Blog #5 Photos

Blog #5: In a Foreign Land

“There is a crack. A crack in everything. That’s where the light comes in…”  ~ Leonard Cohen

Paradise, a broader term

Could never match Palugo’s charm

Blissful in the wind that blows

Grateful for the streams that flow

Mountain air is lifting us

Like altered states we manifest

With breath and stretch to open minds

Awakening the triple eye

We feel it on the runs we take

While clouded coverage levitates

Releases rain most every day

Obscuring mountains on its way

But from the farm we see the smoke

From factories on highways float

But look above on clearer days

And Cotopaxi shows her face.

Adjusting to our bubble here

and while the earth she spins her gears

we stride into the town of Pifo

no longer heads upon our pillows

finally we recognize the door

the door we entered: Ecuador

for buildings here are round and bend

into earthen skeleton

and everybody honks and waves

while passing through the streets we gaze

but sometime gazing less than locals

for gringos are looking totally loco (english: "crazy")

little shops semester fill

like October nights fill lungs with chill

fresh fruit in the park we sit

observing Pifo’s colorful kiss

The students meeting Adela and Francisco Dammer: parents of Michael, Thomas, & Mathias

Creators of the Dammer brothers

waiting while we tread through waters

for skies that open do not close

till’ satisfied – semester’s soaked

gather round the fire there

Francisco’s history, politics flair

A man who understands this land

And what the future needs, commands

Sustainability, education

Not highways digging through farms: invasions.

Palugo Farm is generations old. It once had a small country road cutting through it. That road has become a four-lane highway.

While at Palugo, students learned the trades of their semester teachers. Marcia taught about herbalism, while Roberto taught the students how to make their knives and leather sheaths.

Palugo is a land of smell

But also land where families dwell

All together – work as one

They are the stars, Palugo is the sun

Marcia guides us through the herbs

While Roberto gifts us with blades to learn

The art and passion of making knives

Blood will be drawn with wandering eyes

Fear not for Jamie the shaman is wise

The gauze that he wraps is always on time.

Students have begun their first Ecuadorian expedition: from the Andes to the Rainforest: biking, white water paddling, and community service

In bliss, relaxation takes hold in our minds

But till Friday the ninth we prepare for the ride

On specialized bikes with gnus (inflatable canoes) on our backs

We travel through mountain for the low lands lack

Safety from festering Cotopaxi

For she glows in evening down her throat of romancing

Yes, long ago she did caress the land on which we tread

Shaping, gouging, hardening to stone from liquid red.

Now family, friends and blogger readers, heed the words I say

The blog you’re reading, here and now may be the last today…

Oh folks don’t mind your humble scribe he sometimes gets intense

We’re perfectly prepared and geared for dangerous events

And honestly, you people free to walk the streets at night

Your semester friends grow stronger with time, escaping darkness with light.

Skills and Activities

Knife making – w/Roberto

Herbs & Witchcraft – w/Marcia

Permaculture – w/Thomas

Geography – w/Michael

Ecuador: 20^th Century “Wave of Expression” – w/Marcela

Creative writing/Short stories – w/Hannah & Marcela

Food processing – w/Adela

History, Politics, & Stories – w/Francisco

Field trip to Pifo (art/solo) – w/Michael & Hannah

Field trip to Quito (history/Spanish/biking) – w/Mathias & Nicole

Expedition Prep! (bike fitting & boat setup, food processing, general repairs & construction, navigation, gear/med kit organization & supply) – w/everyone

“You have to marry microorganisms, because they are the only dudes that can turn rock into hamburger.”

            ~Thomas Dammer

Cotopaxi you’re a magnet to my eyes

but Cotopaxi you’re a horror

Cotopaxi behind smoke and clouds you hide

Cotopaxi make me cry

Cotopaxi you make darkness you make light

Cotopaxi you manipulate my mind

Cotopaxi you were beautiful and fair

Now your guts are bursting in the air

Cotopaxi turn class 5

And you’re making me alive.

            ~your humble scribe

This blog post was delivered to computer land without photos. We look forward to sharing the farm and expedition photos with you all upon the students return from expedition on October 30.

Blog #4: Arriving in Ecuador!

