December Update
Dear Durga’s Tiger pioneers,
We just returned from the Durga’s Tiger Land. Things are moving fast and my heart is filled with astonishment and joy. The vision has started to unfold and it feels like a miracle that I am watching and being a part, at the same time. Breathtaking.
We were 13, who spent 3 days on the land, coming from countries all over the world: From Kazakhstan to Korea, United States to England, Germany and Czech Republic; to Ecuador.
The Land receives us friendly:
First day: Yoga in the morning- beachside. A rainbow was behind my head, floating amongst the clouds. After the beach at Durga’s Tiger land, our group visited the new wood-house where we will start to live in January 2022. We then crossed the river, on foot. Sun was shining, the water clear, and we admired the giant tree with his spread roots on the other side of the river. Vladimir was our guide. He worked with us on the “Finca”, our farm. Standing in the middle of the river, we sang for the water, honoring the river with flowers. Ask for permission to go on. When we sang again on the river bank on the other side, the cows moo-ed, the horse whinnied, and a breeze rocked the bamboo and caressed us for a moment as if the spirits were singing with us. Even the mosquitos did not show up when we walked under the big Mango trees along bananas and cacao. The land is gentle with us.
Second day: We explored the land, the plains, the hills, up and down in the bed of the creek. Vladi made music with his machete when opening the path in the jungle. Eating the cacao from the tree refreshed us, and the cacao gave us turbo drive for the last hill to conquer. Somebody said later we hiked 15 km on the land. So amazing. Everybody loved the adventure, starting to know all the aspects of the land, not only on the flat lands where it is easy to walk.
Ritual day: Naomi held space as we created a creative spiral for our commitment to the land and community vision, and in a tobacco ceremony we shared visions. A sow came by, down the hill and under the trees, with her piglets of many colors. Close to us she laid and sang her lullaby, grunting tenderly as she fed them. For me it was clear: we are welcomed here and will be nourished by the land. No fear. And to show that it was true, two of us gave donations on our website the same night.
Zina said, she feels at home for the first time in her life. She will join us next year. Others will come in September for the festival and will stay on. Juanjo who is thinking to join the community, rode from Quito down the Andes on his motorbike. He is a specialist for “regeneration tools” - meaning- to create a community where the land and people and animals live together in harmony and find a good balance. He is part of a “community money” project.
Everyone had her or his magic moments. It felt powerful and touching. A lot of creative energy was moved, that will materialize. We all felt it. Visioned around the fire, the arts, the children's laughter, the horses, the sala, the maloca, our creative housing designs, the temple, the restaurant - coffeeshop – bar, festivals, the union with the communities around us... and... and more and more.
As Vladi and Rut said at the end of the San Pedro Ritual: “This community exists already in the spiritual world. It is blessed by the Chachis and Afroamericans who live there. You are welcome. Now just walk”. Yes, we all felt it. It gives me a big relief.
In Chonta Duro. We made friends with Doña Sofia and Yajaira, who cooked for us the best river shrimps with coconut sauce. We danced and laughed together. And everybody was just friendly with us.
The Start of Durga’s Tiger Community
We will start on the 29 of January with a group of 13 people to ground more and more into the vision: we seed a place where the earth, food, water, arts, the elements, animals, plants, homes and humans co-create so that we grow into the “Sumak Kawsay”, the good living according to the Sacred Law of Life. We create in trust and beauty, communicating from our heart. We will honor ourselves exploring our dignity and creative power as humans, living a simple life full of abundance, that flows from moment to moment, step by step.
We are currently looking for people with different skills:
Someone to share knowledge of building with Bamboo
Someone who would like to step deeper with us into permaculture wisdom
A responsible and professional organizer who would coordinate the development and organization of the festival. Currently, there are a few people who have offered their help, but they are hoping to find their “Head Organizer”, where all the threads converge.
8 have committed to be there for at least one year:
Megan Beck, Lilly Steinle, Daniel Wistuba, Sohee Lisa Oum, Emily Kosky, Iris Disse, David Honer and Nicole Maddox.
Sohee is a passionate yogini and energy worker. She inspired us, starting a fundraising project to raise $12,000 for a year, as we would need $1,000 monthly from everyone to live on the land and settle down.
Emily will work on the permaculture aspect- she loves to develop and deepen, and serve the community with accounting, as she was working with her family business in accounting, prior to this.
Nicole worked as a film producer and is making the first pictures for the future documentary about the development of the community.
Sohee, Nicole and Emily’s bios will join our page “Who We Are” within the next week.
In a process of decision making:
The healer Vero Torres and her 4 kids,
Juanjo Lugo Bernal is a specialist of the “Regeneration Concept”- a wisdom of how the land and humans can develop together and live in harmony. He visited communities worldwide and now teaches community skills to NGO’s and communities to help them grow.
Carlos Penagos. Carlos is a master in Permaculture from Colombia who has been living in Ecuador for many years.
