Life only stands still long enough to snap a photo. A quick image is taken of a moment that has already gone and passed. That moment can never be relived and never replicated. Our trip to Chiapas, Mexico and parts of Guatemala span the timeframe of October 2010 to February of 2011. What we encountered and experienced was what was going on during those exact dates. Some of the things we witnessed have been continued throughout time and some only happened once. What our blog portrays is a semi static image of what life is like in that region through our perspective. We can not say things like this is how it has always been or that this is the way it will always be. Life doesn't remain stagnant and the story we have been a part of is unique to Faith and I.
It has been a full month since returning to the United States. A quarter of the time we spent in the tropics has flown by in what seemed more like a matter of days. We are still adjusting to the mesmerizing and hypnotizing light patterns and sounds that bombard our senses on a daily basis via television, radio, cell phones and Internet. We had all these luxuries readily available to us while in Mexico, but we didn't have the sense of being tethered to the technology as we do here.
There are many things that come up in conversation between Faith and I that we look back on with fondness. The sound of the sonsonate bird as it happily chirps welcoming the morning sun with its very unique songs, the smell of a humid jungle teeming with life, butterflies the size of two hands fluttering around you, or the extreme drop in temperature felt when the sun hides behind a fluffy cloud in the sky. We sometimes lean in to neighboring conversations being spoken in Spanish to simply remind us of how beautiful the language is and how nice it was to be surrounded by it. We now have a much greater appreciation for plant life and can admit to honestly stopping to smell the roses.
This journal began as a way for us to give our friends and family a window into our daily lives while away, but has become something much bigger and meaningful to both of us. We have received feedback from people we never expected to have come across our journal and feel our friendships have been strengthened by having good friends keep up with our adventures. We hope the people mentioned in our story are pleased with their representation because without any of them our time away would have been far less interesting and we would like to extend our greatest appreciation to all who accompanied us and all those we met along the way. This has been a life changing experience for the two of us and we will always look back on the time spent in Mexico and Guatemala as one of the happiest times of our lives.
It is difficult to blend the realities present in Latin America in a single blog. We have tried our best to remain culturally relative. Different regions have differing factors affecting the people who reside within them. We traveled through several types of climates and came across varieties of lifestyles. We were given opportunities to experience lifestyles different from our own. I hope we were able to close some imaginary gaps placed between cultures and possibly even create awareness about one's own culture. Anthropology strives to make the exotic feel familiar and the familiar feel exotic and we hope we have done that concept some justice.
It has been no easy task formulating this final entry and there is a melancholic feeling as I write this. We understand that good things must come to an end, but we also understand that our work is not done. We stepped outside of our box and can't seem to fit ourselves back into our old selves. This is a strangely pleasant notion because we are finding it harder and harder to simply accept our situation as an inevitability and realize it is possible to get away and enable change. We left who we were behind for who we would become and couldn't believe how much could be learned through this type of liberation. We have developed a solid understanding of the phrase, "The more you learn, the more you realize how little you know."
Since our journey south the path we are on has become clearer. We can never know what the future holds for us, but we are excited we finally understand which direction the wind wants to carry us. There are still many things we want to do and we believe the course we have begun setting off on will allow for us to accomplish many of the goals we have set out for ourselves. We plan to continually be involved with many of our new friends and are eager to contribute more of our energy and time to the people of our world. If there is only one thing that a reader takes away from our writings we hope it is this: You enjoy what you have most when it is shared.
Close my eyes, looking inside,
I find I'm blind.It has been a full month since returning to the United States. A quarter of the time we spent in the tropics has flown by in what seemed more like a matter of days. We are still adjusting to the mesmerizing and hypnotizing light patterns and sounds that bombard our senses on a daily basis via television, radio, cell phones and Internet. We had all these luxuries readily available to us while in Mexico, but we didn't have the sense of being tethered to the technology as we do here.
