10 reasons I sometimes feel like I’m still in Argentina
1)
The climate.
It is super humid. You get used
to sweating 24/7. In fact, you are just
used to always being wet, and never being dry.
You walk outside and feel like you are swimming. Air conditioned buildings are heaven on
earth. If I would have been here just a
few months earlier, the heat would have been almost just as bad too!
2)
This little guy that lives in my room!
Had a few
of these in Argy too.
Oh and this
guy.
Left this box open for one day and
what do I do? Find this guy already
building his little home here! These
were all over Argentina.
Oh and also
this tree.
And these giant spiders. (look at the one on the far right... it's like, as big as my hand!! ew ew ew ew ew!)
3)
Because of the same climate, that means my body
reacts the same. Colds (seriously… I
always thought colds were associated with COLD weather. Who gets their worst colds in hot humid
places?? This girl.), rashes and break-outs, soft skin, and faster growing hair
and nails. I’ll take the bad for the
good though! :) it’s worth it
4)
Crazy streets.
You feel like you are going to get hit every time you go anywhere. Motorcycles everywhere. Entire families on motorcycles all at
once. The people are crazy drivers but
rarely get in accidents because they have to be paying attention 100% of the
time.
5)
The houses!
Made the same way. Electrical
wires out in the open everywhere.
Colorful and beautiful. A huge
house here is a small or normal sized house in the states. Carpet is basically non-existent. Can’t flush
the toilet paper… people use bidaes instead.
No A/C, just fans.
6)
Dog fights at night. They are so fun to listen to from my window…
haha
7)
Power cuts.
At least once a day!
8)
Street vendors and small little shops
everywhere, just like kioscos. People
live from those instead of large grocery stores. There is a small little shop for every
category of things you would need to buy.
9)
Because I don’t speak Telugu, I only understand
about 30% of what is going on at any given moment. Hahaha.
Definitely remember that feeling in Argentina! It’s amazing how much you can communicate
with someone though without using words.
10) The
people! Maybe it’s their beautiful dark
skin and unbelievably long and thick dark hair, or their mysterious facial
expressions, or the kids walking on the streets in school uniforms, or the way they stare when they see white people (ok, it’s a
LITTLE worse here than it was there… see photo below. Hah!) or maybe it’s just their different
culture or language, or the way they live their lives. I’m not sure, but I’m feeling a little bit of
a connection here. :)
For these reasons and more, I think I have been able to feel
really comfortable here. Who knew my two
favorite countries had so much in common?! :)
So on Friday we took a 3 hour drive out to a neighboring
city called Srikakulam. It was
BEAUTIFUL. We had to pass through a
bunch of little tiny towns to get there.
We went out to this little village to go to an awesome temple called
Mukalingam. It is full of male and
female symbolism, if you know what I mean.
Haha. It was really cool.
The funniest part was stopping on the way in, and the entire
village came to see us. We were there
for maybe 10 or 15 minutes and by that point everyone had gathered together,
staring at us and pointing… they were all too scared to come say hi or meet us
(I’m telling you, when you’re white you seriously feel famous here!). We got in the car and everyone gathered
around our car knocking on the windows and waving, asking us our names,
etc. Haha! So funny. Here are a few photos of our fan club...
Emily waving from the car like a celebrity
It was a beautiful area and we definitely want to go back
there to just take time and explore the little villages and pathways. Here are some photos from the day…
Mukalingam Temple
Sewer hogs... they swim around in the sewers. These ones graduated from the sewers and decided to roam the streets like humans.
At another temple in Srikakulam... it's for the turtle avatar of the god Vishnu
a sacred washing area
Rice! These ladies were singing while working. It was awesome to watch
Emily striking a yoga pose
On my way there and back I was reading a little book written
by a guy named Swami Paramananda (apparently the word swami is used in English
too but I had never heard it before—it just means guru or teacher). He brought a lot of south-asian beliefs to
America and had a lot of followers there.
This little book is on self-mastery which is what my research project
is. There are so many good things in
this book! Seriously, I am finding truth
all over the place. It’s cool to look at
things from a different viewpoint too and compare it to things I already know
or have seen. For example, he talks
about the importance of being humble in order to master one’s self. He relates it to two trees… one who bears
fruit and one who doesn’t. The
fruit-bearing tree has it’s branches humbly bowed down low to the ground
because they are so heavy and barren with fruit. The tree without fruit is stiff and upright,
but it bears no fruit and is good for nothing but to look at really. He then goes on to talk about how we must
recognize who we are with a clear view and recognize the divinity and power
that each of us has, and we must believe that we can master ourselves and have
the faith to change. I was then reading
in Mosiah 4 and 5 where the people had a real change of heart, and it talks
about the exact same things! The
importance of being humble in order to change, getting a clear view of one’s
self, and having the faith to change.
