Overdue Update

Hey All,

It feels like so incredibly long since I last wrote and so I forgot many things. Perhaps because internally in me a lot has changed.

Dies y ocho (18) Noviembre, Hueves,

During one part of the day, Hugo I and some others went out for a walk... to... some... place... but what I remember is that we returned and saw Eider leading an activity, of creating book inserts or page markers.

Do you know what is said on each one? From top left to right. My español is still quite bad. I think the 1st says something like "I want to be a positive influence to all the beings on the Earth". The second I think says "I want to grow old and to help serve good causes". 3rd: "Begin with an end in mind - I want to be a great leader and to help the foundation forward" 4th: "Have clear goals and objectives" 5th: "This is too vague." 6th: "Begin with an end in mind - I want to be a great leader and to achieve rank Alef before I turn 18" 7th: "Live life with an end at heart" 8th: "Be Proactive ... ¿Do I take responsibility? ¿Do I control my reactions?" 9th: "Be Proactive" 10th: "Be Proactive, take responsibility for my relations and initiative"

Not the best translations, and there are some mistakes.

The kids working on it. There were what seemed like 20 to 30 kids working on this.

The kids borrowed her camera and took some pictures, also of Eider in the middle of this picture.

Diez y nueve (19) Noviembre, Viernes:
It was a busy day and supposed to be that. It was the closing of a leadership course. We went to the playground of the local school. There the kids played a game where you answer questions about the 7 habits. Along the playground are stone benches that many of us sat on. In the beginning it rained some.
Walter Yenny Eider I and a few other kids drew a numbered path on the playground floor. I was invited to draw a part of it after I chose to be a bit proactive by drawing a part of the game. .

Hugo, Eider, Christian (the little infant) with some of the kids

Laura and another young lady yelling to answer the questions

I think this young lady is Marly. Playing a game somehow related to the question answering game being played earlier on.

Marly & Christian. Marly is not Christians girlfriend. They were a team during the friday game.

And here we see the bigger scheme of things. The playground itself with the drawing of the playing board. 

At some point during the weekend after Hugo was done jogging he found a horse in our backyard. Once Hugo found a stick the horse got the hint that it should get off the property under the guidance of Hugo (and Eider) I saw it happen from a distance under a little roof (it was a little bit rainy).

It has been a long time since I last posted a blog post. Many things have happened. Not many that stand out in memory. Or for that matter so many at all. The first that comes to mind is a situation with the mothers and Me and also a few others.

I personally have decided again to be vegetarian and although I might still eat an egg at some point or another generally I will be eating a lot more fruit. Hugo has decided similarly to stop eating meat. I think Walter is still eating meat. Eider is not eating meat either and I think, neither anything which comes from animals (such as eggs and milk and their related products).

So why did this come up? During the Sangha of the Buddha on Monday, two days ago we were discussing things and it came up that one day I left the breakfast that was served to me on the table which confused the mothers. Now before I go anywhere else I think I need to give some background first. Around here many kids go to bed on empty stomachs and the mothers have to look at this situation, and have looked at it probably for their whole lives with their children and their brothers and sisters in a similar situation. I personally have no background or experience like this. Anyway a few days previous I was taking a nap in the early beginnings of the evening and while waking up I was feeling irritated in my intestines. After a couple of minutes I decided that I was only going to eat fruit for a couple of days (to flush our most of the food I felt was irritating my intestines), instead of the 3 generous warm meals which I had been obediently eating every day (for the last 3-4 weeks). After deciding this I walked to the kitchen where Hugo and someone else (I forgot) was preparing dinner and I broke down in emotions and the only thing I could figure out what the emotions were about was the irritation in my intestines, so I told him I only wanted to eat fruit for a couple of days. (Another reason that occurred to me later, was that I was being challenged by the Guru of Theosophia is the Way about pretty bad things I had written to the English Theosophian community earlier) I was expecting Hugo to tell the moms not to serve me breakfast, but I wasn´t clear in my communication. The unvoiced assumption led the moms the following morning to prepare a breakfast meal for me. When I woke up I did my things and left the plate, feeling too guilty to bring it back and thereby rejecting it even though I still ended up rejecting it by leaving it. I went to make fruits for myself and had that for breakfast (and also lunch and dinner). What made things so bad was that the moms felt rejected by me, as they didn’t know wether or not I was going to still eat my breakfast, even as flies started to descend on it. Keeping in mind that they are hurt by going to bed on empty stomachs and feeling the pain of seeing their brothers and sisters and children also go to bed on empty stomachs. I think it was very hurting to them. I was in friendly manner told I can eat what I think is best for me, but to bring back any food to the kitchen that I don´t eat.