There are many things that come up in conversation between Faith and I that we look back on with fondness. The sound of the sonsonate bird as it happily chirps welcoming the morning sun with its very unique songs, the smell of a humid jungle teeming with life, butterflies the size of two hands fluttering around you, or the extreme drop in temperature felt when the sun hides behind a fluffy cloud in the sky. We sometimes lean in to neighboring conversations being spoken in Spanish to simply remind us of how beautiful the language is and how nice it was to be surrounded by it. We now have a much greater appreciation for plant life and can admit to honestly stopping to smell the roses.
This journal began as a way for us to give our friends and family a window into our daily lives while away, but has become something much bigger and meaningful to both of us. We have received feedback from people we never expected to have come across our journal and feel our friendships have been strengthened by having good friends keep up with our adventures. We hope the people mentioned in our story are pleased with their representation because without any of them our time away would have been far less interesting and we would like to extend our greatest appreciation to all who accompanied us and all those we met along the way. This has been a life changing experience for the two of us and we will always look back on the time spent in Mexico and Guatemala as one of the happiest times of our lives.
It is difficult to blend the realities present in Latin America in a single blog. We have tried our best to remain culturally relative. Different regions have differing factors affecting the people who reside within them. We traveled through several types of climates and came across varieties of lifestyles. We were given opportunities to experience lifestyles different from our own. I hope we were able to close some imaginary gaps placed between cultures and possibly even create awareness about one's own culture. Anthropology strives to make the exotic feel familiar and the familiar feel exotic and we hope we have done that concept some justice.
It has been no easy task formulating this final entry and there is a melancholic feeling as I write this. We understand that good things must come to an end, but we also understand that our work is not done. We stepped outside of our box and can't seem to fit ourselves back into our old selves. This is a strangely pleasant notion because we are finding it harder and harder to simply accept our situation as an inevitability and realize it is possible to get away and enable change. We left who we were behind for who we would become and couldn't believe how much could be learned through this type of liberation. We have developed a solid understanding of the phrase, "The more you learn, the more you realize how little you know."
Since our journey south the path we are on has become clearer. We can never know what the future holds for us, but we are excited we finally understand which direction the wind wants to carry us. There are still many things we want to do and we believe the course we have begun setting off on will allow for us to accomplish many of the goals we have set out for ourselves. We plan to continually be involved with many of our new friends and are eager to contribute more of our energy and time to the people of our world. If there is only one thing that a reader takes away from our writings we hope it is this: You enjoy what you have most when it is shared.
Close my eyes, looking inside,
Staring at a man in a mirror
Less face, fingerprints, race.
Whispers swirl through the air
Grip my eardrums with a stronghold -
Ideas forming, flesh poured into a mold.
Strangers surround, yet I remain alone.
Collecting and conforming –
Reasons unknown.
Placement of birth a life altering factor -
Altars lead the way,
Income sets the pace,
Security branches from confidence,
Magnets in others pull and push connections.
I becomes We,
Faster than understanding Me.
Strength in numbers, close the shutters
Cracks in the walls leak visions, knowledge.
The kings and queens start to stumble,
This dark cell of foundation begins to crumble.
The windows become the walls.
It gets stuffy in this house of glass,
Claustrophobic and sedentary I throw a rock.
Placement of birth a life altering factor -
Altars lead the way,
Income sets the pace,
Security branches from confidence,
Magnets in others pull and push connections.
I becomes We,
Faster than understanding Me.
Strength in numbers, close the shutters
Cracks in the walls leak visions, knowledge.
The kings and queens start to stumble,
This dark cell of foundation begins to crumble.
The windows become the walls.
It gets stuffy in this house of glass,
Claustrophobic and sedentary I throw a rock.
Broken pieces of yesterday lay all around -
No one around, yet not alone.
The sunlight lands unfiltered, a face forms -
Born again, regret and happiness for a second are one.
The quest has now become clear,
Setting sail I'll let the wind steer.
Searching for knowledge and understanding,
Anticipating the next snowglobe of an existence
I will shatter wall after wall
Be reborn again and again
As the phoenix I transcend.
The quest has now become clear,
Setting sail I'll let the wind steer.
Searching for knowledge and understanding,
Anticipating the next snowglobe of an existence
I will shatter wall after wall
Be reborn again and again
As the phoenix I transcend.
