Rural Development Project Kausay Punku

As most of you know I have been living in Peru for over a year, my primary focus has been spiritual in nature and for a better part of the year i was living in a spiritual community undergoing profound emotional and spiritual learning and healing. My time with the community was amazing, at times down right ugly and oh so necessary. I have now been given the opportunity to integrate the aspects of spirit and all I have learned in a purposeful and practical way!

About a month ago I heard about a medicinal herb and organic agricultural project located in a nearby community, my interest was peaked so I went to visit. What I found was a very small project that was barely sustaining itself yet held undeniable vibrancy and potential.

The project and demonstration site was created and run by a local family, it is called Kausay Punku, which in Quechua, (the native language) means The Door to Life. I immediately recognized the potential that was yet to manifest as well as the intrinsic importance of such a project. I was drawn in and in that moment knew in my heart, that I was going to work with this family to bring this project to life. And indeed that was just what happened!

Kausay Punku is in the Quechua Community of Maska, 10 minutes from Pisac the little town i live in. The project´s close location to a common tourist destination offers a unique multicultural interface were a diveristy of knowledge, belief´s and cultures are shared. The project site also offers a great view of the archaeological ruins of Pisaq and its terraces. These terraces have inspired the people of Maska, in their project to keep creating and developing methods of original and organic agriculture,as well as plant and animal conservation.

Kausay Punku is a indigenous grassroots rural development project that aims to include the people of different communities in promoting an active and responsible participation in the social development of this region, in relation with their traditional culture.

We are now working together to move towards this goal, we are doing so by:
• Offering weekly permaculture (and related) workshops to the public.
• Hosting a weekly volunteer workday.
• Preparing organic products such as organic cheese, milk, veggies, native medicinal herbs and native seedsto market and sell.
• Started to organize a local apiary cooperative and have been teaching community members how to care for and produce the best quality honey in an efficient natural way.
• Formally defining the organizational structure so the project will be more widely recognized by the government and other organizations that can potentially provide resources to help the project grow.

This project holds such profound importance, effecting change on both global and local levels. Historically the loss and degradation of the natural environment has coincided with the loss and degradation of indigenous cultures around the world. The project is offering an example as well as inspiration to the local people while simultaneously healing the earth. This is an opportunity for the local people to be empowered by regaining autonomy and respect for their livelihood and traditions.

Floods in Peru

I flew into Cuzco on January 24th in between storms and into a diaster.
As we drove from Cuzco to Pisac i noticed bolders and trees in the highway, but the only explaination i got was "mucha lluvia" ( a lot of rain)
My first night it poured all through the night and in the morining we woke to find more boulders had slide down the mountain side into the roads, the fields flooded, and the bridge to Pisac had broke of the bank of the river. Life for the people here has drastically changed over night. The bridge that crosses the Vilcanota river is the only way the tourists come to the market and ruins from Cuzco. There is a walking bridge about a mile down the road that crosses the river and this is how people get from Taray to Pisac.
The rain continued through the day and following night. The sitaution got much worse, the two main bridges that cross the once was stream to the town of Taray were uncrossable. The mountains on either sides of the valley were draining into this tiny stream bed. The people worked tirelessly though the night though in the end their efforts were futile, the stream broke through. The water´s force flooded the stream bank and redirceted itself through the streets and fields of Taray. Homes were flooded and destroyed.
It was now time to reasses the sitaution, to cross the stream we need to climb up the mountain side and down to the third and last bridge up the river. If that bridge went we would be stuck for awhile. We went into Pisac, the tourists had fled leaving the locals and the die hard tavelers. Most of the shops were closed the the locals stood at the bridge just staring at the water, their livelyhood furiously passing them by.
Days have passed, the Peruvian authorities have come to help blockade the water, redirecting it away from homes. The sun has also come, thanks to god! Though it continues to rain and will for the next 2 months. It has been much worse up the Sacred Valley and at Machu Picchu.
I take it day by day and hope the rain lets up a bit.
It will take months to repair the damage and for the tourist traffic to resume but the people have come together and are starting to rebuild the entrepreneurs are resilient as ever and all will adapt to the changes over time.

Mazunte and El Neem

In this sweet little beach town of Mazunte, I was staying at a family run posada called the Gota de Vida. Mazunte is named after a beautiful blue, red and white crab that is now endangered due to over fishing. The posada is off the main road tucked away under the palms, the owners have a passion for gardening so it is a lush paradise. The posada has 4 or 5 cabanas always occupied by people from all over the world. The family who owns the posada are among the few who have been in Mazunte since it became a town some 40 years ago. We spent a lot of time talking about about plants and the changes that the town has seen due to tourism. I feel like one of the family, so if you are ever in this part of the world, go to Gota De Vida, a peaceful, clean and cheap place to stay.

