Vegan in Tuxtla

As I heard veganism is kind of a hot topic this moment in Belgium because of some television episode from "over eten" with Kobe Ilsen and Danira Boukhriss Terkessidis, so what better timing could there be to write something about my experiences as a strict vegan in another part of the world.

I ended the previous post with Tolstoy so it does only seem fitting to me to start with him in this post: 

When the suffering of another creature causes you to feel pain, do not submit to the initial desire to flee from the suffering, but on the contrary, come closer, as close as you can to the one who suffers, and try to help.

Please do think about that, think about it a really long time if you have to, as long as you need to become as vegan as I am. ;) 

But in all seriousness, being here in Tuxtla, which is not exactly the most vegan-friendly place in the world, made me only more stronger in my opinions about veganism. I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY never want anyone ever to say again in my face 'I respect what you do, BUT I couldn't do it'. I can do it in a child's home in Tuxtla, you can do it and you have all the opportunities to do it. Furthermore you are reading this blog so you have access to internet and thus you have access to all the information you need, and if you want I'll gladly help you. 'I couldn't do it' is a sentence that makes me really angry. Because you could. But you refuse to. Because you think the taste of bacon is more important than the life of a sentient being. The saddest part about being vegan is not seeing animals suffer, it is not seeing how the rainforest is being cut down, it is not watching helplessly how climate change is going into an irreversible situation, it is not ... The saddest part is that all of the information is available to everybody but still most of the people around you consciously choose actively to ignore the facts and ignore the suffering of millions because they are addicted to the taste of milk/eggs/meat/...

Anyway, people do ask me how I do survive as a Vegan in Tuxtla. I'm glad you are all so concerned about my possible protein deficiency, so I'll give a short summary of my survival skills. To begin with, more or less half of the food served in the children's home is actually vegan: tortillas made from corn, black beans, a lot of black beans, did I mention black beans?, all kinds of vegetables (half of them I can't even remember the name but they taste really good), rice, tomatoes, chili, Chili, really a lot of chili, and black beans. So you see that fills my stomach already pretty good. Furthermore I am allowed to go the fruit storage any time of the day and eat as much fruit as I want. Next to that I have a free day every Wednesday. In my neighborhood I found a really small cute organic bio-shop which sells a lot of vegan food. And because I go there every Wednesday I am already good friends with the friendly old lady that is keeping the shop open. She wants to help me as a vegan (and probably wants to keep a good customer happy) so I always get a LOT of vegan stuff for free. Sweet old lady. :) Always makes my day. A little bit closer than the organic shop is a little restaurant, it is called 'biosana' and half of their menu is explicitly vegan. I think my heart literally skipped a beat when I discovered this place Accidentally (thank you universe). Every Wednesday I go there and eat as much as delicious food as I possible can, I never paid more than 200 peso (more or less 10 euros) there for everything I ate and drank. Also on Wednesday I go to the big supermarkt and buy some extra food for the next week, for my secret stash in my room for if I am still hungry before going to sleep. I buy some chickpeas and you know, all the health stuff like oreo cookies.

And last but not least, I do take a multivitamin on daily basis to be sure. The multivitamin is a vegan multivitamin with focus on B12, D, Iron, and some other vitamins I forgot about. 

So you see, even here it is not THAT difficult, it asks some planning from my part, but I manage, the first week was hard because I didn't know about the vegan shop and the restaurant, but now I'm fine. So don't tell me you couldn't do it. In Europe, or at least in Belgium for that matter, it is really easy, you just have to open your heart and your eyes.

Vegan greetings, 

B. Supertramp

#TheEndOfMeatIsComing