Jordana Manchester

It felt like I was taking 10 steps back career-wise, but, in the wake of a pandemic, having my little guy at home, I THOUGHT, would help minimize the risk of exposure to Covid. The day after my negative result, Public Health phoned to say they had reviewed my symptoms, and they were deeming me an active Covid case. For those of you with little ones at home, especially pre-schoolers, and toddlers, isolation can be extremely stressful (trust me, I just did 24 days of isolation with a three-year-old!) A few days before I left isolation, I developed a dry cough, and though I didn’t develop any serious upper respiratory issues, to this day, 42 days after first feeling ill, I wake up every morning feeling as if there is a 30lb weight on my chest.

From the throwing his little arms up in the air to feel the wind slip through his tiny little fingers, to tasting raspberries for the first time, to hearing the sound of a steam engine, to seeing a horse clop down the sidewalk towards him. I almost don’t even care that there’s baby sock bandits hiding in my washing machine because some days I’d have better luck finishing the Sunday New York Times Crossword than finding a matching pair of socks. You don’t have to be friends, or to be from the same neighbourhood, or in many cases, you don’t even have to come from the same part of the world: Parenthood is an exclusive, not so exclusive club, open to all who have tiny humans. But as a new mom, a time that I was told I would feel frightened (I did), unsure (all the time), and overwhelmed (sometimes), I found a new level of confidence amidst all of the uncertainty.

Which meant upgrading skills, learning new ones, building an audience, and finally treating my business like a business. I’ve only recorded five episodes, and as challenging as it is to eek out time to research, write scripts and record (which is basically over nap-time, and after bedtime), I have a lovely little audience who’ve been incredibly supportive and I’m having lot’s of fun doing it. But after watching individuals I’ve known for years behave like belligerent toddlers online (worse actually), or lose control and spew hatred and vitriol, or my new favourite, post one COVID-19 conspiracy theory after another, I realized it was time to cull the list. It’s going to be an Everest-like expedition to get it done, but with this puppy on the way, and my Anxiety-Gone box waiting for me at the post-office, I’m looking forward to zen-ing out out and getting rid of some crap

I want to talk about things like culture shock, culture diversity, and how we perceive language barriers or language differences as we in the anthropology world like to say when we’re traveling. Modern anthropology is often divided into four distinct sub-disciplines: biological anthropology, cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology and archaeology. The four disciplines can be generally characterized as follows: biological anthropology (also known as physical anthropology) is the study of human-environmental adaptation; cultural anthropology is the study of how people develop and use culture as a tool; archaeology is the study of the past through materials, spaces, and artifacts left behind; And linguistic anthropology is the study of how people communicate and formulate language. But tourism has also caused the erosion of cultures, and if this new era of travel should be teaching us anything, it’s that it’s that we need to be more mindful, more respectful, more empathetic and a lot less selfish when we do travel.