Letter from Anja

1 December, 2001
Dear Friends,
Finally here is a brief update from someone you may been waiting to hear
from! Anja and Pacha are back in Cotacachi, Ecuador to continue projects
and life in general after a 3 month sojourn in Australia and Japan. As
always email is harder to access on the move - sorry for the lack of
communication.
The journey went very well, catching up with friends and family and
networks in Australia and then joining in Fiesta Ecuador in Japan. It was
great to catch up with everyone at the Rainforest Information Centre (RIC)
and talk about plans for the year ahead. John and Ruth continue to support
many projects around the world (including Ecuador) while still travelling
with deep ecology tours and to attend biodiversity conferences. The Centre
has a beautiful thriving permaculture garden that helps reflect the
creativity and energy of the work of the RIC. Another beautiful Australian
garden is at Seedsavers in Byron Bay. I met with Michel and Jude to talk
about various plans including hosting more volunteers in Ecuador (hopefully
from April 2002), as well as their plan to visit South America in 2002.
In October my partner Marcelo, Pacha and I were lucky enough to be part of
Fiesta Ecuador in Japan. This was a highly successful multimedia series of
events intended to promote the biological and cultural diversity of Ecuador
in Japan. Seventeen people came from Ecuador representing Cotacachi, Intag,
San Lorenzo and Bahia de Caraquez on the Coast. We travelled to many parts
of Japan, from Fukuoka in the south to Yamagata in the north taking part in
around 20 events in all. A new CD combining Marimba and some of my new
songs was sold along the way to help cover costs (if you want to know how
to get one and to find out more about Fiesta Ecuador contact the Sloth Club
in Japan, www.sloth.gr.jp). Fiesta Ecuador opened up many new contacts and
possibilities that will help to strengthen links between Japan and Ecuador,
in areas including fair trade, eco-tourism and music. Most important of all
is the renewed and strengthened commitment to evolving new definitions of
development and sustainable futures.
In November I arrived back to my home base in Cotacachi with a mountain of
things to do after 3 months away and vowing never to move again (at least
for a week!) after marathon transworld journeys with baby Pacha!  The
recent world events don't seem to touch life in country Ecuador - and only
reconfirm my personal commitment to building positive models of ecological,
socially just development wherever I happen to be as quickly as possible!
There had been almost no rain in Cotacachi during the time I was away and
the garden was almost dust apart from the stalwart herbs and the
ever-producing avocado trees. At least it was easy to clear weeds before
preparing the soil for new seeding of vegetables. With great help from
Rachel (from Australia) and the first of the downpours of the rainy season,
the garden is full of new seedlings and will soon be providing food and
inspiration to visitors. The Centre opens only on request (students,
environment committee members etc) until a committed long term volunteer
appears who would be willing to help run the centre (and Cafe) - if you
would like to take this up, please let me know!  We have donated one of our
computers and a telephone to the Environment Committee of Cotacachi who we
work with very closely on environmental initiatives (including the
conference mentioned below).
El Milagro, the integrated ecology project in Intag, is progressing well.
An ecological house is now almost complete (just needs the water pipes
connected) and a beautiful solar shower (in a circular grass hut) is just
about finished. Most of the 500 coffee plants have survived the extremely
dry summer and the permaculture garden has been extended around the house.
The next big activity is planting as many native trees and fruit trees as
possible during the rainy season. This is another site that welcomes
volunteers who are interested in practical experience in living with nature
and creating replicable examples of sustainable living.
The Cerro Seco reserve in Bahia de Caraquez saw its first volunteers in
August and although it was the dry season, good work was done in the garden
and education activities carried out with the local community.
San Lorenzo Permaculture Centre is still lacking long term volunteers and
funding, however the work done over the past two years has established a
good base for the future. 20 university students from Japan visited and
stayed at the site in September this year and gave good feedback on their
experience.
Los Cedros reserve has seen many volunteers doing great work in the
permaculture gardens and CIBT members are actively involved in promoting
alternatives to the gold mining planned in the area.
And what's ahead? Looking after Pacha (now crawling and standing at 9
months), maintaining all existing projects and taking on some new projects
in the precious moments when my darling daughter is sleeping! New projects
include organising a major alternative development and international
organic coffee conference for September 2002, coordinating permaculture and
eco-tourism initiatives for Tambaco (the wetland, mangrove and Sloth
sanctuary site near San Lorenzo) and expanding and consolidating the
seedbank project in Cotacachi.
We are especially looking for support for the conference mentioned above
which will take place in Cotacachi and in Bahia on the coast (the two
declared ecological zones in Ecuador). The event will be an important
opportunity for Ecuador, with many visitors already planning to attend from
Japan and the cooperation of the local government and the Peoples Assembly
of Cotacachi.
If you can help network information about this event, suggest potential
funding sources or help in any other way, please let us know.
Please let me know if you'd like any further information about any
projects (or check the web pages: www.sloth.gr.jp or www.forests.org/ric)
and remember to come (again!) and visit beautiful, inspiring Ecuador some
time! Thank-you to everyone who helped with Fiesta Ecuador - I hope it was
an empowering experience for you and all.
I hope this message finds you well and happy, please keep in touch, For
Life, anja

