La Vida Idealist

Love at your doorstep. Latin America, you will be missed.

Dear Latin America,

Thank you for teaching me how to feign a command over salsa steps and for putting people in my path who will happily sway me to the beat of your music.

Thank you for feeding me fruit that ostensibly appeared downright poisonous, ominous or otherwise inedible and for showing me the beauty that lies behind spikes and inside sharp seeds.

Thank you for making princesa (princess), amorcito (my little love), preciosa (precious) and querida (dear) my middle names and for the affection that drips into all your words.

Thank you for teaching me that development and a commitment to peace can crop up right next to coffee and conflict. Thank you for exposing me to your people–ex-combatants, victims of conflict, sufferers and perpetrators–whose thirst to learn and reconcile with history is a lesson in living.

Thank you for showing me the beauty of cloud forests, volcanoes, and thunderstorms – and for highlighting the kindness and benevolence of strangers who come together when these natural phenomena go awry.

Thank you for making it impossible to sleep without the sound of a bus exhaust, the ice-cream bell jingle, or a woman selling tamales. Your aromas will follow me home.

Thank you for aggressively overflowing with passion. For your vivid gesturing, your poetic harpings of love in the face of Garcia Marquez, Neruda or Benedetti, your feverish addiction to soccer.

Thank you for diminishing the distances, for poking into my personal, private space, for forcing the conversations on love, religion, family, marriage, children, poverty, war, and opportunity, and for coloring everything with a hug.

Finally, thank you for teaching us or reminding us or encouraging us to feel, and learn, and serve, and give of ourselves, and lead, and follow, and love, and dare, and appreciate beauty – and for carving such a space for yourself in our memory that we are just bound to return.

Roxanne has just completed a cycle of post-conflict development projects benefiting women in war zones worldwide and, most recently, in Latin America. To read about Roxanne’s journey, visit her blog.

Latest posts by roxannekrystalli

• From Capacity Building to Building Homes: Relief Work in Guatemala - June 8th, 2010
• Loaded Questions on Wheels: Politics and God - May 25th, 2010
• Hunting for Inspiration: Recommended Reading - May 18th, 2010
• On the Road - But Why? - May 11th, 2010
• The Tourist Trail Meets the Conflict Trail - May 4th, 2010
• "When are you coming back?" - April 27th, 2010
• Field Loneliness in Colombia - April 20th, 2010
• Love in the Time of Conflict - April 13th, 2010