desert roses and social change

so after the blanched desert ghost town of real de catorce walking through the surrounding stunning mountains, laced with cacti of all shapes and sizes (including peyote!) and the silvermine ruins of ancient stone tucked in there majestically, the winding and charming cobblestone streets and callejons (alleys) of guanajuato, a city perched on the side of mountains with a surprise, a plaza, a fountain, another tiny alley at every corner, and the colourful colonial beauty of san miguel de allende.... i found myself in acapulco of all places!!!!

the ocean called! the water! humidity! my hair and skin were as dry as the desert sands and although the beaches there were not at like the private calm beauty of hatwanakorn in thailand and d'lagoon and the adam and eve beach in malaysia, i was happy to be near the ocean once again.

one day i managed to sneak my way into a hotel overlooking the ridiculously crowded Caleta beach, and spend the day swimming in their salt water pool, uninterrupted, with the squeals of glee from the throngs of families on the beach. the beach was in fact a pretty polluted cove, with a dangerous riptide, so entire families sit in the water close to the breaking waves looking somewhat like clothed beached sea creatures.

(i am SERIOUS! Spot the Slim Mexican is a new and challenging raod game because the predominant body type that we saw was round and plump; according to my cousin, bronwyn, who is working for a health foundation in mexico city, mexico has the highest rate of diabetes in the world! probably due to all the corn, 12 tortillas per mexican per day, the fried foods, sweets and breads, and unbelievably sweet fruits read: mangoes!)

so juicy fruits and radical social movements have converged in this latest leg of the freedom 35 trip....

my first two weeks in mexico were all about intense learning and exploring, living in an adobe dorm, experiencing a temascal (traditional saunas) & being covered in an Oaxacan chocolate body scrub, visiting Nuestra Papel and Mondo Mujeres, two interconnected communities re-imagining both family and their world and committed to sustainable living and livelihoods, my own emotional jet lag upon arrival in the americas from my highs and heat in asia and now a head and heart full up to bursting after soooo much conversation, contemplation, dishwashing (!) and "open space technology" with people from around the world on Now Activism, the Art of Learning Center-ing and social change....

and these last two weeks with jimmy have been more of an "on the road" travelling kind. this is an awesomely beautiful and diverse country, both ecogolically and culturally. i never knew. and now i do. i really hope to come back sometime..... but first i come back to canada for summer and letting all this digest and gel and form ...

activism y mexico

from the land of soursops and ripe guavas, chilies of all shapes, sizes, colours and HOTNESS, sweet & rich avocadoes (some of which you can eat like apples!), plazas and fountains and colourfully painted casas, secret rooftop and courtyard gardens, composting toilets, absolutely inspiring people and families living sustainably in the mountains of oaxaca state, the desert, the zapatista movement sayings "we walk with the slowest" and "escuchamos y caminamos" (we listen as we walk), the teachers strikes, the urban contaminacion and traffic congestion....

i have spent the last two weeks in Oaxaca, Mexico with community and organizational leaders from Brazil, India, Pakistan, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and the US including the Bar Fellows (civil society leaders from Boston).... It has been absolutely exhausting and inspiring.

we were living at Tonatzen Talli for 5 days. it is a a sustainable community in the mountains and desert with composting toilets, an organic garden and solar heating... sleeping in dorms constructed with adobe and local materials and feeling like we were outside only protected by bamboo and mosquiter nets and new friendships.... amazing raw and veg food and people from all over the world talking about cool stuff together... did a handstand in front of the entire group, as we were talking about how we will move forward, who are our mates in this endeavour, what are our fears ---- and being upside down and looking stupid is definitely one of mine!!!.... i fell on my head the first time, and my pants rode up to my hips, but i got it the second time and now feel like a superheroine....

we then moved to los olivos, in oaxaca city, with new people coming in and new friends leaving, to explore something called Now Activism. through days of exploration and seemingly endless conversation, this nowactivism is emerging as how we live our lives with our deepest integrity and connect this most personal with the webs of community around us, through our work NOW, our friendships, and our long term vision of what kind of world we want to live in and create. to imagine how we might live in and act in that world, TODAY NOW AHORITA.

we were hosted by and invited to an organization called unitierra, with solar cooking and alternative ways of learning by putting values into practice and being in communion with the earth and traditional knowledge. we were in conversation with gustavo esteva, one of the most radical, committed and alternative thinkers and actors in the social change and zapatista movements. did i mention we churned raw cacao with a bicycle grinder into an indigenous and delicious chocolate drink guided by an elderly mayan woman...

many personal and professional discoveries, as well as old friends from india and montreal converging, and now new ones from south africa, zimbabwe, nova scotia and brazil. i am just soaking this all in and will have to digest it a bit now and later, as the potential for so many things is HUGE....

jimmy is now here in mexico, and so i switch gears and head north to the beautiful and magical mountains and hot springs of san miguel de allende, guanajuato, st luis de postili and real de catorce...

just names right now, but soon to be part of the majestic tapestry that this journey is and has become. a delicious enmeshing of so many people and places both inside and outside of me.