Dancing with the Old Lady, the Journey continues...

WSOPC Montreal Day 4 : Fallouts

Tilt is the word of the day. I guess I did not really feel it upon waking up this morning even if I proceeded to meditate for an hour, pounced on my boxing bag/exercise for 40 minutes, stuffed a bit of food down my tummy, laughed a little with my folks - about the selection of my socks that is a pair of orange Pringles thingies that did not quite match at all the rest of my grinding outfit yo 🙄 - and hopped in my vehicle, direction Playground casino on the Kahnawake Indian reservation Except... I suddenly realized that the tournament starts at 11:00, not at noon like I anticipated... fml 😊 Fracking tilted yo 😡 And then I showed up at my table only to realize that I was the first player at a new table and thus ended up with 3 peeps with 7 digits on their Hendon Mob and a young upcoming online crusher from Montreal, so essentially a day 2 or day 3 table on fracking level 2 of day 1, ffs!!! Then the freaking fracking stoopid af wifi from the casino was spotty as can be, as was my cell signal, thus preventing me from escaping the reality of this tough table... F**king Tilted 😡😡 And then that geek mama-fracker walking around like a Gangsta since cashing for a few million over the past few years and shaking everybody's hand like he owns the God damn place even if he remains this arrogant-cocky-little-nerd-wanting-to-fit-with-the-cool-guys-like-he-was-doing-back-in-2018-when-he-essentially-had-no-cashes. Efffing tilted 😡😡😡 And then to have this annoying stinky meathead rec to my right with his constant hand Strat comments and who couldn't last 20 seconds in a scrap, him and his fracking punchable face... Ehhhhhh I'm tilted :(

The only way I survived to level 8 today was because of well-timed bluffs - because I am certainly not going to win an 80-95%, let alone a flip, right!?!?! 😊:( -, most interestingly the following hand :

I wake up with T♦8♦ UTG and decide to put to use a couple of bbs from my 50bbs stack to good usage yo ; button comes along, as do the SB and the BB. OK.

Flop (9bbs) : Q♥Q♥9♥
Definitely not the most elating board for my hand nor my range, but I do have equity, definitely don't want to go into check-call mode, so I proceed to fire 3bbs ; button folds, which is delightful, as at worst I will be playing IP from now on yo ; SB check-Raises to 6.5bbs, ok... and BB folds! I make the call, with plans to conquer the world if I do not bink 😉

Turn (22bbs) : Q♥Q♦9♥ Q♣
Ok. Interesting... Villain continues his nonsensical story for 3bbs, probably thinking I am a tight rec and wanting to get a cheap card in order to reassess/complete his fd or str8 draw...??? I snap-call.

River (28bbs) : Q♥Q♦9♥ Q♣ 6♦
Villain rapidly checks and I take about 5 seconds what size will be sufficient to rep an overpear/get a 9 to fold, and decide to bet 14bbs, leaving myself with 14bbs behind if my plan fails... but villain snap-folds yo

We got this yo

WSOPC Montreal Day 5 : The Downward Spiral

When the alarm clock starting yelling like a Mama-fracking for me to get up this morning at 8:30, I thanked whoever invented the Snooze button... 😃. And as the hours passed by, I rapidly came to the realization that I was simply giving up on the Main Event, even if it is the tournament with the most value. Problem is, I then proceeded to drop a bit more then what would be the equivalent of 2 Buy-ins in a couple hours online, fml :p😊😡 Needless to say, but it is pretty hard for me to see poker positively this week... Tomorrow is the 5k HR ; we got this - I think... - yo

WSOPC Montreal Day 6 : HR/the Softest Table yet

Curiously, this has been my softest (NLHE) of the week, event easier than all 5 of the 1k Colossus tables, no joke!!! First of all, I was running extremely bad in terms of day 1 tables in all events - minus PLO -, and even this one was medium at the start of the day, but we literally lost the two most competent players within a minute yo The lone competent player was sitted to my direct left, but would look at his hand before it was his turn to act and clearly indicate to me if he was going to play it or not ; thx bro 😃. Anyhow, despite being left with the softest table known to mankind, I still ran pretty fracking bad ffs, but nonetheless be returning to day 2 with 1.6 starting stacks/an average stack, which I'll take. Before crashing, here is a quick HH :

Absolute fish opens to 3.5bbs from MP, I flat the HJ with Q♣9♣, button clicks it to 13.3bbs, the table spot calls as do I.

