Three Guys from the Andes putting up a Tipi in New Hampshire?
By Randall Richards
G. Seminario placing a pole
It’s not every day you see three Peruvians at a New Hampshire State Park setting up a tipi. But this is what happened at Mountain Spirit Institute’s SunFest, a holistic health and sustainability event held at Mount Sunapee last year.
Band leaders Guillermo Seminario, Wachi Taype and Mario Montalvo had just arrived from Peru the week before, for their first visit to the U.S.
The three were in the U.S under invitation from Mountain Spirit Institute to teach and perform Andean folklore music throughout Vermont and New Hampshire.
Three Peruvians lacing up a Tipi
I decided to press them into action to help me erect our tipi for the SunFest. The tipi would be used for classroom space and presentations by vendors and speakers invited to come to the SunFest.
I took the opportunity to get some shots of Guillermo, Wachi and Mario as they happily worked on putting up the tipi poles, fabric and the lacing pins. I kept asking them if they didn’t mind helping out, and they kept saying they were glad to learn about tipis. “It’s not something we ever thought we’d be doing,” said band director Guillermo Seminario, of Trujillo and Cusco, Peru.
Project complete
The group ended up playing Peruvian music at the SunFest as well as at other venues throughout New Hampshire and Vermont. While their tour was successful, (and they helped take the Tipi down after the SunFest), this turned out being their most unusual project during their stay, aside from playing in a few offbeat bars.
“Vacations with a Purpose” Cover Story writes about Mountain Spirit Institute’s work in NZ/Peru
“To Travel is to Explore, Dream, Discover”
"Vacations with a Purpose" Cover Story
An article recently appeared in New Hampshire’s Kearsarge Magazine about Mountain Spirit Institute by writer Deb McKew. It can be read on our Press Clips Webpage, as an excerpt from the magazine. Click on the first listing at the top of the page. We encourage you to purchase this good read of a magazine if you’re in the New Hampshire, USA area. Publisher Laura Jean Whitcomb does a great job with the magazine.
The article has a shot of MSI founder R. Richards doing a bit of ice climbing on a glacier in Mt. Aspiring National Park, and covered Mountain Spirit’s core mission of getting people connected “with themselves, each other and the environment”, where we “combine experiential wilderness programs with spiritual development”.
Richards near Mt. Aspiring, NZ
As the article states, “some programs are solely wilderness based while others are workshop based.”
The article informs readers of the educational programs and unique nature of MSI mission of getting people out of their native countries and into the mountains and cultures abroad. Being a non-profit organization, MSI strives to bring people of different backgrounds and countries together, to learn about new ways to work together, and to re-examine one’s role in the natural environment, and in the world community.
Guillermo Seminario, leader of Chimu Inka band in Cusco, and co- facilitator for Mountain Spirit Insitute’s cultural immersion program in Peru teaches a few participants on the Peru’09 program how to play zampoña. They three had been learning from Guillermo for a few days before this footage was taken. They did well. I hope they are still playing!
Mountain Spirit Institute will be attending Burlington Vermont’s International Festival on December 4th-6th. MSI will have a booth explaining the mission and programs of the organization. In particular, the Peruvian/USA Music Exchange with the Cusco band Chimu Inka, that was so popular in 2008 will be featured at the booth. Also our Peru and New Zealand programs will be presented, where visitors will have a chance to find out more about going on an MSI program in those countries or here in the U.S. MSI will also have Peruvian Fair Trade products and Chimu Inka CD’s and instruments for sale to help raise funds for their return, and to fund other MSI programs as well.
The Festival has been running for over fifteen years, and according to Amanda Richards, the organizers of the event are excited to have Mountain Spirit attend the festival. We look forward to being there as well!
Online Release of Chimu Inka DVD
By Randall Richards
Chimu Inka's 3rd CD
This is short version of a video, taken a few years ago on the streets of Cusco. It’s a project to promote my good friends, and Mountain Spirit Institute Program Chimu Inka and their US educational tour. The band toured the northeast US in the fall of 2008 and we have plans to sponsor their return again in 2010. These guys are amazing.
If you would like to help support their tour by a donation or help with logistics, please let us know. Their first tour was hugely popular, and we expect their second visit to be so too.
The group performed and taught about the spirit of Peruvian Folklore music in their country. They also spoke of their instruments and lifestyle in Peru in a series of Q&A sessions after and during their performances. They visited schools, universities, kindergartens, town bandstands and coffeehouses.
Although I’ve had this video on disk for a year, I’m finally getting it online tonight. This is a shortened version of the original production. The higher definition and longer version is available for purchase through our Fair Trade page. I hope you enjoy watching this as much as I enjoyed taping and producing it. Enjoy!
Bridging Cultures with Laughter in Peru By Randall Richards
“Laugh Dancing” – I’m not sure if that’s the name, or if there even is a name, but I first saw it at our wedding reception last spring, when someone pulled this out of their bag of tricks. Laugh Dancing is a misnomer. Maybe it should be called “StoneFace Dancing” because while you’re dancing, the object is actually to not laugh, to keep a straight face. He who laughs first, loses the round. The object is to get the other person to crack up before you do – Great fun.
Then, add the international element, in this case, my godchild’s family in Huaraz, Peru, and instantaneously, you’re breaking culture barriers with laughter.
For those too shy to dance, there’s also Laugh-Sitting, (or StoneFace sitting) where opponents face off, and stare each other down, till one starts smiling, after which it’s a slippery slope from there.