Renata will join for 2 months. She is a traveler in between many worlds. She is a singer of sacred songs. She will be with us in the first months and come back fro the creation of the festival.
Radj is currently finalizing his Durga’s training in Tumbaco, then has decided to commit for 4 months. He is a former cosmopolitan who got the call to leave the corporate world and into a new lifestyle connected with the earth and spirit. After his 4 months, we will arrange his things in England and come back to the land.
From September on, we will open up for more people, and start to prepare the festival.
Arrival of the first group:
This first 13 persons will stay at the beach in a hostel from January 29. - February 22, 2022 – just to arrive quiet and relaxed as we install ourself in our houses – yes, houses. We will already have 2 wood houses made- one for each side of the river.
The cost of the 3 weeks hostel will be around $1500 for all of us; around $100 each. I feel it would be important, just to breathe the wideness of the ocean – it can be overwhelming to fall from the plane and city life- onto the land. And we will have to prepare the houses, buy beds, mosquito nets, gas, stove, refrigerators and.. and.. talk and plan a lot, too – so it’s great to have a relaxing quiet space with a big terrace, for long walks on the empty beach, feel, plan, think, after a day on the land. It is in Rio Verde, 25 minutes from our land.
Festival “Marimba & Durga’s Tiger Yoga”:
September 30 - October 3, 2022 followed by open work shops for people who want to help:
My idea: Marimba and Tantra Yoga, Arts and Shamanism. Marimba is the music and dance of the Afroamerican people. It would unite us and our neighbors from Chonta Duro. I think it will be a small festival, no more than 100 persons, who can stay afterwords to help on different projects like “permanent workshops”.
Workshops:
During the last 2 weeks of February Eva Stützel who cofounded the eco-village, “SiebenLinden” will give a workshop on our land! The eco-village has 130 inhabitants of whom organize themselves with sociocracy (no bosses). She is often invited into communities to give advice, so I feel really honored she wants to share her experience and knowledge with us. She published the “Community Compass” in German (currently being translated into Spanish) which provides practical knowledge for starting and living communally, in many aspects.
Again – things are moving fast. We felt a calling from the land:
Very unexpectedly and spontaneously, a decision needed to be made through trust. I installed the couple Luis and Lady along with two brothers from Luis (ages 18 & 19) in our house, as it is not good to have it empty. They are refugees from Venezuela, and it is another story how we found each other. Vladimir, (age 23) who grew up on our land and is now in charge of it, received them openly: “So I am no longer solely responsible”, he said. That was a very beautiful surprise. It is not good to have our land and house vacant.
So we hope it works out and they work together.
-Vladimir, Jasmin and their 2 little kids will move into the concrete house (without a roof) which is standing close to the road. He will renovate and paint it. People there love concrete houses, as they are considered to be modern.
-Vladimir and Luis are people from the land and “cowboys”; they know a lot about raising cattle, make cheese etc. Until now, the land was used for cattle. Sr. Fabrizio, the neighbor farmer, gave us the idea to buy baby breeding bulls with papers, in order to sell within a few months, so the land does not grow wild prior to establishing the permaculture project. Currently, it is just an idea. You can not leave the land, it is too fertile. In half a year the weeds are around 2,50 meters high. I could not believe it. Also, when Lilly arrives, so will the horses.
-Another decision: I allowed Sr. Fabrizio to bring his 17 cows to our land until the rainy season starts in January. He lives 15 km down the road, but his pastures are dry. Our land is green, even in summer – wow. We think this is a great idea. Fabrizio knows a lot about farming in this area, and has already given very good advice– so we recognize and value that he shares his knowledge. For us, it is so surprising to see, that we really found this land having all the qualities of the vision – even being situated in a region with a micro-climate that makes it fertile even in dry season.
-Together with Vladimir, we decided to plant 5 hectares of corn. It is important to plant so the neighbors do not think we are not using the land. Within 3 – 4 months we can harvest, and will decide where to go from there. We decided the farmers, Vladimir and Luis, get 10% each from the income of the corn when they sell it, maybe more, we do not know yet how much it is worth.
-Lady, Luis partner, will start a vegetable garden, and she is a great cook.
We do have ideas how to engage the community more, how to get our bridge. We do have a lot of questions. The questions grow as fast as the ideas. It is exciting to explore, and to not know. To be there is incredibly inspiring, and I do not want to leave. Every day is an adventure. The other day I met Sr. Angel Lopez, who sells and plants cacao and later buys the produce – a story again, how I met him. So many possibilities! There are specialists to build with bamboo who could give a workshop. And even the very big bamboo can be grown on our land. Coconuts... fruits... flowers... We can hire a truck and get a lot of beach wood, whole trees for building. Since the Rio Verde empties into the ocean here, trees are washed out at high tide and propelled along the beach...I’ll stop here for now. I am so excited.
Yes, another world is on her way... “on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing” (quote from lyrics)
Love from all my heart,
Iris