Portraits of Why I Travel

We can talk all day about the complex histories, the rich cultures, the funny languages, and the delicious or obscure food that every place is made up of, but in the end, it always comes down to the people. For a true traveler, what really matters are the people you meet along your journey whether it's the brief encounters with inconsequential strangers or the unforgettable moments with strangers who turn to life long friends.

As one blogger on the Matador Network so wonderfully wrote, "despite the reasons why we end up in some dot on a map, it is always the people we share our time with that will define the place in our minds. Other travelers. Locals. The people we came with. Shared laughs. Shared suffering made eminently more tolerable because everyone is suffering together. Hour long conversations about the meaning of life using a few shared words and hand signals." Inspired by that, I thought I'd share a few faces in the crowd that have given shape and depth to the places on my map...

Sylwia and I up top Mount Pilatus

Sometimes you meet people you just instantly click with. Sylwia's one such person. We met three years ago while studying abroad in the Czech Republic, traveled one weekend to Berlin, and have been travel buddies ever since. It makes all the difference in the world to be traveling around with someone who shares your travel style, who can withstand your "quirks", who's interested in seeing the same things you are and who revels in the same simple pleasures as you do...or even better, somebody who can teach you to open your eyes and heart to something entirely new.

The good people of CMFR marching at the International Day to End Impunity

The Philippines is one of the most dangerous countries to work in for journalists but the people from the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, a non-profit media monitoring organization, is fighting against that. In November 2011, I decided to go back to my home in the Philippines and volunteer with them. I hadn't been back in nearly a decade, but Kat, John, Melai, Bryant, Sheila, and the rest of the CMFR team made me feel so welcome. They taught me so much about the Filipino press system and the culture of impunity that plagues the country, but also the amazing people who are working hard to change the system.

My little family in Florence

Sometimes you just totally and completely luck out with your choice in accommodations. Sylwia and I met Christene, Eoin, Kathleen, and Katy (L to R) at the Dany House in Florence and it was all love from the get go. This shot's from one of the most amazing and memorable nights in my travels...watched a sunset with a panaromic view of Florence, ate cheese, drank wine, and obnoxiously sang 90s hits all night. Just one of those picture perfect days to last a whole lifetime, you know? (Cue Jay-Z's version Forever Young here...)

Theavy at a non-profit fair trade event

Theavy is one of the sweetest people I know and we met while I was backpacking the streets of Phnom Penh.  She works at Mekong Quilts, a social enterprise offering sustainable employment to women in the village of Rumdou in Svay Rieng province, and we struck up a conversation immediately about our work in the non-profit sector. She invited me to an event where I got a first hand glimpse of the huge and vibrant fair trade network in Phnom Penh. Our friendship continues through email as we keep each other updated on non-profit life in Cambodia and Canada, continuing that cultural exchange despite the geographic constraints.

Goofing around with the OG crew

Now I know technically this one doesn't count as I didn't meet these crazy people on my travels, but rather here at home in Toronto. It's people like the entire Operation Groundswell crew (at home and abroad) that are the reasons why I travel. The open mindedness, the readiness for whatever adventure awaits, the social awareness, the genuine kindness...

...and of course there are those who I didn't manage to get a picture of but whose faces have added even more color to the video reel of my adventures I often replay in my head And so, whether by chance or by design, I welcome and look forward to the friends I've yet to meet on my future travels...here's to more conversations, to more dancing, more laughing, more drinking, more singing. 

Fuck Inspiration

You heard me. Fuck Inspiration. As a society, we're so hung up on finding someone or something that will inspire us to change ourselves or the world. Everyday someone on my Facebook wall or Twitter feed is posting some crap about an inspirational video or story. Every now and then I attend an industry event with a speaker that's telling the audience to follow their passions no matter what. We all just looove turning to inspirational quotes, speakers, videos, books...anything to rouse our emotions and push us to action. We search high and low for those words that will suddenly accelerate us in the pursuit of our dreams, happiness, justice or whatever our particular cause may be. 

But they're all just words. Just words that make us feel empowered and emboldened for fleeting moments. Honestly, I think inspiration is overrated. I say, get mad instead. Find something that really pushes your buttons...something that really enrages you and makes you question wtf the rest of the world is doing...and then do something that will change that.