Flop (42.5bbs) : T♣6♣3♠
Decent flop for my hand which goes check-check-20bbs, call-call. Ok. It is important to point out that we all started the tournament with 500bbs, making speculative hands like mine much more profitable yo

Turn (102bbs) : T♣6♣3♠ 9♠
Check-check-check. Ok. Great!

River (102bbs) : T♣6♣3♠ 9♠ A♥
The table fish donks for 25bbs, a sizing that not only caps his range, but permits me to attack his sizing and potentially get an A behind me to fold ; I make it 92bbs and villain pretty rapidly folds

WSOPC Montreal : End of Series After Thoughts, Notepad style

Day 2 of the HR went as bad as can be, having to reenter during the last level of registration, doubling up, only to flame out, ffs 😡😡😡 Anyhow, here are a few thoughts on the series :

- I am felt pretty heavy the day after the series and pretty much avoided the outside world, even, alas, not going to my Muay Thai class, as I settled for the introspection of a few hours of meditation instead. And observing my inner pain.

- I ended up revisiting my glory days of 2018 today, AKA my breakout year when I started crushing 400nlhe online (to the tune of 150$/h) and averaged an hourly of almost double that on the live tournament trail that calendar year. It felt like it would last forever. But I also remember taking the clear decision that year of reducing my volume (and thus my overall winnings) in favour of balance in my life and hence happiness, as opposed to solely focusing on the grind/amassing more monies that I could handle :p

- I feel that given my net focus on MTT studying for the past few months, my game has evolved significantly, at least enough that I can clearly pinpoint mistakes of certain players that have accumulated 7 digits on their Hendon Mob yo. So perhaps it is just a matter of time before I get a significant score... Even if I remain 0/5 thus far in 6 digit equity situations...

- Today I had to pick myself up from ashes. Dust myself off as well. And then some... As always, I had to remind myself how privileged I am of playing this game for a living, high stakes, and how far I have come throughout my poker career, no matter how bad my luck has been on the live MTT felt over the past few years ♥♠♦♣♥♥♥

- I feel that I have to trust my live reads a bit more and rely a bit less on mechanical fundaments/hand reading : there was a couple of times where I got involved in HUMANGUOUS pots when I had 3bet/X-Raised and barrelled, but failed to shove the river after the board got ugly, yet my Spidey senses were telling me that villains were weak... I gotta trust my reads more.

Alright, I will be reserving a hotel in Vegas for WPT Wynn, even if I guesstimate I am somewhere in the neighbourhood of 40-60% on going, depending on how moving into my new house in Quebec will go in early December, AKA in the dead middle of the Canadian winter 😊, and other life stuff (like family) and my general mood.

Peace y'all

The Pursuit of Happiness

Am just coming out of a 10 day Vipassana retreat. Which what, is now perhaps my 40th over the past 22 years, about 25 sat and 15 served... Pretty intense stuff I tell you, pretty fracking intense... From day one I dove deep-down inside and never fully emerged until... tomorrow perhaps...??? Or sometime this week... Who knows when 🙄
The plan spiritually is to do a couple of Aya ceremonies over the next calendar year and another Vipassana retreat in perhaps in July or August in Quebec with C...

I will going to PDC and Tulum for a couple of weeks in early November to meet up with C, before going to Florida for a week so she can meet my folks yo Will probably post in the next couple of weeks to round-up my 3 month stint in Quebec.

Be well all ♥

Quebec Stint (Coming to an End) : Notepad

After 3 weeks in Vegas and a couple in the Yukon, my 3 months Quebec stint is coming to an end. Well, I will be coming back for the month of December to claim my rural house and spend Xmas with da family, but reuniting with C in Mexico awaits me in a couple of days as does returning to Peru in January yo Anyhow, a few notes to scrutinize my time in La Belle Province :

- My family time was definitely a success, getting to help my folks with their moving (they are recently just retired and are relocating into rural Quebec). Albeit living with them has naturally tested my patience over the last few weeks, as I feel I need to get back to my own life as opposed to living within their realm...

