It started in Argentina a couple of years ago. Actually, it started in Toronto. Here I was at the airport about to head on a 14 hour flight to Buenos Aires with 11 others who I met a few months earlier and knew very little about. 21 years of living had me thinking that I wanted to be famous and although the feelings of wanting to become famous are still very alive inside of me, it was for a thousand different reasons. Money. Attention. Possessions. At the age of three, I had dreams of becoming a professional wrestler. Being 8 brought us a World Series which in turn brought me the dream of wanting to become a Major League Baseball player. Turning 16 ushered in a dream of wanting to become a famous actor. Looking back, had I actually done something about these aspirations, such as joining a baseball team or taking acting lessons, who knows what may have happened. So life continued and I turned 18. The undeniable pressures of University were creeping up on me and like many kids at that age, I felt like I had to decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. So in hopes of becoming famous and with the recommendation of a friend, I decided to go to Wilfrid Laurier University and join their Communications program, for these moves all marked the first steps in realizing my new and exciting dream: to become a famous TV or radio personality. In what form? Who knew! Just as long as it meant I'd become famous. So I went through the motions and it took me just over two years of being a University student to discover that something wasn't adding up here. I'm paying all this money and I haven't touched a camera yet! I'm going into debt but I don't even know what a soundboard looks like. Imagine a monkey scratching its head, but only that the monkey is me and I'm scratching for a year. Here I was in my third year, completely turned off of higher education. I had no idea where I was going, I had no idea what brought me there, and worst off, I felt lost. Lost in every way.
So as reality was jabbing me in the head, I met this girl at school and she told me about her plans to go to the Amazon for one month with this organization I had never heard of, Global Youth Network. From what I gathered, she was going there to learn about the culture and do some humanitarian work. As I was completely interested in her and completely uninterested in what she was saying, I did what most young male adults do: I pretended to be interested in what she was saying. I told her that I had the same aspirations and dreams and I asked her for more information. Now, if she had access to a movie which showed the past 21 years of my life, she would have uncovered me for the fraud I was because as my track record showed, I never did anything to actually turn my dreams into everyday life. Regardless, I got all the details and in hopes of trying to impress her as much as I could, I called them and inquired about any available trips.
Well, I sort of called them. I hung up after one ring and went on with my day. "Are you nuts? Why are you calling them?", I would ask. "Because I like this girl and this is the only way it's going to happen!", I would answer. A week went by and for whatever reason that day, I decided to pick up the phone and call again, but this time, I would let the phone ring until I got an answering machine because at least this was a way to convince myself that I was really trying. Two rings and a friendly lady picked up the phone. I got an interview the next day which I nailed and now I was going to Argentina. But more importantly, who cared?! This girl was going to be totally impressed!
Now, when you're living with six male roommates who are all typically "University," explaining a "cross-cultural, educational and transformative volunteer trip to the South" is not an easy thing to do. Being a male, this demonstrated that I had some sort of passion or emotion for something or someone that wasn't me and this was a big no no in the man field. Regardless, I went through with it.
So I guess the prelude started in Toronto, but what really started really started in Argentina. Somewhere in Argentina. Now, I'm not going to lie and provide you with a scene where I'm standing in a dewey field at sunrise with a bunch of disabled orphans holding hands and kumbaya'ing together with the presence of God hovering over us and smiling warmly. To be honest, I can't do much in terms of pinpointing a day, time or moment that brought me to the realization and truth of what I wanted to do with my life, but I can tell you it was somewhere in Argentina. And so here I was in South America understanding that I was an able-bodied, healthy individual with an education and a knack for socialization, a healthy and growing network, a good group of friends and perhaps most importantly - I not only realized that I was lucky to have this opportunity to travel abroad and 'discover myself,' but that I was even luckier to be an educated and sociable individual with good friends and a growing network because for the first time in my life, I had met people, family, neighbourhoods and others who weren't fortunate enough to be given the same opportunities to grow into the situations I had grown into. Sorry for putting you through the longest sentence of your life just now but that's how it came tumbling out of my mind. And so it wasn't the comforts of home, school or friendship that helped me come to this epiphany, but it was the opposite. In the presence of strangers in a strange land, I figured out just who I wanted to become.
