Hola todos,
I have been here about two weeks now... Doing a little work for Fundacion Pachamama which has been cool. I have learned a lot, mostly about los derechos de la naturaleza (Rights for nature). It is inspiring and excited to be working closely with people who are revolutionizing the way the world interacts with nature and treats our resources. It is in an idea, to give nature the same rights which people enjoy, that is spreading all over the world- from communities in the US to indigenous communities in Ecuador and is even now a part of the National constitution in Ecuador. It also got much attention at the World People´s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights for Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia in April of this year. Because the let the public into the event thousands of people arrived to partake....It was a massive event compared to the one in Coppenhagen. At the PWCC, they agreed on an initiatives for rights for mother earth - something farfetched at the UN Climate Change Conference.
Yesturday I attended an event for the implementation of the rights for nature here in Quito. I was working for most of it so I didn´t get to listen to all of it. It was very cool to hear all the speakers though. There were different perspectives of lawyers, indigenous activists, groups from the US working on grassroots programs and Cormac Cullinan, an environmental lawyer from South Africa who I have gotten to know over the past two weeks. He also wrote a book called Wild Law to refer to an Earth Jurisprudence, ¨looking at the actual philosophy and value systems that underpin most legal and governance systems, and making sure that they support, rather than undermine, the integrity and health of the Earth.¨ -http://www.earthjurisprudence.org/
If you want to know more about rights for mother earth...email me! mthomas3@uoregon.edu
Other than that...I have done a bit of travelling but nothing too exciting.
Hope I didn´t bore you too much
love,
Megan
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Semana Primera
Hello everyone,
I have spent a week in Ecuador and it has been out of my world amazing. To start, I arrived in Quito airport with Bill waiting at the gate...It was some of the easiest international travel I have done. The following day was relaxing beginning with breakfast at Cafe Cultura and a tour of Pachamama. I met the whole staff and they were very excited to have me help out a little while I´m here.
...So, I will not give you a play by play as that would be muy aburrido. We left for the rainforest on thursday...it was about 3 and a half hours by car to get to the town of shell (named after the oil company because the bought it in the seventies). We boarded a 6 person plane on the Achuar´s national airline called Aerosentak. This was slightly terrifying... but I got over the nerves quickly after we took off. Flying over miles of endless rainforest was the perfect way to begin this journey. It was a 50 minute flight which took us to a little airstrip built by the Achuar people ( it is amazing what these people can accomplish). We were greeted there by Andrea and Mateo who would be our guides for our time at Kapawi ecolodge ( http://www.kapawi.com/en/links.html) We then took a motor-powered canoe for about 25 minutes to get to the lodge...this took us along the Pastaza rio and then onto another smaller river which took us to the entrance of Kapawi.
We spent the next few days kayaking, bird watching at 6 in the morning, hiking in the forest, exploring, searching for the caiman- Crocodiles!!!, eating amazing food for all meals, drinking beer in the lounge overlooking the forest, learning from our guides (one was Achuar-Mateo) touring the lodge, getting massive amounts a bug bites, as well as spending a night in an Achuar Community. Every moment was special and some were terrifying. One of my favorite experiences was looking for the caiman at night... we went out on the canoe with just our flashlights and searched the edge of the river for two golden bright eyes that stuck out of the blackness of the vines hugging the sides of the river. When one of us caught a set of these eyes we'd shake our flashlights to make everyone else aware of its location. When we got closer up we could see their face and sometimes their bodies, one was about 8 feet long! Over the whole trip I got to see tons of different types of birds (parrots, turkeys, toocans), tapirs (Big hogs that swim/ one of the biggest animals in the forest), monkeys, pink and grey river dolphins, caiman, mosquitos galore, bats, frogs, amazingly massive trees (one called the killer tree which gets its name because it will start to grow off the roots of an existing tree and completely take it over), bees (also-stingless bees which live out of tubes growing off trees), beetles, Cows, and i'm probably forgetting quite a bit but you're getting the picture.
Another special experience was spending the night in an Achuar community.... I will pull some from my journal for this:
"Woah, Where to begin? We began our trek close to the river. We went deep, deep into the rainforest with Mateo as our guide. I couldn't believe how well he knew his way everything looked the same to me for about 3 or 4 miles. We walked for about 30 muntes and then stopped to take a 30 minute solo meditation. We spread ourselves out so that we would not have human contact. The first 15 minutes, I was able to concentrate on my self but the second half I began to feel too aware of the amount of insect which felt like they were all over my body. I also thought, how is that i can sit here, in the middle of the forest with tons of scary looking bugs (some that looked like giant flying spiders) and be relatively calm and if I had been back at home and seen one of these bugs I would be completely freaked out. Throughout the walk Mateo stopped and explained how the Achuar used certain parts of nature in their lives for spiritual, medical or for foraging....When we arrived to the community there were several buildings which were the schools, large with many windows- unlike all the other shelters, made beautifully with banana leaves, palm leaves (which are very strong) and wood. Also, there was a long soccer pitch in the middle of all the houses. At each end, a wooden goal stood made from three large logs.
