About concluding an experience,

I am back in Buenos Aires after an intense month of nature, beauty, frustration, happiness, loneliness, friendship and perspectives from 4 new countries…!

A wise person once taught me about the importance of processing an experience. He said: “the outcome of an experience will ultimately be determined of how you chose to process that experience…” Thus, an experience, bad to its nature can turn out really good, and a good experience can turn out really bad, all depending on how you process it. I want to use this space to try to consolidate some of my dominating thoughts around the issues I encountered, the beauty I experienced and the people I met. In all of this, I’ll try to reflect upon some of my emerging transformations as a result of the trip…in short, I will try to process a very intense experience, good to its nature, to determine its permanent outcome to be good…

How the issues came together in one city…

I was touching upon some of the issues I encountered in one specific city in an earlier post. With some distance to my experience, my perception is that many of the issues of the northern part South America came together in that one specific city…!
Here are some examples of how I experienced the issues of corruption, poor leadership, education, global warming and poverty in one of the cities I visited. The issue of corruption was articulated through the reversed roles in the prison a few blocks away from the governmental palace. The issues of education and poor leadership are articulated by the corrupt leader of the country, who is making a thing of the fact that he managed to become a president without education. The issue of global warming is articulated through the fact that it is hard to breath while walking on the streets. Poverty is always around the corner and articulated through crimes and child labour. I got to channel some of my frustrations and thoughts around these issues a I arrived to Bogota, that was useful, but I am still eager to understand more about where to start and how to transform the country and the issues.

Its important to recognize that some countries are doing a lot better than others and also that I didn’t encountered all of these issues in every country I visited. However, as a consolidated picture, the above description helps me to remember some of the pressing issues of the continent as a whole. It also gives me an understanding of the issues in relation to each other. All of these are concrete, tangible and real. How to prioritize and where to start tackling them? I don’t know, however, what I do know is that they are all connected. Poor leadership feeds corruption, lack on education diminishes development, climate change is causing poverty, poverty is causing crimes, and so one… thus, without articulating specific thoughts on a solution, an integrated approach is needed. In addition, some issues are local, others global. For both the global and the local issues, my current paradigm limits my imagination of a solution, however, I do believe, governance is one of the most important components in starting moving to something that could be about “living in harmony with all aspects of our society…”

Me in all of this…

As I was mentioning before, I received the opportunity of chairing the Colombian AIESEC conference with gratitude. That became an important aspect to channel the energy around the issues described above, but also to offset my footprint discovering the continent…!
This trip taught me about trust. In order to contain myself during the trip I was forced to trust and embody a comfort that “whatever happens, is the best thing that could ever happen…”, that whatever challenges I encounter, are just precisely what I can handle at that specific time(a learning from my mum), and that the people that I meet are there to support the success of my trip. At first embody this trust and comfort was incredible tough, especially when the car broke down in the mountains of Bolivia, or when I felt followed in central La Paz, however, as the journey progressed I learned how to embody that comfort, a comfort I hope can stay with me for a long time…

Another transformative discovery is the calming effect nature has on me. Nature makes me calm and peaceful and cities make me think – a key discovery! South America has endless natural beauty… and also opportunity, not only to interact with the nature, but really to live with the nature…looking back, my natural experiences at this trip is what will leave the lasting impression on me and also a discovery that will feed as inputs for some of my future decisions about life…

I am still discovering how my increased ownership for South America is shaping up, however, what I do know is that I will come back here. What I will do, time will tell, but I will be doing something, small or big…!

Off flow, but shortly about the hike to 5132 m…

Parque Nacional Los Nevados, approx a 5132 m high hike in Colombia was just an incredible way to conclude my hiking experiences in South America for this time. Before climbing this volcano, the highest climb I had in my back pack was at around 4500 m. These additional 632 made a huge difference in terms of the physical pressure on the body. As I reached 5000 m could feel a huge difference in terms of the efforts I needed to put in to move my body. Many people got sick of the altitude, but even though I went there after an AIESEC conference and 4 hrs sleep, my body coped really well and I experienced no signs of sickness. As I reached the 5132 m I was just sitting breathing and listening to the silence for around 30 min, a super comfortable feeling.

Until next time
Emanuel