Each 'Global' trip that I've done has been unique and beneficial to my growth in its own way. California the following year taught me the importance of relationships and being equal in the face of those who society tells you are lower than you. Venezuela the next year taught me a lot about my leadership abilities. And Kenya, most recently, has taught me about the remarkable strength and hope that others may deem as weak and hopeless. The beauty is that people are people no matter where you go. A happy moment calls for a smile and a sad one can call for a cry. I've been fortunate enough to be able to go to different places and realize that we are mostly all the same and that we are all in this together. Brothers and sisters.
And so three trips were enough to convince that girl in University to marry me and four trips were enough to convince Global to hire me. And although it's been 22 years since I interpreted that voice inside me screaming "GET FAMOUS!", I think I've finally learned in which way that voice was craving for me to get attention: by using my education, knack for socialization and healthy and growing network to educate others and at least for now, assist them in helping the local community or traveling abroad so they can all say something along the lines of, "It all started in Argentina" too.
- Gilad
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Huevos, Tortugas, Moscas y Cervezas
El Tortugario, Cuyutlan, Mexico.
For three weeks Allison and I devoted our time to learning about and working with los tortugas del Tortugario. We decided to take this trip with the hopes that we would learn alot, work hard and hopefully make some friends. We accomplished that without a doubt, plus had time to enjoy what Mexico knows best: Cervezas!
We began this trip by taking the 24 hour Bloor bus to the airport, on a Friday, at 3am. Taking an hour bus ride, in a bus that is crammed - like doors won't shut crammed - with "I can't stand I am so drunk" people, and bags that are capable of breaking your back, was our first mistake.
Our second was getting a flight that involved three planes, to get to a place five hours away. Just to save a few bucks.
Our third, was not knowing any Spanish upon arrival. I figure what's a better way to ask for help, from an old Mexican woman who can't speak a word of English, than to start speaking Korean to her? Apparently that one Spanish course in grade 10 wasn't as fresh in my mind as I thought it was.
Allison and I arrived in Mexico hungry, dirty, sweaty and tired. Take these four adjectives, subtract the hungry and add itchy and you have our life for about three weeks. How can that not sound like the best three weeks of your life? With the help of Joselo, our younger older brother (younger than us, but essentially our guardian) we literally had the time of our lives. While he was super shy at first (as you might see in the video) he was sometimes willing to speak in English, always willing to teach us bad words in Spanish and never missed an opportunity to dance, sing or have a drink. If you are going to live in Mexico you have to learn to work hard, but to also enjoy life. Don't get so caught up in your day to day routine and forget that the best times you have are surrounded by family and friends (with food, beer/tequila).
Here is a video of where we cultivated most of our memories while in Mexico.
Before we left for Mexico we were super excited to embark on a major learning experience. At one point I was told that this opportunity might not be more than just a gathering of hippies looking to party, and to be honest I wasn't so happy about that. Allison and I didn't take this trip to "save the world," but we did want to expand our minds in some sort of way that didn't involve partying and only partying. This, thank goodness, was not the case. We were the only volunteers on this conservation site, living in very simple conditions, among people who didn't speak much English, in a small town that couldn't have been less touristy. We witnessed an organization that is dedicated to preserving the species of that area that are in danger of extinction with the hope of educating those people who pass by their gates. This is a non profit that is operating in a country/city with few resources. It doesn't have much, but it uses what it has to do the best that it can do.
Here are a few pictures documenting our travels. The first bunch represent the daily duties we performed during our work hours. Something that was always really cool was when you could have a full conversation, discussing the different hatching conditions of turtles, dependent on the colour of sand, in Spanish. Our form of communication went far beyond just words as charades became a part of our daily routine. While Allison's Spanish stayed pretty stagnant (she prefers grand gestures, and grunting, over words) I dedicated an hour or two a day to learning as much Spanish as I could. My learning curve was huge and I felt totally motivated, for about a week and a half, until I realized how much I didn't know haha. It was all good though. I used what I had, when I could, and I was proud of myself for it.
So let me briefly explain the sequence of our duties. Our day began at 10:30 pm when Allison and I (rotating days) would head out on a four wheeler with one of the local workers, Carlos (who didn't speak English or play charades hah). We would look for turtle eggs and only turtle eggs.. Like I said, it's either you or the poachers. Each turtle lays about 80-120 eggs. Each egg can be sold on the black market (as a delicacy served in restaurants) for 50 cents each. When workers make an average of two to three dollars an hour, you can see why this has become such a popular "profession."
