Frankie Manning, one of the original inventors of swing dancing, the Lindy Hop and aerils, passed away about a week before I left for Caracas. I was lucky enough to take classes from him both at Herrang (Sweden) in 2000 and at a MSU workshop. As you can see, he was filled with joy and had a marvelous sense of humor that infused his dancing and choreography. I loved hearing his stories as much as watching him dance. The style of dancing that he helped to create has provided inmesurable amounts of joy to many, many people in this world! Frankie Manning (May 26, 1914 – April 27, 2009)Brief explanation of why I wanted to come to Venezuela :
Back in 2000 there were a series of protests that took place in
So, after I finished the TwoVoters.com campaign I began researching NGOs in Venezuela with the hope that I could find an internship with one. I was specifically looking for an NGO whose work matched my political beliefs and I only found one in Caracas, the Prout Research Institute. (www.priven.org)
Their website said:
The Mission of the Prout Research Institute of Venezuela is to empower all people to improve their quality of life and live in a more just society by fostering the development of worker cooperatives, self-reliant communities, environmental protection, universal ethics and spiritual values.
The Vision of the Prout Research Institute of Venezuela is to be an independent model institution, recognized in the national and international community for its research, training, conferences and publications. We will study the potential of each area and analyze current policies, applying the dynamic principles of the Progressive Utilization Theory (Prout) to measurably improve the standard of living and the quality of life of the citizens we serve.
We strive to strengthen worker cooperatives, so that people, by working together, become a strong force to create true economic democracy and regional self-reliance. By promoting high quality education and by raising consciousness, we work to enable communities to determine their own economic future.
Prout's goal is to achieve the maximum, rational and sustainable use of natural resources as well as to develop the physical, mental and spiritual potential of people for the ever progressive well-being of all living beings. The Institute will develop specific proposals that promote land, fiscal and monetary reforms and other positive initiatives. We are dedicated to working cooperatively with other governmental and non-governmental organizations in Venezuela, Latin America and the world for the country’s integral and sustainable development.
Values Statement
We believe that all people deserve:
• The right to live in dignity with the minimum requirements guaranteed: food, clothing, housing, education and medical care.
• The right to an honest job with just wages and a clean, sustainable environment
• The power to make decisions over their own resources, environment and working conditions
• Fair and sustainable trade.
We oppose:
• corruption
• violations of human rights
• ecologically unsustainable business practices
• economic rules that adversely impact communities, national governments and entire regions of the world
• Concentration of ownership of land and natural resources in the hands of a few.
So I was truly excited to find a place that matched my beliefs and I wrote to them in December and asked about interning with them. They didn't reply and I went on and applied with a number of other places. Then in early March connections suddenly started happening and I drove up to Massachusetts to meet the director of the Institute (Dada) who was in the states for 3 weeks. He recommended that I be interviewed by the President of the Institute (José) and after the interview, they agreed to let me come and work with them for 6 months. (Visit www.priven.org to see bios and pictures of the people I'm working with.)
[I do have to take a moment to thank all the friends who supported me to make this happen. Especially those of you who helped with my applications, suggested websites, and provided introductions! I also need to thank Jesse and her family for being willing to let me work for them so that I could be near DC and in a better position to find a job!]
I decided that I really wanted to be able to celebrate Deirdre's and Jesse's graduations, so I arranged my flight to fly out Saturday May 2nd, and arrived early in the morning on Sunday May 3rd.
The note below is the one that I sent out to family and friends when I first arrived in Caracas on May 3rd. However, here are now the pictures that go with the information ...
Hello Wonderful People,
I just wanted to let you know that I arrived safely this morning in
Caracas and Dada was waiting right outside customs for me and he
whisked me to the car. We drove through the city and stopped at a
Sunday morning China Town market to pick up some Tofu (not that I can
eat it) but it was neat to see all the Chinese food products that you
can get here. Then we came straight to the Institute.
The Institute is housed in a beautiful building with several gardens.
The first picture looks down from the third floor onto the back yard. It is directly out the door from the dining room. At the second floor level is the back garden. You can see in the front their is a grape covered patio and behind it is an actual garden. The third picture also shows part of the neighbor's back garden, they have far fewer trees and provide a nice view of the hills across the next valley. (The back yard is in the direction away from Caracas. There is an entire valley behind us that is filled with people, a suberb, if you will, but it is mostly slums, especially the buildings that are built up onto the hills.)
The fourth picture is the entrance inside the gate from the street.
These two pictures are of the entry way into the main floor of the house. The house is on the left of these pictures, the door you see goes back past the washing machine to the ground floor garden. Yeay! I was worried I'd have to wash my own jeans (not something that I am good at, LOL.)
On the main floor are the offices, a kitchen and the dining room.
This is the main office where most of us work and we have our meetings and discussions. Spencer, the intern from Canada, is in this picture.
Here is our kitchen and dining room.
On the second floor is the men's dormitory. I had no idea what it looked like the first two weeks I was here. (And I haven't bothered to take pictures, nothing much exciting.) Basically there are a just a bunch of room. One of them, Dada's room is also an indoor meditation room when he is not sleeping. It has a soft carpet and a picture of his guru, Baba.
On the third floor is the women's dormitory. In the first room there
are several bunk beds and also a table for socializing. There is a
kitchen but the only thing that works in it is the electric stove.
Then there are 2 private rooms and 2 bathroom. I've been given my own
room, with a fantastic view of both the mountains and the city.
There is also a covered porch, the length of the house that is used
for daily meditations.
The following pictures are the various views from the third floor.
As you can see, Avila Mountain is practically next door. It is within easy walking distance and is an amazing National Park. It is also a water source for some portion of the city, but I'm not exactly sure how much water comes from there yet. I do know that there are wonderful waterfalls there and now that my knee is doing better I'm looking forward to some hiking. (I spent to much time in the car driving in the weeks before I came to Venezuela and it has taken a couple of weeks for my knee to recover.)
Below are some of the views looking off the yoga studio balcony, that looks down the hill toward Caracas and include the seminary across the street. Its yellow fence is on the left in the first picture. The brothers had a problem with their wall being covered with graffiti but they covered it up and painted a religious picture on their wall and for the past two weeks, none of the local kids have painted on their wall. You can seem most of their dormitory in the second picture. They have a very cute Alaskan Husky puppy that I watch play by himself in the mornings when I go out to the patio for Yoga classes.
There are several mango trees on the property, including one just off the corner of the yoga studio and they should be ripe in the next month or so. (May 28th I got to have a delicious yellow mango off the tree! I can't wait for more! Every morning now, when I come down to the office I go out to the side garden to see if any more have ripened and fallen off the tree. It is a bit like an Easter Egg Hunt. :-)
On May 3rd, I slept most of the day because I didn't really get to sleep at all
last night. Then I unpacked and went out and sat in the garden for a
while. When I finally came downstairs, I was warmly greeted and Hanz
had made me a salad. (With fresh, organic vegetable from the
Barlavento garden.) So I had a fresh organic salad and some homemade
bread to eat and now I'm about to sit down and read the orientation
manual with a nice cup of tea. :-)
But first I wanted to let you all know that I had arrived safely.
Oh, and I have to thank Lilian for her help in changing my seat for me
for the second part of the flight. It worked out that I ended up
sitting next to the 3 cutest guys on the plane. They were just coming
back from a vacation in Cancun and live in another part of Venezuela.
Anyway, it was fun to talk to them and they invited me to come and
visit them sometime when I have time off. :-) ... Thanks Lilian! ;-)
I hope that things are going well for you.
Lots of Love
M
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