological park where this Snow Leopard was living. Its basically a zoo with large enclosures instead of small cages. I still have qualms about it, but it was quite exciting to be nose to nose with a snow leopard!

In Gangtok we stayed with a Nepalese woman who spoiled us endlessly! Here she served us a traditional Sikkimese drink called 'tongba'. it's made with fermented millet that you pour hot water over and keep refilling until the flavour is gone. It's a drink that keeps on giving! Tastes quite a bit like Sake. Fun to have it served in a large wooden 'mug' with bamboo straws!

From Gangtok we took a day trip to Tsongu Lake. It's 2 hours of wise roads, weaving up and down the Himalayas. Wise roads? Roadside signs in the area spout such wisdom as, "If you drive like hell you will get there" ..."Life is short, don't make it shorter"..."If married, divorce speed"..."BRO can build highways anywhere but the sky (BRO=Border Route Organization)".."Ever wonder who defies death to build your roads. BRO, roads for the nation". TO go with the signs, taxis and 'goods carriers' have mudflaps with such as, "Horn Please"..."Just Wait"..."Good Luck", and on the windshield of one my favorite, "So far so good".

Dylan, conqueror of all he surveys...those are his dreaming words...
This is beside Tsongu Lake...unfortunately I have neglected to post a photo of the lake itself, and now I'm out of time ...so imagine a glacier lake in the rockies with yaks, momos (veggie dumplings), and stalls selling everything with tea all along one side of the lake. Chowk Market in Kolkata

The view from our 'home' in Kolkata

Out of order! Now we're back up north in 'the hills'. We were in Darjeeling before Gangtok (above) where this photo was taken. As of March 2007 there are no more plastic bags used in the city. The state just north, Sikkim, was the first state in India to ban plastic...as of the late 90s. Catch up Canada!

From Tiger Hill in Darjeeling, we watched the sunrise, slowly illuminating the Himalayan valleys, coloured with Tibetan prayer flags....

...and then highlighting the peaks of Kanchendzonga, the third highest peak in the world. from this view point we could see the tiny tip of Mt. Everest out of the picture to the left. In the foreground is Darjeeling, clinging to the hillside.

Prayer Flags
So colourful! Catching the windiest spots, they constantly send off prayers.

There's a little photo journey as an appetizer. The meal is coming sooooon

Happy new year everyone! I hope friends, silence, laughter, and reflection find you in the next few days and start a new year just like it needs to start.

Much much love
lauren

Christmas in the Himalayas!