Carlos goes out every night and collects as many eggs as he can. We were fortunate enough to be able to join him on his journey and there is no doubt that this was a highlight of our trip. There is nothing like being on a beach, in the middle of the night, hearing the waves crashing on the sand, seeing a million stars in the sky, and watching a turtle walk up and lay its eggs in the sand. Go one step further and turn the four wheeler off, sit in complete silence, rub the turtles shell to see it glow from the phosphorus elements from the ocean, and dig underneath its shell to catch its eggs in your hand, and you have yourself and opportunity of a lifetime.
See the following photos to get a glimpse of what it was like. I was totally unable to remove myself from the experience so there are only a few pictures that Allison was able to take.
The turtles are able to dig pretty deep holes!
Just one of the many weird looking eggs we found.
After the incredibly thrilling experience of the night patrols, we had to be up only a few hours (or maybe one hour) later to incubate all those eggs. The first few days it was fun. After that, I am not going to lie, planting those eggs was a bit of a bitch. The process involved digging a deep hole with an ancient looking contraption, carving it out with your hands to create a vase shape at the bottom, counting each egg while inserting it into the hole, covering it and recording it, all in black sand that is hot as hell, and Mexican sun, which is also, hot as hell.
After our morning escapade of egg planting, we would move on to turtle cleaning. The best was cleaning las chiquitas (what we would call the baby turtles). The babies were as cute as you would imagine them to be and even cuter because they hated having baths. In no way did they want to be cleaned and they would flap their fins in total protest. Until you rubbed in between their nose and their forehead that is and they became relaxed to the max. Not much more to say other than the fact that these little guys were cute little pooping machines!
In addition to the baby turtles, the mamma and pappa turtle tanks needed to be cleaned. There was no way around this one. This was just not fun. You could never really wash away all of the turtle shit, and the turtles just always seemed to be in your way. Moving them was never easy and scrubbing the floor was never fun. It's all in the name of an experience though! One thing I did love was seeing the total disregard the turtles had for your presence.
The highlight of our trip came about two weeks in when we witnessed a phenomenon of mother nature that you don't often get to see (well not in the city anyways). All of our hard work throughout the week led us back to the beginning of the life cycle where we were able to witness the birth of the baby turtles that had been incubated 45 days prior (that is how long they take to hatch). This was totally by fluke that we got to see it, but we are so so happy that we did.
This was our daily routine, just after lunch. To go down to the beach, burn the hell out of our feet (has anyone else experienced the pain of black sand?) stand in the water and watch the power of the ocean crash down at our feet.
...and inevitably surprise us with one or two waves that were just a little stronger than we thought they would be....
And here is just a glimpse of the few activities we participated in during our time away:
My daily study session
One of the few mangrove boat rides we went on, where the mosquitos totally destroyed us.
Allison conquering the Pacific Ocean on her surfboard!
Joselo giving us one of his many shows;
Ahhh, Coco Locos. A reward after a hard days' work!
One of my most popular daily activities. Scratching my mosquito bites until they bled.
Next are a few of the many living things we shared our space with:
Lobo, our second guardian besides Joselo. One of the most beautiful, smartest and toughest dogs around
Just so you know, that IS a scorpian, and yes, it CAN kill you.
So it wasn't all work in Mexico. Joselo introduced us to his friends: Jose, Ed, Manuel (and others) and they made sure to show us a good time!
Two of the 50 workers at Glass nightclub wearing the ever so stylish virus masks.
Ed, Jose y Manuel!
Please notice the travel dresses. I can assure you that we were extremely underdressed for this place. Wrinkled dresses, flipflops, bug bites, no make up and so so hair, did not make us fit in with the oh so classy Mexican women!
So we tried again the next weekend!
Allison starting the night off.
Allison ending the night off.
I almost won a prize! But I didnt. Because I am not Mexican. And got my name butchered in the process.
The boys preparing our going away dinner followed by a going away dance party! It was the BEST and I will never, ever forget how awesome, and how welcoming these people were.
Manuel working hard to cook us some delicious carne (meat).
The El Tortugario crew.
Mexico es numero uno!
The sweetest present given to us by Joselo. A collage of our time together en Mexico!
I would like to end this post of with some of the misunderstandings that took place due to our lack of knowledge surrounding the Spanish language. Please enjoy.
1. Trying to tell Carlos that Allison would like to go on patrol with him. By me saying "Te Quiera," I was really saying "She loves you." The very awkward moments between her and him the next day was only explained after I realized my mistake.
2. Allison and I are incubating the turtle eggs while some tourists approach us. One little boy comes up to us and asks what happens to the turtle eggs. While Allsion can understand some Spanish, she can in no way speak it. She then proceeds to tell the boy, using the few words that she knows, that these turtle eggs will hatch into ants (we know the word for ants because they inhabited our beds!)