- The long-distance relationship with C has also been quite successful although, alas, we have hit a rough patch lately and happily will get to (potentially...) smooth things out imminently in PDC, Mexico ♥

- Poker has been... so-so 😊. My live MTT blues have been following me from Vegas to WSOPC Montreal where I whiffed almost everything outside of a min cash in a 1k (after running fairly hot in Sao Paolo at the end of last year, sigh :(), and my online WR is just not what it used to be. Thankfully though, I have grown to accept my latter hourly rate on top of having managed extremely well my saving/investments over the years, so

- My health is pretty darn solid at the dawn of my 49th rotation around the Sun yo I lost 4kgs since Vegas, am at a very acceptable weight (for me) and looking to only shed off an extra 2kgs while maintaining my present workout schedule (5-6h weekly) of body building and cardio yo 😀

- Spiritually I will be aiming to do one 10 day Vipassana retreat in 2026 and 1-2 plant retreat(s) : at this point, it is just a matter of continuing the practice of both, as my spiritual practices have been quite established/deepened af over the course of the past 3 decades yo

- Am not sure when I will be back in Quebec, but most likely next summer in the vicinity of June-July, me thinks...

Be well all ♥

Am off to PDC-Tulum-Tampa for 3 weeks ; my stint in Quebec was definitely a success in regards to purchasing a nice, idyllic (for me!) house, spending quality time with my folks/sisters/friends, so a 9/10 - poker kind of sucked though 😊. These next 3 weeks should be fun af as well as great to be reuniting again with C, December should be alrightish in the crispy autumn/winter month of La Belle Province and returning to Lima, getting my residency over there and purchasing an apartment should be interesting ; this lifetime is interesting isn't it, at so many levels 😮:shocked:😀

Peace

2025, A Year in Review

Quite a positive year, on almost all fronts outside of poker, the latter being a less important part of my life as I have been progressing upwards through age and financial security yo So without further ado, let's break this down by categories, shall we not!?! :

- Health : This has been a NOTICEABLY strong year, particularly as far as muscle mass and cardio went, the latter ironically the strongest ever in my life and this after 48 (and almost 49...) full rotations around the sun yo And as far as my weight goes, well... while I have struggled to get much below 200lbs/91kgs (192lbs/87kgs was my lowest), my % of body fat has steadily decreased while my muscular counterpart has seen a noticeably upward climb The goal for this year is to make 195lbs/88kgs my new oscillating threshold and aiming to finish the year at 190lbs/86kgs while, of course, further cutting down on body fat/increasing muscle weight 😀

Wealth : After an extremely terribad separation with L in Argentina and witnessing that country fall into a shythole and hence having to abandon ship/all the goods I had accumulated in 5 years and thus seeing myself forced to start over once again, I elected to invest in a house/cottage by a lake in northern rural Quebec and to essentially have a place in the world that I can call mine, that I can store certain material goods in, comeback to, fall back on, if all else goes down the drain Similarly, I am looking to purchase an apartment in Lima in the upcoming months, which will serve as an AirBnB/passive income, as well as providing me with a place to stay for half the year!!!

Happiness Levels : In hindsight, it has been an extremely positive year. And must of it is due to my new found relationship with C ♥ That being said, they are moments where I feel that I should be more grateful for being able to roam constantly across the planet, to play a game of cards for a living, for simply being healthy, wealthy, from a first world country, loving family etc., but I feel that I fail to elate myself to levels that I should, that being said :

Spirituality : Along with the standard 10 day retreat and 2-3 Ayahuasca ceremonies, I will be getting more involved in the Vipassana Community in Lima with (at least) a day monthly of volunteering. And most likely several 2-3 days of service at the meditation centre throughout the year. So it should be a boost as far as spirituality/inner peace goes

Martial Arts : Much of the same, as I will be doing 2h weekly in either a group (most likely, in order to sparr twice weekly) or if not with a personal Muay Thai trainer (more expensive, more demanding, but less sparring being held) along with 3-4 additional hours in my personal AirBnB gym (with a boxing bag) or at Smart Fit gyms with C. I will most likely not engage in an amateur fight after all, like I was working towards last year, although there is still a slight % chance, I guess...

