Update

It has been a busy week for me! This weekend I got a real taste of Ecuadorian culture when I helped my best friend here cook for a family reunion. I helped cut up chicken feet and heads, played soccer, and don't think I spoke a word of English for 3 days! I was exhausted by the end of the weekend. I forgot to take pictures unfortunately...

Jungle Mama's officially completed it's first Safe Birthing and Family Planning Workshop taught by the Achuar facilitators! It was a success and looks like a new chapter of Jungle Mama's is beginning. There are participants who walk for four days just for a three-day workshop! If you are interested, check out some of the individual impacts of the workshop at www.junglemamas.seeyourimpact.org. More information will be posted on the site by next week approximately.

I have been following a split in Bolivia between the Indigenous cultures and the Farmers. The government wanted to build a road through protected indigenous land to enable easier trade between Brazil and Bolivia. The farmers are under the impression that this will help their businesses and boost the economy of Bolivia. The Indigenous population are under the impression that this will bring mining and oil exploitation as well as facilitate drug trade. After over a month of marches, protests, and violence on both sides, the government decided to cancel the idea of the road. After all, there is a UN law requiring the consultation and consent of indigenous people if there will be any construction on their land that will affect their life.

Life outside of all of work is good! Living in Cafe Cultura still, working here as well. It's a great setup really! It's a little hard in my personal life sometimes, I have a hard time socializing in Spanish. Also, I just ended a 4 year relationship and living in a country where practically everyone is in love or heartbroken, it makes it really hard to get over him. I know in time, all will pass and get better. For now, just have to keep busy and keep my mind occupied on other things.

On another note, those Wall Street Protests?? WOW, I just heard about it today! To everyone involved, good luck and stay strong. It's amazing what can be accomplished with a passionate dedication and unwillingness to bend. Look at what happened in Bolivia! They marched for hundreds of miles through police barracades, through tear gas, and beat the odds! Also, kind of funny, they kidnapped the Chancellor of Bolivia and forced him to march with them. With the strategy of putting him along with women in the front of the march, they were able to break through police blockades! Shows the strength and change a small amount of people have the capacity for.  Also another great example of women as incredibly important parts of social justice movements! Go New York and Viva Bolivia!

Get Back to Earth

Climate change and global warming needs to be part of the feminist discussion. Sure, they sound like two unrelated topics but digging deeper the two cannot be separated. The fact is, we are living in a completely unsustainable way and soon there will be no natural resources for us to exploit. Our population has reached unprecedented and unmanageable heights! Family planning and access to contraception has become more important than ever.

The first people to feel the effects of climate change and overpopulation are those living in economically under-developed nations.  When we throw our trash “away”, it doesn’t actually go away...it goes onto the land or into the drinking water of people who don’t have the resources to stop it. And on these lands where we bring our trash, the first to feel it are the women. As these women try to provide for their families and maintain the health of themselves and their children, they are getting sick and unable to grow food. This year was a record-high for famine in Africa. Thousands are dying and equal wage debates will not stop it.

As more Carbon Dioxide leaks into our atmosphere and oil spills continue to happen, it is the women and oppressed groups who feel it the most. In the Amazon women are dying from infections from bathing in the rivers after pregnancies. In Mexico birth deformities and health issues are prevalent due to the maquiladora factories, in which majority of the workers are underpaid overworked women. Access to abortion will not clean these communities and guarantee a healthier and safer second generation.

This is not meant to undermine any work done by the feminist movements so far, we have come a long way. I just feel that the movements have become westernized and we have lost sight once again of the women suffering from a lack of the most basic needs. Without health, equal rights is pointless. Without clean water for a doctor to wash, there is no point arguing for access to abortion. Without clean air, there is no life. It is time that rights of nature and the issue of global warming enters the feminist discussion in a  forceful way. I have seen what women can do, locally and globally, and its time for us to band together again to get back to earth.

Rights of Nature

This week has been overwhelmingly busy! Wicked long meeting all day Monday, spent all day Tuesday searching for items for the safe birthing kits for a workshop next week, and then yesterday at a fair about Human Rights and the Rights of Nature followed by my 3rd introduction meeting to Fundacion Pachamama...I get it, I think I'm introduced enough!

The fair yesterday was pretty incredible. There were booths all over giving information and starting conversations about human and land rights. I met with an amazing group called Corporacion De Desarrollo AfroEcuatoriano (CODAE) (Corporation for the Development of Afro-Ecuatorians). Racism is a social issue world-wide, but its blatancy here is really shocking. I am making plans next week to go visit their office and learn more about what they are doing here in Ecuador. Here is a link to their website if anyone is interested: http://www.codae.gob.ec/ . It is in Spanish, but if you put the link into www.translate.google.com, it should translate everything into mostly legible English.

