I recently returned from a month-long trip to Costa Rica (and a bonus extra free day in Guatemala -- thanks to United Airlines!) The first two weeks were spent as a part of a group trip that I was co-leading under the auspices of Lisle, Inc., a 60 year old non-profit that I have been working and traveling with over the last 10 years. I had invited Jono Neiger from our community here at Lost Valley to join me as a potential "leader-in-training" in the hopes that he would choose to jump in and become involved in future projects especially in Latin America, where he and his wife, Kemper, had done some traveling last year.
Besides creating trips which teach responsible traveling and promote growth and friendships among people from different cultures, I also have a long-term vision of laying the groundwork for cooperative relationships between our community here in Oregon and those in other parts of the world. I believe that there is a real need for groups from different cultures and parts of the world to discover that we hold very similar values and aspirations which perhaps may become models for a future that sorely needs living, growing examples of sustainable development and cooperative lifestyles.
During this year's Costa Rica trip our group was able to visit, live with, work with and compare ideas with a number of diverse cooperatives who happen to be striving towards very similar goals to those we hold here at Lost Valley. They also experience many of the same struggles and obstacles that we are currently facing or have faced in the past.
Our first landing place in San Jose was in Casa Ridgway, a small guest house much like the HI-AYH hostel we just decided to close at Lost Valley. Their workers struggle with sharing home, kitchen and bathroom facilities with a never-ending flow of visitors, day after day asking the same questions and needing attention on the phone, at the door or in person at all hours of the day and night.
Next, we visited a group called Coopesanjuan who are primarily a farming community of families who have moved from a part of the country that has been degraded to depleted soils, and hot arid conditions through cutting the rainforest and overgrazing, to a beautifully hilly region which still has some primary (ancient) forests. They decided to petition to collectively own, farm and sustainably manage around 1000 acres of fields and forest rather than receive small personal plots in which each family would try to eke out an individual living. Together they have a herd of dairy cows, grow both food and cash crops, sustainably manage the forest. They also run a school where the children are raising the communities' chickens for eggs and food and have a crop of beans which will also be used for school lunches with the excess being sold to buy books and supplies. Here, we had the privilege of being the first group to sleep in their almost completed, beautifully thatched-guest house and be fed in the new dining hall which will serve as a rural conference and educational center. They (like we) hope to supplement their income through ecotourism and other programs bringing a circulation of people, ideas, and money into their community. Several of their young people are studying ecotourism.
We spent one day in the guest houses of a community called Z-13 who are at the foot of the Arenal Volcano. This group is doing an organic gardening project and growing the rare and endangered species of rodent called the Tepisquentli to reintroduce it back into the forests in areas where hunting is prohibited and poaching difficult. Unfortunately, we didn't take the time necessary at this stop to get to know the people running the project or learn about many of their struggles and aspirations (and thus this was one of the least favorite parts of the trip for most participants).
Next we traveled back to San Jose and down the Pan American Highway to the community of ex-gold miners who now run a project called Coopeunioro. Here we were met by Ricardo who promptly announced that since some of their members were off in Cuba at a month-long training on cooperatives, that we were going to get the chance to set up our own administration and join in running their cooperative for the few days we were there. So our group, a bunch of Danes who were also volunteering and the rest of the cooperative members elected a steering committee to make decisions after hearing suggestions from the whole group. They set up work teams, schedules, a social committee and a well-being group to make sure that everyone's needs were met. It was quite an interesting experience to see how people from three quite distinct cultures and language groups could come together in common cause! The most successful examples were undoubtedly the futbol (soccer) games and the cooperative "typical American" meal on our last night, but we did OK with Tim's rhythm class using all sorts of noise-making instruments and in our trail-building work as well. We also learned lots about medicinal herbs from Sancho, did a little teaching in the school, cut guava branches to repair the decorative dining hall walls and did the measurements and calculations necessary to order the components for the future hydro-electric project. And we made friendships that hopefully will last beyond our fond farewells at the end of our visit!
Coopeunioro is a small community whose traditional source of income (gold mining out of the river) has become illegal primarily for environmental reasons. While the cooperative members are adhering to the laws, there was a very interesting dynamic around us in the form of old miners who have not given up their trade, but are holding onto the old (now illegal) ways. During the daytime they can be found waist deep in the river moving rocks to create a sluice or shoveling the gravel in the bottom of the stream into the simple laddered boards that will catch any loose gold dust. At night, the little shack at the foot of the hill that the coop owns turns from general store offering beer, soft drinks and snack foods into a wild west trading post complete with black market, guns, gamboling, and prostitution -- especially on the night when the buyers of the illegal dust come in to do their deals! On that full moon night I was glad to know that when a head count was done, all of our group members were shooting the breeze around the cabin candles and not involved in the gunfire going on down below us!
