Rainbow Gathering

 I wish I started blogging before now.  It’s a good way to make myself reflect and record everything that I am experiencing.  Since I am only beginning now, from time to time I am going to reach back into the archives to talk about significant adventures that I have had in the last two years.

This one goes back five months.  Blessing and I attended a Rainbow Gathering called “Peace in the Middle East” in June and July 2012.  It was held in Georgia but the previous five gatherings had been held in Turkey.  I don’t feel like explaining the ins and outs of Rainbow Gatherings so if you are interested in learning more about them, google it.  They happen all over the world.  My experience will give you an idea of what these gatherings are, however.

Rainbow was the perfect way to spend the last of our days in Georgia.  For three weeks, Blessing and I lived communally in the wilderness of the Racha Mountains in Georgia with about 100 other people from all over the world.  We lived out of our tent, as did most people.  Other people only had a rope and a tarp and a few people had no shelter at all.  When it rained everything they owned got wet but they were somehow unaffected by wet things.  Our toilet was a pit in the ground and after using it we had to cover our droppings with ash so as to keep flies away.  We didn’t use toilet paper; a plastic water bottle filled with water is a great substitute!  All of our meals were prepared communally over a fire in really big pots.  Our really big pots were borrowed from Georgians living in the nearest village.  We ate our meals together around the fire after singing songs of thanks.  We ate mindful of all the people that made every meal possible.  We hugged a lot.  We made a family.  We listened to music all day everyday.  I listened to so many different instruments that I had never heard before.  The didgeridoo is amazing with drums and crazy Turkish and Iranian sting instruments.  Also, Bulgarian folk music is beautiful!

People at the gathering came from all over the world.  From what I can remember, the people I met were from Turkey, Iran, Armenia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Japan, Georgia, USA, Spain, Ecuador, South Africa (Blessing), Uganda, Lithuania, Azerbaijan, Estonia, France, Moldova, Germany and probably more.  I had never met people from some of these countries and I loved learning a little bit about each of them.  I hope to be able to visit all of them, especially Iran, pending ownership of non-American citizenship. 

Rainbow was a great way to get in touch with the earth.  Living in the wild like that is enlightening.  I didn’t touch a computer or phone for three weeks.  I only ate what was cooked on a fire.  I washed in the river without soap.  I lived with the earth.  I feel a bit cheesy writing this but it’s the truth.  It compounded everything that I had already learned from living in Georgia.  I loved it!

Not only did I further my love for rustic living but I also furthered my love of travel.  The typical person that goes to rainbow gatherings travels the way Blessing and I do.  That means wild camping, hitch hiking, couchsurfing, sleeping in bus terminals, meeting locals and being free and open to whatever comes.  As I exchanged travel stories with my fellow travelers from all over, I gained confidence and excitement for my travel mission.  Their stories and experiences encouraged me to carry on; they inspired me.  I know that what I want right now is to see and experience the world; hearing the stories of so many people doing exactly what I want reminds me of its possibility.  I can do it and I am doing it.  After this lull in Korea, I will be off to travel this world freely (hopefully on a bicycle).

Many friends from the Georgia gathering will meet again during the 2013 summer, this time in Armenia.  As I see facebook posts of rainbow friends traveling the world, I feel sad that I will not be able to reconnect with them at the next gathering.  However, the rainbow spirit allows me to believe that I will see them again.  It might be at another “Peace in the Middle East” gathering or another Rainbow Gathering somewhere else in the world or it might be in passing as we all traverse this planet.   Regardless of where I meet them again or if I do at all, all of them made a positive impact on my journey.   

Thank you for your inspiration, Rainbow family.

Gathering for food circle

A rainbow at Rainbow Gathering

P.S. Blessing and I have already run into one traveler twice by accident.  In August 2011 we met a guy in Turkey who was from Ecuador.  We bought string bracelets from him.  All of us happened to be attendees of Rainbow one year later.  Such a cool coincidence!  I know more of those will come our way. 

A Cultural Analysis of Diaper Changing in South Korea

A couple of weekends ago Blessing and I went over to my co-teacher’s house for dinner.  We met her husband (who tried valiantly to speak the very little English he knew) and her adorable son.  Somehow during conversation, it was revealed that neither my co-teacher nor my husband had ever changed a diaper before having their son.  Having changed truckloads of them since the rough age of 12, I was shocked.  Then, Blessing told me that he had never changed a diaper.  Again, shocked.  But then I decided I had to take a look at diaper changing from a cultural perspective, so here it is.

