Recently, Peru program participant, and former Mountain Spirit board President Elizabeth Sofish, PhD reminded me of a technique that seemed to help her with jet lag. I actually tried it before I left New Zealand for Peru last month. The technique along with the “No Jet Lag” homeopathic pills seemed to really do the trick. Here’s an introduction, then the technique which Betsy described to me. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘Mountain Spirit’
Technique Helps Relieve Jet Lag
02/08/2009Peru’09: To Ollantaytambo
02/08/2009By R. Richards
In the next few weeks I’ll be journaling the Peru 2009 Cultural Immersion program which lasted 14 days. I won’t chronicle every day but the most important highlights of our experience.
We had 7 participants: Sally R. and her husband Scott S., Gail and Hal B. of Sunapee NH, newlyweds Tim Y. and Amy G. and Betsy S. of Grantham NH. Most were teachers which made for good dynamics. On our first day in Cusco, we hiked up to Sacsayhuaman ruins. After walking the great walls, we had a little meeting as the sun set, setting the tone for open communication and willing to stretch outside of one’s comfort zone. The group all agreed they’d give it their best shot. That night we had dinner at the Retama where Guillermo is the music director of his band Chimu’s/Chimu Inka and plays there almost nightly.
Guillermo plays "Quena" flute at Moray
After a night in Tika Wasi in Cusco, we headed for the Chinchero and the fascinating agricultural terraces of Moray. Here, Guillermo took out his flute and played, setting a surreal tone in the ruins. You could hear the music echo through the terraces below. Then there was a hair-raising ride (not so much much for me, I’m used to the heights) to the Inka salt pans just before the sun set, then off to Anna’s pension. Many thanks goes to Julio of Personal Travel Service for setting up our ride with Ernesto and the Mercedes bus plus all tickets and other logistics in the Sacred Valley.
Anna's Family, Guillermo & Ernesto
It had been a few years since I’d seen Anna when I stayed at her pension for night. It was good to see Anna again, her daughter Katey and her other daughter who had been in Italy for four years, who I’d not yet met. Anyway, we all settled in nicely, the participants heading off to stay in nearby homes, down the street. We’d all met up for dinner at Anna’s though. Although it was a bit of a switch from the four star Hotel Antigua in Lima, everyone adjusted well to Anna’s where we’d be basing ourselves over the next few days. Below is a short clip as we arrived at Anna’s. Ernesto our knowledgeable driver, Anna, her godchild, daughter, and Guillermo are featured.
Peru’09 Program A Success
31/07/2009
Peru'09 Group in Cuzco with Chimu Inka
Facilitators Guillermo Seminario and Randy Richards are back in Cusco after leading a truly unique 14-day program. “We set out to offer something that connects our participants with the culture, the people and land of Peru, and we did it” says Richards. MSI’s programs and mission are inspired from both: a) Outward Bound experiential education programs, where participants practice community building, self-reliance, compassion and “stretching out of their comfort zones”, and b) a holistic learning center such as the Omega Institute in Reinbeck, NY. However our version of a “holistic learning center” is mobile.
R & G all decked out on the Peruvian coast
The program went off without a hitch, and the participants left feeling like they not only learned immensely about Peru, its people and history, but also something about themselves. The image at right is the group with Guillermo Seminario and fellow band members at the Rettama Restaurant in Cuzco. Guillermo took time off from the band in order to co-facilitate the trip.
Stay tuned – Since Randall didn’t have time to do journal entries while on the program, expect to see details on the program’s stop-overs in upcoming entries. These will be posted on (roughly) a daily basis starting tomorrow. We will cover elements of the program the exemplify the tenets of MSI.
The American Bedouin
05/07/2009Reconnecting with a Mentor
By R. Richards, MSI Founder
Screen Shot of "American Bedouin"
According to an excellent 2007 Aljazeera Feature video, Erga Rehns has been living the life of a Bedouin in the desert with the Bedouin tribes of Wadi Rum for seven years. I’m not sure if she still does though. I’ll have to do more research in order to contact her again. The last, (and first) time I saw her in person was in 1981, when we first met at her little art studio and home in Obidos, Portugal.
Some people are lucky enough to be a primed for a turning point in their young lives, and come across just the right person at the right time that poses questions, and challenges one’s view of the world – who plants the seed for a paradigm shift. Most people aren’t’ aware they’re ready for that change, until years later, when they realize the shift was primed by those mentors. (more…)
Mistaken Identity: Bears
28/06/2009Bear Cubs.. Not Porcupines
Paysayten Trail, WA
It was late in the day on a trail in the North Cascades of Washington State. I had been a course supervisor for a 22-day Outward Bound mountaineering course in the Paysayten Wilderness on the Canadian border, and was hiking out to the trailhead to meet our logistics person. I had to head out to prepare for the course-end cleanup and ceremonies. One of three groups of students was an hour behind me on the trail, following me to the same destination. I’d last seen them at morning camp in the wilderness about 10 miles ago, and told them I’d see them at the parking lot. I didn’t expect they’d catch me, as I was in a hurry.
As I cruised along the wooded trail which wound around small contours in the Douglas fir forest, I walked fast, using my ski poles for extra propulsion, and kept my head down. As I strode at a good clip I heard a scratching high up in a tree to my right. Some of us get cocky after having been in the mountains for years.