2007-12-23T01:19:00.000-07:00

We have ventured north from Kolkata to a cold but beautiful land. Nestled between Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet (formerly), China and North Bengal (Darjeeling area), the state of Sikkim is culturally diverse and astoundingly beautiful with it's Himalayan scenery.
the original people here were the Lepchas, who refer to themselves as the Rongpas (ravine dwellers). Now they are the minority and have the middle of this state reserved for them and only them.
The next to come were the Bhutia's, from Tibet, and finally the Nepalese, following the British much late on. Now about 80% of the population are Nepali (typically Hindu), while the Bhutias and Rongpas are Buddhist, though the Rongpas incorporate animism into their belief system (their original religion).
On top of these 3, there are many combinations and sub sects that pose a religious mix like nowhere else! and yet it remains a peaceful, agreeable place.
Incredibly peaceful.
We are staying with a woman named Primula and she has taught us much about the ways of Nepali people here...religiously-both Hindu (her birth religion) and Buddhism (she married into it), and delectably-cooking many foods found only in Sikkim, or only for festivals [Sikkimese New Years just ended, called Losoong]).
All of this is perfectly satisfying to moi, who not only loves food, but devoted 4 years to the study of cultural anthropology!
The capital of Sikkim is Gangtok, where we're staying, and from here we have visited the Rumtek Monastery (of the Mahayana branch of Buddhism, seat of the 17th Karmapa, important place), Ganesh Tok (beautiful view), a zoological park (Himalayan snow leopard, common leopard, civet, red panda [in the raccoon family], Himalayan black bear and Himalayan wolves), and the Nagyal Institute of Tibetology (houses some of the most sacred texts and ceremonial objects of Buddhism).
At the Rumtek Monastery we walked up just in time to witness a ceremony...perhaps following the death of someone according to Primula. It was quite something. knowing nothing about what was going on, we could only watch and listen in delighted silence.
We went right into the main building after this and felt quite out of place as monks draped in red proceeded to put everything away. It was fun to see little monks running around the legs of taller ones, chasing each other with the drum 'sticks', giggling and laughing and smiling at us as we timidly walked by.
Even when we're doing 'nothing' over here, I'm still learning tons everyday.
I long for that when I'm at home.
I learned today (for instance) that Bodhi day, the day f Buddha's enlightenment, is celebrated on December 8th, my birthday!
Seems I celebrated my 24th year in the right country.
About the birthday, an all around satisfying day in Kolkata: Went to a planetarium and had a wonderful nap beneath the starry night sky! (it was just so dark and quiet and comfortable with a soothing voice lulling us for half an hour!), walked through the Maidan - one of my favorite places in the city... a huge HUGE open field where everything is happening, from horse rides, to father and son flying kites, to food sales, to reading, to walking, to goats grazing. Wonderful! Then we met our host Biplob at a cafe, waited for Katie, another traveller staying with him, and his friend Aloo. then mosied over to the nicest restaurant I'd yet been to in India. Delicious veggie sizzler was the meal, with a Tom Collins to drink! Our local guys then took us to a fancy bar to see a live rock band (have toured Europe and NA I believe) and by 2am we were ready for bed!
In words it sounds quite regular, but in real life, everything was somewhat surreal, as we 'discovered' what was around each corner.
Oh and Dylan and I got our new glasses that day! Glasses, with lenses for 5 dollars. A reasonable birthday gift to myself I'd say!
On the way to Sikkim we stopped in Darjeeling for tea and warm clothes. as a note.

Now we're preparing for Christmas in Gangtok most likely, or perhaps Pelling where there is apparently a festival of music, crafts, food, art etc. Wherever we are, we'll be bathing in sunlight, wrapped in wool shawls, gazing at the third highest peak in the world, and thoroughly missing family and friends.

here are my latest thoughts... I just started a book called 'Sadhana, the spiritual way" by Swami Krishnananda. Sadhana means 'spiritual practice' the word in sanskrit means 'an effort exercised towards the achievment of a purpose'. Thus basically every effort is sadhana, because it leads to the achievment of some goal. Krishnananda asks this "here in the context of what is known as spiritual sadhana, what is it that we are aiming at? What do you want finally? If the goal is not clear, any means adopted to the goal will fall flat, like a huge structure raised ona weak fonudation. Let each one of you put a question to your own self, "what am I seeking in the end?"
The book continues to guide thought through questions. BUt what a starting point! those words are from the first 2 paragraphs.
What it spurred in me was this (from my journal):
"In life I seek connection. WIth people. WIth the cycle. I want to learn of coenctions between plants and bugs. between humans and fungi. between spirit and physical. between cultures and countries. between friends and strangers."
it's vague, but I suppose it's the blessing on the the ground where the foundation will be built. A starting point.

So that's me lately. Take these words and ponder. Find time to ponder. As Primula told us over breakfast today, the Sikkimese know how to enjoy life. Even in government jobs, when the work day is 10-4, people show up at 11, take a 2 hour lunch break from 1-3 and usually no one is there from 3-4! But everything still gets done. and they've enjoyed connection of conversation with friends throughout the day. They've enjoyed family and practiced devotion. They've soaked in the sun and cultivated a relaxed, peaceful, shining self. That's how it seems, and that's how I've experienced people.

Enjoy the holiday season, full of family, friends, and a break from the rush!
So much love and bushels of hugs!
lauren

So many people, such loud horns! Hello India!

