Change

Palanan Isabela, Philippines, 22 of June 2014.

Today, I am 27 and I have just, or will soon, reach a mileage of one billion heartbeats. This number makes my head spins and awakens in me the urge to share some reflections with you.

Before the 17^th of last September I was following the path. No, not the spiritual one, simply that which spans from the exit door of my engineering school to a nice comfortable life. A person in a bubble among bubbles, not too happy nor too sad. Not to scared, nor too confident; just in the middle. But then, as the yes man I sometimes am, I had to quit my job for that new project.

Following my love all the way to the Philippines for 9 months of anthropological fieldwork, I have ended up sharing this segment of my life with a population of Hunter-gatherers. And today, we are half way. Four shorts months since the departure from London and who am I? I am not quite sure of the answer, all I of know is that I have changed. This is simple to know because when one changes, he does not remember who he was before. I have souvenirs of course. The first day at work, and the last (where all the secrets are shared at the pub). But yet, this is not the me of today. I have seen more, experienced more, and had a good glimpse into some other bubbles. This changed my perspective on life.

I remember reading with interest about this blogger who decided to live with only 100 types of objects and made a book out of it. People here can do so with 30, 20, 10 distinct objects and live a good life. I remember I was feeling quite good about doing half an hour of exercise per day and being outside for 10 minutes after my lunch. Here inside does not exist as the Agta house consists of a banana leaf roof and a bamboo floor one metre from the ground. Even the richer farmer’s houses do not have windows and often large opening on their sides. As for exercise, this is not a thing here as everyone is active most of a day and often very strong indeed. Lastly, I was quite proud, upon arriving in a new place to always make the time to invite my neighbours to a welcoming drink or two. Here the Agta are the closest, tightly knit group of people I ever encountered. You want some novelty? Why not pack your stuff, walk 5 hours and spend a week in another camp. No reasons are needed: you walk, you arrive there, you live there. As simple as it gets.

This radical experience made me reconsider the way I lead my life. What is work and how much of it is needed? Why should I sit eight or more hour a day on the same chair over again? Communities or Societies? All of these subjects will be discussed in the next post: Reflexions.

One more thing: my hair. For roughly a year I let it be free and grow as organic and unconstraint as possible, waiting for an event to give it a good shape. That’s it; today I put words on my state of mind. And to be honest I am glad it happens, as I was slowly getting blinded by this volume on my head.

Love to all,

Wasabi.