3. Allison saying "Es muy cailente," and the guy next to her not knowing if she is speaking about him or the weather (caliente is to express hot, calores is to express heat).
4. Me, not knowing that bug in Spanish is "bicho," and thinking Eba - a girl with limited English - just called me her bitch.
The End
Dawna
For three weeks Allison and I devoted our time to learning about and working with los tortugas del Tortugario. We decided to take this trip with the hopes that we would learn alot, work hard and hopefully make some friends. We accomplished that without a doubt, plus had time to enjoy what Mexico knows best: Cervezas!
We began this trip by taking the 24 hour Bloor bus to the airport, on a Friday, at 3am. Taking an hour bus ride, in a bus that is crammed - like doors won't shut crammed - with "I can't stand I am so drunk" people, and bags that are capable of breaking your back, was our first mistake.
Our second was getting a flight that involved three planes, to get to a place five hours away. Just to save a few bucks.
Our third, was not knowing any Spanish upon arrival. I figure what's a better way to ask for help, from an old Mexican woman who can't speak a word of English, than to start speaking Korean to her? Apparently that one Spanish course in grade 10 wasn't as fresh in my mind as I thought it was.
Allison and I arrived in Mexico hungry, dirty, sweaty and tired. Take these four adjectives, subtract the hungry and add itchy and you have our life for about three weeks. How can that not sound like the best three weeks of your life? With the help of Joselo, our younger older brother (younger than us, but essentially our guardian) we literally had the time of our lives. While he was super shy at first (as you might see in the video) he was sometimes willing to speak in English, always willing to teach us bad words in Spanish and never missed an opportunity to dance, sing or have a drink. If you are going to live in Mexico you have to learn to work hard, but to also enjoy life. Don't get so caught up in your day to day routine and forget that the best times you have are surrounded by family and friends (with food, beer/tequila).
Here is a video of where we cultivated most of our memories while in Mexico.
Before we left for Mexico we were super excited to embark on a major learning experience. At one point I was told that this opportunity might not be more than just a gathering of hippies looking to party, and to be honest I wasn't so happy about that. Allison and I didn't take this trip to "save the world," but we did want to expand our minds in some sort of way that didn't involve partying and only partying. This, thank goodness, was not the case. We were the only volunteers on this conservation site, living in very simple conditions, among people who didn't speak much English, in a small town that couldn't have been less touristy. We witnessed an organization that is dedicated to preserving the species of that area that are in danger of extinction with the hope of educating those people who pass by their gates. This is a non profit that is operating in a country/city with few resources. It doesn't have much, but it uses what it has to do the best that it can do.
Here are a few pictures documenting our travels. The first bunch represent the daily duties we performed during our work hours. Something that was always really cool was when you could have a full conversation, discussing the different hatching conditions of turtles, dependent on the colour of sand, in Spanish. Our form of communication went far beyond just words as charades became a part of our daily routine. While Allison's Spanish stayed pretty stagnant (she prefers grand gestures, and grunting, over words) I dedicated an hour or two a day to learning as much Spanish as I could. My learning curve was huge and I felt totally motivated, for about a week and a half, until I realized how much I didn't know haha. It was all good though. I used what I had, when I could, and I was proud of myself for it.
So let me briefly explain the sequence of our duties. Our day began at 10:30 pm when Allison and I (rotating days) would head out on a four wheeler with one of the local workers, Carlos (who didn't speak English or play charades hah). We would look for turtle eggs and only turtle eggs.. Like I said, it's either you or the poachers. Each turtle lays about 80-120 eggs. Each egg can be sold on the black market (as a delicacy served in restaurants) for 50 cents each. When workers make an average of two to three dollars an hour, you can see why this has become such a popular "profession."
Carlos goes out every night and collects as many eggs as he can. We were fortunate enough to be able to join him on his journey and there is no doubt that this was a highlight of our trip. There is nothing like being on a beach, in the middle of the night, hearing the waves crashing on the sand, seeing a million stars in the sky, and watching a turtle walk up and lay its eggs in the sand. Go one step further and turn the four wheeler off, sit in complete silence, rub the turtles shell to see it glow from the phosphorus elements from the ocean, and dig underneath its shell to catch its eggs in your hand, and you have yourself and opportunity of a lifetime.
See the following photos to get a glimpse of what it was like. I was totally unable to remove myself from the experience so there are only a few pictures that Allison was able to take.