2007-12-06T06:47:00.000-07:00

Kolcata, India
We arrived today. WOW! It has been such an adventure just getting off the plane to this internet cafe, i'm overwhelmed by it all...i think!
i'm not sure what i am, i just can't stop giggling and laughing! Seems to be the response to all this. Not a bad response eh?
Right now i'm sitting in this internet cafe, paying under 50cents an hour, full of delicious vegetarian food from a punjab restaurant - garlic naan, dal with vegetable, rice, salty lassi (yogurt drink), black tea, and large bottle water = ~2CAD, face sticky with pollution grime, key in my pocket to a guesthouse that is currently lit by candles, a piercing horn blasting literally every 6 seconds (sometimes it actually seems like a cartoon world of horn competitions, "meep" "Bleep" "oh ya? meep meep" "BLEEEEEP" "meep meep meeeeeep"), and a delightful guy next to me that laughs as much as i do right now...i told him it was -20C at home today and he wide eyed responded, "whoa minus 20, you will all look like..oh how is it?..that (arms held out wide during this)...{hindi hindi hindi}...snowman! you will all look like snowmen walking around! no good for here!" (apply delightful indian accent).

and this giggle in my chest just keeps on buzzing within!

There are so many people here! everything is happening out on the street...cooking, selling, construction, sleeping, living, washing, brushing, feeding, watching, sitting, cleaning, peeing...i'd never seen an outdoor public area urinal before, just a 3 wall cubicle with 2 foot pads and the ground between to pee on. everything is out in the open here.
people don't seem to smile unless necessary either, but it doesn't seem at all rude..it's just how it is. no false fronts. smile when you want. Kind of refreshing really!

Our entry into the country, while adventurous and perhaps overwhelming (in a good way..i was in fact looking forward to the shock!), has been absolutely splendid overall, as several people have gone well out of their way to help us. Much like my trip to Turkey 3 years ago, I feel carried around by people and cared for. As though everyone is looking out for me until I figure out this foreign system.
One man helped us figure out the public bus, fresh from the airport. He got on with us and told us many helpful hints...i started to wonder if he would asked to be paid, but he soon said, "okay good luck and enjoy my beautiful India! this is my stop, goodbye".
Right after he left, our bench sitting neighbour piped up and, speaking excellent english, answered all kinds of questions, taught us 'thank you, yes, and no', told us good food to eat etc. then gave us his phone number and invited us for dinner on sunday, his one day off, and offered to take us to a temple earlier in the day. 'Just call! and call if you have ANY troubles in Kolcata, Any at all.' and then he jumped off at his stop.
A wonderful first impression!

the horns however, could drive anyone crazy.

and there are ALOT of people here!

so those are my first thoughts here, after a mere 5 hours in the country. Many more stories to follow!

so much love.
lauren

You Be You!

2007-12-04T19:56:00.000-07:00

Hello from Bangkok, round 3!
I have so many things to catch you up on...oh how to capture it all in words!
Cambodia was amazing.
Since I last wrote I haven't moved around very much, but I revelled in the company of an incredble friend, attended the World Volleyball Championships for Disabled Peoples, found the Cambodian Circus!, basked in the glorious sun atop a boat roof while gliding through floating villages and finally saw some monkeys!
So, to capture it all....
Anna. We have such fun together! and we move mountains of personal perception with our conversations and dreaming. So satisfying! GIggling, sleepovers under our mosquito net tent, beautiful family that graciously adopeted me into their clan, pancake breakfasts with fresh banana and pineapple and many friends and sunshine! Mmmm delicious in so many ways!
Here's an Anna quote to inspire and smile:
"I just can't justify Not learning cool stuff from cool people ALL the time!"
here here!

Volleyball. So moving! I was literally brought to tears by the energy and pride in that room. The game we watched was Cambodia vs. Poland..Cambodia won and took 3rd place in the world! It actually changed my idea of competitive sports a little bit. Here are the thoughts in progress from my journal that day- there's a permission and acceptance of the nature of the game on the court, competition. There's equality out there. Cultural differences and stripped away.
Such pride in their country. So neat in any setting to see people come together in unity for a cause.
Boys with pails flipped over drumming for hours with their Whole Being. sweating and laughing, keeping the crowd clapping and cheering.
So amazing to see people overcome obstacles too (one arm, one leg, no hand..). Same injuries in Poland as in Cambodia.
Equal.
Inclusion. Community Building. making spaces for All People.
i get realy teary with sports sometimes..when everyone jumps from their seats cheering and waving flags. Hearts racing. Matchpoint. Awesome.

