Whistling actually does help while you work

I want to propose a question to those still reading my blog. How do you think people should define themselves? Do you think it’s better to let the experiences you’ve had in the past speak for themselves? Or is it better to be a person that defines themselves with their present situation? The reason I ask is because I’m being reminded of what “work” truly is and I have to constantly quiet the voice in my head that says to me “you’ve had enough manual labor in the past to fill a barn, why do you keep looking for situations that give you more!” This was especially the case as I climbed up the side of a mountain the other day carrying PVC pipes with my host family to an irrigation canal over 4000m (about 13,000 ft). I thought about how all my farming experience, college experience, and even Army experience were merely words on a resume and wouldn’t be able to help me during the grueling moments. What did it matter that I had dug ditches in the past or carried tons of heavy loads miles upon miles on my back or in a wheelbarrow; I was faced with the present situation of the mountain, burning leg muscles, my will power, and some PVC. Does a person ever reach a point where they’ve gained enough life experience to feel like they can stop climbing mountains of achievement? Should a person ever want to stop? Are our experiences in the past simply words on a resume or do they slowly build us into the person we hope to be? So I ask again, is life for you a culmination of what you’ve done? Or is it simply being happy with what you’re doing in the present moment?

The project I’m working on these days is helping my community plant over 3000 pine trees and installing an irrigation canal of PVC pipes; and like all projects in my site, its happening on the side of a mountain! It starts with a 45 minute hike uphill with all of your tools for the day, and usually ends about an hour after the rain starts pouring. *Practical advice note: remember to bring a good poncho, a rain coat doesn’t cut it.* The work is fulfilling, like all hard work is, and I’m just happy to know that I’ll have some good success stories under my belt after all is said and done. I also went to visit our town’s annex, Piños, which was a breath taking view of massive valleys and mountain sides covered with terraced farming. So many times I’ve felt like I’m living on the set of Lord of the Rings! The sad story about Piños, and so many other towns in Yauyos (Miraflores not excluded), is that all the older teenagers are leaving to start working or going to university in the bigger cities after highschool and these small mountain towns are shrinking. Towns like Piños only have 30-40 people left, mostly either over 35 or under 16 years old. All the really old townsfolk talk of how beautiful and full all the terrace farms were in the 70’s and 80’s, but now you can see the majority of them overgrown and eroding. And of course on top of all this you can see a basic disappearance of the towns’ cultures. All the younger generations see the “good-life” they could be living on something their parents didn’t even grow up with; TV’s. Now I’m the last person to condemn TV, I love TV and I love progress and I wish a happy and progressive life for everyone. But when thinking about preserving culture and small rural areas like Yauyos (and any number of small rural areas across the globe) I think in 20 years many of these small pueblos will be ghost towns and the one’s that remain will be the one’s with the best reception.