The turtles are able to dig pretty deep holes!
Just one of the many weird looking eggs we found.
After the incredibly thrilling experience of the night patrols, we had to be up only a few hours (or maybe one hour) later to incubate all those eggs. The first few days it was fun. After that, I am not going to lie, planting those eggs was a bit of a bitch. The process involved digging a deep hole with an ancient looking contraption, carving it out with your hands to create a vase shape at the bottom, counting each egg while inserting it into the hole, covering it and recording it, all in black sand that is hot as hell, and Mexican sun, which is also, hot as hell.
After our morning escapade of egg planting, we would move on to turtle cleaning. The best was cleaning las chiquitas (what we would call the baby turtles). The babies were as cute as you would imagine them to be and even cuter because they hated having baths. In no way did they want to be cleaned and they would flap their fins in total protest. Until you rubbed in between their nose and their forehead that is and they became relaxed to the max. Not much more to say other than the fact that these little guys were cute little pooping machines!
In addition to the baby turtles, the mamma and pappa turtle tanks needed to be cleaned. There was no way around this one. This was just not fun. You could never really wash away all of the turtle shit, and the turtles just always seemed to be in your way. Moving them was never easy and scrubbing the floor was never fun. It's all in the name of an experience though! One thing I did love was seeing the total disregard the turtles had for your presence.
The highlight of our trip came about two weeks in when we witnessed a phenomenon of mother nature that you don't often get to see (well not in the city anyways). All of our hard work throughout the week led us back to the beginning of the life cycle where we were able to witness the birth of the baby turtles that had been incubated 45 days prior (that is how long they take to hatch). This was totally by fluke that we got to see it, but we are so so happy that we did.
This was our daily routine, just after lunch. To go down to the beach, burn the hell out of our feet (has anyone else experienced the pain of black sand?) stand in the water and watch the power of the ocean crash down at our feet.
...and inevitably surprise us with one or two waves that were just a little stronger than we thought they would be....
And here is just a glimpse of the few activities we participated in during our time away:
My daily study session
One of the few mangrove boat rides we went on, where the mosquitos totally destroyed us.
Allison conquering the Pacific Ocean on her surfboard!
Joselo giving us one of his many shows;
Ahhh, Coco Locos. A reward after a hard days' work!
One of my most popular daily activities. Scratching my mosquito bites until they bled.
Next are a few of the many living things we shared our space with:
Lobo, our second guardian besides Joselo. One of the most beautiful, smartest and toughest dogs around
Just so you know, that IS a scorpian, and yes, it CAN kill you.
So it wasn't all work in Mexico. Joselo introduced us to his friends: Jose, Ed, Manuel (and others) and they made sure to show us a good time!
Two of the 50 workers at Glass nightclub wearing the ever so stylish virus masks.
Ed, Jose y Manuel!
Please notice the travel dresses. I can assure you that we were extremely underdressed for this place. Wrinkled dresses, flipflops, bug bites, no make up and so so hair, did not make us fit in with the oh so classy Mexican women!
So we tried again the next weekend!
Allison starting the night off.
Allison ending the night off.
I almost won a prize! But I didnt. Because I am not Mexican. And got my name butchered in the process.
The boys preparing our going away dinner followed by a going away dance party! It was the BEST and I will never, ever forget how awesome, and how welcoming these people were.
Manuel working hard to cook us some delicious carne (meat).
The El Tortugario crew.
Mexico es numero uno!
The sweetest present given to us by Joselo. A collage of our time together en Mexico!
I would like to end this post of with some of the misunderstandings that took place due to our lack of knowledge surrounding the Spanish language. Please enjoy.
1. Trying to tell Carlos that Allison would like to go on patrol with him. By me saying "Te Quiera," I was really saying "She loves you." The very awkward moments between her and him the next day was only explained after I realized my mistake.
2. Allison and I are incubating the turtle eggs while some tourists approach us. One little boy comes up to us and asks what happens to the turtle eggs. While Allsion can understand some Spanish, she can in no way speak it. She then proceeds to tell the boy, using the few words that she knows, that these turtle eggs will hatch into ants (we know the word for ants because they inhabited our beds!)
3. Allison saying "Es muy cailente," and the guy next to her not knowing if she is speaking about him or the weather (caliente is to express hot, calores is to express heat).
4. Me, not knowing that bug in Spanish is "bicho," and thinking Eba - a girl with limited English - just called me her bitch.
The End
Dawna
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