Below, the first clip is of Maria Sanchez Figeroa, my godchild’s grandmother, facing off with Amanda in the kitchen of Restaurant Salud y Vida. Instantly, this laughter, brought us one more step closer together in our 12-year friendship. The second clip is Amanda facing off with Elizabeth, a vegetarian cook in the restaurant. Next, she finally wins a round against our godchild, Joseph Sanchez. Try it on your next trip.
Lebanon NH, A top Ten City to Raise an Outdoor Kid,according to The Outdoor Foundation and Backpacker Magazine.
Magazine says Director Heath's Rec. Dept. gets the job done
MSI Director Cindy Heath who has also headed up the Lebanon City Recreation Department in New Hampshire for 26 years, has received notice that her city has received the tenth slot in the USA of the nation’s top 25 place to beat nature deficit disorder. Heath’s recreation department has focused on providing outdoor adventure opportunities for its youth for years and receiving recognition at the national level continues to inspire the department. Whether it’s engaged in actively leading residents into the outdoor adventure playground that surrounds the town, providing maps to conservation lands or offering advice to families getting started on their own, Heath, wants to motivate residents to use and enjoy what the region has to offer.
MSI Director Cindy Heath
Cindy Heath also serves on the board of directors at Mountain Spirit Institute. When asked about the #10 position in the poll, Heath said, ” We’re excited about what we’ve accomplished in the community. We have a solid program of diverse activities from rock climbing and hiking to snowshoeing.” She added, “Our goal is just getting people outside, and the poll confirmed that we’re on the right track”.
Editor’s Note: Pop Quiz – Name the peak and in what mountain range it is located, which is featured on the cover of Backpacker Magazine above.The first one to guess correctly receives a copy of the Peruvian Folklore band Chimu Inka CD “Fusion Etnika” sent by mail to their address.
Chimu Inka bandmember Wachi Taype recently celebrated his 30th birthday here in Cusco. Wachi visited the USA with Guillermo Seminario and Mario Montalvo to teach and perform traditional folklore music for universities, high schools and communities.
He experienced a novel birthday when the candles wouldn’t go out o his cake. Onlookers are Guillermo, Mario, Mario’s daughter Auerlie, Amanda Richards and Wachi’s mother.
M.S.I. VP/Board member and fellow spirit adventurer Bob Stremba, EdD, is heading for Oregon and Washington State tomorrow to take a bit of time off between semesters running the Adventure Education Department at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. He’s also headed north to climb on Mt. Hood’s southern route again. He’ll be climbing the route with fellow board members of the Association of Experiential Education. Over the years, Bob has also summited Mt. Rainer twice, as well as Mt. Baker and Mt. Adams.
After his trip to the Northwest, Bob will be flying to Russia where he’ll be going into classrooms, facilitating group team building initiatives for Russian students. When I asked how his conversational Russian was coming along, he said he’ll have a translator. However he is working on the written language a bit, I assume so he can write a bit on blackboards and flip-charts. Stremba applied for, and was selected to be the lead (and solo) facilitator for this program. At program’s end, Bob will finish in western Russian – which is only a two hour train ride to Finland, so he figured he might as well leave Russia from the western border. If we’re lucky, we’ll get some updates on this blog during his travels. We wish him the best on his program and further travels to Finland after program’s end.
MSI and Family Cari
A Son Helps Build a Family Lodge on a Remote Island
There are times in my life when I’ve returned to a wonderful place in the world that I’m still getting to know, and by chance, I’ve end up camping in the same field or returning to the same hostel. Only when I walked into the place, do I remember having stayed there before.
Richard Cari with a Kantuta, National Flower of Peru
Richard Cari’s home and the Kantuta Lodge is one of those places. Since I’m on the subject of “chance travel”, the reader might be interested my entry on a similar instance where I was hitch hiking across France and ended up sleeping in the same field I had slept in 15 years prior. But for now, more on Amantani Island on Lake Titicaca.
I’d come to Amantani Island a few times during my travels in Peru. The place and people drew me in. No cars, electricity only a few hours a day, not even cats or dogs, which made the place seem peaceful. There is hardship on Amantani. The small population living on the 3 mile by 1.5 mile island on Lake Titicaca live at 13000 feet in stunning but somewhat harsh environment. There sustainable crops of Quinoa, potatoes and herbs are rain dependent. There is no irrigation of the crops. People do go hungry, despite the tourism dollars that trickle in from visitors taking boats from the nearby (4 hours!) harbor or Puno, Peru. Most visitors stay at family homes on the island’s west side, who have formed a cooperative rotating schedule that spreads the wealth and visitor’s dollars so no one family is reaping the homestays.
At Outward Bound we learned as instructors the metaphors of community, and here on Amantani, the population, because of its environment is a clear example of community. The island people work together with the resources they have to create the best possible outcome for all.
Segundino & Marcelina Cari of Amantani Island
Segundino, the island’s vice-Shaman, if you will, and his wife Marcelina have what was once a small home like the other villagers near the boat docks. But their son Richard went to University in Puno and majored in Tourism. He has come back with a plethora of “tools” and ideas he learned at school, that have transformed their home into the Kantuta Lodge, complete a separate building dining room, with longer beds for Gringos and Gringas and the only hot shower on the island.
Amantani Island, Lake Titicaca
Richard has done a spectacular job with his new skills making a better life for his family. He is creating a market. I told him I would submit the family lodge Lonely Planet, and even though I’ve not followed through I suspect the word has already gotten out about his good work.
The last time I visited Family Cari, I enjoyed the stay thoroughly. I got to help Richard’s sister Wilma do some cooking and plant potatoes by digging trenches in the garden below the house. I didn’t do very well by the way. Wilma, showing me the digging technique with a short handled hoe, giggled as I’d dig for a few feet before feeling breathless from the altitude. Her mother and father looked on from the house with a wry smile. (more…)
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