To have and to give

Being in other countries has prompted me to think a lot about income inequality and how arbitrary borders and random circumstance dicate so much about a person´s standard of life. I knew that traveling outside of my bubble existence and being exposed to more overt discrepancies between rich and poor would leave me with a lot to continually process mentally and theorize about and critically think about where our societies are going. Really, I HAVE been doing more than eating and contibuting my dolares to the local economies of South America.

I have not talked to locals as much as would like to hear about their perspective (especially in BsAs where the people are a bit more ¨impenetrable¨ as one fellow traveller we met, a British expat living there, described the people in the city in opposition to other Argentines), although I do feel like Ecuadorians were always quite expressive about their societal problems. But another way I have a lens to this part of the world is from other travellers and what it has been like for them (what places seem dangerous, close to civil war, ravaged by natural disasters!). I was really struck by hearing the accounts of an Irish young man I met at our hostel in BsAs, who was near the epicenter at the time of the Peruvian earthquake that recently devastated the coast. He and his girlfriend walked outside of their hotel to find shambles all around and dead bodies in the street. They later volunteered with some aid relief in Lima, but were still tramautized by seeing how badly the quake ruined the area and what that did to the people who lost everything (who began to riot and rob another). I mention this not because I am trying to evoke pity or make any claim about this region in dealing with tragedy or suffering, but because it is one more thing revolving in my head about our relative ways of living and co-existing in this world. More to comment on when I am not sweltering in the hot Argentine heat and can better describe where my thoughts are going...

Where I was trying to go with this right now relates to my continual difficulty in dealing with the modern world´s obsession with consumerism (a personal opinion, esp in regards to the US, and I am just personally too addicted to things). And bringing the focus of my ramble to a really simple point - spending the holidays reflecting on what is really important, the people you are around and compassion. I want to urge people to give holiday gifts to those they love in the form of giving to others. There are places to donate online or give to your local library (or the UC Berkeley library fund!). JustGive.org is pretty reputable. I just feel happier putting that idea out there, even for those of you who already donate so much and are wonderful providers to the people around you. And not to downgrade tangible gifts - I felt really emotional reading an email from my mom about what she was buying for other family members because I want to be there, too, putting thought into what would make each person happy to receive and what a good gift reveals about our connections to each other. I just want to suggest other gifts given the recent move to gift cards and more impersonal gift giving that may have more ultimate meaning with a little thought or extra giving!

And with that, I am hypocritically taking my money and going to spend it on an empanada on the way back to the hostel (in Iguazu Falls - which is abosultely incredible). Sorry mom and dad, to keep your unemployed daughter fed there will be no touristy gifts are coming your way soon, even by way of charitable giving. Just lots of thoughts that we were able to be together in the same space right now - though I would definitely make you come to me because I am thoroughly enjoying the summer time. So yes, these are very important things to me - having many people who love me (odd they may be) and being in hot, hot, sun. Ahhhh.