Building Bridges Literally & Symbolically

posted by Cynthia Robinson on August 17th, 2014

We officially took the role of guardians of the new Paititi sanctuary on June 10th but since we completed the contracts in the middle of our US tour, our official initiation just begun in the last 10 days. The local communities have been very friendly and engaging with our community and are very keen on collaboration.

When Roman and I made out first trip back to the land last week our first and most important order of business was to connect with our neighbors. Our core community of volunteers and apprentices have been initiating this process since June. It has been a beautiful start, building relations and feeling the open hearts from so many, like the old Quechua woman who loaded her mule with pumpkins and walked for an hour to offer them to us. What an amazing gift to feel the genuine generosity from people who are so “poor” in our modern perspectives but profoundly rich in heart, humility and the gifts of the earth.

As we are sharing our presence and hearts, tensions of change and new energy are dissolving and the spirit of Ayni (reciprocate heart share) is being activated. We felt strongly a need for collaboration to begin right away and the perfect project presented itself. There is one stream on the way to both our and the local village lands which can be impassable during some times a year as it turns into a raging river. Building a bridge is an important step for us and will also bring an immense amount of benefit to the local communities who can become completely isolated at times. We presented the idea to the communities that we would supply the material and they would bring the know how and would come together with us in the building process. Both of the neighboring native communities around us have happily agreed to initiate the project and offered their full support. This will be a hanging bridge 50 meters long that will allow both people, horses and life stock to pass through.