30 noviembre 2007

different like che, leprosy, and my jungle

thought one:

in my ESL class the other day, there came the order,

"Think of a time when you have felt different."

I like doing stuff like this, so i got down to business... only to realize, all of a sudden, that the question was wrong... not "when have i felt different?" but "when have i felt the same?" not to go all introspective but i pretty much have never felt "the same" outside of my family. then i thought, no, there's a bond in peru and @ the jones that's the same... so on the ONTOLOGICALLY soulish level, yes, i have been the same. it all depends on the criteria for difference. it was just interesting to me to realize that some people find being different... unusual.

thought two:

"Che learns that leprosy, caused by relatively non-contagious bacteria, is not usually transmitted by touch. So, unlike that colony's doctors and nurses, he decides to shake the patient's hand without a protective glove."

The Peruvian lepers' colony he visits is near Iquitos, in a town called San Pablo. I "goo-glayed" it and this is what I found:

"Looking for Mr. Guevara Diary Entries"

apparently, a "Professor of Latin American & Caribbean Studies at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida," Barbara Brodman, "retrace[d] the journey through South America embarked upon in 1951 by a young, Argentine medical student, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, and his friend Alberto Granado.

First by motorcycle, then hitchhiking on land and water, Brodman and Ugav [made] their way from Argentina to Caracas, deviating as little as possible from the original route and sites visited by the young Argentines some forty-five years ago.

"I am not interested in marketing the myth of Che Guevara," states Brodman, "I seek the essence of the man who may have best expressed the frustrated aspirations of the Latin American masses, impatient for the better life they hoped for.

"Che spoke of erasing old social and philosophical concepts and going instead 'with an inquiring mind and a humble spirit to learn at that great source of wisdom that is the people.' That is what we plan to do, but within a new framework. The end of the Cold War cleared the revolutionary playing field of ideological debris and paved the way for evolutionary change that would have been impossible in Che's time. Yesterday's subversives have become the cult heroes of today's upwardly mobile set. Now is the ideal time to assess change and continuity in Latin America and to discover their implications for the future. That we use Che's original journey of discovery as our roadmap, seems both timely and appropriate.

As to the adventurous nature of my quest... I ask you, what's so adventurous about a women with little motorcyle experience riding across the Andes in mid-winter; trekking through deserts, mountains, jungles and plains; while, at every turn, confronting physical danger and financial uncertainty? To me, it sounds like the perfect vacation!"

me say... huh!

Dr. Broadman's thoughts: almost to Iquitos

"Entering Pucallpa was much like entering Jakarta. Arriving after dark, you come to know the city first through sound and smell. Dominating the senses is the noise of the mototaxis. It grates on the nerves almost as much as the clouds of dust and dirt the vehicles throw up grate on the body. But there is something charming, even exciting, about Pucallpa. It is the river and the jungle that dominates this environment, and the energy they emit is powerful. "

sound! smell! mi peru! te anhelo! the charming dust and dirt! the lullabye of motocars! the drug of the jungle that IS the jungle...! vengo, te prometo.