Cambodian Circus.
HOOOOAHHH!! These youths are INCREDIBLE! I was Totally enthralled and excited to watch them! This circus is part of a project that aims to give orphaned youth a space and tools to express themselves. There several branches to the project: education, library, skills trainig, art, circus..to name a few.
They had art from the youth on display around the place and they were astounding. Youth offered us rice based liqueurs and crunchy rice styrofoamy tasty things as aperitifs. Many spoke french because this project is associated with a french NGO..so I could speak with them and learn!
The circus aspect of the project was cerated because they recognized that some of the children and youth had 'extra baggage and energy" (as sophie the NGO gal put it). A medium for expression that used that energy.
it's an awesome project from what i can tell. offering tools to help define who they are when there hasn't been an opportunity for that anywhere else in their hard knock lives.

and the show was incredible! so creative, using only materials that they would find on the streets anyway. set designed and created by the youth. back full twists landing on someones shoulders, aerials over a waving flag, music on plastic pipes, drumming on tin food covers..it might not make sense like this, but it's all the things i've seen everyday on the streets brought together in a creative, beautiful way!
awesome.

now we're back in bangkok getting ready to fly to India tomorrow. Tomorrow! wow.
I'll put some photos up on here a little later.
i love it when you post comments, even just to say hi i'm here!it's so nice to hear.
lots of love

so much love!
feel it all the time!
lauren

Cambodia - afterthoughts

2007-11-23T00:07:00.000-07:00

I've been completely unsettled ever since i posted the last entry and must explain why!
I've been having many discussions about development and western tourists in non western places. Discussing and expanding perceptions based on learnings of everyone's varied experiences in various countries.
The difference between discussions and 'blog posts'', is that when written, the idea feels so much more permanent and decided. And that's just not the case at all! Everything in the last entry is swirling in my head, sailing in and out of my thoughts, picking up new experiences and ideas with every voyage.
There are no answers it seems.
What I have decided is that it is important to be responsible with my experiences and with the learnings I bring back.
What that means in a concrete way is yet to be defined!
I also feel unsettled because an apparent attack on my life in Canada seemed to dominate the mood of the entry. and I don't mean that either!
i do often feel critical of life in North America when I see others ways to exist, because we really do overconsume at home and it's simply not good for anything. I do say that with an pound of decidedness! There are ways to be happy that don't require 'stuff' , and in less 'developed' places there are many ways to be friendlier to the environment that we could easily adopt at home.
So often travel and 'development' means one way domination and learning. The western ways are brought to new areas and begin to be adopted, yet the travellers hardly ever bring back new ways to live to their own country.
I think we have ALOT to learn from Cambodia.

One environmental suggestion for the day: When brushing your teeth, fill a cup half full of water and use only that for the whole process! dip, brush, swish and rinse! no need to have the tap running the whole time, or even long enough to wet the brush. there isn't always running water everywhere. quick learning.