Tuesday, 3 October 2000 10:29

Hey Everyone,
Yes I'm back!! It's fantastic to be back here again but I have only just
been able to start back into things. I coordinated the 20 students of Keibo
for the 3 weeks they were here and everything went really well. They were
the first Japanese group who stayed at the Junin community (the one that
burnt down the Mitsubishi mining camp) and most of them trekked into the
mountains to visit the historic site. There were tears and deep sharing on
both sides as the students realised that these poverty striken people had
something they could only dream of in Japan - freedom to reject the
development that they don't want and an extremely strong sense of
community. This experience touched them very deeply. 

They also visited Bahia (impact of the first organic shrimp farm in the
world and the permaculture example of Rio Muchacho stood out) and Panacocha
(where they had an incredible experience with a 3 toed Sloth and a Quichua
Shaman) and left Ecuador in excellent health and spirits. This means there
will be more tours ahead. The focus of the tour was to visit and help
projects - so there were donations made along the way and a load of
'kabuya' ordered for the Sloth Club in Japan. It's great to be working with
people like Keibo and keeping the links in Japan strong. He's been in
contact with David Suzuki who is wanting to write a book on positive global
solutions and it seems Keibo has him very interested in Ecuador. 
So, back to projects. 

The focus for me this month will be starting off the 
cafe here and restoring the garden. (Dad's volunteer days are definently
over as he invests all his time and energy in his new girlfriend - the
garden was completely neglected!). I'm also planning to begin construction
this month of a cabin on the land in Intag. Ken (from Japan), Cormac (who
should be arriving soon from Ireland), Marcelo (the very excited father to
be) and Luis (the worker who has maintained the gardens will be working on
this project. It will be a simple round structure made of local materials
(bamboo and mud mostly) and will make it easier for eco-volunteers (I think
mostly students) to practice hands on eco-lifestyle in Ecuador. I have the
budget for both these projects. 

I  met  Shine here in Cotacachi and he seems great.  The  hardest thing about working in San Lorenzo has been the non existent budget for repair and other materials - I think this is definitely a worthy fundraising effort and I know that he and Holly have worked on a corresponding budget. Shine is only there for another 6 months or so - but is interested in returning after a visit to Australia to raise funds. He's getting by in Spanish now and I think he has a much better grasp on how things work in Ecuador. He also met with Keibo and is still interested in helping with what he can on the Tambaco project - with a priority being finding a good local person to be trained in permaculture techniques.

I haven't met with Holly (or Helen) and I think she is traveling for this month. It's great that they feel effective in San Lorenzo. I'm still really keen to see the initial idea of a seed bank network progress in Ecuador and will organise at least a workshop or two for SAT students in Intag towards this end. Nicola (the co-initiator of the project and organic certifier) is still waiting for contact from Holly and Helen and I really hope this happens sometime soon. Hopefully Holly will be interested in staying longer or coming back to Ecuador - her skills and enthusiasm are very much appreciated.
 
In the next few days I will host a well known nutritionist from Japan who is also working with the Sloth Club. She's here for an alternative medicine conference and I am looking forward to making new Ecuador/Latin America links (I'm scheduled to sing on the last day of the conference). We hope to make miso while she is here - probably at Carlos Zorilla's place.

Yesterday I had my first visit to my midwife (Marina, wife of Mayor Auki) and all seems fine I just have to eat more! Marcelo was so happy at the news and it seems we'll try to spend more time together - I'm sure his veterinary experience will come in useful at the birth! He's been working with Peter Berg in Bahia over the past weeks and starting a reforestation
project for the 'Ceibo' tree (dry tropical forest).

I think that's all for now. I am trying to limit commitments for the last 3months of the pregnancy so will be very busy in the next couple of months. It's hard to take it easy when I still feel fine - but I have actually lost a kilo since becoming pregnant so I really have to make the effort. It's a wonderful new experience.

I'll work on rough budgets and a one year annual report. Also, there is a good full page article in the Japan Times about my Japan concert tour, Ecuador projects and the Sloth Club - you can find it athttp://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fe20000831a1.htm
I'll also include a bio that you may not have with this email. Great to know you are there. 
Love, For Life, Anja

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