But anyway, that night Walter received a dictation about food and related things. The masters through him said that animals are more sexual then us and that when we eat their meat we also take their drive to have sex into our bodies, which is detrimental to our wellbeing. Also the state of their emotions when the animals are killed is trapped in the meat, and so we also take that into our bodies when we eat meat. The animal farming practices in Colombia are very inhumane and artificial so I think it is very good not to eat the meat from here. Still, most moms here believe very much that meat is the epitome of food, so they want to serve meat (and eggs) a lot. Hugo said to me that some of the mothers will consider us crazy for not eating meat.

They also shared that honey is the concentrated loving sweetness of God, but that it is more important to experience this sweetness directly from the saints or the most high God (El Elyon) directly. It was also shared that Stevia (a popular sweetener around here) is detrimental to your wellbeing.

USaid and another entity in all likelyhood will be sponsoring a small store that will be run by the kids for the kids. The profits from the store will go to all the kids involved in it.

In the picture is one people of the two who are involved in this little project, teaching the kids.

Hugo wants them to be personally involved in it so that they are not just arbitrarily giving a sum of money. It is not in the spirit of proactivity and club Yo Creo En Mi to just accept money and have no other involvement with donors. In the picture the good man is teaching the kids about monetary concepts in small businesses.
What are the expenses of a store? Electricity, fuel for transport, water, rent, cost of the goods you sell and taxes. What is income? The money you receive from selling goods. What do you want to sell? The kids answer cake, vegetables, fruits like bananas, rice. It was suggested that the kids don’t just sell what they like themselves, but also what the customers in the area want. If I am going to set up shop, I can really use this advice of considdering consumer demands very well. It was also asked if they were going to sell cigarettes and alcohol. I assume they won´t.
Where do you set up the shop? On the side of a desolate mountain? No, too few customers. In the middle of the city? Many more customers there. Personally I suspect competition will be very strong there too. How much do the kids work? 7 days per month.

Some of the hierarchy had already been decided on. Afterward it will be switched around a bit. Yilber will be at the top of FLYCM, below Hugo & Walter who will not have pivotal roles in the project once it is started.  The kids will be running the purchase, sales, inventory and administration departments and the leaders of each department will report to Yilber. FLYCM is the name of the project (I don’t know what it means).

In the first days of December a group of the kids will go out to on a trip to the local mountains. It´s going to be a long overnight stay I suspect, depending on the weather. What are we going to do be doing exactly? I don’t know.

There is a lot of bussy-ness around it. The kids will be led in small groups led by leaders and above those I assume there will be more leaders.

Yesterday afternoon we (many of the kids) spent a while discussing who would lead who. The pre juvenile group had a hard time agreeing on one single thing and got a bit distracted while discussing.

Yesterday evening Eider and I also started to prepare a little English class we will try to give to the pre-juvenile group. We will be using lots of games. The juvenile group is a lot less likely to enjoy games and besides that they are busy setting up their little store which is more important right now.

Chritmas is approaching, and there have a few decorations made already. Epecially on the door of Walter & Vanesahs room.

Blessings to all. Hope to post a lot more later.