Assignment 3 - Homelands & Regional Landscapes
Part A:
Write about your personal meaning and sense of homeland.
Homeland to me is my memories of growing up in India. The memories of seasons, plants, animals, festivals, colours, noise, food, family, routine, clothes, and at home havan’s making the air smell of fire and camphor. I am reminded of my homeland through my 5 senses especially taste, smell and sight. The different smell of spices in Indian cuisine, the smell/feeling fresh rain brings, or clothes that remind me of India. My personal meaning of homeland, is family time waking up early to spend time together and eat together, no matter where you are. As me and my siblings grow up and get busy in live I miss these mundane moments with my mom and family.
Then the feelings start to merge with the things I have falling in love with in Canada like swimming and long dog walks the frigid air of pure winter that refreshes and wakes me up.
The memories and environments of the two countries merge in my mind but as I spend too much time away from India I long for it even more. The hardships of living in India doesn't deter this feeling but feeds the curiosity of experiencing these hardships and learning the skills from them. 15 years of longing, and the desire of experiencing and seeing the places from my parents stories, grows.
This is Darjeeling a hill station town, where my mom lived for a few years during childhood. Her stories of Darjeeling make me want to live there.
In 2022 I went backpacking in Costa Rica and the similarities of Costa Rica to India made me realize how much I missed my homeland. These similarities made start talking in Hindi more with my family and me relive my memories of India:
Through the tropical fruit (especially custard apple and sugar cane), because I had a custard apple tree in my backyard in India and used to get sugar cane in the summer from the market, to chew raw or to juice to make a refreshing summer drink.
Costa Rica [left] - Tuk Tuk's and street side businesses. India [right] - Ricksha's. The busy streets noises of San Jose, Costa Rica remind me of India. The type of taxi's in Costa Rica (Tuk Tuk) look exactly like the ones in India, except in India they are called Ricksha.
Street side vendors, Costa rica versus Indian Dhaba's.
The greenery of forests, tall trees, and the colourful creatures thriving in the hot humid weather, and the constant rain worthy of an actual monsoon season in Costa Rica, reminds me of the monsoon season in India.
I remember I loved playing with touch-me-not plants we had at home as a kid in India, and I got to play with it again in Costa Rica as an adult. It reminded me of my memories with this plant in my homeland.
Gallo pinto (rice and beans), and Indian food. Both countries use banana leaves as plates in certain parts of the country. I eat rice and beans/lentils a lot as a Indian, so gallo pinto made me feel at home.
Returning to Winnipeg after Costa Rica made me miss India more. Making me do things that make me feel closer to my homeland, like indulging Indian movies, music, festivals, making more Indian friends. Seek out events where I can wear cultural clothes, or even find comfortable cultural outfits to wear at home. I think we carry a sense of homeland where ever we go, I carry my homeland through beliefs, values, spices, unique kitchen utensils, home decor, plants and clothes. These things allow me to miss my homeland a little less as I try and adapt to my new environment, but the farther and longer I am away from it the more curious I am about my homeland.
Part B:
Provide your reasoned opinion of the following statement:
“Regions are subjective artistic devices, and they must be shaped to fit the hand of the individual user. There can be no standard definition of a region, and there can be no universal rules for recognizing, delimiting, and describing regions" (Hart 1982).
I agree with Hart's statement, that anyone viewing a region could describe and perceive it differently the definition of a region would be subjective, based on the describers imagination, experience on the region and the time given to describe/paint the picture about the region. Like how I describe Costa Rican region in this assignment based on my experiences, that I think fit into the picture I am trying to describe. Also, my perspective on Costa Rica can be greatly different compared to professionals or the local people of the region, because of our experiences, background, language and time spent in the region.
Regions can also be ever changing, as new development is made in the country, political shifts, or if the change that can occur as a country becomes a developed country from a undeveloped country, or physical changes natural disasters and wars brings to a region. Also, the immigration of different people to a region can change the region in different ways as different people have unique ways of life, values, and their desire/longing to replicate their homeland in their new region. Making us see places like China town and little Italy within cities.
I disagree on the statement that "there can be no standard definition of a region", because there sometimes needs to be an agreement upon the definition of a region to move forward with a discussion, like landscapes, climate zones, and watersheds. A baseline on the definition of a region allows us to make more informed and applicable decisions, like policy-making, scientific study, borders, governance, economic decisions, and ecological practices.
Creatively and perspectively I think it is good to have artistic flexible descriptions of regions. All though for comparative analysis, communication, and decision making I think there needs to be a standard definition of a region.
Part C:
Provide a factual statement on the following topic:
The regional geography of any one region in Latin America
Costa Rica is small region compared to other countries yet it one of the most biodiverse rich place on earth with 5% of the world's biodiversity. You can experience the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean within the same country. Looking at the map you would think it doesn’t take that long to get from one coast to the other, but it takes quite a while since the roads are not great winding around mountainous curvy terrain. All these factors contribute to a great foggy hilly view and slow commute though. The country has active and dormant volcanoes surrounded by rainforests, and the people try to embody the saying Pura Vida (pure life).
For its cultural elements was colonized by the Spanish, and currently it is a hot spot for tourism and expats moving to Costa Rica from the USA. This tourism and increase in population for the country comes with environmental as people use up the countries resources and deforest to make more spaces for people. This has already change the country in some ways like most people will accept USA currency instead of the local Costa Rican Colón. Also, the fact you can get by with speaking English in Costa Rica because you'll easily find a person speaking it or some menu's in English.
From a chat with the hostel worker when I couldn’t sleep on the day I had to fly back home. I learned about the tensions between Nicaragua and Costa Rica like the migration of Nicaraguans to Costa Rica to seek refuge from political/economical tensions in Nicaragua has lead to xenophobic sentiments towards Nicaraguans in Costa Rican society. It has been a few years so, I can't complete remember what the Nicaraguan receptionist told me but he talked about his journey to Costa Rica and seemed envious of Costa Rica's tourism industry.
A notable thing in living in Costa Rica is being in harmony with all the other creature that are there. For example, your body automatically wakes you because of the sounds of all the creatures in the nearby forest that are waking up with the sunrise. I remembered asking a local Costa Rican friend what the bug bite I woke up with on my arm was, but he didn't know and self reflected that "I'm so used to always having bug bites that I don't even notice them anymore". He was so used to having them and waking up with them that it was a norm for him. This shows the abundance of life in Costa Rica, that the smallest of creatures are fighting and defending for space and resources.
I am sure the bugs that bit/irritated my skin were quite small, but here is a video of bigger vibrant bugs I captured. The vibrancy of the biodiversity is amazing, it must be fun to be a biologist in Costa Rica.
Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources, University of Manitoba
GEOG 2630: Geography of Culture and Environment
Dr. Olga Shugurova