From what I have ascertained from my key informant here in South Korea, my co-teacher, babysitting is a not a common practice.   Unless a couple lives close to either of their parents, once they have a child they are bound to them.  My co-teacher and her husband have not had a night or day out by themselves in 2 years!  Another shock.  Upon hearing this, I offered to babysit for free to let she and her husband have a date night; I have yet to be taken up on it.  Babysitting is the main avenue through which I have come to change diapers and since it is not a common practice here, there is a diminished chance that a Korean will change the number of diapers I have prior to having their own child,

Furthermore, the family structure affects diaper-changing probability.  While I have never changed a sibling’s diaper and I don’t have any nieces or nephews I know that this is how many United Statesians come to change diapers.  My "in-depth research" reveals that it is unlikely for Koreans to change a diaper in this way.  Most South Koreans have one, sometimes two, siblings and they are generally very close in age; thus, the chance of changing you sibling’s diaper is lessened.  Moreover, because siblings are close in age, the time at which they begin to have children is also near each other.  Hence, there is a smaller chance that you will change a niece or nephew’s diaper. 

In conclusion, when you compare the circumstances under which myself and many fellow United Statesians have come to change baby’s diapers to the lack of such circumstances in South Korea, it becomes more understandable why my co-teacher and her husband had never changed a diaper.  From a lack of babysitting to a reduced chance of changing a sibling’s or niece and nephew’s diaper, Koreans don’t learn how to do it until they have to. 

By the way, apparently while in the hospital after giving birth, my co-teacher and her husband had to change the baby’s diaper without a nurse’s help.  They had no idea how and just took off the dirty one, wrapped a blanket around him and waited until the morning for the nurse to show them how to put on a diaper.  I am glad I am experienced if I have a child of my own.

Missing Georgia

The Republic of Georgia was a tough place to live, especially in the winter months.  There was no central heating, which provided a myriad of lifestyle changes.  For example, I only washed myself about once a week to avoid having to take off all my layers of clothing; being naked in 32 degrees F with no place to warm-up (unless you sit on the wood burning stove) is not ideal.  I also washed dishes and rinsed my clothes in water that was just above freezing point while standing outside in freezing air; I thought my hands would fall off.  I saw my breath when I woke up, I saw my breath all day while teaching and I saw my breath when I went to sleep at night.  When I lived in a house with our friends Aly and Adam, all four of us lived in the kitchen with the wood-burning stove.  I think we all suffered bouts of cabin fever.  I ate the same foods day in and day out: oatmeal, bread, carrots, potatoes, cabbage and onion.  Winter was monotonous.  It was cold.  It was hard. 

Life was hard outside of winter too.  I struggled with having friends.  I was envious of Blessing as he made what felt like hundreds of Georgian friends while I only had my co-teacher.  In my opinion, it’s easier for foreign men to make Georgian friends than it is for women.   I also got really tired of being approached by men when all I wanted to do was sit and read in the park, keeping my face buried in the book didn’t stop anyone from pestering me.

In contrast to Georgia, I find living in Korea is not very tough.  I have plenty of money, heat and internet.  Who could ask for more?  In the first three months of coming here, I made more money than I made the whole time in Georgia.  I can afford whatever food or clothes I want.  I have a computer in school and paper and a Xerox machine!!  I have a heated apartment and school!!  I have a washing machine.  Life is good, life is easy.

So why am I missing Georgia despite all of its hardships?  I miss it because of those hardships.  Everyday was an adventure in Georgia and all of those adventures were a life lesson.  I learned that I could live life rustically, with no heat, washer or variety of food.  I learned to love not having internet.  I learned I love the simple life.  I love buying bread from the bakery on the corner of my street and yogurt from the granny in my neighborhood.   I also loved eating seasonally, it’s so much more in tune with the earth. 

Beyond all of the everyday adventurous hardships of Georgia, I simply loved the country.  It has the most stunning scenery I have ever seen.  I don’t imagine I will camp in many places that compare to the camping I did in Georgia.  That country is filled with untouched beauty!  Furthermore, Georgia has the most stunning hospitality I have ever come across.  I hitchhiked all the time in Georgia and I believe that is the best way to truly see Georgia because it’s the best way to see the hospitality.  I was invited into countless homes for meals and even a place to stay for the night.  I left almost every home with food to take with me.  I miss the people of Georgia.

Comparing the things I loved in Georgia to Korea is like a joke.  Korea’s outdoors are flooded with Koreans wearing neon hiking clothes.  The camping space I found had so much neon clad foot traffic, it was far from ideal (fires were forbidden!!).  There is not the same untouched beauty as in Georgia.  Then there are the people; the hospitality of Georgia goes unmatched.  I am not greeted with the friendliness I met in Georgia.  No one is interested in me.  Finally, there is the issue of materialism.  I can’t even find a thrift store in my city of 130,000 because Koreans only buy new things.  I like used things!  Moreover, everyone, foreigners and Koreans alike, are slaves to their hand-held computers (aka smartphones and tablets).  I don’t like being surrounded by the consumption of technology and material goods.

One day I will see you again, Georgia.

A Korean campsite

A Georgian campsite