Taganga, Colombia
What does space mean to you? Is it a necessity? A status symbol? A burden?
A friend and I recently went to see a documentary at the Toronto Hot Docs festival called Tiny: A Story About Living Small. The doc follows a young couple who embark on the project of building their own tiny house, measuring roughly 100 square metres, in order to secure their footing in an increasingly growing movement of downsizing living spaces in favour of simplicity.
La Guajira, Colombia
I am currently suffering from Guatemala withdrawal. The last few weeks have gone by in a flurry of exams and assignments. I find myself flipping through the pictures my classmates and I took while we were there, trying to relive the beautiful, eye-opening moments we shared. I find myself checking flights on Expedia.ca, looking for the next great experience. It’s hard to fight the urge to spread my wings and take off again.
By the time the trucks pulled up to the clinic in Santa Catarina, a Mayan village outside of Panajachel on Lago Atitlán, the line of people waiting stretched all the way down the block. Aged anywhere from 4 months to 93 years, some of the patients had traveled miles to get there and some had been waiting for hours. The sight brought to mind North American youths waiting outside of Best Buy for the new iPhone to come out. It´s so astounding what our priorities have become. Many of the patients who quietly waited on the cobblestone street for the clinic to open had never seen a doctor in their lives, grinning and bearing their way through years of chronic illness and pain.
My scrubs, stethoscope and 50 pounds of supplements to donate to the Guatemalan clinic are packed and I’m ready to go! Today I’m off for my medical brigade to Guatemala with Naturopathic Medicine for Global Health (NMGH) where a group of students from the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine and I will be seeing patients in a free clinic outside of Panajachel that caters to the Mayan community. I’m so excited and grateful to have received this amazing opportunity. Before I leave I want to send a huge THANK YOU to everyone who donated to my cause! I’ll be back on February 24th, the day after my birthday, with (hopefully) some amazing stories and insights from my trip to share. See you all soon!
I’ve been reading a book I recommend to all of you: The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton. This book is, in one, a Western philosophy refresher course and self-help book, outlining a guide for living as dictated to us by 6 great philosophers. One of my favourite chapters examines the life and philosophy of Greek philosopher Epicurus and distills the lessons he shared with us about finding true happiness and fulfillment in our lives, while still living modestly.
In Paraguay, South America there is a village, called Cateura, whose main industry is collecting and recycling the waste from the rest of the country. Being from a poor village that acts as Paraguay’s dumping grounds, the citizens of Cateura subsist mainly on sorting and recycling garbage. The documentary Landfill Harmonic, tells the story of Favio Chavez, a music teacher in Cateura, who decided to create a school music program using instruments made entirely of recycled garbage.
Happy New Year, everyone! I took a much needed computer fast for a few days and thus left this blog for a little while, but I’m back now. The world didn’t end in 2012, and it was an interesting, productive year. Here are some highlights!
For the last Monday of classes for the 2012 school year we had a cleverly named “Ugly Potluck and Delicious Sweater” party at CCNM. Much fun (and good treats) were had by all and people did wear quite delicious sweaters, including some homemade masterpieces featuring Christmas trees that actually lit up via a battery pack. Celtic Christmas songs droned on in the background and it was a nice study “break” to foster school spirit and a sense of community before the real heat of exams set in and then we all disperse for the holidays.
So, in February of 2013 I will be packing up my medical equipment and heading to Panajachel, Guatemala to embark on my first ever medical brigade with Naturopaths Without Borders (NWB) and Naturopathic Medicine for Global Health (NMGH)!
Last Wednesday, November 14, a group of exceptionally socially-minded classmates and I held a Community Healthcare Panel. Despite the fact that it was held on a Wednesday night, the event proved to be nothing less than engaging and inspiring and, because of its success, I was asked by a number of students who couldn’t attend to offer up a synopsis of what was covered. So, here are my rough notes: