About Vanuatu and my life

The other day I got picked up in a van that was carrying 10 people from a country called Vanuatu, which I’ve actually never heard of before. I felt like I was back in Asia when they started playing this party music very loud and singing along.

They said that in Vanuatu, they can’t leave someone on the street, so when they see someone hitchhiking they HAVE to pick him up, because of their upbringing they can’t choose not picking him up.

When they see someone without a place to sleep they have to take him in. That reminded me of some other experiences I had in other countries, like getting denied service at some hotels in China for being a foreigner. Being harassed by Japanese and Australian police, being robbed at gunpoint in Argentina and many more. Man! While in Japan, I met so many people that would just only not help you out, but they would actually go way out of their way to make your my life more troublesome.

The night went on and after the ride, they invited me to stay at their place, I found they were living in dorms with 60 people from Vanuatu and in that village, there were 400 of them. I found that they lived in precarious conditions and got exploited by some kiwi landlord and contractor, same as me when I just arrived in NZ. They didn’t have internet or phones, but they were so happy.

Of course, they shared their food and drinks with me. The special drink from Vanuatu is called cava. It’s not alcoholic but they extract it from some kind of root, it makes them very relaxed and calm, like smoking week, they said its like drinking weed.

When I tasted it, it was just terrible, terrible taste, so I asked them why dont they put some sugar on it to make it taste drinkable, they said noooo and they laughed at me, but for me it was just the logical thing to do because that thing tasted so bad, like vodka. I don’t understand how people can drink vodka, tequila, sake, soju by itself, it’s just disgusting.

There are many many Pacific Islanders here in New Zealand, picking fruits and doing farm work, and I remember that before I went to Korea, I had had the chance of visiting many other countries, but after living in Korea for 9 months, I thought Korean people were the nicest people I had met. Then I moved to Taiwan and changed my mind, Taiwanese were by far the best.

Now, if I had to make a chart with the most hospitable people I’ve met it’d be something like this:

1- Pacific Islanders (Tonga, Samoa, Vanuatu, Fiji, Cook, etc)
2- Muslims
3- Taiwanese
4- Korean
5- Others

And still many people ask me if I miss Argentina or if I plan to go back there. I always say I don’t know, but what I actually want to say “probably no, or maybe just on holidays” but that’s a very cold answer, people don’t like cold answers even though they are honest. They want a warm, fake answer. A reassuring lie instead of an honest truth.

The thing is, that  I’ve been to just so many other amazing places, places where I felt welcomed. Places where I don’t need to live in fear of thieves, guns, and corrupted police. Places where not everyone’s out to get me. Places where I can go out at night without worrying about coming back alive. I can find a job and don’t need to constantly look over my shoulder to make sure no one is following me to kill me or mug me.

Tourists keep going on and on about how marvelous a place Argentina is, well, of course, it is if you go with foreign money that is worth like 5 times more there and you stay for just a few weeks or a few months, but if you have to live and work there, oh man!

And after I say I don’t know if I’ll ever go back there, they ask me “and what about your family?” The answer I usually give is that they are alright and we manage to keep in touch online, but what I actually  mean to say is that my family will have to understand that their son, nephew, grandson, etc, is happy somewhere else and that is not because of them, is because of me.

Traveling is not just something I do, is part of who I am.

Something I have to do for myself and has nothing to do with anyone else.

And me leaving argentina had nothing to do with them either, it was just something that needed to be done.

The reason I chose to live at the edge of the knife, to jump from the bridge to the cargo train instead of running behind it and hopping on the last wagon. Digging a hole in the ground to sleep and swimming to the other side instead of taking the ferry is that I actually enjoy the thrill of the fight. I enjoy the challenge. The hardships. It makes me feel alive and somehow happy. But hey that sounds just so dramatic, doesn’t it? Sorry about that, here’s a rainbow~

No1

The first Korean song I heard, was probably Valenti or no1 by BOA which was not really Korean, but probably Japanese, because she is Korean but sings in Japanese for some reason.

I heard it by accident because it was part of the song selection of the game pump it up that we were playing every day, and I thought, whoa, what is this fresh sound, so easy to listen, so, just so bubbly and cheerful, there was so much, I didn’t know about the world yet.

Now it’s been, I don’t know 5 or 10 years I dont play pump, but whoa, we had so much fun with boa, novasonic, mozart, djdoc, the songs sounded so crazy, some songs it was just people shouting random words we didn’t even understand, but we still danced and jumped like monkeys.

Probably it wasn’t the game though, or the songs it was just a reason to get together, to do something fun and meet new people, well not really, we met the same people every day but that was cool because we were there and BOA was singing and there was always a crowd around us and we felt like superstars even though we were teenagers and had no idea what we were doing.

About the christian family

As I said yesterday, I will try to post more about daily life stuff.

When I was approached by these people from the Christian religion I talked about int he last post, I was a bit scared, because by stating your religion as soon as you first meet someone you’re establishing a difference between the 2 of you and bringing up a subject that is likely to make the other person feel uncomfortable.

If I were in the US, I’d be afraid that the person talking me about Christianity is a gun freak that has just voted for Bush and hates me for being a foreigner, but in New Zealand religion usually means good news, at least for me.

Families here have at least 10 children, one family had 11, and it really helped to see how happy all these children were, they were all running around, playing and having fun. and the parents seem to really care about them.

When I came home with them, they told me the children were all being home-schooled, and they all learn some trade, electricity, carpentry, etc by the age of 20. That’s when I thought how I wish my parents had cared that much for me, and had taught me a trade when I was young.

A night at burger king

23/6/2013

I have decided to talk a bit less politics and talk more about my daily life, feelings and thoughts. Of course, sometimes I feel down and a bit worthless like most people do, but then I think about it and realize I’m actually really lucky and most people reasonably envy my lifestyle.

It’s unique and strange, but quite interesting also, because I chose to live without using money, or using way less than everyone else, I’m usually in different countries or different cities within a country, try to live in the moment and learn something new every day.

I know what you’re thinking, living without money = freeloader, but actually is not like that, not at all! But more about that later.

Also, I meet many new people every day and learn from them as well

Yesterday it was Saturday, the 22nd, I was stuck without a place to sleep, as usual. Well not as usual, but it does happen a few times a week.

And as I cant pay money for accommodation for reason I will also explain later, my options are usually 4, Couchsurfing, knocking on the door, finding some other place (abandoned building, car, empty room) or sleeping in the bush

Yesterday I got stood up by my CS host after waiting for 5 hours int he cold, so gave up on that one, it was way too cold to sleep on the bush and I knew it would have been quite dangerous as it was literally as cold as it gets in New Zealand. very windy and dry air that making it hard to breathe.

So I found a burger king along the highway, got in and asked them what time do they close, hoping they would stay open all night, and I could have just stayed there and sleep during the day in some park.

They said they close at midnight, and I thought “oh man, I am fucked in the ass” as there was nothing else around, it was 8 pm, so I said well at least I still have 4 hours off the cold.

Sitting on a stool for 2 hours, thinking and dreaming. 3 other guys were sitting at a nearby table, looking at me.

I thought, hey, how nice would it if they invited me to stay at their place, but then I thought ufff, they actually don’t look so friendly and I would have to socialize, and then we would find all the things we don’t have in common. But hey, what the hell, is that or having no sleep. I knew I would have to walk all night long because its hard to knock on people doors after midnight, people are scared and with reason, and that’s providing I could even find their houses in the darkness.

Anyway, the 3 guys left and I switched to imagining a different random scenario.

I imagined there was a big group of about 50 people, mostly teenagers, and a few adults, like 5. I noticed that many of them were heavily over weighted, so I instantly thought they were Australians on a school trip, but hey at a random burger king on the highway, at 11.30 pm, no that’s not possible, its past their bed time.

Reality didn’t care about what I think, 6 of them sat on my table and the adult in charge of them stroke a conversation.

“Hey man, where are you from?” He asked.

“I’m from Argentina.” I quickly replied.

He seemed a bit confused that I was the only person there and had no food on my table, so he asked: “Are you waiting for your food?”

I said: “Well… not really, it’s a bit cold outside so I was just hanging around.” I found that many people laugh when I say a bit cold, because actually is terribly cold.

I was aware of the fact I have this homeless vibe around me, with the beard, greasy hair, tired eyes, wearing lots of clothes and a filthy sleeping bag next to me, so he asked: “Have you got nowhere to stay?”

This is my chance, I thought, and said: “Yeah, I’m just waiting for that to… to come along.” He said I could stay at his mate’s place, one of the guys who was ordering burguers there with them.

That’d be awesome. I thought, but decided to go a bit japanesy about it and politely refuse. I said: “No, don’t worry. I don’t want to cause any trouble.”

“There’s no trouble.” He said. “Come and stay with us.” So I said: ‘”Are you sure?” He said of course and we kept talking, He mentioned they were from a Christian church and on their way home from some inter-churches school event. When he said that I thought ‘oh man, religion? what am I getting myself into’.

Then he said: “I don’t believe in religions, but have you heard of Jesus Christ?” I said: “Yes.” While reminding myself choices were thin on the ground.

Soon after that I found myself in a van surrounded by 10 kids ages 10 to 16, screaming around about who score more goals on the game they had just played. While they were shouting, I started calculating the odds of what had just happened, and came up with a kind of drake equation for it, some of the variables included a number of sports events they participated yearly for the ones they had to leave their city for, the amount of children that played, the amount of nights I find myself sitting in a fast food restaurant in the middle of nowhere before they close, and some of the constants were the number of fast food restaurants along the highway, the number of tables on this one, the number of adults, etc, and then I lost count, but well there were like 15 tables, more than 100 seats there, and just a few adults, chances one of them sitting next to me was easily 100 to 1, and while calculating that, and some kids staring at me, I thought to myself ‘this night took an unexpected turn’.

Now is the morning after. I had a great night sleep in a warm bed with clean sheets, a nice breakfast, a hot shower, and it was the time to face what I was most afraid of since meeting them. They said they were going to church and would you like me to come along, so I politely explained to them I was not really into religion and felt a bit uncomfortable going to church. I thanked them for everything and said I would be on my way and may try to make it to Queenstownn before nightfall.

They said: “Oh its alright, you can stay another night if you want to, you dont need to come to church.”

I said cool and now is almost noon, I’m typing this while they are in church, used the first hour to clean the kitchen and to do all the dished of the dozen children who had breakfast before leaving, so now can sit on the computer without feeling guilty.

True story.