Here Sweet Now

Panajachel, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala.  Walking away from the lake, take a right just before El Rancho Grande at the green alley, last door at the end.  Yes, this is my new home!  Hold on, don't start mailing me things just yet, I am only here for 2 weeks... but for these wonderful two weeks, I have a room with a bathroom (and two beautiful roommates, Anna and Amanda, so lucky am I =), and our little home has a kitchen, a living/ dancing space, a lovely woman, Dona Francisca who cleans and does our laundry, and a courtyard (with flowers, a hammock, a hula hoop! and a papaya tree, bursting with ripe papayas! yumm!) for one small price of 27 Quetzals a day, or $3.50 if you will.  Yes, I am in heaven, gratitude to the universe for making this possible!  Boom!

To have this, albeit fleeting, sense of stability is allowing me to really feel freedom.  Backwards as that may be.  After flying free for some time, the sensation of sinking my roots has allowed my weary wings to unwind.  And exhale.  Almost, if not more important as the inhale, the exhale is purifying, detoxifying, cleansing.  Tension and release.  Home sweet as Home.  Family... familiarity.  So I've compiled a little list of all the things that signify a home to me, things not to take for granted for those of you blessed enough to have one of these magical little places:

1) The sound and smell of onions and garlic simmering in the pan.  Yes, this is number one.  Special Thanks to Steve for this signifying a home for me.

2) Making a cup of tea in the morning, in the same mug, the same way, every morning.  This one is dedicated to my Mum, the Master Tea Maker, because it always tastes the best in the "I Love Mum" tea mug.

3) Living room dance party for two.  When it's dark, the windows become mirrors from the inside light,  we have speakers with a sub to make the music sound right, a wiggle turns into a wobble turns into a dance party all night!  Anna gets a fist pump for this one ;o)

4) Hula Hoops, holy man, hula hoops!  Nothing spells home like a Hula Hoop.  I didn't realize how much I missed that fine glistening sweat worked up by a good house track and a hoop!  I'm aching, bruised, bashed, and beaten but I can't put the hoop down.  Extra Super Duper Thanks to Miss Lovely Lauren Shaw, HoopThereSheIs owner and Lady Halo Herself for strapping one of them bad boys to the girls' backpacks.  Man, I have cool friends.

5) Walking to the store, buying food, bringing it home (in a fun, reusable bag), putting it away, bringing it back out, chopping, cooking, eating, and saving the leftovers.  Amazing how much joy that brings me!  Or simply pulling a banana off the bunch and eating it on the couch, ahhh.  Which brings me to the next point...

6) Having a couch!  Especially falling asleep on the couch.  Which is really a loveseat, so my feet hang off the end.  Yes, I am Couchsurfing my own house, that's how I know it's home! 

7) Neighbors!  So far our most familiar neighbors are the roosters, the turkeys, the dogs barking, and the little boys two houses over who terrorize a puppy and wear Shrek masks.  There's also a happening Tortillaria around the corner who make truck loads of food and blast music on Sundays.

8) Watching the flowers grow, the leaves fall, the papayas ripen, the bees pollinate, the clouds change, the clothes dry on the line... being still and being able to hear my heart beat.  This is when you know you're really home.

I really am in my element, present, at home here at this lovely lake, one of the deepest and most beautiful lakes in the world.  I feel more available and alive than I have in a long time, and maybe because of it's expiration date I am truly appreciating every minute.  Bringing it all home for all of you happy little home makers out there, stay grateful for that which makes you feel present in your own little nest!

Happily hoopingly yours,
Homie Jo

People as Places as People

The people you meet in the world really make the experiences what they are.  So often it’s the case that one’s feelings toward a time or place depend on with whom that time was shared.  Or, sometimes, you share the time with only yourself.  Those instances are uniquely special as well, although no one would know it but me.  Like, if I fall in the woods, and no one is around to laugh at me, was it really funny?  

I have met so many people in my Getting Around that are more memorable than the actual place it’s self.  Like the grumpy old Italian man who we shared a day at the beach in Tulum, who was so astounded that I actually enjoyed myself in Isla Mujeres, he couldn’t believe it.  “It is a shit!  Dee whole place!  A shit!” he expressed while wildly flinging his arms in the air.  “Vat could you possibly like!”  Well, I met some really great people, Marleen from Germany, Jonathon from Israel, (both who I would meet again in my travels...) Also Polo at Mango Cafe from D.F., mmm some of the best meals of my life, AND shared some great times with one of my best friends, I loved my time on Isla!  But I can understand how a grumpy, unfriendly old guy may not have the same good fortune as someone as bubbly and approachable as moi.  He was great quality, though, otherwise he couldn't have been so memorable!  

We just spent a few days at the Earth Lodge and while it was in an astoundingly beautiful location, with rustic but inspirational accommodations, my days will be remembered by my time spent with Tom the beautiful Israeli Gypsy cook.  I spent each night helping what little I could with preparing the family-style dinner, sometimes even just providing the sound effects for adding spices and frying potato balls.  She hadn't had any company in the kitchen and I was loving absorbing her good juju that we really appreciated one another's presence, which is the first key, love the one you're with.  I remember a guru telling me once, in a jewelry shop in Rishikesh, India "(bobble bobble) As long as you are breathing, and surrounding yourself with good people, then everything you are doing will be right (bobble bobble)."  Well, I must be doing everything right, because I am constantly finding myself surrounded by the Vegan Prime Rib of Peoples!!  Sad for the grumpy old Italian men of the world, but happy for the rest of us!

Other people.... you just want to disappear entirely.  These people sort of form the backdrop of a situation.  Like yesterday, we went with Tom to a hot spring outside of Antigua about 30 minutes by chicken bus.  We were four western ladies, in bikinis, in Guatemala, and we could even swim!  We certainly had all eyes on us.  The staring, laughing, leering, commenting, overload of attention from the men gets to the point where you almost want to give them a little show, something really to talk about... how about a song and dance number, or synchronized swimming, yea!  These two teenage boys who thought they were super cool kept leaping from a point on the hill about 14 feet high doing heart stopping face first belly flops into the lukewarm, 6 foot deep pool.  Heaps cool.  But it really made the whole experience what it was, not just a trip to a hot spring, but a cultural experience, not just for us but for the locals there bathing (let's hope that's all it was!)  After, at the bus stop, waiting for the bus home, we see a beautiful old woman coming down the hillside with a giant bundle of sticks balanced on her head.  Behind her was her even more elderly husband, gingerly making his way down the mountainside.  With a wooden leg.  They slowly hobble and wobble their way down the road, the same way they had done it all their lives.  Enjoying one another's presence.  So many times it's not where you are, but who you're with that makes it worth while.  

Like the Modest Mouse song "People as Places as People":

"But we were the people that we wanted to know,

And we're the places that we wanted to go."

Wishing you were here,

Jojo Frijol

I'll know where I'm going once I get there!

"So, Where do you live?"
Pause.
One of my favorite questions to answer.

I don't actually live anywhere.  Correction, at the moment I am living in Antigua, Guatemala, but later today I will be living at the Earth Lodge, an avocado farm on the side of a volcano.  There's live music there tonight, and so there I go, to dance my way between the avocado trees and other intrepid travelers.

"So, if you don't live anywhere, where do you call Home?"
Hm, this one always comes across sounding very philosophical.  My concept of Home has changed a lot being on the road.  I have learned to make every place my home, like a turtle with it's shell.  But Home is something more permanent, a place to reside, to return to, an address to send mail.  Ah ha!  I can answer that one- my mail is sent to my Mum's house in Annapolis!  So you live in Annapolis?  No, I haven't lived there for years.  My last home was Denver Colorado.  My belongings live in Denver Colorado, but don't try to send mail to my storage unit, it will never arrive!

"So, when do you go Back?"
Back?  Why would I ever go Back?!  You mean, retrogress?  Isn't that contrary to the point of travel?  No, I don't go back.  Always Forwards.  Never Backwards.  Oh, you mean when will I return to the United States?  Most likely for Burning Man )*( :o)

And so it goes, the conversation I have had (and will have) with almost every person who is tenacious enough to ask, and ballsy enough to listen.  Eventually we round the corner to my work, the reason for my travels the past year.  That answer has been curtailed to the following:
"I work for a non-profit organization that sends Uni students to travel and volunteer abroad, doing conservation and community development work in places like South Africa, Thailand, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic.  I travel to Universities to talk to students about these programs, starting in Portland, through Nor Cal, down to Santa Cruz, then across to Australia, NSW and Brisbane, then between contracts I traveled Indonesia and India, then began a new season in California, spent six weeks in Ontario, three weeks in North Carolina, a week in LA, a weekend in Vegas to end the season, a week in Colorado with friends, a few weeks with my Mum in Annapolis for Christmas, then took off to Central America, beginning with a month in Mexico.  Now here I am in Guatemala, awaiting approval on my application to be project leader in the Dominican Republic this 2012 Summer Program. " (deep breath, wait for them to absorb)

I have this interaction so regularly that the remarkability gets lost in my voice, it begins to sound scripted, like my Public Relations person is telling it for me.  "Joanna really wishes she could be here right now to answer this question, but she off twirling around in fields of dandelion singing mantras to baby birds.  Let me bring you to date on her gallivants, she'll be back shortly!" 

And it dawned on yesterday, when talking with one of my best friends, anchors, fellow gypsy at heart, that this is a remarkable journey, one worth sharing, especially to my loved ones who have been following along.  To keep my head screwed on and to remind me why I continue to explore, why now, when I look at people, I see more their similarities to me than differences, my senses search to find the ordinary in the extraordinary just to avoid constant vertigo.  I'll keep this blog to share this, a reminder to continue to be astonished by the love and the beauty that surrounds us all, regardless of where we "live" or call "home".

Lots of love and avocados, 
Jo Jo the Frolicking Frijol