Having returned from our incredible adventure we are
settling in at Palugo like arriving home. Dry belongings are a complete
miracle to us. It is a time of celebration: the closing of expedition, the
birth of Lil Em (Emily) and the welcoming and mental preparation for solo. We
are cleaning up bikes, gnus and other expedition gear, as well as making chocolate chip cookies and chocolate birthday cake with creamy
frosting.
After a predicted
colossal breakfast, we break off individually to selected areas on the farm
bringing only water, a piece of plastic, a piece of fruit with two crackers
(optional) and a climbing cord. We are left here for two nights of significant
rain and dropping temperatures. We learn to respect and praise the sun on the
deepest level possible. Closing solo we are gathered around a fire to consume a
mug of colada and some bread in slow motion, savoring with vibrant awareness.
We then enter the sweat lodge for the final phase of cleansing where
we sing and revel in the heat, sharing our experiences within the past 50
hours. Recovering both physically and emotionally, we begin to settle in at
Palugo into a more rhythmic pattern and perhaps a bit more relaxed as well.
We
begin academics and leatherwork with Roberto. Our academic pages reflect on
expedition and focus on two organisms we visited during our journeys. In
leatherwork we make book bags using absolutely nothing but leather; for the
stitching, the strap and the body itself. Michael leads a geology class where
we explore underneath Palugo in clay caves filled with knee-deep water. We are
encouraged to turn our headlamps off. We also begin the roofing construction
where bokashi will be made: manure/minerals of nutrients and
microorganisms for healthy, unabated plant growth. It is all about the love. Many of us work on leveling out dirt mounds for the greenhouse. Merrin and
Jamie create some exquisite and scrumptious meals.
With mostly completed
academics and crafts, we are driven to Papallacta hot springs to continue to
cleanse our bodies and recover. We acknowledge the Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) by sharing
of those who have passed and drink deep, blood red sweet colada (an Ecuadorian drink) to them and
bake Guagua de Pan, bread babies with chocolate chips, sprinkles, coconut, nuts
and cinnamon sugar.
Now we are beginning our felt projects and switching gears
into our mountaineering expedition preparations. We are felting wool hats or
vests. Also we begin to sense various emotional transitions within the semester
to address and work through. Physically we are strong as a community and ready
for a major excursion in the Andes. Closing academics with English
presentations of biographies and poetry, we have vivid and profound
performances scattered around Palugo. Personal meetings with our teachers have
been strong transitional periods of self-awareness for some students and we are
reminded to keep moving forward as a group as we are nearing the end of
semester.
For I, your humble scribe with words of solidification and simplicity
for earth dwellers, only have four more updates, my good ladies and gentlemen. I
invite you all to read these words like assembling a puzzle for I now send them
with step-by-step instructions. Remember one day there will be no puzzle for
you when your semester sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, and friends have a future installed where I will not be there to document their
lives; and perhaps the obscurity of words is a rehearsal, a rehearsal for an
improvised performance of freedom. Please forgive the observations of an
experimental artist, but alas no rhyme will follow in these tracks. But perhaps
it will return in the mountains for clarity is clearer and friendlier with
excitement, my fellow songbirds. Crystal ball: we will be leaving on Saturday
for a twelve-day trek of mountaineering where we will be on top of glaciers,
perhaps going on a three-day group solo and hopefully summiting both Antisana and
Cayambe. Let the future turn to now…
“Give me
the daily
struggle,
because these things are my song.”
~Pablo
Neruda
San Clemente Reflections:
In San Clemente I like to drink their juice. However if you
snooze there is no juice for you. They sluice their juice in pitchers from
raspberry, papaya, mango. The resulting syrup is a tango of desire. The best of
all is how the glasses are filled tall at every chance: makes me elated I could
dance. They say our presence brings the rain, well I say it brings the juice to
us, a nice break from biking dust. The sweetness shocks us and the aftertaste
rocks us. Oh how it would do to have such a flavorful brew for the rest of the
time? Consuming lots of fruit almost rhymes.
~Merin
the elder
on “Juice”
Tired
dirty sweaty happy ready
San
Clemente welcoming
Leaving
in sad joy.
~Zander
A
Late-Night Sun Poem
A million and one words are ten days
away from you,
And
I’m 5 billion steps from the soft bed of the sun.
I
feel that sinking in each time I rise
But
somewhere along the path of chaotic daylight
I
brush it off and shrink away from the countdown.
Trying
to shove time along in a neat little pile,
I
stumble and land in the middle of it.
So
I stay for a minute,
And
I mourn for a minute,
And
I try hard to feel the movement of the earth underneath me;
Try
hard to feel the breathing.
And
then I find that it’s late.
And
I’m getting too abstract for my own good.
And
I sit like a child,
Rubbing
my tired eyes,
Aching
with distance.
Knowing
that it’s all lovely anyway.
I’m
bound for the most brilliant of faces.
This
belongs to the stars.
This
belongs to us.
~Mayah
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