I've worked with a number of organizations that have been led by real leaders. Leaders who weren't "searching" for inspiration. No. They saw something wrong with the current system and they got out there and did something about it. They saw that there weren't any accessible resources for recent graduates to look for work in an already shiteous economy. They saw the lack of real, whole food, organic ingredients in the products of most existing sports nutrition companies. They saw the travel volunteer industry being dominated by companies charging students exorbitant amounts of money to "do good" overseas. They saw the way international institutions blinded themselves to human rights violations because of bureaucracy.

They saw all of these problems in their respective fields and they went out there and they became the change they wanted to see. They didn't just talk about being the change they wanted to be or watch videos about it...passively waiting to be inspired. No. They went out there and got their hands dirty. 

So let's just cut the fluff. Fuck inspiration. Get mad. And get to work. 

2012

Ah, 2012. What is there to say? Probably the fastest year of my life...still blows my mind that we find ourselves here again so quickly, looking back on the year that was and trying to make sense of where it all went. It's been a strange year with a lot of bumps, a year where I oscillated between knowing everything and absolutely nothing almost every other day (like a true twenty-something should).

But more than anything else, 2012 is the year that I gained a new family. I joined the Operation Groundswell team in early June and it has changed my life entirely. OG is unlike anything I've ever experienced before. Our office is a home, our staff is a family, and our work is the passion that drives us all. Getting up to go to work isn't drudgery, but something that I long to do. Everyday I'm surrounded by people who I admire so much and who push me to do and be better. It's a rarity in this world to do the work you love and be surrounded by such crazy cool cats at the same time. I've drank the Kool Aid, no doubt...every last sip of it! 

So here's to a 2013 full of laughter, love, discoveries, and adventure. May you find what you're really good at, what you really want to do, and both the courage and the luck to make it all happen. 

Coming Face to Face with the Victims of Mining Oppression

It was an interesting situation, one I don’t often find myself in. A few of my colleagues from Operation Groundswell and I were having dinner with five Mayan Q’eqchi people from the communities of El Estor, Guatemala. I don’t speak Spanish nor do our guests speak English. And yet, there we were, sharing a meal together. Through awkward smiles and broken Spanish (on my part, at least), we exchanged names and warm greetings. We dug into pupusas, burritos, black bean soup while trying to converse through a mix of hand gestures, our translators, and more smiles. As lovely as the encounter was, I wish I had met these wonderful people under very different circumstances…

Angelica, German, Margarita, Maria, and Rosa were not in Toronto as part of some citywide tour or vacation. They were not here to enjoy the culture and sights our city has to offer. No. They are all victims of extreme human rights violations by Canadian company Hudbay Minerals—a company accused of forcibly evicting local indigenous communities in Guatemala. And they were here to give testimony on three precedent-setting civil negligence suits concerning the gang rape of eleven Q’eqchi women, the assassination of community leader Adolfo Ich (Angelica’s husband), and the shooting and paralyzing of German.

They shared their pained experiences with us, explaining their purpose for coming to Canada as just one step in their long and bitter fight for justice. Though a colleague spoke enough Spanish to translate, we really didn’t need an interpreter to feel the grief and sorrow these people had endured and carried everyday in their hearts.

We hear stories of these human rights violations everyday. But that’s all they really are. Stories. Abstractions so removed from our daily life. It’s a harrowing but necessary experience to come face to face with the people behind these stories and to realize that these are not isolated cases taking place in just one small, remote community. From Guatemala to Honduras and beyond, conflicts and violence involving foreign mining companies abound. 

Action needs to come from the Guatemalan government to uphold rule of law and put an end to the poisonous culture of impunity, but also from the Canadian government that allows the actions of these corporations. For instance, the Canadian International Development Agency has established development projects in partnership with the very same mining corporations responsible for these human rights violations as well as environmental degradation.  

As non-profit organization MiningWatch stated, “Aid money is meant to address poverty, not to promote the commercial interests of Canadian mining companies. Nor should it subsidize the obligations of mining companies to provide benefits to affected residents and rehabilitate damaged environments”.

If we are to demand change and action, we must begin at home.

Take action against mining oppression in Guatemala through Amnesty International's Write for Rights campaign and RightsAction.org.