Ithaka, it's the journey that counts

My thanks go to all those new friends I made in the Durika DURIKA Community who made my time with them so special and enlightening.

Only a few weeks before I left for Costa Rica, Miss Richardson read the Ithaka poem at my last Summer Gathering at Abbotsholme School
This poem so beautifully sums up the message I have been able to experience during my time in Costa Rica.

ITHACA by C.P.Cavafy click to hear a you tube reading by Sean Connery and Vangelis
Ithaka

When you set out for Ithaka
ask that your way be long,
full of adventure, full of instruction.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - do not fear them:
such as these you will never find
as long as your thought is lofty, as long as a rare
emotion touch your spirit and your body.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - you will not meet them
unless you carry them in your soul,
unless your soul raise them up before you.

Ask that your way be long.
At many a Summer dawn to enter
with what gratitude, what joy -
ports seen for the first time;
to stop at Phoenician trading centres,
and to buy good merchandise,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensuous perfumes of every kind,
sensuous perfumes as lavishly as you can;
to visit many Egyptian cities,
to gather stores of knowledge from the learned.

Have Ithaka always in your mind.
Your arrival there is what you are destined for.
But don't in the least hurry the journey.
Better it last for years,
so that when you reach the island you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to give you wealth.
Ithaka gave you a splendid journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She hasn't anything else to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka hasn't deceived you.
So wise you have become, of such experience,
that already you'll have understood what these Ithakas mean.

Constantine P Cavafy

20/11/09

Day 5:

The final day.

I was so excited to be so close to the end and talk of items we were going to purchase and mattresses we were going to sleep on when we got back, could be heard amongst the group.

The weather had even cleared up slightly for the occasion. In fact, that day was, for me, the most beautiful day of the expedition. We had some absolutely breathtaking views of mountains, valleys, cloud formations,
rainbows and some good looking guys with wide grins on their faces in the foreground.

The whole day involved down hill walking so it was hard on our knees. The 5th day is also nicknamed ‘blister day’ for good reason. I was convinced that I had obtained at least 3 big ones but it seems that my feet have developed some kind of resistance to them. But it was still a little painful. As I said though, for me it was the most wonderful day.

The last stretch is flat along the river to the final bridge and I found myself quite a little way between the others. I loved this moment because although I had thoroughly enjoyed my time with everyone else, it game me time to reflect on what we had just done.

One of the many songs that had been stuck in my head on the way up is one Dad had told me about. Its called ‘The climb’ by Miley Cirus. I wouldn’t usually listen to much of her music but Dad had said it hat reminded him about something I had written earlier, and I had to buy it. Its about enjoying the climb and not worry about what the destination will be like or what’s on the other side. This is supposed to be metaphorical but it was very appropriate to this particular experience.

I keep getting this same message over and over again and I think its because its such an important lesson to learn.
If I had climbed the mountain in the way I used to go things, I would have tried to go as fast as I could so that I could get to the top and see the stunning views at the tope. If I had done that, I would have been terribly disappointed. At the top all we could see was cloud and rain, not what Eugo’s pictures of previous time had shown me.

But instead, I had enjoyed each and everyday for what it was, and because of that the whole thing was fantastic. Having the first and the last day be the nicest days, weather wise, and the summit wind and wet, just emphasised this.

So walking along that bank in the sun was so peaceful and relaxing and I think it allowed me to realise that the climb up Mt. Durika sums up my time here. Because, everything is beautiful in its own right.

30/10/09

I am currently writing this extract in one of the most obscure and unique settings. It is 10 o’clock at night at the moment. Now, bearing in mind that we normally go to sleep at 7.30 and wake up at 4, this is pretty much the middle of the night. Around me I can hear the soft pats of water dropping from the leaves of the trees, and the sound of the crickets chirping, whilst above me lays only sky. Sky and a solitary moon that is so bright that you can barely see any stars around it. I am sitting outside on the bench at the end of a very good day.

For me it’s been a day of cooking actually.
This morning I was assigned to the gardens and after breakfast found myself down the valley clearing the trail down to the waterfall. So it was a very pleasant morning. Nata and Deven did, however, play an evil trick on me. In the three hours spent clearing the trail I managed to clear an area of… 5 meters!!! Just in case you don’t know, that is ridiculously small amount. The reason was, that I had a couple of rocks in the place I was wanting to clear. Ok a couple, is a giant understatement, and having to dig through rocks with a shovel is a slow and laborious process. Firstly though, I need to explain something to you about working with rocks. There are different stages, or frames of mind that you go through when trying to clear rocks. You have the first stage, the ‘sure I’ll do it’ stage. This is where you are assigned an area and you don’t really mind which bit it is. This can shortly be followed by the ‘I can do it’ stage. This is where you become more motivated to do the task and start setting yourself goals. It then starts to get a little tricky and you get a little tired of trying to move some particularly difficult ones. This triggers the ‘Wouldn’t turn down some help’ stage. Personally, I tend to stay in this stage for most of my time. I’m not too bothered about asking for help and don’t feel my ‘image’ (which isn’t great by the way) being dented much when I do so. This is the stage where you start to think in your mind, ‘it would be nice if somebody would offer me a little bit of help’ and if they do you would naturally accept it. And then you have the final stage. I don’t tend to get to this 4th stage very often, remaining in the 3rd for most of the time. This stage is known as the ‘I WILL SUCCEED IF IT’S THE LAST THING I DO’ stage. This is where you have gone too far to just leave it and, to accept help from anybody would be like allowing somebody to take the reward for your hard work.

