A Year of Grief & Gratitude

For members of our Pachaysana community in the U.S., Thanksgiving may have looked a bit different this year. Some of you may have celebrated alone for the first time, or in smaller pods, or be missing some dear loved ones. It may feel like there is much less to be thankful for. However, given all of this, we believe we need to lean into gratitude more than ever-- to hold our loved ones closer than before (be it from afar) and speak our gratitude into the world. As author Martin Prechtel writes, “Grief is praise, because it is the natural way love honors what it misses.” Whether through loss of jobs, loved ones, a way of life, or simply "normalcy," all of us have experienced grief this year. Perhaps, this year, grief has made us more grateful, more aware, more loving. Perhaps, the changes that came with the public health crisis pushed us to prioritize self care, slow down and shift our attention to things we had previously ignored, find support in our communities, learn to set boundaries, or be kinder, gentler to ourselves and those around us. Perhaps, we still have much to be give thanks for. 

For this month’s newsletter, we’ll update you on our current programming while giving thanks to each and every member of our community for helping us to continue re-imagining education and inspiring us to keep creating during this extraordinary year. 

Image: Our Spring 2020 Rehearsing Change cohort on a day trip to a permaculture center as part of our Design & Evaluation of Sustainable Projects course (February 2020).

Community Partners: Solidarity & Collective Creation

While the public health crisis has surely changed much about the ways we share, work, and relate, it has not changed our local community counterparts’ commitment to social change and organizing for the wellbeing of their communities. Throughout this year, they have shown profound resilience, adaptability, and solidarity. In August, Pintag Amaru, our community counterpart from Pintag, put together and delivered free "wellness baskets" of organic produce they grew themselves to support members of our Pachaysana community in the area. They also organized a march in October to commemorate the one year anniversary of the October 2019 protests, keeping the spirit of justice and resistance alive (on the same day they helped to put out a wildfire near Volcano Antisana!). Portal de Guajalo, a partner community from south Quito, adapted a project they had designed last year in our Design & Evaluation of Sustainable Community Projects course to the new reality, and put it into action this month as a socially-distant art program for youth to give them a space to get out of the house, create, and dream. 

As always, our community partners have also been key co-creators and participants of our educational programming as well, joining us in online courses, supporting the creation of our podcast, and even partnering on a research project. Thank you for the irreplaceable role you play in the Pachaysana community! We hope to return to in-person programming with you all soon, but, in the meantime, look forward to collaborating online next semester!  

Image:  Children from Portal de Guajalo participating in (and enjoying!) the community's new art program (Portal de Guajalo, November 2020).

International Partners

Higher education institutions have been far from exempt from the new challenges & obstacles presented by the pandemic, and we are grateful for the partnership of our U.S. university partners in navigating this “new normal” of education and supporting us in the creation of new online models. We especially want to shout out Wesleyan University, who will be partnering with us next semester on our fair-trade, virtual study abroad program, “From the Cracks,” offering four of our innovative new courses to their students. We also want to thank our friends at Counterpoint: Navigating Knowledge for their partnership in our four-part online workshop series on "Storytelling for Social & Planetary Change" back in October (if you missed them, you can find recordings of the introductory webinar and weekly panels here). We are always grateful for opportunities to share and dialogue about our work and the topics we are passionate about with new audiences.

Finally, a huge thank you to our Spring 2020 cohort of Rehearsing Change, who we had to prematurely say goodbye to back in March, but who adapted graciously and patiently to finishing their courses online. You all played an important role in helping us to create our online programming, and we are deeply grateful. Thank you to all of our international partners for your consistent support and for making our work possible!
 

Image: Our Spring 2020 cohort of Rehearsing Change on an excursion to the Cochasqui Archaeological Park shortly before international students had to evacuate (Cochasqui, March 2020)

Thank you to the Pachaysana Team!

Last (but surely not least), we want to express our deep gratitude to our Pachaysana team. From gracefully managing a sudden transition from in-country to virtual programming for our Spring 2020 semester of Rehearsing Change to finding creative ways to adapt our educational programming to online settings throughout the year, each and every member has demonstrated patience, creativity, and an inspirational resilience. Among all these changes, they even found ways to kick off new projects such as our storytelling podcast, “Desde las grietas,” and a series of virtual community-based gender justice workshops. Your commitment to this work is unmatched and we are so lucky to have you! Thank you for continually giving to the Pachaysana family. Abrazos. 

Image: The Pachaysana team ending one of our first Zoom meetings last Spring with a funny face.

The Giving Season

If you have been inspired by the work Pachaysana has done this year, in partnership with our local community partners & international partners, please consider expressing your gratitude through a small donation! As we continue to find creative ways to continue our educational, community-based programming, your donations support us in covering internet costs for community counterparts, supporting our Pachaysana team members, and covering the extra costs of health measures in community projects. Click here to make your donation! 

Image: Your donations allow us to continue including local community counterparts and community educators in our programming through covering internet costs & fairly recognizing their time (Spring 2020).