About vanuatu and my life

The other day I got picked up in a van that was carrying 10 people from vanuatu and I felt like i was back in asia when they started playing this party music very loud and singing along

they told 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 to pick 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 in china for being a foreigner. being harassed by japanese and australian police, being robbed at gun point in argentina and many more. Man! In japan met just so many people that wouldn't just not help you out, but they would actually go way out of their way to make your my life more troublesome.

well 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, most people in the village were from vanuatu. 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 didnt 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. its 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 sweeter , 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, tequlia, sake, soju by itselfs, its 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. and now if i had to make a chart with the most hospitable people ive 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

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 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 actually I enjoy the thrill of the fight, i enjoy the challenge, the hardship, it makes my life more interesting and it makes me 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, was probably japanese, because she is korean but sings in japanese for some reason

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 bubly and cheerful, there was so much, i don't know magic on those songs

now its 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 didnt even understand, but we still danced and jumped like monkeys

but probably it wasn't the game 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 this people from the christian religion i talked about int he last post, i was a bit scared, but not so much

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 unconfrotable

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 had at least 10 children, one family had 11, and it really helped to see how happy all this 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 childrens were all being home schooled, and the all learn some trade, electricity, carpentry, etc by the age of 20

and I thought I wish my parents had cared that much for me, and had taught me a trade when I was young

well I'm sure they loved me their own way

a night at burguer 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 i realize im actually really lucky and most people actually envy my lifestyle

is 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 cuntries 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 happens 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 makes it hard to breath

so i found a burguer king along the highway, get 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 next 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, then i was 3 hours, and there were just 3 other guys sitting on a nearby table, looking at me.

I thought, hey, it would be nice if they invited me in to stay at their place, but then i thought ufff, they actually dont look so friendly and i would have to socialize, and then we would find all the things we don't have in common. but i thought what the hell is that or no sleep, because i knew i would have to walk all night, because its hard to knock on people doors after midnight, people are scared, providing i could even find their house in the dark

but well 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 burguer king on the highway, at 11.30 pm, no that's not possible, its past their bed time, well anyway. 6 of them sit on my table and the adult in charge of them strikes a conversation

hey man where are you from, he said, i'm from argentina i replied

he seemed a bit confused that i was the only person there and had nothing on my table, no food, so he asked, are you waiting for your food?

i said, well... not really, it's just a bit cold outside so i was just hanging around, i found that many people laugh when i 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 I said, yeah, I'm just waiting for that to.. to come along, so he said i could stay at his mate's place, other 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 ans stay with us, so i said 'are you sure?' he said of course

we kept talking and he mentioned they were from a christian church and were 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'

the he said ' I don't believe in religions, but have you heard of jesus crhist' I said yes while reminding myself choices were thin on the ground tonight

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, so came up with a kind of drake equation for it, some of the variables included the amount of sports events they participated yearly for the ones they had to leave their city, amount of children that played, 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 and with 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 the time i was fearing came, they said, we are going to church, would you like to come, so i politely explained them I was not really into religion and felt a bit unconfortable going to church, thank them for everything and said i would be on my way and may try to make it to queesntown 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 and 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 guilt

i did learn a bit from this big family, but that's another story