14/21, #Lockdownenrichmentforthesoul, International Movie Recommendation

Kon-Tiki

Thor Heyerdahl, the Norwegian explorer in his visits to the Fatu Hiva, Polynesian Islands, 1937, becomes intrigued from where the Polynesians may have arrived.

While the belief at that point was that the Polynesian's may have migrated from Asia, two aspects intrigue him, one is a theory that Asian's may have had to travel to Polynesia against strong currents and the fact that Faa-hoka a type of pineapple, found in South America and was found in abundance by the European explorers when they arrived in Polynesia.

Thor, in his interactions with the, local elder, tries to understand where his ancestors came from.

The elder avers:

Everything comes from the East, Ocean Currents, Wind and the Sun.

Thor believed that people from South America could have settled in Polynesia in pre-columbian times.

Thor was convinced that ancient people from South America traveled a 4,300 mile journey from South America to the South Pacific by raft. 

His aim in mounting the Kon-Tiki expedition was to show, by using only the materials and technologies available to those people at the time, that there were no technical reasons to prevent them from having done so. 

The Kon-Tiki expedition was funded by private loans, along with donations of equipment from the United States Army. Thor and a small team went to Peru, where, with the help of dockyard facilities provided by the Peruvian authorities, they constructed the raft out of balsa logs and other native materials in an indigenous style as recorded in illustrations by Spanish conquistadores. The trip began on April 28, 1947. Heyerdahl and five companions sailed the raft for 101 days over 6900 km (4,300 miles) across the Pacific Ocean before smashing into a reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Island on August 7, 1947. The crew made successful landfall and all returned safely.

The journey was undertaken against several odds including seas filled with sharks.

The most interesting part is that Thor's raft was not propelled by engines, but sailed with the help of winds and ocean currents.

Thor the explorer and the sailor, undertook the great expedition, without knowing, how to swim!!!!

What does Thor Heyerdahl and his journey mean to us?

I would like to invoke within us

A perpetual sense of amazement and the wonderment about the world that we inhabit

A constant excitement about the infinite possibilities that present

The explorer who travels far and beyond

The historian who tries to understand who we are and how did we travel thus far.

An inquiring mind to observe, understand and explore.

The good sense to not hurry to form any judgment.

The Scientist who researches thoroughly

The Adventurer who has the audacity to execute the plans against all odds

Most importantly,

It is in the mysterious equations of Belief, lies the redemption of Human Civilization.