And now a super brief update:
Here's the travels after Banteay Chmar....back to Siem Reap - this is where Angkor Wat is, but I haven't been tot the temples after 3 nights in the city! it was mostly a place to sleep and leave from.
To Phnom Penh for a day. This is where Anna lives. We got there and I didn't leave the apartment for 24 hours! It's really REALLY nice to be in a Home.
Next down south near the Vietnam border to Svay Rieng, staying with other volunteer friends of Anna's (Rachel and Fiona). They volunteer at a place that does many projects in the rural areas including HIV awareness, a small orphanage, and raising frogs and fish for selling at the market. We went down there to escape the city and to help plant a garden!
What a deliciously wonderful 2 days! Playing in the dirt with children and adults! What I love most about experiences like that, is that the instant rich-barang (foreigner) to poor-local relationship is stripped away and we're left being Human with each other.
We get to laugh, teach each other new words, make mud pies, share a banana, break up dirt clumps, play games, learn about different banana species (only 6 months before the plant is old enough to produce! hot climate).
Refreshing.
Back to PP after that for another 2 days before heading way north to Rattanak Kiri in the far north east corner. More interviews here with an indigenous ecotourism project that's on the go. These are no Cambodian people, but rather Tampoen. There are about 5 different indig peoples involved in the project, centered around Yeak Loam Lake. it's a beautiful area and we've had a delightful time getting to know some of the indigenous guys that are happy to invite us over to show us photos or drawings one has done, happy to be our tour guides, tell us stories, teach us more words.
it's so nice to be here with Anna ...being able to speak k'mai gets us into all kinds of situations that aren't always possible. (indig peoples here also speak k'mai). An instant change in the relationship or perception of us occurs when she switches languages. perhaps more respect?
so that's where we are right now, Bang Lung in the Rattanak Kiri province.
We'll head back to PP on Sunday, hopefully. There is a huge water festival there right now, we're told an extra 4 million people have streamed into the capital city to watch and race boats on the river! so it will be Slow Going to get back to the apartment.

it's so wonderful to be out in the world, stimulated to learn and have so many amazing conversations every day! conversations that teach new perspectives, that challenge my ideas, that make me laugh, that create memories.
high concentration of memory making going on here.
it's good.
life is good!

loving you all every day with my Whole Heart
Lauren

Cambodia: This ones all over the map!

2007-11-20T06:48:00.000-07:00

I’m not even sure where to start today. It’s been a whirlwind adventure of learning, travelling, figuring, reunioning, laughing, meeting new people, enjoying, frustrating, eating, growing, and travelling.
I got myself to Siem Reap, Cambodia, after a long day of travel from Bangkok on many different modes of transport. Train, tuk tuk, walk, wait, walk, wait, open walled van, wait, walk, open van, moto, share taxi, tuk tuk, moto….now I’m at the guesthouse I’ve been instructed to meet my dear friend Anna at. She’s left a note and a key to our room. Off I go, walking, to Le Tigre Papier to find this long since seen friend. The anticipation is invigorating as I find the proper street and draw ever nearer the restaurant…way at the back, working away on her computer I find her!

It’s been three years since we last saw each other. A Kiwi and a Canadian in Sweden find a lasting friendship that carries them through worldly adventures and eagerly awaits global meetings to catch up and share stories! This time we hardly have time to catch up before we’re whisked into a series of fabulous travels together in this country of patchwork memories.

Anna has been here for 9 months, living in Phnom Penh (the capital), and working for an NGO organization called CLEC (Community Legal Education Centre). Looking at land claim issues has taken up much of her year. The trend lately has been for rich Cambodians, or worse, rich foreigners, to stroll out into rural Cambodia and buy up large plots of land from farmers, offering maybe 500USD for the lot. For someone making $350US/year, 500 seems like a fortune! Without any land now, they move to the city, where 500 dollars doesn’t go very far. Soon they live in the slums, as ex-farmers, looking for any skill to sell and continue scraping by.

In the last month, Anna has taken on another project related to this focus. She’s been visiting community based ecotourism sites, with the intent of putting together a document of successes and challenges for each site. This will be shared between current and future sites. A network will begin, the sharing of knowledge will promote country wide community and connection, and villages will hopefully be continually successful in finding many uses for their land and human skills that will make some extra money, while serving to ‘cohesify’ (scuse the laurenism) the village, as they make decisions and work together.

SO….I get to tag on to this project and visit many rural areas of Kampuchea!