“Don’t kill the future…”

            ~Grandfather

Spending a community work party “Minga” with Marlow Elementary School

your humble scribe begins this week

within the center, in-between

a minga work day with Marlow students

is no less a learning experience

invoking mindful gratitude

for the education we’re exposed to

each of us is paired with two

to keep them posted on what we do

and in the end we’ll visit them

to show our slides, shared wisdom again

Never growing in garden air

you struggle to accept the care

for soup is full of vegetables

they are your friends my little ones.

Then Grandfather Ray arrives

From the North to broaden eyes

And deeper sight in simple things

Like slowly paced down river streams

For silence and restraint is strength

Not for lifting rocks of pain

Native knowledge in his palms

Need only speak to sing a song.

Dinner made by sewing teachers

After minga, fire-keeper

Accompanied with beans and rice

Followed by apple crisp with cream of ice

Circle of reflection in direction of the backpacks that we made

As the moon illuminates the sun begins to fade.

Then a man called Gerry comes

His WFA class providing fun

Wilderness first aid infusion

Solution to pollution: dilution

Now we’re certified to save the day

We’ll do role-play and cover everyone with make-up blood and guts

Schools and classes visiting and wondering what exactly the problem is or are semester kids just nuts?

And here we are departing souls

Like celebrating marigolds

With petals colored brighter than the sun

We feast with chocolate mousse on tongues

And singing while our voices become one

Tears drip onto the hair of loved ones

While laughter transforms dissonance to farewells

For rocks are heavier than pebbles and pebbles turn to sand in voyage

and sand will blow away with time like oceans melt to seas of rhyme

alas these days are purely true

creating family like glue

for everyone has pushed their boundaries to share themselves freely

and strengthening community while rabbits hop from tree to tree

and now semester rabbits hop

the longest hop a rabbit’s got

because South calls through the earth’s core,

we are needed there,

and breath will carry us,

roughly from past to future.

Ecuador semester 2015

May be what we’re called indeed

But perhaps a better fitting title

Are “Guinea Pigs” (for experimental journeys)

For the places we are going, the people we will meet

Are places we have never gone, strangers to our face and feet.

Heading South for if we’re lucky

We look South to see erupting Cotopaxi

Traveling in boats never traveled in

Passing through terrain with untouched skin

Processing chocolate, sugar, and coffee

Nights are awaiting us being frosty

This info we gain on the top of Pitcher Mountain

Followed by cider donuts, and a sunset fountain

The night is glowing from the moon

Until the lunar eclipse takes room

Bloodying her soft white rays

With laughter, tear, and starving haze.

Misha and Lynn have sent us out well

With soup in our tummies and farm vegetables

A parting of yet another family

Farewell Kroka, your presence in me.

The future is now these days it seems

For we wake at 4:30 AM out of dreams

Arriving at Logan accepting the stares

That we get from the wonder of men knitting there

Singing and playing guitar for we’re free

We actually make it through security

Considering the bags and the weight that we carry

You might understand how it could be scary

We land in sweltering humid Miami

Ready our minds for leaving the country

Flying over Colombia and Jamaica

Hidden under clouds for the elevation makes a

Blurry in our awe as we land in Quito

Excitement takes hold to harness our people

shocked by the rhythm and the odor of the air

straining on our eyeballs through the dark like a flare.

Palugo is a land of smell

That brings you to your knees and well

The fruit that melts upon your tongue

Is sweeter than any cinnamon bun.

The mountains that cried louder than roosters at dawn

Are wailing their ode of welcoming bonds

Feeling home like fire takes glow…

“Don’t marry your story…”

            ~Grandfather

Dear sun

Here where I be

I step along the path where your rays once tread

Without even wondering

Your spirit resides here

And drifts along with me

I rest where you rested;

I laugh where you sang;`

I gaze with fantastic wonder

At the mountains

Long ago you kissed.

Adopt my calm, these darker days

As I feel your grace

And step towards the certain forever

Held within the layla of your arms

~Mayah

Dan and his father, Nate, making music on Parent Weekend

Ondy and Jacob teaching a song she wrote

Mayah and her grandparents, Janet and Jay, share a song

Heather, Zander's mom, shares a poem

One of Kroka's first frosts of the season on Parent Weekend

Skeydrit and daughter Mercedes hand out handmade apple cider to minga workers.

Summit of Pitcher Mountain the evening before departure

The Atlantic Ocean prior to leaving for Ecuador

Lydia and Emily prepare breakfast on the East Coast

The Ecuador Semester team welcomed their new member, Lily, in Ecuador

Welcome to Palugo!

Mathias Dammer teaching about the pigs at Palugo