A couple of weeks into my stay here i found El Neem, a yoga school perched on a hill over the ocean. It is called El Neem beacuse there are Neem trees all over the place. According to Don Pedro, the owner of the posada, 20 years ago a man from Africa brought the seeds planted them on the hill side and ever since they have been self seeding all over the place. Neem has many medicinal and cosmetic qualities with which i have been experimenting.
I have had a relaxed yoga practice for a few years now and wanted to expand and heal. I found so much more at this school. El Neem teaches Agama yoga, which is a type of tantric yoga.
(dont be scared i am not spending my time having crazy tantric orgies). We practice yoga 2 hours in the morning, 2 hours as the sun is setting and have a 1-2 hour lecture every night. I am not only learning how to hold poses for amazing amounts of time, I am also learning so much about the yogi way of being, culture, India, chakras and much more. I had no idea that yoga is a whole philsophical way of being in this world, one which i admire and understand. I am loving this place fully! However i will be leaving on Sunday, I am pretty bummbed beacuse i would like to finish the 24 day yoga course, which will end with 5 days of silence, can you imagine, 5 days of not talking... wow! I am bumbed about leaving however i am moving on to a beautiful place as well, Cusco Peru! Yes a change of pace. I will be spending a few weeks with a friend in Peru.

Lastly I would like to share with you just one example of the beauty of manifestation, prayer, power of the mind what ever you want to call it. Before i left the states i sat and meditated on what my intentions were here in Mexico, i knew that working in the mountains would be very important but something kept pulling on me about healing my spirit and taming my monkey mind. I asked to find a yoga school where i could practice yoga on the beach. A beach which met the mountains. And not only practice yoga but do it cheaply in a work trade situation. And 2 months later I am living that prayer!
Ask! do not be deceived by the notion of scarcity. Ask! With faith and love we live in a world of abundance. Even in this time of economic crisis, and paniced hubbub, ask with an open heart and have faith you will be cared for by the divine.

Love to all

My last days in San Miguel

Wow, It has been awhile since i have written, sorry to leave you hangin but life just has a way of taking you!


I have left San Miguel and the beautiful Sierra Madre mountain range about a week and a half ago. My job was complete and it was time to go. Leaving was bitter sweet I felt heavy with sadness for leaving the people i connected with. My specific job was done but there is so much to do, I felt i hardly skimmed the surface. I feel a strong connection to the people and land i pray that I get the opportunity to work with them again. Though the work is so hard, the living conditions minimal i find such satisfaction in this work. I love the challenge and the exchange of knowledge and experiences. My last day i made the rounds to say good bye to all of the people i met and worked with. I had been feeling frustrated and down trodden with my work, it wasn´t until that last day that i realized the impact I had on the people i met. It is a very satisfying feeling however at times it is a bit much for me to bare. The generosity that the people i met exhibited puts us fearful Americans to shame. They shared everything they had and opened their homes and hearts to me a stranger. We can learn a lot from this practice.


The projects that we were working on shifted and continually changed, after spending days working with coffee farmers to put up and use the solar dryers they proved unsatisfactory and were a big disappointment. We salvaged them by moving them to another home and setting them up at plant nurseries. Only time will tell if they will function as anticipated. The failure of the solar dryers was a bit disheartening for the coffee farmers and devalued our reputation. It is SO important to have the resources and knowledge to make each project work, if not the farmers will turn their back to anything you propose.


I spent many days up in the mountains at the "Finca". It is there that i learned about the process of coffee production. Interestingly enough i wrote my thesis in college on Mexican coffee cooperatives and Fair Trade. I never anticipated meeting the people i was researching and living the reality of which i was trying to portray through my thesis. Which by the way didn´t even begin to get into the juice of coffee production in Mexico. I will write more about the life of the coffee farmers later.

While up at the Finca we put in place a beautiful garden/ plant nursery. The goal is to make the Finca a demo site for people to come and learn techniques to enhance coffee and plant production.


I have many experiences with in me to share, however I get caught up in the movement of life and forget to write about them.


However below are a few of the things i learned:

• Cultural differences can be breached with patience and perseverance.


• The Mayan population needs to accept the past injustices and take responsibility for their future.


• The government needs to provide more then money, it also needs to provide education.With out both educational and monetary support the indigenous population is doomed to remain dependent on governmental aid.


• I love the tropics and want to learn more about tropical agriculture.


• Rain boots are ESSENTIAL for working in the mountains. Provide protection not only from the slippery mud and rain but also from the snakes.


• You can survive with out a mirror.


• The body can go for days on nothing if it has to.


• The Fair trade system like the organic certification is an idealistic notion that has been polluted by corporate actions.


• Rats will eat anything.. including refrigerators and bee pollen!