Here’s a week in hopefully less than a page:
* Banteay Chmar (NE Cambodia), NGO Agir pour le Cambodge has helped set up an ecotourism project. It incorporates 4 villages and so far has been quite successful! It’s a quick visit, but jam-packed with learning and excitement for me!
In the course of 24 hours I learned (and remembered no less!) about 15 Kh’mai words (man: “moto?” me: ”Oht Day, Au kGun..jong dahl!” [no thanks, I want to walk!]), hitched rides on the back of pick-ups like we saw many kh’mai doing, spoke with SO MANY GRACIOUS PEOPLE (including two of the sweetest old men on the side of the street. They were the dj’s for the town? Choosing which tape to blast over the loudspeaker!), saw the greenest rice fields, and met 4 amazing people who have helped pull together the diverse skills of a community, with hopes of attracting ‘us’. Development some might call it.

The development topic irks me endlessly. The village of Banteay Chmar is everything I could ever imagine idyllic to be. A beautiful clean moat for water. A sweet little red dirt street that runs along the moat, with homes and restaurants placed along it graced with the most luscious view of that tasty colour combo – pure water blue against vibrant plant green. Fresh hot food wafting past your nose with every step. A gorgeous temple for the spiritual seekers. A delightful bunch of youth and old people and children that bring character to this memory laden, weathered village. Children tirelessly practicing a school performance each night with devoted parents offering instruction. Bicycles, motorcycles, cows pulling carts of organic materials. Fresh, delicious, sunny air and zillions of twinkling stars. Breezy wooden homes, toilets that don’t use copious amounts of water to flush (and no toilet paper clogging the system), showers that don’t use 40% of a homes energy to heat the water (it’s a hot part of the world!), and fresh fresh food!
I realize I’m looking at the positives only. There are hardships, there have been immeasurable hardships endured by these brave and resilient people in their recent history. People are poor and often sick. Health care is not so caring by our standards. Land mines still dot the country side and continue to cause crippling injury.

So I guess these are my questions:
where do we fit into this scene? Do we bring in our western demands to this community while travelling in search of that ‘authentic’ experience? Do we (as NGO’s perhaps) introduce an administrative office that runs in a ‘developed world’ way, on western timelines with western values? In catering to another culture, one immediately objectifies their own as they become conscious of the Differences. Inevitably the ‘developed’ way seems initially appealing and infiltrates the desires of a community. What the hell is development anyway? Where is it developing too? There is certainly direction assumed in the term development. A linear progression to some better place. Who determines better? The west? Is our way really that much better? Is the smell of fresh herbs and cultivated flavours just around the corner? Are there 17 locally owned shops just down the street? Or perhaps just one monster walmart…Does your house contribute absolutely zero emissions and use absolutely NO energy from 10pm to 7am? And in the waking hours how many gallons of water go down the drain? Can you see zillions of stars from your front step? Go check.

My experience in the world so far is this:
- People with the ‘least’ appreciate everything they have with refreshing passion.
- People with the ‘least’ give the most without hesitation.
- People with the ‘least’ love their children with tenderness and encouragement.
- People with the ‘least’ have strong community
- People with the ‘least’ have more direction and apparent contentment than I may ever have

And thus it seems to me, the ‘People with the ‘Least’’ have a lot ‘More’ figured out than I’ve experienced people with ‘More’ to have. We in the west keep on searching. Or I in the west do anyway. I assume some others might be with me.
This rant has many holes in it I’m sure. I’m not sure it even makes sense! I tend to rant in circles.

Ranting like a happy dog who loves its tail.

It does keep me going in life for whatever reason! Maybe not forward...but that’s a western idea that forward is good…okay I’m not cutting into that durian fruit tonight (they have a rancid smell...in fact, they aren’t permitted on the skytrain system in Bangkok! If I cut into it, I certainly won’t be able to deal with the smelly repercussions tonight!).

As Anna put it, people spend their lives as PhD students writing papers on development. I guess my blog isn’t going to fix it tonight!

Food for thought.

This food took me off track from catching you up on my adventures over the last few days…but food works that way in my travels regularly…I’m going somewhere to see som…ooo look at that fruit.. What is it? Oh excuse me, ‘tilai pon mon?’ mmmm no too much. Oh for two? Well maybe, prohile…ja ja, okay…oh! Delicious! Anna, try this! Anna? Oh! what did you find?... mmm a feast! Let’s get a smoothie and sit and enjoy!....