Projects : Not much outside of the standard meditation, Muay Thai, Aya, travelling, working on the house, playing live MTTs and grinding in general, but I will add, along with contributing to the Vipassana meditation centre, of a day (or two) of volunteer work in a poor district of Lima. I know this one will cost me more in terms of exhaustion levels as I will literally be surrendering a part of myself in terms of time and energy levels :p I will be searching how I can give a bit of myself, but it will most likely be in terms of cooking food for the poorer... I will also be working to add progressively days moving forward.

😉

♥

thanks for putting this together sir very happy to see that things have been going mostly well for you

Thx bro, I appreciate your comment ♥

I should state that indeed, 2025 has definitely been one of my better years, but not on the felt though, as both live MTTs - of course! - and even my online grind have seen dwell in the red 😮 :shocked: That being said, I found a site a few weeks ago that now make me understand the crazy HIGH winrates that certain players achieve Granted, I have to play on a not so regulated site, most of my tables are of the 2 card variant as opposed to the 4 card one - lol nlhe - and I am playing up to 1k and 2k, but darn, I have never encountered such a soft app/site in my life!!!

Congrats on your 2025. I like the plans around vipassana (subtle message to myself to do the same). While I know you don't measure happiness in such reductive terms but I suspect a spike in your Hendon Mob in 2026 might be meaningful!

Thx bro ♥ As far as contributing/spending time at the meditation centre, it is the nuts!!! Your meditation simply becomes stronger and given that I suffered from a solid amount of social anxiety a couple of decades ago, learning to work with others WHILE GOING THROUGH EMOTIONAL STORMS that Vipassana manages to stir up, is liberating af :p😆♥ Anyhow, moving forward, I want to give some of my time through perhaps some administrational work and splitting it with volunteer work in poorer Lima hoods. The gist of it, is that I sincerely want to serve, as opposed to serve as a medium to elevate my own meditation. Anyhow, more on this in the upcoming months.

Be well bro ♥

Went to see Bad Bunny yesterday in Lima. It was amazing. Definitely above expectations. And expectations were HIGH. Especially given that I have been training with Bad Bunny's music daily for the past few months And... well... everything else is going pretty much awesome in my life, even poker, which had been my achilles heel for the past year. And anyway, it struck me during the concert that my during my next Ayahuasca ceremony, I will be asking : "how can I be a better human being".

I hope this does not sound arrogant... GN all, much love ♥♥♥

So ****ing jealous, I'd love to see Bad Bunny live someday, he's great and I'm super happy he's gonna be performing at Super Bowl halftime show. QUE VIVA LA RAZA!!!

Ohhh, I had to pay a juicy vig for it though, as I purchased it in resales (a bit more then 4x the initial price tag)!!!

The concert was split into 3 acts of an hour each : the first one being by far the most solid musically, as Bad Bunny had (almost) an orchestra behind him for the song of his most recent album which are much more instrumental/salsa inspired (along with other world music influences a la Flamenco, for example) ; the first part in fact made this concert a top 15-20 ever (and I have seen a SHYT LOAD of concerts, especially between the ages of 17-22 where we would travel to NY, Toronto, San Francisco etc. for festivals (Lollapalooza and Tibetan Freedom Concert amongst others) ). The last parts of the concert (that lasted almost 3h) were more his older reggaeton songs, which were fine, but for which I care a bit less for.

C and I will also be going to "A Noche de Salsa" in March and then to see Mon Laferte in May ; outside of your typical reggaeton artists, Lima offers little in terms of American/international band/singers besides your Iron Maiden/Megadeth etc. of the world - which I care little for - , but not your Tool, Tortoise, Jane's Addiction, Arcade Fire, the latter which 3 I got to see in BsAs.

And I will be watching the Super Bowl for the first time in 29 years this year Not that I have anything against American football, politics not withstanding, but it is not one of my favs sports (unlike combat sports and basketball) nor one that my peers indulge in (unlike Futbol here in Peru and hockey in Quebec).

Strange Lands

Curious times in Peru that have been ongoing for almost a year now and that has forced the government forced to instigate the Emergency act. You see, a group of Narcos have been assassinating bus drivers nonstop, unfortunately, as the privately owned bus companies have ceased to pay for the extortions/AKA the “protection fees”. Curiously (for me, at least...), city buses are privately owned in Lima, meaning that not only are they managed in order to be lucrative by a private entity, but it also forced the hand of bus drivers of yesteryears to not stop to pickup students (that have a discount prices) in favor of your working folks, as the bus drivers also rent out the buses from the aforementioned bus companies. Since then, national laws have forbidden these behaviours and enforced strict fines if put into practice. But I digress…. Back to the Narcos.

