Where am I from?

Andy here,

De donde es? Where are you from? We hear this question quite often, but I´ve yet to settle on a rote answer. It can be a disheartening question, as it reminds us that we truly come from worlds apart, or it can be a great entry point to find common ground between us. One bright note is that one time this question was followed "Spain?" I took this to mean my Spanish was improving... Whenever we´re together, Cassie and I always fight to answer first – her instinct is to say Oklahoma, mine, Iowa.

Iowa has so many vivid points in my mind, I can talk about the cold, the agriculture, the rural people there. The things I care about now came alive in me in Iowa. The people love hearing about U.S. agriculture and the huge machines – I love to bring up the Iowa special feature in the newspaper of the new 48 row corn planter that can put seeds in the ground at over 85 acres per hour. The people just laugh, imagining having 80 acres (average is about 10 here) and planting it in an hour. I usually try to bring the discussion full circle by talking about the downside – the price of machines, subsidies, and fighting wars to keep access to oil so we can eat.

The things I like to talk about, I just don´t know about Oklahoma. It’s not that I don’t love Oklahoma or the wonderful people there, it’s that when I lived there, I wasn’t paying attention at all to the things that are important to me now. I´ve called Oklahoma home for most of my life, but what I was seeing of the world was mostly from the windshield of a garbage truck or under the hood of a car. I might as well have called that home – wherever I happen to be with the hood up (which would be a lot of places with the cars I’ve owned).
It´s striking to me to think of this transformation, how 2 ½ years changed my identity. I sit back and wonder how I´ll see myself 3 years from now. I´ll never say I´m from Bolivia, but certainly the process is repeating itself and I´m awakening to new interests and I´m lookling at life differently after 4 months.

So, where am I going with this? I´m getting more and more ideas about the life I want to live for the future. I want to have what I see in some of these folks - attachment to the land that comes from time spent getting to know it and nurturing it to provide sustenance for generations to come. Industrial agriculture has been criticized as having the success of one farmer being dependant on his neighbors going out of business so that he can expand and keep his economy of scale improving. Agriculture here can have the same effect as lack of knowledge and resources on how to keep farmland thriving drives people from their homelands to live in the cities. We´re working to bridge that gap here in Bolivia and provide some technical assistance and motivation to make the effort needed to preserve the lands and a rural livelihood here.

While agriculture here is far from perfect, we are seeing examples of people deeply devoted to their land and choosing to some extent the riches of community and a peaceful life over material wealth. I´m bringing what I´m learning into my dreams for the future. With some of what we´re learning, and more inner peace that doesn´t need material things to quench our thirst, I think we can be happier rooted in place some day. I don´t know if this is mutually exclusive to my desire for adventure - that will have to be worked out...

Thanks for reading my ramblings. We´re overwhelmed with new experiences almost daily, and this is my attempt to make sense of it all. With my thesis finished and approved, I can finally turn my thoughts to more important things...

Here´s a song from one of our favorite bands that gets me in a farmy mood...
Finders and Youngberg - Roots Run Deep