By VIVIANNE OSTHEIMER
One thing I learned in Afro-Brazilian Dance – the first college class I took ‘just for fun’ – is that balance is dynamic.
“Don’t be afraid to shift your center!,” Julia, the 20-something Brazilian-American instructor would call out. We would try to dip lower and sway farther, flailing our limbs ungracefully in an effort to stay upright.
It contradicted all my ideas of balance: a peaceful Buddah, unmoving and perfectly centered in all ways; a story – written for one of my journalism classes – with an equally-eloquent and moving source on both sides of an issue.
What I did not initially think of as balanced was a gaggle of students in a perilously swaying, bumpily lurching, hot and sweaty safari truck.
But as is often true, my perceptions were completely false.
Today, my classmates and I went on a jungle safari in Chitwan National Park, Nepal. Pretty quickly, I figured out that standing up in our canopied vehicle gave me the best view and a little more air flow on a 90-degree day. As I clung to the seat in front of me and the bar above my head, the vehicle shifted and tilted side to side and up and down. I tightened my core, bracing for the bumps. I gripped my holds harder.
We saw a rhino. Then another! I drank three liter-sized bottles of water … then a fourth.
As the hours passed – bringing 19 rhinos, many more deer, and a few elephants into view – my grip loosened and my body swayed with the truck’s movement. I thought about dance class and stopped bracing. My center shifted, but I didn’t feel unbalanced. The opposite, actually. I no longer felt each pothole and sharp turn. The sun maybe felt a little less hot, too…
Photo by Hanna Grass
At home, I can never sleep in vehicles. But here, I found myself lulled by the roar of the truck and the jungle sounds as soon as I took a seat. When I travel, I’m maybe my most open self. Open to connecting with new people, trying new things and even doing some meta-cognition about a class I took last semester. It makes me reluctant to return home, where my responsibilities sometimes constrict.
I did feel a little bad for dozing. We sped past chirping sounds and caws, and I thought about how many times my birder parents would have pulled out their binoculars and demanded to stop. Balance is appreciating the birds you see on safari, even when you want to see a tiger. I’m still working on that one.
In our last few days in Nepal, I’m excited to explore Pokhara. Because my initial reporting idea fell through, I will keep my eyes and ears open for a story. I look forward to dipping with the bumps, swaying with the turns, and staying on my feet (for the most part) while accepting that I may drift off once in a while.