Mateo taught us a few words to use when we entered the Shaman's house:
WIÑA JAI ( pronounced wina hai) meaning good morning, good afternoon and good night
WEA JAI (pronounced way hai) meaning good bye
MAKATAI (pronounced mahkatey) meaning thank you"
Meeting the Shaman and spending time with him and his family as well as others in the community brought up many feelings for me. I felt their culture was so precious and their intelligence, resourcefullness, spirituality, openness to myself and beauty struck me hard. We did many different activities including a ceremony where myself and the rest of our group took a special drink called iawaska which is prepared by the shaman from two plants. This ceremony is much a part of the Achuar's lives and being able to participate in such a special part of their culture was invaluable.
I will make a post at some point going into more detail about my experience with the ceremony but I think I need a little more time to absorb it.
more to come... I miss you all
Megan
I have spent a week in Ecuador and it has been out of my world amazing. To start, I arrived in Quito airport with Bill waiting at the gate...It was some of the easiest international travel I have done. The following day was relaxing beginning with breakfast at Cafe Cultura and a tour of Pachamama. I met the whole staff and they were very excited to have me help out a little while I´m here.
...So, I will not give you a play by play as that would be muy aburrido. We left for the rainforest on thursday...it was about 3 and a half hours by car to get to the town of shell (named after the oil company because the bought it in the seventies). We boarded a 6 person plane on the Achuar´s national airline called Aerosentak. This was slightly terrifying... but I got over the nerves quickly after we took off. Flying over miles of endless rainforest was the perfect way to begin this journey. It was a 50 minute flight which took us to a little airstrip built by the Achuar people ( it is amazing what these people can accomplish). We were greeted there by Andrea and Mateo who would be our guides for our time at Kapawi ecolodge ( http://www.kapawi.com/en/links.html) We then took a motor-powered canoe for about 25 minutes to get to the lodge...this took us along the Pastaza rio and then onto another smaller river which took us to the entrance of Kapawi.
We spent the next few days kayaking, bird watching at 6 in the morning, hiking in the forest, exploring, searching for the caiman- Crocodiles!!!, eating amazing food for all meals, drinking beer in the lounge overlooking the forest, learning from our guides (one was Achuar-Mateo) touring the lodge, getting massive amounts a bug bites, as well as spending a night in an Achuar Community. Every moment was special and some were terrifying. One of my favorite experiences was looking for the caiman at night... we went out on the canoe with just our flashlights and searched the edge of the river for two golden bright eyes that stuck out of the blackness of the vines hugging the sides of the river. When one of us caught a set of these eyes we'd shake our flashlights to make everyone else aware of its location. When we got closer up we could see their face and sometimes their bodies, one was about 8 feet long! Over the whole trip I got to see tons of different types of birds (parrots, turkeys, toocans), tapirs (Big hogs that swim/ one of the biggest animals in the forest), monkeys, pink and grey river dolphins, caiman, mosquitos galore, bats, frogs, amazingly massive trees (one called the killer tree which gets its name because it will start to grow off the roots of an existing tree and completely take it over), bees (also-stingless bees which live out of tubes growing off trees), beetles, Cows, and i'm probably forgetting quite a bit but you're getting the picture.
Another special experience was spending the night in an Achuar community.... I will pull some from my journal for this:
"Woah, Where to begin? We began our trek close to the river. We went deep, deep into the rainforest with Mateo as our guide. I couldn't believe how well he knew his way everything looked the same to me for about 3 or 4 miles. We walked for about 30 muntes and then stopped to take a 30 minute solo meditation. We spread ourselves out so that we would not have human contact. The first 15 minutes, I was able to concentrate on my self but the second half I began to feel too aware of the amount of insect which felt like they were all over my body. I also thought, how is that i can sit here, in the middle of the forest with tons of scary looking bugs (some that looked like giant flying spiders) and be relatively calm and if I had been back at home and seen one of these bugs I would be completely freaked out. Throughout the walk Mateo stopped and explained how the Achuar used certain parts of nature in their lives for spiritual, medical or for foraging....When we arrived to the community there were several buildings which were the schools, large with many windows- unlike all the other shelters, made beautifully with banana leaves, palm leaves (which are very strong) and wood. Also, there was a long soccer pitch in the middle of all the houses. At each end, a wooden goal stood made from three large logs.
Mateo taught us a few words to use when we entered the Shaman's house:
WIÑA JAI ( pronounced wina hai) meaning good morning, good afternoon and good night
WEA JAI (pronounced way hai) meaning good bye
MAKATAI (pronounced mahkatey) meaning thank you"
Meeting the Shaman and spending time with him and his family as well as others in the community brought up many feelings for me. I felt their culture was so precious and their intelligence, resourcefullness, spirituality, openness to myself and beauty struck me hard. We did many different activities including a ceremony where myself and the rest of our group took a special drink called iawaska which is prepared by the shaman from two plants. This ceremony is much a part of the Achuar's lives and being able to participate in such a special part of their culture was invaluable.
I will make a post at some point going into more detail about my experience with the ceremony but I think I need a little more time to absorb it.
more to come... I miss you all
Megan
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