Two Sets of Stars

Just as our ferry headed for Waiheke Island was about to leave, Carioca raced up the dock clutching a Burger King bag in his hand. Seb shouted at him as he jumped onto the ramp and we all climbed up the stairs together, breathing a sigh of relief.
Twenty minutes earlier Carioca had wandered off with a quick, “I'll be right back.”
We had no idea where he had disappeared to. Settling on the upper deck, with the sun and the wind brushing across our cheeks, he opened up the bag. Inside were four burgers. He unwrapped them and we passed them around the circle created by the four of us. We didn't have our own burger. Instead we took bites of all of them and passed them around until they were all gone.
“That's not how people eat in Canada.” I told the two South Americans and my Kiwi friend.
“Yeah it's wierd,” said Carioca, “When I first came to New Zealand I would bring a 24-pack of beer to a party and share with everyone but no one else would.”
I sat there and thought about that as we drifted past green islands that seemed to emerge like hills from the ocean. It was a bit crazy. I had only met the Brazilian man a couple of times and he had almost missed a ferry to get burgers for us. To him it was just what you did. I couldn't help but think that the world could use more of that kind of crazy.
Seb had been one of the first people to befriend me when we worked at Ruapehu, a ski hill on the north island of New Zealand. He had invited me to Napier with his friend Brock and we had spent the day driving. That night we had stopped by the Wanganui river to smoke in the dark. Brock had pointed out the Southern Cross to me beneath the grey cliffs looming above the slow-moving river and the smoke swirling between our faces. It is a constellation of four stars, shaped like a kite, and you can only see it on the southern side of the world.
Most people go their whole lives and only see one set of stars. Culture is the same way. Most people go their whole lives and only understand one way of being. Biting into those burgers that day, sat beside a friend I had barely met, I felt like I was getting a glimpse into a different way of being. I felt so lucky that I had the chance to understand the world in a different way. It's always so unexpected the ways in which we learn things and the people who are there to teach us. South America was definitely on the list.