Maria ~ Asia taught me so many things! For starters, please don’t laugh at me, I didn’t even know how a banana tree looks like, not to mention avocado, papaya, wood apple, snake fruit, dragon fruit, pineapple, pomegranates or mango, for that matter. I had no idea that a coconut which falls to the ground by itself is considered bad, so that to harvest coconuts one has to climb a skyscraper of a palm tree and cut whole clusters with machete and rope them down. In case you wondered, yellow coconuts are for drinking, green are for cooking. Fruit trees were just the beginning introduction to Asia 101. Next was how to drive on the left side of the road without killing ourselves and how to fit the four of us and all our luggage in a tiny tuk-tuk. Asia also taught us that one doesn’t need a fancy kitchen to cook an amazing meal. All that is needed is a grill, a gas burner or a hole in the dirt to shelter the fire from the wind. The vegetables can be cut with a machete right on the ground and the flour can be mixed with water in a metal plate and shaped into chapatis in the air – it takes a minute for the flat breads to puff up over the flame. Yum! Asia also gave us a lesson in bravery by rewarding us with delicious local eats packaged in newspaper, held together with rubber bands and sold from inconspicuous street carts or dished out from questionable pots sitting on sidewalks and best enjoyed while crouching on tiny plastic chairs in the company of people united by their love for food.
Other useful lessons were to always carry toilet paper; to ignore stares; to love spicy food; to be ok eating among swarms of flies (it is not a big deal); to wear flip flops all the time; to endure extreme heat and body sweat; to only take cold showers; to never forget sunscreen and sun hats and to always have a pocket knife – you just never know when you are going to stumble upon a fruit stand!
All these little details that we collected for 10 months feel like fine brush strokes adding more and more color to Asia’s portrait but the real lessons are the people we met. They are the warm heart of this continent. Like gracious host they made us feel at home with an ease that was both seducing and effortless – from the green tea we were offered everywhere in Japan at the beginning of out trip to Sri Lanka’s friendly people who opened their homes to us and fed us delicious meals till the last day of our stay.
Thank you Asia for teaching us how to receive from people who have much less than us. Thank you for showing us that happiness and joy do not depend on how much one owns or how much one has achieved but on how much one gives and shares with others.
Thank you Asia for opening our hearts.
Boryan ~ It was in Asia that I learned that not all people have the means to support themselves and their families and that not all kids are as lucky as I am. This taught me to not take things for granted such as, electricity, running water, school, family, my sister and much more. I shouldn’t take what I have for granted because I could have been born into a very poor family. I could be a child in Angkor Wat begging for the tourists to buy my trinkets so I could survive or I could be a kid in the slums of Delhi collecting trash to sell. I could be any poor kid in Asia and then I might not have food on the table every day.
I also learned that I am lucky just to have white skin and be a boy. These two things are of no importance to me, but in Asia they seem like the two most important things in the world. There, fair skin is power. I am amazed at what people do to achieve it! In the markets almost all of the cosmetics have skin whitening agents and there are even special drinks to make skin white! At the beaches or anywhere in the sun, even when it’s burning hot outside, people wear long pants and long sleeves to protect their skin.
Being a boy makes life in Asia so much easier because people value their sons much more. Sons continue the family name and they take care of the parents whereas daughters require a lot of money for their marriage and once married they move to live with the husband’s family. Also, the life of women is hard! The woman takes out the buffalo, cooks all the meals, cleans the house and and cooking tools, washes the clothes, washes the kids, goes to the market and takes the buffalo back. The men don’t work so hard usually.
The part about white skin taught me that there are things in the world that are unfair and don’t make sense and the part about boys taught me to respect women more.
I learned that education is one of the most important things in the world. Before going to Asia I didn’t appreciate school and education but now after seeing how many kids can’t go to school I have realized how valuable it is. Without education in Asia your options are very limited. If you do have education it could mean that you get a government job with good pay and you could support your family!
Kuba ~ Having lived for the past 15 years in a country where everything is size XL and spread out, starting with the jog of milk in my bulky refrigerator through cars, houses and big box stores, to the size of the country itself, I have developed an ever growing longing for all things small, cozy and manageable.
Not that Asia itself is small. Parts of it, especially India, are anything but manageable, but because of the large number of people there trying to make a living on a limited amount of space, everything appears to be condensed into a very tight and diverse urban fabric. Streets are filled with vendors, rickshaw and tuk-tuk drivers. Tiny shops and restaurants are everywhere. It is not uncommon to see storefronts that are no more that 1m wide. Large businesses and corporations are present as well of course. They do have their place in the economy, but are fragmented into smaller chain stores and brand names are sprinkled on store signs and knock off merchandise. Mixed into the businesses and/or very close to them tiny living spaces are often shared between numerous three-generation families.
It all may seem chaotic on the surface but strangely, I found that Asian lifestyle suits human nature. The continent made me realize, or I should say strengthened what I long suspected to be true, that the best formula for happiness and harmony is diverse mix of live/work spaces, proximity to family and necessities within a fabric of mostly family owned businesses that support a healthy community.
Raina ~ What Asia taught me is how lucky I am to have everything I need and have food on the table every day because some people are so poor that they have to starve some nights. Many children in Asia don’t go to school so they can work to get some money for their families. Asia also taught me how lucky I am to travel because many people in Asia want to travel but are so poor they cant even go to countries that are very close.
Asia also taught me how to be a better eater especially India. in India I got used to spicy foods and curry. Now I like foods I used to not like like dhal, palak panner (spinach with Indian cheese), all kinds of soups and cooked foods for breakfast.
