Another time, another place, another year

I haven’t updated in a while, and it’s the end of the year, so consider this a long entry.

I spent last week in Michigan for Christmas. I arrived to Richland after 14+ hours of traveling - which included flight delays, missed flights, and standby lists. I once again learned it pays to be polite but persistent, and that if you get the right people on your side (the ones who know what they’re doing), results come faster. I was very fortunate to get on a flight to Flint. (As the flight attendant said to a full flight, “Are you sure you’re on the right plane? Who goes to Flint?”)

After all the aggravation, it was good to finally set foot in Michigan. The cold, cold air welcomed me home. I rode in the backseat with Mom and Dad from Flint to Richland, as Dad drove through the late night snow. It was nice having some alone time with them, and most of the trip was spent chattering.

It’s always weird coming home. I’m not quite sure I’ve processed it all yet, but the most obvious feeling is one of change. I have my own life in Boston, separate from anything I left behind in my former life. It’s almost like having two selves, and I just have to find the best way to make the two selves meet and be at peace. As Aunt Jeanne jokingly said to me, “Man, there’s so much I don’t know about you!” And she’s right.

Over the week, I was lucky to see friends and lovers from high school and college, if even for a few minutes (thanks, Molly, for meeting me in a Delton parking lot to exchange gifts and hugs). My own ghosts of Christmases passed …

After Richland, it was on to Detroit and the various Symons-family gatherings. I had a lot of good laughs and enjoyed seeing my cousins – even Erin flew in from San Francisco. Sadly, I didn’t get to see Luke (and his girlfriend Rachel). That was quite disappointing, since I haven’t seen him since Thanksgiving weekend in 2007. I believe it’s the longest we’ve ever gone without seeing each other our whole lives.

It all went by very fast and before I knew it, I was back at the airport. I was feeling ready to be leaving, and to get back home to my Boston routine and my loved ones here. But amidst the hugging and goodbyes, there were suddenly tears (Dad started it), and I was saying goodbye with a quivering chin. Goodbye to them, and to my other self.

--

Here are a few things I’ve learned (or relearned) in 2008, in no particular order:

-Ask for help when you need it, even if it means trusting a stranger.

-I have more possessions and wealth than most of the world will ever own.

-Despite the November election results, there is still much to be desired in terms of social justice for all people.

-Big risks are often worth taking, even when they are scary.

-I am still quite young.

-I am lucky to be employed (and at a job I enjoy).

-The world is messy.

-People are essentially good.

-However, people often act out of selfishness.

-Mice are resilient bitches.

In the spirit of rebirth and renewal, and all the other things the New Year stands for, here are some of my goals for 2009, in no particular order:

-Cook multiple times a week; learn more techniques (and conquer my fear of baking) and research food & recipes.

-Get back into yoga, at least 3 times a week.

-Spend less time on the internet.

-Buy a sketchpad and start drawing again.

-Make a dent in my debt (student loans & credit card).

-Donate more clothes & cut back on my possessions.

-Travel to Montreal, NYC and San Francisco.

-Use my SLR camera again – take photos of people & places around the city (and world).

-Practice Spanish.

-Do some freelance writing & more personal writing.

-Keep in touch better with those far away.

-Find additional sources of revenue (i.e. babysitting).

-Keep the apartment cleaner (i.e. buy a mop).

-Learn to knit.

It’s going to be a busy year, but I’m up for it. I better got off the internet.

The Windy City, Turkey Day, and everything in between

I've been delinquent again. My apologies.

Last week I was in Chicago for an event. I was fortunate enough to stay with my best friend, Molly, in her little studio apartment on the north side of Chicago. It was wonderful to spend time with her (she even worked the event with me), but unfortunately, I came down with a cold and wasn't feeling well most of the trip. My parents made the drive to Chicago on Monday (my last full day there), and we were able to spend a few hours shopping/walking around Michigan Ave. It was much too short, but I said goodybe knowing I would see them again soon when I'm home for Christmas.

I had a lovely, lowkey Thanksgiving with Tif, Jess, and a few of Tif's friends/bandmates. We had far too much food, which is good because that means I won't have to go grocery shopping for a week. It all went quite well, except that my finished sweet potatoes went up in flames (not my fault) so that was a bit traumatic.

Now that Thanksgiving has passed, I have officially started my holiday music-listening. I tried to wait until Dec. 1, but just didn't have the strength to hold out until then.

Well, sorry for the short post, but I'm off to babysit. This will be my second time babysitting for this particular family in JP. We got connected on Craig's List - where else?

So, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, thank you for reading this blog and for thinking about me. If I haven't seen you recentlly, I hope to see you very soon.

Love to you and yours,
Ashley

It's another new england autumn

Last weekend: Drove out of the city into the 'burbs to find some pumpkins with Tif and Nessa. We took a detour through some wealthy neighborhoods, enjoying the nice sunny fall day. Then went home to carve the overpriced pumpkins and to drink hot spiced cider.