So as you can imagine, working on a 5m stretch for 3 hrs, had pushed me to such a degree that I had gone all the way to even into the last stage. I had worked too hard to stop then, but there was just one big rock left sticking out of the trail and I was determined to see it deflated. So I called to the others to tell them I wanted to go up and get the pick axe, to which Nata replied, “but we are leaving in 15 minutes”. As I had said, “I will succeed if it’s the last thing I do” so after shouting, ‘I don’t really care’ back at them, I hurried back up the trail to find a pick from under the restaurant. I remember thinking, ‘should I tell them to leave the rock?’ but then I thought ‘no, they would never do that’. If they wanted to mess me around and go up just as I came down I would simply take the walkie-talkie and finish the job alone. Anyway they wouldn’t be that mean would they, surely they must understand that I was in the 4th stage. So when I was coming to the last bend before the rock and heard the sound of shovels on rock, my heart sunk. I rounded the corner to see a small piece of rock left standing where the rock had once been with two young men standing by it laughing. B@$%5£!. Well I have to admit I cursed more than I have done in the last 2 months all together and it took me a while to see the funny side. To be honest, the fact that I had thought they might do that suggested that I may have come up with the same idea if one of those guys had gone to get the pick. Either way, that section and much more was completed and to a high standard, so all in all, a good days work.

It was after this that I found out from Susie that we were going to have another buffet dinner in the evening as there were so few people up in the community today. On this occasion it was Susie who suggested contributing something so I told here the epic stories of the last occasion.

It turns out Susie used to be a baker and she and her ex-husband used to run a little bakery. Now working in a little bakery, like the ones they had at the Belgium coast, has always been something I’ve wanted to do. So baking a big loaf of bread seemed fitting (the fact that bread was one of the foods I miss eating the most here, obviously had nothing to do with it). So I now have a new recipe that I have called the ‘1,2,3 Bread’, which is based on the standard way of making loaves in bakeries.

Anyway we made the loaf and I have written down the recipe so I can show it to you guys when I get back.

So, after that Ema asked me if I wanted to help making the fudge. Before he had even got the last 2 letters out, I had already agreed. Devon and Ema got everything ready and they seemed to know exactly what to do, so to say I helped, actually meant I handed them the peanuts and raisons, as well as ‘helped’ lick out the bowl. Hey I’m not complaining.

And then later on that day I was in the kitchen helping Christina making these roasted chopped potatoes with spices on. The help required with this was less of licking the bowl and more of pealing, mixing and adding more ingredients, so much more like actual helping.

17/10/09

Well today was a very special day. Because today, was 6 weeks in Durika, meaning I am already half way through my stay here! How scary is that? It feels like I only arrived last week.

Today has been a bit of a strange day and a little different from most, because I spent so much time on the computer. My ’30 minute only’ allowance of time spent on the internet was broken, in order to research universities. The only reason I set my ’30 minute only’ internet regulation, was to stop me spending all day effectively ‘living’ at home and not allowing myself to be absorbed in the beauty, that is Durika village. But today was an out of the ordinary day.

Oh yeah, but we did go to for a ‘swim’ this morning in the water fall which is always a fun and refreshing occasion to say the least, although I somehow always manage to forget just how far the walk there and back is.

Anyhow, as I said I am half way through my stay. It has taken me a little while to get used to how it works in the community. I found that at the beginning I was always striving to get to some other place or some other time. During the 1st morning session I would be constantly counting down the time until breakfast and then after breakfast I would look forward to lunch and then the afternoon off. But when I got to the afternoon I didn’t quite know what to do with myself, so at the beginning I didn’t feel that my time here being allowed to flow.

However, the other day we watched a movie. Now I know this sounds really cheesy and fake but its true when I say that it has really helped me this last week. I was starting to understand more, that I needed to appreciate everything and not always focus on the future, but it hadn’t quite clicked but the movie managed to move the final cogs into line. It was about a gymnast who was amazing at what he did (the rings by the way), was at the top of his game and was attempting to compete for the gold medal in the Olympics. He had everything going for him, including a gift with the opposite sex, which made watching those parts almost as awkward as if you were watching it with your parents. Despite all this, he wasn’t happy. He didn’t realize it, but he wasn’t ever satisfied. Anyway to cut a long story/ movie short this man he meets helps him understand that you have to live in the present not in the past or future. If you can do that you will be constantly happy and you will get much more from life. ‘It’s the journey that is so exciting not the destination’. And that was very true for me. Where I am now is one of the most beautiful places on Earth, but when I was working I never even glanced at what was around me to enjoy it. I had to set myself a specific time when I was going to go and allow myself the opportunity to appreciate it and take pictures. How bad is that? But this has helped me to realize that I can enjoy it throughout the day. Well, it has meant my last week especially, has been absolutely wonderful as I have finally taken full advantage of what this place has provided to me.

So I have learned a great deal from this short amount of time here so far, things I think would have taken me a lot longer to learn if I had been in the same environment that I was so used to at home. I have learned things about myself, other people as well as how to enjoy living life. But I’m almost certain I’m going to be taught a great deal more from the rest of my time here, and am thoroughly looking forward to it. I am guessing that these next few weeks will go a lot faster than up till now, but I will hang on to every second, loving every step of the way.

Learn from the past, live in the present and welcome the future.