Just another Monday in Darwin: My dip in the Cage of Death

It took a little getting used to but once I got comfortable with the feeling of being suspended in a big, plastic cylinder I could start to mentally process the fact that I was mere inches away from a three meter long salt water crocodile. The only thing keeping the peace was about one inch (about 2.5 cm) of plastic, yes plastic, attached to some chains and pulleys. After the first two chickens, Houdini circled me once and initiated a staring contest. I know he was probably sizing me up for taste and tear-ability but all we could do was float there eyes locked in visceral thought. I gazed into this captive prehistoric killing machine's eyes for what felt like five minutes until the next chook on a stick came out. At that point, the sheer size of this reptilian powerhouse's body, tail, legs, head, and jaws were fully comprehended.

It was some of the most perplexing excitement I've ever experienced. While I logically appreciated salties from seeing them in the wild and various zoos, always from afar, now my perception of them will never be the same. I will equate them with the hundreds of pounds of eerily placid creature inches from my face, my hands, my heart looking at me like either a morning snack or just another random intruder but situation regardless, we shared that brief time and space.

He could have put up opposition to my presence or even just ignored me, but he did neither. I did not have the power of the feeding stick and he knew that. Still, he peered into that box with curious intent. I'll take that compliment. Call me crazy, many do, but I say any attention you receive from a massive living dinosaur, that doesn't end in fatalities or limbs lost, is a learning experience worth treasuring.

Leaving on a jetplane...

This is not a holiday, not a sabbatical, and not exactly simply a study tour. In a way it is the natural pace of life for me. New places, people, experiences, and ideas are more vivid in motion. In order to turn up the volume of these next few weeks, I'm leaving the screens at home: no ipod, no laptop, no fancy phone. Its just me & my thoughts in the world. Where in the world? Darwin, Vietnam, Singapore, and a weekend stopover in Newcastle and the Blue Mountains. It's a bit more of a planned adventure than my usual. Maybe that's what 'growing up' means to me.

My lectures in Vietnam are the primary reason for this country hop. Despite the fact that I will probably spend the first few days scared to eat anything, don't speak a word of Vietnamese, and am allergic to the sun now, I have a good feeling about the weeks to come! The unit material is dense but intriguing. Funny to think we are going to one of the backpackers' party havens to have lectures, discussions, then observe them in their 'natural environment' by night. I'm making every attempt possible to not have expectations, but of course that's easier said than done. I expect to get sick at least once, to learn a lot, to write a lot, and hopefully come back in one piece...albeit a slightly different one.

As for the informal education components of this trip, crocs, snakes, many coffees with couchsurfing friends of the future, and who knows maybe even a late night pash out of the blue. On the road, anything is as possible as you let it. That's the perfect entropy of time and space disregarded. Practicing being in the moment, of the moment, and completely with the moment is one of the main objectives of this experience. I have this hankering feeling I've been missing something big but it's still here. I just don't know how to look. Maybe the shift in vantage point will help.


The next time I find myself in a proper bed will be Tuesday in a hostel in Hanoi. The next meal I enjoy will be filled with warm top end sun and anticipation of the cage of death. The next time I see my classmates it will probably be in a hostel bar. The next time I hear familiar beats and rhymes will be live in Newcastle. And the next time I return home to this room, this house, this screen I will be many new places richer and that much closer to whatever it is I'm meant to aspire.

Homesickness as a plague

So this past week (week 8...a few weeks ago) has been a lovely refresher course in hand-holding and exercises in trying to make everybody happy all the time. Like always, it didn't happen. But I did successfully navigate one tragically homesick student through his troublesome first day (he was on the verge of tears the entire day) and he ended up having a great time, bonding the most with the other new students, as well as being one of the stars of the campfire skit. Its funny that the most important part of my job many weeks has nothing to do with what I went to college to study...making people feel comfortable. Fighting homesickness has nothing to do with being well versed in psychological theories or being able to diagnose and medicate a collection of symptoms. Many times it just takes a bit of waiting and a lot of listening. We all feel out of our element and therefore out of control of our own lives at some point in time....never more than the first time or two we are forced out of our homes and put in the care of a bunch of hippie-strangers who keep pointing at plants and rocks and saying strange words (that they might be just making up). Its so easy as a "naturalist" to focus so much on the science of a place that you forget the intrinsic value that, for many people, must come before any understanding of more concrete concepts. You can't learn math by having somebody point a gun at you and threaten to learn or shoot, to some of these students its almost as scary to be thrown into the "wild" of one of these programs. And its easy to discount student's fears and anxieties on account of their privileged home-lives but that's just as ignorant as  judging us because we are voluntarily homeless. Age doesn't matter, socio-economic level, intelligence or even how well traveled a person may be...a bad day/week/month is always a hurdle to true personal and educational development. It doesn't matter why or where its coming from, as an educator it is my job to figure out how to work through it or give up the goal altogether. And I'm not in the business of giving up...that's what my little homesick 6th grader showed me.

Introductions are always awkward....so here it goes:

     
 If life is the question, then what is the answer? This utterly simplistic view is absurd but rattles around the brain nonetheless in people from all walks of life. Why? We ponder the meaning of life constantly; much like a 5-year old might ask 'Why?' two dozen times in a day because, at our core, we are extremely curious creatures.
      Philosophers paved the way for thousands of years with their observations in discussion-based education systems. Now we are taught that every equal and opposite reaction must have a quantified result or else the pursuit was a failure. But I truly believe that a quality education is nothing that can be bought, sold, or even qualified because it is your personal journey of inquiry and understanding. The major component missing is the dynamic community or willingness, open minds fostering growth in future directions, unrestricted by outdated 'educational' paradigms.
       My experiences traveling have served as more of an educational medium than anything else in my life. It is only when we get not just outside ourselves but also outside our comfort zone that the opportunity for real growth germinates. Heading confidently into the personal unknown is only the beginning though; being equipped to experience, process, and learn from what follows is the skill set needed to develop one's mind from endeavors.  Just like any expertise, this takes time, practice, and desire.
        This interactive journal is the beginning of a discussion on life as a perpetual journey of knowledge; the kind of knowledge that not only leaves you with more questions than answers but ceases to make sense of the world around us, instead opens it up to limitless possibilities.