This weekend, I got things done - laundry, cleaned, slept. I had groceries delivered to my house for the first time, it was glorious. Jamaica Plain had its annual "Lantern Festival" where all the community folks make lanterns out of 20-oz soda bottles and walk around Jamaica Pond with them all lit up. It was cool, sadly I did not take pictures.
On Monday night, I went to an Uh Huh Her concert, and was right up front for some good electropop:

San Fernando: Sights & Sounds

Here's my first project about the Peru trip that I put together for our e-mail newsletter. It's the first thing I've ever done with audio and photos, so it was all experimental for me. Enjoy! (Turn on your speakers.)

other selves

there's this web site, yearbookyourself.com, that let's you put your face in yearbook photos from various decades. i've been having fun with it:

MMM, cuy

Here's a photo from one of my travel mates... me eating cuy (guinea pig). This was our first time eating it and everyone at the table was laughing at me because they were all trying to eat their cuy with fork and knife and I just picked mine up and took a big bite! Then the others did the same.

It was but a dream

Well, I've been back in Boston for just over a week now and it's hard to believe I was ever in Peru. I spent most of the work week going through all my photos, audio files, and video footage and trying to organize it. I'm excited about the projects I'll be able to put together using all this material. I really hope I can tell the story of San Fernando, and tell it well enough that we sell more of their coffee!

Now, let me tell you a little bit about the trip. We spent the first few nights in the capital city of Lima, and had a meeting with a national coffee board that supports small coffee producers (like those Equal Exchange works with). We also toured the secondary-level co-op (named COCLA) that processes and ships the coffee to Equal Exchange (and then we roast it in our warehouse).

From Lima, we flew to Cuzco. This was my favorite city in Peru. It was so beautiful, but with an altitude of 12,000 feet, most of us didn't feel quite right. The high altitude made breathing difficult, and with less oxygen in the air, the pollution seemed heavier. It also made us feel dizzy and disoriented. Basically, drunk. Regardless, Cuzco had a lot of charm and character and I loved the local market and all the crafts found there. I wish I could have spent more time exploring the city.

From Cuzco, we started the journey to San Fernando in two vans. This was a very long journey. We left at 8 a.m. and after a flat tire, a 3-hour road closure, and a very foggy mountain ride, we arrived to San Fernando at almost 4 a.m. They had expected us to arrive much earlier, around dinnertime. We were all so tired and happy to finally be there. We had been driving on bumpy, winding dirt roads for about 10 hours. Luckily, we were actually at a lower altitude in San Fernando (about 6,000 feet), so I didn't experience any of the disorientation that Cuzco had caused.

We went straight to bed in our homestays (two of us visitors were each paired with a San Fernado family). My roommate was Gladys, who works at Equal Exchange and was born in Peru. Which means she knows the culture and speaks Spanish better than she does English! I was very excited to be with a Spanish-speaker, as I was worried about the communication barrier with my host family.

We were more than pleasantly surprised to find we had beds, our own room, and even had electricity (we just had to clamp some wires to this box thing, I don't know, I'm not an electrician). And maybe best of all, the house had a brand new toilet! We were shocked by all this; we were expecting to have to pee in a hole in the ground (which we did do in other communities) and sleep on the dirt floor.

So, we spent four nights in the community. The days were filled with meetings, interviews, coffee picking, and traveling to other communities that are part of the San Fernando co-op. It took us four hours by car to get to the closest other community; seriously, those mountain roads take forever. And it also demonstrates how remote the communities are from each other. And since there aren't cars, they walk from community to community. This includes the children walking to school if there isn't a school in their community, which is one of the reasons fair trade is so important. The premiums are often used to build a school in the community, so that kids don't have to walk for hours and hours to get there.

Anyway, we were treated with such care and kindness everywhere we went. One of the communities greeted us with a band, a banner, and all the community members were lined up on the sides of the road to give each of us a hug, kiss, and/or handshake. They were so excited to meet us. Let me put this into perspective: Equal Exchange buys all of their organic coffee (which is most of their coffee). Everyone who lives in these communities farms coffee. Everyone. So, their entire livelihoods depend on the price they receive for their coffee. (Price is based largely on quality, so Equal Exchange has been working with the community on projects that increase their quality. We helped fund solar drying beds, which was partly why we came to visit - to check on the progress of these).

This whole relationship is pretty unique because the only place you can buy San Fernando coffee is in cafes in Philly and Ithaca, New York. There were owners from these cafes on the trip with us. The farmers loved meeting the people who sold their coffee every day.

When we walked through the community, all eyes were on us. I mean, naturally, we stuck out. Everyone greeted us with "Good morning" or "Good afternoon." I had fun trying to communicate with the kids. They were so cute, and were thrilled to have their picture taken and see it on the digital camera.

I'm realizing there's so much I could say. I will link anything I write for Equal Exchange publications to my blog. The experience was so unique and I'm still processing it all. It was hard to see how simply they lived, how important "community" was to all of them, and return to my American life full of material possessions. And it just confirmed how much American culture emphasizes ideals like independence, privacy, and wealth. I definitely left the mountain community wondering which of us actually has the richer life when it comes to the things that really matter.

The one thing I am so grateful for, that I know they are struggling everyday to get, is education. I talked to women in the community who stopped attending school after second grade because their fathers told them they didn't need an education to work in the kitchen. The women were so happy to have their own children attending high school, and maybe they would leave the community and attend college.

It was somehow fitting to return to the United States in the middle of a financial crisis, in the middle of messy presidential campaigning, and just shake our heads. This country has a lot of growing up to do.