Dozens of bus drivers have been gunned down by moto churros/AKA thieves on motorbikes that simply shoot down their poor victims in broad daylight (and certain passengers have also been assassinated, even as far as a Mom and her child!!!).

Anyhow, one of the strategies implemented by the government, has been a restriction on foreign bought telephones. I suppose that the Narcos were purchasing smart phones from abroad to somehow bypass the law agencies spying on their activities, so us, foreigners, find ourselves incapable of buying local sim cards/are forced to pay the extra fees of using a foreign sim cards or finding ourselves having to hack our way into a local registration of our phones. Or having to purchase a local phone, of course. So such has been my first 2 weeks when I spent numerous hours trying to identify what was the issue, then trying to find ways to resolve it, to then refusing to pay a suspicious hacker in finding a way to work around it, to finally purchasing a cheap 2nd phone to use in the meantime!!! First world problems, I tell you, especially that while I do live more of somewhat a local life in a middle class local neighbourhood (with very few tourists), I nonetheless never use municipal bus services.

In other areas of my life, things have been going pretty fracking great!!! Namely :

- I found al alrightish Muay Thai gym which I have paid for 2 months, but might be returning to a dojo in Miraflores which has been my lifetime favourite thus far

- I will be doing an Ayahuasca ceremony most likely in February with the intention of knowing how “I can be a better human being???” ; edit : I might do a month of microdosing meanwhile with C though...

- As far as a Vipassana meditation retreat goes, it will not be until some time in August-September with C in Quebec.

-I have made a residency demand for Peru and should get an answer within the next 4-8 weeks.

- Things with C are going amazing yo ♥

- As far as poker goes, online has been amazing and live pretty much non-existent and will remain so until I get my residency/can escape the country for a series in Brazil, as apparently the NSOP, AKA the Peruvian national series of poker, has closed doors when they allegedly suspected that they were not going to meet their set guaranteed back in August in LIma. Edit : WSOPC Montreal will be offering a 5k Main Event come August with a 10 million guarantee yo, equalling what WPT once did (in 2019, I believe...), while failing to meet the guarantee by a mil!!!

Peace y'all

Changes

I don't feel the sun's comin' out today
It's stayin' in, it's gonna find another way, yeah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liZUTMMM...

Well I just got my Peruvian residency ; that was fracking quick 😮 :shocked: 😃. Much faster than in Argentina, when it took almost 2 years and (almost) triple the fees, ffs, and lest not forget about the fact that shortly after getting it, I set sails for sunnier shores, AKA ones that no longer had L included in them - but rather C :p😃😉 - and where the country was not in a (seemingly...) irreversible financial downward spiral :p. :( I feel pretty darn good about the news and will most likely be travelling to Brazil in April with C for the KSOP as eyeing to purchase an apartment in the imminent future yo No drinks will be had to celebrate the news and not even a little ice cream, alas, as I am preparing my body/mind for a (potential...) upcoming Ayahuasca this weekend.

I always get a little anxious before engaging an Aya ceremony, primarily because I have gone deep down into the dark Underworlds before and have suffered immensely in the presence of Demons ; moreover, I am also touched with the wisdom that even elevating af blissful journeys also demand its fair share of inner work, alas :p. But such is the journey in this bottom world and the way to transcend it, right...

Edit : it is looking more and more like I will forego this weekend's aya journey in favour of microdosing for the feasible future with C... Which means then instead of having a diet free of sugar/sweets/meats/alcohol etc during a week, I will double down on my already relatively healthy diet which will be great to

A) Knock down a couple of kgs
B) Focus on my meditation (and C's)
C) Start doing some volunteer work

View from my apartment

Peace y'all

Awesome view! Nice to hear things are going good! Good luck on the weight loss, as always I am in the midst of another kick at the can. Careful around the buses and keep crushing life! 😃

Midlife Introspections

Today is my birthday. AKA my 49th revolution around this planet. Well not exactly today, as it is unbeknownst to me when these words will actually be posted, but it nonetheless befit the overall narrative better to state “today is my fracking bday”, ok!?!?! 😃:p🙄😉. And with the additional year added to my lifelong calendar, comes a certain dose of contemplations - as if these did not occur on a regular basis 🙄