After such an intense Tico scene, the group took a break and spent a couple of days relaxing at a little beach front farm owned and operated by an American couple. Here at Dolphin Quest, everyone found a favorite option from snorkeling, to fishing or kayaking on the bay to horseback riding up through the jungle to the waterfall or bird watching almost anywhere. Some of us just collapsed and read a book while lying in a hammock or lazing away in the hot afternoons in the loft of our cabañas. We had a lovely evening Equinox celebration to the sounds of frogs of all possible part of the melodic scale and rhythmic beat, the goats and monkey below us and the baby ocelot who had been brought there for rehabilitation after her mother had been killed. Here we saw permaculture being practiced in every way, naturally and without pretension, by people who just wanted to live a quality life not dependent on consumption but rather the act of enjoyment of each moment lived fully. Raymar, the 4 year old son in this family is a wonderful example of the value of the freedom to explore fully the natural world without fear. He seems to understand deep ecology at an indigenous level that few children (or adults) in the USA ever come close to approaching.
Following our time of evaluation at Dolphin Quest, our group officially ended and people split up into a number of smaller groups to pursue individual interests. Jono stayed at Dolphin Quest, while I returned to San Jose with the few who had to return to their everyday lives in the States. Mary, a lovely group member from Ohio, and I decided to take 3 days of Spanish classes before San Jose rolled up the streets and took a long siesta during (Samana Santa) Easter Week while the younger members hit the beaches for a little tropical fling before returning to cold Toledo.
I met two women in the capitol who were returning to a community of 300 residents called Longo Mai after their founding community in France. This group is made of primarily refugees from El Salvador who have built homes and a stable life for themselves on a 1000 acres of land which they farm communally is smaller groups raising various crops such as coffee, sugar cane, rice, beans, chickens, etc. They all live in simple homemade houses and eat a very basic diet (my Easter dinner was a plate of rice and beans and a little pasta with a hint of red sauce on it), but they are extremely happy and appreciative to be safe from the torture and killing which they left behind in their old lives. As a group they have built a church, a grade school and kindergarten building, community center. Their next project is to try to raise $1000 to build a decent home for one of their members who is pregnant with her 13th child (although only the 6 youngest are living with her in CR),
Longo Mai was a wonderful inspiration for me, as an example of one type of "intentional community" that truly is creating a new and meaningful life for a group of people who have only known fear for many years. I hope to bring next year's group there as a way to support these remarkable people who are making strides each day towards a better life. They have a small, but successful home-stay program where mostly European teenagers and young adults come to help out and learn about life in a different setting. They get the opportunity to find the simple joys of being invited out for a roller skating party at the nearby village pool hall, walking 3 kilometers down a moonlit road only to discover that there are only 3 sets of skates to be had at any one time! They also get the chance to learn the value of their money when they learn that their week's pay for room and board has provided the woman of the house with enough extra money to buy 20 fluffy chickens who will soon begin to provide eggs for the family and a little extra spending money as well to tide them over until the coffee harvest comes in (which didn't happen last year because of a hurricane that hit and knocked off all of the blossoms!) The true value of life and the pulling together of families is experienced here in a way not often seen in our industrial world!
Other projects include a street children's project in the city about 1 hour away by bus in which the children have their own community center where they get daily meals, showers and a safe place to play and study and an association of 17 other villages where the people are working together to protect the environment and teach environmental education to young and old alike. In all of these projects and others, visitors are welcome to come and offer their talents as they stay and are nurtured by a close knit community of friends working together for the betterment of their own and others' lives. You are welcome as well!
I returned from this venture just in time to pack up and prepare for my journey home to my own community and family here at Lost Valley. But by chance or good luck, Jono and I were able to be two of six people bumped off the plane in Guatemala due to an overload of heavy baggage. So I got my early morning wish and we were able to spend an afternoon and evening in Antigua bargaining with the lovely, playful and flirtatious little Mayan salesgirls in the town square. After about 15 minutes of haggling over a particular pattern of belt that I wanted, the pile of belts and blouses began to move and we realized that under it was a 2 year old baby sister who had been happily napping until our playful discounting of each others' counter offers woke her up! How different it must be to live one's life as a skillful sales-woman from the age of 6 or 7 while also minding one or more younger siblings for the day! I would love for our children (as well as all of the adults in our community) to have the opportunity to experience the lives of other children who have a different viewpoint from which to see the world. I believe that this awareness would do wonders to put such battles as to whether they get Barbie Dolls or Ninja Turtles and who got the larger piece of cake into perspective -- at least for a time!
Dianne Brause can be contacted via email
More Information:
Costa Rica Program - Lisle Foundation
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