Musings from the Ozone

Because I live in one of the biggest cities in the union, travel for me is not always more 'interesting' than what I see and do in New York.  However, my experiences of travel over the years have certainly shown me the drastic extremes of the world.

I have visited the huge cities of Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Paris, London, Rio de Janero, Jerusalem, and Athens  and have been in awe of the magnificent  architecture, monuments, museums and statues.  The skyscrapers of our own city still cause my neck to bend over and the individual cultures of these great cities boggle the mind. 

Coming down out of the clouds of the ultimate cities on earth, I have also met with some of the earthiest  little villages possible.  My overnight accommodations in tiny little towns, such as San Miguel, El Salvador, would leave the most experienced high-life traveler dismayed when faced with sleeping the night away in a hammock, strung over weak-looking hooks in the walls.  The tours on foot through the town would not even rank a zero if they were to be compared to a tour through a city like London or New York City.  First, one would definitely have to learn to navigate himself through the streets where  pigs and cows cross over the main street as often as the people do.  If one is afraid of domestic animals, such as fat pigs, mooing cows and baaing sheep,  then perhaps the little town should be avoided altogether.   I have passed through many of the tiny towns of Uruguay where the local news was that someone got a bargain at a flea market.  Roosters are still used as alarm clocks and chickens still are the guidelines for time to go to bed.

Let's review some of the accommodations and lodgings which I have both enjoyed and loathed in my lifetime.  I have stayed in some of the most luxurious hotels imaginable.  Amman, Jordan could boast of hotels that  have beautiful marble walls and floors and food for kings. Many hotels in Florida with their kitchenettes, poolside eating, vibrator beds, whirlpool baths and many computerized amenities, stretched far beyond the common hair dryer and coffee pot in the room, could please the fussiest of travelers.  Fireplaces, large screen TV's, even maid service are often part and parcel of the package deal.  Once we stayed in a luxurious doctor's summer home in Jamaica.  It was a newly built home, complete with its own huge indoor swimming pool and furnishings so sumptious that one could forget they were on an island filled with poor people.  The moon was full and shone down on the pool at night, leaving us to feel as completely relaxed and comfortable as we had ever been in our entire lives.  A maid came once a day to to clean the house.  She left us with clean towels and freshly washed, dried and ironed clothes.   It was truly a luxurious event!  We didn't have to lift a finger to do any housework.  She was there to cater to our every whim.

Before we would have you think that we were used to that kind of lifestyle, we must also let you know that we have also endured some of the seamier sides of hotel living, too.  When I was pregnant with my last child, we visited some friends in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  We were living in Uruguay, and it was just $50 to fly across the Rio de La Plata river; so cheap, in fact,  that we immediately decided we should make that trip.  There was just one little thing made me hesitate about the trip.  You see, I  wasn't actually positive that I was pregnant.  I was just expecting that I was expectant!  We told the missionaries that, yes, we would visit a little country area with them where they were in a church conference.  Fate would have it that my 9 year old daughter and I would get sicker than dogs  and have to live close to el bano.  We set out to find a motel, but none of them had a bathroom connected to the hotel room.  We searched and searched until the whole criteria became: do you have a private bathroom with the bed?  It got to be so important that we have that bathroom, that we failed to even check the mattress of the bed.  Generally speaking, it was a very important thing to do--look carefully at the bed and check for bugs, lumps, etc.  Finally, we were very grateful to have tracked down, what was perhaps the only hotel room in town which had a private bathroom!  Later in the day, I felt strong enough to go with our friends to visit a home of one of their church members in the country.  The pangs of tourrista hit me again full force.  I nearly ran outdoors to their outhouse and when I opened the door; behold, there was a guest already using it, and he was face to face with me.  A giant rooster was sitting on the 'throne,' crowing at us, as big as you please!  Well, this poor lady had to high-tail it back to the city with her horrible stomach ache.  No, the pleasures that we take for granted, such as a good working bathroom, is considered a luxury in some parts of the world!

Normally, I would not write about el bano ; that is, 'bathrooms' of the world, but it is fascinating  to meet up with some of them, for you will change your opinions of what you think are the way they should be--according to the  good ole' USA standards, of course.  The first bathroom shock that I ever had, was the bathrooms in the airport in Amman, Jordan.  First, let me give you an idea of the magnificent surroundings as you go into their bathrooms.  The most exquisite marble ever found is on every inch of the walls and floors of this airport.  It seemed as if gold was as plentiful there as is stainless steel in the USA.  As I entered into the huge ( I mean HUGE) restroom, with the beautiful dark veined marble walls and floors, countertops and gold looking faucets and huge mirrors, I was amazed and in awe of the majestic facility.

I swung open one of the marble doors of the HUGE cavern of a stall, and looked in there, shocked, and in disbelief.  There in the middle of the huge stall, was a little marble hole in the floor!  No stool! It is a good thing I was still fairly young, and could stoop that low without suffering a cramp in my leg or back!

