Traveler's Pantry

by annie

Rummaging through the pantry for a roll of toilet paper can amount to significant frustration. In our pantry, you might find a can of beans or an iron, a box of tea or a broom, a light bulb or a food processor. There are also plenty of other items stuffed in the back that you would have more difficulty finding, like toilet paper.

Brian and I live in a tiny loft apartment together, with limited storage- hence the need for an “all-purpose” pantry. Back in June, we decided that I would move into his one-person apartment, cramming two people and way too much stuff into way too little space in order to best prepare ourselves for long-term travel. It would allow us to save money, spend lots of time together in small spaces and plan adventures together. We also hoped living in a shoebox would motivate us to find happy homes for the stuff that currently resides in our all-purpose pantry, our all-purpose drawers and every other nook and cranny.

As I searched for toilet paper in our overcrowded pantry, a small tin of baking powder caught my eye. My stomach dropped as I realized that in just a few months time, I would be without at least two things: 1) the stability of a home where baking items, such as the powder itself, await ready for fluffing up biscuits or cake, and 2) the common western comforts of which we take for granted, such as toilet paper (and in some cases, even toilets themselves).

I immediately became keenly grateful for my current comforts and stability, wondering how difficult life will be in ways I can’t even imagine, when all my belongings fit in a pack on my back. And I wondered what it will be like to fall to the beck and call of unusual cultural norms such as wiping my ass with my hand instead of a piece of pristine white paper.

Later, curled up in bed, cozy in my small but private apartment, I wondered how I will manage sleeping on floors and couches and mats and cots. As my stomach clenched from the current stress of a 9-to-5, I wondered how I’ll weather the storm of food poisoning and traveler’s diarrhea. As I reflected on my work day, I wondered about how well I’ll transition from sitting at a desk to digging with my hands. After a hard day of manual labor, will I relish in the company of fellow travelers and farm hosts? Or will I seek solitude like a squirrel forages nuts for the winter?

I wrestle with so many questions, questions that will not be answered until they are. And my present challenge, as always, is to focus on now. What am I to do in this three month waiting room? I know that I must do more than wait; this time should not be focused solely on what’s to come. I need to balance the planning with the being and before I know it, I’ll be hanging upside down inside myself, in another country, in another life. And just as I couldn’t have predicted the onset of nostalgia from a can of baking powder, I cannot predict the changes I will undergo, the challenges I will face or the radical shift in my experience of myself and my relationship to the world.

And so, in lieu of an actual pantry, we will use this blog as a cupboard where we'll keep our stories and whereabouts and memories and pictures; anything and everything that will fit, right here in our traveler's pantry.