Look at that… there’s truth in so many different places. :)
Here are a few other quotes from the book that I have really
liked so far:
“The only way we can rise, the only way we can lift our
fellow-beings, is to find a higher level of consciousness. If we have a nobler standard of life, if we
possess self-control, if we are master of ourselves, we shall not need to state
it in words. All who are living around
us—children, brothers, sisters, friends—will benefit by what we are. They may become impatient with us, intolerant
that we are different from them, but if we hold fast to our own ideals they
will turn to us in moments of distress.
In time of storm, anger, impatience, or great grief, one who is not
molested by these things, becomes like a rock; others cling to him and find
their consolation.”
From the Bhagavad Gita—“ let a man raise himself by his
Self, let him never lower himself; for he alone is the friend of himself, and
he alone is the enemy of himself. He who
has conquered himself by the Self, he is the friend of himself, but he whose
self is unconquered, his self acts as his own enemy like an external for.” Natural man… anyone?? I like looking at it
that way—an idea of self (as in natural man) vs. Self (kind of like our divine
nature and higher potential).
“Whenever we start to do anything with dejected mind, or
carry an evil impulse in our heart, do we not act as our own enemy? We know ethically and intellectually the bad
effect these have upon our moral and physical being, and yet we stagger on
carrying a load which exhausts us.”
Totally true… it’s the struggle within one’s self!
“We become our own enemy when we are thrown out of balance
by anger, hatred, grief or any intense emotion.
We are for the time being obsessed by something alien. Anger is such an obsession. It is a very ugly thing in life. It disfigures a person. One who is pleasant and lovable can be so
changed by anger or jealousy that even if we try we can no longer find any
trace of beauty in his face, it has become so distorted. Yet the whole of us is not obsessed. We are like two persons,--the person who is
angry and the person who is not. There
is a dual principle in us. One part of
us aspires for the highest, best, purest and finest; the other is earth bound,
weighted down by material concerns.”
“One who has control over his own self, who is serene in the
midst of all dual conditions—heat and cold, pleasure and pain, noise and
stillness, under all circumstances—will carry with him wherever he goes the
constant realization of his supreme Self.”
“Self-realization means that we have become consciously
connected with our Source of being. Once
we have made this connection, then nothing can go wrong; if we have not made
it, then no matter how much we may try, everything goes wrong.” –clear view of
ourselves, our divine nature, and for me, a clear view of God and how He sees
us.
“Plato declares a wise man will be as happy in a state of
slavery as in a state of freedom.” Hmmm…. Interesting! Looks like ‘freedom’ and ‘happiness’ have
more to do with attitude rather than situation.
“Many a person after his first failure or when he meets with
some obstacle settles down and says: I am not born equipped; it is not in my nature
to do this. He has not even investigated
his inner nature; he is judging only from the surface. If he would go deeper he would find that he
has all the inherent powers and possibilities, more than he can possibly
use. Let us remember our dual nature:
faltering, failing, weak and unstable on the one side, and on the other:
majestic, potent, invincible. As we
reflect upon the higher Self, as we try to find access to it, the lower nature
will fade away.”
“If we depend on praise and recognition, if we have any
self-glorifying attitude, we are undone.
He who is dependent on praise is equally affected by blame. When our inner life is empty we cannot help
but depend on the exterior, but after our inner life is filled we care less and
less for all outer conditions. We are
happier because of this, we create a happier atmosphere—an atmosphere of
strength.”
“At present our body, mind and senses are very much like
untrained horses. We must learn to
control them, therefore, and prove that we have the power to guide them instead
of being dragged hither and thither by them.
We have been made to believe that if we do not give certain comforts to
the body, it will go to pieces. Such
thoughts have led us to indulge the body until it has become like a spoiled child. Whatever it demands, we give without
discrimination. So also with our mind
and senses. It is for us to decide
whether we shall yield to every impulse of our physical organism or hold it in
check. This is the first step in giving
discipline.” Btw, I really like that
word discipline. I mean… I hate it, it
makes me cringe. Because it’s hard
work. Haha. But I once heard a stake president talk about
how disciple and discipline have the same root.
Coincidence? I think not. Discipline is very important.
“He whose mind is free from all delusion regarding the self,
he will stand and not fall in the battle of life.”
Ok, there are a lot more than that but I’ll save them for
next time. I just feel like these are
all things I have heard before in the scriptures or in conference. I love that truth is truth and doesn’t depend
upon personal beliefs… it just is and
there’s nothing we can do about it but accept it and embrace it and live by it,
because that’s how we are truly set free! (John 8:32)
That’s all for now kiddos.
Any comments or insights on this topic would be greatly
appreciated. You can facebook message me
or email me (linseyluey13@gmail.com)
with any info or experiences you have! Graciassssssss. K byeeeeeeeeeeeee!
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