By Kalea Moore

Through the events of this trip, I have found that my reality is shaped by a fantasy society has built. This fantasy world we live in has made my perception of life skewed. In Agora, nothing feels hidden or manipulated. The community exists out in the open. Nobody tries to make an illusion of something they aren’t. Walking down the paths of the village, you see life taking place openly. With aging, sickness, or struggle the community comes together and takes care of one another.

In America there is always competition, whether that be economic, socially, or politically. Many people feel pressured to show an unrealistic version of who they are so they gain the approval of others, and status within the community. The unrealistic version is created by social media and an unrealistic idea of what life should be like. This illusion makes it difficult to know who people are and who they’re not. I didn’t see this as prevalent in Agora.

In Agora, it seems clear that the people work not for status or money but to help grow and support the community. When somebody gets sick their crops don’t get overrun by weeds but their neighbors help weed it as if it was their own. When someone needs an extra meal, they are given it. This shared sense of responsibility shows a community that grows together instead of one being separated by the need to be better than one another.

 In America I’ve found people try to distance themselves from the responibilty of their community. Nursing homes, hospitals, and other systems can be used to help and support people but during certain times people can use these places to distance themsleves from those who are struggling. The support is not coming from the community, but in a place separate from the community.

I’ve seen nursing homes neglect and even abuse the elders they are  “taking care of”. When somebody ages in Agora they earn respect and have honor from the younger people. The elders are in no way separate from daily life in the village in the ways that I have seen elders distanced from their community in America. Many times during our host dinners i would hear grandparents telling stories, traditions, and core values of their people to the younger generation. This has kept the people of Agora grounded in who they are for thousands of years but has highlighted how disconnected lots of communities are in the states.  How often do grandparents get to tell those stories to their grandchildren back in the US? Definitely not everyday like in Agora.

I also thought about community when I watched people do their daily work. With the 60-80 pounds of fresh grass the woman spent all morning harvesting, strapped to their back they walk down the mountain back to their house. They don’t have the nice hiking shoes or a good comfortable backpack to put the grass in. Lots of the women wear sandals and tie the bags of grass to their back with rope. Each day, everyone in the community sees this powerful example of hard work. Watching the hard work they do to provide their family with food has given me a new appreciation for all the effort going into day to day life. The actual meals we ate in Agora were carried to us from the fields and forests by these same women.

 At Christchurch we don’t pay much mind to how our food got to the table. We don’t see all the labor going into making sure that we eat. A lot of the time kids get way too much food and throw the rest away. Seeing the woman work so hard I relized how disconnected i was to the reality of the hard labor going into making sure we eat. The fantasy of an endless buffet could not have been more obvious.

My experiences in Agora challenged what I thought a successful society looks like. Having the example of a community that grow together through the hardships of daily life has made me realize how disconnected I am from my own. Instead of focusing on how independent I can be or how much I can set myself apart from those around me, I now know I can grow with and through my own community. I can remember the taste and the warmth of this different way of living – this more real way of living.