Into the jungle I go!....and with a few things in mind.....

At the risk of being redundant I would like to share this quote again as it continues to resonate within me....along with some other quotes that I have grown quite fond of and have helped guide me on this journey of mine. :)

¨I am too alone in the world and not alone enough to make every moment holy. I am too tiny in this world and not tiny enough just to lie before you like a thing shrewd and secretive. I want my own will, and I want simply to be with my will as it goes toward action, and in the silent, sometimes hardly moving times when something is coming near, I want to be with those who know secret things or else alone.¨ -Rilke

¨I´d rather sit alone in a pumpkin patch than be crowded on a velvet cushion.¨ -Henry David Thoreau

¨On a rustic road the journey is the destination.¨ Quote from a PBS special on Rustic Roads of Wisconsin.

With all that said and these things in mind, I am VERY happy to tell you guys about the next part of my journey. Tonight I leave for the jungle- deep into el Parque Nacional Yasuni, part of the Ecuadorian Amazon to visit and work with a Huaorani community that my Ecua-brother, Jose, has been working with for about a year now. He recently got a job/opportunity of a lifetime and has invited me to come along and help. Jose has asked me to take pictures and document this environmental education project as it is being developed. We´ll be teaching a group of young Huao to use video cameras sent by a Greenway school in New York; the kids will document their daily lives (i.e. how to get food, climb trees, go fishing, survive in the jungle) and send the footage to the kids back in New York (as well as other states around the US and in Europe) who will participate in the same task and send the Huao footage of their daily lives. This cultural exchange via video footage will serve as what we hope will be a major eye opener to kids and people in general back in the states. Proof that you don´t need a world full of material things to make your life full and happy. The more simple, the better. Less is more or however you want to put it.

And how lucky am I to have the opportunity to go to a place to learn the secret things of the jungle from the people that know it best. I can´t wait to share this experience with you all when I get back! But until then, remember to breathe deep, smile always-in and out, love consciously, and give unconsciously. Namaste!