I'M BACK

It's sometimes hard to keep track of what I've written when I'm essentially keeping 3 journals right now. This blog, my New Zealand blog (which I just posted the final entry) and the written journal that I kept while in New Zealand. Keeping the written journal in New Zealand was a good way to wind down each work day and through which I became a familiar fixture at The Bakehouse Cafe (the only place in Hamilton, NZ that was open past 10 p.m.) for 2 weeks. My companions were a cup of Flat White and my MP3 player. I need to spend time reading over what I wrote to fully digest it all and I guess what revelations I receive will trickle onto this ongoing blog. I am fighting the urge to have to write some huge entry about the trip as I think that minimizes the meaning of this journey and only succeeds in feeding my need to compartmentalize things. Instead, I believe this experience will continue to sprout new revelations about who I am and how I see the world.

One of the first things that I did when I returned to Canadian soil was to do something very, well, Canadian. I hit a Tim Horton's and ordered a double-double. How sad it is but I have to admit that this often overlooked convenience was something I missed while overseas. NZ is like Europe in their affection for coffee: it's got to be strong. Filtered drip coffee is unknown, as places like fast food restaurants and even petro (gas) stations serve only espresso coffee. That means having to pay $4 for a cup of Joe! And if you said something like "double-double" you're bound to get a blank stare in response.

I don't think that I'm too jet lagged although I woke up at 4 a.m. this morning and couldn't force any more sleep. So, I did laundry and started unpacking everything. I had thoughts of going into work but thought that I would be more productive doing "chores". The weather is awesome, particularly since I've been living in southern hemisphere winter for the past 2 weeks. I think I'll go for a bike ride or run or both. Yeah, it dawned on me that I've got a marathon to run in about 2 months time.

Well, through this trip, I discovered that I like taking pictures. Not typical group shots or pictures of people posing for a camera. But candid ones, as I think that people's expressions and gestures are more sincere when not affected by our weird disposition of wanting to look a certain way for a picture. And I think that black and white pictures communicate with a certain degree of purity. Colour just seems so contrived, like something that has been put together for a glossy magazine or flashy television. I also found that taking pictures without the flash produces interesting and realistic results. I messed around with some of the settings of my parents' digital camera that I took to NZ but I guess digital has its limitations.

This is what it was all about...










Ces (short for Cecil) tirelessly drove us to our work site everyday! He has been serving Habitat for some time now and would have joined us on this build has we not has some many volunteers available.










A daily routine for me, this was a great way of remembering the trip and fleshing out ideas and revelations.