Story

You would think that growing up as a foreign ambassador's son would prepare you for the different cultures you would experience across the world, at least, that's what I believed. I traveled around the world with my family my entire life, going from embassy to embassy, meeting new faces and trying my tongue at every language imaginable. You would think I would have been sick of never having a place to call home, but that became the appeal. As soon as I was old enough, I got myself into college in pursuit of a major in world culture, thinking it would be easy considering my life experience. Starting my junior year I studied abroad in Brazil, which is when my easy sailing ceased. I found myself surrounded by the rich citizens of Brazil, but was warned never to go far beyond the city walls for fear of my safety. Outside of those walls was a whole different world of poverty. It was there that I asked myself how a thriving, modern community could exist when not one hundred miles away there was no electricity. I never really thought about life beyond the walls of the wealthy.

I earned my PH.D. and began spending all of my time in South America where I studied the evolution of culture within the continent. It often started out in Salvador, Brazil where I could drive around in a car and sleep in hotels and personal villas. This was my favorite spot to begin because of the small signs of different cultures that have entered Brazil since the slave trade brought Africans to the Americas. Outside the front steps of my hotel there was even a Masai, an African statue. Even Brazil was a mixing pot of cultures. From there, I traveled north until I hit the Amazon, then followed the river west. Once major cities start disappearing I find myself a crew of locals to assist and to teach me on my journey. My favorite trip introduced me to my friend Luis, a native of Chile who loved the outdoors, spoke many native languages, and was a drummer in his hometown ceremonies. His stories helped shorted our long days. 

Means of transportation was always the same, donkeys until the forest became too dense then we would trade our four legged friends for canoes from a native tribe after staying with them as long as our welcome would hold. My first encounter with Amazonian native tribes was not what I had expected, although one cannot really know how they will react when you are housed in hut with shrunken heads guarding the entrance from evil spirits for the first time. To be completely honest, the natives didn't always know how to react to us either. For instance, I was using a ruler to measure the length of some plants when a child asked me if I was holding a calendar. It was then that I learned that a stick was often used to keep track of days by  placing notches in it. I was also questioned when I took a letter out of my wallet to read and a village elder could not understand why we would need to use stamps to communicate our written word and why we needed paper to exchange for useful items when the paper (money) was of no more use than a leaf. All of my years spent in embassies could not prepare me to answer questions like that.

It was amazing how simple life always felt when I was with these villages. Women focused on taking care of the children, cooking and crafting things such as blankets, bowls and jars. Men worried about hunting and gathering while the children helped their parents. One of my favorite things to do with the children was to go out and help them gather nuts, a small and simple task but one that always taught me something. The children of the villages loved to teach random things about the world around them and I loved to learn. It was usually the youth that reminded me how simple life really was; something no embassy could ever dream of knowing.