My buddy (who is also 49 years old) just lost his 2nd child to be (his gf is 43 and this was going to be her third). I mention this as he procreated for the first time a couple of years ago, much like it has been on my mind to do so recently. I only see 2 potential outcomes branch themselves moving forward - or at least purposefully - : one in which I become a father and put 100% of my energy levels on the upbringing of a little one in this bottom World, or a future where I do not procreate, but prioritize instead volunteer work. Both of these destinies seem to imply that I will gradually be stepping away from the (live and virtual) felt, albeit never fully, I suspect…

Speaking of the latter : while I have found an INCREDIBLY soft site and am not overly concerned about my long term WR, I have hit a nasty downswing over the past 3 weeks and it has dipped me into the eternal contemplations on the game with questions like : "why do we play this humongous pain-inducing game again...???". "Am I still a very good player in this day and age...???". "And to what extent will my time spent on the felt remembered positively when it's all said and done...???". To which I (always) end up replying : primero, for the challenge of surpassing oneself, as any competition/sport does ; segundo, still very solid, but mainly for the implicit aspects of my overall longevity as a pro/mental stability throughout a couple of decades/and capacity to save and invest wisely my time and profit ; tercero, I will probably view in hindsight my time spent on the felt as just another job/time spent to accumulate monies, albeit exponentially more productive than my time spent flipping pans in kitchens (as well as better paid yo ).

Edit 1 : I have since gone on a 20k upswing since writing these words yo

Anyhow, the next few months will be spent microdosing Aya and thus doubling down on my forever ongoing efforts to be (mostly) clean!!!

Edit 2: We are on our second week of microdosing Aya albeit the 3 little fracking teensy drops have been POWERFUL af yo!!! A familiar pain in my tummy has clearly indicated that the cleansing effect has initiated, while the second day has seen me be noticeably more balanced, handling nasty af variance with a smile on my face yo while C has also experienced a great dose of tranquility and peace ♥

Edit 3 : I will be volunteering in a soup kitchen this upcoming Monday and at the Vipassana centre this Wednesday ; while I have volunteered quite extensively at the latter and know exactly what to expect, the former will be new to me and I guess we will see how it goes... I do not mind at all for the life of me that it is a Christian community, just as long as no religious propaganda is involved and that the volunteering is based on selfless service, then will be cool ♥

Thx friend and great to hear from you ♥ Yup, weight loss is going pretty good, albeit my goals are pretty modest (2-3kgs for the year) and more focussed on losing fat/building muscles (while also using creatine) at this point

Haven’t had a chance to read the update.

But happy birthday! Wishing you all the peace and happiness in the world!

happy beeday dubn! Regardless of the path you choose as you approach the half century mark (!), I'm sure you'll continue to do great things.

Volunteering

Interesting day outside the office/in the streets of Lima today. Because one of my priorities this year is to strengthen my volunteering efforts (and consequently gradually to step away from the felt/or at least spend less time on it), I had created a thread stating my intention on an Expat in Lima Facebook group, eventually got an invite for a soup kitchen (operating in the evening from 6pm-1am), snap-accepted it, and adventured out after a normal half of day of meditation/grinding/training yo

I instantly connected with the peeps volunteering over there whom, when all things considered, are seemingly kindred souls that simply want to give and help out the folks in need. I did get one of those conversations when the girl (about a decade+ younger) shared her experience of previously practicing meditation, but had since been informed that the practice of yoga is inspired by demoniac forces - lol 😃. Nonetheless, her story did not come across as preachy, but more so as just sharing her personal experience.

Disclaimer : while I do come from Catholic backgrounds and do not judge by any means another mortal's religious beliefs and definitely have the upmost respect for the historical person of Jesus Christ (and even Biblical), I do alas have a lot to say about the church, especially the ones that have political (or in this case, drastic) perspectives.

