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.