It was an especially interesting experience for me because it was a great chance for me to practice my Spanish and also do one of the things I like best- giving out information. I love telling people about what I am working on here at Fundacion Pachamama, but many times I feel that people can't relate to my work so it can be a conversation killer. That's one of the great things about this blog, is that I have the opportunity to share my experience and other people have the option to read it, or not! But at this fair, everyone that approached our table (asides from the few only looking for free handouts- I've been there), was genuinely interested in our work and what we had to say! It was really refreshing.

Ecuador is the first country in the entire world to incorporate the rights of nature into its constitution in 2008. This started a global movement that Bolivia has followed, Australia is making strides towards, and now Bolivia is proposing that the UN accepts the rights of nature as well. The rights of nature basically means that nature has the same rights as we do. We cannot destroy the earth or other species because we "need the resources." With the implementation of the rights of nature, we, humans, have to find a way to live without damaging the earth and killing off other species. In reality, it's amazing this has never been discussed before! It may seem like a radical concept, but just as we use Mother Earth as an object to fulfill our "needs," there was a time that we used people to fulfill these "needs" and giving them rights seemed to be a ridiculous concept. The truth is, without biodiversity, without sustainable ways of living, we Will kill the planet-- and sooner than we'd like to think. Climate change is happening, right now, and ignoring it won't make it go away. Hurricanes and other natural disasters are a part of this world, but one of the reasons the floods of Hurricane Irene made so much history is because there was more water for her to pick up! There was more water for her to pick up because of global warming, glacial melting and peak river levels.

Now, I haven't always loved the Earth, rainforest, all of that tree-hugger stuff. I had a passion when I was younger but somewhere along the way I lost it and then again found the passion but transformed into my passion for social justice. Now, working here for Fundacion Pachamama, I've realized that without a planet, food, CLEAN water, and resources, social justice really doesn't mean anything. And another thing, the repercussions of the depletion of earth's resources and global warming are primarily and most deeply felt by the oppressed. So in reality, it is meaningless in separating the rights of nature and social justice because they are intersectional and inseparable. For example, the Maquiladoras in Mexico (mass production work factories) are destroying and polluting land, on that land are communities living in that pollution and filth, in those communities are the workers who are getting sick from the chemicals released into the air, and those workers have no other options because they are living in poverty on polluted land in which they cannot even grow their own food.

The point is, we cannot go on living this way. We may not feel the costs now, but there are people out there who are- for example, the thousands dying in Africa from some of the most historic droughts. Global warming is not a myth, this isn't a normal cyclical pattern that the Earth goes through. One of the first steps we can take in ending this destruction is advocating for the rights of nature implemented and enforced in law.

Anways, this is what I was trying to convey to the world yesterday at the fair in my third language, Spanish. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the end of the day and couldn't even tell what my age was in Spanish (I told someone I was 80 years old...omg). If anyone is interested in learning more about this work, check out the website with much more information, in English: www.rightofnature.org .

Jungle Mamas

Tomorrow will mark the one month mark of my stay so far in Quito, Ecuador...
Still haven't found a stable place to live, but I have a job which I love so far and have started creating my own network of friends. The social scene here is so much different than what I am used to. On the streets everyone seems pretty cold and distant, but once you open yourself up it is one of the most welcoming places I have ever been. For example, I went to see an apartment two days ago, and after seeing the place the woman invited me to a party at her house. It was strange...but nice.

My favorite part of my job is working with the program- Jungle Mama's. I just finished translating the new methodology of JM and I am so impressed. There is a workshop coming up this month which will mark the first time a birthing work shop will be taught by members of the Achuar community- it's a big deal. These are the moments that make all of the boring budgeting, accounting, and translating worth while.  I would say that the overall methodology of JM is that the knowledge is within the community and the workshops are to help guide people to it. One of my favorite parts of the workshop is the end. The facilitator asks the participants if they would like information about birth control methods. If the participants say no, the workshop ends there, but if they say  yes they are educated on condom use, vasectomy, oral contraceptives, and all kinds of other contraception. This is a very taboo subject in the Achuar culture, so I really love the delicacy with which this subject is handled.

Jungle Mama's is an incredible program which I feel so lucky to be involved in. When I first started I found it really boring to be honest. I loved the mission of the program but I felt like I was doing nothing except sitting in front of my computer all day. That's when I realized how I've romanticized activism! I was expecting front-lines work, ignoring all of the work that has to happen before that. I would say at least 80% of activism is research, writing, and spreading knowledge- very infrequently is there a chance to do grand marches and sit-ins. Those moments are great, but there has to be a great appreciation for the work that happens behind the scenes as well. I know with patience, I will be on the front lines soon!