ONE LOVE I thought how about I give a little history on the early years of my vegan/plantbased journey. In the last two years at University, I used to hang out alot in my free time with pescatarians at a spot in the hood. Yes Rastas introduced me to the concept of One Spirit, One Love. At the time I thought I would never be able to give up eating meat because one, I used to eat alot of meat and two, these guys would sometimes make reference to corpse eaters without ever explaining which actually only averted me because I really just didn’t understand. Thankfully I found books because they helped me explore the subject and brought me much needed clarity. I found out that it was much more common in other parts of the world than I thought. I appreciate the lesson though in that name calling doesnt really help if a person doesn’t understand in the first place. I probably became vegan because when I finally did understand I saw that they probably experience cognitive dissonance because fishes aren’t veggies. Maybe this is why my approach has been different and Im not one of those vegans that bash. Pescatarianism is part of the dietary rules of being Rastafarian but I wasnt Rastafarian, I just started hanging out with them because I was in love and I always used to wonder how I will ever prepare food for a person that doesn’t eat meat and eggs. To make a long story short the love affair didn’t last but it got me started on the path to veganism. Many things changed for me when I became vegan and they are the reason I am still vegan I suppose because it is so different to what everybody else is doing. It wasn’t easy being and staying vegan in what we call “meat country” where boiled meat alone can be considered a meal. GOING VEGETARIAN I started hanging out with the Rastas in the middle of the year 2004 and by August I chose to become vegetarian when two people (one being very close to me) died within days of each other. My grandfather died first and I was sick the whole week at his funeral until the day he was buried. They couldnt find anything wrong at the hospital but I just felt weak and I remember it was peculiar that the smell of meat just made it worse. A week after my grandfather’s funeral,the second person died. She was my neighbor and for ten years she had been like my second mother and earth angel. I had been teased at school and was quite a loner but she opened up her heart and her home and it was like light. She had a new born, was newly married and had been a teacher but was a stay at at home mom. She was British South African and had been arrested as a student during the anti apartheid defiance campaign. Hers was a big influence in how I would come to respect all living beings as worthy of living dignified lives here on earth. I hadnt confronted death of a loved one(human) on that level before that year and had only been at one funeral as a child that I can remember. This is a journey that has been marked by the timely appearance of books and these have led me forward on my path and during that mourning period I came across a text called The Inner Voice which spoke about reincarnation and the spirit and since I was dealing with this grief I was confronting issues of death and dying and the interconnectedness of life and all beings. I had inner questions like where was she going now that she was dead and why did she suddenly give me a feeling the day she died. It also talked about how causing the least amount of harm to feed yourself (temple) is one of the best ways for generating less negative karmic energy. I had been through alot and I was completely open to the thought that less karma could be generated somehow. This also helped me become conscious of what I wear although I must admit, wool somehow just suddenly started making me itch. So I settled with the thought that the spirit manifests in flesh and that if I don’t feel her in the wind, I would see her eyes in the eyes of a baby. I specifically thought she could reincarnate into a chicken and be slaughtered in two months and be ready to eat. Thats what happened in my mind after that last time I bought chicken. Looking back now, I see that the grieving was extreme enough for me to reason like that but it was just as well because this ethical vegan thinking opened me up to a whole new world . A world where it became important to be conscious that at the rate we are going, we really are destroying the planet that we will leave our children on. And for those of us that believe that spirit manifests in flesh and in reincarnation, it may very well be the very same planet we will be returning to. I came accross many forms of exploitation by humans. For example, in Singapore, the farmers burn down forests when time comes to harvest palm fruit, (which is an additive in many foodstuffs) many creatures are burned alive or die from smoke inhalation and habitats are destroyed at alarming rates. In addition to that they say that the people that live near by have to wear masks for weeks because of the smoke and there is soot everywhere. Ill be back very soon to continue talking about becoming Vegan In Namibia. Tuya

What it’s like being Vegan In Namibia

After reading a positive review in The Namibian newspaper by Martha Mukaiwa a few months back, I was really looking forward to seeing the film What The Health.

Well, I recently got a chance to watch it and although I wasnt able to finish it, I do hope that I can do so very soon. You see, it is very rare to see a favorable review on anything to do with Veganism in Namibia.

That’s because Namibia is really meat country. I started this blog essentially to talk about being Vegan In Namibia. While I knew what I wanted to talk about, for a long time, I didn’t know where to start.

Watching What The Health really gave me a light bulb moment with the scene in the film which showed what happens the minute you take in cows milk.

Why is this such an issue for us as vegans and in particular in a country like Namibia? Well, for one, we have no purely vegan restaurants and that means veganism in Namibia is very rare and therefore, often misunderstood.

So, this is what happens to me as a long time vegan when I eat something that is cross contaminated with a little bit of milk or eggs or meat. A whole lot of bacteria enters the body causing inflammation because the body immediately starts with an immune response to deal with these foreign agents, so that means there is an immediate mucus buildup followed by feelings of nausea, bloatedness, or basically, IBS.

Of course the same goes for dead meat.

Hopefully this will explain why I don’t like to eat out or to eat food that is prepared by non vegans because in general honestly, many people don’t care, like since its not an allergic reaction, it’s a personal lifestyle choice that’s not really respected.

I like to feel healthy and if I am ever marooned on an island then I’ll deal with that issue then, but for now I prefer to eat clean and I get that when I eat plant based.

When I first started learning about Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) many years ago, I saw how the standard diet allows us to be so used to feeling sick that we think nothing of the adage that all illness starts in the gut, and that the immune system has got its headquarters in the gut.

I strongly believe that we really need need to start taking more and more responsibility for our own health.

Let me just add that eating clean means I don’t visit the hospital because I’m sick. My only issue being that I have to work on eating more regularly so that I don’t look so skinny and also because it’s better for my overall well being. I developed this bad eating habit in high school. I have learned since how important eating correctly is for overall health.

I say this because correctly eaten plant foods give you an immediate energy lift that is why they feature highly on sport regiments, on doctors advice, on pregnancy food lists, for the elderly, the list is endless. So when I’m feeling low, plantsgive me that needed energy lift, in general releasing energy instantly as soon as I start chewing.

So it is my hope that this blog will help in many ways for those interested in lifestyle hacks of being Vegan, for visiting vegans that would like to know where to find anything Vegan In Namibia and also just to network as we welcome more and more people that want to make healthy lifestyle choices whether for themselves, for the environment and or for the beings that needlessly suffer for the feeding of humankind.

Most importantly it has to do with increasing a demand for plant foods in Namibia because they are so limited and therefore expensive. Its quite sad.

I’m quite sure that the more we buy them, the more variety will be available.

Thanks for stopping by, Tuya.