Since I was in a hurry, I didn’t bother looking up, and deduced I’d just heard a porcupine scratching and climbing about. I kept on. But, after a few more steps, I heard the same type of scratching far up in a tree above me, but this time to my left. So I thought, “Oh, must be another porcupine” but this time I decided to look up, and the thought occurred to me, “it’s odd, to have two porcupines in trees like this.”
"B.b..Bear!"
And to my surprise, when I looked up I discovered it was a baby bear cub. It didn’t take me long to conclude: “If that sound is from a baby cub…then the sound back there could also be a…….baby bear cub.” I looked back and high up, to the first tree, and yep, I was in between two cubs. “Breathe! Look around! Where’s Mama Bear?” My thoughts raced nervously. There was no sign of her. “Not good! Now what?” (more…)
Traveling Lightly
27/06/2009Decisions, Decisions – Motorhomes or Going Light
" Capt'n Fast und Light"
Huge motorhomes rumbling down the Motorways and Interstates are proof that humans have entirely too many non-renewable resources at their disposal. What it takes to move these beasts of burden one kilometer in energy could light the two lightbulbs in my yurt for a week. OK, I actually owned a motorhome when living in Sedona Arizona, as an alternative to apartment living. We’d drive out into the desert at night and base there, while I led trips for Sedona Adventures. And yes, we drove it to Washington state, fully loaded for the Outward Bound summer season. If a motorhome is one’s main residence, it may be “going lighter” on the planet, (I think) – Maybe lighter than owning a MacMansion. If, however, it’s one’s vacation mode of travel, please read on. (more…)
Peace Summit 2009
21/06/2009Nobel Laureates in Dialogue, September 26 to 29, 2009
The Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education will host His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Vancouver, September 26-29, 2009 for the Vancouver Peace Summit: Nobel Laureates in Dialogue. Joining the Dalai Lama will be Nobel Laureates: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Jody Williams, Mairead McGuire and Betty Williams, as well as a number of respected international leaders from the realms of education, the arts, business, politics and social transformation.
The Summit will be built on dialogues held at the Chan Center for the Performing Arts and the Orpheum Theatre. The focus of these dialogues will include the themes of peace, education and women and peace-building. There will also be World Peace through Personal Peace, and Educating the Heart sessions at the summit.
Meet Project Laundry List
20/06/2009
Effective: being put on notice.
I first met Project Laundry List founder Alexander Lee in Manchester at a Going Green Expo a few years ago. I noticed he was passionate about his mission. Since then his passion to make line drying of clothes legal and acceptable has taken off. The mission of PLL is
“making air-drying laundry acceptable and desirable as a simple and effective way to save energy.”
Recently they have received a significant grant for purposes of strategic planning. They plan to strengthen their focus and deliver on their mission.
Vermont just passed its Right to Dry legislation. PLL expects to see a more states pass “right to dry” legislation this year. Lee is writing a book about laundry and planning Project Laundry List’s first Clotheslines Across the Nation Tour (Sept. 7 to Sept. 17). Lee asks people to help him make drying legal and acceptable when he writes in his most recent newsletter – “Will you step up to the line?”
Why, we ask?
Drying Rack
Dryers use ten to fifteen percent of domestic energy in the United States!
Ten top reasons to dry:
10) Save money (more than $25/month off electric bill for many households).
9) Clothes last longer. Where do you think lint comes from?
8) Clothes and linens smell better without adding possibly toxic chemicals to your body and the environment.
7) Conserve energy and the environment, while reducing climate change.
6) It is moderate physical activity which you can do in or outside.
5) Sunlight bleaches and disinfects. (more…)
The New Economy Starts Here
17/06/2009The New Economy Starts Now
by Sarah van Gelder, Editor Yes Magazine
"Wants Graph" from Yes Magazine
As the financial system continues to crumble, a new economy is taking form. It’s an economy that recognizes that the only thing too big to fail is the Earth itself. It is designed to build sustainable wealth in communities and ecosystems, and it’s our best chance to improve prospects for future generations, instead of leaving them with ever-growing debt, conflict, and environmental destruction.
Our Foot Print
Politicians, pundits, and financiers defend deepening our national debt to bail out the institutions of a failed Wall Street system. But this system, built on speculation and the rule of money, is undermining the health of the planet and the well-being of all but the wealthiest few. It’s time to let it go. Read the rest of this article.
More Articles in The Latest Issue of Yes Magazine
Let Wall Street Go and rebuild a Main Street economy.
Just the Facts: Why we can’t go back to the old economy.
New Ways to Do Money: Made out of Thin Air, How Banks Create Money, Local Cash Currencies
New Ways to Do Finance: Small Banks, Radical Vision, Put your money where your Life is. Community Investment
Yes! Summer'09
New Ways to Do Work: Green Worker Co-ops, Mondragon Co-op Spain, Cleveland’s Worker-owned Boom
Jump Starting Local Economy: How to make it with less, share more, and put people and the planet first
Busted: 9 Ecomonic Myths: What the old economy didn’t do for us—and what a sustainable economy could do.
Age-Old Wisdom for the New Economy: Native peoples know a few things about surviving, together, through tough times.
From Mt. Hood to Russia
16/06/2009
Bob Stremba
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.
Mountain Spirit's Blog 