Edit : I have since gone 3 times to cook/distribute food for the homeless and this form of volunteering works for now. I eventually want to approach my time spent serving as more entrepreneurial, in the sense of perhaps starting my own project, but splitting my time in between serving at the Vipassana meditation centre and helping the needy in the seedy parts of the city, is a good way to wet my feet in Lima for now

In other news, I started attending Muay Thai classes in a new gym located in a poorer part of Lima (in Lince AKA the Red District, where I will be living for the next 3 months yo ) and this is by FAR the best martial arts dojo I have trained in!!! The course is more advanced ; the teacher, passionate af (and has previously trained in Thailand) ; and the students, from tougher backgrounds ♥ I did get the good ole standard treatment of certain tougher peeps wanting to bash the face in of that rich foreigner, of course, but which is exactly what I was looking for yo

Thx friends ♥

Will be keenly following as your charitable enterprise develops. I'm wondering how your status as a non-local (for the time being, as I'm guessing you'll soon become a familiar face) changes your approach? It probably shouldn't matter, as you don't have any kind of religious/missionary agenda, and most will likely be accepting of any help provided. Do you even regard what you're doing to be charitable? Or are you thinking of it in a less orthodox way?

Hey bro, thx for reaching out and your always insightful questions/POVs ♥

A few things here to breakdown :

Which is why I am slowly dipping my feet atm, both at the Vipassana centre and in the homeless realm ; even if I am vastly experienced in the former community (approximately 40 courses sat and served combined), I am not one to impose myself in a foreign country. To be fair, I do not lack assertiveness in certain areas of my life/personality, but am nonetheless sufficiently humble to not force upon others (at least explicitly) my experience especially those stemming from a different culture or way of perceiving things. And I do lack experience in volunteering in general (but was sufficiently close to living in the streets/sleeping in parks/under bridges in my extreme adventurous backpacking decade), so I am thus taking in the experience atm. Observing. But do not think I will be long with a community that, sure is focussed on helping out peeps in need, is centred towards converting lost souls - albeit not many Peruvians are not Catholic/Christian, tbh.

All this being said, I feel that Peruvians are generally more passive (especially the Incas) as opposed to say more European Latinos like Argentinos, Brazalians or even Colombians, imho, and as such are more receptive to listen/trust outside voices. Have you heard of Paul Rosalie, the humanitarian saving thousands of acres of the Peruvian Amazonian every year and in the process preserving tens of thousand years of heritage of jungle tribes :

https://lexfridman.com/paul-rosolie/

Lex Fridman

#369 – Paul Rosolie: Amazon Jungle, Uncontacted Tribes, Anacondas, and Ayahuasca | Lex Fridman Podcast

If I remember correctly, this is also the podcast during which Lex speaks of his first Ayahuasca ceremony, drank in the midst of the Amazonian jungle

Paul's 2nd visit on the Lex Fridman podcast is even emotionally enticing than the first one, as hard as it might be to believe, as his humanitarian efforts have since crossed paths with myriads of natives still living naked, with crossbows and completely clueless to the modern reality of the outside world - or at least the realm located beyond the Amazonian bubble, sort of speak, and also he has unfortunately crossed paths with Narcos that have put Rosolie on their death list and even intended a couple of assaults on his life :

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/489-paul-rosolie-uncontacted-tribes-in-the-amazon-jungle/id1434243584?i=1000745040953

Apple Podcasts

#489 – Paul Rosolie: Uncontacted Tribes in the Amazon Jungle

But all this being said, I suspect that if approached correctly, I should not have many issues with peeps accepting the charitable help, if I do not rub the wrong people the wrong way (and perhaps the right people the right way...).

As far as the sentiment of charitable goes, I believe so... but let me explain how my sense of serving others has (innerly) evolved over the years : first of all, outside of the standard stuff like helping out friends moving out, with their houses or kindred cooks in their restaurants etc., my volunteering of yesteryears has almost been strictly limited to the Vipassana centre. Moreover, at the time I was more focussed on my own inner work and would meditate 5-6h daily on top of being the kitchen manager in the centre. Which is a TON of meditation when combined with the serving workload. But my priority was my own inner evolution, thus lessering/deprioritizing my compassion levels of feeling for the meditators taking the course. This attitude took a severe U-turn when C sat her first Vipassana course last year and I was serving it in dire conditions, as we were lacking a good 3-4 servers :shocked:😮:(: I was literally ready to kill myself of exhaustion trying to save the course from collapsing (we also had our water tank dry/all toilets clogged up/no showers, as well as issues with a server that was playing games on his phone all the time etcetera and etc.)!!! And during that experience, I developed a sincere desire to help selflessly others ♥