Share Your World Contest 4 My Entry

My post today is about the City of Toronto in Canada and the State of Oaxaca in Mexico. The first is the place I came from and the other is a place I would like to go. This is my entry to the 4th and final ShareYourWorld contest by @reonlouw. I have entered all of these contests, and I am very sorry they are coming to an end.

Today’s contest comes in two parts.

PART ONE – My Place

Tell us something about your people, your culture and your country that will cause us to want to visit your country. Don't do the regular tourist attractions that we can Google. Tell us something special and unique.

I’m not one to visit tourist sites anywhere, so there is no danger of my talking about them here!

The place I came from is the Toronto area of Canada. I was there on and off until I was 19 and then have only been back a few times since.

My people

Toronto is a place of many cultures. Over 50% of the people are from various minorities and other countries. They live in what is described as a cultural mosaic. People keep the culture they came with instead of blending in to any kind of mainstream culture.

Each culture has its own neighborhood and when you go there, you feel like you are in that country or place. I always liked going into the various places that seemed nothing like my area. I give credit to Toronto in that it allowed me to grow up seeking and enjoying other cultures instead of fearing them.

My culture

I was part of the English-speaking people who trace their roots to the British Isles. But that made all the other cultures just that much more appealing and I was always happy to find myself in them. Once you enter a nighborhood with a predominant culture, you will find food, shops, grocery stores and language all to be like the original place.

My city

Toronto has excellent public transport and I used it alone from a very young age. When I was young it was very safe and I actually hitchhiked a lot from the outskirts to more central areas. This circumstance allowed me to visit pretty much any place in the city without having to rely on anyone else.

PART TWO – Another Place

Tell us about a people, a culture or a country other than your own that you admire and would love to visit and experience. And very importantly, tell us why.

I am intrigued by the Oaxacan State of Mexico. I don’t know very much about it, but this has not stopped me from going anywhere else.

Oaxacan people

I have only known one person from Oaxaca. This was a man who came to San Diego with his American wife and their baby daughter. They both came to work (with the baby) in the place I was working and he did tasks that did not require any English. She was college educated and had a fairly high-powered job. He had never been to a school at all.

He was the hardest working and happiest person any of the rest of us had ever seen. He was in charge of the baby and any other child of any other employees. Within weeks of them being hired, we almost had a mini daycare out in the lobby where he worked.

He was from one of the many indigenous cultures that still exist in Oaxaca. This man had no English or Spanish until he met his wife. She certainly did not know his language. But somehow they managed to fall in love and make a life together.

She had met him as she rambled around that area in a hippie kind of way. Her story was that it was love at first sight for both of them and they had been inseparable ever since the very first day they met. Since she had managed to wrangle a job for herself, her non-English speaking husband and her child, I guess that proves the power of love.

Oaxaca culture

Because of its ruggedness, many Oaxacan cultures have stayed much as they were before Mexico was colonized. They don’t really need to fight anyone off, because few outsiders ever go to the remotest areas.

Oaxaca State

Oaxaca is unspoiled and stays that way due to difficult terrain. It is is the South of Mexico with a long coastline and interior mountainous areas. There is little of modern society in this place. All I know about it is from the woman’s stories and she made it sound like a simple paradise.

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I don’t know if I will ever get back to the place I came from or visit the place I have such a romantic view of, but it is fun to dream! Thank you so much for the fun contest @reonlouw. I’m sorry it is ending, but I am looking forward to the next thing you dream up.

Please start here to kick obesity to the curb:

Set Your Goal for Weight Loss
Anyone can beat obesity if I did. Please ask me and I will help you do it too.