My last post was about the trip to the rain forest but there was a real treat waiting for me in Quito as we left the jungle for our trip home.
On Tuesday I met with 9 of Los Caminantes de la Nueva Tierra, the facilitator group from Ecuador. 17 folk trained together last year, a training that was run in Spanish by trainers from staff here at The Pachamama Alliance and a US-based Chilean (thanks tracy and Anne Marie) since when, to be honest, we haven’t heard much from them. But in the silence thare has been a real rush of activity including;
- they have run about 30 symposiums for groups up to 400 in size, and also
- they have opportunities to train facilitators inside Ecuadorian universities, not only this but
- they have also run the symposium at the World Social Forum in Brazil and in Chile (that’s another new pin in the map), AND
- they have set up there own beautiful, comprehensive web-site (check it out even if you don’t speak Spanish, that’s not all
- last week they presented the symposium to the Minister for the Environment, she was deeply moved and immediately wants another symposium for her senior civil servants (can you run another event for 200 next week please?) and then for all of the staff of the Department, but even more than this
- they aim to take the symposium to President Rafael Correa by the end of the year
I am moved, impressed, excited and inspired by this example of what we can do when we are committed to bring forth a new dream, when we can give that a focus, when we realise who we are and what capabilities we have and when we look to our right and look to our left to see the beautiful people who we stand alongside. Together we are a genius and together we are an unstoppable force.
On behalf of facilitators and new dreamers everywhere I salute Los Caminantes, we love you all.
Refreshed, revitalised and re-sourced by a visit to our roots.
A small party of us just made a visit to the rain forest of Ecuador and to Kapawi Lodge there. In a trip of just one week we saw the origins of the Pachamama Alliance, met with and meditated in the jungle, swam in the Kapawari river, took plant medicine with a local shaman, explored the customs of the Achuar people and breathed in the life and energy of this remarkable place.
The purpose of the trip was to introduce our partners from Wieden + Kennedy to our work, so that they can use their creative genius and media insight to help us to spread the impact of our work further and faster than ever. We’re looking to the company that put the swoosh in Nike to help us communicate our messages more succinctly and powerfully in these days of increasing urgency.
So the trip was a guided visit and we had fabulous guides. Lynne and Bill Twist, who first reponded to the call they heard through their dreams and flew into this remote spot to meet the Achuar nearly 15 years ago. And Daniel Koupermann the Ecuadorian who first worked with the Achuar to build the eco-lodge at Kapawi. He told us how he and an Achuar hunter were exploring the rivers to find the right site and they followed a river dolphin into a lagoon. Not yet convinced that this was the sign they were waiting for they tok plant medicine from the forest and waited for confirmation. The answer was yes and so today this small lake is home to the lodge, the only indigenous owned and operated lodge of its kind.
Were we successful? Yes is the answer if we consider the response of our partners who had a life-changing and hugely informative trip, a more considered answer will need to wait on the outcome of their deliberations now, but we’re confident that their expertise in communicating to the heart in simple and powerful ways will deliver some great new ideas – ideas to change the world!
And for everyone of us I’m sure, to sit in this most fertile of places is to feel the power of life, unstoppable and irresistible, it is an opportunity to re-confirm our commitment to do whatever we can to support the work of building a new dream, of peace and justice and sustainable living in the human family everywhere.