…I can always see that monument tomorrow…

Many more stories to come!
With so much love,
lauren

...did you make it through all that?!...

Takraw!

2007-11-11T05:52:00.000-07:00

I've had a craving to see a game of takraw ever since Graeme Ford brought that wicked little wicker ball out for play time one day of Summer Staff 2003. we all played with it like a hacky sack, but he told tantalizing stories of the true game...over a low net (roughly badminton height i'd say) like a game of volleyball but with your feet only. and they still smash the ball, block it, serve it with unbelievable kicks and flying turns, somehow managing to land on their feet.
these were the stories...and finally, yesterday, i got to see a game! and sure enough the stories held true.
I was mesmerized by the talent, the movements, the precision of blind over the head backwards twisted kicks. the ball always seemed to go exactly where it needed to. Feet sailed head high with ease, sending the wicker ball on a direct course to the other side.
the game impressed me tremendously, but the whole occasion will forever stick in my head because of the circumstance surrounding the game itself. I left Dylan and his friends yesterday, as they went south to the islands and i'm planning to go to cambodia to meet a dear NZ friend in a couple days. so I travelled on the train solo to bangkok, Thonburi station.
The Thonburi train station is the secondary station i would say. it's surrounded by markets and the hustle bustle of everyday local life (versus Hua Lamphong train station that is fancier and has 'cheap' 650baht (~20$) accomodation all around it [i'm currently paying 150b/night (~4$)]).
so i was walking through this evening market and stumbled across a Takraw 'tournament': 2 games simultaneously being played on a concrete field, with about 30 people casually sitting and watching.
Mesmerized I was, so I stopped, stood and watched a few minutes. I was quickly invited to sit down on the curb beside the others...but me being an awkwardly polite canadian thought it best to say no, atempting to explain that i had a big backpack etc. i dont' know why i refused. I think i was in hermit mode after being alone in my head for the train ride.
so i stood happily watching, until a few mintues later, Pong showed up with a stool, set it on the sidewalk for me and motioned to sit! i sat. and everyone said "Ohhhhhhhh hahaha!"
So I laughed, but certainly felt like a spoiled white girl that couldn't bring herself to sit on the ground. (for the record, i'm quite happy to ground sit!)
To make matters more hospitable, and slightly more embarrassing for white lauren, Pong soon showed up again, glass bottle of coke with a straw in hand. I said oh! wow! and took it. To which everyone again said "Ohhhhhhhhh hahah!"
All in all it was a fun interaction. Not a word of english, barely a word of thai from my side.
And truly, takraw is a game of skill and unfathomable precision!
I"m satisfied.

apologies for no photos of the occasion. it will have to remain a mystical, fantasmical game until you yourself stumble across a concrete tournament one day...

Thailand continues

2007-11-09T05:06:00.000-07:00

I"m travelling with one Mr. Dylan Leech (for those that don't know) and we finally dragged ourselves out of Bangkok to a much greener, more luscious, smaller area of Thailand in the Kanchanaburi province, close to the Myanmar border..sort of (no need to worry, it's safe safe safe!). In fact the name of the town where we sleep at tonight is called Kanchanaburi. The reason we styaed so long in Bangkok is that Dylan was waiting for a couple of his best buds to arrive from Calgary. So now we are a 4 person canadian caravan.

2 days ago we got to the thonburi train station and embarked on the 3 hour train ride...3rd class, wooden seats, meat on a stick served from the aisle, BIG wide open windows to hang out of, 100baht=3CAD. Quite delightful! the town here is famous for it's "Bridge over the River Kwai" (seen the movie?)...

we're staying right on the river, there are many floating guesthouses here..it's the attractive thing for tourists when your town is known for the Kwai River.

we rented scooters the other day and kept them for about 30 hours...SO MUCH FUN! we rode way out towards Erawan National Park..a gorgeous area..the roads dotted with stands selling all kinds of tasty treats..mountains of luscious lusciousness, beautiful blue lakes (the photo looks like the okanagan!) ...and an adventure:

4 of us on our scooters, we ride for nearly an hour to gt to our destination...only for Daryl (dylans' friend) to realize the the key has fallen out somewhere along the way. so if turn the scooter off, we won't be able to turn it on. Good ol handy man dylan goes to take a look and ..turns it off. and then proceeds to lock the ignition....oops

daryl and jessie take off on 2 working scooters to find the key. immediately after they left the 15 or so thai people (workers in the park i think) descend upon us to see what the problem is. we sherade the problem and everyone pulls out their keys to see if they can unlock the ignition. no go.

so 2 guys get a screwdriver and take the scooter apart, hot wire it, and voila! controlled by the manual choke...we have a working scooter!

The whole ordeal was a wonderful medium to meet people, to be impressed by the endless hospitality that so often is the norm. I have felt nothing but safe and taken care of in this country.

ISn't that so often the case? When preparing for this trip I visited travel nurses, read advice from people, heard stories, read news clips...Be Afraid..is basically the message I got from it all.

I"m pretty sick of that. First of all, every place I"ve been told to be the most scared of has turned out to be the most magical and generous in so many ways. So many people want to share their culture, their food, their ideas, their advice. So many travellers want to open up and connect for that five minute pad thai. people crave connection and comfort of human interaction. Anda asked me to sit in front of his internet shop with him (it was closed by the time i got there), just to have a quick conversation as it turned out.

Second of all, why else are we on this planet but to Live? We can't be afraid with every step we take and of every person we encounter.

as my dear friend Waleed expressed most passionately, there is Risk involved in everything we do. Often more Risk the more we Love something. I"m here to Live, and with this form of living there is the potential for Risk...but more often there is the occasion for Learning and Growth, and Connection with Humans who have gifts and new persepctives to share.

I"m hit with this Every Time I venture into the unknown.

So step out of your comfort zone a little today. or tomorrow. or maybe next week. But do it. Because it's when you do something new that the memories are made. And life is truly a treasure box of memories.

Make some good ones.

Bangkok, Thailand!

2007-11-02T22:50:00.000-06:00

WE're here! Safe and sound, rested and refreshed after 30 hours or so of travel. U-Shaped pillows are my new best friend.
the trip started with a questionable beginning. our plane in calgary was 'overfuelled' and they couldn't put everyone on it! so we got moved to another flight 2 hours later. it all owrked out, but overfuelled? never heard of it.
It's nice to get back into travel mode. i feel it happening slowly. I worried that I wouldn't meet people, that there wouldn't be any other like minded travellers out there (a usual, but continuously silly worry!)...but right away we met a lovely couple on our plane, ended up on several flights together, into a taxi together, to the Green Room Guest house (the selling point is that the walls are indeed green) where we all stayed last night. Meeting people, looking out for my stuff while not being overly paranoid, talking with hands, crossing the street, opening doors..there is a language of travelling that i'm quickly remembering.

WE got to the guest house at about 2am Thai time, settle din, met on the street for a smoothies and some pad thai. I will never be able to pay 10 dollars for NA Pad Thai ever again. Delicious!

I'm here! Thailand! The adventure has begun!

A few for the family

2007-10-24T23:43:00.000-06:00

DAD TURNED 60! HAZZAH!Dearest mumsy hosted the party of the weekend with many loving guests bringing laughter wine and good company to the prepared feast!

A warm evening, rooms full of people, music, old friends new friends, friends that are family....a bottle of amaretto, a fire of fruit, 17 matches, eager onlookers to a sooted flameless pan...tasty, delectable dessert....what fun!
A splendid way to celebrate a loving, creative, amazing father.
All my love dear popsy!

Pre-boarding

2007-10-19T22:21:00.000-06:00

It's funny how hard it is to put things in a bag. I put them in and take them out and look at them for awhile...hum...haw...in again...out..over to the maybe pile...a constant need to simplify while making everything so utterly complicated!
Home in Penticton getting ready for a 6 month adventure on the other side of the northern hemisphere.
Hoooahh!
Soon the adventure begins!