Not done with the el bano stories yet?  I will tell one more, and try to change the fascinating subject.  Years ago, Costa Rica was not quite as well-polished as I hear it has become today.  In 1977, we were young missionary students, studying the Spanish language in the huge Language Institute in Costa Rica. We had just a little experience at foreign travel, but not in the primitive kind of life styles.  Costa Ricans prided themselves on their behavior.  They would never think of urinating in the streets as some of the other Central Americans did at that time.  However, one day we took a trip to the Merecado Centrale, or the central market.  Everything from hogs to wedding rings was sold at the huge outdoor market.  One thing we were not acquainted with, was the bathroom system.  The door covering the stall was just a half a door, where one could view the head above the door, and the feet from the knee down! 

When a man would enter the stall, you could see the drainage from his radiator leaking down the side of the stall.  I was so shocked, and embarrassed to see my brave husband go into one of them and wave at us over the top.  It seems like 'embarrassment' is a concoction known only to us norte americanos!

I would stop with that story, except that I have to add a footnote to what the Costa Ricans detested about a few other Central American countries.  We went on a paseo (trip) with 16 Costa Ricans to Guatemala on a break from our school classes.  We met up with a group from El Salvador, and traveled on into Guatemala on 2 huge buses.  Suddenly, the bus in front of us, full of other Central American peoples, stopped, and everyone got off the bus.  The women, with their huge full skirts, seemed to be kneeling down in the grass, and the men went a little further away.  We students from the USA did not comprehend what was happening; however, the Costa Ricans seemed to be having fits.  When the people on that first bus got back on, the driver came back, laughing and said that the grass seemed to be very dry, and needed watering!  The Costa Ricans were so embarrassed by that, as they assured us they would never stoop so low as to urinate in public!

I was going to leave this subject entirely, but upon trying to change my thoughts toward other countries, and travel, I promptly thought of the unique bathroom fixture that one finds in France.  It seemed that a bidet is a bit excessive; we in USA never adopted such a fixture, because why, I don't know.  Perhaps, it was too expensive for our modest American pocketbooks when we tried to copy many of the European ways.  Perhaps, our rooms were just not large enough to accommodate one more item within the bath.  Perhaps we thought it was too wasteful of water, and porcelain? There are many reasons  why America never adopted the bidet, and some of the original reasons appear to stem from the Victorian reasoning that only prostitutes in France used them.   However, when one is in France, one learns quickly that the bidet is very handy, and one misses it when returning to the United States.

A high style of living is not an exact science.  Just as the old adage says that, 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder,' one would have to say that the standards of living are also greatly subjective to one's personal opinions.  For instance, most of us would admit that some privacy is necessary to a decent standard of living.  Try to define what privacy is however, and you will find quite a range of definitions the world over.  In Uruguay, a large family would all fit into a one room apartment, and not complain about the lack of privacy.  It was very normal to have a line of beds against the wall, in what we would call the living room!  When we were missionaries in Uruguay,  I went to pick up a young girl for church one evening.  She was  kneeling down beside her bed, praying, in the corner of the room.  I sat quietly by, waiting for her to finish her prayer time!  In America, that would be called a lack of privacy, but there, she managed to shut out everything and everybody in a mental kind of  'black-out.'  I was humbled many times by the ability of the people to grasp happiness in situations that seem unbearable to us. 

Again, on the subject of privacy;  my son works for Microsoft in Shanghai, China.  There are times when he has to travel within the country of China and he  does so by flying.  He says that the Chinese look at flying as a sport!  They walk up and down the aisles, talking, laughing and having a great time.  Too bad that he wants to sleep.  It is not customary to sleep or relax on an airplane over there! 

When one has been raised in the mid-west, south or west in the United States, there is a greater feeling of space.  An average home has a parking space either at the side of the house, has a garage, or at least is assured of a parking spot in front of the house.  Without making a science out of it,  suffice it to say that the city forefathers outside of the eastern states must have learned something from the cities of New York and Boston, etc.  They decided to build their streets wider and arrange the land in such a way as to include the automobile.   In New York City, there is such a density of population, close knit housing, narrow streets, etc., until the cars have virtually no space to call their own.  On any given day, there will be thousands of New Yorkers driving around and around their blocks, looking for a parking space.  Some rental garages charge monthly rents that are comparable to housing rentals in other parts of the country!  However, it something that people have learned to live with in New York City and do not dwell on the aggravation of it all.  

I had the distinction of living in Montevideo, Uruguay before traffic lights were introduced.  No, it is not so much that I am ancient;  it is that traffic lights were not in place until the year 1981.  I still remember  the first day the traffic lights went on, on the great seaside drive called 'la rambla.'  Policeman were stationed at each light and if a driver had trouble understanding the traffic light, a policeman would go over to the car and speak to the driver!  One poor old soul; a passenger in my car, tried to explain the lights to me.  He said, "you must go on the green light, stop on the red light, and hurry up and go fast on the yellow light, or hurry up and stop!"  Then, he so innocently asked me, if we had traffic lights in the United States!  I refrained from saying that we had them in United States before I was even born….sigh.

There are side notes of travel that must wait until another writing.   This has been a book of notes already…..