somewhere under the sky

discoveries

I feel like i have gone through a time warp because I didn´t check email or talk to anybody for over a week. But anyway i´m back safe and sound from my trip to the coast, and didn´t get sick.
There´s much to say. I´ll say little about what I did. We went to various places, among which were mangrove swamps and an organic farm. Canoeing through mangroves is a cool experience. I felt close to the earth. With the risk of being boring, the organic farm taught me more about how the earth really can sustain life. For instance, they use a dry toilet so that human waste doesn´t go into the water where it contaminates. You use the bathroom, and throw some sawdust on it. After the toilet fills up, it sits for a time and then boom! Safe, rich fertilizer at your service. Genius I tell you.
So besides the daily activities the trip was also…a bit of a personal journey. I realized that I have begun to adhere to the concept they taught me in first grade that if you don´t have something nice to say, don´t say it at all. It´s funny because I think I used to be “the negative one” and on this trip I have found myself being positive because I am surrounded by people more negative than me. This might sound negative in itself, or mean at least but i´ll explain a bit. Lots of people on this trip have complaints and they voice them without shame. Therefore, i´m sick of people complaining (which is of course, what i´m doing right now) and so i´ve been opting to keep my complaints to myself. I can´t change anything but my attitude so that´s what I focus on. Aren´t you proud mom.
And since I don´t complain to the group, i´ll complain to the blog. Ha. Just one more thing though, because it affected how I felt during this past week. People in my group talk about each other quite frequently. And this I can´t stand. It doesn´t matter who i´m with, someone is always making comments about someone else. It´s so frustrating. We are not in middle school and to me, these comments are just so unnecessary. So that is how I felt during the trip.
Worth mentioning is the bus ride back. It was around 11 hours so it offered plenty of time to chat. I talked with my friend for probably around 8 of these hours about love, religion, and idealism. I feel so refreshed and realized that actually talking about what I believe brings me a lot closer to my beliefs than either thinking about them or reading other´s beliefs. Our conversation was challenging and it was a breath of fresh air.
I eventually want to expand on the topics of diversity in Ecuador and American influence. Don´t let me forget. Love you and miss you.

posted by leah v @ 3:00 PM